Tita. Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful. Bot. Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get The summer still doth tend upon my state, I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee; And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep, ---Peas-blossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustard-seed! 1 Fai. Ready. 2 Fai. And I. 3 Fai. And I. Enter four Fairies. 4 Fai. Where shall we go? Tita. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman; [7] D.wberries are gooseberries, which are still so called in several parts of the kingdom, HENLEY. [8] I know not how Shakespeare, 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. JOHNSON. The blunder is not in Shakespeare, but in those who have construed too literally a poetical expression. It appears from every line of his writings that he had studied with attention the book of nature, and was an accurate observer of any object that fell within his notice. He must have known that the light of the glow-worm was seated in the tail; but surely a poet is justified in calling the luminous part of a glow-worm the eye. It is a liberty we take in plain prose; for the point of greatest brightness in a furnace is commonly called the eye of it. Dr. Johnson might have arraigned him with equal propriety for sending his fairies to light their tapers at the fire of the glow-worm, which in Hamlet he terms uneffectual: "The glow-worm shews the matin to be near, M. MASON. 1 Faí. Hail, mortal! 2 Fai. Hail! 3 Fai. Hail! 4 Fai. Hail! Bot. I cry your worship's mercy, heartily.-I beseech, your worship's name. Cob. Cobweb. Bot. I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good master Cobweb: If I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you. Your name, honest gentleman? Peas. Peas-blossom. Bot. I pray you, commend me to mistress Squash, your mother, and to master Peascod, your father. Good master Peas-blossom, I shall desire you of more acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you, sir? Mus. Mustard-seed. Bot. Good master Mustard-seed, I know your patience well: that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath devoured many a gentleman of your house: I promise you, your kindred hath made my eyes water ere now. I desire you more acquaintance, good master Mustard-seed. Tita. Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower, The moon, methinks, looks with a watery eye; And when she weeps, weeps every little flower, Lamenting some enforced chastity. Tie up my love's tongue, bring him silently. [Exe. SCENE II. Another Part of the Wood. Enter OBERON. Ob. I wonder, if Titania be awak'd; Enter PUCK. Here comes my messenger.-How now, mad spirit? [9] These words are spoken ironically. According to the opinion prevailing in our author's time, mustard was supposed to excite choler. REED. A crew of patches,' rude mechanicals, And forth my mimic comes: When they him spy, And, at our stamp,3 here o'er and o'er one falls; He murder cries, and help from Athens calls. Their sense, thus weak, lost with their fears, thus strong, Some, sleeves; some, hats: from yielders all things catch. [1] Patch was in old language used as a term of opprobry; perhaps with much JOHNSON. the same import as we use raggamuffin, or tatterdemalion. I should suppose patch to be merely a corruption of the Italian pazzo, which signifies properly a fool. TYRWHITT. [2] The chough is a bird of the daw kind. STEEVENS. [3] This seems to be a vicious reading. Fairies are never represented stamping, or of a size that should give force to a stamp, nor could they have distinguished the stamp of Puck from those of their own companions. I read: And at a stump here o'er and o'er one falls. JOHNSON. I adhere to the old reading. The stamp of a fairy might be efficacious though not loud; neither is it necessary to suppose, when supernatural beings are spokeu of that the size of the agent determines the force of the action. That fairies did stamp to some purpose, may be known from the following passage in Olaus Magnus de Gentibus Septentrionalibus:--" Vero saltum adeo profunde in terram impresserant, ut locus insigui adore orbiculariter persus, non parit arenti redivivum cespite gramen." Shakespeare's own authority, however, is most decisive. See the conclusion of the first scene of the fourth Act: "Come, my queen, take hand with me, STEEVENS. "And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be." Honest Reginald Scott, says: "Our grandams maids were want to set a boll of milke before Incubus, and his cousin Robin Good-fellow, for grinding of malt or mustard, and sweeping the house at midnight: and-that he would chafe exceedingly, if the maid or good wife of the house, having compassion of his nakedness, laid anie clothes for him beesides his messe of white bread and milke, which was his standing fee. For in that case he saith, What have we here? Hemton, hamten, here will I never more tread nor stampen." Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1548. p. 85. RITSON. And left sweet Pyramus translated there: Ob. This falls out better than I could devise. Puck. I took him sleeping,-that is finish'd too,- That, when he wak'd, of force she must be ey'd. Ob. Stand close; this is the same Athenian. Her. Now I but chide, but I should use thee worse; Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep, The sun was not so true unto the day, As he to me: Would he have stol'n away This whole earth may be bor'd; and that the moon Dem. So should the murder'd look; and so should I, Her. What's this to my Lysander? where is he? Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me? Dem. I had rather give his carcase to my hounds. Her. Out, dog! out, cur! thou driv'st me past the bounds Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him then? Henceforth be never number'd among men ! O! once tell true, tell true, even for my sake; Durst thou have look'd upon him, being awake? And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch!" [4] Latch'd, or letch'd, lick'd over, lecher, to lick, French. HANMER. In the North, it signifies to infect. STEEVENS. [5] Touch in Shakespeare's time was the same with our exploit, or rather stroke A brave touch, a noble stroke, un grand coup. JOHNSON. Could not a worm, an adder, do so much? Dem. You spend your passion on a mispris'd mood :" I am not guilty of Lysander's blood; Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell. Her. I pray thee, tell me then that he is well. And from thy hated presence part I so: See me no more, whether he be dead, or no. [Exit. Dem. There is no following her in this fierce vein : [Lies down. Some true-love turn'd, and not a false turn'd true. Puck. Then fate o'er-rules; that, one man holding troth, A million fail, confounding oath on oath. Ob. About the wood go swifter than the wind, And Helena of Athens look thou find : All fancy-sick she is, and pale of cheer7 With sighs of love, that cost the fresh blood dear : Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow. [Exit. [6] i. e. Mistaken; so below misprision is mistake. JOHNSON. I rather conceive that" on a mispris'd mood" is put for-" in a mispris'd mood;" i. e. "in a mistaken manner." The preposition-on, is licentiously used by ancient authors. When Mark Antony says that Augustus Cæsar "dealt on lieutenantry," he does not mean that he " dealt his blows on lieutenants," but that he dealt in them;" i. e. achieved his victories by their conduct. STEEVENS [7] Cheer from the Italian cara, is frequently used by the old English writers for countenance. Even Dryden says "Pale at the sudden sight, she chang'd her cheer." Edin. Magazine. STEEVENS. [8] So, in King Henry VI. we have "blood-consuming," "blood-drinking," and blood-sucking sighs." All alluding to the ancient supposition that every sigh was indulged at the expense of a drop of blood. STEEVENS. |