TEMPEST.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

"THE Tempest and the Midsummer Night's Dream | complied, and fortunately the ship was driven and

(says Warburton) are the noblest efforts of that sublime and amazing imagination, peculiar to Shak speare, which soars above the bounds of nature, without forsaking sense, or, more properly, carries nature along with him beyond her established finits."

No one has hitherto discovered the novel on which this play is founded; yet Collins the poet told Thomas Warton that the plot was taken from the romance of Aurelio and Isabella, which was frequently printed during the sixteenth century, sometimes in three or four languages in the same volume. In the calamitous mental indisposition which visited poor Collins his memory failed him; and he most probably substituted the name of one novel for another; the fable of Aurelio and Isabella has no relation to the Tempest. Mr. Malone thought that no such tale or romance ever existed; yet a friend of the late Mr. James Boswell told him that he had some years ago actually perused an Italian novel which answered Collins' description; but his memory, unfortunately, did not enable him to recover it.

My friend, Mr. Douce, in his valuable 'Illustrations of Shakspeare, published in 1807, had suggested that the outline of a considerable part of this play was bor

jammed between two rocks, fast lodged and locked for further budging." One hundred and fifty persons got on shore; and by means of their boat and skiff (for this was half a mile from land) they saved such part of their goods and provisions as the water had not spoiled, all the tackling and much of the iron of their ship, which was of great service to thein in fitting out another vessel to carry them to Virginia.

"But our delivery," says Jourdan, "was not more strange in falling so opportunely and happily upon the land, as [than] our feeding and provision was, beyond our hopes, and all men's expectations, most admirable; for the Islands of the Bermudas, as every man knoweth that hath heard or read of them, were never inhabited by any Christian or Heathen people, but ever esteemed and reputed a a most prodigious and inchanted place, affording nothing but gusts, storms, and foul weather; which made every navigator and mariner avoid them as Scylla and Charybdis, or as they would shunne the Divell himself: and no man was ever heard to make for this place; but as, against their wils, they have, by storms and dangerounesse of the rocks lying seven leagues into the sea, suffered shipwracke. Yet did we

to

rowed from the account of Sir George Somers' voyage finde there the ayre so temperate and the country so

and shipwreck on the Bermudas in 1609; and had point ed out some passages which confirmed his suggestion. At the same time it appears that Mr. Malone was enga ged in investigating the relations of this voyage: and he subsequently printed the results of his researches in a pamphlet, which he distributed among his friends; wherein he shows, that not only the title but many passages in the play were suggested to Shakspeare by the account of the tremendous Tempest which, in July, 1609, dispersed the fleet carrying supplies from England to the infant colony of Virginia, and wrecked the vessel in which Sir George Somers and the other principal commanders had sailed, on one of the Bermuda Islands. Sir George Somers, Sir Thomas Gates, and Captain Newport, with nine ships and five hundred people, sailed from England in May, 1609, on board the Sea Venture, which was called the Admiral's Ship; and on the 25th of July she was parted from the rest by a terrible tompest, which lasted forty-eight hours and scattered the whole flect, wherein some of them lost their masts and others were much distressed. Seven of the vessels, however, reached Virginia; and, after landing about three hundred and fifty persons, again set sail for England. Two of them were wrecked, in their way home, on the point of Ushant; the others returned safely to England, ship after ship, in 1610, bringing the news of the supposed loss of the Admiral's ship and her crew. During a great part of the year 1610 the fate of Somers and Gates was not known in England; but the latrer, having been sent home by Lord Delaware, arrived in Auzust or September. The Council of Virginia publiched a narrative of the disasters which had befallen the fleet, and of their miraculous escape. Previously however to its appearance, one Jourdan, who probably returned from Virginia in the same ship with Sir Thomas Gates, published a pamphlet entitled "A Discovery of the Bermudas, otherwise called The Isle of Divels; by Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, and Captain Newport, with divers others:" in which he relates the circumstances of the storm, They were bound tor Virginia, and at that time in 30° N. latitude. The whole crew, amounting to one hundred and fifty persons, weary with pumping, had given all for lost, and began to drink their strong waters, and to take leave of each other, intending to commit themselves to the mercy of the sea. Sir George Somers, who had sat three days and nights on the poop, with no food and little rest, at length descried land, and encouraged thein (many from weariness having fallen asleep) to continue at the pumps. They

