Tempest (1918) Yale/Notes
NOTES
I. ii. 91, 92. With that which, etc. 'With that learning which exceeded in value all popular estimates [of learning], save that it compelled me to live a retired life—whence rose the trouble in Prospero's career.
I. ii. 100–102. Who having, into truth, etc. A difficult passage. The general meaning seems clear: He had told the lie so often that, so far as his own memory was concerned, he had come to believe it.
I. ii. 169. Now I arise. A much disputed passage. There seems to be no reason for assuming that more is meant than the words state literally.
I. ii. 228. to fetch dew. Dew was to be fetched for use in some sort of incantation.
I. ii. 266. for one thing she did. Prospero does not specify the nature of the act; but there seems to be an implication that the witch was spared because of her pregnancy. Cf. Henry VI, Part 1, V. iv. 10 ff.
I. ii. 334. berries. The reference may possibly be to coffee.
I. ii. 351. In the Folios this speech is assigned to Miranda.
I. ii. 377, 378. kiss'd The wild waves whist. 'Kissed the wild waves into silence.'
II. i. 37. Ha, ha, ha! etc. In the Folios the second half of this speech, 'So you're paid,' is assigned to Antonio. In order to make sense out of the passage the words must be given to Sebastian, who, having lost the wager, pays with a laugh.
II. i. 41. He could not miss it. 'Uninhabitable as this island is, neither Adrian nor the rest could do without it, just then.' (Furness.)
II. i. 69. pockets. His pockets are, presumably, still damp and muddy.
II. i. 90. miraculous harp. The harp of Amphion, son of Zeus, raised the walls of Thebes by the magic of its music.
II. i. 134. Who hath cause. Who for 'which.' 'Your eye hath cause to be wet with grief at your banishment from Claribel.'
II. i. 137, 138. at Which end . . . bow. The difficulty here is in finding the subject of 'bow'; it may be 'she'; but is more probably 'end.' The confusion of the passage would be somewhat reduced by dropping the word 'at.' The metaphor of a pair of scales needs no interpretation. The poor soul long weighed the hatred of the proposed match over against her desire to obey her father.
II. i. 190. out of her sphere. According to the Ptolemaic astronomy, the moon is a planet, moving in a crystal sphere. The gentlemen are preposterous enough to lift the moon out of her sphere; but she is as inconstant as they, and changes continually.
II. i. 198. Go sleep, and hear us. Perhaps, 'go to sleep, and then, if you can, you will hear us laugh'—laugh with delight, i.e., to be rid of such a bore.
II. i. 233, 234. how, in stripping it, etc. 'This purpose [of being king] you really cherish at heart, though you pretend to mock at the notion of ever being king; but, by laying the notion bare, i.e., by stripping off all pretence, you will invest it with the more attractiveness.' Sebastian is urged by Antonio to express freely his covert ambition to be king.
II. i. 250. Ambition cannot pierce, etc. Any thought of the future which extends beyond the death of Ferdinand will suggest that Sebastian may be the next king. 'When ambition pierces to its furthest wink, there discovery ceases, and the crown is found.' (Furness.)
II. i. 258. she that from whom. A specimen of Shakespeare's hurried and tortuous construction: 'from whom' probably means 'in coming home from whom.' The sentence would be somewhat clearer if 'that' were dropped.
II. i. 287. candied be they. 'Let twenty consciences be first congealed and then dissolved, ere they, etc.' (Malone.)
II. i. 297. They'll tell the clock. 'They will say anything that we say,' or, figuratively, 'They will agree that it is any hour of the day which we choose to assert that it is.'
II. ii. 107. I have no long spoon. 'He that eats with the Devil had need of a long spoon.' (Marlowe, Jew of Malta, Act III.) A common saying.
II. ii. 185. scamels. No one knows what this word means. Perhaps some kind of bird, as the sea-mew, is meant. But the word may very well have been coined by Shakespeare. The attribution of an exact meaning to it could add nothing to the beauty and suggestiveness of the passage.
