Drop on you both! a fouth-west blow on ye, I must eat my dinner. This island's mine by Sycorax my mother, Which thou tak'ft from me: when thou cameft first Thou ftroak'ft me, and mad'ft much of me: wou'd'ft give me Water with berries in 't, and teach me how The fresh springs, brine pits; barren place and fertile: Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you! Who first was mine own king: and here you fty me Caliban's Exultation after Profpero tells him-He fought to violate the Honour of his Child, has Something in it very ftrikingly in Character. Oh ho, oh ho,-I wou'd it had been done, Thou did't prevent me, I had peopled elfe This ifle with Calibans. Prof. Abhorred flave; Which any print of goodness will not take, Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour the malignity, of his purposes; but let any other being entertain the fame thoughts, and he will find them easily if fue in the fame expreffions." Though thou didst learn, had that in't which good nature Could not abide to be with; therefore waft thou Who hadnt deferv'd more than a prison. Cal. You taught me language; and my profit on't Is, I know how to curfe; the red plague rid you For learning me your language! Mufic. Where fhould this mufic be? in air or earth ? Ariel's Song. Full fathom five (12) thy father lies, Into fomething rich and ftrangé. Hark, now I hear them, ding-dong, bell. Amiable (12) Full fathom five, &c.] Gildon, who has pretended to criticife our author, would give this up as an infufferable and fenfelefs piece of trifling. And I believe this is the general opinion concerning it. But a very unjust one. Let us confider the buûnefs Ariel is here upon, and his manner of executing it. The commiffion Profpero had entrusted to him, in a whifper, was plainly this; to conduct Ferdinand to the fight of Miranda, and to difpofe him to Amiable Simplicity of Miranda on first View of Ferdinand. Prof. This gallant which thou feest Was in the wreck and, but he's something ftain'd With to the quick fentiments of love, while he, on the other hand, prepared his daughter for the fame impreffions. Ariel fets about his bufinefs by acquainting Ferdinand, in an extraordinary manner, with the afflictive news of his father's death. A very odd apparatns, one would think, for a love fit. And yet as it appears, the poet has fhewir in it the finest conduct for carrying on his plot. Profpero had faid, I find my zenith doth depend upon A moft aufpicious far, whofe influence In confequence of this his prefcience, he takes advantage: of every favourable circumftance that the occafion offers. The principal affair is the marriage of his daughter with young Ferdinand. But to fecure this point it was neceffary they fhould be contracted before the affair came to Alonzo, the father's knowledge. For Profpero was ignorant how this storm and fhipwreck, caufed by him, would work upon Alonzo's temper. It might either foften him, or increase his averfion for Profpero as the author. On the other hand, to engage Ferdinand, without the confent of his father, was difficult. For, not to fpeak of his quality, where fuch engagements are not made without the confent of the fovereign, Ferdinand is reprefented (to fhew it a match worth feeking) of a moft pious temper and difpofition, which would prevent him contracting himself without his father's knowledge. The poet therefore, with the utmost addrefs, has made Ariel perfuade him of his father's death, to remove this remora. Thus far W. J. adds, "The reafon for which Ariel is introduced thus trifling is, that he and his companions are evidently of the fairy kind, an order of beings to which tradition has always afcribed a fort of diminutive agency, powerful but ludicrous, a humourous and frolick controlment of nature, well expreffed by the songs of Ariel.” With grief, that beauty's canker, thou mightst call him A goodly perfon. Mir. I might call him A thing divine: for nothing natural Fer. Moft fure the goddess On whom thefe airs attend. Mir. There's nothing ill can dwell in fuch a tem ple: If the ill fpirit love fo fair a house, Good things will strive to dwell with 't. A Lover's Speech. My (13) fpirits, as in a dream, are all bound up ; My father's lofs, the weakness which I feel, The (13) My, &c.] The following fine fimile from Virgil, will be a good comment on S. Æn. 12. v. 908. Ac velut, &c. And as, when heavy fleep has clos'd the fight, Dryden. Tao, in his Gierufalemme Liberata, has finely imitated this fimile, C. 20. S. 105, Come vede talor torbidi, &c. As when the fick or frantic men oft dream And think they run fome fpeedy courfe, and feem The wreck of all my friends, or this man's threats, ACT Yet feel their limbs far flower than the stream Fairfax. The following part of the speech is greatly exceeded by another of the fame fort in the Second Part of King Henry VI. A& 3. which fee and n. There is too in the Midfummer Night's Dream, a thought of the fame kind, though rather too quaint. Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company: Then how can it be faid I am alone; When all the world is here to look on me? A& 2. Sc 3. Sir J. Suckling, in his Goblins, Act 4. has a fimilar paf fage. Witness all that can punish falfhood, That I cou'd live with thee, even in this dark We may obferve the character of Reginella, in that play, is an imperfect copy of Miranda in this. Mafinger, in his Guardian, Act 5. Sc. 1. has an expression like S's. Thefe woods, Severino, Shall more than feem to me a populous city, |