hail kiffing-comfits, and fnoweringoes; let there come a tempeft of provocation, I will fhelter me here. Mrs. Ford. Miftrefs Page is come with me, fweet heart.

Fal. Divide me like a bribe-buck, each a haunch; I will keep my fides to myself, my fhoulders for the fellow of this walk, and my horns I bequeath your husbands. Am I a woodman, ha? Speak I like Herne the hunter? why, now is Cupid a child of conscience, he makes reftitution. As I am a true fpirit, welcome! [Noife within.

Mrs. Page. Alas! what noife?
Mrs. Ford. Heav'n forgive our fins!
Fal. What fhould this be?

Mrs. Ford. } Away, away.

Mrs. Page.

[The women run out.

Fal. I think the devil will not have me damn'd, left the oil that is in me should set hell on fire; he never would elfe cross me thus.

SCENE IV.

Enter Sir Hugh like a Satyr; Quickly, and others, dreft like Fairies, with Tapers.

Quic. Fairies, black, gray, green, and white,
You moon-fhine revellers, and fhades of night,
You Ouphen heirs of fixed destiny,
Attend your office, and your quality,
Crier hobgoblin, make the fairy o-yes.

7 Divide me like a brib'dBuck,] Thus all the old Copies, mistakingly: It must be bribebuck, i. e. a Buck fent for a Bribe. THEOBALD.

Fellow of thiswalk,] Who the fellow is, or why he keeps

Eva.

Eva. Elves, lift your names; filence, you airy toys. Cricket, to Windfor chimneys fhalt thou leap: Where fires thou find'st unrak'd, and hearths unswept, There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry. Our radiant Queen hates fluts and fluttery.

Fal. They're fairies; he that speaks to them shall die.

I'll wink and couch; no man their works muft eye. [Lyes down upon his face. Eva. Where's Pede? go you, and where you find

a maid,

prayers faid,

That, ere fhe fleep, hath thrice her
Rein up the organs of her fantafy;
Sleep fhe as found as careless infancy;

You OUPHEN heirs of fixed def

tiny.

i.. you Elves, who minifter, and fucceed in fome of the works of deftiny. They are called, in this Play, both before and afterwards, Ouphes; here Ouphen; en being the plural termination of Saxon nouns. For the word is from the Saxon, Alpenne, la miæ, dæmones. Or it may be understood to be an adjective, as wooden, woollen, golden, &c. WARBURTON.

I

i.e inflame her imagination with fenfual ideas; which is just the contrary to what the Poet would have the fpeaker fay. We cannot therefore but conclude he wrote,

RAISE up the organs of her fantafie:] The fenfe of this fpeech is that the, who had perform'd her religious duties, fhould be fecure against the illufion of fancy; and have her fleep, like that of infancy, undisturbed by difordered dreams. This was then the popular opinion, that evil fpirits had a power over the fancy; and, by that means, could infpire wick. ed dreams into those who, on their going to fleep, had not re-. So in the Tempeft,

REIN up the organs of her fan3 tafie,

i. e. curb them, that she be no more difturbed by irregular imaginations, than children in their fleep. For, he adds immediately,

Sleep the as found as careless infancy.

But those that fleep, and think not on their fins, Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, fhoulders, fides, and

fhins.

Quic. About, about;

Search Windfor caftle, elves, within and out.
Strew good luck, ouphes, on every facred room,
That it may stand 'till the perpetual Doom,
In ftate as wholsom, as in ftate 'tis fit;
Worthy the owner, as the owner it3.

The feveral chairs of Order look you scour,
With juice of balm and ev'ry precious flow'r :
Each fair Inftalment Coat and fev'ral Crest,
With loyal blazon evermore be bleft!
And nightly-meadow-fairies, look, you fing,
Like to the Garter-compafs, in a ring:
Th' expreffure that it bears, green let it be,
More fertile-fresh than all the field to fee;
And Honi Soit Qui Mal y Penfe write,
In emrold-tuffs, flow'rs purple, blue and white 4,

Give not dalliance too much the

REIN.

And in Meafure for Measure,
I give my fenfual race the

REIN.

