A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes With words that made them known. But thy vile race (Tho' thou didst learn) had that in't, which good natures Could not abide to be with; therefore waft thou Who hadít deferv'd more than a prifon Cal. You taught me language, and my profit on't Is, I know how to curfe: the red plague rid 8 For learning me your language! you, Pro. Hag-feed, hence! Fetch us in fewel and be quick (thou wer't beft) Cal. No, 'pray thee. I must obey; his art is of fuch pow'r, Pro. So, flave, hence! tions of its own mind, which, it would feem, a Brute hath not. Tho' this, I fay, may be applied to a brute, and confequently to Caliban, and tho' to remedy this brutality be a nobler benefit than even the teaching language; yet fuch a fenfe would be impertinent and abfurd in this place, where only the benefit of language [afide. [Exit Caliban. is talked of by an exact and learned Speaker. Befides, Proipero exprefly fays, that Caliban. had purposes; which, in other words, is that he did know his own meaning. C 4 WARBURTON. 8 Red Plague.] I fuppofe from the Redness of the Body univerfally inflamed. SCENE V. SCENE Enter Ferdinand, at the remotest part of the stage; and Ariel invifible, playing and finging. ARIEL's SON G. Come unto thofe yellow fands, Court'fied when you have, and kist, Foot it featly here and there, [Burden, difperfedly. Hark, hark, baugh-waugh: the watch-dogs bark, Baugh-waugh. Ari. Hark, hark, I hear The ftrain of ftrutting chanticlere Fer. Where fhould this mufick be, i'th' air, or It founds no more: and fure, it waits upon ARIEL's SONG. Full fathom five thy father lies, But doth fuffer a fea-change, Into fomething rich and strange. Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell. Hark, now I hear them, ding-dong, bell. 9 [Burden, ding-dong, Fer. 9 Full fathom five thy father lies, &c.] Gilden, who has pretended to criticife our Author, would give this up as an infufferable and fenfeless piece of trifling. And I believe this is the general opinion concerning it. But a very unjust one. Let us confider the bufinefs Ariel is here upon, and his manner of executing it. The Commiffion Prof pero had intrufted to him, in a whifper, was plainly this; to conduct Ferdinand to the fight of Miranda, and to difpofe him to the quick fentiments of love, while he, on the other hand, prepared his daughter for the fame impreffions. Ariel fets about his bufinefs by acquainting Ferdinand, in an extraordinary manner, with the afflictive news of his father's death. A very odd Apparatus, one would think, for a love-fit. And yet as odd as it appears, the Poet has fhewn in it the finest conduct for carrying on his plot. Profpero had faid, I find my Zenith doth depend upon A moft aufpicious far; abfe influence If now I count not, but amit, my Fortunes Will ever after droop.. In confequence of this his prefcience, he takes advantage of every favourable circumftance > that the occafion offers. The principal affair is the Marriage of his daughter with young Ferdinand. But to fecure this point it was neceffary they should be contracted before the affair came to Alonzo the Father's knowledge! For Profpero was ignorant how this torm and fhipwreck, caufed by him, would work upon A lanzo's temper. It might either foften him, or increafe his averfion for Profpero as the Author. On the other hand, to engage Ferdinand, without the confent of his Father, was difficult. For not to fpeak of his Quality, where fuch engagements are not made without the confent of the Sovereign, Ferdinand is reprefented (to fhew it a Match worth the feeking) of a most pious temper and difpofition, which would prevent his contracting himself without his Father's knowledge. The Poet therefore, with the utmost addrefs, has made Ariel perfuade him of has Father's death to remove this Remora. WARBURTON. I know not whether Dr. Warfended thefe Songs from Gildon's burton has very fuccefsfully deaccufation. Ariel's lays, however feasonable and efficacious, must be allowed to be of no fupernatural dignity or elegance, they exprefs nothing great, nor reveal Fer. The ditty does remember my drown'd father. This is no mortal bufinefs, nor no found That the earth owns: I hear it now above me. Pro. The fringed curtains of thine eyes advance, And fay, what thou fee'ft yond. Mira. What is't, a fpirit? Lord, how it looks about! believe me, Sir, Pro. No, wench, it eats, and fleeps, and hath fuch fenfes As we have, fuch. This gallant, which thou feeft, Was in the wreck and, but he's fomething ftain'd With grief, that's beauty's canker, thou might'ft call him A goodly perfon. He hath loft his fellows, And ftrays about to find 'em. Mira, I might call him A thing divine; for nothing natural I ever faw fo noble. Pro. It goes on, I fee, [Afide. As my foul promps it. Spirit, fine fpirit, I'll free thee Within two days for this. Fer. Most fure, the Goddess On whom thefe airs attend!-Vouchfafe, my pray'r Miro. No wonder, Sir, reveal any thing above mortal difcovery. The reafon for which Ariel is introduced thus trifling is, that he and his companions are evidently of the fairy kind, an or der of beings to which tradition has always afcribed a fort of diminutive agency, powerful but ludicrous, a humorous and frolick controlment of nature, well expreffed by the Songs of Ariel. But But certainly a maid. Fer. My language! heav'n's! What wert thou, if the King of Naples heard thee? Mira. Alack, for mercy! Fer. Yes, faith, and all his lords: the Duke of Milan, And his brave Son, being twain. 2 The Duke of Milan, Pro. And his more braver daughter, could control thee, 3 If now 'twere fit to do't:At the first fight, [Afide to Ariel. They have chang'd eyes:-delicate Ariel, -certainly a maid.] Nothing could be more prettily imagined to illuftrate the fingularity of her character, than this pleasant miftake. She had been bred up in the rough and plain-dealing documents of moral philofophy, which teaches us the knowledge of ourselves: And was an utter Aranger to the flattery invented by vicious and defigning Men to corrupt the other Sex. So that it could not enter into her imag nation, that complaifance and a defire of appearing amiable, qualities of humanity which he had been inftructed, in her moral lef fons, to cultivate, could ever degenerate into fuch excefs, as that any one fhould be willing to have his fellow-creature believe that he thought her a Godde or an immortal. WARBURTON. |
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