Chapter IV: Act III: SCENE 1. Page 91

FER. This wooden slavery, than _I would_ suffer.

The old copy reads _than to suffer_, which, however ungrammatical, is justly maintained by Mr. Malone to be Shakspeare's language, and ought therefore to be restored. Mr. Steevens objects on the score of _defective_ metre: but this is not the case; the metre, however rugged, is certainly _perfect_.

SCENE 1. Page 92.

MIRA. 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.

Mr. Malone has cited a very apposite passage from Catullus, but Shakspeare had probably on this occasion the pathetic old poem of _The nut-brown maid_ in his recollection.

SCENE 2. Page 94.

STE. Thy eyes are almost set in thy head.

TRIN. Where should they be set else? he were a brave monster
indeed, if they were set in his tail.

The curious reader may nevertheless be gratified with a ludicrous instance of _eyes set in the tail_, if he can procure a sight of the first cut in Caxton's edition of _Æsop's fables_. In the mean time he is referred to the _genuine_ chap. xx. of Planudes's life of that fabulist, which is generally omitted in the modern editions.

SCENE 2. Page 97.

CAL. What a py'd ninny's this? thou scurvy patch!

Dr. Johnson would transfer this speech to Stephano, on the ground that Caliban could know nothing of the costume of fools. This objection is fairly removed by Mr. Malone; besides which it may be remarked that at the end of the play Caliban specifically calls Trinculo a _fool_. The modern managers will perhaps be inclined for the future to dress this character in the proper habit.

SCENE 2. Page 100.

CAL. Will you _troll_ the catch----

_Troll_ is from the French _trôler_, to _lead_, _draw_, or _drag_, and this sense particularly applies to a catch, in which one part is sung after the other, one of the singers leading off. The term is _sometimes_ used as Mr. Steevens has explained it. Littelton renders _to troll along his words_, by _volubiliter loqui sive rotundè_. _Trolling_ for fish, is drawing the bait along in the water, to imitate the swimming of a real fish.

SCENE 2. Page 104.

SEB. ... in _Arabia_
There is one tree, the Phœnix' throne, _one phœnix_
At this hour reigning there.

Bartholomæus _De propriet. rerum_, speaking of _Arabia_, says, "there breedeth a birde that is called _Phœnix_;" and from what has already been said of this book, it was probably one of Shakspeare's authorities on the occasion.

SCENE 2. Page 106.

GON. Who would believe that there were mountaineers,
Dewlapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at them
Wallets of flesh? or that there were such men,
_Whose heads stood in their breasts?_

The "dewlapp'd mountaineers" are shown to have been borrowed from Maundeville's travels, and the same author doubtless supplied the other monsters. In the edition printed by Thomas Este, without date, is the following passage: "In another ile dwell men that have no heads, and their eyes are in their shoulders, _and their mouth is on their breast_." A cut however which occurs in this place is more to the purpose, and might have saved our poet the trouble of consulting the text, for it represents a complete head with eyes, nose, and mouth, placed on the breast and stomach.