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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

Never mole, hare-lip, nor scar,

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Nor mark prodigious, such as are
Despised in nativity,

Shail upon their children be.-
With this field-dew consecrate,
Every fairy take his gait; +

And each several chamber bless,
Through this palace with sweet peace:
E'er shall it in safety rest,

And the owner of it blest.

Trip away;

Make no stay,

Meet me all by break of day.

[Exeunt OBERON, TITANIA, and
Train.

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Act V.

Puck. If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, (and all is mended,)
That you have but slumber'd here,
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend;
If you pardon, we will mend.
And, as I'm an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long:
Else the Puck a liar call.

So, good night unto you all.

Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends,
Brit.

THE TEMPEST.

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE.

THE supernatural agency which forms so leading a feature in this fanciful play, is built according to Mr. Warton) on the peculiar tenets of the Rosicrucian philosophy; the name of Ariel being derived from the Talmudistic mysteries with which the more learned Jews connected that science. It was one of Shakspeare's latest productions, and probably founded on some Italian novel. Warburton considers it sue of the noblest efforts of his sublime and amazing imagination:" a negative species of praise, since the pleasure which it creates arises from a boundless diversity of invention, from a continued succession of supernatural occurrences, devoid of application and destitute of moral, because the end is ootained by means beyond the ordinary compass of belief. In representation it is greatly dependent on the scenery and mechanism. The language, however, is throughout most forcible, and much of the sentiment chaste and magnificent. Caliban is an original creation; whimsical, monstrous, and impressive: but that meu, saved as it were by miracle from death, should immediately plot the destruction of their companions, to obtain dominions which there was no probability of their ever re-visiting, is a suggestion at variance with nature, and inconsistent with the spirit of the piece. Johnson says of The Tempest---“In a single drama are here exhibited princes, courtiers, and sailors, all speaking in their real characters. There is the agency of airy spirits, and of an earthly goblin. The operations of magic, the tumults of a storm, the adventures of a desert island, the native effusion of untaught affection, the punishment of guilt, and the final happiness of the pair for whom our passions and reason are equally interested."

ALONSO, King of Naples.

SEBASTIAN, his Brother.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

Master of a Ship, Boatswain, and Mariners.
MIRANDA, Duughter to Prospero.

PROSPERO, the rightful Duke of Milan.

ANTONIO, his Brother, the usurping Duke of ARIEL, an Airy Spirit.

Milan.

IRIS,

FERDINAND, Son to the King of Naples.
GONZALO, an honest old Counsellor of Naples.

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ADRIAN,

FRANCISCO,

} Lords.

NYMPHS,

REAPERS,

CALIBAN, a savage and deformed Slave.

TRINCULO, a Jester.

STEPHANO, a drunken Butler.

Other Spirits attending on PROSPERO.

SCENE-The Sea with a ship: afterwards an uninhabited Island.

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Gon. Nay, good, be patient.

Boats. When the sea is. Hence! What care these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: silence: trouble us not.

Gon. Good; yet remember whom thon hast aboard.

Boats. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can comunand these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not band a rope more : use your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap,-Cheerly, good hearts.-Out of our way, I say. [Exit. Gon. Fhave great comfort from this fellow : metbirks, he bath no drowning mark upon hin; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast,

good fate, to his hanging! make the rope of his No more amazement: tell your piteous heart, destiny our cable, for our own doth little advan-There's no harm done. tage! If he be not born to be hanged, our Mira. O woe the day! case is miserable.

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I

Pro. No harm.

have done nothing but in care of thee, (Of thee, my dear one! thee, my daughter!) who

Art ignorant of what thou art, nought know. ing

Of whence I am; nor that I am more better Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell, And the no greater father.

Mira. More to know

Did never meddle with my thoughts.
Pro. 'Tis time

I should inform thee further. Lend thy band,
And pluck my magic garment from me.-So;
Lays down his mantle,
Lie there my art.-Wipe thou thine eyes; have

Ant. Hang, cur, hang you whoreson, inso-The lent noise-maker, we are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.

Gon. I'll warrant him from drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nut-shell, and as leaky as an unstanched⚫ wench.

Boats. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; set her two courses; off to sea again, lay her off.

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[A confused noise within.] Mercy on us. We split, we split ! Farewell, my wife and children -Farewell, brother!— We split, we split, we split.

[Exit.

