From me, the lord on't.

Ferd.

No, as I'm a man.

Mira. There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple :

If the ill spirit have so fair a house,

Good things will strive to dwell with't.

Pros. [To FERD.]

Follow me.

Speak not you for him; he's a traitor. — Come;

I'll manacle thy neck and feet together:

Sea-water shalt thou drink; thy food shall be

The fresh-brook muscles, wither'd roots, and husks
Wherein the acorn cradled. Follow.

My fool my tutor ! Put thy sword up, traitor;

Who makest a show, but darest not strike, thy conscience

Is so possess'd with guilt: come from thy ward;

For I can here disarm thee with this stick,

And make thy weapon drop.

Mira.

100

Beseech you, father!—

Sir, have pity;

Pros. Hence! hang not on my garments.

Mira.

I'll be his surety.

99 This clearly means that Ferdinand is brave and high-spirited, so that, if pressed too hard, he will rather die than succumb. It is a good old notion that bravery and gentleness naturally go together.

100 Ward is posture or attitude of defence. Ferdinand is standing with his sword drawn, and his body planted, ready for defending himself. So, in 1 Henry the Fourth, ii. 4, Falstaff says, "Thou knowest my old ward: here I lay, and thus I bore my point."

Pros.

Silence! one word more

Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee. What,
An advocate for an impostor! hush!

Thou think'st there are no more such shapes as he,
Having seen but him and Caliban: foolish wench!
To th' most of men this is a Caliban,

And they to him are angels.

Mira.

My affections

Are, then, most humble; I have no ambition

To see a goodlier man.

Pros. [To FERD.]

101

Come on; obey :

Thy nerves are in their infancy again,

And have no vigour in them.

Ferd.

So they are:

My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up.

My father's loss, the weakness which I feel,

The wreck of all my friends, and this man's threats
To whom I am subdued, are light to me,

Might I but through my prison once a-day

Behold this maid: all corners else o' the Earth

Let liberty make use of; space enough

Have I in such a prison.

Pros. [Aside.]

It works.

[To FERD.] Come on.

Thou hast done well, fine Ariel ! — [To FERD.] Follow me. [To ARIEL.] Hark what thou else shalt do me.

Mira.

My father's of a better nature, sir,

Than he appears by speech: this is unwonted
Which now came from him.

Pros.

Be of comfort;

Thou shalt be as free

As mountain winds: but then exactly do

101 Nerves for sinews; the two words being used indifferently in the Poet's time. Also artery, as in Hamlet, i. 4: "And makes each petty artery as hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve."

All points of my command.

Ari.

To th' syllable.

Pros. Come, follow. — Speak not for him.

[Exeunt.

ACT II.

SCENE I.-Another Part of the Island.

Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN,
FRANCISCO, and others.

Gonza. Beseech you, sir, be merry: you have cause
So have we all of joy; for our escape
Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe
Is common; every day some sailor's wife,

The master of some merchant,1 and the merchant,
Have just our theme of woe: but for the miracle—
I mean our preservation—few in millions

Can speak like us: then wisely, good sir, weigh
Our sorrow with our comfort.

Alon.

Pr'ythee, peace.

Sebas. He receives comfort like cold porridge.
Anto. The visitor 2 will not give him o'er so.

Sebas. Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit; by

and-by it will strike.

Gonza. Sir,

Sebas. One: - tell.3

1 Meaning what we call a merchant-vessel or a merchant-man.

2 He calls Gonzalo a visitor in allusion to the office of one who visits the sick or the afflicted, to give counsel and consolation. The caustic scoffing humour of Sebastian and Antonio, in this scene, is wisely conceived.

8 Tell is count, or keep tally; referring to "the watch of his wit," which he was said to be "winding up," and which now begins to strike.

Gonza. Dolour comes to him, indeed: you have spoken truer than you purposed.

Sebas. You have taken it wiselier than I meant you should. Gonza. Therefore, my lord,

Anto. Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue!

Alon. I pr'ythee, spare me.

Gonza. Well, I have done: but yet

Sebas. He will be talking.

Anto. Which, of he or Adrian,4 for a good wager, first

begins to crow?

Sebas. The old cock.

Anto. The cockerel.

Sebas. Done! The wager?

Anto. A laughter.

Sebas. A match!

Adri. Though this island seem to be desert,

Sebas. Ha, ha, ha !-So, you're paid.5

Adri. -uninhabitable, and almost inaccessible,

Adri. —it must needs be of subtle, tender, and delicate temperance.6

4 This, it appears, is an old mode of speech, which is now entirely obsolete. Shakespeare has it once again. See vol. iii. page 60, note 30. And Walker quotes an apposite passage from Sidney's Arcadia: "The question arising, who should be the first to fight against Phalantus, of the black or the ill-apparelled knight," &c.

5 A laugh having been agreed upon as the wager, and Sebastian having lost, he now pays with a laugh.

6 By temperance Adrian means temperature, and Antonio plays upon the word; alluding, perhaps, to the Puritan custom of bestowing the names of the cardinal virtues upon their children.

Anto. Temperance was a delicate wench.

Sebas. Ay, and a subtle; as he most learnedly delivered.

Adri. The air breathes upon us here most sweetly.

Sebas. As if it had lungs, and rotten ones.

Anto. Or as 'twere perfumed by a fen.

Gonza. Here is every thing advantageous to life.

Anto. True; save means to live.

Sebas. Of that there's none, or little.

Gonza. How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green!

Anto. The ground, indeed, is tawny.

Sebas. With an eye of green in't.8

Anto. He misses not much.

Sebas. No; he doth but mistake the truth totally. Gonza. But the rarity of it is,—which is indeed almost beyond credit,

Sebas. As many vouch'd rarities are.

Gonza. that our garments, being, as they were, drenched in the sea, hold, notwithstanding, their freshness and gloss, being rather new-dyed than stain'd with salt water.

Anto. If but one of his pockets could speak, would it not say he lies?

Sebas. Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report.

Gonza. Methinks our garments are now as fresh as when we put them on first in Afric, at the marriage of the King's fair daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis.

Sebas. 'Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper well in

our return.

Adri. Tunis was never graced before with such a paragon to their Queen.

7 Lush is juicy, succulent, — luxuriant.

8 A tint or shade of green. So in Sandy's Travels: "Cloth of silver, tissued with an eye of green;" and Bayle has "Red with an eye of blue."

9 To was used in such cases where we should use for or as. So in the Marriage Office of the Church: "Wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife?" Also, in St. Mark, xii. 23: "The seven had her to wife."