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Shall, for that vast of night that they may work,* All exercise on thee: thou shalt be pinch'd

"What, are the urchins crept out of their dens,
"Under the conduct of this porcupine!"

Urchins are perhaps here put for fairies. Milton in his Masque speaks of "urchin blasts," and we still call any little dwarfish child, an urchin. The word occurs again in the next act. The echinus, or sea hedge-hog, is still denominated the urchin.

STEEVENS.

In the Merry Wives of Windsor we have " urchins, ouphes, and fairies;" and the passage to which Mr. Steevens alludes, proves, I think, that urchins here signifies beings of the fairy kind: "His spirits hear me,

"And yet I needs must curse; but they'll nor pinch, Fright me with urchin-shews, pitch me i' the mire," &c.

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MALONE.

In support of Mr. Steevens's note, which does not appear satisfactory to Mr. Malone, take the following proofs from Hormanni Vulgaria, 4to. 1515, p. 109:-" Urchyns or Hedgehoggis, full of sharpe pryckillys, whan they know that they be hunted, make them rounde lyke a balle." Again, "Porpyns have longer prykels than urchyns." DOUCE.

for that vast of night that they may work,] The vast of night means the night which is naturally empty and deserted, without action; or when all things lying in sleep and silence, makes the world appear one great uninhabited waste. So, in Hamlet: "In the dead waste and middle of the night."

It has a meaning like that of nox vasta.

Perhaps, however, it may be used with a signification somewhat different, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609:

"Thou God of this great vast, rebuke the surges." Vastum is likewise the ancient law term for waste, uncultivated land; and, with this meaning, vast is used by Chapman in his Shadow of Night, 1594:

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When unlightsome, vast, and indigest,

"The formeless matter of this world did lye.'

It should be remembered, that, in the pneumatology of former ages, these particulars were settled with the most minute exactness, and the different kinds of visionary beings had different allotments of time suitable to the variety or consequence of their employments. During these spaces, they were at liberty to act, but were always obliged to leave off at a certain hour, that they might not interfere in that portion of night which belonged to others. Among

As thick as honey-combs, each pinch more stinging Than bees that made them..

I must eat my

dinner.

When thou camest

CAL.
This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou tak'st from me.

first,5

Thou strok'dst me, and mad'stmuch of me; would'st give me

Water with berries in't; and teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less,
That burn by day and night: and then I lov'd thee,
And shew'd thee all the qualities o' the isle,
The fresh springs, brine píts, barren place, and fer-
tile;

6

Cursed be I that did so!-All the charms
Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!
For I am all the subjects that you have,
Which first was mine own king: and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
The rest of the island.

PRO.

Thou most lying slave, Whom stripes may move, not kindness: I have us'd

thee,

these, we may suppose urchins to have had a part subjected to their dominion. To this limitation of time Shakspeare alludes again in K. Lear: "He begins at curfew, and walks till the second cock." STEEvens.

Which thou takʼst from me. might read

When thou camest first,] We

"Which thou tak'st from me. When thou cam❜st here

[blocks in formation]

All the charms-] The latter word, like many others of the same kind, is here used as a dissyllable. MALone.

Why should we encourage a supposition which no instance whatever countenances? viz. that charms was used as a dissyllable. The verse is complete without such an effort to prolong it:

"Cursed] be I that did | so! All | the charms-."

STEEVENS.

Filth as thou art, with human care; and lodg'd thee In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate The honour of my child.

CAL. O ho, O ho!'-'would it had been done! Thou didst prevent me; I had peopled else This isle with Calibans.

PRO.

Abhorred slave;8

Which any print of goodness will not take,
Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,

Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour

One thing or other: when thou didst not, savage, Know thine own meaning, but would'st gabble like A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes With words that made them known: But thy vile race,1

70 ho, Oho!] This savage exclamation was originally and constantly appropriated by the writers of our ancient Mysteries and Moralities, to the Devil; and has, in this instance, been transferred to his descendant Caliban. STEEvens.

