Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies
Brought to this shore; and by my prescience
I find my zenith doth depend upon

A most auspicious star, whose influence

If now I court not but omit, my fortunes

Will ever after droop. Here cease more questions:
Thou art inclin'd to sleep; 'tis a good dulness,
And give it way. I know thou canst not choose..
Come away, servant, come! I am ready now;
Approach, my Ariel, come!

Enter ARIEL.

Ariel. All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come To answer thy best pleasure; be 't to fly,

To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride

On the curl'd clouds, to thy strong bidding task

Ariel and all his quality.

Prospero.

Hast thou, spirit,

Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee?

180

190

181. zenith. Span. zenit, a corruption of Arab. samt, way, road, path; Arabic samt-ur-ras, the way overhead. Figuratively, highest success? As to the influence of the stars, see what Gloster and Edmund say in Lear, I, ii, 94-130.-182. influence. Astrological? Lat. in, upon; fluère, to flow. Job, xxxviii, 31. - Milton's L'Allegro, 121, 122.-183. fortunes, etc. See Jul. Cæs., IV, iii, 216–222. —185. inclined. Effect of Prospero's magic?

Miranda has dwelt alone, from her infancy, with her father on a desert island compassed by ocean and the heavens; and thus she has lived, fearless and delighted, in the midst of mystery and beauty. Quiet in the soulsleep of innocence, trustful in her father's care and power, she has dread of nothing. The spirits of air are her ministers, the brutes of earth are meek to her, and even Caliban bends to her service. But clouds gather in the sky; winds rush upon the sea; with the storm comes her prince, and with the prince comes love. The visionary world is broken into by the actual; realities intrude on fancies; and out of dreams she merges into passion. Now this, a fable in outward fact, is a truth in the inward life. The actual, natural, genuine maiden does dwell much alone. Her life is an island full of enchantments, girded by immensity. Giles's Human Life in Shakespeare, 1868.

190. answer, etc. Neatly imitated by Fletcher in The Faithful Shepherdess. Milton evidently has it, and lines 252-254, in mind in Paradise Lost, I, 150-152, where Beelzebub speaks of possible service to the Almighty,

"whate'er his business be,

Here in the heart of hell to work in fire
Or do his errands in the gloomy deep."

-193. quality = ability, power [Rolfe]? professional skill [Wright]? fellow-spirits, profession' [Steevens, Malone, Dyce, Hudson, Deighton, Phillpotts, Furness]?-194. to point: to the minutest article [Steevens, Schmidt]?-to up to, in proportion to, according to [Abbott, 187] ? —

=

Ariel. To every article.

I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
I flam'd amazement: sometime I'd divide,
And burn in many places; on the topmast,
The yards, and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,
Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursors
O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
And sight-outrunning were not; the fire and cracks
Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune
Seem to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble,
Yea, his dread trident shake.

Prospero.

My brave spirit! Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil Would not infect his reason?

Ariel.

Not a soul

But felt a fever of the mad, and play'd

Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners
Plung'd in the foaming brine, and quit the vessel,
Then all afire with me: the king's son, Ferdinand,
With hair up-staring,
then like reeds, not hair, -

Was the first man that leap'd; cried, 'Hell is empty,
And all the devils are here.'

