Twigging, wickered. Tything, division of a place, a district. Vail, to condescend to look, to Vain, light of tongue, not veracious. Valance, fringed with a beard. Vantage, convenience, opportunity, advantage. Vantbrace, armour for the arm. Varlet, a servant or footman to a warrior. Vast, waste, dreary. Vaunt, the avant, what went before. Vaward, the fore part. Unbated, not blunted. Uncape, to dig out, a term in fox-hunting. Uncharged, unattacked. Unclew, to draw out, exhaust. Uncoined, real, unrefined, unadorned. Unconfirmed, unpractised in the ways of the world. Under generation, the antipodes. Undergo, to be subject to. Under-skinker, a tapster, an underdrawer. Undertaker, one who takes upon himself the quarrel of another. Underwrite, to subscribe, to obey. Venew, a bout, a term in fenc- Under-wrought, under-working. Vengeance, mischief. course. Virginalling, playing on the Vixen, or fixen, a female fox. Umber, a dusky yellow-colour- Unaneled, without extreme unction. Unavoided, unavoidable. ed, undetermined. Undeserving, undeserved. Unearned, not deserved. Uneath, scarcely, not easily. Unexpressive, inexpressible. Unhappy, mischievously waggish, unlucky." Unhidden, open, clear. Unhoused, free from domestic Urchins, nedge-hogs, or per- Wide, remotely from, wide of haps fairies. Usance, usury. Use, practice long countenanced by custom. Use, to make a practice of. Use, interest. Used, behaved. Usurping, false. Utis, a merry festival. Utter, to vend by retail. Utterance, a phrase in combat, extremity. Waft, to beckon. Waist, the middle. Watch, a watch-light, Welkin, the colour of the sky, blue. Well-found, of acknowledged excellence. Well-liking, plump, embonpoint. Wen, swollen excrescence. Unrespective, inattentive to Whelked, varied with protuber the mark. Wilderness, wildness. Wimple, a hood or veil. gainst the inclemency of winter. Wis, to know. Wish, to recommend. Witch, to charm, to bewitch. Wittol, knowing, conscious of. Woman-tired, hen-pecked. Wood, crazy, frantic. Woodman, an attendant on the forester. Woolward, a phrase appropriated to pilgrims and penitentiaries. Words, dispute, contention. Worm, a serpent. Wrested, obtained by violence. Wrought, worked, agitated. Yarely, readily, nimbly. Whiffler, an officer who walks Yeasty, or yesty, foaming or first in processions. Whiles, until. Whip, the crack, the best. Whipstock, a carter's whip. Whirring, whirring away. White, the white mark in archery. White death, the chlorosis. Whiting-time, bleaching-time, spring. Whitsters, bleachers of linen. frothy. Yeild, to inform of, condescend THE TEMPEST. THERE was no edition of this play previous to the first folio of the Author's works, in 1623.-It was one of the very latest of his productions: Mr. Malone supposes it to have been written in the year 1011;-but it was most probably produced in the latter part of 1612, or the beginning of 1613, as we find from Mr. Vertue's MSS. that it was acted by John Heming and the rest of the King's company, before Prince Charles, the Lady Elizabeth, and the Prince Palatine Elector, in the beginning of the year 1613."-The Prince Palatine was married to the Lady Elizabeth in February 1613; and this exquisite poem, which relates the loves of a young prince and princess, and introduces a pageant of spirits to crown them with Honour, riches, marriage-blessing, was not improbably composed on the occasion of their royal nuptials; as we know that it made a part of the splendid festivities in celebration of them. Mr. Malone imagines in this play a reference to the shipwreck of Sir George Somers on the Island of Bermuda. I cannot follow him in tracing the resemblance. It is difficult to perceive the connexion between tempest in the Mediterranean and a hurricane in the Atlastic or between the wreck of an English ship, with her crew of adventurous navigators, on the coast of Bermuda, and the loss of an Italian vessel, conveying the king of Naples and the Duke of Milan from a royal marriage in Tunis, on an imaginary island, near the coast of Africa.-The only circumstance I can discover in the accounts of Sir George Somers's shipwreck, which Shakspeare appears to have had in his mind in writing this play, is the only circumstance that pose of the commentators have noticed, though it is related ma volume to which they have all referred, viz. Stith's History of Virginia.-The assumption of royal authority by Stephano, and the scenes between that character and Caliban and Trinculo, may have been suggested by the event related in the following passage.-When Sir George Somers left the Island of Bermuda in the year 1609, "Christopher Carter, Edward Waters, and Edward Chard remained behind. Sir George's vessel being once out of sight, these three lords, and sole inhabitants of all these islands, began to erect their little commonwealth, with equal power and brotherly regency, building a house, preparing the ground, planting their corn, and such seeds and fruits as they had, and providing other necessaries and conveniences. Then making search among the crannies and corners of those craggy rocks, what the scean, from the world's creation, had thrown up among them, besides divers smaller pieces, they happened upon the largest block of Ambergris that had ever been seen or heard of in one lump. It weighed fourscore pounds, and is said, itself alone, besides the others, to have been then worth nine or ten thousand pounds. And now being rich, they grew so rioty and ambitious, that these three forlorn men, above three thousand miles from their native country, and with ittle probability of ever seeing it again, fell out for the superiority and rule; and their competition and quarrel grew so high, that Chard and Waters, being of the greater spirit, had ap pointed to decide the matter in the field. But Carter wisely stopped their arms, choosing rather to bear with such troublesome rivals, than, by being rid of them, to live alone."Stith's Virginia, p. 120.-11 Shakspeare in composing his play had any recollection of the above event, The Tempest could not have been written till after the year 1612, when the story was brought to England by Captain Matthew Somers. This gentleman was nephew of Sir George Somers; he accompanied his uncle both in his first and second visit to the Bermudas, and, after his death on the Island, returned to England with the body. Collins the poet informed Thomas Warton, that the subject of this play was taken from a novel called Aurelio and Isabella; but this information has proved to be incorrect.