That if you now beheld them, your

affections Would become tender.

Pro. Dost thou think 80, spirit ?
Ari. Mine would, sir, were I human.
Pro.

And mine shall.
Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling
Of their afflictions, and shall not myself,
One of their kind, that relish all as sharply,
Passion as they, be kindlier, mov'd than thou art ?
Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick,
Yet, with

my

nobler reason, 'gainst my fury
Do I take part. The rarer action is
In virtue, than in vengeance : they being penitent,
The sole drift of my purpose doth extend
Not a frown farther. Go, release them, Ariel.
My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore,
And they shall be themselves.
Ari.

I'll fetch them, sir. [Exit. Pro. Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves ; And

ye, that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him
When he comes back; you demy-puppets, that
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make ',
Whereof the ewe not bites ; and you, whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms; that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid
(Weak masters though ye be) I have be-dimm'd
The noontide sun, call’d forth the mutinous winds,
And 'twixt the green sea and the azur'd vault
Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak
With his own bolt: the strong-bas'd promontory
Have I made shake; and by the spurs pluck'd up
The pine and cedar: graves, at my command,
Have wak’d their sleepers ; oped, and let them forth
By my so potent art. But this rough magic
I here abjure; and, when I have requir'd
Some heavenly music, (which even now I do)
To work mine end

upon

their

senses, that

By moonshine do the green sous ringlets mako,] The corr. fo. 1632 bas green noard" for 16

green sour," with some appearance of fitness; but we adhere to the ancient text as quite as intelligible, and more expressive. Douce was for green sward,” but he was a better antiquary than critic.

my staff,

This airy charm is for, I'll break
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And, deeper than did ever plummet sound,
I'll drown

my

book.

[Solemn music.

Re-enter ARIEL: after him, ALONSO, with a frantic gesture,
attended by GONZALO; SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO in like man-
ner, attended by ADRIAN and FRANCISCO: they all enter the
circle which PROSPERO had made, and there stand charmed;

which PROSPERO observing, speaks.
A solemn air, and the best comforter
To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains,
Now useless, boild within thy skull’! There stand,
For you are spell-stopp'd.-
Noble Gonzalo, honourable man,
Mine

eyes, even sociable to the flow of thine", Fall fellowly drops.—The charm dissolvos apace; And, as the morning steals upon

the night,
Melting the darkness, so their rising senses
Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle
Their clearer reason. -Oh good Gonzalo !
My true preserver, and a loyal sir*
To him thou follow'st, I will pay thy graces
Home, both in word and deed.-Most cruelly
Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter :
Thy brother was a furtherer in the act;-
Thou’rt pinch'd for't now, Sebastian.-Flesh and blood,
You brother mine, that entertain'd ambition,
Expell’d remorse and nature; who, with Sebastian,

are

• Now useless, BOIL'D within thy skull!] The folios all have a misprint here, “ boil within thy skull.” Farther on in the same speech, the folio, 1623, alone reads " entertain ambition " for "entertain'd ambition."

NOBLE Gonzalo, honourable man,

Mine eyes, even sociable to the flow of thine,] “ Noble” and “ flow from the corr. fo. 1632, and, we may be confident, are restorations of the poet's language. Why was Prospero to call Gonzalo holy, as the epithet stands in the folios : he was "noble” and “honourable,” but in no respect koly: the error of show for "flow" is also transparent, and must have been occasioned chiefly by the mistake of the long 8 for f: Gonzalo was weeping, and the eyes of Prospero, "sociable to the flow" of those of Gonzalo, shed companionable tears.

- and a loyal SIR] In the corr. fo. 1632 “ gir" is changed to servant, and that word may have been written with an abbreviation, and therefore mistaken ; but as Shakespeare not unfrequently uses "sir" as in the text of the folios, we introduce no change, especially as the sense of the passage is in no respect either altered or strengthened by it.

(Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong)
Would here have kill'd your king; I do forgive thee,
Unnatural though thou art.—Their understanding
Begins to swell, and the approaching tide
Will shortly fill the reasonable shores,
That now lie foul and muddy. Not one of them,
That yet looks on me, or would know me.- Ariel,
Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell;

[Exit ARIEL.
I will dis-case me, and myself present,
As I was sometime Milan.—Quickly, spirit;
Thou shalt ere long be free.

ARIEL re-enters, singing, and helps to attire PROSPERO.
Ari. Where the bee sucks, there suck I:

In a cowslip': bell I lie;
There I couch'. When owls do cry,
On the bats.back I do fly
After summer, merrily :
Merrily, merrily, shall I live now,

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
Pro. Why, that's my dainty Ariel! I shall miss thee;
But yet thou shalt have freedom :-80, 80, 80.-
To the king's ship, invisible as thou art:
There shalt thou find the mariners asleep
Under the hatches; the master, and the boatswain,
Being awake, enforce them to this place,
And presently, I pr’ythee.