• Abhorred slave;] This speech, which the old copy gives to Miranda, is very judiciously bestowed by Theobald on Prospero.

JOHNSON

Mr. Theobald found, or might have found, this speech transferred to Prospero in the alteration of this play by Dryden and Davenant. MALONE.

9 when thou didst not, savage,

Know thine own meaning,] By this expression, however defective, the poet seems to have meant-When thou didst utter sounds, to which thou hadst no determinate meaning: but the following expression of Mr. Addison, in his 389th Spectator, concerning the Hottentots, may prove the best comment on this passage: "having no language among them but a confused gabble, which is neither well understood by themselves, or others." STEEVENS.

But thy vile race,] The old copy has vild, but it is only the ancient mode of spelling vile. Race, in this place, seems to signify original disposition, inborn qualities. In this sense we still

Though thou didst learn, had that in't which good

natures

Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou Deservedly confin'd into this rock,

Who hadst deserv'd more than a prison.

CAL. You taught me language; and my profit on't

Is, I know how to curse: The red plague rid you,2 For learning me your language!

PRO. Hag-seed, hence! Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou wert best, To answer other business. Shrug'st thou, malice? If thou neglect'st, or dost unwillingly

What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps; Fill all thy bones with aches; make thee roar, That beasts shall tremble at thy din.

CAL.

No, 'pray thee!I must obey: his art is of such power,

[Aside.

sayThe race of wine: Thus, in Massinger's New Way to pay old Debts:

"There came, not six days since, from Hull, a pipe
"Of rich canary.-

"Is it of the right race?"

and Sir W. Temple has somewhere applied it to works of literature. STEEVens.

2

Race and raciness in wine, signifies a kind of tartness.

BLACKSTONE.

the red plague rid you,] I suppose from the redness of the body, universally inflamed. JOHNSON.

The erysipelas was anciently called the red plague. STEEVENS. So again, in Coriolanus:

"Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome!"

The word rid, which has not been explained, means to destroy. So, in K. Henry VI. P. II:

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If you ever chance to have a child,

"Look, in his youth, to have him so cut off,

"As, deathsmen! you have rid this sweet young prince.”

MALONE.

It would control my dam's god, Setebos,3
And make a yassal of him.

PRO.

So, slave; hence!

[Exit CALIBAN.

3

Re-enter ARIEL invisible, playing and singing; FERDINAND following him.

ARIEL'S Song.

Come unto these yellow sands,

And then take hands:
Court'sied when you have, and kiss'd,

my

(The wild waves whist,)"

dam's god, Setebos,] A gentleman of great merit, Mr. Warner, has observed on the authority of John Barbot, that "the Patagons are reported to dread a great horned devil, called Setebos."-It may be asked, however, how Shakspeare knew any thing of this, as Barbot was a voyager of the present century?-Perhaps he had read Eden's History of Travayle, 1577, who tells us, p. 434, that "the giantes, when they found themselves fettered, roared like bulls, and cried upon Setebos to help them."The metathesis in Caliban from Canibal is evident. FARMER. We learn from Magellan's voyage, that Setebos was the supreme god of the Patagons, and Cheleule was an inferior one. TOLLET. Setebos is also mentioned in Hackluyt's Voyages, 1598.

MALONE.

Re-enter Ariel invisible,] In the wardrobe of the Lord Admiral's men, (i.e. company of comedians,) 1598, was-" a robe for to goo invisebell." See the MS. from Dulwich college, quoted by Mr. Malone, Vol. III. STEEVens.

* Court'sied when you have, and kiss'd,] As was anciently done at the beginning of some dances. So, in K. Henry VIII. that prince says to Anna Bullen

"I were unmannerly to take you out,

"And not to kiss you."

The wild waves whist;] i. e. the wild waves being silent. So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. VII. c. 7. s. 59:

"So was the Titaness put down, and whist ”

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