9 Are like invulnerable: if you could hurt, we were long indebted for our only English Dictionary. In a small book, entitled Humane induftry: or, A Hiftory of moft Manual Arts, printed in 1661, page 93, is the following paffage : "The woolbeating trees in Ethiopia, which Virgil fpeaks of, and the Eriophori Arbores in Theophrafius, are not fuch trees as have a certain wool or DOWL upon the outside of them, as the fmall cotton; but fhort trees that bear a ball upon the top, pregnant with wool, which the Syrians call Cott, the Græcians Goffypium, the Italians Bombagio, and we Bombafe. There is a certain fhell-fifh in the fea, called Pinna, that bears a mofly DOWL, or wool, whereof cloth was fpun and made. -Again, page 95: "Trichitis, or the hayrie ftone, by fome Greek authors, and Alumen plumaceum, or downy alum, by the Latinifts: this hair or DOWL is fpun into thread, and weaved into cloth. I have fince difcovered the fame word in The Ploughman's Tale, erroneously attributed to Chaucer, v. 3202: And swore by cock' is herte and blode, "He would tere him every doule." STEEVENS. 9 the elements Of whom your words are temper'd, may as well One dowle that's in my plume; my fellow minifters Are like invulnerable:] So, in Phaer's Virgil, 1573: Their fwords by them they laid "And on the filthy birds they beat But fethers none do from them fal, nor wound for ftrok doth bleed, "Nor force of weapons hurt them can." RITSON. They have bereft; and do pronounce by me, You, and your ways; whofe wraths to guard you from (Which here, in this most desolate ifle, elfe falls Upon your heads,) is nothing, but heart's forrow, And a clear life enfuing. 3 2 He vanishes in thunder: then, to foft mufick, enter the Shapes again, and dance with mops and mowes 4 and carry out the table. PRO. (Afide.) Bravely the figure of this harpy haft thou Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring: 2 clear life—) Pure, blameless, innocent. JOHNSON. 3 is nothing, but heart's forrow, And a clear life enfuing.) The meaning, which is fomewhat obfcured by the expreffion, is, -a miferable fate, which nothing but contrition and amendment of life can avert. MALONE. The old copy, by a manifeft error of the prefs, reads--with mocks. So afterwards - Will be here with mop and mowe. » MALONE. To mock and to mowe, seem to have had a meaning fomewhat fimilar; i. e. to infult, by making mouths, or wry faces. STEEVENS. with good life,) With good life may mean, with exact prefentation of their feveral characters, with obfervation strange of their particular and diftin& parts. So we lay, he acted to the life. JOHNSON. Thus in the 6th Canto of the Barons' Wars, by Drayton : "Done for the last with fuch exceeding life, As art therein with nature feem'd at ftrife.", Good life, however, in Twelfth Night, feems to be used for innocent jollity, as we now fay a bon vivant: Would you (fays 6 And obfervation strange, my meaner ministers Their feveral kinds have done : my high charms work, And thefe, mine enemies, are all knit up In their diffractions: they now are in my power; And in thefe fits I leave them, whilft I vifit Young Ferdinand (whom they suppose is drown'd,) And his and my lov'd darling. GON. I' the name ftand you In this frange flare? (Exit PROSPERO from above. of fomething holy, fir, why ALON. O, it is monftrous! monftrous! Methought, the billows fpoke, and told me of it; The winds did fing it to me; and the thunder, That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc'd The name of Profper; it did bafs my trefpafs." the Clown) have a love fong, or a song of good life" « Sir Toby anfwers, A love fong, a love fong ; " Ay, ay, (replies Sir Andrew) I care not for good life. It is plain, from the character of the laft fpeaker, that he was meant to miftake the fenfe in which good life is ufed by the Clown. It may therefore, in the prefent inftance, mean, honest alacrity, or cheerfulness. Life feems to be used in the chorus to the fifth act of K. Henry V. with fome meaning like that wanted to explain the approbation of Profpero: "Which cannot in their huge and proper life "Be here prefented. STLEVENS. To do any thing with good life, is ftill a provincial expreffion in the Weft of England, and fignifies, to do it with the full bent and energy of mind: and obfervation ftrange, is with fuch minutė attention to the orders given, as to excite admiration. HENLEY. 