So fafely order'd, that there is no foul, (1)
No, not fo much perdition as an hair,

Betid to any creature in the veffel

Which thou heard'ft cry, which thou faw'ft fink: fit

down;

For thou muft now know further.

Mira. You have often

Begun to tell me what I am, but ftopt,
And left me to a bootless inquifition;
Concluding, Stay, not yet.

Pro. The hour's now come:

The very minute bids thee ope thine ear:
Obey, and be attentive. Canft thou remember
A time, before we came unto this cell?

I do not think, thou canst; for then thou waft not
Out three years old.

Mira. Certainly, Sir, I can.

Pro. By what? by any other house, or perfon? Of any thing the image tell me, that

Hath kept with thy remembrance.

Mira. "Tis far off;

And rather like a dream, than an affurance

That my remembrance warrants.

Had I not

Four or five women once, that tended me?

Pro, Thou hadft, and more, Miranda: but how is it, That this lives in thy mind? what feeft thou elfe In the dark back-ward and abyfme of time?

(1)—that there is no Soul,] Thus the old Editions read, but this is apparently defective. Mr. Rowe, and after him Dr. Warburton, read that there is no Soul left, without any Notice of the Variation. Mr. Theobald fubftitutes no foil, and Mr. Pope follows him. To come fo near the Right, and yet to mifs it, is unlucky; the Authour probably wrote no Soil, no Stain, no Spot: For fo Ariel tells,

Not a Hair perifb'd;

On their fuftaining Garments not a Blemish,
But fresher than before.

And Gonzalo, The Rarity of it is, that our Garments being drench'd in the Sea, keep notwithstanding their Freshness and Gloffes. Of this Emendation I find that the Author of Notes on the Tempest had a Glimpse, but could not keep it.

If thou remember'ft aught, ere thou cam'ft here;
How thou cam'ft here, thou may'ft.

Mira. But that I do not.

Pro. 'Tis twelve years fince, Miranda.-
years fince,

Thy father was the Duke of Milan, and
A Prince of pow'r.

Mira. Sir, are not you my father?

-Twelve

Pro. Thy Mother was a piece of virtue, and
She faid thou waft my daughter; and thy father
Was Duke of Milan, and his only heir (2)
And Princefs, no worfe iffu'd.

Mira. O the heav'ns!

What foul play had we, that we came from thence ?
Or bleffed was't, we did?

Pro. Both, both, my girl:

By foul play (as thou fay'ft) were we heav'd thence, But bleffedly holp hither.

Mira. O, my heart bleeds

To think o'th' teene that I have turn'd you to,
Which is from my remembrance. Please you, further.
Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, called Anthonio

I pray thee, mark me;-that a brother should
Be fo perfidious!-he whom next thyself
Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my ftate; (as, at that time,
Through all the fignories it was the firft;
And Profpero the prime Duke, being fo reputed
In dignity; and for the liberal arts,

Without a parallel; thofe being all my ftudy :)
The government I caft upon my brother,

And to my ftate grew ftranger; being transported,
And rapt in fecret ftudies. Thy falfe uncle-
Doft thou attend me ?

Mira. Sir, moft heedfully.

Pro. Being once perfected how to grant fuits, How to deny them; whom t'advance, and whom To trash for over-topping; new-created

(2) Perhaps and thou his only heir..

B. 5

The

The creatures, that were mine; I fay, or chang'd 'em,
Or elfe new form'd 'em, having both the key (3)
Of officer and office, fet all hearts i'th' state
To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was
The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk,
And fuckt my verdure out on't.-

not.

Mira. O Good Sir, I do.

Pro. I

pray

thee,

mark me.

-Thou attend'ft

I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To clofenefs, and the bettering of my mind,
With that which, but by being fo retired,
O'er-prized all popular rate, in my falfe brother
Awak'd an evil nature; and my trust,
Like a good parent, did beget of him (4)
A falfhood in its contrary as great

As my trust was ; which had, indeed, no limit,
A confidence fans bound. He being thus lorded,
Not only with what my revenue yielded,
But what my power might elfe exact; like one,
Who having into truth, by telling of it, (5)

Made

(3) Key in this Place feems to fignify the Key of a mufical Inftrument, by which he fet Hearts to tune.

