And brought us thus together?
Fer. Sir, fhe's mortal;

But, by immortal providence, fhe's mine.

I chofe her, when I could not ask my father
For his advice: nor thought, I had one: fhe
Is daughter to this famous Duke of Milan,
Of whom so often I have heard renown,
But never faw before; of whom I have
Receiv'd a fecond life, and fecond father
This lady makes him to me.

Alon: I am hers;

But, oh, how oddly will it found, that I
Muft ask my child forgiveness!

Pro. There, Sir, ftop';

Let us not burthen our remembrance with

An heaviness that's gone.

Gon. I've inly wept,

Or fhould have spoke ere this. Look down, you Gods,
And on this couple drop a bleffed crown:

For it is you, that have chalk'd forth the way,
Which brought us hither!

Alon. I fay, Amen, Gonzalo!

Gon. Was Milan thruft from Milan, that his iffue Should become Kings of Naples! O rejoice Beyond a common joy, and fet it down In gold on lafting pillars! in one voyage Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis; And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife, Where he himself was loft; Profpero his Dukedom, In a poor ifle; and all of us, ourselves, When no man was his own.

Alon. Give me your hands:

Let grief and forrow still embrace his heart,

That doth not wish you joy!

Gon. Be't fo, Amen!

Enter Ariel, with the Mafter and Boatfwain amazedly following.

O look, Sir, look, Sir, here are more of us!
I prophefy'd, if a gallows were on land,
This fellow could not drown. Now, blafphemy,
That swear'ft grace o'erboard, not an oath on fhore?
Haft thou no mouth by land? what is the news?

Boats. The beft news is, that we have fafely found
Our King and company; the next, our ship,
Which but three glaffes fince we gave out split,
Is tight and yare, and bravely rigg'd, as when
We first put out to fea.

Ari. Sir, all this fervice

Have I done fince I went.
Pro. My trickfey spirit!

Alon. Thefe are not natural events; they strengthen, From strange to ftranger. Say, how came you hither? Boats. If I did think, Sir, I were well awake, I'd strive to tell you. We were dead a-sleep, And, how we know not, all clapt under hatches, Where but ev'n now with ftrange and fev'ral noises Of roaring, fhrieking, howling, jingling chains, And more diverfity of founds, all horrible, We were awak'd; ftraightway at liberty: 2 Where we, in all her trim, freshly beheld Our royal, good and gallant fhip; our mafter Cap'ring to eye her; on a trice, fo please you, Ev'n in a dream, were we divided from them, And were brought moping hither.

Ari. Was't well done?

2 Where we in all our Trim, freshly bebeld

Our royal, good and gallant Ship;] The Trim is to be underflood of the Ship, and not of the Crew, fo that we should read her trim. Dr. Thirlby.

Pro.

Pro. Bravely, my diligence, thou shalt be free. Alon. This is as ftrange a maze as e'er men trod, And there is in this bufinefs more than nature Was ever conduct of; fome oracle Muft rectify our knowledge.

Pro. Sir, my Liege,

Do not infest your mind with beating on
The strangeness of this bufinefs; at pickt leisure
(Which shall be fhortly) fingle I'll refolve you,
Which to you fhall feem probable, of every
Thefe happen'd accidents; till when be chearful,
And think of each thing well. Come hither, fpirit;
Set Caliban and his companions free :

Untie the fpell. How fares my gracious Sir?
There are yet miffing of your company
Some few odd lads, that you remember not.

Enter Ariel, driving in Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo, in their ftolen Apparel.

Ste. Every man shift for all the rest, and let no man take care for himself; for all is but fortune; Coragio, bully-monster, Coragio!

Trin. If these be true fpies, which I wear in my head, here's a goodly fight.

Cal. O Setebos, these be brave spirits, indeed! How fine my mafter is! I am afraid,

He will chaftise me.

Seb. Ha, ha;

What things are thefe, my lord Anthonio!

Will money buy 'em?

Ant. Very like; one of them

Is a plain fish, and no doubt marketable.

3-fingle I'll refolve you.] Because the confpiracy, against him, of his Brother Sebaftian and his own Brother Anthonio, would make part of the relation.