Ant. Let's all sink with the king. Seb. Let's take leave of him. Exit. Gon. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea, for an acre of barren ground; long heath, brown furze, any thing: The wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death.

Exit. SCENE II.-The Island: before the Cell of PROSPERO.

Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA.

Mira. If by your art, my dearest father, you have

Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them: The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,

But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's

cheek,

Dashes the fire out. Oh! I have suffer'd
With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel,
Who had no doubt some noble creatures in
her,

Dash'd all to pieces, Ob! the cry did knock Against my very heart! Poor souls they perish'd.

Had I been any god of power, I would

Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er t
It should the good ship so have swallowed,

and

The freighting sonds within her. Pro. Be collected;

comfort.

direful spectacle of the wreck, which
touch'd

The very virtue of compassion in thee
I have with such provision in mine art
So safely order'd, that there is no soul-
No, not so much perdition as an hair,
Betid to any creature in the vessel,
Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st
sink. Sit down;

For thou must now know further.
Mira. You have often

Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd
And left me to a bootless inquisition;
Concluding, Stay, not yet.—

Pro. The hour's now come;
The very minute bids thee ope thine ear;
Obey, and be attentive. Can'st thou remem-
ber

A time before we came unto this cell!

I do not think thou can'st; for then thou wast

not

Out three years old.

Mira. Certainly, Sir, I can.

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 assurance
That my remembrance warrants: Had I not
Four or five women once, that tended me i
Pro. Thou had'st, and more, Miranda: Brt
how is it,
That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou
else

In the dark backward and abysm + of time!
If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'at

bere

How thou cam'st here thou may'st.
Mira. But that I do not.

Pro. Twelve years since, Miranda, twelve years since,

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 said-thou wast my daughter; and thy
father

Was duke of Milan; and his only heir
A princess; no worse issned.
Mira. O the heavens !

What foul play bad we, that we came from thence?

Or blessed was't we did?

Pro. Both, both, my girl:

By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav ́ð thence;

But blessedly holp bither.

Mira. O my heart bleeds

To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to,

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Scene II.

THE TEMPEST.

Which is from my remembrance! Please you [Of homage, and I know not how much trifurther.

Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd An-
tonio,-

I pray thee mark me,-that a brother should
Be so perfidious!-he whom, next thyself,
Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my state; as, at that time,
Through all the signiories it was the first,

bute,

Should presently extirpate me and mine
Out of the dukedom; and confer fair Milan,
With all the honours, on my brother: Whereon,
A treacherous army levied, one midnight
Fated to the purpose, did Antonio open

The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of dark

ness,

And Prospero the prime duke; being so re- The ministers for the purpose hurried thence puted

In dignity, and, for the liberal arts,

Without a parallel; those being all my study,
The government I cast upon my brother,
And to my state grew stranger, being

ported,

Me and thy crying self.

Mira, Alack, for pity!

1, not rememb'ring how I cried out then,
Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint,

trans-That wrings mine eyes.

And wrapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle-
Dost thou attend me ?

Mira. Sir, most 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
The creatures that were mine; I say, or chang'd
them,

Or else new-form'd them: having both the
key

Of officer and office, set all hearts

To what tune pleased his ear; that now he was
The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk,
on't. Thou at-
And suck'd my verdure out

tend'st not:

I pray thee, mark me.

Mira. O good Sir, I do.

Pro. I thus neglecting worldly ends, all

cate

To closeness, and the bettering of my mind
With that, which, but by being so retir'd,
O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my false

ther

Awak'd an evil nature and my trust,
Like a good parent, did beget of him

A falsehood, in its contrary as great

Pro. Hear a little further,

And then I'll bring thee to the present busi

ness

Which now's upon as; without the which, this
story

Were most impertinent.

Mira. Wherefore did they not
That bour destroy us?

Pro. Well demanded, wench;

My tale provokes that question. Dear, they

durst not;

(So dear the love my people bore me) nor set
A mark so bloody on the business; but
With colours fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark;
Bore us some leagues to sea; where they pre-
pared

A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd,
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats
Instinctively had quit it: there they hoist us,
dedi-To cry to the sea that roar'd to us; to sigh
To the winds, whose pity sighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.

bro

As my trust was which had, indeed, no limit,
A confidence sans + bound.

Jorded,

He being thus

Not only with what my revenue yielded,
But what my power might else exact,-like

one,

Who, having, unto truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,
To credit bis own lie,-he did believe
He was the duke; out of the substitution,
And executing the outward face of royalty,
With all prerogative ;-Hence his ambition
Growing,-Dost hear?

