PRO. By what? by any other house, or person? Of any thing the image tell me, that Hath kept with thy remembrance. MIRA. 'Tis far off; And rather like a dream, than an affurance PRO. Thou had'ft, and more, Miranda : But how is it That this lives in thy mind? What feeft thou elfe In the dark backward and abyfm of time?4 If thou remember'ft aught, ere thou cam'ft here, How thou cam'ft here, thou may'st. MIRA. But that I do not. PRO. Twelve years fince, Miranda, twelve years fince,' Thy father was the duke of Milan, and A prince of power. MIRA. Sir, are not you my father? PRO. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She faid thou waft my daughter; and thy father Was duke of Milan; and his only heir A princefs; -no worfe iffued." abyfm of time?) i. c. abyss. This method of fpelling the word, is common to other ancient writers. They took it from the French abyfme, now written abims. So, in Heywood's Brazen Age, 1613: "And chafe him from the deep abysms below." STEEVENS. Twelve years fince, Miranda, twelve years fince,) Years, in the first inftance, is ufed as a diffyllable, in the fecond as a monofyllable. But this, I believe, is a licence peculiar to the profody of Shakspeare. STEEVENS. 6. A princess; no worse iffued.) The old copy reads «And princess." For the trivial change in the text I am answerable. Iffued is defcended. So, in Greene's Card of Fancy, 1608: "For I am by birth a gentleman, and issued of such parents," &c. STEEVENS. MIRA. O the heavens ! What foul play had we, that we came from thence? Or bleffed was't, we did? PRO. Both, both, my girl: By foul play, as thou fay'ft, were we heav'd thence; But bleffedly holp hither. MIRA. O, my heart bleeds To think o' the teen 7 that I have turn'd you to, Which is from my remembrance! Please you, I further. PRO. My brother, and thy uncle call'd Antonio pray thee, mark me, that a brother should Be fo perfidious! he whom, next thyfelf, Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put The manage of my ftate; as, at that time, Through all the figniories it was the firft, And Profpero the prime duke; being fo reputed In dignity, and, for the liberal arts, Without a parallel; thofe being all my ftudy, And to my MIRA. Sir, moft heedfully. PRO. Being once perfected how to grant suits How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom To trash for over-topping;' new created 7 teen 8 -- ) is forrow, grief, trouble. So, in Romeo and Juliet, to my teen be it fpoken." STEEVENS. whom to advance, and whom ) The old copy has who in both places. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. 9 To trash for over-topping;) To trash, as Dr. Warburton obferves, is to cut away the fuperfluities. This word I have met with in 1 The creatures that were mine; I fay, or chang'd them, books containing directions for gardeners, publifhed in the time of queen Elizabeth. The prefent exclamation may be countenanced by the following paffage in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, B. X. ch. 57: "Who fuffreth none by might, by wealth or blood to overtopp. Himself gives all preferment, and whom lifteth him doth lop." Again in our author's K. Richard II: "Go thou, and, like an executioner, "Cut off the heads of too-faft-growing sprays That look too lofty in our commonwealth." 66 Mr. Warton's note, however, on trafh for his quick hunting," in the fecond act of Othello, leaves my interpretation of this paffage fomewhat difputable. Mr. M. Mafon obferves that to trash for overtopping, may mean to lop them, because they did overtop, or in order to prevent them from overtopping. So Lucetta, in the fecond fcene of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, fays I was taken up for laying them down, "Yet here they fhall not lie, for catching cold." That is, left they fhould catch cold. See Mr. Mafon's note on this paffage. In another place ( note on Othello) Mr. M. Mafon obferves that Shakspeare had probably in view, when he wrote the paffage before us, the manner in which Tarquin conveyed to Sextus his advice to deftroy the principal citizens of Gabii, by firiking off, in the prefence of his meffengers, the heads of all the talleft poppies, as he walked with them in his garden." STEEVENS. I think this phrafe means --- to correa for too much haughtiness or overbearing." It is used by sportsmen in the North whea they correa a dog for misbehaviour in purfuing the game. This explanation is warranted by the following paffage in Othello, A& II. fc. i: If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trash It was not till after I had made this remark, that I saw Mr. Warton's note on the above lines in Othello, which corroborates it. DOUCE. A trash is a term ftill in ufe among hunters, to denote a piece of leather, couples, or any other weight faftened round the neck of a dog, when his fpeed is fuperior to the reft of the pack; i. c. when he over-tops them, when he hunts too quick. C. Or else new form'd them: having both the key" Of officer and office, fet all hearts 3 To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk, And fuck'd my verdure out on't. not: I pray thee, mark me." MIRA. Thou attend'ft O good Sir, I do. PRO. Ithus neglecting wordly ends, all dedicate To clofenefs, and the bettering of my mind With that, which, but by being fo retir'd, O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my falfe brother Awak'd an evil nature and my trust, 1 Like a good parent, did beget of him As my truft was; which had, indeed, no limit, 2 both the key) This is meant of a key for tuning the harpfichord, fpinnet, or virginal; we call it now a tuning hammer. SIR J. HAWKINS. 66 - 3 Of Officer and office, fet all hearts -) The old copy reads all hearts i'th flate," but redundantly in regard to metre, and unneceffarily refpeding sense; for what hearts, except fuch as were th fate, could Alonfo incline to his purposes? I have followed the advice of Mr. Ritfon, who judiciously propofes to omit the words now ejected from the text. STEEVENS. 4 I pray thee, mark me.) In the old copy, these words are the beginning of Profpero's next speech; but, for the restoration of metre, I have changed their place. STEEVENS. I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate) The old copy has - dedicated; but we fhould read, as in the prefent text, dedicate." Thus in Meafure for Meafure: 66 Prayers from fafting maids, whofe minds are dedicate 6 Like a good parent, &c.) Alluding to the obfervation, that a father above the common rate of men has commonly a fon below it. Heroum filii noxe. JOHNSON. like one, But what my power might elfe exact, To credit his own lie," he did believe MIRA. Your tale, fir, would cure deafness. PRO. To have no fcreen between this part he play'd And him he play'd it for, he needs will be like one, Who having, unto truth, by telling of it, To credit his own lie.) There is, perhaps, no correlative, to which the word it can with grammatical propriety belong. Lie, however, feems to have been the correlative to which the poet meant to refer, however ungrammatically. The old copy reads - inte truth." The neceffary correction was made by Dr. Warburton. STEEVENS. 7 He was the duke; out of the fubftitution,} The old copy readsHe was indeed the duke." I have omitted the word indeed, for the fake of metre. The reader fhould place his emphasis on was. STEEVENS. 8 (So dry he was for fway)) i. e. So thirfly. The expreffion, 1 am told, is not uncommon in the midland counties. Thus in Leicefler's Commonwealth : against the defignments of the hafty Erle who thirfleth a kingdome with great intemperance. Again, in Troilus and Creffida: "Hią ambition is dry." STEEVENS. |