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TRIN. If these be true spies which I wear in my head, here's a goodly sight.

CAL. O Setebos, these be brave spirits, indeed! How fine my master is! I am afraid

He will chastise me.

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What things are these, my lord Antonio?
Will money buy them?

ANT.

Very like; one of them

Is a plain fish', and, no doubt, marketable.

PRO. Mark but the badges of these men, my

lords,

Then say, if they be true:-This mis-shapen knave,

His mother was a witch; and one so strong
That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs,

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You often cried Coragio, and called ça, ça.” Again, in The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, 1598. STEEVENS. 7 Is a PLAIN FISH,] That is, plainly, evidently a fish. So, in Fletcher's Scornful Lady, "that visible beast, the butler," means 'the butler who is visibly a beast.' M. MASON.

It is not easy to determine the shape which our author designed to bestow on his monster. That he has hands, legs, &c. we gather from the remarks of Trinculo, and other circumstances in the play. How then is he plainly a fish? Perhaps Shakspeare himself had no settled ideas concerning the form of Caliban.

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STEEVENS.

8 - true:] That is, honest. A true man is, in the language of that time, opposed to a thief. The sense is, Mark what these men wear, and say if they are honest.' JOHNSON.

9 His mother was a witch; and one so STRONG

That could control the moon, &c.] This was the phraseology of the times. After the statute against witches, revenge or ignorance frequently induced people to charge those against whom they harboured resentment, or entertained prejudices, with the crime of witchcraft, which had just then been declared a capital offence. In our ancient reporters are several cases where persons charged in this manner sought redress in the courts of law. And it is remarkable in all of them, to the scandalous imputation of being witches, the term-a strong one, is constantly added. In Michaelmas term, 9 Car. I. the point was settled that no action

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And deal in her command, without her power 1:
These three have robb'd me; and this demi-devil
(For he's a bastard one,) had plotted with them
To take my life: two of these fellows you
Must know, and own; this thing of darkness I
Acknowledge mine.

CAL.

I shall be pinch'd to death. ALON. Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler? SEB. He is drunk now: where had he wine? ALON. And Trinculo is reeling ripe: Where should they

could be supported on so general a charge, and that the epithet strong did not inforce the other words. In this instance, I believe, the opinion of the people at large was not in unison with the sages in Westminster-Hall. Several of these cases are collected together in I. Viner, 422. REED.

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That could control the moon." From Medea's speech in Ovid, (as translated by Golding,) our author might have learned that this was one of the pretended powers of witchcraft:

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and thee, O lightsome moon,

"I darken oft, though beaten brass abate thy peril soon."

MALONE.

1 And deal in her command, without her power:] I suppose Prospero means, that Sycorax, with less general power than the moon, could produce the same effects on the sea. STEEVENS.

The objection to this explication (even supposing it illustrated the passage before us) is one that lies to a few of Mr. Steevens's, and to many of Mr. M. Mason's comments, namely, that it deduces a meaning from the words, which by no fair interpretation they will admit: for by what licence of construction can "without her power" signify, "with less general power."

Shakspeare, I conceive, had here in his thoughts vicarious and delegated authorities. He who "deals in the command," or, in other words, executes the office of another, is termed his lieutenant or vicegerent; and is usually authorized and commissioned to act by his superior. Prospero therefore, I think, means to say, that Sycorax could control the moon, and act as her vicegerent, without being commissioned, authorized, or empowered by her so to do. Our author might have recollected that a letter executed in due form of law, authorizing B. to act for A. is popularly termed a power of attorney.

If Sycorax was strong enough as by her art to cause the sea to ebb, "when the next star of heaven meditated to make it flow; ' she in this " respect" might be said to control her. MALone.

Find this grand liquor that hath gilded them??— How cam'st thou in this pickle ?

TRIN. I have been in such a pickle, since I saw you last, that, I fear me, will never out of my bones: I shall not fear fly-blowing 3.

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SEB. Why, how now, Stephano ?

STE. O, touch me not; I am not Stephano, but a cramp 1.