-The memory of Collins became confused in his last melancholy illness, and he probably gave the name of one novel for another.A circumstance which he added, may perhaps lead to the discovery of the real tale-the principal character of the romance, answering to Shakspeare's Prospero, was a chemical necromancer, who had bound a spirit, like Ariel, to perform his services. Mr. Boswell relates, that a friend of his had met with an Italian novel which corresponded with Collins's description. Malone, Steevens, and Blackstone have discovered, in the following words from the Induction to Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair-"If there be never a servant-monster in the fair, who can help it?" an allusion to the character of Caliban, and another proof of that malignity against our Author which they have chosen to impute to the great contemporary and personal friend of Shakspeare.-This subject is fully discussed in the Life prefixed to Harness's edition, and only mentioned here, to shew on how slight authority this absurd falsehood has been propagated; and as another instance to prove, that to the theories of a commentator, as to the dreams of jealousy, "trifles light as air. are confirmatious strong as proofs of holy writ.' Ant. Where is the master, Boatswain? Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our la bour; Keep your cabins: you do assist the storm. Gon. Nay, good, be patient. Boats. When the sea is. Hence! What care these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: silence trouble us not. : Gon. Good; yet remember whom thou hast aboard. Boats. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority. you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap.-Cheerly, good hearts.-Out of our way, I say. [Exit. If Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, 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 hanged, our case is miserable. [Exeunt. Re-enter Boatswain. Mira. More to know 'Tis time Lend thy hand, Did never meddle with my thoughts. lower, should inform thee further. Pro. And pluck my magic garment from me.-So; Boats. Down with the topmast; yare; lower; bring her to try with main-course. [A ery within.] A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather, or our office. Re-enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO. Yet again? what do you here? Shall we give o'er, and drown? Have you a mind to sink? Seb. A pox o' your throat! you bawling, blas. phemous, incharitable dog! Boats. Work you, then. Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson, insolent noise-maker, we are less afraid to be drowned than Mar. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost! [Exeunt. Boats. What, must our mouths be cold? Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let us asFor our case is as theirs. [sist them, Seb. I am out of patience. [drunkards.Ant. We are merely cheated of our lives by This wide-chapped rascal;-'Would, thou might'st The washing of ten tides! [lie drowning, Gon. He'll be hanged yet; [A confused noise within.]-Mercy on us! We split, [Erit. [Exit. Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground; long heath, brown furze, any thing: The wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death. [Exit. SCENE II. The Island: before the Cell of Prospero. Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA. Mira. If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them: The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek, Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffer'd With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel, Who had no doubt some noble creatures in her, Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock Against my very heart! Poor souls! they perish'd. Had I been any god of power, I would Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er It should the good ship so have swallowed, and The freighting souls within her. Pro. Be collected; No more amazement: tell your piteous heart, There's no harm done. Mira. Pro. O, woe the day! No harm. I have done nothing but in care of thee, I comfort. [Lays down his mantle. Lie there my art.-Wipe thou thine eyes; have The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd The very virtue of compassion in thee, I have with such provision in mine art So safely order'd, that there is no soulNo, not so much perdition as a hair, Betid to any creature in the vessel Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink.For thou must now know further. [Sit down; Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd 'You have often And left me to a bootless inquisition; Concluding, Stay, not yet.— Mira. Pro. The hour's now come ; The very minute bids thee ope thine ear; A time before we came unto this cell? Mira. Certainly, sir, I can. Pro. By what? by any other house, or person? Of any thing the image tell me, that Hath kept with thy remembrance. Mira. "Tis far off; And rather like a dream than an assurance That my remembrance warrants: Had I not Four or five women once, that tended me? [is it, Pro. Thou had'st, and more, Miranda: But how That this lives in thy mind? What see'st thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'st here, How thou cam'st here, thou may'st. Mira. But that I do not. Pro. Twelve years since, Miranda, twelve years Thy father was the duke of Milan, and [since, A prince of power. Mira. Sir, are not you my father? Both, both, my girl; By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence; But blessedly holp hither. Mira. O, my heart bleeds To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to, [ther. Which is from my remembrance! Please you, far Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio,I pray thee, mark me,-that a brother should Be so perfidious!-he whom, next thyself, Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put The manage of my state; as, at that time, Through all the signiories it was the first, And Prospero the prime duke; being so reputed In dignity, and, for the liberal arts, Without a parallel: those being all my study, The government I cast upon my brother, And to my state grew stranger, being transported, And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncleDost thou attend me? |