Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

the mafter's whiftle;- Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!

Enter Alonfo, Sebaftian, Anthonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, and others.

Alon. Good boatfwain, have care. Where's the mafter? Play the men 5.

· Boats. I pray now, keep below.

Ant. Where is the mafter, boatswain?

Boatf. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour; Keep your cabins: you do affift the storm. Gan. Nay, good, be patient.

Boats. When the fea is. Hence! What care these roarers for the name of king? To cabin filence : trouble us not.

"He diftributed his

[ocr errors]

Gare is yare, g and y being convertible. "goods to the poor, and made himfelf ready for God." The fame writer has alfo gare y made, i. e. " finished, well-prepared. Chaucer, who wrote many years afterwards, has it both as a fhipphrafe, and in its general fenfe.. But the common and unreftrained use of this word was grown obfolete before the age of Shakespeare; who, notwithstanding, feems affectedly fond of introducing it in that fignification. In Twelfth Night, act III. fc. xii. Sir Toby fays," Difmount thy tuck, be yare in thy preparation." And in Ant. and Cleop. and other plays. WARTON. Perhaps it might be read,--blow till thou burft, wind, if room enough. JOHNSON.

Perhaps rather blow till thou burft thee, wind! if room enough. Beaum. and Fletcher have copied this paffage in The Pilgrim.

--

Blow, blow weft vind,

Blow till thou rive!

Again in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609.

"Ift Saylor. Blow and fplit thyfelf!

"2d Saylor. But fea-room, and the brine and cloudy billow "Kifs the moon, I care not."

And yet, defiring the winds to blow till they burst their winds, is not unlike many other conceits of Shakespeare. STEEVENS. 5 Play the men,] i. e. act with fpirit, behave like men.

So in K. Henry VI. p. I. fc. vi.

"When they fhall hear how we have play'd the men.

Again in Marlow's Tamburlaine, 1590, p 2.

"Viceroys and peeres of Turkey, play the men."
Ανέρες εσι, φιλοι. STEEVENS.

B 3

[ocr errors]

Gon.

Gon, Good; yet remember whom thou haft aboard. Boatf. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to filence, and work the peace of the prefent, we will not handle a rope more; ufe your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have liv'd so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mifchance of the hour, if it fo hap.-Cheerly, good hearts-Out of our way, I say. [Exit.

"Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks, he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand faft, 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 cafe is miferable. [Exeunt. Re-enter Boatfwain.

Boats. Down with the top-maft; yare, lower, lower; bring her to try with main-course. [A cry within.] A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather, or our office.

Re-enter Sebaftian, Anthonio, and Gonzalo.

Yet again? What do you here? Shall we give o'er, and drown? Have you a mind to fink?

Seb. A pox o' your throat! you bawling, blafphemous, uncharitable dog!

Boats. Work you then.

Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whorefon, infolent noifemaker! we are lefs afraid to be drown'd, than thou art.

Gon. I'll warrant him from drowning; though the

6 of the prefent,] It may mean of the prefent infant.

STEEVENS.

"Gonzalo.] It may be obferved of Gonzalo, that, being the only good man that appears with the king, he is the only man that preferves his cheerfulpefs in the wreck, and his hope on the inland. JOHNSON.

Thip were no ftronger than a nut-fhell, and as leaky as an unftanch'd & wench.

Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; 'fet her twọ courses; off to fea again, lay her off.

Enter Mariners wet.

Mar. All loft! to prayers, to prayers! all loft!

Boatf. What, muft our mouths be cold?

[Exeunt.

Gon. The king and prince at prayers! let us affift

them,

For our cafe is as theirs.

Seb. I am out of patience.

Art. We're merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.

This wide-chopp'd rafcal;-Would, thou might'it lie drowning,

The washing of ten tides!

Gon. He'll be hang'd yet;

an unftanch'd wench.]

་་་་

Unftanch'd, I believe, means incontinent. STEEVENS.

Lay her a-hold, a-bold;--] To lay a hip a-hold, is to bring her to lie as near the wind as the can, in order to keep clear of the land, and get her out to fea. STEEVENS.

1

fet ber two courfes off to fea again,] The courfes are the main-fail and forefail. This term is used by Raleigh, in his Difcourfe on Shipping. JOHNSON.

