devote himself to the mending of ordinary bellows, which could hardly be a trade by itself; but, as his name hints, he was a repairer of the bellows and pipes of organs, and other like wind instruments. 66 let me not play a woman : - Until the Restoration, women's parts were always played by young men or boys. Thus, in Antony and Cleopatra, the conquered Queen says, "the quick comedians Extemporally will stage us, and present Our Alexandrian revels: Antony Shall be brought drunken forth; and I shall see I' th' posture of a whore." Act V. Sc. 2. If there were no fit actor without a beard, a mask was so commonly worn by ladies that the manly honors of the face could be hidden behind it without any appearance of singularity. "I will roar an 'twere any nightingale":" -The quartos have "I will roar you," &c. This form of the expression having occurred immediately before, its modification gives a colloquial ease to the dialogue which could hardly' be the result of accident. 66 a proper man":- The English editors think it necessary to define 'proper' as an obsolete word. It is in common use in New England in the same sense that it has here, which is clearly enough indicated by the context. 66 hold, or cut bow-strings":— At a time when, even after the introduction of fire-arms, the famous English long-bow was yet in use among the people, the phrases which archery had furnished to the language were still preserved in ordinary conversation. Bottom means that they were to meet except in case of some accident as disabling as the cutting of his bow-string would be to an archer. The phrase was, doubtless, a popular one. ACT SECOND. SCENE I. "Thorough bush, thorough brier": The folio and Roberts' quarto have through' in both cases. In Shakespeare's time, and before and after, the two orthographies were used without discrimination; both being frequently found on the same page, and even in the same line. This being the case, and the rhythm of the longer form being 6 more musical, that is given in the text, from Fisher's quarto. In the folio the first eight lines are printed as four. p. 33. "Swifter than the moony sphere": - From the time of Steevens to that of Collier this passage was printed "the moones sphere." Folio and quartos have "the moons sphere." Whether Steevens was justifiable in giving the old genitive form, for the sake of a syllable otherwise wanting, I will not undertake to say; but I am sure, that in this line Shakespeare did not write, could not have written, moons sphere;' and I will do no reader, with other ears than those of Midas, the wrong to doubt what his opinion will be, after he has pronounced 'moons sphere,' having had his attention directed to this point. It is, beside, almost as improbable that after changing the measure, Shakespeare, in so exquisitely musical a passage as this, would write a defective, or irregular line, as the second of the new measure, before the ear could become clearly impressed with the new rhythm. This consideration tends to justify the dissyllable possessive introduced into the current text by Steevens; but the euphonical objection against 'moones sphere' is hardly less than that against moons sphere.' This being the case, I cannot but believe that "moons" is a misprint for moony;' because in most MS. of the date of this play it is nearly impossible to tell whether a final s is an s, a g, a y, an h, or a d, in fact, I have seen numberless examples in which it might represent any one character, or any one thing, as well as another; and also because 'moony sphere' was a poetical phrase, known in Shakespeare's day. This Steevens himself has pointed out, in the following lines, from Sidney's Arcadia, Book III. "what mov'd me to invite Your presence, (sister deare,) first to my moony sphere." 'Where' and 'sphere' are not rhymes now; but in Shakespeare's time the vowel in the former seems to have had its pure sound, as now it has in the latter. "To dew her orbs": - Orbs' is here used for circles,' - meaning those circles in the grass which, in England (I believe they are unknown here), are called 'fairy rings. They are thus alluded to in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act V. Sc. 5: "And nightly, meadow-fairies, look you sing Their origin is yet unknown to science. Steevens re- p. 33. p. 34. tibus Septentrionalibus, it appears that these dancers [the fairies] were supposed always to parch up the grass, it was properly made the office of Titania's attendant to refresh the circle with dew. The pensioners to which the fairy likens the gay cowslips are Queen Elizabeth's sumptuously arrayed band of Gentlemen Pensioners, of which Mrs. Quickly speaks in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II. Sc. 2. thou lob of spirits": Lob' is identical in origin with 'lubber.' It is here used by the fairy as descriptive of the contrast between Puck's squat figure and the airy shapes of the other fays. 66 so sweet a changeling":-Changeling' is here a trisyllable the second requiring to be touched as delicately as a French e, final or in a similar position. "Call'd Robin Good-fellow":- Tradition had made this mischievous but good-natured sprite well known to the people of Shakespeare's day and their ancestors as the perpetrator of the deeds here attributed to him. See Introduction. 