6 Their feveral kinds have done :) i. e. have veral functions allotted to their different natures. and Cleopatra, Act V. fc. ii. the Clown faysthis, look you, that the worm will do his kind. discharged the fe= Thus in Antony 7bafs Is my trefpafs.) The deep pipe toll it me in a rough bafs found. JOHNSON. Therefore my fon i'the ooze is bedded; and I'll feek him deeper than e'er plummet founded, And with him there lie mudded." SEB. [Exit. But one fiend at a time, I'll fight their legions o'er. ANT. I'll be thy fecond. [Exeunt SEB. and ANT. GON. All three of them are defperate; their great guilt, Like poifon given to work a great time after, Follow, I pray you. C. 12: the rolling fea refounding foft "In his big bafe them fitly answered." 7 And with him there lie mudded. STEEVENS. [Exeunt. But one fiend -] As thefe hemiflichs, taken together, exceed the proportion of a verfe, I cannot help regarding the words→→ with him, and but, as playhoufe interpolations. The Tempeft was evidently one of the laft works of Shakspeare; and it is therefore natural to fuppofe the metre of it must have been exact and regular. Dr. Farmer concurs with me in this fuppofition. STEEVENS. 8 Like poifon given, &c.] The natives of Africa have been fupposed to be poffeffed of the fecret how to temper poisons with fuch art as not to operate till feveral years after they were administered. Their drugs were then as certain in their effect, as fubtle in their préparation. So, in the celebrated libel called "Leicefter's Commonwealth:" "I heard him once myfelfe in publique act at Oxford, and that in prefence of my lord of Leicester, maintain that poyfon might be fo tempered and given as it fhould not appear prefently, and yet fhould kill the party afterwards at what time fhould be appointed." STEEVENS. this ecstacy--] Ecftacy meant not anciently, as at prefent, rapturous pleafure, but alienation of mind. Mr. Locke has not inelegantly ftyled it dreaming with our eyes open. VOL. IV. STEEVENS. I A C T IV. SCENE I. Before Profpero's cell. Enter PROSPERO, FERDINAND, and MIRANDA, PRO. If I have too aufterely punish'd you, Your compenfation makes amends; for I Have given you here a thread of mine own life," 2 -a thread of mine own life,) The old copy reads-thirds. The word thread was formerly fo fpelt, as appears from the fol◄ lowing paffage : Long maift thou live, and when the fifters shall decree See comedy of Mucedorus, 1619, fignat. C. 3. HAWKINS. A third of mine own life is a fibre or a part of my own life, \ Profpero confiders himself as the stock or parent-tree, and his daughter as a fibre or portion of himself, and for whofe benefit he himself lives. In this fenfe the word is ufed in Markham's English Hufhandman, edit. 1635, p. 146: "Cut of all the maine rootes, within half a foot of the tree, only the fmall thrid des or twist rootes you fhall not cut at all.' Again, ibid. "Every branch and third of the root." This is evidently the fame word as thread, which is likewife fpelt third by lord Bacon. TOLLET. So, in Lingua, &c. 1607; and I could furnish many more inflances: "For as a fubtle spider closely fitting In center of her web that spreadeth round, "If the leaft fly but touch the smallest third, "She feels it inftantly. ". The following quotation, however, fhould feem to place the meaning beyond all difpute. In Acolaftus, a comedy, 1540, is this pailage: one of wordly fhame's children, of his countenance, and THREDE of his body. STEEVENS. Again, in Tancred and Gifmund, a tragedy, 1592, Tancred, fpeaking of his intention to kill his daughter, fays, Against all law of kinde, to fhred in twaine The golden threede that doth us both maintain. 66 MALONE. 1 |