Thou know'ft, was banish'd: for one thing she did,
They would not take her life? Is not this true?
Ari. Ay, Sir.

Pro. This blue-ey'd hag was hither brought with child,

And here was left by th' failors; thou, my flave,
As thou report'ft thyself, waft then her fervant.
And, for thou waft a spirit too delicate
To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands,
Refufing her grand hefts, fhe did confine thee,
By help of her more potent minifters,
And in her moft unmitigable rage,
Into a cloven pine; within which rift
Imprifon'd, thou didst painfully remain

A dozen years, within which space she dy'd,

And left thee there: where thou didst vent thy groans, As faft as mill-wheels ftrike. Then was this island,

Save for the fon that she did litter here,

A freckled whelp, hag-born, not honour'd with
A human fhape.

Ari. Yes; Caliban her fon.

Pro. Dull thing, I fay fo: he, that Caliban,
Whom now I keep in fervice. Thou best know'st,
What torment I did find thee in; thy groans
Did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breafts
Of ever-angry bears; it was a torment
To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax
Could not again undo: it was mine art,
When I arriv'd and heard thee, that made
pine, and let thee out.

Ari. I thank thee, mafter.

gape

to Pro. If thou more murmur'ft, I will rend an oak, And peg thee in his knotty entrails, 'till

Thou'ft howl'd away twelve winters.

Ari. Pardon, master.

I will be correfpondent to command,

And do my fp'riting gently.

Pro. Do fo; and after two days,

I will discharge thee.

Ari. That's my noble master:

What shall I do? fay what? what fhall I do?

Pre.

Pro. Go make thy felf like to a nymph o' th' fea.
Be fubject to no fight but mine, invifible
To every eye-ball elfe. Go take this fhape
And hither come in it: go hence with diligence.
[Exit Ariel.

Awake, dear heart, awake! thou haft flept well;
Awake-

Mira. The ftrangeness of your story put (5)
Heavinefs in me.

Pro. Shake it off: come on;

We'll vifit Caliban, my flave, who never
Yields us kind answer.

Mira. 'Tis a villain, Sir,

I do not love to look on-
Pro. But, as 'tis,

We cannot mifs him: he does make our fire,

Fetch in our wood, and ferves in offices

That profit us.

What ho! flave! Caliban!

Thou earth, thou! fpeak.

Cal. [within.] There's wood enough within.
Pro. Come forth, I fay; there's other bufinefs for
thee.

Come, thou Tortoife! when?——

Enter Ariel like a Water Nymph.

Fine apparition! my quaint Ariel,

Hark in thine ear.

Ari. My lord, it shall be done. [Exit. Pro. Thou poisonous flave, got by the devil himself Upon thy wicked dam, come forth.

(5) The Strangeness-] Why should a wonderful Story.produce Sleep? I believe Experience will prove that any violent Agitation of the Mind eafily fubfides in Slumber, efpecially when, as in Profpero's Relation, the laft Images are pleafing.

SCENE IV.

Enter Caliban.

(6) As wicked dew, as e'er my mother brush'd
With raven's feather from unwholfom fen,
Drop on you both! a south west blow on you,
And blifter you all o'er!

Pro. For this, be fure, to-night thou fhalt have

cramps,

Side-stitches that shall

pen thy breath
up; urchins
Shall, for that vaft of night that they may work,
All exercise on thee: thou shalt be pinch'd

As thick as honey-combs, each pinch more ftinging
Than bees that made 'em.

Cal. I muft eat my dinner.

This island's mine by Sycorax my mother,

Which thou tak'ft from me.

When thou cam'ft first,

Thou ftroak'dft me, and mad'ft much of me; and

would'st give me

Water

(6) Cal. A wicked dew, as e'er my brother brush'd With raven's feather from unwholfom fen,

