48 SOME REMARKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY, &C. 



" Basium nullo fine terminetur." 



The masque of Prospero is a most fascinating episode in the play ; 

 it overflows with poetry. Milton's Comns is a more laborious com- 

 position, but much beneath Shakspeare in the luxuriance and poetry 

 of the light and fantastic train. 



" Enter Iris. 



w Iris. — Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas 

 Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats, and pease ; 

 Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep, 

 And flat meads thatch'd with stover, them to keep ; 

 Thy banks with peonied and lilied brims, 

 Which spungy April at thy hest betrims, 

 To make cold nymphs chaste crowns ; and thy broom groves, 

 Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves, &c. 



Ceres Hail ! many-coloured messenger, that ne'er 



Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter; 

 Who, with thy saffron wings, upon my flowers 

 Diffusest honey-drops, refreshing showers : 

 And with each end of thy blue bow, dost crown 

 My bosky acres, and my unshrubb'd down — 

 Rich scarf to my proud earth,'* &c. 



How lovelily this is painted ! we behold at once the flowers and 

 fields with " warm rain wet," — the checquered cloud, — " the rain- 

 bow, based on ocean, span the sky." 



This play ends with a most happy consistency : unlike the " ca- 

 tastrophies" generally, there is no abruptness, nor awkward inter- 

 lopations. Things come about inevitably, because naturally ; and 

 the reader is content to leave the chaste Miranda to the delights 

 which are to open before her in the new world to which she hastens ; 

 and yet we may possibly feel some regret that the " spirit of that 

 sweet Isle" was departing, that the M lime grove" would be for- 

 saken, that no voice would ever more awaken the solitude of their 

 cell. 



The wand is broke — " those strange books drown'd far beyond 

 the plummet's reach" — Prospero's Duke of Milan — Caliban has 

 sued for motley — and fS fine Ariel" is free ! 



Z. 



