That my remembrance warrents: Had I not
Four or five women once, that tended me?
Pro. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda: But how is it,
That this lives in thy mind? What seest 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 since, Thy father was the duke of Milan, and

A prince of power.

Mira.

Sir, are not you my father?

Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father Was duke of Milan; and his only heir

A princess;-no worse issued.

Mira.

O, the heavens! What foul play had we, that we came from thence? Or blessed was't we did?

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 8 that I have turn'd you to,
Which is from my remembrance! Please you, further.
Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio
I pray thee, mark me, that a brother should
Be so perfidions!-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 uncle

Abysm was the old mode of spelling abyss; from its French original abisme. 8 Teen is grief, sorrow.

Dost thou attend me?

Mira.

Sir, most heedfully.
Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits,
How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom
To trash 9 for overtopping; new created

The creatures that were mine; I say, or chang'd them,
Or else new form'd them: having both the key
Of officer and office, set all hearts i' th' state
To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was
The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk,
And suck'd my verdure out on't.-Thou attend'st not.
Mira. O good sir, I do.

Pro.
I pray thee, mark me.
I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate
To closeness, and the bettering of my mind
With that, which, but by being so retir'd,
O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my false brother
Awak'd an evil nature: and my trust,

Like a good parent 10, did beget of him

9 To trash means to check the pace or progress of any one. The term is said to be still in use among sportsmen in the North, and signifies to correct a dog for misbehaviour in pursuing the game; or overtopping or outrunning the rest of the pack. Trashes are clogs strapped round the neck of a dog to prevent his overspeed.

Todd has given four instances from Hammond's works of the word in this sense. "Clog and trash"-"encumber and trash", -"to trash or overslow-and "foreslowed and trashed."

There was another word of the same kind used in Falcoury. (from whence Shakspeare very frequently draws his similes); "Trassing. is when a hawk raises aloft any fowl, and soaring with it, at length descends therewith to the ground." Dictionarium Rusticum, 1704. Probably this term is used by Chapman in his address to the reader prefixed to his translation of Homer.

"That whosesoever muse dares use her wing

When his muse flies she will be trass't by his,
And show as if a Bernacle should spring
Beneath an Eagle."

There is also a passage in the Bonduca of Beaumont and Fletcher, wherein Caratach says:

"I fled too,

But not so fast; your jewel had been lost then,
Young Hengo there, he trasht me, Nennius."

i. e. checked or stopped my flight.

I rather think it will be found that the Editors have been very. precipitate in changing trace to trash in Othello, Act ii. Scene I. See note on that passage.

10 Alluding to the observation that a father above the common rate of men has generally a son below it. Heroum filii noxœ.

A falsehood, in its contrary as great

As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit,
A confidence sans bound. He being thus lorded,
Not only with what my revenue yielded,

But what my power might else exact,-like one,
Who having, unto truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie 11,- he did believe
He was indeed the duke; out of the substitution,
And executing the outward face of royalty,
With all prerogative: Hence his ambition
Growing,-Dost hear?

Mira.

Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. Pro. To have no screen between this part he play'd And him he play'd it for, he needs will be Absolute Milan: Me, poor man! - my library Was dukedom large enough; of temporal royalties He thinks me now incapable: confederates (So dry he was for sway) with the king of Naples, To give him annual tribute, do him homage; Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend The dukedom, yet unbow'd, (alas, poor Milan!) To most ignoble stooping.

Mira.

O the heavens!

Pro. Mark his condition, and the event; then tell me, If this might be a brother.

Mira.

I should sin

To think but 12 nobly of my grandmother:"
Good wombs have borne bad sons.

11 "Who having made his memory such a sinner to truth as to credit his own lie by telling of it."

12 Tooke, in his Diversions of Purley, has clearly shown that we use one word, But, in modern English, for two words Bot and But, originally (in the Anglo-Saxon) very different in signification, though by repeated abbreviation and corruption) approaching in sound. Bot is the imperative of the A. S. Botan, to boot. But is the imperative of the A. S. Be-utan, to be out. By this means all the seemingly anomalous uses of But may be explained; I must however content myself with referring the reader to the Diversions of Purley, vol. i. p. 190. Merely remarking that BUT (as distinguished from Bot) and BE-OUT have exactly the same meaning, viz. in modern English, WITHOUT.

Pro.

Now the condition.

This king of Naples, being an enemy
To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit;
Which was,
that he in lieu 13 o' the premises,
Of homage, and I know not how much tribute,
Should presently extirpate me and mine

Out of the dukedom; and confer fair Milan,
With all the honours, on my brother: Whereon,
A treacherous army levied, one midnight
Fated to the purpose, did Antonio open

The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of darkness,
The ministers for the purpose hurried thence
Me, and thy crying self.

Mira.

Alack, for pity!

I, not rememb'ring how I cried out then,
Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint 14,
That wrings mine eyes to't.

Pro.
Hear a little further,
And then I'll bring thee to the present business
Which now's upon us; without the which, this story
Were most impertinent.
Mira.

That hour destroy us?
Pro.

Wherefore did they not

Well demanded, wench;

My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not; (So dear the love my people bore me) nor set A mark so bloody on the business; but

With colours fairer painted their foul ends.

In few, they hurried us aboard a bark;

Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepar'd

A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd,

Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats Instinctively had quit 15 it; there they hoist us,

13 In lieu of the promises; that is, "in consideration of the premises,-&c." This seems to us a strange use of this French word, yet it was not then unusual.

"But takes their oaths in lieu of her assistance."

Beaumont and Fletcher's Prophetess. 14 Hint is here for cause or subject. Thus in future passage we have:-'Our hint of woe."

15 Quit was commonly used for quitted.

To cry to the sea that roar'd to us, to sigh
To the winds, whose pity, sighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.

Mira.

Was I then to you!

Pro.

Alack! what trouble

O! a cherubim

Thou wast, that did preserve me! Thou didst smile, Infused with a fortitude from heaven,

When I have deck'd 16 the sea with drops full salt Under my burden groan'd; which rais'd in me An undergoing stomach 17, to bear up

Against what should ensue.

Mira.

How came we ashore?

Pro. By Providence divine.

Some food we had, and some fresh water, that
A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,

Out of his charity, (who being then appointed
Master of this design,) did give us; with
Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries,
Which since have steaded much; so, of his gentleness,
Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me,
From my own library, with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.

Mira.

But ever see that man!

Pro.

'Would I might

Now I arise:

Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow.
Here in this island we arriv'd; and here
Have I, thy school-master, made thee more profit
Than other princes can, that have more time
For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.
Mira. Heavens thank you for't! And now,
pray you, sir,

(For still 'tis beating in my mind,) your reason For raising this sea-storm?

16 To deck, or deg, is still used in the northern counties for to sprinkle.

11 An undergoing stomach is a stubborn resolution, a temper or frame of mind to bear.