Drop on you both!] Shakespeare hath very artificially given. the air of the antique to the language of Caliban, in order to heighten the grotefque of his character. As here he ufes wicked for unwholfome. So Sir John Maundevil, in his travels, p. 334. Edit. Lond. 1725. -at alle tymes brennethe a Veffelle of Christalle fulle of Barome for to zeven gode fmalle and odour to the Emperour, and to voyden awey alle wYKKEDE Eyres and Corrupciouns. It was a tradition, it seems, that Lord Falkland, Lord C. J. Vaughan, and Mr. Selden, concurred in obferving, that Shakespeare had not only found out a new Character in his Caliban, but had alfo devifed and adapted a new Manner of Language for that Character. What they meant by it, without doubt, was, that Shakespeare gave his Language a certain grotefque Air of the Savage and Antique; which it certainly has. But Dr. Bentley took this, of a new Language, literally; for fpeaking of a Phrafe in Milton, which he fuppofed altogether abfurd and unmeaning, he fays, Satan had not the Privilege as Caliban in Shakespeare, to ufe new Phrafeand Diction unknown to

all

Water with berries in't; and teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less
That burn by day and night: and then I lov'd thee,
And fhew'd thee all the qualities o' th' ifle,

The fresh fprings, brine pits; barren place, and fertile.
Curs'd be I, that I did fo! all the charms

Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!
For I am all the subjects that you have,

Who first was mine own King; and here you fty me do keep from me

In this hard rock, whiles you
The rest of th' Island.

Pro. Thou moft lying slave,

Whom ftripes may move, not kindnefs; I have us'd

thee

(Filth as thou art) with humane care, and lodg'd thee In mine own cell, 'till thou didst feek to violate

The honour of my child.

Cal. Oh ho, oh ho!-I wou'd it had been done!
Thou didst prevent me, I had peopled elfe
This Ifle with Calibans,

Pro. Abhorred flave; (7)

Which any print of goodness will not take,

all at bers

-and again

-to practife Distances is still a Caliban Stile. Note on Milton's Paradife Loft, 1. 4. v. 945. But I know of no fuch Caliban stile in Shakespeare, that hath new Phrafe and Diction unknown to all others. WARBURTON.

Whence these criticks derived the notion of a new language appropriated to Caliban I cannot find: They certainly mistook brutality of fentiment for uncouthnefs of words. Caliban had learned to speak of Profpero and his daughter; he had no names for the fun and moon before their arrival, and could not have invented a language of his own without more understanding than Shakespeare has thought it proper to bestow upon him. His diction is indeed fomewhat clouded by the gloominess of his temper and the malignity of his purpofes; but let any other being entertain the fame thoughts, and he will find them easily iffue in the fame expreflions.

As wicked dew,] Wicked; having baneful qualities. So Spenfer fays wicked weed; fo, in oppofition, we fay herbs or medicines have virtues. Bacon mentions virtuous Bezoar, and Dryden virtuous berbs.

is

(7) This speech which the former Editions give to Miranda, very judiciously bestowed by Mr. Theobald on Profpero.

4.

Being

Being capable of all ill! I pity'd thee,

Took pains to make thee fpeak, taught thee each

hour

One thing or other, When thou didft not, favage, (8)
Know thine own meaning, but wouldft gabble like
A thing moft brutish, I endow'd thy purposes

With words that made them known. But thy vile race (Tho' thou didst learn) had that in't, which good

natures

Could not abide to be with, therefore waft thou

Defervedly confin'd into this rock,

Who hadít deferv'd more than a prison

(8) When thou DIDST not, Savage,

KNOW thine own meaning, but wouldft gabble like
A thing moft brutisb, I endow'd thy purposes

With words to make them known.

Cal.

The benefit which Profpero here upbraids Caliban with having bestowed, was teaching him language. He fhews the greatness of this benefit by marking the inconvenience Caliban lay under for want of it. What was the inconvenience? This, that he did not know his own meaning. But fure a brute, to which he is compared, doth know its own meaning, that is, knows what it would be at. This, indeed, it cannot do, it cannot bew its meaning to others. And this certainly is what Profpero would fay,

When thou coULDST not, Savage,

SHOW thy own meaning,

The following words make it evident,

but wouldst gabble like

A thing most brutish,

And when once [bow] was corrupted to [know] the tranfcribers would of courfe change [couldft] into (didft] to make it agree with the other falfe reading. There is indeed a fenfe in which Know thy own meaning- -may be well applied to a brute. For it may fignify the not having any reflex knowledge of the operations of its own mind, which, it would feem, a Brute hath not. Tho' this, I fay, may be applied to a brute, and confequently to Caliban, and tho' to remedy this brutality be a nobler benefit than even the teaching language; yet fuch a sense would be impertinent and abfurd in this place, where only the benefit of language is talked of by an exact and learned Speaker. Be fides, Profpero exprefly fays, that Caliban had purposes; which, in other words, is that he did knew his own meaning.

WARBURTON.