"As she is mine, I may dispose of her:
Which shall be either to this gentleman,
Or to her death, according to our law."

Act I., Scene 1. By a law of Solon, parents had an absolute power of life and death over their children. It suited the poet's purpose to suppose that the Athenians had it before.

"Your eyes are lode-stars." -Act I., Scene 1.

This was a compliment not unfrequent among the old poets. The lode-star is the leading or guiding star; that is, the pole-star. The magnet is for the same reason called the lode-stone, either because it leads iron, or because it guides the sailor. Milton has the same thought in L'ALLEGRO : "—

"Towers and battlements it sees,
Bosomed high in tufted trees;
Where perhaps some beauty lies,
The cynosure of neighboring eyes."

"Before the time I did Lysander see, Seemed Athens like a paradise to me: O then what graces in my love do dwell, That he hath turned a heaven unto a hell!" Act I., Scene 1. Perhaps every reader may not discover the propriety of these lines. Hermia is willing to comfort Helena, and to avoid all appearance of triumph over her. She, therefore, bids her not to consider the power of pleasing as an advantage to be much envied or much desired; since Hermia, whom she considers as possessing it in the supreme degree, had found no other effect of it than the loss of happiness.-JOHNSON.

"A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry.”

Act I., Sceno 2. This is said in ridicule of the ancient Moralities and Interludes. Skelton's "MAGNIFICENCE" is called "a goodly interlude, and a merry."

"You shall play it in a mask, and you may speak as small as you will."-Act I., Scene 2.

This passage shews how the want of women on the old stage was supplied. If they had not a young man who could perform the part with a face that might pass for feminine, the character was acted in a mask; which was at that time a part of a lady's dress so much in use, that it did not give any unusual appearance to the scene; and he that could modulate his voice in a female tone might play the woman very successfully. Some of the catastrophes of the old comedies, which make lovers marry the wrong women, are, by recollection of the common use of masks, brought nearer to probability. Prynne, in his "HISTRIOMASTIX," exclaims with great vehemence through several pages, because a woman acted a part in a play at Blackfriars, in the year 1628.

"In the mean time I will draw a bill of properties."— Act I., Scene 2.

Properties are whatever articles are wanted in a play for the actors, dresses and scenes excepted. The person who delivers them out is called the property-man.

"And I serve the fairy queen,

To dew her orbs upon the green."— Act II., Scene 1. The orbs here mentioned are the circles supposed to be made by the fairies upon the ground. Drayton says:

"They in their courses make that round,

In meadows and in marshes found,

Of them so called the fairy ground."

"The cowslips tall her pensioners be."— Act II., Scene 1. That is, her guards. The golden-coated cowslips are selected as pensioners to the fairy queen, the dress of the band of gentlemenpensioners being very splendid in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and the tallest and handsomest men being generally chosen for the office. These glittering attendants on royalty are alluded to by Dame Quickly in the "MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR."

"Either Imistake your shape and making quite,

Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite,
Called Robin Goodfellow."— Act II., Scene 1.

The account given of this "knavish sprite," in these lines, corresponds with what is said of him in Harsenet's "Declaration," 1633:"And if that the bowl of curds and cream were not duly set out for Robin Goodfellow, the friar, and Sisse the dairymaid, why then either the pottage was burnt next day in the pot, or the cheeses would not curdle, or the butter would not come, or the ale in the vat never would have good head. Scot also speaks of him, in his “ DISCOVERY OF WITCHCRAFT:-"Your grandams' maids were wont to set a bowl of milk for him, for his pains in grinding of malt and mustard, and sweeping the house at midnight. This white bread, and bread and milk, was his standing fee."

In his "NYMPHYDIA" (1619), Drayton thus speaks of Puck, "the merry wanderer of the night:

"This Puck seems but a dreaming dolt;
Still walking like a ragged colt,

And oft out of a bush doth bolt,
Of purpose to deceive us;
And leading us, makes us to stray
Long winter nights, out of the way,
And when we stick in mire and clay,
He doth with laughter leave us."

"The nine-men's morris is filled up with mud.”
Act II., Scene 2.

"Nine-men's morris" is a game played by the shepherds, &c., in the midland counties. A figure is made on the ground, by cutting out the turf; and two persons take each nine stones, which they place by turns in the angles, and afterwards move alternately, as at chess or draughts. He who can place three in a straight line, may then take off any one of his adversary's, where he pleases, till one, having lost all his men, loses the game. - ALCHORNE.

The foregoing explanation is probably the true one. Some, however, have thought that the "nine-men's morris" here means the ground marked out for a morris-dance performed by nine persons. MALONE.

