THE TEMPEST*. ACT I. On a Ship at Sea. SCENE I. A tempestuous Noife of Thunder and Lightning heard: Enter a Ship-mafter and a Boatswain (1). Oatfwain, MASTER. B Boat. Here, Mafter: what cheer? -Fall to't Maft. Good, fpeak to the mariners.yarely, or we run ourselves aground; beftir, beftir. [Exit. *TheTempest.] Thefe two firft Plays, the Tempest and the Midfummer-night's Dream, are the nobleft Efforts of that fublime and amazing Imagination, peculiar to Shakespeare, which foars above the Bounds of Nature without forfaking Sense: or, more properly, carries Nature along with him beyond her established Limits. Fletcher feems particularly to have admired these two Plays, and hath wrote two in Imitation of them, the Sea-Voyage and the Faithful Shepherdess. But when he prefumes to break a Lance with Shakespeare, and write in Emulation of him, as he does in the Falfe One, which is the Rival of Anthony and Cleopatra, he is not fo fuccefsful. After him, Sir John Suckling and Milton catched the brightest Fire of their Imagination from these two Plays; which fhines fantaftically indeed, in the Goblins, but much more nobly and ferenely in The Mafk at LudlowCaftle. WARBURTON. (1.) In this Naval Dialogue, perhaps the first Example of Sailor's Language exhibited on the Stage, there are, as I have been told by a ikilful Navigator, fome Inaccuracies and contra dictory Orders. B 2 Enter Enter Mariners. Boats. Hey, my hearts; cheerly, my hearts; yare,. yare; take in the top-fail; tend to the master's whistle; (2)- -blow, 'till thou burft thy wind, if room. enough. Enter Alonfo, Sebaftian, Anthonio, Ferdinand, Alon. Good Boatfwain, have care: where's the maf ter? play the men. Boatf. I pray now, keep below. Ant. Where is the mafter, Boatswain? Boats. Do you not hear him? you mar our labour; keep your cabins: you do affift the ftorm. Gon. 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. 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 o'the prefent, we will not handle a rope more; ufe your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have lived fo 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 fay. [Exit. (3) Gon. I have great comfort from this fellow; methinks he has 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 hanged, our cafe is miferable. Exeunt.] (2) Perhaps it might be read, Blow till thou burst, wind, if room enough. (3) It may be observed of Gonzalo, that, being the only good Man that appears with the King, he is the only Man that preferves his Cheerfulness in the Wreck, and his Hope on the Iland. Re Re-enter Boatswain.. Boat Down with the top-maft: yare, lower, lower; bring her to try with main-courfe.. A cry within. A. plague upon this howling! Re-enter Sebaftian, Anthonio, and Gonzalo. They are louder than the weather, or our office. Yet again? what do you here? fhall we give o'er, and drown? have you a mind to fink? Sebaf. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blafphemous, uncharitable dog. Boat. 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, tho' the ship were no ftronger than a nut-fhell, and as leaky as an unftaunched wench. Boatf. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; fet her two (4) courfes off to fea again, lay her off. Enter Mariners wet. Mar. All loft! to prayers, to prayers! all loft! Boats. What, muft our mouths be cold? [Exeunt. Gon. The King and Prince at prayers! let us affist 'em, For our cafe is as theirs. Ant. We're merely cheated of our lives by drun Seb. I'm out of patience.. [kards.. This wide-chopt rafcal -'Would, thou might'ft lye drowning, The washing of ten tides! Gon. He'll be hang'd yet,. Though every drop of water fwear against it, (4) The Courfes are the Main-fail and Fore-fail. This Term is ufed by Raleigh in his Difcourfe on Shipping. B 3 And And gape at wid'ft to (5) glut him. [A confufed noife within.] Mercy on us! We fplit, we split! Farewel, my Wife and Children! (6) Brother, farewel! we fplit, we split, we split! 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, (7) long heath, brown furze, any thing. The wills above be done, but I would fain die a dry death! [Exit. SCENE IL Changes to a Part of the Inchanted Island, near the Cell of Profpero. Mira. I' Enter Profpero and Miranda. have F by your art, my deareft father, you Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them: The fky, it seems, 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 vessel Who had, no doubt, some noble creatures in her, (5) to glut him.] Shakespeare probably wrote, t'englur him, to fwallow him; for which I know not that glut is ever ufed by him. In this Signification englut, from engloutir, French, occurs frequently, as in Henry VI. -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. (6) Brother, farewel!] As Gonzalo had no Brother in the Ship, this Line fhould, I think, be given to Alonfo the King, taking Leave of his Brother Sebaftian, to which the next Lines make the natural Answer. Gonzalo had indeed no Wife and Children there, but that Exclamation is the general Cry in Wrecks. Brother is ufelefs, unless fome Brother had been afterwards mentioned. (7)- long heath,] This is the common Name for the erica baccifera. WARBURTON. Dafh'd all to pieces. O! the cry did knock Pro. Be collected; No more amazement; tell your piteous heart, Mira. O wo the day! I have done nothing but in care of thee, Mira. More to know Did never meddle with my thoughts. I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand, Lye there fort. [Lays down his mantle. my Art. Wipe thou thine eyes, have com The direful fpectacle of the wreck, which touch'd I have with fuch provifion in mine art (8) Profp. No harm.] I know not whether Shakespeare did not make Miranda speak thus, Owo the day! no harm? To which Profpero properly answers, I have done nothing but in care of thee. Miranda when the fpeaks the Words, O wo the day, fuppofes not that the Crew had efcaped, but that her Father thought differently from her, and counted their Destruction no harm. (9)~ Virtue of Compaffion.-] Virtue: the most efficacious Part, the energetick Quality; in a like Senfe we fay, the Virtue of a Plant is in the Extract. B4 So |