CAL. Art thou afeard1? STE. No, monster, not I. CAL. Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices, That, if I then had wak'd after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, The clouds, methought, would open, and shew riches Ready to drop upon me; that, when I wak'd, STE. This will prove a brave kingdom to me, where I shall have my music for nothing. CAL. When Prospero is destroyed. STE. That shall be by and by: I remember the story. TRIN. The sound is going away: let's follow it, and after, do our work. STE. Lead, monster; we'll follow. I would, I could see this taborer2: he lays it on. I TRIN. Wilt come? I'll follow, Stephano 3. [Exeunt. afeard?] Thus the old copy.-To affear is an obsolete verb, with the same meaning as to affray. So, in the Shipmannes Tale of Chaucer, v. 13,330: "This wif was not aferde ne affraide." Between aferde and affraide, in the time of Chaucer, there might have been some nice distinction which is at present lost. STEEVENS. 2 I would, I could see this TABORER:] Several of the incidents in this scene, viz.-Ariel's mimickry of Trinculo-the tune played on the tabor, and Caliban's description of the twangling instruments, &c.-might have been borrowed from Marco Paolo, the old Venetian voyager; who in lib. i. ch. 44, describing the desert of Lop in Asia, says-" Audiuntur ibi voces dæmonum, &c. voces fingentes eorum quos comitari se putant. Audiuntur SCENE III. Another part of the Island. Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, and others. GON. By'r lakin, I can go no further, sir; My old bones ake: here's a maze trod, indeed, Through forth-rights, and meanders! by your pa tience, I needs must rest me. ALON. Old lord, I cannot blame thee, Who am myself attach'd with weariness, To the dulling of my spirits; sit down, and rest. interdum in aere concentus musicorum instrumentorum," &c. This passage was rendered accessible to Shakspeare by an English translation entitled The most noble and famous Trauels of Marcus Paulus, one of the Nobilitie of the State of Venice, &c. bl. 1. 4to. 1579, by John Frampton: -You shall heare in the ayre the sound of tabers and other instruments, to put the trauellers in feare, &c. by euill spirites that make these soundes, and also do call diuerse of the travellers by their names, &c. ch. 36, p. 32. 66 To some of these circumstances Milton also alludes: "calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, STEEVENS. 3 Wilt come? I'll follow, Stephano.] The first words are addressed to Caliban, who, vexed at the folly of his new companions idly running after the musick, while they ought only to have attended to the main point, the dispatching Prospero, seems, for some little time, to have staid behind. HEATH. The words "Wilt come?" should be added to Stephano's speech. I'll follow, is Trinculo's answer. RITSON. 4 By'r lakin,] i. e. The diminutive only of our lady, i. e. ladykin. STEEVENS. 5 Whom thus we stray to find; and the sea mocks Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose SEB. Will we take thoroughly. ANT. The next advantage Let it be to-night; For, now they are oppress'd with travel, they SEB. I say, to-night: no more. Solemn and strange musick; and PROSPERO above, invisible. Enter several strange Shapes, bringing in a banquet; they dance about it with gentle actions of salutation; and, inviting the King, &c. to eat, they depart. ALON. What harmony is this? my good friends, hark! GON. Marvellous sweet musick! ALON. Give us kind keepers, heavens! What were these? SEB. A living drollery: Now I will believe, That there are unicorns; that, in Arabia 5 OUR frustrate SEARCH-] Frustrate, for frustrated. So, in Chapman's translation of Homer's Hymn to Apollo: 66 some God hath fill'd "Our frustrate sails, defeating what we will'd." STEEVENS. 6 A living DROLLERY:] Shows, called drolleries, were in Shakspeare's time performed by puppets only. From these our modern drolls, exhibited at fairs, &c. took their name. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Valentinian: "I had rather make a drollery till thirty." STEevens. "A living drollery,” i. e. a drollery not represented by wooden machines, but by personages who are alive. MALONE. There is one tree, the phoenix' throne"; one phoe nix At this hour reigning there. I'll believe both; ANT. And what does else want credit, come to me, And I'll be sworn 'tis true: Travellers ne'er did lie, Though fools at home condemn them. GON. If in Naples I should report this now, would they believe me? If I should say, I saw such islanders, (For, certes', these are people of the island,) Who, though they are of monstrous shape, yet, note, 7 one tree, the PHOENIX' throne ;] For this idea, our author might have been indebted to Phil. Holland's Translation of Pliny, b. xiii. chap. 4: "I myself verily have heard straunge things of this kind of tree; and namely in regard of the bird Phoenix, which is supposed to have taken that name of this date tree [called in Greek, pov]; for it was assured unto me, that the said bird died with that tree, and revived of itselfe as the tree sprung again." STEEVENS. Again, in one of our author's poems, prefixed to Chester's Rosalynd, for which see the end of vol. xx. : "Let the bird of loudest lay, "On the sole Arabian tree," &c. Our poet had probably Lyly's Euphues, and his England, particularly in his thoughts: signat. Q 3.-" As there is but one phoenix in the world, so is there but one tree in Arabia wherein she buildeth." See also, Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598: Rasin, a tree in Arabia, whereof there is but one found, and upon it the phoenix sits." MALONE. 66 8 And I'll be sworn 'TIS TRUE: Travellers ne'er did lie,] I suppose this redundant line originally stood thus: "And I'll be sworn to't: Travellers ne'er did lie-." Hanmer reads, as plausibly: 9 "And I'll be sworn 'tis true. Travellers ne'er lied." STEEVENS. such ISLANDERS,] The old copy has islands. The emendation was made by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. 1 For, CERTES, &c.] Certes is an obsolete word, signifying certainly. So, in Othello: 66 certes, says he, "I have already chose my officer." STEEVENS. Their manners are more gentle, kind2, than of Many, nay, almost any. PRO. Honest lord, Thou hast said well; for some of you there present, Are worse than devils. ALON. [Aside. I cannot too much muse 3 Such shapes, such gesture, and such sound, express ing (Although they want the use of tongue,) a kind Of excellent dumb discourse. They have left their viands behind; for we have stomachs. Will't please you taste of what is here? ALON. Not I. 2 Their manners are more GENTLE-KIND,] The old copy has gentle, kind-." I read (in conformity to a practice of our author, who delights in such compound epithets, of which the first adjective is to be considered as an adverb,) gentle-kind, Thus, in King Richard III. we have childish-foolish, senseless-obstinate, and mortal-staring. STEEVENS. 3 - too much MUSE.] To muse, in ancient language, is to admire, to wonder. So, in Macbeth: "Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends." STEEVENS. 4 Praise in departing.] i. e. Do not praise your entertainment too soon, lest you should have reason to retract your commendation. It is a proverbial saying. So, in The Two angry Women of Abingdon, 1599 : "And so she doth; but praise your luck at parting." Again, in Tom Tyler and his Wife, 1661: "Now praise at thy parting." Stephen Gosson, in his pamphlet entitled, Playes confuted in five Actions, &c. (no date) acknowledges himself to have been the author of a morality called Praise at Parting. STEEVENS. |