"The seasons aller: hoary-headed frosts

Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose.”
Act II., Scene 2.

This passage is thought to refer particularly to the year 1595. In Churchyard's poem of "CHARITIE," published in that year, the unBeasonable weather is thus described:

"A colder time in world was never seen,

The skies do lower, the sun and moon wax dim;
Summer scarce known but that the leaves are green.
The winter's waste drives water o'er the brim;
Upon the land great floats of wood may swim,
Nature thinks scorn to do her duty right,

Because we have displeased the Lord of Light."

It appears, from contemporary authorities, that 1593 and 1594 had also been remarkable for disastrous seasons.

"Cupid all armed: a certain aim he took

At a fair vestal, throned by the west."-Act II., Scene 2. The "fair vestal" alluded to was doubtless Queen Elizabeth. Similar compliments were not uncommon. In "TANCRED AND GISMUNDA" (1592), we find,

"There lives a virgin, one without compare,
Who of all graces hath her heavenly share:
In whose renown, and for whose happy days,
Let us record this pean of her praise."

“A lion among ladies is a dreadful thing.”—Act III. Scene 1. There is an odd coincidence between this passage and a real occurrence at the Scottish court in 1594. Prince Henry, the eldest son of James the First, was christened in August in that year. While the king and queen were at dinner, a triumphal chariot, with several allegorical personages on it, was drawn in "by a black-moore. This chariot should have been drawne in by a lyon, but because his presence might have brought some fear to the nearest, or that the sight of the lighted torches might have commoved his tameness, it was thought meete that the Moore should supply that roome."

"The plain-song cuckoo gray.” — Act III., Scene 1.

The cuckoo, having no variety of strains, is said to sing in plainsong; by which expression the uniform modulation or simplicity of the chant was anciently distinguished, in opposition to prick-song, or variegated music sung by note.

"So with two seeming bodies, but one heart:
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry
Due but to one, and crowned with one crest."
Act III., Scene 2.

No satisfactory explanation of this obscure passage has yet been given. Mr. Douce's solution of it is, perhaps, the best:-" Helen says, we had two seeming bodies, but only one heart.' She then

-"Damned spirits all,

That in crossways and floods have burial."

Act III., Scene 2. Meaning, the ghosts of self-murderers, who are buried in crossroads; and of those who, being drowned, were condemned (according to the opinion of the ancients) to wander for a hundred years, as the rites of sepulture had never been bestowed on their bodies.

"I with the morning's love have oft made sport.” — Act III., Scene 2. This is probably an allusion to Cephalus, the mighty hunter, and paramour of Aurora.

"So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle
Gently entwist; the female ivy so

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm." Act IV., Scene 1.

The term woodbine is here used to signify the plant, and honeysuckle, the flower. In the "FATAL UNION" (1640), there is a similar use of the words:

"As fit a gift

As this were for a lord-a honeysuckle, The amorous woodbine's offspring."

Stubbs, in his "ANATOMIE OF ABUSES" (1585), thus speaks of the general spirit of revelry which at this season took possession of the community:

"Against May, Whitsunday, or some other time of the year, every parish, town and village, assemble themselves together, both men, women and children, old and young, even all indifferently; and either

bodies), like the double coats in heraldry that belong to man and wife, as one person, but which, like one single heart, have but one crest.'"

"You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made."
Act III., Scene 2.

Knot-grass was anciently supposed to prevent the growth of an animal or child.

some to the woods and groves, some to the hills and mountains, some to one place, some to another, where they spend all the night in pleasant pastimes, and in the morning they return, bringing with them birch-boughs and branches of trees, to deck their assemblies withal."

Marvelous as it may seem, all this innocent hilarity appears to be so much heathenism to the puritanic spirit of Goodman Stubbs. Chaucer, in his "KNIGHT'S TALE" (from which Shakspeare is sup

posed to have derived his Theseus and Hippolyta) has some beautiful lines in reference to the rites of May:

"Thus passeth yere by yere, and day by day,
Till it fell ones, in a morne of May,
That Emelie, that fayrer was to sene
Than is the lilie upon his stalke grene,

And fresher than the May with floures newe
(For with the rose color strof hire hewe;
I wot which was the finer of hem two),
Ere it was day, as she was wont to do
She was arisen, and all redy dight,
For May wol have no slogardie a-night.
The season pricketh every gentil herte,
And maketh him out of hislepe to starte,
And sayth, Arise, and do thine observance."

