I.ii.155 (14,6) [deck'd the sea] _To deck the sea_, if explained, to honour, adorn, or dignify, is indeed ridiculous, but the original import of the verb _deck_ is, _to cover_; so in some parts they yet say _deck the table_. This sense nay be borne, but perhaps the poet wrote _fleck'd_, which I think is still used in rustic language of drops falling upon water. Dr. Warburton reads _mock'd_, the Oxford edition _brack'd_. (see 1765, I,13,5) I.ii.185 (15,8) [Thou art inclin'd to sleep: 'tis a good dulness] Dr. Warburton rightly observes, that this sleepiness, which Prospero by his art had brought upon Miranda, and of which he knew not how soon the effect would begin, makes him question her so often whether she is attentive to his story. I.ii.196 (16,1) [I boarded the king's ship: now on the beak] The beak was a strong pointed body at the head of the ancient gallies; it is used here for the forecastle, or the bolt-sprit. I.ii.197 (16,2) [Now in the waste] The part between the quarter-deck and the forecastle. I.ii.209 (16,3) [Not a soul _But felt a fever of the mad_] In all the later editions this is changed to a _fever of the mind_, without reason or authority, nor is any notice given of an alteration. I.ii.218 (17,4) [_On their sustaining garments not a blemish_ Thomas Edwards' MSS: sea-stained] This note of Mr. Edwards, with which I suppose no reader is satisfied, shews with how much greater ease critical emendations are destroyed than made, and how willingly every man would be changing the text, if his imagination would furnish alterations. (1773) I.ii.239 (19,7) [What is the time o' the day?] This passage needs not be disturbed, it being common to ask a question, which the next moment enables us to answer; he that thinks it faulty may easily adjust it thus: Pro. _What is the time o' the day? Past the mid season._ Ari. _At least two glasses._ Pro. _The time 'twixt six and now_-- I.ii.250 (19,8) [_Pro._ Dost thou forget _From what a torment I did free thee?_] That the character and conduct of Prospero may be understood, something must be known of the system of enchantment, which supplied all the marvellous found in the romances of the middle ages. This system seems to be founded on the opinion that the fallen spirits, having different degrees of guilt, had different habitations allotted them at their expulsion, some being confined in hell, _some_ (as Hooker, who delivers the opinion of our poet's age, expresses it) _dispersed in air, some on earth, some in water, others in caves, dens, or minerals under the earth_. Of these, some were more malignant and mischievous than others. The earthy spirits seem to have been thought the most depraved, and the aerial the least vitiated. Thus Prospero observes of Ariel: --_Thou wast a spirit too delicate To act her_ earthy _and abhorr'd commands._