aboundantly fruitfull of all fit necessaries for the sustentation and preservation of man's life, that, most in a manner of all our provision of bread, beere, and victuall being quite spoiled in lying long drowned in salt water, notwithstanding we were there for the space of nine months, we were not only well refreshed, comforted, and with good satiety contented, but out of the aboundance thereof provided us some reasonable quantity and proportion of provision to carry us for Virginia, and to maintain ourselves and that company we found there:wherefore my opinion sincerely of this island is, that whereas it hath beene, and is still, accounted the most dangerous, unfortunate, and forlorne place of the world, it is in truth the richest, healthfullest, and [most] pleasing land (the quantity and bignesse thereof considered,) and merely naturall, as ever man set foote upon."

The publication set forth by the Council of Virginia, entitled, "A true Declaration of the Estate of the Colony of Virginia, &c. 1610," relates the same facts and events in better language, and Shakspeare probably derived his first thought of working these adventures up into a dramatic form from an allusion to the drama in this pieco. "These islands of the Bermudas," says this narrative, "have ever been accounted as an inchaunted pile of rock, and a desert inhabitation for divells; but all the fairies of the rocks were but flocks of birdes, and all the Civels that haunted the woods were but herds of swine." -What is there in all this Tragicall Comadie that should discourage us?

The covert allusions to several circumstances in the various narrations of this Voyage have been illustrated with great ingenuity by Mr. Malone; and many of them will no doubt have already struck the reader, but we must content ourselves with a reference to his more detailed account.

The plot of this play is very simple, independent of the magic; and Mr. Malone has pointed out two sources from whence he thinks Shakspeare derived suggestions for it. The one is a play by Robert Green, entitled "The Comical History of Alphonsus King of Arragon;" the other is the Sixth Metrical Tale of George Turberville, formed on the fourth novel of the fourth day of the Decamerone of Boccaccio, to which he is probably indebted for the hint of the marriage of Claribel. The magic of the piece is unquestionably the creation of the groat bard himself, suggested no doubt by the popular

* Tragical Tales, translated by Turberville in time of his troubles, out of sundric Italians, &c. 8vo. 1587.

