FER. MIRA.

We wish your peace.

(Exeunt.

PRO. Come with a thought: - I thank you:

ARI. Thy thoughts I cleave to: What's thy

PRO.

pleasure ?

Spirit,

We must prepare to meet with Caliban. 4

ARI. Ay, my commander: when I presented

Ceres,

I thought to have told thee of it; but I fear'd,
Left I might anger thee.

PRO. Say again, where didst thou leave these
varlets?

ARI. I told you, fir, they were red-hot with

drinking;

Fer. Mir. We wish your peace.

Pro. Come with a thought: - I thank you : - Ariel, come.) The old copy reads " - I thank thee.” But these thanks being in reply to the joint wish of Ferdinand and Miranda, I have fubftituted you for thee, by the advice of Mr. Ritfon.

STEEVENS.

3 Thy thoughts I cleave to:) To cleave to, is to unite with closely. So, in Macbeth:

Again:

4

« Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould.

" If you shall cleave to my confent." STEEVENS.

to meet with Caliban.) To meet with is to counteract; to play stratagem against stratagem. - The parfon knows the temper of every one in his house, and accordingly either meets with their vices, or advances their virtues. HERBERT'S Country Parson. JOHNSON. So, in Cynthia's Revenge, 1613:

1

You may meet

"With her abusive malice, and exempt

ec

Yourself from the fufpicion of revenge." STEEVENS.

So full of valour, that they fmote the air
For breathing in their faces; beat the ground
For kiffing of their feet: yet always bending
Towards their project: Then I beat my tabor,
At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd their

ears,

Advanc'd their eye-lids, ' lifted up their noses,
As they smelt musick; fo I charm'd their ears,
That, calf-like, they my lowing follow'd, through
Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss, 6 and

thorns,

Which enter'd their frail shins: at last I left them

5

Advanc'd their eye-lids, &.) Thus Drayton, in his Nymphidia,

or Court of fairie :

"But once the circle got within,

"The charms to work do straight begin,

" And he was caught as in a gin:

"For as he thus was busy,

"A pain he in his head-piece feels,

Against a stubbed tree he reels,

" And up went poor Hobgoblin's heels:

Alas, his brain was dizzy.

"At length upon his feet he gets,

"Hobgoblin fumes, Hobgoblin frets;
" And as again he forward fets,

"And through the bushes fcrambles,

"A ftump doth hit him in his pace,
"Down comes poor Hob upon his face,
" And lamentably tore his cafe

Among the briers and brambles. JOHNSON.
6-pricking goss, ) I know not how Shakspeare diftinguished
goss from furze; for what he calls furze is called gofs or gorfe in the
midland counties.

This word is used in the first chorus to Kyd's Cornelia, 1594:
" With worthless gorse that, yearly, fruidefs dies.

STELVENS.

By the latter, Shakspeare means the low fort of gorse that only grows upon wet ground, and which is well defcribed by the name of whins in Markham's Farewell to Huflandry. It has prickles like those on a rose-tree or a gooseberry. Furze and whins occur together in Dr. Farmer's quotation from Holinshed. TOLLET.

4

7

1' the filthy mantled pool beyond your cell, There dancing up to the chins, that the foul lake

O'er-stunk their feet.

PRO. This was well done, my bird :

Thy shape invisible retain thou still :
The trumpery in my house, go, bring it hither,
For ftale to catch these thieves. 8

ARI.

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I go, I go. (Exit.

PRO. A devil, a born devil, on whose nature Nurture can neverstick; on whom my pains, Humanely taken, all, all loft, quite loft;" And as, with age, his body uglier grows, So his mind cankers: 3 I will plague them all, Re-enter ARIEL loaden with glistering apparel, &c. Eyen to roaring: - Come, hang them on this line.

7 I the filthy mantled pool -) Perhaps we should read-filthy. mantled. A fimilar idea occurs in K. Lear:

" Drinks the green mantle of the standing pool." STEEVENS. 8 For stale to catch these thieves.) Stale is a word in fowling, and is used to mean a bait or decoy to catch birds.

