Brim-full of forrow and difmay; but, chiefly,
Him that you term'd the good old lord Gonzalo,
His tears run down his beard, like winter drops
From eaves of reeds; your charm fo ftrongly works
'em.

That if you now beheld them, your affections
Would become tender.

Pro. Do'st thou think fo, fpirit?

Ari. Mine would, Sir, were I human.

Pro. And mine fhall.

Haft thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling
Of their afflictions, and fhall not myself,

One of their kind, 2 that relish all as fharply,
Paffion as they, be kindlier mov'd than thou art?
Though with their high wrongs I am ftruck to the
quick,

Yet, with my nobler reafon, 'gainst my fury
Do I take part; the rarer action is

In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent,
The fole drift of my purpofe doth extend
Not a frown further: go, releafe them, Ariel;
My charms I'll break, their fenfes I'll reftore,
And they fhall be themselves.

Ari. I'll fetch them, Sir.

[Exit. Pro. 3 Ye elves of hills, brooks, ftanding lakes,

and groves,

And

Paffion is a verb in Shakespeare,

that relish all as sharply,

2

Paffion as they,

I feel every thing with the fame quick fenfibility, and am moved by the fame paffions as they are. So in The Gent. of

Verena :

"Madam, 'twas Ariadne paffioning
"For Thefeus' perjury," &c.

Again, in his Venus and Adonis:

66

Dumbly the paffions, frantickly fhe doateth."

STEEVENS.

3 Ye elves of bills, of ftanding lakes, and groves,] This fpeech Dr. Warburton rightly obferves to be borrowed from Medea's in Ovid and it proves, fays Mr. Holt, beyond contradiction, that Shakespeare was perfectly acquainted with the fentiments

of

And ye, that on the fands 4 with printless foot
Do chafe the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him,
When he comes back; you demy-puppets, that
By moon-fhine do the green four ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites; and you, whofe paftime
Is to make midnight mushrooms; that rejoice
To hear the folemn curfew; by whose aid

5 (Weak mafters though ye be) I have be-dimm'd
The noon-tide fun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
And 'twixt the green fea and the azur'd vault
Set roaring war; to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak
With his own bolt: the ftrong-bas'd promontory
Have I made shake; and by the fpurs pluck'd up
The pine and cedar: graves, at my command,
Have wak'd their fleepers; op'd, and let them forth.
By my fo potent art. But this rough magick
I here abjure; and when I have requir'd
Some heavenly mufick (which even now I do)

of the ancients on the fubject of inchantments. The original lines are thefe:

66

"Auræque, & venti, montefque, amnefque, lacufque, Diique omnes nemorum, diique omnes noctis adefte." The tranflation of which by Golding is by no means literal, and Shakespeare hath clofely followed it:

"Ye ayres and winds; ye elves of bills, of brookes, of
"woods alone,

"Of ftanding lakes, and of the night approche ye everych
" one." FARMER.

with printless foot

Do chafe the ebbing Neptunc,-] So Milton, in his Mafque:
"Whilft from off the waters fleet,

"Thus I fet my printlefs feet."

STEEVENS.

(Weak mafters though ye be)-] The meaning of this paffage may be; Though you are but inferior masters of thefe Jupernatural powers, though you poffefs them but in a law degree. Spenfer ufes the fame kind of expreffion, B, 3. Cant. 8. St. 4. "Where the (the witch) was wont her fprights to enter

"tain

"The mafters of her art: there was fhe fain

"To call them all in order to her aid." STEEVENS.

To work mine end upon their fenfes, that
This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And, deeper than did ever plummet found,
I'll drown my book,

[Solemn mufick,

Re-enter Ariel: after him Alonzo with a frantick gefture,
attended by Gonzalo. Sebaftian and Anthonio in like
manner, attended by Adrian and Francifco. They all
enter the circle which Profpero had made, and there
ftand charm'd; which Profpero obferving, Speaks.
A folemn air, and the best comforter
To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains

Now useless, boil'd within thy fkull! There ftand,
For you are spell stopp'd.

