Sit then, and talk with her; she is thine own. — What, Ariel! my industrious servan. Ariel! Enter ARIEL. Ari. What would my potent master? here I ara Pro. Thou and thy meaner fellows your last ser vice Did worthily perform; and I must use you And they expect it from me. Each one, tripping on his toe, Will be here with mop and mowe: Do you love me, master? no? Pro. Dearly, my delicate Ariel: Do not approach, Till thou dost hear me call. Well; I conceive. [Exit Ari. Pro. Look, thou be true: do not give dalliance Too much the rein; the strongest oaths are straw To the fire i' the blood: Be more abstemious, Or else, good night your vow! Fer. I warrant you, sir The white-cold virgin snow upon my heart Abates the ardour of my liver." Pro. 4 i. e. snow or exhibition. Well. The liver was anciently supposed to be the seat of the pas sions; hence often put for the passions themselves. H. 6 Now come, my Ariel! bring a corollary, A Masque. [Soft music. Enter IRIS. Iris. Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats, and peas; Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep, And flat meads thatch'd with stover,' them to keep; Thy banks with peonied and lilied brims, Which spongy April at thy hest betrims, To make cold nymphs chaste crowns; and thy broom groves, Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves, i. e. bring more than enough; corollary meaning a surplus number. H. 7 Stover is fodder for cattle, as hay, straw, and such like; still used thus in the north of England. H. 8 The original has "pioned and twilled brims;" which reading some late editors have retained, taking pioned to mean dug, a sense in which it is used by Spenser, and twilled to mean ridged, or made into ridges, a sense which it yet bears in reference to some kinds of linen. Knight says: "Any one who has seen the operation of banking and ditching in early spring, so essential to the proper drainage of land, must recognize the propriety of Shakespeare's epithets." Still this strikes us as so discordant a note, it so untunes the harmony of the passage, that we cannot but think the original reading a misprint for the one proposed by Steevens and Warton. Milton, whose poetical language is so much formed upon Shakespeare's as often to afford the best comment upon him, has in his Arcades the line: "By sandy Ladon's lilied banks;" which, as Warton says, is "an authority for reading lilied instead of twilled in a verse of The Tempest ;" and he adds, "lilied seems to have been no uncommon epithet for the banks of a river." Henley urges in behalf of the old reading, that pionies and lilies never bloom in April; which is refuted by a passage in Lord Bacon's Essay "Of Gardens: " "In April follow the double white violet, the wall-flower, the stock-gilly-flower, the cowslip, flower-de-luces, and lilies of all natures; rose-mary flowers, the tulip, the double piony, the pale daffodil," &c. But the main 9 Being lass-lorn; thy pole-clipt vineyard; And thy sea-marge, steril, and rocky-hard, Bids thee leave these, and with her sovereign grace, Enter CERES. Cer. Hail, many-colour'd messenger, that ne'er Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter; Who, with thy saffron wings upon my flowers 11 10 ? And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown objection to the old reading lies in the words, "to make cold nymphs chaste crowns," which apparently refer to the popular belief touching the flowers in question. Lyte, in his Herbal, says, "One kind of peonie is called by some, maiden or virgin peonie.” And Pliny mentions the water-lily as a preserver of chastity; and Edward Fenton, in his Secret Wonders of Nature, 1569, says, "The water-lily mortifieth altogether the appetite of sensuality, and defends from unchaste thoughts." H. 9 i. e. forsaken by his lass. Pole-clipt vineyard refers to vines that clip, clasp the poles that support them. H. 1 Mr. Douce remarks that this is an elegant expansion of the following lines in Phaer's Virgil, Æneid, Lib. iv. "Dame Rainbow down therefore with safron wings of dropping showres, Whose face a thousand sundry hues against the sun devoures, From heaven descending came." Bosky acres are woody acres, fields intersected by luxurian nedge-rows and copses. Cer. Tell me, heavenly bow, If Venus, or her son, as thou dost know, Cutting the clouds towards Paphos; and her son Dove-drawn with her: Here thought they to have done Some wanton charm upon this man and maid, Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows, Cer. Highest queen of state, Great Juno comes: I know her by her gait. Enter JUNO. Juno. How does my bounteous sister? Go with me, To bless this twain, that they may prosperous be. And honour'd in their issue. Song. Juno. Honour, riches, marriage-blessing, Hourly joys be still upon you! Cer Earth's increase, foison plenty, Barns and garners never empty; Vines, with clust'ring branches growing; Spring come to you, at the farthest, 12 May I be bold Fer. This is a most majestic vision, and Pro. Spirits, which by mine art I have from their confines call'd, to enact My present fancies. Fer. 13 Let me live here ever; So rare a wonder'd 13 father, and a wise, Makes this place Paradise. Pro. [JUNO and CERES whisper, and send IRIS on employment. Sweet now, silence: Juno and Ceres whisper seriously; There's something else to do: hush, and be mute, Or else our spell is marr❜d. Iris. You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the winding brooks, 14 With your sedg'd crowns, and ever harmless looks, Enter certain Nymphs. You sun-burn'd sicklemen, of August weary, 12 i. e. charmingly harmonious. 13 i. e. a father able to produce such wonders. 14 Crisp channels; i. e. curled, from the curl raised by a breeze on the surface of the water. So in 1 K. Hen. IV. Act i. sc. 3: "hid his crisp head in the hollow bank." |