When we have laugh'd to fee the fails conceive, If And fee our moon-light revels, go with us; 8 Which he with pretty and with fwimming gate FOLLOWING (her womb thenrich with my young Squire) Would imitate - Following what? he did not follow the fhip, whofe motion fhe imitated: for that failed on the water, fhe on the land. If by following we are to understand imitating, it will be a mere pleonafm-imitating would imitate. From the Poet's defcription of the actions it plainly appears we should read FOLLYING Would imitate. [Exeunt Queen and her train. fays FOLYLY and fally The foregoing Note is very ingenious, but fince follying is a word of which I know not any example, and the Fairy's favourite might, without much licentioufnefs of language, be faid to follow a fhip that failed in the direction of the coat, I think there is no fufficient reafon for adopting it. The coinage of new words is a violent remedy, not to be used but in the last neceffity. I. II. III. and IV. Fairies. ie. wantoning in Sport and Gaiety. This the old English writers- and they believen VOL. I. I Ob. Ob. Well, go thy way; thou shalt not from this grove, 'Till I torment thee for this injury.. My gentle Puck, come hither, thou remember'st 9 their Spheres To hear the fea maid s mufick-] The first thing obfervable on thefe words is, that this action of the Mermaid is laid in the fame time and place with Cupid's attack upon the Veftal. By the Veftal every one knows is meant Queen Elizabeth. It is very natural and reasonable then to think that the Mermaid stands for fome eminent perfonage of her time. And if fo, the allegorical covering, in which there is a mixture of fatire and panegyric, will lead us to conclude that this perfon was one of whom it had been inconvenient for the author to speak openly, either in praife or difpraife. All this agrees with Mary Queen of Scots, and with no other. Queen Elizabeth could not bear to hear her commended; and her fucceffor would not for give her fatyrift. But the poet has fo well marked out every diftinguished circumftance of her life and character in this beautiful allegory, as will leave no room to doubt about his fecret Since meaning. She is called a Mermaid, 1. to denote her reign over a kingdom fituate in the fea, and 2. her beauty and intemperate luft. Ut turpiter atrum Definat in pifcem mulier formofa fupernè. for as Elizabeth for her chastity is called a Vestal, this unfortu nate lady on a contrary account is called a Mermaid. 3. An antient ftory may be fuppofed to be here alluded to. The emperor Julian tells us, Epiftle 41. that the Sirens (which, with all the modern poets, are Mermaids) contended for precedency with the Mufes, who overcoming them, took away their wings. The quarrels between Mary and Elizabeth had the fame cause, and the fame iffue. On a Dolphin's back.] This evidently marks out that diftinguishing circumstance of Mary's fortune, her marriage with the dauphin of France, foa of Henry II. Uttering fuch dulcet and har monious breath.] This alludes to her great abilities of genius and learning, which rendered her the moft accomplished princefs of her age. The French writers tell us, that, while he was in that court, fhe pronounced a Latin oration in the great hall of the Louvre, with fo much grace and Since once I fat upon a promontory, And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back,. Puck. I remember. Ob. That very time I faw, but thou could'ft not, Flying between the cold moon and the earth, Cupid all-arm'd: a certain aim he took' and eloquence, as filled the whole court with admiration. That the rude fea grew civil at ber fong.] By the rude fea s meant Scotland encircled with the ocean; which rose up in arms against the regent, while fhe was in France. But her return home prefently quieted thofe diforders: And had not her ftrange ill conduct afterwards more violently inflamed them, fhe might have paffed her whole life in peace. There is the greater juitnefs and beauty in this image, as the vulgar opirion is, that the mermaid always fings in ftorms. And certain ftars foot madly from their spheres, At Norfolk, whofe projected marriage with her was attended with fuch fatal confequences. Here again the reader may observe a peculiar juftness in the imag'ry. The vulgar opinion being that the mermaid allured men to deftruction by her fongs. To which opinion Shakespear alludes in his Comedy of Errors, O train me not, fweet mermaid, with thy note, To drown me in thy fifter's flood of tears. On the whole, it is the noblest and juftest allegory that was ever written. The laying it in fairy land, and out of nature, is in the character of the speaker. And on thefe occafions ShakeSpear always excels himself. He is born away by the magic of his enthufialm, and hurries his reader along with him into thefe ancient regions of poetry, by that power of Verfe, which we may well fancy to be like what, To hear the fea-maid s mufick.] Thus concludes the defcription, with that remarkable circumftance of this unhappy lady's fate, the deftruction fhe brought upon feveral of the English nobility, whom he drew in to fupport her caufe. This, in the botdeft expreffion of the fobline, the poet images by certain ftars footing madly from their spheres: By which he meant the ads of Na thumberland and Weftmerlane, who fell in her quarrel; and principally the great duke of this presents us with a very un Olim Fauni Vatefque canebant. WARBURTON. Cupid all-arm'd;] Surely, 1 2 claffical At a fair Vestal, throned by the weft, And loos'd his love-fhaft fmartly from his bow, In maiden meditation, fancy-free. Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell, Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound; Fetch me that flow'r; the herb I fhew'd thee once; Puck. I'll put a girdle round about the earth cladical Image. Where do we read or fee in ancient Books, or Monuments, Cupid arm'd more than with his Bow and Arrow; and with thefe we for ever fee him arm'd. And thele are all the Arms he had Cccafion for in this prefent Action; a mote illuftrious Ore, than any, his Friends, the Clafficks, ever brought him upon. -The Change I make is fo fmall, but the Beauty of the Thought fo great, which this Alteration carries with it, that, I think, we are not to hesitate upon it. For what an Addition is this to the Compliment made upon this Virgin Queen's Celibacy, that it alarm'd the Power of Love? as it his Emoire was in Danger, when thi Imperial Vetrays had de [Exit. clared herself for a fingle Life: WARBURTON. All-arm'd, does not fignify drefjid in panoply, but only enforces the word armed, as we I am amight fay all booted. fraid that the general fenfe of alarmed, by which it is ufed for put into fear or care by whatever caufe, is later than our Authour. 2 And maidens call it love in idleness.] This is as fine a metamorpholis as any in Ovid: With a much better moral, intimating that irregular love has only power when people are idle, or not well employed. WARBURTON. Ob. Ob. Having once this juice, I'll watch Titania when fhe is afleep, And drop the liquor of it in her eyes; The next thing which the waking looks upon, SCENE III. Enter Demetrius, Helena following him. Dem. I love thee not, therefore purfue me not. Where is Lyfander, and fair Hermia? The one I'll flay; the other flayeth me. Thou told' me, they were toll'n into this wood; Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more. |