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Upon your heads, is nothing, but heart-sorrow
And a clear life ensuing.17

He vanishes in thunder; then, to soft music, enter the Shapes again, and dance with mocks and mowes, and carry out the table.

Pros. [Aside.] Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring:

Of my instruction hast thou nothing 'bated

In what thou hadst to say: so, with good life,

And observation strange, 18 my meaner ministers

Their several kinds have done.19 My high charms work,
And these mine enemies are all knit up

In their distractions: they now are in my power;

And in these fits I leave them, while I visit

Young Ferdinand,-who they suppose is drown'd, -
And his and my loved darling.

[Exit from above. Gonza. I' the name of something holy, sir, why stand you In this strange stare?

Alon.

O, it is monstrous, monstrous !

Methought the billows spoke, and told me of it;
The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder,
That deep and dreadful organ pipe, pronounced
The name of Prosper : it did bass my trespass.
Therefore my son i' the ooze is bedded; and

17" From whose wrath nothing can shield or deliver you but heart-felt repentance and an amended life, or doing works meet for repentance." Whose refers to powers, in the sixth line before.

18 The sense appears to be, "with all the truth of life itself, and with rare observance of the proprieties of action."

19 To do one's kind is to act out one's nature, or act according to one's nature; though in this case the nature is an assumed one, that is, a part. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, the rustic, speaking of the asp, says, "the worm will do his kind." Also in the phrase, “The cat will after kind."

I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded,
And with him there lie mudded.

Sebas.

I'll fight their legions o'er.

Anto.

[Exit.

But one fiend at a time,

I'll be thy second.

[Exeunt SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO.

Gonza. All three of them are desperate: their great guilt,

Like poison given to work a long time after,20

Now 'gins to bite the spirits. I do beseech you,

That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly,
And hinder them from what this ecstasy 21

May now provoke them to.

Adri.

Follow, I pray you. [Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.- Before PROSPERO'S Cell.

Enter PROSPERO, FERDINAND, and MIRANDA.

Pros. If I have too austerely punish'd you,
Your compensation1 makes amends; for I
Have given you here a thread of mine own life,2
Or that for which I live; who once again

I tender to thy hand: all thy vexations

20 The natives of Africa have been supposed to possess the secret how to temper poisons with such art as not to operate till several years after they were administered.

21 Shakespeare uses ecstasy for any alienation of mind, a fit, or madness. 1 Your compensation is the compensation you receive. Shakespeare has many instances of like construction.

2 "Thread of mine own life" probably means about the same as "my very heart-strings"; strings the breaking of which spills the life.

Were but my trials of thy love, and thou

Hast strangely stood the test: here, afore Heaven,
I ratify this my rich gift. O Ferdinand,

Do not smile at me that I boast her off,

For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise

And make it halt behind her.

Ferd.

Against an oracle.

I do believe it

Pros. Then, as my gift, and thine own acquisition
Worthily purchased, take my daughter; but,

If thou dost break her virgin-knot 3 before
All sanctimonious 4 ceremonies may
With full and holy rite be minister'd,
No sweet aspersion 5 shall the Heavens let fall
To make this contract grow; but barren hate,
Sour-eyed disdain, and discord, shall bestrew
The union of your bed with weeds so loathly,
That you shall hate it both therefore take heed,
As Hymen's lamps shall light you.

Ferd.

As I hope

For quiet days, fair issue, and long life,

With such love as 'tis now, the murkiest even,

The most opportune place, the strong'st suggestion 7

Our worser genius 8 can, shall never melt

3 Alluding, no doubt, to the zone or sacred girdle which the old Romans used as the symbol and safeguard of maiden honour.

4 Sanctimonious, here, is sacred or religious. The marriage ritual was supposed to have something of consecrating virtue in it.

5 Aspersion in its primitive sense of sprinkling, as with genial rain or Here, again, as also just after, shall for will.

dew.

6 Not with wholesome flowers, such as the bridal bed was wont to be decked with, but with loathsome weeds.

7 Suggestion, again, for temptation. See page 89, note 53.

8 Genius, spirit, and angel were used indifferently for what we should

Mine honour into lust; to take away

The edge of that day's celebration,

When I shall think, or Phoebus' steeds are founder'd,
Or Night kept chain'd below.

Pros.

Fairly spoke.

Sit, then, and talk with her; she is thine own.
What, Ariel! my industrious servant, Ariel!

Enter ARIEL.

Ari. What would my potent master? here I am.
Pros. Thou and thy meaner fellows your last service
Did worthily perform; and I must use you

In such another trick. Go bring the rabble,
O'er whom I give thee power, here, to this place:
Incite them to quick motion; for I must

Bestow upon the eyes of this young couple

9

Some vanity of mine art: it is my promise,

And they expect it from me.

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call a man's worser or better self. The Edinburgh Review, July, 1869, has the following: "In mediæval theology, the rational soul is an angel, the lowest in the hierarchy for being clothed for a time in the perishing vesture of the body. But it is not necessarily an angel of light. It may be a good or evil genius, a guardian angel or a fallen spirit, a demon of light or darkSee, also, Julius Cæsar, page 76, note 16.

ness.

Display?

9 Perhaps meaning some magical show or illusion. 10 Mop and mow were very often used thus together. To mow is to make mouths, to grimace. Wedgwood, in his English Etymology, says that mop

Pros. Dearly, my delicate Ariel. Do not approach Till thou dost hear me call.

Ari.

Well, I conceive.

Pros. Look thou be true; do not give dalliance Too much the rein: the strongest oaths are straw To th' fire i' the blood.

Ferd.

I warrant you, sir:

The white-cold virgin snow upon my heart

Abates the ardour of my liver.11

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Now come, my Ariel! bring a corollary,12
Rather than want a spirit: appear, and pertly!
No tongue; all eyes; be silent.

Enter IRIS.

[Exit.

[Soft music.

Iris. Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats, and peas;

Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep,

And flat meads thatch'd with stover, 13 them to keep;
Thy banks with peonéd and twilled brims,14

has exactly the same derivation as mock, and means to gibber. Thus the ape both mops and mows; that is, he gibbers or chatters, and makes faces. 11 The liver was supposed to be the special seat of certain passions, and so was often put for the passions themselves.

12 Corollary here means a surplus number; more than enough.-Pertly, in the next line, is nimbly, alertly.

18 Stover is fodder and provision of all sorts for cattle. Steevens says that in some counties it "signifies hay made of coarse rank grass, such as even cows will not eat while it is green."

14 A writer in The Edinburgh Review for October, 1872, argues, and, I think, proves, that peonéd here refers to the marsh-marigold, which grew abundantly on the flat marshy banks of such still-running streams as the Warwickshire Avon, and which was provincially called peony or piony. He thus compares it with the garden peony: "The flowers, though differing in colour, have a remarkable similarity in general growth and shape, especially

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