6 The meaning of which reading is obviously this: That is the purpose of this airy charm which I am now commanding. But though nothing can be clearer, Mr. Warburton hath puzzled himself fo long about the feveral charms mentioned or exhibited in this play, that he hath at laft both confounded them, and bewildered himself in a labyrinth of inexplicable obfcurity. He firft charges the common reading with wretched tautology.' But furely to fay, Give me fome heavenly mufick to work mine ⚫end upon their fenfes; that is my purpose in commanding it,' is no otherwife tautology, than as every repetition is fo; which yet is a figure the very best writers have not difdained the use of, when they have had it in their view to prevent mistakes, and convey their meaning to the reader's mind with greater clearness or ftronger energy. His other objection charges it with as unpardonable a defect, for that we are not informed what Profpero's end' was, by not being told the ftate of the fhipwrecked perfons fenfes.' But furely nothing is more blind' than a prejudiced critick, wrapped up in the admiration of his own conjectures. Ariel had but just before, in the first scene of this very act, acquainted Profpero very circumftantially with the ftate of the fenfes of thofe very perfons, in the hearing of the audience: -The king, His brother, and yours, abide all three distracted, &c. And as to Profpero's end in commanding the heavenly mufick, he himself had declared it but a very few lines before: -go, release them, Ariel; My charms I'll break, their fenfes I'll restore, As to Mr. Warburton's correction, I have in my turn turn two objections to it. First, He infifts upon it, that we must needs by this airy charm underftand the fire and cracks of fulphurous roaring, mentioned in Act I. Scene 3. and the thunder and lightning in Act III. Scene 4.' that is to fay, the ftorm which occafioned the fhipwreck, and the fnatching their victuals from their mouths. But if the poet had had thefe fcenes in view, he would have faid, my airy`charms,' or, at least, these airy charms; but this airy charm' neceffarily refers to the immediate antecedent, the heavenly mufick,' an airy charm he had that very inftant commanded. The other objection is to the word, frail'd, which is unknown to our language; and if we should admit this critick's transformation of the adjective, frail, into a verb, upon the authority of fome licences of this kind which Shakespear hath in fact taken, yet, unless we would violate all rules of analogy, it cannot fignify, as he would have it, has difordered or broken; but must be understood to mean, has rendered liable to be difordered or broken; fince the adjective, frail, doth not denote what is actually disordered or broken, but what is brittle and this laft fenfe is nothing to his purpose. P. 77. I'll break my staff; Again, a pretended emendation of Mr. Warburton's; for in the preceding editions we read, Bury it certain fadoms in the earth. But we are told, certain, in its prefent fignification, ' is predicated of a precife determined number, and this fenfe would make the thought flat and ridiculous.' I wish this critick had given us but one inftance of this ufe of the word, certain, and then D 3 told told us the precife determined number of which it was predicated. But to come clofer to the purpose: All finite difcrete quantity, or, to speak more plainly, all multitude, is in the nature of things capable of being expreffed by fome precife determinate number; but, as this precise number is for the most part unknown to us, we commonly express it by words of multitude of an indeterminate fignification, fuch as, fome, certain, many, and the like; of which the words, certain, and some, agree pretty nearly in their notion, only in the former of them we feem to have fome reference to that real certainty and precifion which exifts in nature, though it be unknown to us; in the latter, our notion is more general, and without any fuch reference. And this obfervation is fo true, that Mr. Warburton's word, a certain, falls equally under it with the vulgar word which he rejects. It expreffes a number unknown to us, accompanied with an obfcure hint, that that number is however precifely determined in nature. All therefore that Profpero means is, that he would bury his magical ftaff fome fathoms deep in earth; but how many, he either did not think proper to mention, or left to be determined by future circumstances. I must not conclude without obferving, that Mr. Warburton's expreffion, a certain fadom, which he gives us on Bale's authority, is not authorized by it, but is in truth false English. A certain, or a many, fignifying a number or company, is always ufed as a fubftantive, and conftantly followed, as it is in Bale, by the genitive cafe which it governs. Mr. Warburton fhould therefore have fubftituted, a certain of fadoms; but a certain fadom is a moft manifeft and glaring folecifm. P. 77. -cure thy brains This metaphor is not unusual with our poet. So in Lovers and madmen have fuch feething brains, P. 78. fo their rifing fenfes Begin to chafe the ign'rant fumes, that mantle Mr. Warburton interprets the word, ignorant, to mean hurtful to reafon;' by which interpretation the poet is made to fay, with what elegance let the reader judge, That the fumes which are hurtful to reason, mantle their clearer reason. Ignorant fumes are no other than fumes of ignorance. Ibid. In a cowflip's bell I lie: There I couch, when owls do cry. After fummer, merrily. Mr. Warburton hath very fully justified the present reading, and removed every difficulty Mr. Theobald had objected to it. He feems however in the warmth of controverfy to have overlooked a wrong pointing, which greatly contributes to invalidate his own reasoning. If Ariel couches in the cowflip's bell when the owls do cry,' it follows that he couches there in winter, for that, as Mr. Warburton hath fhewn, from the authority of our poet himself, as well as from the general notoriety of the fact, is the feafon when the owls do cry. How then can it confiftently be faid, as it is in the words next immediately following, that he conftantly flies the approach of winter, by following the fummer in its D 4 progrefs progrefs to other climates? I fhould imagine therefore that Shakespear pointed this paffage thus, P. 86. In a cowflip's bell I lie: There I couch. When owls do cry, After fummer, merrily. where fhould they Find this grand 'lixir, that hath gilded 'em? For this alteration we are indebted to Mr. Theobald, which Mr. Warburton hath not only adopted, but, with that prefumptuous confidence which is ufual to him, affures us that fo Shakespear wrote. I am inclined however to believe, that the conftant reading of all the former editions, this grand liquor, is the true one. 1 readily grant with the gentleman of GraysInn, that the poet alludes to what the chymifts call their grand elixir, but as the exprefs mention of it by name was by no means neceffary, it feems quite improbable that he fhould lugg it in at the expence, either of the metre, or of an unjuftifiable and unprecedented elifion. P. 87. O, touch me not: I am not Stephano, but a cramp. Mr. Warburton's critical genius hath foared to fo tranfcendant a pitch in his attempt towards an emendation of this paffage, that he feems to have loft fight of all his brethren both ancient and modern. The very fenfible author of the Canons of Criticism hath faved me the labour of examining it, fee p. 140. I will only add for the reader's fatisfaction, that Ariofto's Negromante, which I have read, hath not the leaft refemblance to this play, either in the fable, or in any other refpect whatever. As to Petrucci's piece of the fame title, the very book quoted by Mr. Warburton might have informed him, that it was not printed till 1642, many years after Shakespear's death. |