Journeys Through Bookland Volume Viii Part 46

FOOTNOTES:

[366-1] _Good_ was often used in Shakespeare's time as we use the word _well_, to introduce a sentence.

[366-2] _Fall to't yarely_ means _get to work briskly_.

[366-3] Perhaps the line should read, "Blow till thou burst _thee_, wind."

[366-4] If there is sea-room enough. The boatswain is not alarmed if he can have room to handle his s.h.i.+p.

[366-5] We still say "play the man" when we wish to encourage any one to be brave and manly.

[367-6] The word _time_ may be understood after _present_. The boatswain infers that they cannot make peaceful weather of the present storm.

[367-7] _Hap_ means _happen_.

[367-8] The word _complexion_ here means _bent_ or _inclination_.

Gonzalo says the boatswain is born to be hung; he cannot be drowned.

[367-9] The boatswain finds he has not sea-room enough so he calls upon the sailors to take down the topmast and to bring the s.h.i.+p as close into the wind as possible and hold her there with the main sail.

[367-10] This sentence means _they are noisier than the tempest and the commands of our officers_.

[368-11] Gonzalo still thinks the boatswain was born to be hanged, and warrants that he will not be drowned.

[368-12] The boatswain is still trying to bring her to the wind, so she may get out to sea. The _courses_ are the largest lower sails.

[368-13] _Merely_, here, means _entirely_ or _absolutely_.

[368-14] _Glut_ means _swallow_.

[369-15] These are all plants that grow in England, and were to Shakespeare the familiar signs of barren ground.

[369-16] _The wills above be done_ means _the will of the Powers above be done_. Gonzalo interests us from the start by his rather humorous view of everything.

[369-1] _Welkin_ means _sky_.

[369-2] _Brave_ means _fine_.

[369-3] _Or e'er_ means _before_ or _sooner than_.

[370-4] _Fraughting_ means _freighting_. The human souls were the freight of the s.h.i.+p.

[370-5] _Amazement_ means _anguish_ and _deep distress_ rather than astonishment.

[370-6] In the time of Shakespeare it was not considered inelegant English to use two forms of the comparative and superlative degrees.

_More better_, _most best_ are good examples.

[370-7] _Meddle_ means _mix_. Miranda says she never thought of knowing more about herself or her father.

[370-8] Prospero means that with his garment he lays his magic arts aside and becomes the loving, human father.

[370-9] Prospero does not complete his sentence, but expresses the same thought in different form.

[372-10] _Bootless inquisition_ means _fruitless questioning_. The father has before begun to tell Miranda who she is, but has interrupted himself, and said, "Stay, not yet."

[372-11] _Out_ means _fully_.

[372-12] Prospero says, in these two lines, "If you can remember anything that happened before we came here, you may remember _how_ we came here."

[373-13] _Holp_ is an old form of _helped_.

[373-14] _Teen_ is an old word that means _trouble_ or _anxiety_.

[373-15] _Please you, further_, means _Please you, tell me further_.

[373-16] _Manage_ means _management_.

[373-17] _Signiories_ is a name for _princ.i.p.alities_.

[373-18] _Prime_ means _first_ or _leading_.

[374-19] _Who_ is used for _whom_, as it was not considered ungrammatical in Shakespeare's day.

[374-20] _Trash_ means _check_ or _set back_.

[374-21] _Over-topping_ means _rising too high_. Prospero means that his brother knew what persons to check when they tried to rise too high, to gain too much power.

[374-22] The brother understood the _key_ that kept officer and office in tune, and so set the minds of all Prospero's subjects thinking as the usurper wished. That is, Antonio took Prospero's friends away from him.

[374-23] We would say _so that_ instead of merely _that_.

[374-24] _To closeness_ means _to privacy_, to studies in his own home.

[374-25] _But_ in this sense means _except_.

[374-26] This is a difficult clause to understand. What Prospero means is probably that his studies would have exceeded all popular estimate in value, but that they (if they had not) kept him so retired from public life. Prospero sees the mistake he made, but cannot give up the idea that his studies were valuable.

[375-27] _Sans_ is a French word that means _without_.

[375-28] _By falsing it_ means _by falsifying it_ or _forging it_.

[375-29] Shakespeare omits the word _as_ before _to_. Antonio made so great a sinner of his memory unto truth as to credit his own lie.

[375-30] _Out of the subst.i.tution_ may be understood to mean _because of his being my subst.i.tute_.

[375-31] Prospero's tale is not clearly told. He is evidently thinking of other things, and his sentences are often imperfect. His mind wanders to the things he intends doing, to the storm, the strangers on the island and to his plans for the future. Miranda is not inattentive--she is fascinated by the story--but her father attributes his own wandering thoughts to her.

[375-32] Tired of ruling behind a screen, for that is what Prospero really was. Antonio planned to remove his brother and become absolute Duke of Milan.