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ANT. A space whose every cubit Seems to cry out, How shall that Claribel Measure us back to Naples ?-Keep in Tunis 1, And let Sebastian wake!-Say, this were death That now hath seiz'd them; why, they were no

worse

Than now they are: There be, that can rule

Naples,

As well as he that sleeps; lords, that can prate
As amply, and unnecessarily,

As this Gonzalo; I myself could make

2

A chough of as deep chat.

O, that you bore The mind that I do! what a sleep were this For your advancement! Do you understand me? SEB. Methinks, I do. ANT.

And how does your content

Tender your own good fortune?

SEB.

True:

I remember, You did supplant your brother Prospero. ANT. And, look, how well my garments sit upon me; Much feater than before: My brother's servants Were then my fellows, now they are my men. SEB. But, for your conscience

ANT. Ay, sir; where lies that? if it were a kybe, "Twould put me to my slipper; But I feel not This deity in my bosom: twenty consciences,

I

KEEP in Tunis,] There is in this passage a propriety lost, which a slight alteration will restore :

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Sleep in Tunis,

"And let Sebastian wake!"

JOHNSON.

The old reading is sufficiently explicable. "Claribel (says he), keep where thou art, and allow Sebastian time to awaken those senses by the help of which he may perceive the advantage which now presents itself." STEEVENS.

2 A chough] Is a bird of the jack-daw kind. So, in Macbeth, Act III. Sc. IV. :

"By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks," &c.

STEEVENS.

That stand 'twixt me and Milan, candied be they, And melt, ere they molest! Here lies your brother,

No better than the earth he lies upon,

If he were that which now he's like, that's dead ; Whom I, with this obedient steel, three inches of it, Can lay to bed for ever': whiles you, doing thus, To the perpetual wink for aye might put

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3 AND melt, ere they molest!] I had rather read"Would melt, ere they molest."

i. e. Twenty consciences, such as stand between me and my hopes, though they were congealed, would melt before they could molest me, or prevent the execution of my purposes. JOHNSON.

Let twenty consciences be first congealed and then dissolved, ere they molest me, or prevent me from executing my purposes. MALONE.

If the interpretation of Johnson and Malone is just, and is certainly as intelligible as or; but I can see no reasonable meaning in this interpretation. It amounts to nothing more as thus interpreted, than 'My conscience must melt and become softer than it is before it molests me;' which is an insipidity unworthy of the Poet. I would read " Candy'd be they, or melt ;" and the expression then has spirit and propriety. Had I twenty consciences,' says Antonio, they might be hot or cold for me; they should not give me the smallest trouble.'-Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786. STEEVENS.

4 No better than the earth he lies upon,] So, in Julius Cæsar : at Pompey's basis lies along,

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"No worthier than the dust." STEEVENS.

5 If he were that which now he's like; whom I,

With this obedient steel, three inches of it,

Can lay to bed, &c.] The old copy reads

"If he were that which now he's like, that's dead;
"Whom I with this obedient steel, three inches of it,
"Can lay to bed," &c.

The words" that's dead" (as Dr. Farmer observes to me) are evidently a gloss, or marginal note, which had found its way into the text. Such a supplement is useless to the speaker's meaning, and one of the verses becomes redundant by its insertion.

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STEEVENS.

-] i. e. for ever. So, in King Lear:

I am come

To bid my king and master aye good night."

STEEVENS.

This ancient morsel', this sir Prudence, who
Should not upbraid our course.

For all the rest,

They'll take suggestion, as a cat laps milk;
They'll tell the clock to any business that
We say befits the hour.

SEB.

Thy case, dear friend,

Shall be my precedent; as thou got'st Milan,

I'll come by Naples. Draw thy sword: one stroke Shall free thee from the tribute which thou pay'st; And I the king shall love thee.

ANT.

Draw together :

And when I rear my hand, do you the like,
To fall it on Gonzalo.

SEB.

O, but one word.

[They converse apart.

Musick. Re-enter ARIEL, invisible.

ARI. My master through his art foresees the

danger

That you, his friend, are in; and sends me forth, (For else his project dies,) to keep them living 9. [Sings in GONZALO's ear.

7 This ancient MORSEL,] For morsel, Dr. Warburton readsancient moral, very elegantly and judiciously; yet I know not whether the author might not write morsel, as we say a piece of a man. JOHNSON.

