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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?

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 herė, How thou cain'st here, thou may'st.

Mira.

But that I do not.

Pro. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year

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

father

thou wast my daughter; and thy

Was duke of Milan; and his only heir

And princess no worse issued."

Mira.

O, the heavens !

What foul play had we, that we came from thence ?

Or blessed was't, we did?

Pro.

Both, both, my girl.

Abysm was the old mode of spelling abyss; from its French original abisme.

This line is usually printed thus:

"A princess; no worse issued:"

which might indeed be admitted, but that there is no authority for it in the original; nor any need of the change, the sense being clear enough without it.

H

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, Which is from my remembrance! Please you, further.

Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio-
T 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 uncle

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 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' the state
To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was
The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk,

Teen is grief, sorrow.

To trash mears 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 over speed. 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'

And suck'd my verdure out on't.

not.

Mira. O good sir! I do.

Pro.

10

Thou attend'st

I pray thee, mark me.

I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
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," did beget of him
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,
Who having, unto truth, by telling of it,"
Made such a sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie, - he did believe

like one,

He was indeed the duke; out o' the substitution,
And executing the outward face of royalty,

With all prerogative: - Hence his ambition
Growing, Dost thou 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

10 The sense is here rendered somewhat obscure by the brevity of expression. The meaning seems to be: "Which would have exceeded all popular estimate, but that it withdrew me from my public duties;" as if he were sensible of his error in getting sorapt in secret studies" as to leave the State a prey to violence and usurpation.

H.

Alluding to the observation that a father above the common rate of nen has generally a son below it.

12 It here refers to lie in the second line below. So that the meaning is: "Who, having made his memory such a sinner to truth by lying, that he came to believe his own lie." In like manner Tacitus says of certain men, fingebant simul credebant que.

H.

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 nobly of my grandmother :
Good wombs have borne bad sons.

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 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.

12 In lieu of the premises; that is, in consideration of the premises," &c.

14 Hnt is here used for cause or subject. Thus in a future passage we have: "Our hint of woe."

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

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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

13

Instinctively have quit it: there they hoist us,
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 cherubin

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

18

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

3gainst what should ensue.

Quit was commonly used for quitted.

13 There is a good deal of doubt as to what sense this word is here used in, whether it be to adorn, or to cover; of which the former seems inappropriate, and the other altogether forced. Some good editors think it should be degg'd; a word still used in the north of England for to sprinkle. This sense is so much better than either of the others, that we cannot help thinking it the right one.

17 Stomach is here used in its old sense of courage.

H.

R

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