Holy Gonzalo, honourable man,

Mine eyes, even fociable to the fhew of thine,
Fall fellowly drops.-The charm diffolves apace;
And as the morning fteals upon the night,
Melting the darknets; fo their rifing fenfes
Begin to chase the ignorant fumes, that mantle
Their clearer reafon.-O my good Gonzalo,
My true preferver, and a loyal Sir

To him thou follow'ft; I will pay thy graces
Home both in word and deed. Most cruelly
Didft thou, Alonfo, ufe me and my daughter:
Thy brother was a furtherer in the act ;-
Thou'rt pinch'd for't now, Sebaftian.Flesh and
blood

You brother mine, that entertain'd ambition,
Expell'd remorfe and nature; who, with Sebaftian,
(Whofe inward pinches therefore are most strong)
Would here have kill'd your king; I do forgive thee,
Unnatural though thou art. Their understanding
Begins to fwell; and the approaching tide
Will fhortly fill the reafonable fhore,

That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of them,
That yet looks on me, or would know me-Ariel,

Fetch

Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell;
I will dif-cafe me, and myself prefent,

[Exit Ariel, and returns immediately, Quickly, spirit;

As I was fometime Milan.-
Thou shalt e'er long be free.

Ariel fings, and helps to attire him.

Where the bee fucks, there fuck I;
In a cowflip's bell I lie:

There I couch when owls do

On the bat's back I do fly,

6 After fummer, merrily.

cry.

Merrily, merrily, fhall I live now,

Under the bloffom that hangs on the bough.

Pro.

• After fummer, merrily.] This is the reading of all the editions. Yet Mr. Theobald has fubftituted fun-fet, because Ariel talks of riding on the bat in this expedition. An idle fancy. That circumitance is given only to defign the time of night in which fairies travel. One would think the confideration of the circumstances should have fet him right. Ariel was a spirit of great delicacy, bound by the charms of Profpero to a constant attendance on his occafions. So that he was confined to the ifland winter and fummer. But the roughnefs of winter is reprefented by Shakespeare as difagreeable to fairies, and fuch like delicate fpirits, who, on this account, conftantly follow fummer. Was not this then the most agreeable circumstance of Ariel's new recovered liberty, that he could now avoid winter, and follow fummer quite round the globe? But to put the matter quite out of queftion, let us confider the meaning of this line:

There I couch when owls do cry. Where? in the cowflip's bell, and where the bee fucks, he tells us: this must needs be in fummer. When? when owls cry, and this is in winter :

"When blood is nipp'd, and ways be foul,
"Then nightly fings the ftaring owl."

The Song of Winter in Love's Labour Loft. The confequence is, that Ariel flies after fummer. Yet the Oxford Editor has adopted this judicious emendation of Mr. Theobald. WARBURTON.

Ariel does not appear to have been confined to the island, fummer and winter, as he was fometimes fent on fo long an

errand

Pro. Why, that's my dainty Ariel: I fhall mifs thee; But yet thou fhalt have freedom. So, fo, fo.To the king's fhip, invisible as thou art; There fhalt thou find the mariners asleep Under the hatches; the master, and the boatfwain, Being awake, enforce them to this place; And presently, I pr'ythee.

Ari. 7 I drink the air before me, and return Or e'er your pulfe twice beat.

[Exit.

Gon. All torment, trouble, wonder, and amaze

ment

Inhabits here; fome heavenly power guide us
Out of this fearful country!

Pro. Behold, Sir King,

The wronged duke of Milan, Profpero :
For more affurance that a living prince
Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body;
And to thee and thy company I bid

A hearty welcome.

Alon. Be'ft thou he, or no,

Or fome inchanted trifle to abuse me,

As late I have been, I not know: thy pulse
Beats, as of flesh and blood; and, fince I saw thee,
The affliction of my mind amends, with which,

errand as to the Bermoothes. When he says, On the bat's back I do fly, &c. he fpeaks of his prefent fituation only, nor triumphs in the idea of his future liberty till the last couplet,

Merrily, merrily, &c.

The bat is no bird of paffage, and the expreffion is therefore probably used to fignify, not that be purfues fummer, but that after fummer is past, he rides upon the foft down of a bat's back, which fuits not improperly with the delicacy of his airy being.

Shakespeare, who, in his Midfummer Night's Dream, has placed the light of a glow-worm in its eyes, might, through the fame ignorance of natural hiftory, have fuppofed the bat to be a bird of paffage. Owls cry not only in winter. It is well known that they are not lefs clamorous in fummer.

STEEVENS.

7 To drink the air] Is an expression of swiftnefs of the fame kind as to devour the way in Henry IV. JOHNSON. I fear,