Journeys Through Bookland Volume Viii Part 51

[422-7] The flesh-fly is the blow-fly, which lays its eggs in meat and helps its decay.

[422-8] _Hollowly_ here means _falsely_.

[422-9] We would now say, "_Whatsoever_ else."

[422-10] Instead of _to want_, we would say _from wanting_.

[423-11] _Fellow_ here means _equal_.

[423-12] _Bondman_ may be read for _bondage_. He accepts her as willingly as a slave ever accepted freedom.

[423-13] "A thousand thousand _farewells_."

[423-14] Prospero desires Ferdinand to love and marry Miranda and has planned for it, but he is surprised at the suddenness and strength of their love.

[423-1] As in a naval battle one s.h.i.+p runs alongside another, and the sailors leap aboard.

[424-2] _Set_ means _fixed and staring_.

[424-3] _Standard_ may be read _standard-bearer_.

[424-4] Trinculo means that Caliban is too drunk to stand.

[424-5] Trinculo is always jesting, even at his own expense. He means he is so drunk he would pick a quarrel with a constable.

[424-6] _Debosh'd_ means _debauched_.

[425-7] A _natural_ is a fool or a simpleton.

[425-8] Stephano means "You shall be hanged on the next tree."

[425-9] As Ariel is invisible, each thinks another has spoken.

[425-10] "_This thing_" is Caliban himself.

[426-11] The court fools or jesters of that day wore clothes of many colors--were _pied_, that is, _dappled_.

[426-12] _Patch_ is another word referring to the parti-colored clothing of the jester.

[426-13] The _quick freshes_ are the running springs of fresh water.

[426-14] _Stock-fish_ is a word used in the writings of that period to mean some kind of a fixture, which men struck with their fists or with cudgels in practicing boxing and fighting.

[427-15] Stephano speaks first to Caliban, then to Trinculo.

[427-16] The _weazand_ is the windpipe or throat.

[427-17] _Sot_ in this place means _fool_, not _drunkard_. Caliban thinks Prospero's books are the source of his magic power over such spirits as Ariel and those he commands.

[427-18] _Brave_ here means _beautiful_ or _showy_.

[428-19] This speech of Ariel's is made aside, that is, out of hearing of the three conspirators.

[428-20] _Troll the catch_ means _sing the jolly song_.

[428-21] _While-ere_ means _awhile since_.

[428-22] "I will do anything reasonable," says Stephano.

[428-23] "What is this music I hear?"

[428-24] A common sign in those times was called the picture of n.o.body.

It consisted of a head upon two legs, with arms.

[429-25] Stephano probably means, "Take a blow from my fist," and speaks to the invisible spirit or devil that he now thinks to be near them, because of Ariel's curious interruptions.

[429-26] _Sometime_ is again used for _sometimes_.

[430-1] _By our lady!_ was a common exclamation. A diminutive form of this was _by our ladykin_ which was contracted into _by our lakin_.

[430-2] _Forth-rights_ are straight lines.

[430-3] _Meanders_ are crooked lines.

[430-4] _Attach'd with_ means _seized by_.

[430-5] _Frustrate_ means _defeated_ or _baffled_.

[430-6] _Throughly_ means the same as _through_. Sebastian means that the next time he will carry his purpose through.

[431-7] A _drollery_ was an amusing show of the _Punch and Judy_ kind, where the characters were puppets. In a _living_ drollery, the characters would be alive instead of puppets.

[431-8] The _phoenix_ was a fabled bird of antiquity which lived a hundred years and then died in flames, only to rise young and strong again from its ashes. There was but one such bird in the world, and somewhere in Arabia was a tree, different from any other in the world, in which the phoenix built its nest.

[431-9] _Certes_ means _for a certainty_.

[432-10] _Muse_ here means _wonder at_.

[432-11] Probably Prospero alludes to an old saying which meant, "Do not praise your banquet too soon; wait till it is over."

[432-12] Among the _strange shapes_ that danced about the banquet were deformed men from whose throats the flesh hung down in huge pockets, like goitres, and others whose heads grew from their b.r.e.a.s.t.s without neck and shoulders.

[432-13] Sometimes in Shakespeare's days they practiced a curious kind of insurance. If a man were going on a long journey, he _put out_ in the hands of agents a sum of money, under the agreement that if he returned he was to have a certain number of times the money he put out. If the journey was perilous, the agreement might call for five times the sum; if a safer journey, perhaps twice the amount. If the traveler did not return, the agents kept the sum put out. Gonzalo uses the phrase "_Each putter-out of one for five_," to mean each man who goes on a perilous journey. He means that every traveler returning vouches for, or gives good warrant for, the wonders he has seen.

[433-14] Instead of _That hath to instrument_, we might read _That has control of_. The whole sentence means: "You are three sinful men whom Destiny, that rules this lower world and what is in it, has caused the never-surfeited sea to throw on sh.o.r.e; yes, and on this island which man does not inhabit; you who are among men the most unfit to live."

[433-15] Water closes immediately over any cut made in it.