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Or that for which I live; whom once again
I tender to thy hand: all thy vexations.
Were but my trials of thy love, and thou
Haft ftrangely stood the teft: 3 here, afore Heaven,
I ratify this my rich gift. O Ferdinand,
Do not fmile at me, that I boast her off,
For thou fhalt find fhe will outftrip all praise,
And make it halt behind her.

FER.

Against an oracle.

I do believe it,

PRO. Then, as my gift, and thine own acqui

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Worthily purchas'd, take my daughter: But
If thou doft break her virgin knot' before
All fanctimonious ceremonies may

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ftrangely food the test:) Strangely is ufed by way of come mendation, merveilleufement, to a wonder; the fame is the fenfe in the foregoing fcene. JOHNSON.

i. c. in the laft fcene of the preceding act :—

"with good life

"And obfervation strange".

STEEVENS.

My gueft, firft

4 Then, as my gift, and thine own acquifition

folio. Rowe first read-gift. JOHNSON.

A fimilar thought occurs in Antony and Cleopatra :

"I fend him

"The greatnefs he has got." STEEVENS.

S —her virgin knot--) The fame expreffion occurs in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609:

"Untide I ftill my virgin knot will keepe." STEEVENS.

6 If thou dost break her virgin knot before

All fanctimonious ceremonies, &c.) This, and the paffage in Pericles Prince of Tyre, are manifeft allufions to the zones of the ancients, which were worn as guardians of chastity by marriageable young women. Puellæ, contra, nondum viripotentes, hujufmodi zonis non utebantur: quod videlicet immaturis vir gunculis nullum, aut certé minimém, a corruptoribus periculum immineret quas propterea vocabant auitges, nempe difcindlas.'

With full and holy rite be minifter'd,
No fweet afperfion' fhall the heavens let fall
To make this contract grow; but barren hate,
Sour-ey'd difdain, and discord, shall beftrew
The union of your bed with weeds fo loathly,
That you fhall hate it both: therefore; take heed,
As Hymen's lamps fhall light you.

FER.

As I hope For quiet days, fair issue, and long life,

With fuch love as 'tis now; the murkieft den,
The moft opportune place, the ftrong'ft fuggeftion
Our worfer Genius can, fhall never melt
Mine honour into luft; to take away

The edge of that day's celebration,

When I fhall think, or Phoebus' fteeds are founder'd, Or night kept chain'd below.

PRO.

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Fairly spoke: Sit then, and talk with her, fhe is thine own. What, Ariel; my industrious fervant Ariel!

Enter ARIEL.

ARI. What would my potent master? here I am. PRO. Thou and thy meaner fellows your laft fervice

Did worthily perform; and I must use you

There is a paffage in NONNUS, which will fufficiently illuftrate Profpero's expreffion.

Κέρης δ ̓ ἐγγὺς ἵκανε καὶ ἀτρέμας ἄκρον ἐξύσσας

Δεσμὸν ἀτυλήτοιο φυλάκτορα λύσατο μίτης

Φειδομένη παλάμη, μὴ παρθενον ὑπνο ἑάσση. HENLEY.

7 No sweet afperfion-] Afperfion is here used in its primitive fenfe of fprinkling. At present it is expreffive only of calumny

and detraction. STEEVENS.

• Fairly Spoke:] Fairly is here used as a trifyllable. STEEVENS.

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In fuch another trick: go, bring the rabble,
O'er whom I give thee power, here, to this place:
Incite them to quick motion; for I must

2

Beftow upon the eyes of this young couple
Some vanity of mine art; it is my promife,
And they expect it from me.

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ARI. Before you can fay, Come, and go, And breathe twice; and cry, so, so;

Each one, tripping on his toe,

S

Will be here with mop and mowe:

Do you love me, mafter? no.

PRO. Dearly, my delicate Ariel: Do not approach,

Till thou doft hear me call.

ARI.

Well I conceive. (Exit.

PRO. Look, thou be true; do not give dalliance
Too much the rein; the ftrongeft oaths are ftraw
To the fire i'the blood: be more abftemious,
Or elfe, good night, your vow!

FER.
I warrant you, fir;
The white-cold virgin fnow upon my heart

9 the rabble,) The crew of meaner fpirits. JOHNSON,

2 Some vanity of mine art; ) So, in the unprinted romance of EMARE, quoted by Mr. Warton in his differtation on the Gefta Romanorum, (a Prefix to the third Vol. of the Hiftory of English. Poetry.}

The emperour faid on hygh,

Sertes, thys is a fayry,

Or ellys a vanite.n

i. e. an illufion. STEEVENS.

