FER. My language! heavens!I am the best of them that speak this speech, Fletcher closely imitates The Tempest in his Sea Voyage: and he introduces Albert in the same manner to the ladies of his Desert Island: "Be not offended, goddesses, that I fall "Thus prostrate," &c. Shakspeare himself had certainly read, and had probably now in his mind, a passage in the third book of The Fairy Queen, between Timias and Belphabe: 66 Angel or goddess! do I call thee right? "There-at she blushing, said, ah! gentle squire, "Nor goddess I, nor angel, but the maid "And daughter of a woody nymph," &c. FARMer. So Milton, Comus, 265: Hail foreign wonder! "Whom certain these rough shades did never breed, Milton's imitation explains Shakspeare. Maid is certainly a created being, a Woman in opposition to Goddess. Miranda immediately destroys this first sense by a quibble. In the mean time, I have no objection to read made, i. e. created. The force of the sentiment is the same. Comus is universally allowed to have taken some of its tints from The Tempest. T. Warton. The first copy reads-if you be maid, or no. Made was not suggested by Dr. Warburton, being an emendation introduced by the editor of the fourth folio. It was, I am persuaded, the author's word: There being no article prefixed adds strength to this supposition. Nothing is more common in his plays than a word being used in reply, in a sense different from that in which it was employed by the first speaker. Ferdinand had the moment before called Miranda a goddess; and the words immediately subjoined, "Vouchsafe my prayer"-show, that he looked up to her as a person of a superior order, and sought her protection, and instruction for his conduct, not her love. At this period, therefore, he must have felt too much awe to have flattered himself with the hope of possessing a being that appeared to him celestial; though afterwards, emboldened by what Miranda says, he exclaims, “O, if a virgin," &c. words that appear inconsistent with the supposition that he had already asked her whether she was one or not. She had indeed told him, she was; but in his astonishment at hearing her speak his own language, he may well be supposed to have forgotten Were I but where 'tis spoken. How! the best? PRO. What wert thou, if the king of Naples heard thee? FER. A single thing, as I am now, that wonders To hear thee speak of Naples: He does hear me; And, that he does, I weep: myself am Naples; Who with mine eyes, ne'er since at ebb, beheld The king my father wreck'd. MIRA. Alack, for mercy! FER. Yes, faith, and all his lords; the duke of Milan, And his brave son, being twain.' PRO. The duke of Milan, what she said; which, if he had himself made the inquiry, would not be very reasonable to suppose. It appears from the alteration of this play by Dryden and Sir W. D'Avenant, that they considered the present passage in this light: 66 Fair, excellence, "If, as your form declares, you are divine, "Be pleas'd to instruct me, how you will be worship'd; "So bright a beauty cannot sure belong "To human kind." In a subsequent scene we have again the same inquiry: "And brought us thus together?" Fer. "Sir, she's mortal." Our author might have remembered Lodge's description of Fawnia, the Perdita of his Winter's Tale: " Yet he scarce knew her, for she had attired herself in rich apparel, which so increased her beauty, that she resembled rather an angel than a creature." Dorastus and Fawnia, 1592. MALONE. The question, (I use the words of Mr. M. Mason,) is "whether our readers will adopt a natural and simple expression which requires no comment, or one which the ingenuity of many commentators has but imperfectly supported." STEEVENS. 1 And his brave son, being twain.] This is a slight forgetfulness. Nobody was lost in the wreck, yet we find no such character as the son of the duke of Milan. THeobald. And his more braver daughter, could control thee," If now 'twere fit to do't:-At the first sight [Aside. They have chang'd eyes:-Delicate Ariel, word. MIRA. Why speaks my father so ungently? This Is the third man that e'er I saw; the first That e'er I sigh'd for: pity move my father FER. O, if a virgin, And your affection not gone forth, I'll make you The queen of Naples. PRO. Soft, sir; one word more.They are both in either's powers: but this swift business I must uneasy make, lest too light winning [Aside. Make the prize light.-One word more; I charge thee, That thou attend me: thou dost here usurp The name thou ow'st not; and hast put thyself Upon this island, as a spy, to win it From me, the lord on't. FER. No, as I am a man. MIRA. There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple: -control thee,] Confute thee, unanswerably contradict thee. JOHNSON. 3 I fear, you have done yourself some wrong:] i. e. I fear that, in asserting yourself to be King of Naples, you have uttered a falsehood, which is below your character, and, consequently, injurious to your honour. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor"This is not well, master Ford, this wrongs you." STEEVENS. If the ill spirit have so fair an house, PRO. Follow me. [To FERD. Speak not you for him; he's a traitor.-Come. I'll manacle thy neck and feet together: Sea-water shalt thou drink, thy food shall be FER. I will resist such entertainment, till MIRA. No; [He draws. O dear father, Make not too rash a trial of him, for He's gentle, and not fearful. He's gentle, and not fearful.] Fearful signifies both terrible and timorous. In this place it may mean timorous. She tells her father, that as he is gentle, rough usage is unnecessary; and as he is brave, it may be dangerous. Fearful, however, may signify formidable, as in K. Henry IV: "A mighty and a fearful head they are." and then the meaning of the passage is obvious. Steevens. "Do not rashly determine to treat him with severity, he is mild and harmless, and not in the least terrible or dangerous." RITSON. A late novellist has the following remark on this passage:"How have your commentators been puzzled by the following expression in The Tempest-He's gentle, and not fearful; as if it was a paralogism to say that being gentle, he must of course be courageous: but the truth is, one of the original meanings, if not the sole meaning, of that word was, noble, high minded: and to this day a Scotch woman in the situation of the young lady in The Tempest, would express herself nearly in the same terms. -Don't provoke him; for being gentle, that is, high spirited, he won't tamely bear an insult. Spenser, in the very first stanza of his Fairy Queen, says: "A gentle knight was pricking on the plain," which knight, far from being tame and fearful, was so stout that Nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad." Smollett's Humphrey Clinker, Vol. II. p. 182. 66 REED. PRO. What, I say, My foot my tutor!5-Put thy sword up, traitor; Who mak'st a shew, but dar'st not strike, thy c on science Is so possess'd with guilt: come from thy ward; MIRA. PRO. Hence; hang not on my garments. MIRA. I'll be his surety. PRO. Beseech you, father! Sir, have pity; Silence: one word more Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee. What! An advocate for an impostor? hush! Thou think'st, there are no more such shapes as he, Having seen but him and Caliban: Foolish wench! To the most of men this is a Caliban, And they to him are angels. MIRA. My affections Are then most humble; I have no ambition PRO. Come on; obey: [To FERD. My foot my tutor!] So, in The Mirrour for Magistrates, 1587, p. 163: "What honest heart would not conceive disdayne, HENDERSON. Again, in K. Lear, Act IV. sc. ii. one of the quartos reads"My foot usurps my head." Thus also Pope, Essay on Man, I. 260: 6 "What, if the foot, ordain'd the dust to tread, STEEVENS. come from thy ward;] Desist from any hope of awing me by that posture of defence. JOHNSON. So, in K. Henry IV. P. I. Falstaff says:-" Thou know'st my old ward;-here I lay, and thus I bore my point." STEEVENS. |