[417-30] A staniel is a kestril, a beautiful hawk.
[418-1] Ferdinand says, “Some sports are painful, and the delight we take in them offsets the labor.”
[418-2] Baseness here means lowliness, rather than anything base or evil.
[418-3] Prospero has set Ferdinand to carrying logs, a hard task and a lowly one, to test his love for Miranda, to find out how manly he really is.
[419-4] The meaning of this line probably is that when he works the least he is really most wearied because he does not have Miranda’s sympathetic words to cheer him, or the sweet thought that he is working for her.
[420-5] Put it to the foil, means put it on the defensive. Foil was a general name for swords.
[420-6] Ferdinand thinks his father has been drowned, but wishes it were not so, even though he is thereby made King.
[422-7] The flesh-fly is the blow-fly, which lays its eggs in meat and helps its decay.
[422-8] Hollowly here means falsely.
[422-9] We would now say, “Whatsoever else.”