Mira. Your tale, Sir, would cure deafness.
Pro. To have no screen between this part he
play'd

And him he play'd it for, needs he will be
Absolute Milan: Me, poor man!-my library
Was
dukedom large enough; of temporal
royalties

He thinks me now incapable: confederates
(So dry he was for sway) with the king of
Naples,

To give him annual tribute, do him homage;
Subject bis coronet to his crown, and bend
The dukedom, yet unbow'd, (alas, poor Milan !)
To most ignoble stooping.

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Against what should ensue.
An undergoing stomach, to bear up

Mira. How came we ashore ?
Pro. By Providence divine.

Some food we had, and some fresh water, that
A noble Neapolitan Gonzalo,

Out of his charity, (who being then appointed
Master of this design,) did give us; with
Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries,
Which since have steaded much; so of his gen-
tleness,

Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me,
From my own library, with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.
Mira. 'Would I might
But ever see that man!

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Ariel, and all his quality.

Pro. Hast thou, spirit,

Pro. Ariel, thy charge

Exactly is perform'd; but there's more work : What is the time o' the day !

Ari. Past the mid season.

Pro. At least two glasses: the time "twixt six and now,

Must by us both be spent most preciously.

Ari. Is there more toil? Since thon dest give me pains,

Let me remember thee what thou hast promis'd,

Which is not yet perform'd me.

Pro. How now ? moody?

What is't thou canst demand?

Ari. My liberty.

Pro. Before the time be out? no more.
Ari. I pray thee

Remember, I have done thee worthy service;

Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, serv'd

thee ?

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Ari. Not a soul

But felt a fever of the mad, and play'd
Some tricks of desperation: All, but mariners,
Plung'd in the foaming brine, aud quit the vessel.
Then all a fire with me: the king's son, Fer-
dinand,

With hair up-staring (then like reeds, not hair,) Was the first man that leap'd: cried, Hell is empty,

And all the devils are here.

Pro. Why, that's my spirit? But was not this nigh shore ?

Ari. Close by, my master.

Pro. But are they, Ariel, safe?
Ari. Not a hair perish'd;

On their sustaining garments not a blemish,
But fresher than before; and, as thou bad'st

me,

In troops I have dispers'd them 'bout the isle :
The king's son have I landed by himself;
Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs,
In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting,
His arms in this sad knot.

Pro. Of the king's ship,

The mariners, say, how thou hast dispos'd,
And all the rest o'the fleet ?

Ari. Safely in harbour

Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where

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Without or grudge or grumblings: thou didst

promise

To bate me a full year,

Pro. Dost thou forge.

From what a torment I did free thee !
Ari. No.

Pro. Thou dost! and think'st

It much, to tread the ooze of the salt deep;
To run upon the sharp wind of the north;
To do me business in the veins o'the earth,
When it is bak'd with frost.
Ari. I do not, Sir.

Pro. Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thon forgot

The foul witch Sycorax, who, with age, and envy,

Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her! Ari. No, Sir.

Pro. Thou hast: where was she born ? speak; tell me.

Ari. Sir, in Argier.⚫

Pro. Oh! was she so? I must, Once in a month,

recount what thou hast

been, Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch, Sycorax,

For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible
To enter human hearing, from Argier,
Thou-know'st, was banish'd; for one thing she
did,

They would not take her life: Is not this tree!
Ari. Ay, Sir.

Pro. This blue-ey'd hag was hither brought with child,

And here was left by the sailors. Thou, my

slave,

As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant,

And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate
To act her earthy and abborr'd commands,
Refusing her grand bests, t, she did confine

thee,

By help of her more potent ministers,
And in her most unmitigable rage,
Into a cloven pine; within which rift
Imprison'd, thou didst painfully remain

A dozen years; within which space she died, And left thee there; where thou did'st vent thy groans,

As fast as mill-wheels strike: then was this island,

(Save for the son that she did litter here, A freckled whelp, hag-boru) not honour'd with A human shape.

Ari. Yes; Caliban ber son.

Pro. Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban, Whom now I keep in service. Thon best know'st

What torment I did find thee in: thy groans Did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breasts

Of ever-angry bears; it was a forment
To lay upon the damu'd, which Sycorax
Could not again undo, it was mine art,

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