III. i. 15. Most busy lest, when I do it. As famous a crux as any in Shakespeare. Despite the tortuous nature of the passage, the general meaning is clear: 'I am busiest when I am least [lest] occupied; for when I forget my work, I am busied with sweet thoughts (of Miranda), which refresh me for my toil.' 'Forget' is the antecedent of 'it.'
III. iii. 17. S. d. Prosper on the top. A plain reference to Prospero's entry 'above,' on the upper stage, or balcony.
III. iii. 39. Praise in departing. This may mean, 'Spare your praise till the end of the performance.'
III. iii. 45. Dew-lapp'd. This has usually been taken to be a reference to the disease of goitre, which enlarges the neck. The explanation, however, is far from satisfactory.
IV. i. 3. third. Miranda is one 'third' of Prospero's interest in life. The other two thirds are usually taken to be himself and his dukedom.
IV. i. 59. S. d. Enter Iris. At this point begins the masque, acted in honor of the betrothal, by Prospero's spirits. It was once customary to doubt the authenticity of this part of the play; but no good reason has ever been given for assigning it to any other hand than Shakespeare's.
IV. i. 64. pioned and twilled. Unintelligible words. 'We have simply lost the meanings of words which were perfectly intelligible to Shakespeare's audience.' (Furness.)
IV. i. 89. Dis. Pluto, who seized Proserpina, daughter of Ceres, as she was gathering flowers, and carried her off to the underworld.
IV. i. 114, 115. Spring come to you . . . harvest. The wish is that the year may be all spring and summer. The return of spring is to occur, at latest, immediately after harvest.
IV. i. 223.
'King Stephen was a worthy peer,
His breeches cost him but a crown,
He held them sixpence all too dear,
Therefore he called the tailor "Lowne."'
—Old Ballad.
Cf. Othello, II. iii. 98.
IV. i. 238. Now is the jerkin under the line. 'Line' probably means 'lime-tree' (cf. V. i. 10). Stephano brushes the jerkin off the tree, on which Ariel had hung it, and proceeds to pun, drunkenly. The 'line' reminds him of the equatorial line, below which one is likely to get a fever, and lose his hair. The jerkin will lose its 'hair' (nap) when Stephano wears it.
IV. i. 251. barnacles. It is generally assumed that this refers to 'barnacle geese,' that is, to geese said, in folk-lore, to be produced from shellfish which grow on certain trees, and, in their maturity, drop off into the water and hatch into geese. This may be Caliban's meaning, or the word may have its more ordinary signification.
V. i. 39, 40. rejoice . . . curfew. The curfew bell marks the beginning of that 'vast of night,' in which fairies and witches may walk abroad and do their supernatural work. At cockcrow they must disappear again.
V. i. 171 S. d., 172–175. At this point Prospero draws the curtain concealing the rear stage, and reveals Ferdinand and Miranda playing at chess. Much difficulty has been made of the ensuing conversation between the lovers. It would seem that Ferdinand has just captured a piece from Miranda; whereupon she playfully remarks, 'You play me false.' He gallantly retorts, 'I would not do that for the world,' and she, not to be outdone in generosity, replies, 'You might contend [wrangle] with me for the stake of twenty kingdoms, as we have been contending for this piece; you should win them all, and I would assert it to be fair play.'
V. i. 267. badges. 'Household servants usually wore on their arms, as a part of their livery, silver "badges," whereon the shield of their masters was engraved.’' (Furness.)
V. i. 271. And deal . . . power. The first 'her' refers to the moon, the second to Sycorax. The witch 'dealt in the command of the moon,' and this was beyond [without] her sphere of authority. She usurped the moon's power.
Epilogue. There is grave doubt whether these verses are Shakespeare's. Prologues and epilogues were often written by another hand than the author's. At the same time, it is necessary to remember that there is no direct evidence for the spuriousness of the passage.