To run upon the fharp Wind of the North;
To do me business in the veins o' th' earth,
When it is bak'd with frost.

Ari. I do not, Sir.

Pro. Thou ly'ft, malignant thing! haft thou forgot The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy Was grown into a hoop? haft thou forgot her? Ari. No, Sir.

Pro. Thou haft: where was fhe born? fpeak; tell

me.

Ari. Sir, in Argier.

Pro. Oh, was the fo? I muft

Once in a month recount what thou hast been,
Which thou forget'ft. This damn'd witch Sycorax,
For mifchiefs manifold and forceries terrible
To enter human hearing, from Argier,

Thou know'ft, was banish'd: for one thing fhe did,
They would not take her life. Is not this true?
Ari. Ay, Sir.

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

And here was left by th' failors; thou my flave,
As thou report'ft thyself, waft then her fervant.
And, for thou waft a spirit too delicate
To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands,
Refufing her grand hefts, fhe did confine thee,
By help of her more potent minifters,
And in her most unmitigable rage,
Into a cloven pine; within which rift
Imprifon'd, thou didst painfully remain

A dozen years, within which space she dy'd,

And left thee there: where thou didst vent thy groans, As faft as mill-wheels ftrike. Then was this ifland, Save for the fon that she did litter here,

A freckled whelp, hag born, not honour'd with

A human shape.

Ari. Yes; Caliban her fon.

Pro. Dull thing, I fay fo: he, that Caliban,

Whom

Whom now I keep in fervice.. Thou best know'it,
What torment I did find thee in; thy groans
Did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breasts
Of ever-angry bears; it was a torment
To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax
Could not again undo: it was mine art,
When I arriv'd and heard thee, that made gape
The pine, and let thee out.

Ari. I thank thee, master.

Pro. If thou more murmur'ft, I will rend an oak,
And peg thee in his knotty entrails, 'till
Thou'ft howl'd away twelve winters.
Ari. Pardon, master.

I will be correfpondent to command,
And do my fp'riting gently.

Pro. Do fo; and after two days

I will discharge thee...

Ari. That's my noble master:

What fhall I do? fay what? what fhall I do?

Pro. Go make thyfelf like to a nymph o' th' fea.
Be fubject to no fight but mine, invisible
To every eye-ball elfe. Go take this shape
And hither come in it: go hence with diligence.

[Exit Ariel.

Awake, dear heart, awake! thou haft flept well; Awake

Mira. The ftrangeness of your ftory put 4 Heaviness in me.

Pro. Shake it off: come on;

We'll visit Caliban, my flave, who never

Yields us kind answer.

Mira. 'Tis a villain, Sir,

I do not love to look on
Pro. But, as 'tis,

4 The frangeness] Why fhould a wonderful Story produce Sleep? I believe Experience will prove that any violent Agitation of the

Mind easily fubfides in Slumber. efpecially when, as in Projpero's Relation, the laft Images are pleafing.

We cannot mifs him: he does make our fire,
Fetch in our wood, and ferves in offices

What ho! flave! Caliban!

Thou earth, thou! speak.

Cal. [within.] There's wood enough within.

Pro. Come forth, I fay; there's other Business for

Come, thou Tortoife! when?-

Enter Ariel like a Water Nymph.

Fine apparition! my quaint Ariel,

Hark in thine ear.

Ari. My lord, it shall be done.

Pro. Thou poisonous flave, got by the devil himself Upon thy wicked dam, come forth.

5 Cal. As wicked dew, as e'er my mother brush'd With raven's feather from unwholfom fen,

Drop on you both! a fouth-weft blow on you,
And blifter you all o'er!

Pro. For this be fure, to night thou fhalt have cramps,
Side-stitches that fhall pen thy breath up; urchins
Shall, for that vaft of night that they may work,
All exercise on thee: thou shalt be pinch'd

As thick as honey-combs, each pinch more ftinging Than bees that made 'em.

Cal. I muft eat my dinner.

This Island's mine by Sycorax my mother,

Which thou tak'st from me. When thou camest first, Thou ftroak'dft me, and mad'ft much of me; and would'st give me

Water with berries in't; and teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less
That burn by day and night: and then I lov'd thee,
And fhew'd thee all the qualities o' th' Ifle,

The fresh fprings, brine pits; barren place, and fertile.
Curs'd be I, that I did fo! all the charms

Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!
For I am all the fubjects that you have,

Who first was mine own King; and here you fty me

unknown to all others--and again -to practise diftances is fill a Caliban file. Note on Milton's Paradife Loft, 1. 4. v. 945. But I know of no fuch Caliban file in Shakespear, that hath new phrase and diction unknown to all others.

WARBURTON.

Whence these criticks derived the notion of a new language appropriated to Caliban I cannot find They certainly mistook brutality of fentiment for uncouthnefs of words. Caliban had learned to speak of Profpero and his daughter, he had no names for the fun and moon be

fore their arrival, and could not have invented a language of his own without more understanding than Shakespear has thought it proper to bestow upon him. His diction is indeed fomewhat clouded by the gloominess of his temper and the malignity of his purposes; but let any other being entertain the fame thoughts, and he will find them eafily iffue in the fame expreffions.

As wicked dew.] Wicked; having baneful qualities. So Spenfer fays wicked weed, fo, in oppofition, we fay herbs or medicines have virtues. Bacon mentions virtuous Bezoar, and Dryden virtuous herbs.

In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
The rest of th' Ifland.

Pro. Thou moft lying flave,

Whom ftripes may move, not kindness; I have us❜d

thee

(Filth as thou art) with humane care, and lodg'd thee In mine own cell, 'till thou didft feek to violate The honour of my child,

Cal. Oh ho, oh ho!I wou'd it had been done! Thou didst prevent me, I had peopled elfe This Ifle with Calibans.

Pro. Abhorred flave; 6

Which any print of goodness will not take,
Being capable of all ill! I pity'd thee,

Took pains to make thee fpeak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other. When thou didst not, favage, 7
Know thine own meaning, but wouldft gabble like
A

6 This fpeech which the former Edition give to Miranda, is very judiciously bestowed by Mr. Theobald on Profpero. 7 When theu DIDST not Savage, KNOW thy own meaning, but wouldst gabble like

A thing most brutish, I endow'd by purposes

With words to make them known.

The benefit which Profpero here upbraids Caliban with having beltowed, was teaching him language. He fhews the great nefs of this benefit by marking the inconvenience Caliban lay under for want of it. What was the inconvenience? This, that he did not know his own meaning. But fure a brute, to which he is compared, doth know its own meaning, that is, knows what it