34

notions respecting the Bermudas. Mr. Malone confesses
that the hints furnished by Green are so slight as not to
detract from the merit of Shakspeare, and I have there-
fore not thought it necessary to follow him in his ana-
lysis. The late Dr. Vincent, the highly respected Dean
of Westminster, pointed out a passage in Magellan's
Voyage to the South Pole, which is to be found in
"Eden's History of Travaile," printed in 1577, that
may have furnished the first idea of Caliban, and as it
is curious in itself, I shall venture to transcribe it. "De-
partyng from hence," says Eden, "they sayled to the
49 degre and a halfe under the pole antartike; where
being wyntered, they were inforced to remayne there
for the space of two monethes, all which tyme they saw
no man: except that one day by chance they espyed a
man of the stature of a gyant, who came to the haven
duuncing and singing, and shortly after seemed to
cast dust over his head. The captayne sent one of his
men to the shore with the shippe boate, who made the
lyke signe of peace. The which thyng the giant seeing,
was out of feare, and came with the captayne's servant,
to his presence, into a little islande. When he sawe the
captayne with certayne of his company about him, he
was greatly amazed; and made signes, holding up his
hande to heaven, signifying thereby that our men came
from thence. This giant was so byg that the head of
one of our men of a meane stature came but to his
waste. He was of good corporation and well made in
all partes of his bodie, with a large visage painted with
divers colours, but for the most parte yelow. Uppon his
cheekes were paynted two hartes, and red circles about
his eyes. The heare of his head was coloured whyte,
and his apparell was the skynne of a beast sowed to
gether. This beast (as seemed unto us) had a large
head, and great eares lyke unto a mule, with the body
of a cammell and tayle of a horse. The feet of the
gyant were folded in the sayde skynne, after the manner
of shooes. He had in his hande a bygge and shorte
bowe; the sleyng whereof was made of a sinewe of that
beaste. He had also a bundle of long arrowes made of
recdes, feathered after the manner of ours, typte with
sharp stones, in the stead of iron heades. The captayne
caused him to eate and drinke, and gave him many
thinges, and among other a great looking glasse, in the
which as soon as he sawe his owne likeness, was so-
daynly afrayde, and started backe with suche violence,
that he overthrewe two that stood nearest about him.
When the captayne had thus gyven him certayne haukes
belles, with also a lookyng glasse, a combe, and a
payre of beades of glasse, he sent him to lande with
foure of his owne men well armed. Shortly after, they
sawe another gyant of somewhat greater stature with
his bowe and arrowes in his hande. As he drew nearer
unto our men hee laide his hande on his head, and
pointed up towards heaven, and our men did the lyke.
The captayne sent his shippe boate to bring him to a little
islande, beyng in the haven. This giant was very
tractable and pleasaunt. He soong and daunsed, and
in his daunsing left the print of his feete on the ground.
After other xv. dayes were past, there came foure
other giauntes without any weapons, but had hid their
bowes and arrowes in certaine bushes. The captayne
retayned two of these, which were youngest and best
made. He tooke them by a deceite, in this manner;
that giving them knyves, sheares, looking-glasses,
belles, beades of chrystall, and such other trifles, he so
fylled their handes, that they could holde no more; then
caused two paire of shackels of iron to be putt on their
legges, making signes that he would also give them
those chaynes, which they liked very well because they
were made of bright and shining metall. And whereas
they could not carry them bycause theyr hands were full,
the other giants would have carryed them, but the
captayne would not suffer them. When they felt the
shuckels fast about theyr legges, they began to doubt;
but the captayne did put them in comfort and bade them
stand stille. In fine, when they sawe how they were
deceived, they roared lyke bulles, and cryed upon theyr
great devill Setebos, to help them. They say that
when any of them dye, there appeare x or xi devils
leaping and daunsing about the bodie of the dead, and
seeme to have theyr bodies paynted with divers colours,
and that among other there is one seene bigger than the
residue, who maketh great mirth with rejoysing. This
great devyll they call Setebos, and call the lesse Che-
leule. One of these giantes which they tooke, declared
by signes that he had seen devylles with two hornes
above theyr heades, with long heare downe to theyr
feete, and that they caste forth fyre at theyr throates
both before and behind. The captayne named these
people Patagoni. The moste parte of them weare the
skynnes of such beastes whereof I have spoken before,
They lyve of raw Heshe, and a certaine sweete rootu
which they call capar."

Caillan, as was long since observed by Dr. Farmer, 1

merely the netathesis of Cannibal. Of the Cannibals
a long account is given by Eden, ubi supra.

"The Tempest," says the judicious Schlegel, "has
little action and progressive movement; the union of
Ferdinand and Miranda is fixed at their first meeting,
and Prospero merely throws apparent obstacles in their
way; the shipwrecked band go leisurely about the
island; the attempts of Sebastian and Antonio on the
life of the King of Naples, and of Caliban and his
drunken companions against Prospero, are nothing but
a feint, as we foresee that they will be completely frus-
trated by the magical skill of the latter; nothing remains
therefore but the punishment of the guilty, by dreadful
sights which harrow up their consciences, the discovery,
and final reconciliation. Yet this want is so admirably
concealed by the most varied display of the fascinations
of poetry and the exhilaration of mirth; the details of
the execution are so very attractive that it requires no
small degree of attention to perceive that the denonement
is, in some measure, already contained in the ex position.
The history of the love of Ferdinand and Miranda, de-
veloped in a few short scenes, is enchantingly beautiful:
an affecting union of chivalrous magnanimity on the
one part, and, on the other, of the virgin openness of a
heart which, brought up far from the world on an unin-
habited island, has never learned to disguise its innocent
movements. The wisdom of the princely hermit Pros-
pero has a magical and mysterious air; the impressionn
of the black falsehood of the two usurpers is mitigated
by the honest gossiping of the old and faithful Gonzalo;
Trinculo and Stephano, two good-for-nothing drunk-
ards, find a worthy associate in Caliban; and Ariel
hovers sweetly over the whole as the personified genius
of the wonderful fable.