2 And Trinculo is reeling ripe: Where should they

Find this GRAND LIQUOR that hath GILDED them?] Shakspeare, to be sure, wrote-grand 'lixir, alluding to the grand Elixir of the alchymists, which they pretend would restore youth and confer immortality. This, as they said, being a preparation of gold, they called Aurum potabile; which Shakspeare alluded to in the word gilded; as he does again in Antony and Cleopatra: "How much art thou unlike Mark Antony?

"Yet coming from him, that great medicine hath,
"With his tinct gilded thee."

But the joke here is to insinuate that, notwithstanding all the boasts of the chemists, sack was the only restorer of youth and bestower of immortality. So, Ben Jonson, in his Every Man out of his Humour :-" Canarie, the very Elixir and spirit of wine." This seems to have been the cant name for sack, of which the English were, at that time, immoderately fond. Randolph, in his Jealous Lovers, speaking of it, says,-" A pottle of Elixir at the Pegasus, bravely caroused." So, again, in Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas, Act III. :

"Old reverend sack, which, for aught that I can read yet,
"Was that philosopher's stone the wise king Ptolemeus
"Did all his wonders by.".

The phrase too of being gilded, was a trite one on this occasion. Fletcher, in his Chances: "Duke. Is she not drunk too? Whore. A little gilded o'er, sir; old sack, old sack, boys!" WARBURTON.

As the alchymist's Elixir was supposed to be a liquor, the old reading may stand, and the allusion holds good without any alteration. STEEVENS.

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FLY-BLOWING.] This pickle alludes to their plunge into the stinking pool; and pickling preserves meat from fly-blowing. STEEVENS.

4-but a CRAMP.] i. e. I am all over a cramp. Prospero had ordered Ariel to shorten up their sinews with aged cramps. "Touch me not" alludes to the soreness occasioned by them. In

PRO. You'd be king of the isle, sirrah ?

STE. I should have been a sore one then 5.
ALON. This is a strange thing as e'er I look'd onR.
[Pointing to Caliban.

PRO. He is as disproportion'd in his manners,
As in his shape :-Go, sirrah, to my cell;
Take with you your companions; as you look
To have my pardon, trim it handsomely.

CAL. Ay, that I will; and I'll be wise hereafter, And seek for grace: What a thrice-double ass Was I, to take this drunkard for a god,

And worship this dull fool?

PRO.

Go to, away !

ALON. Hence, and bestow your luggage where you found it.

SEB. Or stole it, rather.

Exeunt CAL. STE. and TRIN. PRO. Sir, I invite your highness, and your train, To my poor cell: where you shall take your rest For this one night; which (part of it,) I'll waste With such discourse, as, I not doubt, shall make Go quick away: the story of my life, And the particular accidents, gone by, Since I came to this isle: And in the morn, I'll bring you to your ship, and so to Naples, Where I have hope to see the nuptial

his next speech Stephano confirms the meaning by a quibble on the word sore. STEEVENS.

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5 I should have been a SORE one then.] The same quibble occurs afterwards in the Second Part of K. Henry VI. : Mass, 'twill be sore law then, for he was thrust in the mouth with a spear, and 'tis not whole yet." Stephano also alludes to the sores about him. STEEVENS.

This is as strange a thing as e'er I look'd on.] The old copy, disregarding metre, reads

"This is a strange thing as e'er I look'd on." For the repetition of the conjunction as, &c. I am answerable.

STEEVENS.

Of these our dear-belov'd solemnized ;
And thence retire me to my Milan, where
Every third thought shall be my grave.

ALON.

I long
To hear the story of your life, which must
Take the ear strangely.

PRO.

I'll deliver all;

And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales, And sail so expeditious, that shall catch Your royal fleet far off.-My Ariel ;—chick,— That is thy charge: then to the elements Be free, and fare thou well!-[aside.] Please you draw near. [Exeunt.

¿ our dear-belov'd SOLEMNIZED.] Thus the old copy. The modern editors read "beloved solemniz'd," but solemnized was the accentuation of the time. So, in Love's Labour's Lost, vol. iv. p. 309:

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at a marriage feast,

"Between Lord Perigort and the beauteous heir

"Of Jaques Falconbridge solemnized." BosWELL,

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