G 3

Pro.

Pro. Mark but the badges of thefe men, my lords, Then fay, if they be true: this mif-fhap'd knave, His mother was a witch, and one fo ftrong

That could controul the moon, make flows and ebbs,
And deal in her command without her power.
These three have robb'd me; and this demy-devil
(For he's a bastard one) had plotted with them
To take my life; two of these fellows you
Must know and own; this thing of darkness I
Acknowledge mine.

Cal. I fhall be pincht to death.

Alon. Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler? Seb. He's drunk now: where had he wine?

4

Alon. ↑ And Trinculo is reeling ripe; where fhould

they

Find this grand 'lixir, that hath gilded 'em?
How cam'ft thou in this pickle?

4 And Trinculo is reeling ripe; where should they

Find this grand LIQUOR, that hath gilded 'em.] ShakeSpear, to be fure, wrote grand 'LIXIR, alluding to the grand Elixir of the alchymifts, which they pretend would restore youth, and confer immortality. This, as they faid, being a preparation of Gold, they called Aurum potabile; which Shakespear alluded to in the word gilded; as he does again in Anthony and Cleopatra. How much art thou unlike Mark Anthony?

Yet coming from him, that great med'cine hath,
With his Tine, gilded thee.

But the joke here is to infinuate that, notwithstanding all the boafts of the Chymifts, Sack was the only restorer of youth, and bestower of immortality. So Ben Johnson in his Every man out of his humour. Canarie the very Elixar and spirit of wine This feems to have been the Cant name for Sack, of which the English were, at that time, immoderately fond. Randolf in his Jealous Lovers, fpeaking of it, fays, A Pottle of Elixar at the Pegafus bravely caroused. So again in Fletcher's Monfieur Thomas, A&t III.

Old reverend Sack, which, for ought that I can read yet, Was that Philofopher's flone the wife King Ptolomeus Did all his wonders by.

The phrafe too of being gilded was a trite one on this occafion. Fletcher in his Chances-Duke. Is he not drunk too? Whore. A little gilded o'er, Sir; Old Sack, Old Sack, Boys!

Trin. I have been in fuch a pickle, fince I faw you laft, that, I fear me, will never out of my bones: I shall not fear fly-blowing.

Seb. Why, how now, Stephano?

[cramp.
Ste. O, touch me not: I am not Stephano, but a
Pro. You'd be King o' th' ifle, Sirrah?
Ste. I fhould have been a fore one then.
Alon. 'Tis a ftrange thing, as e'er I look'd on.
Pro. He is as difproportion'd in his manners,
As in his fhape: go, Sirrah, to my cell,
Take with you your companions; as you look
To have my pardon, trim it handfomly.

Cal. Ay, that I will; and I'll be wife hereafter,
And feek for grace.
What a thrice-double afs

Was I, to take this drunkard for a God?

And worship this dull fool?

Pro. Go to, away!

Alon. Hence, and beftow your luggage where you found it.

Seb. Or ftole it rather.

5 O, touch me not: I am not Stephano, but a cramp.] In reading this play, I all along fufpected that Shakespear had taken it from fome Italian writer; the Unities being all fo regularly observed, which no dramatic writers but the Italian observed fo early as our Author's time; and which Shakespear has observed no where but in this Play. Befides, the Perfons of the Drama are all Italians. I was much confirmed in my Sufpicion when I came to this place. It is plain a joke was intended; but where it lies is hard to fay. I fufpect there was a quibble in the Original that would not bear to be tranflated, which ran thus, I am not Stephano but Staffilato. Staffilato fignifying, in Italian, a man well lashed or flayed, which was the real case of these varlets.

Tooth'd briars, fharp furzes, pricking gofs and thorns Which enter'd their frail Skins.

And the touching a raw part being very painful, he might well cry out Touch me not, &c. In Riccoboni's Catalogue of Italian plays are thefe, Il Negromante di L. Ariofio, profa e verfo, & Il Negromante Palliato di Gio-Angelo Petrucci, profa. But whether the Tempest be borrowed from either of these, not having seen them, I cannot say.