In their gold coats fpots you fee; Those be rubies, fairy favours,

In those freckles live their favours:

I muft go seek fome dew-drops here,

2

And hang a pearl in every cowflip's ear '.
Farewel, thou lob of fpirits, I'll be gone;
Our queen and all her elves come here anon.

For the queen a fitting tow'r,
Quoth be, is that fair cowflip flow'r.—
In all your train there's not a fay
That ever went to gather May,
But he hath made it in her way,
The tallest there that groweth.

JOHNSON.

In their gold coats Spots you fee ;] Shakespeare, in Cymbeline, refers to the fame red spots:

"A mole cinque-fpotted, 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 fecond act of the Merry Wives of Windfor, fc. ii. STEEVens.

1 And bang a pearl in every cowflip's ear.] The fame thought occurs in an old comedy call'd the Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll, 1600; i. e. the fame year in which the first printed copies of this play made their appearance. An enchanter fays:

'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 spirits,] Lob, lubber, looby, lobcock, all denote both inactivity of body and dulnefs of mind. JOHNSON. So, in Preston's Cambyfes:

It was fuch a foolish lob as thou."

Again, in Weftward Hoe, 1606:

"The lob has his lafs, the collier his dowdy."

Both lob and lobcock are used as terms of contempt in The Rival Friends, 1632. Again, in Promos and Caffandra, 1578:

"Hold thy hands, Lob."

Again, in the interlude of Jacob and Esau, 1568: "Should find Efau fuch a lout or a lob."

Again, in the Knight of the Burning Peftle, by B. and Fletcher: "There is a pretty tale of a witch that had the devil's mark about her, that had a giant to her fon, 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,

Puck.

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 she, as her attendant, hath
A lovely boy, ftol'n from an Indian king;
She never had fo fweet a changeling3:
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild :
But the, per-force, 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.

Fai. Either I miftake your shape and making quite,
Or elfe you are that fhrewd and knavish sprite,
Call'd Robin Good-fellow: Are you not he,

That

3 changeling :] Changeling is commonly used for the child fuppofed to be left by the fairies, but here for the child taken away. JOHNSON.

4-Sheen,] Shining, bright, gay. JOHNSON. So, in Tancred and Guifmund, 1592:

66

but why

"Doth Phoebus' fifter been defpife thy power?"

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

"And of other ladies bright and shene.

STEEVENS.

5 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:

let me not feem rude

"That thus I feem to fquare with modefty."

66

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

Again, in Promos and Caffandra, 1578:

"Marry the knew you and I were at Square,

"And left we fell to blowes, fhe did prepare." STEEVENS. 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. 135: "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

That frights the maidens of the villagʼry;
Skim milk; and fometimes labour in the quern 7,
And bootless make the breathlefs hufwife churn;

And

would not come, or the ale in the fat never would have got head. But if a pater-nofter, or an houfle egge were beturned, or a patch of tythe unpaid then beware of bull-beggars, fpirits, &e." He is mentioned by Cartwright as a fpirit particularly fond of difconcerting and disturbing domeftic peace and oeconomy. Saint Francis and Saint Benedight

Bleffe this houfe from wicked wight;
From the night-mare and the goblin,
That is hight good-fellow Robin.
Keep it, &c.

Cartwright's Ordinary, act III. fc. i. v. 8. WÄRTON. Reginald Scot gives the fame account of this frolickfome fpirit, in his Difcovery of Witchcraft, Lond. 1588. 4to. p. 66. "Your grandames, maids, were wont to fet a bowl of milk for him, for his pains in grinding of malt and muftard, and fweeping the houfe at midnight-this white bread and bread and milk, was his standing fee." STEEVENS.

7 Skim milk; and fometimes labour in the quern,

And bootlefs make the breathlefs bufwife churn ;] The fenfe of thefe lines is confufed. Are not you be, fays the fairy, that fright the country girls, that skim milk, work in the handmill, 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 fometimes make the breathless housewife churn Skim milk, and bootlefs labour in the quern.

Or, by a fimple tranfpofition of the lines:

quern.

And bootlefs, make the breathless housewife churn Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the Yet there is no neceffity of alteration. JOHNSON. A Quern is a hand-mill, kuerna, mola. Iflandic. burft's tranflation of the firft book of Virgil, 1582, quern-stones are mill-ftones :

So in Stany

"Theyre corne in quern-ftoans 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 Chapman's tranflation of the feventh book of the Odyffey:

-fome apple-colour'd corne "Ground in faire quernes."