66 and sweet Puck": - Until after Shakespeare wrote this play, 'puck' was the generic name for a minor order of evil spirits. The name exists in all the Teutonic and Scandinavian dialects; and in New York the Dutch have left it in a form 'spook,' meaning a ghost or spirit-known to all who are Knickerbockers by blood or birth. The name was not pronounced in Shakespeare's time with the u short. Indeed; he seems to have been the first to spell it puck, all other previous or contemporary English writers in whose works it has been discovered spelling it either powke, pooke, or pouke. There seems to be no reason to doubt that Shakespeare and his contemporaneous readers pronounced it pook. The fact that it is made a rhyme to 'luck' is not at all at variance with this opinion, because it appears equally certain that the u in that word, and in all of similar orthography, had the sound of oo. My own observation had convinced me of this long before met with the following passages in Butler's English Grammar, 1633: ... for as i short hath the sound of ee short, so hath u short of oo short." P. 8. "The Saxon u wee have in sundry woords turned into oo, and not onely u short into oo short (which sound is all one,)" &c. P. 9. "That fright the maidens : Folio and quartos have "That frights," but as in such sentences colloquial custom gave and gives a sanction to the agreement of the verb with the first pronoun; and as in folio and quartos p. 34. " p. 35. 6 'skim,'' labour,' and, in both cases, make' conform to this custom, the presence of the finals in this instance appears to be due to accident, it may be a mere meaningless slip of the pen, which half the final s's of the day seem to have been. In neither "sometimes labour" nor "sometime make" (in. which folio and quartos agree) is there evidence of carelessness, or typographical error. Both forms of the word were used indifferently; and in the present case the instinctive perception of euphony, which was so constant a guide of Shakespeare's pen, and in this play, perhaps, more so than in any other, seems to have determined the choice. A quern was a hand-mill; and barm, yeast. "Thou speak'st aright":-This line lacks two syllables; and it is quite probable that Mr. Collier's folio of 1632 is correct in reading "Fairy, thou speak'st aright." But as the pause naturally made before the reply to the fairy's question may have been intended to take the place of the missing foot, no addition is here made to the text as found in folio and quartos. 66 a filly foal": - The folio has " a filly foal” a variation hardly worth notice. the wisest aunt : - In New England villages good-natured old people are still called aunt' and 'uncle' by the whole community; and at the South old slaves are uncled and aunty'd by all the white-folks,' except, perhaps, the pore white-trash.' 6 "And tailor' cries": 6 - The origin and meaning of this exclamation are unknown; but Dr. Johnson says, "The custom of crying tailor at a sudden fall backwards, I think I remember to have observed. He that slips beside his chair falls as a tailor squats upon his board." This is not very satisfactory. Hanmer and Warburton read, "And rails or cries." "And waxen in their mirth": "Waxen' is the old plural of wax'-to increase. Farmer proposed 'yexen' to hiccough; which was in use in Shakespeare's time, and more than a century after. "Enter OBERON and TITANIA :- Oberon and Titania were almost as well known as Robin Goodfellow to Shakespeare's contemporaries, although he seems to have been the first to make Robin an attendant upon Oberon. Oberon's name is of continental origin. He is the mighty Elfin Dwarf Elberich, whose name became Auberich in French, and then - the French on taking the place of Auberon the German ich, as the u had that of the 7 "Fairies skip hence": Folio and quartos have "fairy," which is plainly a misprint for fairies,' and one easily made when the singular was written fairie. Titania is evidently about to retire with her whole train. "When thou hast stolen": - The folio has "wast a misprint, doubtless, for hast,' which appears in both quartos. Just below, Fisher's quarto has "the farthest steppe of India," which is but a strange accident; for the word was not known in Shakespeare's day. "From Perigouna, whom he ravished": The original has "Perigenia," and, in the next line, "fair Eagles;" but although the latter has been properly changed to 'gle,' the former, although as plainly a misprint, and an easy one, for Perigouna,' has hitherto been retained in the text. Shakespeare found both names in North's Plutarch, where they are respectively Perigouna and Egles. With regard to the latter it may be remarked that in the loose orthography of Shakespeare's day an s was frequently added to proper names ending in a vowel. The spelling of the former (as in the text) represented quite accurately, to English eyes and ears in Shakespeare's time, the proper pronunciation of Пeoyourn, the daughter of the robber Sinnis, who was one of the many female prizes of the fabulous hero-duke of this play. As to the pronunciation of the final a in proper names, see the Note on "what news from Genoa?" Merchant of Venice, Act III. Sc. 1. 66 the middle Summer's spring": :- that is, the beginning, or spring, of midsummer; but Henley says, "the season when trees put forth their second, or, as they are frequently called, their midsummer shoots." every petty river :- The quartos have "pelting," and have hitherto been followed. the same meaning. The words have that is, their containing "The Nine Men's Morris is fill'd up with mud": - It appears that the game of nine men morris.' which we play upon a board with counters, used to be played on |