ther; Snug, the joiner, you the lion's part: I hope, there is a play fitted.

Snug. Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am flow of study. Quin. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.

Bot. Let me play the lion too; I will roar, that I will do any man's heart good to hear me. I will roar, that I will make the Duke fay, " let him roar again, let him roar again."

Quin. If you should do it too terribly, you would fright the Dutchefs and the ladies, that they would fhriek, and that were enough to hang us all.

All. That would hang us every mother's fon.

Bot. I grant you, friends, if you should fright the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more difcretion but to hang us; but I will aggravate my voice fo, that I will roar you as gently as any fucking dove I will roar you an 'twere any nightingale.

Quin. You can play no part but Pyramus, for Pyramus is a fweet-fac'd man; a proper man, as one fhall fee in a fummer's-day; a moft lovely gentlemanlike man therefore you must needs play Pyramus.

Bot. Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I beft to play it in?

Quin. Why, what you will.

Bot. I will discharge it in either your ftraw-colour'd beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-ingrain beard, or your French crown-colour'd beard; your perfect yellow.

Quin. Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and then you will play bare-fac'd. But, mafters, here are your parts; and I am to intreat you,

9 Here Bottom again difcovers a true genius for the Stage by his folicitude for propriety of drefs, and his deliberation which

beard to chufe among many beards, all unnatural.

That is, a head from which the hair has fallen in the lues THEOBALD.

H 4

venerea.

requeft

requeft you, and defire you, to con them by to-morrow night; and meet me in the palace-wood, a mile without the town, by moon light, there we will rehearfe; for if we meet in the city, we fhall be dog'd with company, and our devices known. In the mean time I will draw a bill of properties, fuch as our play wants. I pray you, fail me not.

Bot. We will meet, and there we may rehearse more obfcenely and courageously. Take pains, be perfect, adieu.

Quin. At the Duke's oak we meet.

Bot. Enough; hold, or cut bow-ftings. —Exeunt.

ACT II. SCENE I.

AWO O D.

Enter a Fairy at one Docr, and Puck (or Robingood-fellow) at another.

HOW

PUCK.

JOW W now, spirit, whither wander you?
Fai. Over hill, over dale,
Through bush, through briar,

2 At the Duke's Oak we meet -hold, or cut bowftrings.] This proverbial phrafe ca.necriginally from the Camp. When a Rendezvous was appointed, the militia Soldiers would frequently make excuse for not keeping word that their bowfrings were broke, i. e. their arms unferviceable. Hence when one would give another abfolute affurance of meeting him he would fay proverbially-bold

or cut bow-firings- -i. e. whether the bow-ftring held or broke. For cut is ufed as a neuter, like the verb frets. As when we say, the fring frets-the filk frets, for the paflive, it is cut or fretted.

WARBURTON. 3 So Drayton in his court of Fairy.

Through brake, through brier,
Through muck, through mire,
Through water, through fire.

Over park, over pale,

Through flood, through fire,
I do wander every where,
Swifter than the moon's fphere;
And I ferve the Fairy Queen,
To dew her orbs 4 upon the

green;

The cowflips tall her penfioners be, 3
In their gold coats fpots you fee,
Those be rubies, Fairy favours:
In those freckles live their favours:
I must go seek fome dew-drops here,
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.

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 changeling: 7
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;
But she per-force with-holds the loved boy,
Crowns him with flow'rs, and makes him all her joy.

4 To dew her orbs upon the green.] For orbs Dr. Gray is inclined to fubftitute herbs. The orbs here mentioned are the circles fuppofed to be made by the Fairies on the ground, whofe verdure proceeds from the Fairy's care to water them.

They in their courses make that
round,

In meadows and in marshes found,
Of them fo called the fairy ground.
DRAYTON.

5 The cowflip was a favourite among the fairies. There is a hint in Drayton of their attention

to May Morning.

-For the Queen a fitting to'r
Quoth he, 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.

6-Lob of spirits.) Lob, lubber, looby, labcock, all denote both inactivity of body and dul. nefs of mind.

7-Changeling.] Changeling is commonly used for the child fuppofed to be left by the fairies, but here for the child taken away.

And

And now they never meet in grove, or green,
By fountain clear, or fpangled ftar-light sheen,
But they do fquare, that all their elves for fear 9
Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there.

Fai.* Or I mistake your fhape and making quite,
Or else you are that fhrewd, and knavish sprite,
Call'd Robin-goodfellow. Are you not he,
That fright the maidens of the villageree,
Skim milk, and fometimes labour in the quern, '
And bootlefs make the breathlefs hufwife chern:
And fometime make the drink to bear no barm,
Mif-lead night wand'rers, laughing at their harm?
Thofe that Hobgoblin call you, and fweet Puck,
You do their work, and they fhall have good luck.

2

Are

8 -Sheen.] Shining, bright,

gay.

9 But they do square.] To Square here is to quarrel, And are you now fuch fools to fquare for this. GRAY. The French word contrecarrer has the fame import.

* I. II. III. IV. Either. 1 Skim milk, and fometimes labour in the quern, And bootless make the breathless buferwife chern.

The fenfe of thefe lines is con-
fufed. Are not you be, fays the
fairy, that fright the country girls,
that skim milk, work in the hand-
mill, and make the tired dairy wo-
man churn without effect? The
mention of the mill is here ufe-
lefs; I would regulate the lines
thus:

And fometimes make the breath.
lefs housewife chern
Skim milk, and bootless labour in
the quern,

Are not you he?

3

Puck. I am thou speak'ft aright
I am that merry wand'rer of the night:
I jeft to Oberon and make him smile,
When I a fat and bean fed horfe beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal;
And fometimes lurk I in a goffip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roafted crab,

And when the drinks, against her lips I bob,
And on her wither'd dew-lap pour the ale.
The wifeft aunt, telling the faddeft tale,
Sometime for three-foot ftool mistaketh me;
Then flip I from her bum, down topples she,
And tailor cries, and falls into a cough: 4
And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe,

dolt,

Sull walking like a ragged colt,
And oft out of a bush doth bolt,

Of purpofe to deceive us ;
And leading us makes us to ftray,
Long winter'snights out of the way,
And when we flick 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

And

accurately as they could. Whether Draytonor Shakespeare wrote firft, I cannot discover.

3 Puck.-Thou speak' ft aright.] I have filled up the verfe which I fuppofe the author left complete.

It seems that in the fairy mythology Puck, or Hobgoblin, was the trufty fervant of Oberon, and always employed to watch or detect the Intrigues of Queen Mab, called by Shakespear Titania. For in Drayton's Nymphidia the fame fairies are engaged in the fame bufinefs. Mab has an amour with Pigwiggen, Oberon being jealous fends Hobgoblin to catch them, and one of Mabs Nymphs opposes him by a spell.

And tailor cries.] The caftom of crying tailor at a fudden fall backwards, I think I remember to have obferved. He that flips befide his chair falls as a taylor fquats upon his board. The Oxford Editor and Dr.Warburton after him, read and rails

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