So, in A Looking glass for London and England, 1617: Hence tools of wrath, ftales of temptation! Again, in Green's Mamillia, 1595: - that the might not strike at the ftale, lest she were canvassed in the nets. STEEVENS.

9 Nurture can never flick; ) Nurture is education. STEEVENS. 2- all, all lost,) The first of these words was probably intro duced by the careleffnefs of the tranfcriber or compositor. We might fafely read are all loft. MALONE.

3 And as, with age, his body uglier grows,

So his mind cankers: Shakspeare, when he wrote this description, perhaps recollected what his patron's most intimate friend, the great lord Effex, in an hour of difcontent, faid of queen Elizabeth; that she grew old and canker'd, and that her mind was become as crooked as her carcafe: " --a - fpeech, which, according to Sir Walter Raleigh, cost him his head, and which, we may therefore suppose, was at that time much talked of. play being written in the time of king James, these obnoxious words might be fafely repeated. MALONE.

This

PROSPERO and ARIEL remain invisible. Enter CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, all wet.

CAL. Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole may not

Hear a foot fall: * we now are near his cell.

STE. monster, your fairy, which, you say, is a harmless fairy, has done little better than play'd the Jack with us.

TRIN. Monster, I do fmell all horfe-piss; at which my nose is in great indignation.

look

STE. So is mine. Do you hear, monster? If I should take a difplcafure against you; you,

-TRIN. Thou wert but a lost monfter.

CAL. Good my lord, give me thy favour still : Be patient, for the prize I'll bring thee to

Shall hood-wink this mifchance: therefore, speak

foftly;

All's hush'd as midnight yet.

TRIN. Ay, but to lose our bottles in the pool. STE. There is not only disgrace and dishonour in that, monster, but an infinite lofs.

TRIN. That's more to me than my wetting: yet this is your harmless fairy, monster.

the blind mole may not

Hear a foot fall:) This quality of hearing which the mole is supposed to possess in so high a degree, is mentioned in Euphues, 4to. 1581, p. 64, Doth not the lion for strength, the turtle for love, the ant for labour, excel man? Doth not the eagle sec clearer, the vulture smell better, the moale heare lightlyer?" REED.

5- has done little better than play'd the jack with us.) i. e. He has played Jack with a lantern; has led us about like an ignis faruus, by which travellers are decoyed into the mire. JOHNSON,

STE. I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o'er ears for my labour.

CAL. Pr'ythee, my king, be quiet: Seeft thou here,

This is the mouth o' the cell: no noise, and enter:
Do that good mischief, which may make this island
Thine own for ever, and I, thy Caliban,
For aye thy foot-licker.

STE. Give me thy hand: I do begin to have bloody thoughts.

TRIN. O king Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano! look, what a wardrobe here is for

thee! 6

CAL. Let it alone, thou fool; it is but trash. TRIN. O, ho, monster; we know what belongs

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to a frippery: - O king Stephano!

STE. Put off that gown, Trinculo; by this hand, I'll have that gown.

TRIN. Thy grace shall have it.

CAL. The dropsy drown this fool! what do you

mean,

6 Trin. O king Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano! look what a wardrobe here is for thee!) The humour of these lines confists in their being an allufion to an old celebrated ballad, which begins thus: King Stephen was a worthy peer - and celebrates that King's parfimony with regard to his wardrobe. There are two stanzas of this ballad in Othello. WARBURTON.

The old ballad is printed at large in The Reliques of ancient Poetry, Vol. I. PERCY.

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we know what belongs to a frippery :) A frippery was a shop where old clothes were fold. Fripperie, Fr. Beaumont and Fletcher use the word in this sense, in Wit without Money, A&II:

" As if I were a running frippery."

so, in Monfieur d'Olive, a comedy, by Chapman, 1606 : " Paffing