FER. MIRA.

We wish your peace.

( Exeunt, Pro. Come with a thought :- I thank you :

Ariel, come.

3

Enter ARIEL.

4

Ari. Thy thoughts I cleave to :3 What's thy

pleasure ? PRO.

Spirit, We must prepare to meet with Caliban. * Ari. Ay, my commander : when I presented

Ceres, I thought to have told thee of it; but I fear'd, Left I might anger thee. Pro. Say again, where didst thou leave these

varlets ? Ari. I told you, sir, they were red-hot with

drinking;

, Fer. Mir. We wish your peace. Pro. Come with a thought :

I thank you :

Ariel, come.) The old copy reads 16 - I thank thee. » But these thanks being in reply to the joint wish of Ferdinand and Miranda, I have fubstituted you for thee, by the advice of Mr. Riifon.

STEEVENS. 3 Thy thoughts I cleave to : ) To cleave io, is to unite with closely. So, in Macbeth:

« Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould. ?? Again :

- If you ihall cleave to my consent.» STEEVENS,

to meet with Caliban. ) To meet with is to counteract; 'to play stratagem against stratagem. The parfon knows the temper of overy one in his house, and accordingly either meets with their vices, or advances their virtues. HERBERT's Country Parfon. JOHNS So, in Cynthia's Revenge, 1613 :

You
may

meet
66 With her abusive malice, and exempt
Yourself from the suspicion of revenge. »

STEEVENS.

INSON,

So full of valour, that they smote the air
For breathing in their faces ; beat the ground
For killing of their feet: yet always bending
Towards their project : Then I beat my tabor,
At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd their

ears,
Advanc'd their eye-lids, ' lifted up their noses,
As they smelt musick; fo I charm’d their ears,
That, calf-like, they my lowing follow'd, through
Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking gofs, 6 and

thorns, Which enter'd their frail fhins : at last I left them

5

Advanc'd their eye-lids, &.ị Thus Drayton, in his Mymphidia, of Court of fairie :

" But once the circle got within,
" The charms to work do straight begin,
" And he was caught as in a gin :

- For as he thus was busy,
" A pain he in his head-piece feels,

Against a stubbed tree he reels,
" And up went poor Hobgoblin's heels :

" Alas, his brain was dizzy.
• At length upon his feet he gets,
" Hobgoblin fumes, Hobgoblin frets ;
" And as again he forward sets,

“And through the bushes fcrambles,
" A stump doth hit him in his pace,
" Down comes poor Hob upon his face, :
" And lamentably tore his case
Among

the briers and brainbles. JOHNSON. - pricking gofs, ) 1 know not how Shakspeare dilinguished go/s from furze ; for what he calls fuze is called gofs or gorse in the midland counties. This word is used in the first chorus to Kyd's Cornelia, 1594 : " With worthless gorse that, ycarly, fruiulets dies.

STELVENS. By the latter, Shakspeare means the low sort of gorse that only grows upon wet ground, and which is well described by the name of whins in Markham's Farewell to Huillondry. It has prickles like those on a rose-tree or a gooseberry. Forze and whiris occur together in Dr. Farmer's quotation from Holinihed. TOLLET.

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1

l' the filthy mantled pool ? beyond your cell,
There dancing up to the chins, that the foul lake
O’er-ftunk their feet.

PRO. This was well done, my bird :
Thy shape invisible retain thou still :
The trumpery in my house, go, bring it hither,
For ftale to catch these thieves. 8
ARI.

I go, I go. (Exit.
Pro. A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
Nurture can never stick;' on whom my pains,
Humanely taken, all, all loft, quite loft;a
And as, with age, his body uglier grows,
So his mind cankers : 3 I will plague them all,
Re-enter ARIEL loader with glistering apparel; bio
Eyen to roaring : --Come, hang them on this line.

