BOATS. Here, master: What cheer? MAST. Good: Speak to the mariners: fall to't yarely, 3 or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir. (Exit. Enter Mariners. BOATS. Heigh, my hearts; cheerly, cheerly, my hearts; yare, yare: Take in the top-fail; Tend to 2 Boatswain,) In this naval dialogue, perhaps the first example of failor's language exhibited on the stage, there are, as I have been told by a skilful navigator, some inaccuracies and contraditory orders. JOHNSON. The foregoing observation is founded on a mistake. These orders should be confidered as given, not at once, but successively, as the emergency required. One attempt to save the ship failing, another is tried. MALONE. 3 fall to't yarely,) i. c. Readily, nimbly. Our author is frequent in his use of this word. So in Decker's Satiromaftix : " They'll make his muse as yare as a tumbler." STEEVENS. Here it is applied as a fea-term, and in other parts of the scene. So he uses the adje&ive, A& V. fc. v: Our ship is tight and yare." And in one of the Henries : " yare are our ships." To this day the faitors say, fit yare to the helm.» Again, in Antony and Cleopatra, A& II. sc. iii: yarely frame the office. T. WARTON. The tackles Blow, till thou burst thy wind, if room enough! Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, GONZALO, and others. ALON. Good boatswain, have care, Where's the master? Play the men.' BOATS. I pray now, keep below. ANT. Where is the master, boatswain ? BOATS. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour; Keep your cabins: you do affift the storm." GON. Nay, good, be patient. BOATS. When the sea is. Hence! What care these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: filence: trouble us not. GON. Good; yet remember whom thou hast aboard. 4 Blow, till thou burst thy wind; &c.) Perhaps it might be read Blow till thou burst, wind, if room enough. JOHNSON. Perhaps rather blow till thou burst thee, wind! if room enough. Beaumont and Fletcher have copied this passage in The Pilgrim: Blow, blow west wind, Blow till thou rive!" Again, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609: " ist Sailor. Blow, and split thyself!" Again, in K. Lear : " Blow winds, and burst your cheeks!" The allusion in these passages, as Mr. M. Mason observes, is to the manner in which the winds were represented in ancient prints and piaures. STEEVENS. Play the men.) i. e, act with spirit, behave like men. So in K. Henry VI. P. I. Ad 1. sc. vi: " When they shall hear how we have play'd the men," Again, in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, 1590, p. 2: او Viceroys and peers of Turkey, play the men." "Ω φίλοι, ανέρες, ἐσὲ, - affift the ftorm.) So in Pericles : <<< Patience, good Sir; do not assist the storm. STEEVENS. BOATS. None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to filence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have liv'd so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap. - Cheerly, good hearts Out of our way, I fay. (Exit. - * GON. I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks, he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good fate, to his hanging! make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage! If he be not born to be hang'd, our cafe is miferable. (Exeunt. Re-enter Boatswain. BOATS. Down with the top-mast; yare; lower, lower; bring her to try with main-course. (A cry within.) A plague upon this howling! they are louder than the weather, or our office. - of the present,) i. c. of the present instant. So in the 15th Chapter of the ist Epiftle to the Corinthians : of whom the greater part remain unto this prefent." STEEVENS. 8 Gonzalo.) It may be observed of Gonzalo, that, being the only good man that appears with the king, he is the only man that preserves his cheerfulness in the wreck, and his hope on the ifland. JOHNSON. 9 bring her to try with main-course.) Probably from Hackluyt's Voyages, 1598 : And when the barke had way, we cut the hauser, and so gate the fea to our friend, and tried out all that day with our maine course." MALONE. This phrase also occurs in Smith's Sea-Grammar, 1627, 4°, under the article How to handle a ship in a storme. "Let us lie at Trie with our maine course; that is to hale the tacke aboord, the sheat close aft, the boling fet up, and the helme tied close aboord. p. 40. STEEVENS. / A Re-enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO, Yet again? what do you here? Shall we give o'er, and drown? Have you a mind to fink? SEB. A pox o' your throat! you bawling, blafphemous, incharitable dog! BOATS. Work you, then. ANT. Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson, insolent noise-maker, we are less afraid to be drown'd. than thou art. Gon. I'll warrant him from drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a nut shell, and as leaky as an unstanch'd wench.* BOATS. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; set her two courses; off to sea again, lay her off, Enter Mariners wet. MAR. All loft! to prayers, to prayers! all loft! BOATS. What, must our mouths be cold? affift them, For our cafe is as theirs. 2 an unftanch'd wench.) Unftanch'd, I am willing to believe, means incontinent. STEEVENS. 3 Lay her a-hold, a-hold;) To lay a ship a-hold, is to bring her to lie as near the wind as she can, in order to keep clear of the land, and get her out to fea. STEEVENS. 4 - fet her two courses; off to sea again, The courses are the main fail and fore fail. This term is used by Raleigh, in his Discourse on shipping. JOHNSON. The paffage, as Mr. Holt has has obferved, should be pointed Set her two courses; off, &c. , Such another expreffion occurs in Decker's If this be not a good Play, the Devil is in it, 1612: off with your Drablers and your Banners; out with your courses." STEEVENS, SEB. I am out of patience. ANT. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards. This wide-chopp'd rascal; -'Would, thou might'st lie drowning, The washing of ten tides! Gon. He'll be hang'd yet; Though every drop of water swear against it, And gape at wid'st to glut him. 6 (A confused noise within.) Mercy on us! We split, we split! Farewell, my wife and children! Farewell, brother!"-We split, we split, we split!ANT. Let's all fink with the king. (Exit. - merely - ) In this place fignifies abfolutely. In which sense it is used in Hamlet, A& I. fc. iii : at request Of some mere friends, some honourable Romans." STEEVENS. 6- to glut him.) Shakspeare probably wrote, t'englut him, to swallow him; for which I know not that glut is ever used by him. In this fignification englut, from engloutir, French occurs frequently, as in Henry VI : And again, in Timon and Othello. Yet Milton writes glutted offal for swallowed, and therefore perhaps the present text may stand. Thus in Sir A. Gorges's translation of Lucan, B. VI: STEEVENS. JOHNSON. i. e. fwallow. 7 Mercy on us, &c. Farewell, brother! &c.) All these lines have been hitherto given to Gonzalo, who has no brother in the ship. It is probable that the lines succeeding the confused noise within should be confidered as spoken by no determinate chara&ers. JOHNSON. The hint for this stage dire&ion, &c. might have been received from a passage in the second book of Sidney's Arcadia, where |