"And what poor duty cannot do,

Noble respect takes it in might, not merit."— Act V., Scene 1. That is, what dutifulness tries to perform without ability, regardful generosity receives with complacency; estimating it not by the actual merit of the performance, but by what it might have been, had the abilities of the performers been equal to their zeal.

"Will it please you to see the epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance?” Act V., Scene 1.

This is said to be a dauce after the manner of the peasants of Bergomasco, a province in the state of Venice, who are ridiculed as being more clownish in their manners and dialect than any other people of Italy.

"I am sent with broom before,

To sweep the dust behind the door."- Act V., Scene 2. Cleanliness was always supposed to be necessary to invite the resi dence and favor of the fairies. Drayton says,—

"These make our girls their sluttery rue,
By pinching them both black and blue;
And put a penny in their shoe,

The house for cleanly sweeping."

"To sweep the dust behind the door," is a common expression for to sweep the dust from behind the door; a necessary monition in large old houses; where the doors of halls and galleries are thrown backward and seldom shut.-SINGER.

"Now, until the break of day,

Through this house each fairy stray,
To the best bridebed will we,

Which by us shall blessed be.”—Act V., Scene 2.

The ceremony of blessing the bed was in old times used at all marriages. Sometimes, during the benediction, the married couple only sat on the bed. It is recorded that in France, on frequent occasions, the priest was improperly detained till midnight, whilst the wedding guests rioted in the luxuries of the table, and made use of language that was extremely offensive to the clergy, and injurious to the salvation of the parties. It was, therefore, ordained, in the year 1577, that the ceremony of blessing the nuptial bed should for the future be performed in the day-time, or at least before supper, and in the presence of the bride and bridegroom, and of their nearest relations only.

The "MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM" is, I believe, altogether original, in one of the most beautiful conceptions that ever visited the mind of a poet-the fairy machinery. A few before Shakspeare had dealt in a vulgar and clumsy manner with popular superstitions; but the sportive, beneficent, invisible population of the air and earth, long

since established in the creed of childhood, and of those simple as children, had never for a moment been blended with "human mortals" among the personages of the drama.- HALLAM.

In the "MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM" there flows a luxuriant vein of the boldest and most fantastical invention;- the most extraordinary combination of the most dissimilar ingredients, seems to have arisen without effort by some ingenious and lucky accident; and the colors are of such clear transparency, that we think that the whole of the variegated fabric may be blown away with a breath. The fairy world here described resembles those elegant pieces of arabesque, where little genii, with butterfly wings, rise half-embodied above the flower-cups. Twilight. moonshine, dew, and spring-perfumes, are the element of those tender spirits; they assist Nature in embroidering her carpet with green leaves, many-colored flowers, and dazzling insects: in the human world, they merely sport in a childish and wayward manner with their beneficent or noxious influences. Their most violent rage dissolves in good-natured raillery; their passions, stripped of all earthly matter, are merely an ideal dream. To correspond with this, the loves of mortals are painted as a poetical enchantment, which, by a contrary enchantment may be immediately suspended, and then renewed again.

The different parts of the plot; the wedding of Theseus, the diss greement of Oberon and Titania, the flight of the two pair of lovers, and the theatrical operations of the mechanics, are so lightly and happily interwoven, that they seem necessary to each other for the formation of a whole. Oberon is desirous of relieving the lovers from their perplexities, and greatly adds to them through the misapprehension of his servant, till he at last comes to the aid of their fruitless amorous pain, their inconstancy and jealousy, and restores fidelity to its old rights.

The extremes of fanciful and vulgar are united when the enchanted Titania awakes and falls in love with a coarse mechanic with an ass's head, who represents, or rather disfigures, the part of a tragical lover. The droll wonder of the transmutation of Bottom is merely the translation of a metaphor in its literal sense; but, in his behavior during the tender homage of the Fairy Queen, we have a most amusing proof how much the consciousness of such a head-dress heightens the effect of his usual folly.

Theseus and Hippolyta are, as it were, a splendid frame for the pic. ture; they take no part in the acting, but appear with a stately pomp. The discourse of the hero and his Amazon, as they course through the forest with their noisy bunting train, works upon the imagination like the fresh breath of morning, before which the shades of night disappear.-SCHLEGEL.

In "THE HANDEFULL OF PLEASANT Delites" (1584), by Clement Robinson, there is a doleful tale of "PYRAMUS AND THISBE," well meriting the epithet of" very tragical mirth," although apparently written in serious sadness. It was possibly the immediate suggestor of Shakspeare's burlesque:

"A NEW SONNET OF PYRAMUS AND THISBE.
"You dames (I say) that climb the mount
Of Helicon,
Come on with me, and give account
What hath been done:

Come tell the chance, ye Muses all,
And doleful news,
Which on these lovers did befall,
Which I accuse.-

In Babylon, not long agone,
A noble prince did dwell,

Whose daughter bright dimmed each one's sight,

So far she did excel.