"Caliban has become a bye-word, as the strange creation of a poetical imagination. A mixture of the gnome and the savage, half demon, half brute; in his behaviour we perceive at once the traces of his native disposition, and the influence of Prosprero's education. The latter could only unfold his understanding, without, in the slightest degree, taming his rooted malignity: it and yet he is as if the use of reason and human speech should be communicated to a stupid ape. Caliban is malicious, cowardly, false, and base in his inclinations; a civiis essentially different

from the vulgar knaves of a

lized world, as they are occasionally portrayed by Shakspeare. He is rude, but not vulgar; he never falls into the prosaical and low familiarity of his drunken associates, for he is a poetical being in his way; he always speaks too in verse. He has picked up every thing dissonant and thorny in language, out of which he has composed his vocabulary, and of the whole variety of nature, the hateful, repulsive, and pettily deformed have alone been impressed on his imagination. The magical world of spirits, which the staff of Prospero has assembled on the island, casts merely a faint reflection into his mind, as a ray of light which falls into a dark cave, incapable of communicating to it either heat or illumination, merely serves to put in motion the poisonous vapours. The whole delineation of this monster is inconceivably consistent and profound, and notwithstanding its hatefulness, by no means hurtful to our feelings, as the honour of human nature is left untouched.

"In the zephyr-like Ariel the image of air is not to be mistaken, his name even bears an allusion to it; on the other hand, Caliban signifies the heavy element of earth. Yet they are neither of them allegorical personi fications, but beings individually determined. In general we find, in the Midsummer Night's Dream, in the Tempest, in the magical part of Macbeth, and wherever Shakspeare avails himself of the popular belief in the invisible presence of spirits, and the possibility of coming in contact with them, a profound view of the inward life of Nature and her mysterious springs; which, it is true, ought never to be altogether unknown to the genuine poet, as poetry is altogether incompatible with mechanical physics, but which few have possessed in an equal degree with Dante and himself."

It seems probable that this play was written in 1611: at all events between the years 1609 and 1614. It appears from the MSS. of Vertue that the Tempest was acted, by John Heminge and the rest of the King's Company, before Prince Charles, the Lady Elizabeth, and the Prince Palatine Elector, in the beginning of the year 1613.

* Schlegel is not quite correct in asserting that Caliban always speaks in verse." Mr. Steevens, it is true, endeavoured to give a metrical form to some of his speeches, which were evidently intended for prose, and they are therefore in the present edition so printed. Shakspeare, throughout his plays, frequently introduces short prose speeches in the midst of blank verse.

† Lectures on Dramatic Literature by Aug. Will. Schlegel, translated by John Black, 1815. Vol. ii. p

178.

Boats. Heigh, my hearts; cheerly, cheerly, my hearts; yare, yare: Take in the top-sail; Tend to the master's whistle.-Blow till thou burst thy wind, if room enough!

MIRANDA, Daughter to Prospero.

ARIEL, an airy Spirit.

IRIS,

CERES,

JUNO,

Spirits,

Nymphs,

Reapers,

Other Spirits attending on Prospero.

SCENE, the Sea, with a Ship; afterwards an uninhabited Island.

Re-enter Boatswain.

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

Re-enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO. Yet again! what do you hear? Shall we give o'er, and drown? Have you a mind to sink?

Seb. A pox o' your throat! you bawling, blasphemous, uncharitable dog! Boats. Work you, then.

thou art.

Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson, insolent noise-maker, we are less afraid to be drowned than Gon. I'll warrant him from drowning; though Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDI- the ship were no stronger than a nut-shell, and as NAND, GONZALO, and others.

Alon, Good Boatswain, have care.

the master? Play the men.