=

=

200

210

Lat. ad, to; punctum, point; Fr. de tout point. - See at a point in our Macbeth, IV, iii, 135.197. waist between the quarter-deck and the forecastle [Johnson]?-198. divide, etc. "I do remember that in the great and boisterous storm in the night there came upon the top of our main yard and main mast a certain little light, much like unto the light of a little candle, which the Spaniards call the Cuerpo santo, and said it was S. Elmo. . . This light continued aboard our ship about three hours, flying from mast to mast and from top to top, and sometime it would be in two or three places at once." Hakluyt's Voyages, ed. of 1598, de Robert Tomson's voyage in 1555. See 'Saint Elmo's fire' in the unabridged Dict.-Vergil's Æneid, ii, 682-684.—200. distinctly separately [Staunton]?-Lat. dis, apart, stinguere, to prick.-202. momentary -lasting but a moment [Wright, Schmidt]? happening every moment? both senses?-204-206. Neptune trident. See Class. Dict. 207. constant = composed? Lat. constans, steadfast, steady. - See our Mer. of Ven., III, ii, 242.-coil. Celtic goill, a struggle. See our Hamlet, III, i, 67.-209. of the mad = such as madmen feel [Steevens, Hudson] ? of delirium [Rolfe, Meiklejohn, Phillpotts] ?-212. afire. Abbott, 24.Ferdinand, etc. Dramatic skill shown in separating him from the rest? 213. up-staring. Lat. stare, to stand; root sta-, to stand, be fixed, stiff. Abbott, 429. -See Jul. Cæs., IV, iii, 278, where Brutus says to the ghost of Cæsar,

"Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil,
That mak'st my blood cold and my hair to stare?"

On their sustaining garments not a blemish,
But fresher than before: and, as thou bad'st me,
In troops I have dispers'd them 'bout the isle
The king's son have I landed by himself;
Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs
In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting,
His arms in this sad knot.

Prospero.

Of the king's ship,
The mariners, say how thou hast dispos'd,
And all the rest o' the fleet.

Ariel.
Safely in harbor
Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the still-vex'd Bermoothes, there she's hid;
The mariners all under hatches stow'd,

Who, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labor,
I have left asleep; and for the rest o' the fleet,
Which I dispers'd, they all have met again,
And are upon the Mediterranean flote,

Bound sadly home for Naples,

Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrack'd,
And his great person perish.

=

=

220

230

217. are they, Ariel, safe? Why this question? Did be not know? 218. sustaining bearing up or supporting the wearers [Steevens, Wright, Meiklejohn]? bearing or resisting the effects of water [Mason, Schmidt, Rolfe]?-Spedding and Hudson would read' unstaining.'. - See II, i, 61-63; also Hamlet, IV, vii, 174, 175, 180, 181.- -222. cooling of the air with sighs. See I, i, 48. After cooling,' the 'of' indicates that 'cooling' is a verbal noun originally, as if it were a-cooling,' or (in the act) of cooling. Abbott, 178. 223. odd angle = singular nook? outof-the-way corner?-See 'odd' in V, i, 255. 224. knot folded form [Hudson, Wright, Rolfe]? Hamlet, I, v, 174.-224-226, etc. Three things are inquired after. Note that Ariel's answer takes these up in their order. Hence the folio is right in placing a comma after ship? 229. Bermoothes. See in the Introduction, under Source of the Plot, as to 'A Discovery of the Bermudas,' etc. -still-vex'd Bermoothes = the everchafed Bermudas? "Here," says Hanmer, "we have the Spanish pronunciation." In Elizabethan English, and for a hundred years later, 'still' often = ever. See our Mer. of Ven., I, i, 17; our Jul. Cæs., I, ii, 238, etc.231. who. See on line 80, IV, i, 4. 232. for the rest. 'For' is still occasionally equivalent to as for. Abbott, 149.234. flote.

Prospero.

Ariel, thy charge

Exactly is perform'd; but there's more work.

What is the time o' the day?

Ariel.

Past the mid season.

Prospero. At least two glasses: the time 'twixt six and

now

Must by us both be spent most preciously.

241

Ariel. Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains, Let me remember thee what thou hast promis'd, Which is not yet perform'd me.

Prospero.

What is 't thou canst demand?

Ariel.

How now ? moody?

My liberty.

Prospero. Before the time be out? no more!
Ariel.

I prithee,

Remember I have done thee worthy service;
Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, serv'd
Without or grudge or grumblings. Thou didst promise
To bate me a full year.

Prospero.

Dost thou forget

No.

From what a torment I did free thee?

Ariel.

250

Prospero. Thou dost ; and think'st it much to tread the ooze

Of the salt deep,

To run upon the sharp wind of the north,

To do me business in the veins o' the earth
When it is bak'd with frost.

