The Tempest
Act I Sc. 1
“Mercy on us!
We split, we split! farewell, my wife and children!
Farewell, my brother! we split, we split, we split!”
This is, beyond question, “the confused noise within,” and not the exclamation of Gonzalo, of whose family we hear nothing. Speaking behind the scenes was not unusual.
“Long heath, brown furze.”
As the epithets are here most inappropriate, we should probably transpose them, as I have done (see on iv. 1); for heath is brown, and “they were in a clump or cluster of tall furze,” says Scott (Redgauntlet, ch. xvi.). We might also transpose the substantives (see on Twelfth Night, i. 2, and on M. N. D. ii. 1). Hanmer proposed to read “Ling, heath, broom, furze;” and this reading Mr. Dyce adopts; but ling was probably a word unknown to the poet, and it is only another name for heath.
Sc. 2
“Who had no doubt some noble creature in her.”
If ‘creature’ is not a collective, it is a misprint for ‘creatures.’
“Was duke of Millaine, and his only heir
And princess, no worse issued.”
Pope read, I think correctly, ‘A princess.’ We have, “And marriage” for “A marriage” (Hen. VIII. ii. 4). See also on Jul. Cæs. v. 2.
“And to my state grew stranger.”
We should perhaps read ‘a stranger.’
“I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate[d].”
So also Ritson. See Rom. and Jul. i. 1.
“Was dukedom large enough for; of temporal royalties.”
“Than other princess can, that have more time
For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.”
As the plural of ‘princess’ does not occur in Shakespeare, and a plural seems required here, I suspect that ‘princess’ may be a collective. (See Introd. p. 70.) For ‘hours’ we might read joys, i.e. enjoyments. Still the passage may be as the poet wrote it.
“I find my zenith doth depend upon
A most auspicious star.”
I am not sufficiently versed in astrology to determine whether ‘zenith’ be right or not.
“Yea, his dread trident shake.—That’s my brave spirit!”
Like the subsequent “Why, that’s my spirit!” and “That’s my noble master!” So also Hanmer.
“Some trick of desperation. All but the mariners.”
“Bound sadly home for Naples, supposing that
They saw the king’s ship wrack’d, and his great person perish.”
This is undoubtedly the proper arrangement.
“Of the salt deep, to run upon the sharp
Wind of the north, to do me business in
The veins of the earth, when it is bak’d with frost.—
I do not, sir.—Thou liest, malignant thing!
Hast thou forgot the foul witch, Sycorax,
Who with age and envy was grown into a hoop?
Hast thou forgot her?—No, sir.—Thou hast. Where was she born?”
So we should arrange the whole passage.
“Come forth, thou tortoise! When?”
Steevens made the same addition.
“Drop on you both! a south-west wind blow on ye!”
As north, south, etc., were not used alone of the wind, I have added wind, which also gives energy to the expression, which is tame and feeble, if the metric accent fall on ‘ye.’ See on Twelfth Night, i. 1.
“Oho! oho! I would it had been done!”
“The wild waves whist.”
Steevens properly made this a parenthesis. ‘Whist’ is whisted, hushed. “The moisting air was whist, no leaf ye could have moving seen.” Golding, Ovid, p. 81.
“Of his bones are corals made.”
“Make the prize light. One word more, sir. I charge thee.”
“The wrack of all my friends, nor this man’s threats,
To whom I am subdued, are but light to me.”
For ‘nor’ Steevens read or; we might also read and or nay; but perhaps it is as it was written. For ‘are,’ too, the proper word would be were.