Enter CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO. Ste. Every man shift for all the rest, and let no man take care for himself; for all is but fortune :-Coragio, bullymonster, coragio !13 Tri. If these be true spies which I wear in my head, here's a goodly sight. Cal. O Setebos, these be brave spirits, indeed! How fine my master is! I am afraid He will chastise me. I shall be pinch'd to death. Alo. Is this not Stephano, my drunken butler? Seb. He is drunk now: Where had he wine? Alo. And Trinculo is reeling ripe: How cam'st thou in this pickle? Tri. I have been in such a pickle, since I saw you last, that, I fear me, will never out of my bones: I shall not fear fly-blowing.14 Seb. Why, how now, Stephano? Ste. O, touch me not; I am not Stephano, but a cramp.15 Pro. You'd be king of the isle, sirrah? Ste. I should have been a sore one, then. Alo. This is as strange a thing as e'er I look'd on. [Pointing to CALIBAN. Pro. He is as disproportion'd in his manners, As in his shape :-Go, sirrah, to my cell; Cal. Ay, that I will: and I'll be wise hereafter, 13 Coragio!] An exclamation of encouragement. 14 -fly-blowing.] Such a pickle alludes to their being left by Ariel "in the filthy mantled pool;" and pickling preserves meat from fly-blowing. 15 but a cramp.] I am all over a cramp. Prospero having ordered Ariel "to shorten up their sinews with aged cramps." Pro. Go to; away! [Exeunt CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO. Sir, I invite your highness and your train, To my poor cell: where you shall take your rest And the particular accidents, gone by, Alo. I long To hear the story of your life, which must Take the ear strangely. Pro. I'll deliver all; And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales, Your royal fleet far off. Please you draw near. [Exeunt all but PROSPERO into cell. My Ariel; chick! [ARIEL appears. That is thy charge; then to the elements Be free, and fare thou well! NIGHT DESCENDS. THE SPIRITS, RELEASED BY PROSPERO, TAKE THEIR FLIGHT FROM THE ISLAND, INTO THE AIR. CHORUS OF SPIRITS. Where the bee sucks, &c., &c. MORNING BREAKS, AND SHOWS A SHIP IN A CALM, PREPARED TO CONVEY THE KING AND HIS COMPANIONS BACK TO NAPLES. EPILOGUE. SPOKEN BY PROSPERO FROM THE DECK OF THE VESSEL. Now my charms are all o'erthrown, And what strength I have's mine own; AND ARIEL REMAINS ALONE IN MID-AIR, WATCHING THE DEPARTURE OF HIS LATE MASTER. DISTANT CHORUS OF SPIRITS. 16 With the help of your good hands.] By your applause, by clap. ping hands.-Noise being supposed to dissolve a spell. 17 Unless I be reliev'd by prayer ;] This is an allusion to the old stories told of the despair of necromancers in their last moments, and of the efficacy of the prayers of their friends for them. WARBURTON. THE END. HISTORICAL NOTE TO ACT FIFTH. (A) Ye elves of hills.] The different species of the fairy tribe are called in the Northern languages alfen, elfen, and alpen, words of remote and uncertain etymology. The Greek olioo, felix, is not so plausible an original as the Teutonic helfen, juvare; because many of these supernatural beings were supposed to be of a mischievous nature, but all of them might very properly be invoked to assist mankind. Some of the northern nations regarded them as the souls of men who in this world had given themselves up to corporeal pleasures, and trespasses against human laws. It was conceived, therefore, that they were doomed to wander for a certain time about the earth, and to be bound in a kind of servitude to mortals. One of their occupations was that of protecting horses in the stable. See Olaus Magnus de gentibus septentrionalibus, lib. iii. cap. xi. It is probable that our fairy system is originally derived from the Fates, Fauns, Nymphs, Dryads, Deæ matres, &c., of the ancients, in like manner as other Pagan superstitions were corruptedly retained after the promulgation of Christianity. The general stock might have been augmented and improved by means of the crusades and other causes of intercourse with the nations of the East.-Douce. |