To clustering filberts and sometimes I'll get thee Young scamels from the rock. Wilt thou go with me?

Ste. I prithee now, lead the way without any more talking. Trinculo, the king and all our company else being drowned, we will inherit here: here; bear my bottle: fellow Trinculo, 180 we'll fill him by and by again.

Cal. [Sings drunkenly]

Farewell, master; farewell, farewell!

Trin. A howling monster; a drunken monster! Cal. No more dams I'll make for fish;

Nor fetch in firing

At requiring;

Nor scrape trencher, nor wash dish:

'Ban, 'Ban, Cacaliban

Has a new master: get a new man. Freedom, hey-day! hey-day, freedom! freedom, 190 hey-day, freedom!

Ste. O brave monster! Lead the way. [Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I. Before PROSPERO's cell.

Enter FERDINAND, bearing a log.

Fer. There be some sports are painful, and

their labour

176. scamels, probably some kind of rock-breeding bird is meant. But the word cannot be shown to have ever existed except as a local East-coast name for a bird which does not breed in the rocks. Theobald's conjecture sea-mells, sea-gulls,' is therefore very plausible.

179. inherit, take possession.

The

187. trencher, Pope's emendation for Ff trenchering. Ff reading has been ingeniously defended as due to his drunken hiccough; it is more likely to be due to the printer's eye having caught the -ing of the two previous lines.

1. painful, toilsome.

Delight in them sets off: some kinds of baseness
Are nobly undergone and most poor matters
Point to rich ends. This my mean task
Would be as heavy to me as odious, but

The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead
And makes my labours pleasures: O, she is
Ten times more gentle than her father's crabbed,
And he's composed of harshness. I must remove
Some thousands of these logs and pile them up,
Upon a sore injunction: my sweet mistress
Weeps when she sees me work, and says, such
baseness

Had never like executor. I forget:

But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours,

Most busy lest, when I do it.

Enter MIRANDA; and PROSPERO at a distance,

Mir.

unseen.

Alas, now, pray you,
Work not so hard: I would the lightning had
Burnt up those logs that you are enjoin'd to pile!
Pray, set it down and rest you: when this burns,
'Twill weep for having wearied you. My father

2. sets off, removes, assuages. But labour may be taken as the subject, in which case 'set off' has its more usual Shakespearean 'show to the best advan

sense:

tage.'

ΤΟ

and this, with the comma before least, may be interpreted : '(these sweet thoughts inspiring and animating my toil), I am really most busy when least occupied.' But both the inversion of least and when, and the reference in do it to labours, are harsh, and Shakespeare can hardly have written the line thus. Preferable suggestions are Holt's, 'Most busiest, when I do it (ie. when I forget '), and Spedding's ingenious, 'Most busiest, when idlest.'

Is hard at study; pray now, rest yourself;
He's safe for these three hours.

Fer.
The sun will set before I shall discharge

What I must strive to do.

Mir.

O most dear mistress,

If you'll sit down,

I'll bear your logs the while: pray, give me that;
I'll carry it to the pile.

Fer.

No, precious creature ;

I had rather crack my sinews, break my back,
Than you should such dishonour undergo,
While I sit lazy by.

It would become me
and I should do it
for my good will is to it,

Mir.
As well as it does you
With much more ease;
And yours it is against.

Pros.

Poor worm, thou art infected!

This visitation shows it.

Mir.

You look wearily.

Fer. No, noble mistress; 'tis fresh morning

with me

When you are by at night. I do beseech you—
Chiefly that I might set it in my prayers—

Indeed the top of admiration! worth
What's dearest to the world! Full many a lady
I have eyed with best regard and many a time
The harmony of their tongues hath into bondage
Brought my too diligent ear: for several virtues
Have I liked several women; never any
With so full soul, but some defect in her
Did quarrel with the noblest grace she owed

32. visitation; (carrying on the image of 'infected').

20

30

40

And put it to the foil: but you, O you,
So perfect and so peerless, are created
every creature's best!
Mir.

Of

I do not know

One of my sex; no woman's face remember,
Save, from my glass, mine own; nor have I seen
More that I may call men than you, good friend,
And my dear father: how features are abroad,
I am skilless of; but, by my modesty,

The jewel in my dower, I would not wish
Any companion in the world but you,
Nor can imagination form a shape,

Besides yourself, to like of.

But I prattle Something too wildly and my father's precepts

I therein do forget.

Fer.

I am in my condition

A prince, Miranda; I do think, a king;

I would, not so !—and would no more endure
This wooden slavery than to suffer

The flesh-fly blow my mouth. Hear my soul
speak:

The very instant that I saw you, did

My heart fly to your service; there resides,
To make me slave to it; and for your sake
Am I this patient log-man.

Mir.

Do you love me?

Fer. O heaven, O earth, bear witness to this

sound

And crown what I profess with kind event
If I speak true! if hollowly, invert
What best is boded me to mischief! I
Beyond all limit of what else i' the world
Do love, prize, honour you.

Mir.

To weep at what I am glad of.

46. put to the foil, foiled.

I am a fool

72. what, anything, aught.

50

60

70

Mir. At mine unworthiness that dare not offer
What I desire to give, and much less take
What I shall die to want. But this is trifling;
And all the more it seeks to hide itself,

The bigger bulk it shows. Hence, bashful cunning!
And prompt me, plain and holy innocence!

I am your wife, if you will marry me;
If not, I'll die your maid: to be your fellow
You may deny me; but I'll be your servant,
Whether you will or no.

Fer.

And I thus humble ever.

Mir.

My mistress, dearest ;

My husband, then?

Fer. Ay, with a heart as willing

As bondage e'er of freedom: here's my hand. Mir. And mine, with my heart in 't: and now farewell

Till half an hour hence.

Fer.

A thousand thousand!
[Exeunt Fer. and Mir. severally.
Pros. So glad of this as they I cannot be,
Who are surprised withal; but my rejoicing
At nothing can be more. I'll to my book,
For yet ere supper-time must I perform
Much business appertaining.

[Exit.

SCENE II. Another part of the island.

Enter CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO. Ste. Tell not me; when the butt is out, we 79. die to want, die through wanting.

84. maid, handmaiden.

80

90