So, in Measure for Measure:

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How doth my dear morsel, thy mistress?" STEEVENS. take SUGGESTION,] i. e. Receive any hint of villainy.

So, in Macbeth, Act 1. Sc. III. :

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"If good, why do I yield to that suggestion

"Whose horrid image," &c. STEEVENS.

JOHNSON.

They'll take suggestion, as a cat laps milk;] That is, will adopt, and bear witness to, any tale you shall invent; you may suborn them as evidences to clear you from all suspicion of having murthered the king. A similar signification occurs in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

"Love bad me swear, and love bids me forswear:
"O sweet suggesting love, if thou hast sinn'd,

"Teach me, thy tempted subject, to excuse it." HENLEY. 9 to keep THEM living.] By them, as the text now stands,

While you here do snoring lie,
Open-ey'd conspiracy

His time doth take:

If of life you keep a care,

Shake off slumber, and beware:
Awake! Awake!

Gonsalo and Alonso must be understood. Dr. Johnson objects very justly to this passage. "As it stands," says he, "at present, the sense is this. He sees your danger, and will therefore save them." He therefore would read-"That these his friends are in." The confusion has, I think, arisen from the omission of a single letter, Our author, I believe, wrote—

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and sends me forth,

"For else his projects dies, to keep them living."

i. e. he has sent me forth, to keep his projects alive, which else would be destroyed by the murder of his friend Gonzalo.-The opposition between the life and death of a project appears to me much in Shakspeare's manner. So, in Much Ado about Nothing: "What life is in that, to be the death of this marriage?"—The plural noun joined to a verb in the singular number, is to be met with in almost every page of the first folio. So, to confine myself to the play before us, edit. 1623:

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Again, ibid. :

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My old bones akes."

At this hour

"Lies at my mercy all my enemies.”

Again, ibid. :

Again:

66 His tears runs down his beard.”

"What cares these roarers for the name of king."

It was the common language of the time; and ought to be corrected, as indeed it generally has been in the modern editions of our author, by changing the number of the verb. Thus, in the present instance we should read-" For else his projects die, &c." MALONE.

I have received Dr. Johnson's amendment. Ariel, finding that Prospero was equally solicitous for the preservation of Alonso and Gonzalo, very naturally styles them both his friends, without adverting to the guilt of the former. Toward the success of Prospero's design, their lives were alike necessary.

Mr. Henley says that " By them are meant Sebastian and Antonio. The project of Prospero, which depended upon Ariel's keeping them alive, may be seen, Act III."

The song of Ariel, however, sufficiently points out which were the immediate objects of his protection. He cannot be supposed to have any reference to what happens in the last scene of the next Act.

STEEVENS.

ANT. Then let us both be sudden.

GON. Now, good angels, preserve the king!

[They wake. ALON. Why, how now, ho! awake! Why are you drawn '?

Wherefore this ghastly looking?

GON.

What's the matter? SEB. Whiles we stood here securing your repose, Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing Like bulls, or rather lions; did it not wake you ? It struck mine ear most terribly.

ALON.

I heard nothing. ANT. O, 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear; To make an earthquake! sure it was the roar Of a whole herd of lions.

ALON. Heard you this, Gonzalo ? GON. Upon mine honour, sir, I heard a humming, And that a strange one too, which did awake me: I shak'd you, sir, and cry'd; as mine eyes open'd, I saw their weapons drawn :-there was a noise, That's verity: 'Tis best we stand upon our guard2: Or that we quit this place: let's draw our weapons. ALON. Lead off this ground; and let's make further search

For my poor son.

GON. Heavens keep him from these beasts! For he is, sure, i̇' the island.

I

Juliet:

drawn?] Having your swords drawn. So, in Romeo and

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What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?"
JOHNSON.

2 That's VERITY: 'Best stand upon our guard ;] The old copy reads

"That's verily: 'Tis best we stand upon our guard.” Mr. Pope very properly changed verily to verity: and as the verse would be too long by a foot, if the words 'tis and we were retained, 1 have discarded them in favour of an elliptical phrase which occurs in our ancient comedies, as well as in our author's Cymbeline, Act III. Sc. III. :

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'Best draw my sword;" i. e. it were best to draw it. STEEVENS.

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