Again, in the old Song of Robin Goodfellow, printed in the 3d volume of Dr. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry:

I grind

;

And fometime make the drink to bear no barm
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck',
You

8

"I grind at mill,

"Their malt up ftill, &c. STEEVENS.

-no barm;] Barme is a name for yeast, yet ufed in our midland counties, and univerfally in Ireland. So, in Mother Bombie, a comedy, 1594: "It behoveth my wits to work like barme, alias ycaft." Again, in the Humourous Lieutenant of B. and

Fletcher :

"I think my brains will work yet without barm.” Again, in the Return from Parnaffus, 1606:

"Such barmy heads will always be working."

Again, in the Prologue to Wily Beguiled:

"Go to that barm-froth poet, and to him fay, &c."

See Verftegan, p. 61. STEEVENS.

Thofe that Hobgoblin call you, and fweet Puck,

You do their work,]

To thofe traditionary opinions Milton has reference in L'Allegro:
Then to the Spicy nut-brown ale,

With ftories told of many a feat,
How Fairy Mab the junkets eat;
She was pinck'd and pull'd be faid,
And he by frier's lanthorn led;
Tells how the drudging goblin fweat
To earn his cream-bowl duly fet,
When in one night ere glimpse of morn,
His fhadowy flail had thresh'd the corn
Which ten day-labourers could not end;
Then lies him down the lubber fiend.

A like account of Puck is given by Drayton, in his Nymphidia:
He meeteth Puck, which moft men call

Hobgoblin, and on him doth fall.

This Puck feems but a dreaming dolt,
Still walking like a ragged colt,
And oft out of a bed doth bolt,
Of purpofe to deceive us ;
And leading us makes us to ftray,
Long winters' nights out of the way,
And when we fick in mire and clay,

He doth with laughter leave us.

It will be apparent to him that fhall compare Drayton's poem with this play, that either one of the poets copied the other, or, as I rather believe, that there was then fome fyftem of the fairy empire generally received, which they both reprefented as accurately as they could. Whether Drayton or Shakespeare wrote first, I cannot difcover. JOHNSON.

The

You do their work, and they fhall have good luck : Are not you he?

Puck. Thou fpeak'ft aright";

I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jeft to Oberon, and make him fmile,
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
And fometime lurk I in a goffip's bowl,

The editor of the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, in 4 vols, 8vo. 1775, has incontrovertibly proved Drayton to have been the follower of Shakespeare; for, fays he, "Don Quixot (which was not published till 1605.) is cited in the Nymphidia, whereas we have an edition of the Midfummer Night's Dream in 1600."

In this century fome of our poets have been as little fcrupulous in adopting the ideas of their predeceffors. In Gay's ballad, inferted in the What d'ye call It, is the following stanza: "How can they say that nature "Has nothing made in vain; "Why then beneath the water

"Should hideous rocks remain? &c. &c.

Compare this with a paffage in Chaucer's Frankeleines Tale, late edit. v. 111792 &c.

"In idel, as men fain, ye nothing make,

"But, lord, thife grifly fendly rockes blake, &c. &c.” and Mr. Pope is more indebted to the fame author for beauties inferted in his Eloifa to Abelard, than he has been willing to acknowledge. STEEVENS.

'-sweet Puck,] The epithet is by no means fuperfluous; as Puck alone was far from being an endearing appellation. It fignified nothing better than fiend, or devil. So, the author of Pierce Ploughman puts the pouk for the devil, fol. lxxxx. b. v. penult. See also fol. Ixvii. v. 15. none belle powke."

It seems to have been an old Gothic word. Puke, puken; Sathanas. Gudm. And. Lexicon Island. TYRWHITT.

2 Puck. Thou Speak' ft aright;] I would fill up the verse which I fuppofe the author left complete :

I am, thou speak'ft aright;

It feems that in the Fairy mythology Puck, or Hobgoblin, was the trusty servant of Oberon, and always employed to watch or detect the intrigues of Queen Mab, called by Shakespeare Titania. For in Drayton's Nymphidia, the fame fairies are engaged in the fame business. Mab has an amour with Pigwiggen; Oberon being jealous, fends Hobgoblin to catch them, and one of Mab's nymphs oppofes him by a fpell. JOHNSON.