Sometime a horfe I'll be, fometime a hound,
A hog, a headless bear, fometime a fire ;

And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,
Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.

[Exit.

Bot. Why do they run away? this is a knavery of them, to make me afeard.3

Re-enter SNOUT.

Snout. O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I fee on thee ? +

you an
fee afs' head of your own;

Re-enter QUINCE..

Quin. Blefs thee, Bottom! blefs thee! thou art tranflated.

[Exit. Bot. I fee their knavery: this is to make an afs of me; to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir from this place, do what they can: I will walk up and down here, and I will fing, that they fhall hear i am not afraid.

The oufel cock.5 fo black of hue.

With orange-tarwny bill,

The throfile with his note fo true,

The wren with little quill;

Tita. What angel wakes ine from my flowery bed?

H 4

[Sings.

[Waking.

Bot.

" Through_bog, through burn, through bush, through brake,

through brier." RITSON.

3 Afeard is from to fear, by the old form of the language, as an bungered, from to bunger S adry, for thirsty. JOHNSON.

It is plain by Bottom's anfwer, that Snout mentioned an afs's bead. Therefore we should read:

Snout. O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I fee on thee? An afs's head? JOHNSON.

5 The oufel cock is generally understood to be the cock black bird.

STEEVENS. The Ouzel differs from the Black-bird by having a white crefcent upon the breaft, and is befides rather larger. See Lewin's English Birds.

DOUCE.

It appears from the following passage in Thomas Newton's Herball to the Bible, 8vo. 1587, that the throftle is a distinct bird from the thrush. (There

Bot. The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,
The plain-fong cuckoo gray,1

Whofe note full many a man doth mark,
And dares not answer, nay;—

for, indeed, who would fet his wit to fo foolish a bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry, cuckoo, never fo?

Tita. I pray thee, gentle mortal, fing again:
Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note,
So is mine eye enthralled to thy fhape;

And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me,
On the first view, to fay, to fwear, I love thee.

Bot. Methinks, miftrefs, you should have little reason for that: And yet, to say the truth, reafon and love keep little company together now-a-days: The more the pity, that fome honeft neighbours will not make them friends. Nay, I can gleek, upon the occafion.

Tita. Thou art as wife as thou art beautiful.

Bot. Not fo, neither: but if I had wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough to ferve mine own turn. Tita. Out of this wood do not defire to go; Thou fhalt remain here whether thou wilt or no. I am a fpirit, of no common rate;

with me;

The fummer ftill doth tend upon my state,
And I do love thee: therefore, go
I'll give thee fairies to attend on

thee

e;

And

"There is also another fort of myrte or myrtle which is wild, whose berries the mavifes, throffels, owfells, and thrushes delite much to eate." STEEVENS.

7 That is, the cuckoo, who, having no variety of ftrains, fings in plain fong, or in plano cantu; by which expreffion the uniform modulation or fimplicity of the chaunt was anciently diftinguished, in oppofition to prick-fong, or variegated mufick fung by note. Skelton introduces the birds finging the different parts of the fervice of the funeral of his favourite fparrow: among the reft is the cuckoo. T. WARTON.

8 gleek,] Joke or fcoff. POPE.

Gleek was originally a game at cards. The word is often used by other ancient comic writers, in the fame fenfe as by our author.

Mr. Lambe obferves in his notes on the ancient metrical hiftory of The Battle of Floddon, that in the North to gleek is to deceive, or beguile; and that the reply made by the queen of the fairies, proves this to be the meaning of it. STEEVENS.

And they fhall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
And fing, while thou on preffed flowers doft fleep:
And I will purge thy mortal groffness fo,

That thou shalt like an airy fpirit go.-
Peas-bloffom! Cobweb! Moth! and Muftard-feed!

4. Fai.

Enter four Fairies.

And I.

And I.

Where shall we go?

Tita. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes;
Feed him with apricocks, and dewberries;2
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;
The honey-bags fteal from the humble-bees,
And, for night tapers, crop their waxen thighs,
And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes.3

H 5

Το

9 In the ancient copies, this, and the three preceding fpeeches, are given to the Fairies collectively. By the advice of Dr. Farmer I have omitted a useless repetition of—" and I," which overloaded the measure. STEEVENS.

2 Dewberries strictly and properly are the fruit of one fpecies of wild bramble called the creeping or the leffer bramble: but as they stand here among the more delicate fruits, they must be understood to mean raspber ries, which are alfo of the bramble kind. T. HAWKINS.

