30 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



takes place, as the Tempest, or displays so much 

 imagination ; for, while he seems to leave one 

 at liberty to wander through the wild and the 

 wonderful, yet such is the correctness of his 

 taste, that in this piece he never suffers it to 

 pass the bounds of consistency. 



Caroline was most pleased with the part of 

 the ''delicate" Ariel. "It is quite charming," 

 she said, " he is so well imagined : his qualities 

 and offices and his expressions are so suitable 

 to each other, and so nicely described by him- 

 self. Besides, he seems so amiable and good- 

 natured to the shipwrecked strangers, that even 

 while we consider him as the artful agent of 

 the magician, he seems to have the qualities of 

 almost a celestial being." 



I asked her which she liked best, Ariel, or the 

 fairy sprites in Midsummer Night's Dream. 

 "Like you, Bertha, I delight in all Shak- 

 speare's fairy-land," said she ; " but I think 

 Ariel in every way superior to Puck : even his 

 tricks are more elegant and graceful, and he 

 seems to sympathise with the people he is teas- 

 ing ; but Puck, however amusing, is a wild 

 mad-cap, that revels in his antics, and ridicules 

 the poor victims of his merry mischief. I like to 

 think of Ariel as he ' lies in the cowslip's bell' 

 or ' rides on the curled clouds, to do his mas- 

 ter's bidding/ with such swiftness as to 'drink 

 the air before him.' " 



