Gonza. Nay, good, be patient. Boats. When the sea is. roarers for the name of king? us not. Hence ! What care these : Gonza. Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard. Boats. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority: if you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap. - Cheerly, good hearts! Out of our way, I say. [Exit. Gonza. I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks he hath no drowning-mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. -Stand fast, 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 case is miserable. [Exeunt. Re-enter Boatswain. Boats. Down with the top-mast !8 yare; lower, lower! Bring her to try wi' th' main-course.9 [A cry within.] A 6 Present for present time. So in the Prayer-Book: "That those things may please Him which we do at this present." And in 1 Corinthians, xv. 6: "Of whom the greater part remain unto this present." * Complexion was often used for nature, native bent or aptitude. See The Merchant of Venice, page 134, note 7. 8 Of this order Lord Mulgrave, a sailor critic, says, "The striking the top-mast was a new invention in Shakespeare's time, which he here very properly introduces. He has placed his ship in the situation in which it was indisputably right to strike the top-mast, where he had not sea-room." 9 This appears to have been a common nautical phrase. So in Hackluyt's Voyages, 1598: "And when the bark had way we cut the hauser, and so gat the sea to our friend, and tried out all the day with our maine course." Also in Smith's Sea Grammar, 1627: “Let us lie at trie with our maine plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather or our office. 10 Re-enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO. Yet again! what do you here? Shall we give o'er, and drown? Have you a mind to sink? Sebas. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog! Boats. Work you, then. Anto. Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson, insolent noisemaker, we are less afraid to be drown'd 11 than thou art. Gonza. I'll warrant him for drowning, 12 though the ship were no stronger than a nut-shell. Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold! set her two courses ! 13 off to sea again; lay her off! course." And Sir Walter Raleigh speaks of being "obliged to lye at trye with our main course and mizen." To lie at try is to keep as close to the wind as possible. 10 Weather for storm. "Their howling drowns both the roaring of the tempest and the commands of the officer," or "our official orders." 11 "Less afraid of being drown'd." So the Poet often uses the infinitive gerundively, or like the Latin gerund. See King Lear, page 117, note 18; also page 205, note 28. 12 As to, or as regards, drowning. A not uncommon use of for.- Gonzalo has in mind the old proverb, "He that is born to be hanged will never be drowned." " 13 A ship's courses are her largest lower sails; so called," says Holt, "because they contribute most to give her way through the water, and thus enable her to feel the helm, and steer her course better than when they are not set or spread to the wind." Captain Glascock, another sailor critic, comments thus: "The ship's head is to be put leeward, and the vessel to be drawn off the land under that canvas nautically denominated the two courses." To lay a ship a-hold is to bring her to lie as near the wind as she can, in order to keep clear of the land, and get her out to sea. So Admiral Smith, in his Sailors' Wordbook: A hold: A term of our early navi gators, for bringing a ship close to the wind, so as to hold or keep to it." Re-enter Mariners, wet. Mariners. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost! Boats. What, must our mouths be cold? [Exeunt. Gonza. The King and Prince at prayers! let us assist them, For our case is as theirs. Sebas. I'm out of patience. Anto. We're merely 14 cheated out of our lives by drunk ards. This wide-chopp'd rascal - would thou mightst lie drown ing, The washing of ten tides! Gonza. He'll be hang'd yet, Though every drop of water swear against it, And gape at widest to glut him.1 15 A confused noise within. Mercy on us! We split, we split ! - Farewell, my wife and children!— Farewell, bro ther! We split, we split, we split ! Anto. Let's all sink wi' th' King. 16 Sebas. Let's take leave of him. [Exit Boatswain. [Exit. [Exit. Gonza. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground; ling, heath, broom, furze, any 14 Merely, here, is utterly or absolutely. A frequent usage. So in Hamlet, i. 2: "Things rank and gross in nature possess it merely." 15 Glut for englut; that is, swallow up.-Widest is here a monosyllable. The same with many words that are commonly two syllables. 16 This double elision of with and the, so as to draw the two into one syllable, is quite frequent, especially in the Poet's later plays. So before in this scene: Bring her to try wi' th' main course." Single elisions for the same purpose, such as by th', for th, from th', to th', &c., are still more frequent. So in the first speech of the next scene: "Mounting to th' welkin's cheek." thing.17 The wills above 18 be done! but I would fain die a dry death. 19 SCENE II. [Exit. The Island: before the Cell of PROSPERO. Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA. Mira. If by your art, my dearest father, you have The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, With those that I saw suffer! a brave 2 vessel, Who had no doubt some noble creatures in her, 17 Ling, heath, broom, and furze were names of plants growing on British barrens. So in Harrison's description of Britain, prefixed to Holinshed: "Brome, heth, firze, brakes, whinnes, ling, &c." 18 Of course, "the wills above" is the will of the Powers above. 19 The first scene of The Tempest is a very striking instance of the great accuracy of Shakespeare's knowledge in a professional science, the most difficult to attain without the help of experience. He must have acquired it by conversation with some of the most skilful seamen of that time. The succession of events is strictly observed in the natural progress of the distress described; the expedients adopted are the most proper that could have been devised for a chance of safety: and it is neither to the want of skill of the seamen or the bad qualities of the ship, but solely to the power of Prospero, that the shipwreck is to be attributed. The words of command are not only strictly proper, but are only such as point the object to be attained, and no superfluous ones of detail. Shakespeare's ship was too well manned to make it necessary to tell the seamen how they were to do it, as well as what they were to do. - LORD Mulgrave. 1 Welkin is sky. We have other like expressions; as," the cloudy cheeks of heaven," in Richard the Second, and "the wide cheeks o' the air," in Coriolanus.-The hyperbole of waves rolling sky-high occurs repeatedly. So in The Winter's Tale, iii. 3: "Now the ship boring the Moon with her main-mast, and anon swallowed with yeast and froth." And in Othello, ii. I: "The wind-shaked surge seems to cast water on the burning bear." 2 Brave is fine or splendid; like the Scottish braw. Repeatedly so in this play, as also elsewhere. Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er 3 It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and No harm. I have done nothing but in care of thee, Mira. More to know 'Tis time Did never meddle with my thoughts. Pros. I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand, So: [Lays down his robe. 8 Or e'er is before or sooner than. So in Ecclesiastes, xii. 6: silver cord be loosed." See, also, Hamlet, page 62, note 31. ▲ Fraught is an old form of freight. Present usage would require fraughted. In Shakespeare's time, the active and passive forms were very often used indiscriminately. So, here, "fraughting souls" is freighted souls, or souls on freight... 5 The sense of amazement was much stronger than it is now. Here it is anguish or distress of mind. 6 This doubling of comparatives occurs continually in all the writers of Shakespeare's time. The same with superlatives. 7 To meddle is, properly, to mix, to mingle. |