May know, if you remain upon this island; MIRA. But, certainly a maid. No wonder, sir; Most sure, &c.] It seems, that Shakspeare, in The Tempest, hath been suspected of translating some expressions of Virgil; witness the O Dea certe. I presume we are here directed to the passage, where Ferdinand says of Miranda, after hearing the songs of Ariel: "Most sure, the goddess "On whom these airs attend !—” And so very small Latin is sufficient for this formidable translation, that, if it be thought any honour to our poet, I am loth to deprive him of it; but his honour is not built on such a sandy foundation. Let us turn to a real translator, and examine whether the idea might not be fully comprehended by an English reader, supposing it necessarily borrowed from Virgil. Hexameters in our language are almost forgotten; we will quote therefore this time from Stanyhurst: "O to thee, fayre virgin, what terme may rightly be fitted? "Thy tongue, thy visage no mortal frayltie resembleth. 66 No doubt, a goddesse!" Edit. 1583. FARMER. 9- certainly a maid.] Nothing could be more prettily imagined to illustrate the singularity of her character, than this pleasant mistake. She had been bred up in the rough and plaindealing documents of moral philosophy, which teaches us the knowledge of ourselves; and was an utter stranger to the flattery invented by vicious and designing men to corrupt the other sex. So that it could not enter into her imagination, that complaisance, and a desire of appearing amiable, qualities of humanity which she had been instructed, in her moral lessons, to cultivate, could ever degenerate into such excess, as that any one should 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 author never intended. Ferdinand asks her not whether she was a created being, a question which, if he meant it, he has ill expressed, but whether she was unmarried; for after the dialogue which FER. My language! heavens!I am the best of them that speak this speech, Were I but where 'tis spoken. Prospero's interruption produces, he goes on pursuing his former question : 66 "O if a virgin, "I'll make you queen of Naples." JOHNSON. A passage in Lyly's Galathea seems to countenance the present text: The question among men is common, are you a maide ?" -yet I cannot but think, that Dr. Warburton reads very rightly: If you be made, or no." When we meet with a harsh expression in Shakspeare, we are usually to look for a play upon words. Fletcher closely imitates The Tempest in his Sea Voyage: and he introduces Albert in the same manner to the ladies of his Desert Island: "Be not offended, goddesses, that I fall "Thus prostrate," &c. Shakspeare himself had certainly read, and had probably now in his mind, a passage in the third book of The Fairy Queen, between Timias and Belphœbe: "Angel or goddess! do I call thee right? "There-at she blushing, said, ah! gentle squire, "And daughter of a woody nymph," &c. FARMER. So, Milton, Comus, 265: 66 - Hail, foreign wonder! "Whom certain these rough shades did never breed, Milton's imitation explains Shakspeare. Maid is certainly a created being, a woman in opposition to goddess. Miranda immediately destroys this first sense by a quibble. In the mean time, I have no objection to read made, i. e. created. The force of the sentiment is the same. Comus is universally allowed to have taken some of its tints from The Tempest. T. WARTON. The first copy reads-if you be maid, or no. Made was not suggested by Dr. Warburton, being an emendation introduced by the editor of the fourth folio. It was, I am persuaded, the author's word: There being no article prefixed adds strength to this supposition. Nothing is more common in his plays than a word being used in reply, in a sense different from that in which it was employed by the first speaker. Ferdinand had the moment before called Miranda a goddess; and the words immediately subjoined, —“ Vouchsafe my prayer"-show that he looked up to her as a person of a superior order, and sought her protection and instruction for his conduct, not her love. At this period, there How! the best? PRO. What wert thou, if the king of Naples heard thee? fore, he must have felt too much awe to have flattered himself with the hope of possessing a being that appeared to him celestial; though afterwards, emboldened by what Miranda says, he exclaims," O, if a virgin," &c. words that appear inconsistent with the supposition that he had already asked her whether she was one or not. She had indeed told him, she was; but in his astonishment at hearing her speak his own language, he may well be supposed to have forgotten what she said; which, if he had himself made the inquiry, would not be very reasonable to suppose. It appears from the alteration of this play by Dryden and Sir W. D'Avenant, that they considered the present passage in this light: 66 Fair excellence, "If, as your form declares, you are divine, "Be pleas'd to instruct me, how you will be worship'd; "So bright a beauty cannot sure belong "To human kind." In a subsequent scene we have again the same inquiry: "Fer. Sir, she's mortal." Our author might have remembered Lodge's description of Fawnia, the Perdita of his Winter's Tale: "Yet he scarce knew her, for she had attired herself in rich apparel, which so increased her beauty, that she resembled rather an angel than a creature.” Dorastus and Fawnia, 1592. I have said "that nothing is more common in these plays than a word being used in reply in a sense different from that in which it was employed by the first speaker." Here follow my proofs. In As You Like It, Orlando, being asked by his brother, "Now sir, what make you here?" [i. e. What do you do here?] replies, "Nothing; I am not taught to make any thing." So, in King Henry VI. Part III. : 66 Henceforward will I hear Upon my target three fair shining suns. "Rich. Nay, bear three daughters." Again, in King Henry IV. Part II. : "Ch. Just. Your means are very slender, and your waste great. "Fal. I would it were otherwise; I would my means were greater, and my waist slenderer." Again, in King Richard III.: "With this, my lord, myself hath nought to do. MALONE. FER. A single 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 since at ebb, beheld The king my father wreck'd. MIRA. Alack, for mercy! FER. Yes, faith, and all his lords; the duke of Milan, And his brave son, being twain '. The duke of Milan, PRO. And his more braver daughter, could control thee 2, If now 'twere fit to do't:-At the first sight [Aside. They have chang'd eyes :-Delicate Ariel, 3 MIRA. Why speaks my father so ungently? This Is the third man that e'er I saw; the first That e'er I sigh'd for: pity move my father 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. The question, (I use the words of Mr. M. Mason,) is "whether our readers will adopt a natural and simple expression which requires no comment, or one which the ingenuity of many commentators has but imperfectly supported. STEEVENS. And his brave son, being twain.] This is a slight forgetfulness. Nobody was lost in the wreck, yet we find no such character as the son of the duke of Milan. THEOBALD. 2 - control thee,] Confute thee, unanswerably contradict thee. JOHNSON. 3 I fear, you have done yourself some wrong:], i. e. I fear that in asserting yourself to be King of Naples, you have uttered a falsehood which is below your character, and, consequently, injurious to your honour. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor"This is not well, master Ford, this wrongs you." STEEVENS. They are both in either's powers: but this swift business I must uneasy make, lest too light winning [Aside. Make the prize light.-One word more; I charge thee, That thou attend me: thou dost here usurp From me, the lord on't. FER. No, as I am a man. MIRA. There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple: If the ill spirit have so fair an house, PRO. Follow me. [TO FERD. 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. FER. I will resist such entertainment, till Mine enemy has more power. MIRA. No; [He draws. O dear father, Make not too rash a trial of him, for He's gentle, and not FEARFUL.] Fearful signifies both terrible and timorous. In this place it may mean timorous. She tells her father, that as he is gentle, rough usage is unnecessary; and as he is brave, it may be dangerous. Fearful, however, may signify formidable, as in K. Henry IV.: "A mighty and a fearful head they are:" and then the meaning of the passage is obvious. STEEVENS. "He's gentle and not fearful." i. e. terrible; producing fear. In our author's age to fear signified to terrify, (see Minsheu in verb.) and fearful was much more frequently used in the sense of formidable than that of timorous. MALONE. |