As thick as honey-combs, each pinch more ftinging Than bees that made them. CAL. I must eat my dinner. This ifland's mine, by Sycorax my mother, Which thou tak'ft from me. When thou cameft first,5 Thou ftrok'dft me, and mad'ft much of me; would'st give me Water with berries in't; and teach me how The fresh springs, brine pits, barren place, and fertile; Curfed be I that did fo!-All the charms 6 Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you ! you have, PRO. Thou moft lying flave, Whom ftripes may move, not kindness: I have us'd thee, thefe, we may fuppofe urchins to have had a part fubjected to their dominion. To this limitation of time Shakspeare alludes again in K. Lear: "He begins at curfew, and walks till the fecond cock." STEEVENS. s Which thou tak ft from me. When thou cameft first,] We might read "Which thou tak'ft from me. When thou cam'ft here firft." RITSON. All the charms-] The latter word, like many others of the fame kind, is here used as a diffyllable. MALONE. Why fhould we encourage a fuppofition which no inftance whatever countenances? viz. that charms was used as a diffyllable. The verfe is complete without such an effort to prolong it : "Curfed] be I that did | fo! All the charms-." STEEVENS. Filth as thou art, with human care; and lodg'd thee CAL. O ho, O ho !-'would it had been done! Thou didst prevent me; I had peopled else This ifle with Calibans. PRO. Abhorred flave;8 Which any print of goodness will not take, Took pains to make thee fpeak, taught thee each hour One thing or other: when thou didst not, favage, "Oho, O ho!] This favage exclamation was originally and conftantly appropriated by the writers of our ancient Mysteries and Moralities, to the Devil; and has, in this instance, been transferred to his descendant Caliban. STEEVENS. 8 Abhorred flave;] This fpeech, which the old copy gives to Miranda, is very judiciously beftowed by Theobald on Profpero. JOHNSON. Mr. Theobald found, or might have found, this fpeech transferred to Profpero in the alteration of this play by Dryden and Davenant. MALONE. when thou didst not, favage, Know thine own meaning,] By this expreffion, however defective, the poet feems to have meant-When thou didst utter founds, to which thou hadft no determinate meaning: but the following expreffion of Mr. Addison, in his 389th Spectator, concerning the Hottentots, may prove the best comment on this paffage: "having no language among them but a confused gabble, which is neither well underflood by themselves, or others." STEEVENS. I But thy vile race,] The old copy has vild, but it is only the ancient mode of spelling vile. Race, in this place, feems to fignify original difpofition, inborn qualities. In this fenfe we ftill Though thou didst learn, had that in't which good natures Could not abide to be with; therefore waft thou Who hadft deferv'd more than a prifon. CAL. You taught me language; and my profit on't Is, I know how to curfe: The red plague rid you,* For learning me your language! PRO. Hag-feed, hence! Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou wert beft, To answer other bufinefs. Shrug'ft thou, malice? If thou neglect'ft, or doft unwillingly What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps; Fill all thy bones with aches; make thee roar, That beasts shall tremble at thy din. CAL. I muft obey his art is of fuch No, 'pray thee! power, [Afide. fay-The race of wine: Thus, in Maflinger's New Way to pay old Debts: "There came, not fix days fince, from Hull, a pipe "Is it of the right race?" and Sir W. Temple has fomewhere applied it to works of literature. STEEVENS. Race and racinefs in wine, fignifies a kind of tartnefs. 2 BLACKSTONE. -the red plague rid you,] I fuppofe from the rednefs of the body, univerfally inflamed. JOHNSON. The eryfipelas was anciently called the red plague. STEEVENS. So again, in Coriolanus: "Now the red peftilence ftrike all trades in Rome !" The word rid, which has not been explained, means to defiroy. So, in K. Henry VI. P. II : 66 -If you ever chance to have a child, "Look, in his youth, to have him fo cut off, "As, deathfmen! you have rid this fweet young prince." MALONE. It would control my dam's god, Setebos,3 PRO. So, flave; hence! [Exit CALIBAN. Re-enter ARIEL invifible,4 playing and finging; FERDINAND following him. 3 ARIEL'S Song. Come unto thefe yellow fands, my dam's god, Setebos,] A gentleman of great merit, Mr. Warner, has obferved on the authority of John Barbot, that "the Patagons are reported to dread a great horned devil, called Setebos." It may be atked, however, how Shakspeare knew any thing of this, as Barbot was a voyager of the present century ?Perhaps he had read Eden's Hiftory of Travayle, 1577, who tells us, p. 434, that "the giantes, when they found themselves fettered, roared like bulls, and cried upon Setebos to help them."The metathesis in Caliban from Canibal is evident. FARMER. We learn from Magellan's voyage, that Setebos was the fupreme god of the Patagons, and Cheleule was an inferior one. TOLLET. Setebos is alfo mentioned in Hackluyt's Voyages, 1598. MALONE. * Re-enter Ariel invifible,] In the wardrobe of the Lord Admiral's men, (i. e. company of comedians,) 1598, was—“ a robe for to goo invifebell." See the MS. from Dulwich college, quoted by Mr. Malone, Vol. III. STEEVENS. 5 Court fied when you have, and kifs'd,] As was anciently done. at the beginning of fome dances. So, in K. Henry VIII. that prince fays to Anna Bullen "I were unmannerly to take you out, "And not to kiss you." The wild waves whift ;] i. e. the wild waves being filent. So, in Spenfer's Fairy Queen, B. VII. c. 7. f. 59: "So was the Titanefs put down, and whist." Foot it featly here and there; And, jweet jprites, the burden bear." BUR. Bowgh, wowgh. The watch-dogs bark: BUR. Bowgh, wowgh. Hark, hark! I hear [difperfedly. [dijperfedly. The ftrain of ftrutting chanticlere Cry, Cock-a-doodle-doo. FER. Where should this mufick be? i' the air, or the earth? It founds no more:-and fure, it waits upon And Milton feems to have had our author in his eye. See ftanza 5, of his Hymn on the Nativity : "The winds with wonder whift, " Smoothly the waters kifs'd." So again, both Lord Surrey and Phaer, in their tranflations of the second book of Virgil: Conticuere omnes. They whifted all." and Lyly, in his Maid's Metamorphofis, 1600: "But every thing is quiet, whift, and ftill." STEEVENS. -the burden bear.] Old copy-bear the burden. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. Weeping again the king my father's wreck,] Thus the old copy; but in the books of Shakspeare's age again is fometimes printed inftead of against, [i. e. oppofite to,] which I am perfuaded was our author's word. The placing Ferdinand in fuch a fituation that he could ftill gaze upon the wrecked veffel, is one of Shakspeare's touches of nature. Again is inadmiffible; for this would import that Ferdinand's tears had ceafed for a time; whereas he himself tells us, afterwards, that from the hour of his father's wreck they had never ceased to flow : -Myfelf am Naples, "Who with mine eyes, ne'er fince at ebb, beheld |