(4) Alluding to the Obfervation, that a Father above the common rate of Men has commonly a Son below it. Heroum filii noxæ.

(5)

like one

Who having INTO Truth, by telling of it,
Made fuch a Sinner of his Memory,

To credit his own lie,] The corrupted reading of the Second line has rendered this beautiful Similitude quite unintelligible. For what is [having into truth]? or what doth [] refer to? not to [trath], because if he told truth he could never credit a lie. And yet there is no other correlative to which [it] can belong.

I read and point it thus,

-like one

Who having UNTO truth, by telling OFT,

Made fuch a Sinner of his Memory,

To credit his own lie.

i. e. by often repeating the fame Story, made his Memory fuch a Sinner unte truth as to give credit to his own lie. A miferable

delufion

Made fuch a finner of his memory,

To credit his own lie, he did believe

He was, indeed, the Duke; from fubftitution,
And executing th'outward face of royalty,

With all prerogative. Hence his ambition growingDoft thou hear?

Mira. Your tale, Sir, would cure deafness.

Pro. To have no fcreen between this part he plaid,
And him he plaid it for, he needs will be
Abfolute Milan. Me, poor man!-my library
Was Dukedom large enough; of temporal royalties
He thinks me now incapable: confederates,
So dry he was for fway, wi'th' King of Naples
To give him annual tribute, do him homage;
Subject his coronet to his crown; and bend

The Dukedom, yet unbow'd, (alas, poor Milan!)
To moft ignoble stooping.

Mira. O the heav'ns!

Pro. Mark his condition, and th'event;

If this might be a Brother.

Mira. I fhould fin,

To think but nobly of my grandmother;
Good wombs have bore bad fons.

Pro. Now the condition:

then tell me,

This King of Naples, being an enemy
To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's fuit;
Which was, that he in lieu o'th' premises,
Of homage, and I know not how much tribute,
Should prefently extirpate me and mine
Out of the Dukedom; and confer fair Milan,
With all the honours, on my brother. Whereon
A treacherous army levy'd, one midnight
Fated to th' purpofe, did Anthonio open

The gates of Milan; and, i̇'th' dead of darkness,

delufion to which story-tellers are frequently fubject. The Oxford Editor having, by this correction, been let into the fenfe of the paffage, gives us this fenfe in his own words,

Who loving an untruth, and telling't oft,
Makes-

WARBURTON.

The

The minifters for the purpose hurry'd thence
Me, and thy crying self.
Mira. Alack, for pity!

I, not remembring how I cry'd out then,
Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint,
That wrings mine eyes to't.

Pro. Hear a little further,

And then I'll bring thee to the present business,
Which now's upon's; without the which this ftory
Were moft impertinent.

Mira. Why did they not

That hour destroy us?

Pro. Well demanded, wench

;

My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durft not,

So dear the love my people bore me, fet,

A mark fo bloody on the bufinefs; but
With colours fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurry'd us aboard a bark;

Bore us fome leagues to fea; where they prepar'd
A rotten carcafs of a boat, not rigg'd,
Nor tackle, fail, nor maft; the very rats
Inftinctively had quit it: there they hoift us
To cry to th' fea, that roar'd to us; to figh
'To th' winds, whofe pity, fighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.

Mira. Alack! what trouble

Was I then to you?

Pro. O a cherubim

Thou waft, that did preferve me: Thou didst smile,

Infused with a fortitude from heav'n,

When I have (6) deck'd the fea with drops full falt;
Under my burden groan'd; which rais'd in me
An undergoing ftomach, to bear up

Against what should enfue.

(6) deck'd the Sea.-] To deck the Sea, if explained, to honour, adorn, or dignify, is indeed ridiculous, but the original import of the verb deck is, to cover; fo in fome parts they yet fay, deck the table: This fenfe may be born, but perhaps the Poet wrote fleck'd, which I think is ftill ufed of drops falling upon water. Dr. Warburton reads mock'd, the Oxford Edition brack'd.