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And I ferve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green:
The cowflips tail her penfioners be;"
In their gold coats fpots you fee; 7

So, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. III. c. i. ft. 15:

"And eke through feare as white as whales bone."

Again, in a letter from Gabriel Harvey to Spenfer, 1580: "Have we not God hys wrath, for Goddes wrath, and a thousand of the fame flampe, wherein the corrupte orthography in the mofte, hath been the fole or principal caufe of corrupte profodye in over mauy?"

STEEVENS.

To dew her orbs upon the green :] The orbs here mentioned are the circles fuppofed to be made by the fairies on the ground, whose verdure proceeds from the fairies' care to water them. Thus Drayton :

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They in their courfes make that round,

In meadows and in marshes found,

fimiles

Of them fo called the fairy ground." JOHNSON. Thus in Olaus Magnus de Gentibus Septentrionalibus illis fpetris, quæ in multis locis, præfertim noduino tempore, fuum faltatorium orbem cum omnium mufarum concentu verfare folent." It appears from the fame author, that thefe dancers always parched up the grass, and therefore it is properly made the office of Puck to refresh it. STEEVENS.

6 The cowflips tall her penfioners be;] The cowflip was a favourite among the fairies. There is a hint in Drayton of their attention to May morning:

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For the queen a fitting tower,

Quoth he, is that fair cowflip flower.

"In all your train there's not a fay

"That ever went to gather May,

"But he hath made it in her way,

"The talleft there that groweth." JOHNSON.

This was faid in confequence of Queen Elizabeth's fashionable ellablishment of a band of military courtiers, by the name of penfoners. They were fome of the handfomeft and talleft young men of the beft families and fortune, that could be found. Hence, fays Mrs. Quickly, in The Merry Wives, A& II. fc. ii: " and yet there has been earls, nay, which is more, Penfioners." They gave the mode in drefs and diverfions. They accompanied the queen in her progress to Cambridge, where they held flaff-torches at a play on a Sunday evening in King's College Chapel.

T. WARTON.

Those be rubies, fairy favours,

Our

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In thofe freckles live their favours: I must go feek fome dew-drops here, And hang a pearl in every cowflip's ear. Farewel, thou lob of fpirits, I'll be gone; and all her elves come here anon. queen PUCK. The king doth keep his revels here to night; Take heed, the queen come not within his fight. For Oberon is paffing fell and wrath, Because that fhe, as her attendant, hath A lovely boy, flol'n from an Indian king; She never had fo fweet a changeling:

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7 In their gold coats Spots you fee ;] Shakspeare, in Cymbeline, refers to the fame red fpots:

"A mole cinque-Spotted, like the crimson drops

"I th bottom of a cowflip." PERCY.

Perhaps there is likewife fome allufion to the habit of a penfioner. See a note on the second act of The Merry Wives of Windfor, fc. ii. STEEVENS.

8 And hang a pearl in every cowflip's ear. r.] The fame thought occurs in an old comedy call'd The Wifdom of Doctor Dodypoll, 1600; i. e. the fame year in which the firft printed copies of this play made their appearance. An enchanter says:

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"'Twas I that led you through the painted meads
"Where the light fairies danc'd upon the flowers,
Hanging on every leaf an orient pearl." STEEVENS.

''

lob of fpirits,] Lob, lubber, looby, lobcock, all denote both inactivity of body and dulness of mind. JOHNSON.

Both lob and lobcock are used as terms of contempt in The Rival, Friends, 1632.

Again, in the interlude of Jacob and Efau, 1568:

"Should find Efau fuch a lout or a lob."

Again, in The Knight of the Burning Peftle, by Beaumont and Fletcher: There is a pretty tale of a witch that had the devil's amark about her, that had a giant to her son, that was called Lob-lyeby-the-fire." This being feems to be of kin to the lubbar-fiend of Milton, as Mr. Warton has remarked in his Obfervations on the Faery Queen. STEEVENS.

2 changeling:] Changeling is commonly used for the child

And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forefts wild :
But the, perforce, withholds the loved boy,
Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy:
And now they never meet in grove, or green,
By fountain clear, or fpangled ftar-light fheen,
But they do fquare;' that all their elves, for fear,
Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there.

fuppofed to be left by the fairies, but here for a child taken away. JOHNSON.

So Spenfer, B. I. c. X:

And her bafe elfin brood there for thee left,
"Such men do changelings call, fo call'd by fairy theft."

STEEVENS.

It is here properly ufed, and in its common acceptation; that is for

a child got in exchange. A fairy is now speaking.

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RITSON.

trace the forefts wild:] This verb is ufed in the same sense in Browne's Britannia's Paftoralls, D. II. Song If. 1613:

"In fhepherd's habit feene

"To trace our Woods."

Again, in Milton's Comus, v. 423:

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May trace huge forefis, and unharbour'd heaths."

Sheen,] Shining, bright, gay. JOHNSON.

So, in Tancred and Guifmund, 1592:

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but why

HOLT WHITE.