=

=

Lat. fluctus; Lat. flu-ère, to flow; A. S. flot, Fr. flot, wave. -240. glasses hour-glasses hours? half-hours? See on V, i, 223. -242. pains labor, care, trouble? 243. remember. Lat. re, again; memorari, to make mindful of? make mention of? - Often used transitively in Shakes. Line 403.244. me. So me in line 255. Old dative denoting that to or for which? - Abbott, 220.

As a contrast to Caliban, we have Ariel, but by no means a purely ethereal, expressionless angel; rather a genuine spirit of air and of pleasure, graceful and free-thoughted, but light withal, mischievous, and at times a wee bit naughty.. Accordingly, almost like a human being, he has not infrequently to be reminded of it and kept in check. Franz Horn's Schauspiele Erlautert, 1832.

249. grudge = complaint, murmur [Wright, Rolfe, Meiklejohn]? repining [Deighton]? grudging [Schmidt]?-Gr. ypu, gru, grunt of a pig. Îmitative. Icel. krutr, a murmur; Swed. kruttla, Mid. Eng. grucchen, to murmur.-250. bate = remit, deduct [Schmidt]? See II, i, 97, and our Mer. of Ven., I, iii, 114. — 252. ooze. See III, iii, 100. — 253. run. Isaiah, xl, 31.254. business. See on 190.

Ariel.

I do not, sir.

Prospero. Thou liest, malignant thing!

forgot

The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy
Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her?
Ariel. No, sir.

Prospero. Thou hast. tell me.

Hast thou

Where was she born? speak;

Ariel. Sir, in Argier.

O, was she so?

261

Prospero.
I must
Once in a month recount what thou hast been,
Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch Sycorax,
For mischiefs manifold and sorceries terrible

To enter human hearing, from Argier,

Thou know'st, was banish'd; for one thing she did
They would not take her life. Is not this true?
Ariel. Ay, sir.

257. liest. Needlessly harsh? — malignant. Any relevancy in Johnson's remark that the fallen spirits, over whom magicians had power, were ill disposed?

With all our admiration and sympathy with the illustrious magician, we perforce must acknowledge Prospero to be of a revengeful nature. He has not the true social wisdom; and he only learns Christian wisdom from his servant Ariel. By nature he is a selfish aristocrat. When he was Duke of Milan he gave himself up to his favorite indulgence of study and retired leisure, yet expected to preserve his state and authority. When master of the Magic Island, he is stern and domineering, lording it over his sprite subjects and ruling them with a wand of rigor. He comes there and takes possession of the territory with all the coolness of a usurper; he assumes despotic sway, and stops only short of absolute unmitigated tyranny. Charles Cowden Clarke's Shakespeare Characters, 1863.

258. Sycorax. Stephen Batman (1537-1587) is quoted by Douce thus: "The raven is called corvus of Corax. It is sayd that ravens birdes be fed with the deaw of heaven all the time that they have no blacke feathers by benefite of age." See lines 320, 321.- Among possible derivations of the word Sycorax are the following: vxoppnέ, Psychorrex (from vx, psyche, soul, and pýyvuμal, regnumai, to break); ouKOV, Sukon, fig, and pag, rax, a poisonous spider, meaning Queen Elizabeth! Gr. ous, sus, us, hus, a swine; Kópaέ, corax, a raven; hog-raven, being a foul witch! [Gr. vaiva, huaina, hyæna, is properly a sow; then a Libyan wild beast. See on line 269.]-Arabic Shokoreth, deceiver. Seiaxghirir, a town on the island of Pantalaria, which, Elze thinks, is the possible 'original of Prospero's isle!' -See Furness. envy. Lat. in, against; videre, to look; invidia, envy; hatred.

Often in Shakes. it denotes malice. 261. Argier. Spanish and Port. Argel. The modern name, Algiers, dates from the Restoration'? The city has about 70,000 inhabitants. 266. one

thing she did, etc. But what it was, no person can tell. Perhaps Shakes. himself did not know! See Furness,