SCENE V.

Enter Ferdinand, at the remoteft part of the stage; and Ariel invifible, playing and finging.

ARIEL'S SONG.

Come unto thefe yellow fands,
And then take band:

Court'fied when you have, and kist,

The wild waves whift;

Foot it featly here and there,

And, fweet fprites, the burden bear.

[Burden, difperfedly.

Hark, bark, baugh-waugh: the watch-dogs bark,
Baugh waugh.

Ari. Hark, bark, I hear

The ftrain of frusting chanticlere

Cry, Cock a-doodle-do.

Fer. Where fhould this mufick be, i' th' air, or earth?

It founds no more: and fure, it waits upon
Some God o'th' Inland. Sitting on a bank,
Weeping again the King my father's wreck,
This mufick crept by me upon the waters;
Allaying both their fury and my paffion,
With its sweet air; thence I have follow'd it,
Or it hath drawn me rather--but 'tis gone.
No, it begins again.

ARIEL'S SONG.

Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made:
Thole are pearls, that were his eyes:
Nothing of him, that doth fade,

But

But doth fuffer a fea-change,
Into fomething rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell.
Hark, now I bear them, ding-dong, bell. 9

9 Full fathom five thy father lie, &c.] Gildon, who has pretended to criticife our Author, would give this up as an infufferable and fenfeless piece of trifling. And I believe this is the general opinion concerning it. But a very unjust one. Let us confider the bufinefs Ariel is here upon, and his manner of executing it. The Commiffion Propero had intrufted to him, in a whifper, was plainly this; to conduct Fe dinand to the fight of Miranda, and to difpofe him to the quick fentiments of love, while he, on the other hand, prepared his daughter for the fame impreffions. Ariel fets about his bufinefs by acquainting Ferdinand, in an extraordinary manner, with the afflictive news of his father's death. A very odd Apparatus, one would think, for a love fit. And yet as odd as it appears, the Poet has fhewn in it the finest conduct for carry. ing on his plot. Profpero had faid,

I find my Zenith doth depend uren
Amft aufpicious far; hoje
influence
If now I court not, but omit,
my Fortunes
Will ever after droop.-

In confequence of this his pre-
fcience, he takes advantage of
every favourable circumftance

[ Burden, ding-dong.

Fer.

that the occafion offers. The principal affair is the Marriage of his daughter with young Ferdinand. But to fecure this point it was neceflary they should be con-racted before the affair came to Alonzo the Father's knowledge. For Profero was ignorant how this ftorm and fhipwreck, caufed by him, would work upon Alonzo's temper. It might either. foften him, or increafe his averfion for Profero as the Author. On the other hand, to engage Ferdinand, without the confent of his Father, was difficult. For not to fpeak of his Quality, where fuch engagements are not made without the confent of the Sovereign, Ferdinand is reprefented (to fhew it a Match worth the feeking) of a most pious temper and difpofition, which would prevent his contracting himself without his Father's knowledge, The Poet therefore, with the utmost addrefs, has made Ariel perfuade him of his Father's death to remove this Remora. WARBURTON.

I know not whether Dr. Warburton has very fuccessfully de.. fended thefe Songs from Gildon's accufation. Ariel's lays, however feasonable and efficacious, must be allowed to be of no fupernatural dignity or elegance, they exprefs nothing great, nor

reveal

Fer. The ditty does remember my drown'd father. This is no mortal bufinefs, nor no found

That the earth owns: I hear it now above me.

Pro. The fringed curtains of thine eyes advance, And fay, what thou fee'ft yond.

Mira. What is't, a fpirit?

Lord, how it looks about! believe me, Sir,
It carries a brave form. But 'tis a fpirit.

Pro. No, wench, it eats, and fleeps, and hath fuch fenfes

As we have, fuch.

Was in the wreck

This gallant, which thou feest, and, but he's fomething ftain'd

With grief, that's beauty's canker, thou might'ft

call him

A goodly perfon. He hath loft his fellows,
And ftrays about to find 'em.

Mira. I might call him

A thing divine; for nothing natural

I ever faw fo noble.

