cramps, Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins4 Shall, for that vast of night that they may work All exercise on thee: thou shalt be pinch'd As tnick as honey-combs, each pinch more stinging Than bees that made them. Cal. I must eat my dinner. This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, Which thou tak'st from me. When thou camest first, Thou strok'ást me, and mad'st much of me; would'st give me Water with berries in't; and teach me how The fresh springs, brine pits, barren place, and fertile ; Cursed be I that did so -All the charms Which first was mine own king: and here you sty 1 i. e. we cannot do without him. The phrase is still common in the midland counties. 2 This is a common expression of impatience. Vide note on King Richard II. Act i. Scene 1. 3 Quaint here means brisk, spruce, dexterous, from the French cointe. 4 Urchins were fairies of a particular class. Hedgehogs were also called urchins; and it is probable that the sprites were so named, because they were of a mischievous kind, the urchin being anciently deemed a very noxious animal. Shakspeare again mentions these fairy beings in the Merry Wives of Windsor. "Like urchins, ouphes, and fairies green and white." In the phrase still current, "a little urchin," the idea of the fairy still remains. 5 That vust of night is that space of night. So, in Hamlet: It sounds no more ;--and sure, it waits upon Some god of the island. Sitting on a bank, Weeping again the king my father's wreck, This music crept by me upon the waters; Allaying both their fury, and my passion, With its sweet air: thence I have follow'd it, Or it hath drawn me rather :-But 'tis gone. No, it begins again. had different allotments of time suitable to the variety and nature of their agency. 6 Destroy. 7 The word aches is evidently a dissyllable here and in two passages of Timon of Athens. The reader will remember the senseless clamour that was raised against Kemble for his adherence to the text of Shakspeare in thus pronouncing it as the measure requires. "Ake," says Baret in his Alvearie, "is the verb of this substantive Ache, ch being turned into k." And that ache was pronounced in the same way as the letter h is placed be yond doubt by the passage in Much Ado about Nothing, in which Margaret asks Beatrice for what she cries Heigh ho, and she answers for an h. i. e. ache. See the Epigram of Heywood adduced in illustration of that passage. This orthography and pronunciation contihued even to the times of Butler and Swift. It would be easy to produce numerous instances. "In the dead waste and middle of the night," nor 8"The giants when they found themselves fettered vasta, midnight, when all things are quiet and still, roared like bulls, and cried upon Setebos to help them " making the world appear one great uninhabited waste.-Eden's Hist. of Travayle, 1577 p. 434 In the pneumatology of ancient times visionary beings 9 Still, silent But, certainly a maid. Fer. No wonder, sir; My language! heavens!-I am the best of them that speak this speech, Were I but where 'tis spoken. How! the best? Pro. What wert thou, if the king of Naples heard thee? Fer. A single thing, as I am now, that wonders To hear thee speak of Naples: he does hear me ; And, that he does, I weep: myself am Naples; Who with mine eyes, ne'er since at ebb, beheld The king my father wreck'd. Mira. Alack, for mercy! Fer. Yes, faith, and all his lords; the duke of Milan, And his brave son, being twain. The duke of Milan, word. a Mira. Why speaks my father so ungently? This Is the third man that e'er I saw; the first 1 i. e. owns. To owe was to possess or appertain to, in ancient language. 2 The folio of 1685 reads made, and many of the modern editors have laboured to persuade themselves that it was the true reading. It has been justly observed by M. Mason that the question is whether our readers will adopt a natural and simple expression, which requires no comment, or one which the ingenuity of many Commentators has but imperfectly supported." 3 To control here signifies to confute, to contradict unanswerably. The ancient meaning of control was to check or exhibit a contrary account, from the old French contre-roller. 4.66 you O, if a virgin, And your affection not gone forth, I'll make The queen of Naples. Pro. Soft, sir; one word more.They are both in either's powers: but this swift business thee, I must uneasy make, lest too light winning [Aside. From me, Fer. the lord on't. No, as I am a man. Mira. There's nothing ill can dwell in such a If the ill spirit have so fair an house, temple: Good things will strive to dwell with 't. Pro. Follow me.-[To FERD. Speak not you for him; he's a traitor.-Come. I'll manacle thy neck and feet together; Sea-water shalt thou drink, thy food shall be Wherein the acorn cradled: Follow. The fresh-brook muscles, wither'd roots, and husks you have done yourself some wrong:"I Fer. I will resist such entertainment, till Mine enemy Mira. has more power. No; [He draws. O dear father, Make not too rash a trial of him, for He's gentle, and not fearful.5 Pro. What, I say, My foot my tutor !--Put thy sword up, traitor; Who mak'st a show, but dar'st not strike, thy con science Is so possess'd with guilt: come from thy ward Mira.. Beseech you, father! Pro. Hence; hang not on my garments. Mira. I'll be his surety. Pro. Sir, have pity; Silence: one word more Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee. What' An advocate for an impostor? hush! he, Thou think'st there are no more such shapes as Mira. Pro. So they are: My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up. My father's loss, the weakness which I feel, The wreck of all my friends, or this man's threats, To whom I am subdued, are but light to me, Might I but through my prison once a day Behold this maid: all corners else o' the earth Let liberty make use of; space enough Have I in such a prison. that is, spoken a falsehood. Thus in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "This is not well, master Ford, this wrongs you.” dable, terrible, dreadful, like the French epouvantabie; 5 Fearful was sometimes used in the sense of formi as may be seen by consulting Cotgrave or any of our old dictionaries. Shakspeare almost always uses it in this sense. In K. Henry VI. Act iii. Scene 2, "A mighty and a fearful head they are." He has also fearful most commonly used for to fright, to terrify, to make wars; fearful bravery; &c. &c. The verb to fear is afraid. Mr. Gifford remarks, "as a proof how little our old dramatists were understood at the Restoration, that Dryden censures Jonson for an improper use of this word, the sense of which he altogether mistakes." |