.

the master's whistle ;—+ Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough! Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Anthonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo,

and others. Alon. Good boatswain, have care. Where's the master ? Play the men .

Boats. I pray now, keep below.

Ant. Where is the master, boatswain ?

Boats. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour; 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. Gare is gare, g and y being convertible. • He distributed his

goods to the poor, and made himself ready for God.” The fame writer has also gare y made, i. e. “ finished, well-prepared.” Chaucer, who wrote many years afterwards, has it both as a shipphrase, and in its general sense.. But the common and unreItrained use of this word was grown obsolete before the age Shakespeare; who, notwithstanding, seems affectedly fond of introducing it in that signification. In Twelfth Night, act III. sc. xii. Sir Toby says, “ Dismount thy tuck, be yare in thy preparation.” And in Ant, and Cleop. and other plays. WARTON.

Perhaps it might be read, -blow till thou burf, wind, if toom enough. JOHNSON.

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

Blow, blow west wind,
Blow till thou rive!
Again in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609.

" ist Saylor. Blow and split thyself!
“ 2d Saylor. But sea-room, and the brine and cloudy billow

“ Kiss the moon, I care not." And yet, desiring the winds to blow till they burst their wirds, is not unlike many other conceits of Shakespeare. STEEVENS.

s Play the men,] i.e. act with spirit, behave like men. So in K. Henry VI. p. I. sc. vi.

" When they shall hear how we have play'd the Again in Marlow's Tamburlaine, 1590, p 2.

" Viceroys and peeres of Turkey, play the men.”
Ανερες ε5ι, φιλοι. STEEVENς.
B 3

Gon.

of

men ,

Gon, Good; yet reinember whom thou hast aboard.

Boats. 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 present o, we will not handle a rope more; use your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have liv'd 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 hang’d, our case is miserable. (Exeunt.

Re-enter Boatswain. Boats. Down with the top-mast; 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 Sebastian, Anthonio, and Gonzalo. Yet again? What do you here? 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. Ant. Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson, insolent noisemaker! we are less afraid to be drown'd, than thou art.

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

6

of the present, ] It may mean of the present inftant.

STEEVENS. Gonzalo.] It may be observed of Gonzalo, that, being the only good man that appears with the king, he is the only man that preserves his cheerfulness in the wreck, and his hope on the island. JOHNSON.

thip were no stronger than a nut-shell, and as leaky as an unstanch'd 8 wench.

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

Enter Mariners wet.
Mar. All loft! to prayers, to prayers ! all loft!

[Exeunt. Boats. What, must our mouths be cold? Gon. The king.and.prince at prayers ! let us affift

them,
For our case is as theirs.

Seb. I am out of patience.
Art. We're merely cheated of our lives, by drunk-

ards. This wide-chopp'd rascal;-Would, thou might'st

lie drowning, The washing of ten tides!

Gon. He'll be hang'd yet;

3

- an unstanch'd wench.] Unftancb'd, I believe, means incontinent. Steevens.

Lay her a-hold, a-hold ;--] To lay a Jhip 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 sea, Steevens.

'fet ber two courses off to fea again,-) The courses are the main-fail and forefail. This term is used by Raleigh, in his Discourse on Shipping: JOHNSON.

The patrage, as Mr. Holt has observed, should 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.

-off with your Drablers and your Banners; out with your Courses,” STBEVENS,

--merely --] In this place signifies absolutely. In which fense it is used in Hamlet, act I. sc. iii.

Things rank and gross in nature
6. Possess it merely.'
So in Ben Jonson's Poetaster:

at request
** Of some mere friends, some honourable Romans."

STEEVENG.

Though

B4

3

Though every drop of water swear against it, And gape at wid'st 3 to glut him. [A confused noise within.] Mercy on us ! We split, we split !---Farewell, my wife and chil. dren! - Farewell, brother !_We split, we split,

we split Ant. Let's all sink with the king.

[Exit. Seb. Let's take leave of him.

[Exit. Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground; s long heath, brown

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

Thou art so near the gulf • Thou needs must be englutted." And again in Timon and Othello. Yet Milton writes glutted offal for swallowed, and therefore perhaps the present text may stand. Johnson. Thus in Sir A. Gorges's translation of Lucan, B, 6,

“oylie fragments scarcely burn'd,

"Together she doth scrape and glut." i. e. swaliow. STEEVENS,

4 Brother, farewell!] All these lines have been hitherto given to Gonzalo, who has no brother in the ship. It is probable that the lines succeeding the confused noise within should be considered as spoken by no determinate characters, but should be printed thus.

i Sailor. Mercy on us !
We split, we fplit!
2 Sailor. Farewell, my, &c.
3
Sailor. Brother, farewell, &c. JOHNSON,

long beath, -] This is the common name for the erica baccifera. WARBURTON.

long heath ] The distinctions between the different forts of erica, are either --vulgaris, tenuifolia or brabantica. There is no such plant as crica 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 Harrison's Description of Britain, prefixed to our author's good friend Holingshcad, p.91. “ Brome, beth, firze, brakes, whinnies, * Ting,” &c. 'FARMER.

Mr.

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

(Exit.

SCENE II.
The inchanted isand : before the cell of Prospero.

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 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 souls ! they perish'd.
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have funk the sea within the earth, or ere 6
It should the good ship so 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. 7 No harm.

I have Mr. Tollet has sufficiently vindicated Sir Thomas Hanmer from the charge of tautology, by favouring me with specimens of three different kinds of heath which grow in his own neighbourhood. I would gladly have inserted his observations at length, but, say the truth, our author, like one of Cato's soldiers who was bit by a serpent,

Ipfe latet penitus congefto corpore mersus. Steevens. • Or ere, is before. Of this use, many instances are given hereafter. STEEVENS.

7 Pro. No harm.) I know not whether Shakespeare did not make Miranda speak thus :

O, woe the day! no harm?
To which Prospero properly answers :
I have done nothing but in care of thee.

Miranda,