Perfons Represented. ALONSO, king of Naples. Sebastian, his brother. Profpero, the rightful duke of Milan. Gonzalo, an honest old counsellor of Naples. Adrian, Francifco, } lords. Caliban, a favage and deformed flave. Stephano, a drunken butler. Mafter of a fhip, boatswain, and mariners. SCENE, the fea with a ship, afterwards an uninhabited island. THE TEMPEST. ACT I. On a fhip at fea. A tempestuous noife of thunder and lightning heard. B Enter a Ship-mafter and a Boatswain 2. Oatfwain MASTER. Boats. Here, mafter: what cheer? 3 Fall to't yarely, or we run ourselves aground: beftir, beftir. [Exit. 'The Tempest.] Thefe two plays, The Tempest and The Midfummer's Night's Dream, are the noblest efforts of that fublime and amazing imagination peculiar to Shakespeare, which foars above the bounds of nature without forfaking fenfe: or, more properly, carries nature along with him beyond her established limits. Fletcher feems particularly to have admired thefe two plays, and hath wrote two in imitation of them, The Sea-Voyage and The Faithful Shepherdefs. But when he prefumes to break a lance with Shakespeare, and write in emulation of him, as he does in The Falfe One, which is the rival of Anthony and Cleopatra, he is not fo fuccefsful. After him, Sir John Suckling and Milton catched the brighteft fire of their imagination from thefe two plays; which thines fantastically indeed in The Goblins, but much more nobly and ferenely in The Mask at Ludlow-Cafile. WARBURTON. No one has been hitherto lucky enough to difcover the romance on which Shakespeare may be fuppofed to have founded this play. The Rev. Mr. T. Warton had been informed, that it was taken A 2 from Enter Mariners. Boatf. Heigh, my hearts; cheerly, cheerly, my hearts; yare, yare: take in the top-fail; tend to the mafter's whistle; 4 blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough. Enter Alonfo, Sebaftian, Anthonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, and others. Alon. Good Boatfwain, have care. Where's the mafter? Play the men. Boats. I pray now, keep below. Ant. Where is the mafter, Boatswain? Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour; keep your cabins: you do affift the ftorm. Gon. Nay, good, be patient. Boatf. When the fea is. Hence! What care thefe roarers for the name of king? To cabin: filence: trouble us not. from an Italian chemical romance called Orelia and Ifabella; but, on examining it, discovered no grounds for fuch a fuppofition. The beauties of this piece could not fecure it from the criticifm of Ben Jonfon, whofe malignity fometimes appears to have been more than equal to his wit. In the induction to Bartholomew Fair, he fays: "If there be never a fervant monfler in the fair who can help it, nor a neft of antiques? "He is loth to make nature afraid in his plays, like thofe that "beget Tales, Tempests, and fuch like drolleries." STEEVENS. In this naval dialogue, perhaps the firft example of failor's language exhibited on the ftage, there are, as I have been told by a kilful navigator, fome inaccuracies and contradictory orders. JOHNSON. 3-Fall to't yarely,—] i. e. Readily, nimbly. Our author is frequent in his ufe of this word. STEEVENS. 4 Perhaps it might be read, blow till thou burft, wind, if room enough. JOHNSON. Perhaps rather, blow till thou burst thee, wind! if room enough. Beaum. and Fletcher have copied this paffage in The Pilgrim. -Blow, blow west wind, Gon. Gon. Good; yet remember whom thou haft aboard. Boats. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command thefe elements to filence, and work the peace of the prefent, we will not handle a rope more; ufe your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have liv'd fo long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mifchance of the hour, if it fo hap.-Cheerly, good hearts. good hearts.Out of our way, I fay. [Exit. 5 Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks, he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand faft, good fate, to his hanging; make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage: if he be not born to be hang'd, our cafe is miferable. [Exeunt. Re-enter Boatswain. Boatf. Down with the top-maft: yare, lower, lower; bring her to try with main-course. [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling! Re-enter Sebaftian, Anthonio, and Gonzalo. They are louder than the weather, or our office.-Yet again? What do you here? Shall we give o'er, and drown? Have you a mind to fink? Seb. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blafphemous, uncharitable dog! Boats. Work you then. Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whorefon, infolent noifemaker! we are lefs afraid to be drown'd than thou art. Gon. I'll warrant him from drowning; though the fhip were no ftronger than a nut-fhell, and as leaky as an unftanch'd wench. 5 Gonzalo.] It may be obferved of Gonzalo, that, being the only good man that appears with the king, he is the only man that preferves his cheerfulness in the wreck, and his hope on the inland. JOHNSON, A 3 Beatf |