3

Come, and go,

-

Each one, tripping on his toe,) So, in Milton's L' Allagre, v. 33:

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Come, and trip it as you go.

Qn the light fantastic toe. "

STEEVENS.

Abates the ardour of my liver.

PRO.

Well.

Now come, my Ariel; bring a corollary, * Rather than want a fpirit; appear, and pertly. (Soft mufick,

No tongue;

all eyes;

be filent.

A Mafque. Enter IRIS.

IRIS. Ceres, moft bounteous lady, thy rich leas Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats, and peafe; Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling fheep, And flat meads thatch'd with ftover, them to keep; Thy banks with peonied and lilied brims, ' Which spungy Aprils at thy heft betrims,

bring a corollary,) That is, bring more than are fufficient, rather than fail for want of numbers. Corollary means furplus. Corolaire, Fr. See Cotgrave's Dictionary. STEEVENS.

No tongue;) Those who are prefent at incantations are obliged to be ftri&ly filent, « elfe" as we are afterwards told, the fpelf is marred." JOHNSON.

6 thatch'd with ftover,) Stover (in Cambridge fhire and other counties) fignifies hay made of coarfe, rank grafs, fuch as even cows will not eat while it is green. Stover is likewife ufed as thatch for cart-lodges, and other buildings that deserve but rude and cheap coverings.

The word occurs in the 25th Song of Drayton's Polyolbion :

"To draw out fedge and reed, for thatch and ftover fit."

Again, in his Mufes' Elyzium :

"Their browse and ftover waxing thin and (cant.”

STEEVENS.

7 Thy bank with peonied, and lilied brims, The old edition reads pioned and twilled brims, which gave rise to Mr. Holt's conje&ure, that the poet originally wrote

with pioned and tilled brims."

Peonied is the emendation of Hanmer.

Spenfer and the author of Muleaffes the Turk, a tragedy, 1610, ufe pioning for digging. It is not therefore difficult to find a meaning for the word as it ftands in the old copy; and remove a letter from twilled, and it leaves us tilled. I am yet, however, in doubt whether we ought not to read lilied brims; for Pliny,

To make cold nymphs chafte crowns; and thy broom groves,

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Whofe fhadow the difmiffed bachelor loves,

B. XXVI. ch. x. mentions the water-lily as a preferver of chaflity; and fays, elsewhere, that the Peony medetur Faunorum in Quiete Ludibriis, &c. In a poem entitled The Herring's Tayle, 4to. 1598, the mayden piony" is introduced. In the Arraignement of Paris, 1584, are mentioned

"The watry flow'rs and lillies of the banks."

And Edward Fenton in his Secrete Wonders of Nature, 4to B. VI. 1569, afferts, that the water-lily mortifieth altogether the appetite of fenfualitie, and defends from unchafte thoughts and dreames of venery."

In the 20th fong of Drayton's Polyolbion, the Naiades are re. prefented as making chaplets with all the tribe of aquatic flowers; and Mr. Tollet informs me, that Lyte's Herbal fays, "one kind of peonie is called by fome, maiden or virgin peonie."

In Ovid's Banquet of fenfe, by Chapman, 1595, I meet with the following fianza, in which twill-pants are enumerated among flowers:

White and red jafmines, merry, melliphill,

"Fair crown imperial, emperor of flowers; "Immortal amaranth, white aphrodill,

"And cup-like twill-pants ftrew'd in Bacchus' bowers." If twill be the ancient name of any flower, the old reading, pioned and twilled, may ftand. STEEVENS.

Mr. Warton, in his notes upon Milton, after filently acquiefcing in the fubftitution of pionied for pioned, produces from the ARCADES "Ladon's lillied banks, as an example to countenance a further change of twilled to lillied, which, accordingly, Mr. Rann hath foifted into the text. But before fuch a licence is allowed, may it not be asked-If the word pionied can any where be found? — or (admitting fuch a verbal from peony, like Milton's lillied from lily, to exifl)-On the banks of what river do peonies grow?-Or (if the banks of any river fhould be discovered to yield them) whether they and the lilies that, in common with them, betrim those bauks, be the produce of Spungy APRIL? Or, whence it can be gathered that Iris here is at all fpeaking of the banks of a river?aud, whether, as the bank in queftion 16 the property, not of a water-nymph, but of Ceres, it is not to be confidered as an object of her care?-Hither the Goddefs of Hufbandry is reprefented as reforting, becaufe at the approach of fpring, it becomes needful to repair the banks (or mounds) of the flat meads, whofe grafs not only fhooting over, but being more fucculent

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