7 I' the filthy mantled pool —-) Perhaps we should read-filthymantled.- A similar idea occurs in K. Lear:

" Drinks the green mantle of the standing pool." STEEVENS. & For ftale to catch these thieves.) Siale is a word in fowling, and is used to mean a bait or decoy to catch birds. So, in A Looking glass for London and England, 1617:

66 Hence tools of wrath, Stales of temptation! A gain, in Green's Mamillia, 1595 : that she might not strike at the stale, left she were canvassed in the nets. STIEVENS.

Nurture can never flick ; ) Nurture is education. Steevens.

all, all loft, ) The first of these words was probably introduced by the carelessness of the transcriber or compolitor. Wc mright safely read-are all loft. MALONE. 3. And as, with age, his body uglier grows,

So his mind cankers : Shakspeare, when he wrote this description, perhaps recolle&ed what his patron's most intimate friend, the great lord Eflex, in an hour of discontent, faid of queen Elizabeth ;----" that she grew old and canker'd, and that her mind was become as crooked as her carcase: --a speech, which, according to Sir Walter Raleigh, coit him his head, and which, we may therefore suppose, was at that time much talked of. This play being written in the time of king James, these obnoxious words might be safely repeated. MALONE,

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a

Prospero and Ariel remain invisible. Enter

ÇALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, all wet. Cal. Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole

may not Hear a foot fall : we now are near his cell,

Ste. monster, your fairy, which, you say, is a harmless fairy, has done little better than play'd the Jack with us.

Trin. Monster, I do smell all horse-piss ; at which

my

nose is in great indignation. STE. So is mine. Do you hear, monster ? If I should take a displcasure against you;

look you, —

TRIN. Thou wert but a loft monfter.

Cal. Good my lord, give me thy favour ftill : Be patient, for the prize I'll bring thee to Shall hood-wink this mischance: therefore, speak

softly; All's hush'd as midnight yet.

Trin. Ay, but to lose our bottles in the pool.

Ste. There is not only disgrace and dishonour in that, monster, but an infinite loss.

Trin. That's more to me than my wetting: yet this is your harmless fairy, monster.

the blind mode may not Hear a foot fall : ) This quality of hearing which the mole is supposed to possess in so high a degree, is mentioned in Euphues, 40. 1581, p. 64, " Doth not the lion for strength, the turtle for love, the ant for labour, excel man? Doth not the eagle see clearer, the vulture smell better, the moale heare lightlyer ?” REED.

- has done little better than play'd the jack with us. ) i. e. He has played Jack with, a lantern; has led us about like an ignis farums, by which travellers are decoyed into the mire, JOHNSON,

STE. I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o'er
cars for my labour.
Cal. Pr’ythee, my king, be quiet: Secft thou

here,
This is the mouth o’the cell: no noise, and enter:
Do that good mischief, which may make this island
Thine own for cver, and I, thy Caliban,
For aye thy foot-licker.
Ste. Give me thy hand : I do begin to have

bloody thoughts.
TRIN. O king Stephano! O peer! O worthy
Stephano! look, what a wardrobe here is for

thee! 6
CAL. Let it alone, thou fool; it is but trash.

Trin. O, ho, monster; we know what belongs
to a frippery :' - king Stephano !

-O .
STE. Put off that gown, Trinculo; by this
hand, I'll have that gown.

.
Trin. Thy grace shall have it.
Cal. The dropsy drown this fool! what do you

niean,

6

7

con

6 Trin. 0 king Stephano ! O peer! 0 worthy Stephano ! look
what a wardrobe here is for thee!) The humour of these lines
sists in their being an allusion to an old celebrated ballad, which
þegins thus : King Stephen was a worthy peer- and celebrates that
King's parsimony with regard to his wardrobe. -There are two
{tanzas of this ballad in Othello. WARBURTON.

The old ballad is printed at large in The Reliques of ancient
Poetry, Vol. I. Percy.

we know what belongs to a frippery : ) A frippery was a
shop where old clothes were sold. Fripperie, Fr.

Beaumont and Fletcher use the word in this sense, in Wit with-
out Money, Ad II :

is As if I were a running frippery."
$9, in Monfieur d'Olive, a camedy, by Chapman, 1606 : “ Pafling

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