Dewberries are goof berries, which are ftill fo called in several parts of the kingdom. HENLEY.

3 I know not how Shakspeare, who commonly derived his knowledge of nature from his own observation, happened to place the glow-worm's light in his eyes, which is only in his tail. JanNsoN.

The blunder is not in Shakspeare, but in those who have conftrued too literally a poetical expreflion. It appears from every line of his writings. that he had ftudied with attention the book of nature, and was an accurate obferver of any object that fell within his notice. He must have known that the light of the glow-worm was feated in the tail; but furely a poet is juftified in calling the tuminous part of a glow-worm the eye. It is a liberty we take in plain profe; for the point of greatest brightness in a furnace is commonly called the eye of it. Dr. Johnfon might have arraigned him with equal propriety for fending his fairies to light their tapers at the fire of the glow-worm, which in Hamlethe terms uneffectual:

"The

To have my love to bed, and to arife;

And pluck the wings from painted butterflies:
To fan the moon-beams from his fleeping eyes:
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtefies.

1. Fai. Hail, mortal!

2. Fai. Hail!

3. Fai. Hail!

4. Fai. Hail!

Bot. I cry your worships mercy, heartily.-I befeéch, your worship's name.

Cob. Cobweb.

Bot. I fhall defire you of more acquaintance, good mafter Cobweb: If I cut my finger, I fhall make bold with you. Your name, honeft gentleman?

-

Peas. Peas-bloffom.

Bot. I pray you, commend me to mistress Squafh, your mother, and to mafter Peafcod, your father. Good master Peas-bloffom, I fhall defire you of more acquaintance too. →→ Your name, I befeech you, fir?

Muf. Muftard-feed.

Bot. Good mafter Muftard-feed, I know your patience well that faine cowardly, giant-like, ox-beef hath devoured many a gentleman of your houfe: I promife you, your kindred hath made my eyes water ere now. I defire you more acquaintance, good mafter Mustard-feed. Tita. Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower.

4

"The glow-worm fhews the matin to be near,

"And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire." M. MASON.

A fquafb is an immature peafcod. STEEVENS.

The

5 The Oxford edition reads-I know your parentage well. I believe the correction is right. JOHNSON.

Parentage was not easily corrupted to patience. I fancy, the true word is, paffions, fufferings.

There is an ancient satirical Poementitled-"The Poor Man's Paffions, [i. e. fufferings,] or Poverty's patience." Patience and Paffions are fo alike in found, that a careless transcriber or compofitor might eafily have fubftituted the former word for the latter. FARMER.

These words are spoken ironically. According to the opinion prevailing in our author's time, muftard was fuppofed to excite to choler. REED, Perhaps we should reads I know you paffing well." M. MASON.

The moon, methinks, looks with a wat❜ry eye; And when the weeps, weeps every little flower, Lamenting fome enforced chastity.

Tie up my love's tongue, and bring him filently.

SCENE II.

Another part of the Wood.

Enter OBERON.

Obe. I wonder, if Titania be awak'd; Then, what it was that next came in her eye, Which the muft dote on in extremity.

Enter PUCK.

Here comes my meffenger.-How now, mad fpirit?
What night-rule" now about this haunted grove?
Puck. My mistress with a monster is in love,
Near to her close and confecrated bower,
While she was in her dull and fleeping hour,
A crew of patches,7 rude mechanicals,
That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,
Were met together to rehearse a play,
Intended for great Thefeus' nuptial day.

H6

[Exeunt,

The

6 Night-rule in this place fhould feem to mean, what frolick of the night, what revelry is going forward?

It appears, from the old fong of Robin-Goodfellow, in the third volume of Dr. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, that it was the office of this waggish spirit to viewe [or fuperintend] the night sports."

STEEVENS.

7 Patch was in the old language used as a term of opprobry; perhaps with much the fame import as we use raggamuffin, or tatterdemalion.

JOHNSON.

Puck calls the players," a crew of patches." A common opprobrious term, which probably took its rife from Patch, cardinal Wolfey's fool. In the western counties, cross-patch is still used for perverse, ill-natur'd fool. T. WARTON.

The name was rather taken from the patch'd or py'd coats worn by the fools or jefters of those times.

I fhould fuppofe patch to be merely a corruption of the Italian pazzo, which fignifies properly a foul. So, in The Merchant of Venice, A& II. fc. v. Shylock fays of Launcelot: The patch is kind enougb;—after hav ing just called him, that fool of Hagar's off-fpring. TraWHITF,