To give the rein, being juft the contrary to rein up. The fame thought he has again in Macbeth,

Merciful powers ! Refrain in me the curfed thoughts

that nature Gives way to in repofe.

WARBURTON. 2 In ftate as boljom.] The Oxford Editor, not knowing the meaning of wholfom, has alter'd

it to,

In fite as bolfom, and fo has made the wifh a moft abfurd one. For the fite or fituation must needs be what it is,

Like

Like faphire, pearl, and rich embroidery,
Buckled below fair Knight-hood's bending knee;
Fairies ufe flow'rs for their charactery *.
Away, difperfe; but, 'till 'tis one o'clock,
Our dance of cuftom round about the Oak
Of Herne, the hunter, let us not forget.

}

Eva. Pray you, lock hand in hand, yourselves in order fet:

And twenty glow-worms fhall our lanthorns be,
To guide our measure round about the tree.
But ftay, I fmell a man of middle earth 3.

Fal. Heav'ns defend me from that Wekh fairy, lest he transform me to a piece of cheese!

Eva. Vild worm, thou waft o'er-look'd ev'n in thy birth.

PLE, blue and white,
Like faphire, pearl, AND rich
embroidery,] Thefe lines
are moft miferably corrupted.
In the words,-Flowers purple,
blue and white,the purple is
left uncompared. To remedy
this, the Editors, who seem to
have been fenfible of the imper-
fection of the comparison, read,
AND rich embroidery; that is,
according to them, as the blue
and white flowers are compared
to faphire and pearl, the purple
is compared to rich embroidery.
Thus inftead of mending one
falfe ftep they have made two,
by bringing Saphire, pearl and
rich embroidery under one predi-
cament. The lines were wrote
thus by the Poet,

In emrold-tuffs, flow'rs PUR-
FLED, blue and white,
Like japhire, pearl, IN rich em-
broidery,

i. e. let there be blue and white
How'rs worked on the green-
word, like faphire and pearl in

rich embroidery. To purfle is to
overlay with tinfel, gold thread,
&. fo our ancestors called a cer-
tain lace of this kind of work a
purfling-lace. "Tis from the
French, pourfiler. So Spencer,
She was yclad
All in a filken Camus, lilly-white,
PURFLED upon with many a
folded plight,

-

The change of and into in, in the fecond verfe, is neceffary. For flow'rs worked, or purfled in the grafs, were not like fa phire and pearl fimply, but faphire and pearl in embroidery. How the corrupt reading and was introduced into the text, we have fhewn above. WARB.

4 charactery.] For the matter with which they make letters.

5 of middle earth.] Spirits are fuppofed to inhabit the ethereal regions, and fairies to dwell under ground, men therefore are in a middle station.

Quic. With trial-fire touch me his finger-end;
If he be chafte, the flame will back defcend,
And turn him to no pain; but if he start,
It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.

Eva. A trial, come.

[They burn him with their tapers, and pinch him. Come, will this wood take fire?

Fal. Oh, oh, oh!

Quic. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in defire; About him, fairies, fing a scornful rhime : And, as you trip, ftill pinch him to your time. Eva. It is right, indeed; he is full of leacheries and iniquity.

The SON G.

Fie on finful phantafy,

Fie on luft and luxury !
Luft is but a bloodifh fire",
Kindled with unchafte defire,

Fed in beart, whofe flames afpire,
As thoughts do blow them, higher and higher.
Pinch him, fairies, mutually ;

Pinch bim for bis villainy :

Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about,
'Till candles, and ftar-light, and moon-fhine be out.

During this Song, they pinch him.

Doctor Caius

Slen

comes one way, and steals away a boy in green ; der another way, and he takes away a boy in white;

Eva. It is right, indeed, This fhort Speech, which is very much in Character for Sir Hugh, I have inferted from the old Quario's.

Luft is but a bloody fire,] So the old copies. I once thought it thould be read,

Luft is but a cloudy fire. but Sir T. Hanmer reads with lefs violence,

Luft is but i'th blood a fire. 8 During this Song,] This Direction I thought proper to infert from the old Quarto's

Nn4

THEOBALD. and