"Doth Phoebus' fifter fheen defpife thy power?"

Again, in the ancient romance of Syr Tryamoure, bl. 1. no date: "He kyfied and toke his leve of the quene,

"And of other ladies bright and fhene." STEEVENS.

But they do fquare;] To Square here is to quarrel. The French word contrecarrer has the fame import. JOHNSON.

So, in Jack Drum's Entertainment, 1601 :

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let me not feem rude,

That thus I feem to fquare with modefty."

pray let me go, for he'll begin to fquare," &c.

Again, in Promos and Caffandra, 1578:

Marry, she knew you and I were at Square,
And left we fell to blowes, fhe did prepare."

STEEVENS.

It is fomewhat whimfical, that the glafiers ufe the words fquare

and quarrel as fynonymous terms, for a pane of glass.

BLACKSTONE.

FAI. Either I mistake your fhape and making

quite,

Or else you are that fhrewd and knavish sprite,
Call'd Robin Good-fellow: are you not he,
That fright the maidens of the villag'ry;
Skim milk; and fometimes labour in the
quern,
And bootless make the breathlefs housewife churn;

Robin Good-fellow; ] This account of Robin Good-fellow correfponds, in every article, with that given of him in Harfenet's Declaration, ch. xx. p. 134: "And if that the bowle of curds and creame were not duly fet out for Robin Good-fellow, the frier, and Siffe the dairy-maid, why then either the pottage was burnt to next day in the pot, or the cheeses would not curdle, or the butter would not come, or the ale in the fat never would have good head. But if a Peeter-penny, or an houfle-egge were behind, or a patch of tythe unpaid, then 'ware of bull-beggars, fpirits," &c. is mentioned by Cartwright [ Ordinary, Ad III. fc. i.] as a fpirit particularly fond of difconcerting and difturbing domeftic peace and œconomy.. T. WARTON.

He

Reginald Scot gives the fame account of this frolick some spirit, in his Difcoverie of Witchcraft, Lond. 1584, 4to. p. 66: "Your grandames' maids were wont to fet a bowl of milk for him, for his pains in grinding malt and muftard, and fweeping the houfe at midnight this white bread and bread and milk, was his flauding

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fee." STEEVENS.

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7 That fright] The old copies read - frights and in grammatical propriety, I believe, this verb, as well as those that follow, fhould agree with the perfonal pronoun he, rather than with you, If fo, our author ought to have written frights, fkims, labours, makes, and misleads. The other, however, being the more common ufage, and that which he has preferred, I have corrected the former word. MALONE.

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8 Skim milk; and fometimes labour in the quern,

And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;] The fenfe of thefe lines is confused. Are not you he, says the fairy, that fright the country girls, that fkim milk, work in the hand mill, and make the tired dairy-woman churn without effect? The mention of the mill feems out of place, for fhe is not now telling the good, but the evil that he does. I would regulate the lines thus:

"And Sometimes make the breathless housewife churn
"Skim milk, and bootless labour in the quern."

VOL. VII.

D

And fometime make the drink to bear no barm; Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm? Thofe that Hobgoblin call you, and fweet Puck, * You do their work, and they fhall have good luck:

Or, by a fimple tranfpofition of the lines!

"And bootlefs make the breathless housewife churn "Skim milk, and fometimes labour in the quern." Yet there is no neceffity of alteration. JOHNSON.

The obfer

Dr. Johnson thinks the mention of the mill out of place, as the Fairy is not now telling the good but the evil he does. vation will apply, with equal force, to his skimming the milk, which, if it were done at a proper time, and the cream preferved, would be a piece of fervice. But we muft understand both to be mischievous pranks. He fkims the milk, when it ought not to be skimmed : (So, in Grim the Collier of Croydon :

But woe betide the filly dairy-maids,

"For I shall fleet their cream-bowls night by night.”)

and grinds the corn, when it is not wanted; at the fame time perhaps throwing the flour about the house.

KITSON.

A Quern is a hand-mill, kuerna, mola. Iflandic. So, in Stanyhurft's tranflation of the first book of Virgil, 1582, quern-Rones are mill-ftones :

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Theyre corne in quern-floans they do grind," &c. Again, in The More the Merrier, a collection of epigrams, 1608 : "Which like a querne can grind more in an hour." Again, in the old Song of Robin Goodfellow, printed in the 3d volume of Dr. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry:

"I grind at mill,

A

Their malt up fill," &c. STEEVENS.

no barm;] Barme is a name for yeah, yet used in our midland counties, and univerfally in Ireland. So, in Mother Bombie, a comedy, 1594: "It behoveth my wits to work like barme, alias yeast." Again, in The Humorous Lieutenant of Beaumont and

Fletcher:

"I think my brains will work yet without barm."

2 Thofe that Hobgoblin call you, and fweet Puck,

STEEVENS.

You do their work, ] To thofe traditionary opinions Milton has réference in L'Allegro ·

Then to the fpicy nut-brown ale, "With ftories told of many a feat,

How fairy Mab the junkets eat;

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