Another lord of high renown,

Who had a son;

And dwelling there within the town,

Great love begun :

Pyramus, this noble knight

(I tell you true),

Who with the love of Thisbe bright,

Did cares renew

It came to pass their secret was
Beknown unto them both;
And then in mind they place do find
Where they their love unclothe.

This love they use long tract of time;

Till it befell,

At last, they promised to meet at prime, By Ninus' well.

Where they might lovingly embrace

In love's delight:

That he might see his Thisbe's face,
And she his sight.

In joyful case she approached the place
Where she her Pyramus

Had thought to viewed; but was renewed
To them most dolorous.

Thus, while she stays for Pyramus,
There did proceed

Out of the wood a lion fierce,

Made Thisbe dreed:

And, as in haste she fled away,
Her mantle fine

The lion tare, instead of prey;
Till that the time

That Pyramus proceeded thus,
And see how lion tare
The mantle this of Thisbe his,
He desperately doth fare.

For why? he thought the lion had
Fair Thisbe slain:

And then the beast, with his bright blade,
He slew certaine.

Then made he moan, and said 'Alas!

O wretched wight!

Now art thou in woful case

For Thisbe bright.

O gods above! my faithful love
Shall never fail this need;

For this my breath, by fatal death,
Shall weave Atropos threed.'

Then from his sheath he drew his blade,
And to his heart

He thrust the point, and life did wade, With painful smart.

Then Thisbe she from cabin came,

With pleasure great:

And to the Well apace she ran,

There for to treat,

And to discuss to Pyramus,

Of all her former fears;

And when slain she found him, truly
She shed forth bitter tears.

When sorrow great that she had made,

She took in hand

The bloody knife to end her life

By fatal hand.

You ladies all, peruse and see

The faithfulness,

How these two lovers did agree

To die in distress.

You Muses wail, and do not fail

But still do you lament

These lovers twain, who with such pain Did die so well content?"

Manifold are the opinions that have been advanced respecting the origin of the fairy mythology of our ancestors. The superstitions of the East and of the North, and of Greece and of Rome, have been resorted to in search of a clue which would lead to a consistent history of its rise and growth.

It appears safe to assume that the oriental genii in general, and the Dews and Peries of Persia in particular, are the remote prototypes of modern fairies. The doctrine of the existence of this peculiar race of spirits was imported into the north of Europe by the Scythians, and it forms a leading feature in the mythology of the Celts. Hence was derived the popular fairy system of our own country, which our ancestors modified by the mythology of the classics.

The Peries and Dews of the orientals were paralleled by the Scandinavian division of their genii, or diminutive supernatural beings (with which their imaginations so thickly peopled the earth), into bright or beneficent elves, and black or malignant dwarfs; the former beautiful, the latter hideous in their aspect. A similar division of the fairy tribe of this country was long made: but, by almost imperceptible degrees, the qualities of both species were ascribed to fairies generally. They were deemed intermediate between mankind and spirits; but still, as they partook decidedly of a spiritual nature, they were, like all other spirits, under the influence of the devil:- but their actions were more mischievous than demoniacal; more perplexing than malicious; more frolicsome than seriously injurious.

An air of peculiar lightness distinguishes the poet's treatment of this extremely fanciful subject, from his subsequent and bolder flights into the regions of the spiritual world. He rejected from the drama on which he engrafted it, everything calculated to detract from its playfulness, or to encumber it with seriousness; and, giving the rein to the brilliancy of youthful imagination, he scattered, from his superabundant wealth, the choicest flowers of fancy over the fairies' paths: his fairies move amidst the fragrance of enameled meads, graceful, lovely, and enchanting.- SKOTTOWE.

If it be asked, how we may best increase our chance of approximating to the great and beneficent intellect that has achieved this wondrous vision? the answer is, — by enlarging our sympathies. Sheer genius is not to be acquired by a wish or an effort; but the most moderate talent may be fructified by a diligent cultivation of benevolent impulses. By stirring out of ourselves, we become something more than ourselves; and by the time we have acquired (as we may) a tithe of Shakspeare's spirit of sympathy with all that is great, genial, and beautiful, in the sister worlds of fancy and of fact, we shall at least become worthy sharers in the rich product of his "MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM," although we may never hope, dreaming or waking, to witch the world, and immortalize ourselves, by a similar display of poetic excellence.-O.