the mafter's whiftle;-4 Blow, till thou burft thy wind, if room enough! Enter Alonfo, Sebaftian, Anthonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, and others. Alon. Good boatfwain, have care. Where's the mafter? Play the men 5. Boatf. I pray now, keep below. Ant. Where is the mafter, boatswain? Boatf. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour; Keep your cabins: you do affift the ftorm. Gon. Nay, good, be patient. Boats. When the fea is. Hence! What care thefe roarers for the name of king? To cabin: filence: trouble us not. 46 Gare is yare, g and y being convertible. "He diftributed his goods to the poor, and made himfelf ready for God." The fame writer has alfo gare y made, i. e. "finished, well-prepared.” Chaucer, who wrote many years afterwards, has it both as a fhipphrafe, and in its general fenfe. But the common and unretrained ufe of this word was grown obfolete before the age of Shakespeare; who, notwithstanding, feems affectedly fond of introducing it in that fignification. In Twelfth Night, act III. fc. xii. Sir Toby fays, Difmount thy tuck, be yare in thy preparation." And in Ant. and Cleop. and other plays. WARTON. Perhaps it might be read,--blow till thou burst, wind, if room enough. JOHNSON. Perhaps rather blow till thou burft thee, wind! if room enough. Beaum. and Fletcher have copied this paffage in The Pilgrim. Blow, blow weft wind, Blow till thou rive! Again in Pericles Prince of Tyré, 1609. "Ift Saylor. Blow and split thyself! "2d Saylor. But fea-room, and the brine and cloudy billow "Kifs the moon, I care not," And yet, defiring the winds to blow till they burst their winds, is not unlike many other conceits of Shakespeare. STEEVENS. Play the men, i. e. act with fpirit, behave like men. So in K. Henry VI. p. I. fc. vi. "When they fhall hear how we have play'd the men.” Again in Marlow's Tamburlaine, 1590, p. 2. "Viceroys and peeres of Turkey, play the men." Avspes 851, piño. STEEVENS. B 3 Gon. Gon. Good; yet remember whom thou haft aboard. Boatf. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to filence, and work the peace of the present, we will not handle a rope more; ufe your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have liv'd fo long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mifchance of the hour, if it fo hap.-Cheerly, good hearts-Out of our way, I fay. [Exit. 7 Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow; methinks, he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand faft, good fate, to his hanging; make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage: If he be not born to be hang'd, our cafe is miferable. [Exeunt, Re-enter Boatfwain. Boatf. Down with the top-maft; yare, lower, lower; bring her to try with main-courfe. [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather, or our office. Re-enter Sebaftian, Anthonio, and Gonzalo, Yet again? What do you here? Shall we give o'er, and drown? Have you a mind to fink? Seb. A pox o' your throat! you bawling, blafphe mous, uncharitable dog! Boats. Work you then. Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson, infolent noifemaker! we are lefs afraid to be drown'd, than thou art. 6 Gon. I'll warrant him from drowning; though the of the prefent,] It may mean of the prefent inflant. STEEVENS. Gonzalo.] It may be observed of Gonzalo, that, being the only good man that appears with the king, he is the only man that preferves his cheerfulness in the wreck, and his hope on the inland. JOHNSON, fhip were no ftronger than a nut-fhell, and as leaky as an unftanch'd & wench. 8 Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; fet her two courses; off to fea again, lay her off. Enter Mariners wet. Mar. All loft! to prayers, to prayers! all loft! [Exeunt. What, muft our mouths be cold? Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let us affift Boatf. them, For, our cafe is as theirs. Seb. I am out of patience. Ant. We're merely cheated of our lives by drunkards. This wide-chopp'd rafcal;-Would, thou might'st lie drowning, The washing of ten tides! Gon. He'll be hang'd yet; 8 -an unftanch'd wench.] Unftanch'd, I believe, means incontinent. STEEVENS. Lay her a-bold, a-bold;--] To lay a fhip a-hold, is to bring her to lie as near the wind as she can, in order to keep clear of the land, and get her out to fea. STEEVENS. fet her two courfes off to fea again, -] The courfes are the main-fail and forefail. This term is used by Raleigh, in his Difcourfe on Shipping. JOHNSON. The paffage, as Mr. Holt has observed, should be pointed, Set her two courfes; off, &c. Such another expreffion occurs in Decker's, If this be not a good Play, the Devil is in it. 1612. -off with your Drablers and your Banners; out with your Courses," STEEVENS. 2 merely-- In this place fignifies abfolutely. In which fenfe it is ufed in Hamlet, act I. fc. iii. 66 Things rank and grofs in nature "Poffefs it merely.". So in Ben Jonson's Poetafter: 66 46 at request Of fome mere friends, fome honourable Romans." STEEVENS. Though every drop of water fwear against it, A confufed noife within.] Mercy on us !— We fplit, we fplit!-Farewell, my wife and chil dren! Farewell, brother! We fplit, we fplit, we fplit 4 Ant. Let's all fink with the king. Seb. Let's take leave of him. Exit. [Exit. Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of fea for an acre of barren ground; long heath, brown furze, 3 to glut him.] Shakespeare probably wrote, t'englut bim, to fwallow him; for which I know not that glut is ever used by him. In this fignification englut, from engloutir, French, occurs frequently, as in Henry VI. 66 Thou art fo near the gulf "Thou needs must be englutted." And again in Timon and Othello. Yet Milton writes glutted offal for fwallowed, and therefore perhaps the prefent text may stand. JOHNSON, Thus in Sir A. Gorges's tranflation of Lucan, B. 6. i. e. fwallow. STEEVENS. 4 Brother, farewell!] All thefe lines have been hitherto given to Gonzalo, who has no brother in the fhip. It is probablé that the lines fucceeding the confufed noife within should be confidered as fpoken by no determinate characters, but should be printed thus. i Sailor. Mercy on us! We fplit, we fplit! 2 Sailor. Farewell, my, &c. 3 Sailor. Brother, farewell, &c. JOHNSON, 5 long heath,] This is the common name for the erica baccifera. WARBURTON. long heath] The diftinctions between the different forts of erica, are either-vulgaris, tenuifolia or brabantica. There is no fuch plant as erica baccifera. WARNER. "An acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze," &c. Sir T. Hanmer reads ling, heath, broom, furze.-Perhaps rightly, though he has been charged with tautology. I find in Harrifon's Defcription of Britain, prefixed to our author's good friend Holingfhead, p. 91. "Brome, beth, firze, brakes, whinnies, ling," &c. FARMER. Mr. furze, any thing: The wills above be done, but I would fain die a dry death! [Exit. The inchanted island: before the cell of Profpero. Enter Profpero and Miranda. Mira. If by your art, my deareft father, you have With thofe that I faw fuffer! a brave veffel, Have funk the fea within the earth, or ere Pro. Be collected; No more amazement: tell your piteous heart, Mira. O, woe the day! Pro. 7 No harm. I have Mr. Tollet has fufficiently vindicated Sir Thomas Hanmer from the charge of tautology, by favouring me with fpecimens of three different kinds of heath which grow in his own neighbourhood. I would gladly have inferted his obfervations at length, but, to fay the truth, our author, like one of Cato's foldiers who was bit by a ferpent, 6 Ipfe latet penitus congefto corpore merfus. STEEVENS. Or ere, is before. Of this ufe, many inftances are given hereafter. STEEVENS. 7 Pro. No harm.] I know not whether Shakespeare did not 'make Miranda fpeak thus: O, woe the day! no harm? To which Profpero properly anfwers : I have done nothing but in care of thee. Miranda, |