The paffage, as Mr. Holt has obferved, fhould be pointed, Set her two courses; off, &c.

Such another expreffion occurs in Decker's, If this be not a good Play, the Devil is in it. 1612.

[ocr errors]

66

-off with your Drablers and your Banners; out with your Courfes," STEEVENS.

[ocr errors]

merely In this place fignifies abfolutely. In which fense it is used in Hamlet, act I. fc. iii.

66

Things rank and grofs in nature

"Poffefs it merely."

So in Ben Jonson's Poetafter:

66

at request

“Of fome mere friends, fome honourable Romans."

[blocks in formation]

Though every drop of water fwear against it,
And gape at wid'ft3 to glut him.

[A confufed noife within.] Mercy on us!—

We fplit, we fplit!-Farewell, my wife and children! Farewell, brother!-We fplit, we fplit, we fplit

Ant. Let's all fink with the king.

Seb. Let's take leave of him.

[Exit. Exit.

Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of fea for an acre of barren ground; long heath, brown furze,

3 to glut bim.] Shakespeare probably wrote, t'englut him, to fwallow him; for which I know not that glut is ever used by him. In this fignification englut, from engloutir, French, occurs frequently, as in Henry VI.

66

Thou art fo near the gulf

Thou needs must be englutted."

And again in Timon and Othello. Yet Milton writes glutted offal for fwallowed, and therefore perhaps the prefent text may ftand. JOHNSON.

Thus in Sir A. Gorges's tranflation of Lucan. B. 6,
"oylie fragments fcarcely burn'd,
"Together the doth fcrape and glut."

i. e. fwallow. STEEVENS.

4 Brother, farewell!] All thefe lines have been hitherto given to Gonzalo, who has no brother in the fhip. It is probable that the lines fucceeding the confufed noife within fhould be confidered as fpoken by no determinate characters, but should be printed thus.

1 Sailor. Mercy on us!

We fplit, we fplit!

2 Sailor. Farewell, my, &c.

5

Sailor. Brother, farewell, &c. JOHNSON,
long heath,

] This is the common name for the erica

baccifera. WARBURTON.

long heath] The diftinctions between the different forts of erica, are either-vulgaris, tenuifolia or brabantica. There is no fuch plant as erica baccifera. WARNER.

"An acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze," &c. Sir T. Hanmer reads ling, heath, broom, furze.-Perhaps rightly, though he has been charged with tautology. I find in Harrifon's Defcription of Britain, prefixed to our author's good friend Holingfhead, p. 91. "Brome, beth, firze, brakes, whinnies, 46 ling," &c. FARMER.

Mr.

furze, any thing: The wills above be done, but I would fain die a dry death!

SCEN NE II.

[Exit.

The inchanted ifland: before the cell of Profpero.

Enter Profpero and Miranda.

Mira. If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them: The fky, it feems, would pour down ftinking pitch, But that the fea, mounting to the welkin's cheek, Dashes the fire out. O, I have fuffer'd

With thofe that I faw fuffer! a brave veffel,
· Who had, no doubt, fome noble creatures in her,
Dafh'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor fouls! they perifh'd.
Had I been any god of power, I would

Have funk the fea within the earth, or ere
It fhould the good fhip fo have swallow'd, and
The freighting fouls within her.

Pro. Be collected;

No more amazement: tell your piteous heart,
There's no harm done.

Mira. O, woe the day!

Pro. No harm.

I have

Mr. Tollet has fufficiently vindicated Sir Thomas Hanmer from the charge of tautology, by favouring me with fpecimens of three different kinds of heath which grow in his own neighbourhood. I would gladly have inferted his obfervations at length, but, to fay the truth, our author, like one of Cato's foldiers who was bit by a ferpent,

Ipfe latet penitus congefto corpore merfus. STEEVENS.

Or ere, is before. Of this ufe, many inftances are given hereafter. STEEVENS.

7 Pro. No barm.] I know not whether Shakespeare did not make Miranda speak thus:

O, woe the day! no harm?

To which Profpero properly answers :

I have done nothing but in care of thee.

Miranda,

« AnteriorContinua »