Pro. It goes on, I fee,

[Afide.

foul prompts it. Spirit, fine fpirit, I'll free

As my thee

Within two days for this.

Fer. Moft fure, the Goddess

On whom these airs attend!-Vouchfafe, my pray'r
May know, if you remain upon this Island;
And that you will fome good inftruction give,
How I may bear me here: my prime request
(Which I do laft pronounce) is, O you wonder!
If you be maid or no?

Mira. No wonder, Sir,

reveal any thing above mortal discovery.

The reafon for which Ariel is introduced thus trifling is, that he and his companions are evidently of the fairy kind, an or

der of Beings to which tradition has always afcribed a sort of diminutive agency, powerful but ludicrous, a humorous and frolick controlment of nature, well expreffed by the Songs of Ariel.

But

But certainly a maid. '

Fer. My language! heav'ns!

I am the best of them that speak this speech,
Were I but where 'tis spoken.

Pro. How? the best?

What wert thou, if the King of Naples heard thee?
Fer. A fingle thing, as I am now, that wonders
To hear thee speak of Naples. He does hear me;
And, that he does, I weep: myself am Naples,
Who, with mine eyes (ne'er fince at ebb) beheld
The King my father wreckt.

Mira. Alack, for mercy!

Fer. Yes, faith, and all his lords: the Duke of Milan, And his brave Son, being twain. 2

Pro. The Duke of Milan,

And his more braver daughter, could control thee, 3 If now 'twere fit to do't:At the first fight,

[Afide to Ariel.

They have chang'd eyes:-delicate Ariel,

1-certainly a maid.] Nothing could be more prettily imagined to illuftrate the fingularity of her character, than this pleafant miftake. She had been bred up in the rough and plain-dealing documents of moral philofophy, which teaches us the knowledge of our felves: And was an utter tranger to the flattery invented by vicious and defigning Men to corrupt the other Sex. So that it could not enter into her imaginat on, that complaifance and a defire of appearing amiable, qualities of humanity which the had been inftructed, in her moral leffons, to cultivate, could ever degenerate into fuch excefs, as that any one fhould be willing to have his fellow-creature believe that he thought her a Goddess or an immortal. WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton has here found a beauty which I think the Authour never intended. Ferdinand afks her not whether fhe was a created being, a question which, if he meant it, he has ill expreffed, but whether she was unmarried; for after the dialogue which Pr Spero's interruption produces, he goes on perfuing his former question.

O. if a Virgin,

I'll make you Queen of Naples. 2 This is a flight forgetfulnefs. Nobody was left in the wreck, yet we find no fuch character as the fon of the Duke of Milan. THFOBALD. control thee.] Confute thee, unanfwerably contradict thee.

3

I'll fet thee free for this.A word, good Sir,
I fear, you've done yourself fome wrong: a word-
Mira. Why fpeaks my father fo urgently? this
Is the third man, that I e'er faw; the first,
That e'er I figh'd for. Pity move my father
To be inclin'd my way!

Fer. O, if a Virgin,

And your Affection not gone forth, I'll make you The Queen of Naples.

Pro. Soft, Sir; one word more.

They're both in either's power: but this swift business I must uneafy make, left too light winn ing

[Afide. Make the prize light.-Sir, one word more; I charge thee,

That thou attend me:thou dost here ufurp
The name thou ow'ft not, and haft put thyself
Upon this Ifland, as a spy, to win it

From me, the lord on't.

Fer. No, as I'm a man.

Mira. There's nothing ill can dwell in fuch a temple. If the ill spirit have fo fair an house,

Good things will ftrive to dwell with't.

Pro. [To Ferd.] Follow me

[To Mirand.] Speak not you for him: he's a traitor.Come,

I'll manacle thy neck and feet together;

Sea-water fhalt thou drink; thy food shall be

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

Fer. No,

I will refift fuch entertainment, 'till

Mine enemy has more power.

[He draws, and is charm'd from moving.

Mira. O dear father,

Make not too rafh a tryal of him; for

He's gentle, and not fearful.

Pro. What I fay,

My foot my tutor? put thy fword up,

traitor,

Who