Whereof the ewe not bites; and you, whose pastime
Is to make midnight-mushrooms; that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid
(Weak masters though ye be ',) I have be-dimm'd
The noon-tide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
And 'twixt the green sea and the azur❜d vault
Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak
With his own bolt: the strong-bas'd promontory
Have I made shake; and by the spurs pluck'd up
The pine and cedar: graves, at my command,
Have waked their sleepers; oped, and let them forth
By my so potent art: But this rough magick
I here abjure: and, when I have requir'd
Some heavenly musick, (which even now I do,)
To work mine end upon their senses, that
This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound,
I'll drown my book.

[Solemn musick.

Re-enter ARIEL: after him, ALONSO, with a frantick gesture, attended by GONZALO; SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO in like manner, attended by ADRIAN and FRANCISCO: they all enter the circle which PROSPERO had made, and there stand charmed; which PROSPERO observing, speaks.

A solemn air, and the best comforter

1 (Weak masters though ye be,)] The meaning of this passage may be, Though you are but inferior masters of these supernatural powers - though you possess them but in a low degree; or, "ye are powerful auxiliaries, but weak if left to yourselves; - your employment is then to make green ringlets, and midnight mushrooms, and to play the idle pranks mentioned by Ariel in his next song; yet by your aid I have been enabled to invert the course of nature."

2

But this rough magick, &c.] This speech of Prospero sets out with a long and distinct invocation to the various ministers of

To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains, 3

Now useless, boil'd within thy skull 4! There stand, For you are spell-stopp'd.

Holy Gonzalo, honourable man,

Mine eyes, even sociable to the shew of thine,

5

Fall fellowly drops. The charm dissolves apace;
And as the morning steals upon the night,

6

Melting the darkness, so their rising senses
Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle
Their clearer reason. O my good Gonzalo,
My true preserver, and a loyal sir

To him thou follow'st; I will pay thy graces
Home, both in word and deed. - Most cruelly
Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter:
Thy brother was a furtherer in the act;

Thou'rt pinch'd for't now, Sebastian. Flesh and blood, 7

You brother mine, that entertain'd ambition,

his art: yet to what purpose they were invoked does not very distinctly appear. Had our author written "All this," &c. instead of-" But this," &c. the conclusion of the address would have been more pertinent to its beginning. STEEVENS.

3 A solemn air, and the best comforter

To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains, &c.] Prospero does not desire them to cure their brains. His expression is optative, not imperative; and means— May musick cure thy brains! i. e. settle them.

4 boil'd within thy skull!] So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream," seething brains," &c. occur: and in The Winter's Tale, we have " boil'd brains.”

5

-fellowly drops.] I would read, fellow drops. The additional syllable only injures the metre, without enforcing the sense. Fellowly, however, is an adjective used by Tusser. STEEVENS. 6 the ignorant fumes -] i.e the fumes of ignorance.

7 Thou'rt pinch'd for't now, Sebastian.— Flesh and blood,] Thus the old copy: Theobald points the passage in a different manner, and perhaps rightly:

"Thou'rt pinch'd for't now, Sebastian, flesh and blood."

Expell'd remorse and nature; who, with Sebastian,
(Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,)
Would here have kill'd your king; I do forgive thee,
Unnatural though thou art! - Their understanding
Begins to swell; and the approaching tide
Will shortly fill the reasonable shores,

That now lie foul and muddy. Not one of them,
That yet looks on me, or would know me: Ariel,
Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell;

I will dis-case me, and myself present,

[Exit ARIEL.

As I was sometime Milan:-quickly, spirit;
Thou shalt ere long be free.

ARIEL re-enters, singing, and helps to attire PROS

PERO.

ARI. Where the bee sucks, there suck I;

In a cowslip's bell I lie: 8

There I couch + when owls do cry.'

On the bat's back I do fly,

After summer, merrily:

9 - remorse and nature;] Remorse is by our author and the contemporary writers generally used for pity, or tenderness of heart. Nature is natural affection. MALONE.

In a cowslip's bell I lie:] So, in Drayton's Nymphidia:

"At midnight, the appointed hour;

And for the queen a fitting bower,
Quoth he, is that fair cowslip flower
On Hipcut hill that bloweth."

The date of this poem not being ascertained, we know not whether our author was indebted to it, or was himself copied by Drayton. I believe, the latter was the imitator. Nymphidia was not written, I imagine, till after the English Don Quixote had appeared in 1612. MAlone.

+ Mr. Malone reads, "There I couch. When owls do cry," 91 when owls do cry.] i. e. at night.

1 After summer, merrily:] This is the reading of all the editions. Yet Mr. Theobald has substituted sun-set, because Ariel talks of riding on the bat in this expedition

Merrily, merrily, shall I live now,

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough."

Pro. Why, that's my dainty Ariel: I shall miss thee; But yet thou shalt have freedom: so, so, so. To the king's ship, invisible as thou art:

There shalt thou find the mariners asleep

Under the hatches; the master, and the boatswain,
Being awake, enforce them to this place;

And presently, I pr'ythee.

Ari. I drink the air3 before me, and return

Or e'er your pulse twice beat.

[Exit ARIEL. Gon. All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement Inhabits here: Some heavenly power guide us

Out of this fearful country!

Pro.

Behold, sir king,
The wronged duke of Milan, Prospero:

For more assurance that a living prince
Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body;
And to thee, and thy company, I bid

A hearty welcome.

Alon.

Whe'r thou beest he, or no,

Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me,

As late I have been, I not know: thy pulse

4

Beats, as of flesh and blood; and, since I saw thee,

The affliction of my mind amends, with which,
I fear, a madness held me: this must crave
(An if this be at all,) a most strange story.
Thy dukedom I resign5; and do entreat

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.] This thought is not thrown out at random. It composed a part of the magical system of these days. The idea was probably first suggested by the description of the venerable elm which Virgil planted at the entrance of the infernal shades.

3 I drink the air-] To drink the air is an expression of swiftness of the same kind as to devour the way in K. Henry IV.

4 Whe'r thou beest he, or no,] Whe'r for whether.

5 Thy dukedom I resign;] The duchy of Milan being through the

Let me embrace thine age; whose honour cannot

Be measur'd, or confin'd.

Believe things certain :- Welcome, my friends all: — But you, my brace of lords, were I so minded,

[Aside to SEB. and ANT. I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you, And justify you traitors; at this time

I'll tell no tales.

Seb. The devil speaks in him.

Pro.

No:

For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother
Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive
Thy rankest fault; all of them; and require
My dukedom of thee, which, perforce, I know,
Thou must restore.

Alon.

If thou beest Prospero,

Give us particulars of thy preservation :

[Aside.

How thou hast met us here, who three hours since 7

treachery of Antonio made feudatory to the crown of Naples, Alonso promises to resign his claim of sovereignty for the future.

6

You do yet taste

Some subtilties o'the isle,] This is a phrase adopted from ancient cookery and confectionary. When a dish was so contrived as to appear unlike what it really was, they called it a subtilty. Dragons, castles, trees, &c. made out of sugar, had the like denomination.

7- who three hours since-] The unity of time is most rigidly observed in this piece. The fable scarcely takes up a greater number of hours than are employed in the representation; and from the very particular care which our author takes to point out