Ari. I drink the air before me, and return
Or e'er your pulse twice beat.

Gon. All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement
Inhabit here: some heavenly power guide us
Out of this fearful country!
Pro.

Behold, sir king,
The wronged duke of Milan, Prospero'.

[Exit ARIEL.

5 There I couch.] So the folios, 1623 and 1632: the third folio first substituted crouch. In the original there is no point after “couch ;" but it seems necessary, and was inserted by Malone. Modern critics have differed widely as to the proper punctuation, and the Rev. Mr. Dyce, after devoting two entire pages to the matter, adds bis own punctuation, which represents Ariel as couching in the cowe slip's bell at night, when, in fact, he was on the bat's back, as he himself tells us : he was flying “on the bat's back” at the time“ when owls do cry."

Behold, sir king,
The wronged duke of Milan, Prospero.] Here the corr. fo. 1632 tells us that

6

For more assurance that a living prince
Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body;
And to thee, and thy company, I bid
A hearty welcome.
Alon.

Whe'r thou beest he, or no,
Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me',
As late I have been, I not know: thy pulse
Beats as of flesh and blood; and, since I saw thee,
Th' affliction of my mind amends, with which,
I fear, a madness held me. This must crave
(An if this be at all) a most strange story.
Thy dukedom I resign; and do entreat
Thou pardon me thy wrongs'.—But how should Prospero
Be living, and be here?
Pro.

First, noble friend,
Let me embrace thine age, whose honour cannot
Be measur'd, or confin'd.
Gon.

Whether this be,
Or be not, I'll not swear.
Pro.

You do yet taste
Some subtleties o' the isle, that will not let you
Believe things certain.—Welcome, my friends all.-
But
you, my brace of lords, were I so minded

[Aside to SEB. and ANT.
I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you,
And justify you traitors: at this time
I will tell no tales.

Seb. [Aside.] The devil speaks in him.
Pro.

No.
For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother
Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive

Prospero was “attired as Duke." He had cast aside his magic robe, and appeared, to his brother and the rest, in his proper character.

? Or some enchanted TRIFLE to abuse me,] The corr. fo. 1632 substitutes dedil for “ trifle," but we hesitate to insert it in our text, because “tride" in this place may be understood, although it was not unnatural for Alonso to suppose that he might be addressing a fiend, who had assumed the shape and dress of Prospero. The German for devil is teufel, which, properly pronounced, sounds much like "trife;" but the translation of this line by A. W. Schlegel is this :

“Ob ein bezaubert Spielwerk mich zu täuschen." * Thou pardon me thy wrongs.] We have often seen

and founded by the old printer, and we can readily believe such was the case bere. The old text has been “ pardon me my wrongs," but it ought to be, as in the cort. fo. 1632, “ pardon me thy wrongs," i. e. the wrongs that I have done to thee.

“tby

my con

Thy rankest faults'; all of them; and require
My dukedom of thee, which perforce, I know,
Thou must restore.
Alon.

If thou beest Prospero,
Give us particulars of thy preservation :
How thou hast met us here, who three hours since
Were wreck'd

upon

this shore; where I have lost,
(How sharp the point of this remembrance is !)
My dear son Ferdinand.
Pro.

I am woe for't, sir.
Alon. Irreparable is the loss, and patience
Says it is past her cure.
Pro.

I rather think,
You have not sought her help; of whose soft grace,
For the like logs I have her sovereign aid,
And rest myself content.
Alon.

You the like loss ?
Pro. As great to me, as late; and, supportable
To make the dear loss, have I means much weaker
Than you may call to comfort you, for I.
Have lost my daughter.
Alon.

A daughter?
Oh heavens! that they were living both in Naples,
The king and queen there! that they were, I wish
Myself were mudded in that oozy bed
Where my son lies. When did

you
lose

your daughter?
Pro. In this last tempest.— I perceive, these lords
At this encounter do so much admire,
That they devour their reason, and scarce think
Their
eyes

do offices of truth, their words Are natural breath; but, howsoe'er you

have
Been justled from your senses, know for certain,
That I am Prospero, and that very duke
Which was thrust forth of Milan; who most strangely
Upon this shore, where you were wreck's, was landed,
To be the lord on't. No more yet of this;
For 'tis a chronicle of day by day,
Not a relation for a breakfast, nor
Befitting this first meeting.-Welcome, sir;
This cell's my court: here have I few attendants,

9 Thy rankest FAULTS ;] 8o the corr, fo. 1632 instead of fault in the singular: what immediately follows shows that the correction is right.