Boats. I pray now, keep below.

Ant. Where is the master, boatswain?

Where's

Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our la

bour! keep your cabins: you do assist the storm.

Gon. Nay, good, be patient.

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

Gon. 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.

Gon. 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 hanged, our case is miserable. [Exeunt.

leaky as an unstanchede wench.

Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; set her two courses; off to sea again, lay her off.

brown furze, any thing: The wills above be done!
but I would fain die a dry death.
[Exit.
SCENE II. The Island: before the Cell of Pros-
pero. Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA.

Mira. If by your art, my dearest father, you have
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them:
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffer'd
With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel,
Who had no doubt some noble creature in her,
Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor souls! they porish'd.
Had I been any god of power, I would

Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er1

It should the good ship so have swallowed, and
The freighting souls within her.

Pro.

Be collected:

Sir, are not you my father?

Pro. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and
She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father
Was duke of Milan; and his only heir

A princess; no worse issued.
Mira.

O, the heavens!
What foul play had we, that we came from thence?
Or blessed was't we did?

Pro.

Mira.

Both, both, my girl:
By foul play, as thou say'st, where we heav'd thence;
But blessedly holp hither.
O, my heart bleeds
To think o' the teen that I have turned you to,
Which is from my remembrance! Please you,
further.

Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio-
I pray thee, mark me, that a brother should
Be so perfidious!-he whom, next thyself,
Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my state; as, at that time,
Through all the signiories it was the first,
And Prospero the prime duke; being so reputed
In dignity, and, for the liberal arts,
Without a parallel; those being all my study,
The government I cast upon my brother,

And to my state grew stranger, being transported,
And wrapped in secret studies. Thy false uncle-
Dost thou attend me?

I have with such provision in mine art

No, not so much perdition as an hair,

Mira.

Sir, most heedfully.

Betid to any creature in the vessel

Pro. Being once perfected how to grant suits,

Sit down;

To trash for overtopping; new created

The creatures that were mine; I say, or chang'd

them,

Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom

1 i. e. or ever, cre ever; signifying, in modern English, sooner than at any time.

2 Instead of freighting the first folio reads fraughting. 3 The double superlative is in frequent use among our elder writers.

4 To medidle, is to mix, or to interfere with. 5 Lord Burleigh, when he put off his gown at night, used to say "Lie there, Lord Treasurer."-Fuller's Holy State, p. 257.

6 Out is used for entirely, quite. Thus in Act iv: "And be a boy right out.יי

7 Abysm was the old mode of spelling abyss; from its French original abisme.

Or else new form'd them: having both the key
Of officer and office, set all hearts i' th' state
To what tune pleas'd his car; that now he was
The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk,
And suck'd my verdure out on't.---Thou attend'st not.

Mira. O good sir, I do.

Pro.

I pray thee mark me.

I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate
To closeness, and the bettering of my mind
With that, which, but by being so retir'd,
O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my false brother
Awak'd an evil nature: and my trust,
Like a good parent,1o did beget of him
A falsehood, in its contrary as great

cumber and trash"-" to trash or overslow "-and
foreslowed and trashed."

There was another word of the same kind used in Falconry (from whence Shakspeare very frequently draws his similies;) "Trassing is when a hawk raises aloft any fowl, and soaring with it, at length descends therewith to the ground." Dictionarium Rusticum, 1704.

Probably this term is used by Chapman in his address to the reader prefixed to his translation of Homer "That whosesoever imuse dares use her wing, When his muse flies she will be trass't by his, And show as if a Bernacle should spring

As my trust was; which had, indeed, no limit,
A confidence sans bound. He being thus lorded,
Not only with what my revenue yielded,

But what my power might else exact, -like one,
Who having, unto truth, by telling of it,

Made such a sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie,1-he did believe

He was indeed the duke; out of the substitution,
And executing the outward face of royalty,

With all prerogative:-Hence his ambition

Growing, Dost hear?

Mira. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.
Pro. To have no screen between this part he

Pro. Mark his condition, and the event; then From my own library, with volumes that