Quite over-canopied with lufh woodbine,
With fweet mufk-rofes, and with eglantine:
There fleeps Titania, fome time of the night,
Lull'd in thefe flowers with dances and delight;
And there the fnake throws her enamel'd skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in :

And with the juice of this I'll ftreak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantafies.

Take thou fome of it, and feek through this grove:
A fweet Athenian lady is in love

With a difdainful youth: anoint his eyes;
But do it, when the next thing he efpies
May be the lady: Thou fhalt know the man
By the Athenian garments he hath on."
Effect it with fome care; that he may prove
More fond on her, than fhe upon her love:
And look thou meet me ere the firft cock crow.
PUCK. Fear not my lord, your fervant fhall do fo.
[Exeunt.

8 Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine, ] All the old editions read lufcious woodbine.

On the margin of one of my folios an unkuown hand has written lush woodbine, which, I think, is right. This hand I have fince discovered to be Theobald's. JOHNSON.

Lush is clearly preferable in point of sense, and abfolutely neceffary in point of metre. Oberon is speaking in rhime,; but woodbine, as hitherto accented upon the firft fyllable, cannot poffibly correfpond with eglantine. The fubftitution of lush will restore the paffage to its original harmony, and the author's idea. RIISON.

I have inferted lush in the text, as it is a word already used by Shakspeare in The Tempeft, A& II:

"How lush and lufty the grafs looks? how green?" Both lush and luscious (fays Mr. Henley are words of the fame origin.

Dr. Farmer, however, would omit the word quite, as a useless expletive, and read

9

O'er-canopied with lufcious woodbine." STELVENS. the man hath on.] I defire no furer evidence to prove that the broad Scotch pronunciation once prevailed in England, than fuch a rhyme as the first of these words affords to the fecond. STEAVENS.

SCENE III.

Another part of the Wood.

Enter TITANIA with her train.

TILA. Come, now a roundel, and a fairy song;* Then, for the third part of a minute, hence:'

2

-a roundel, and a fairy fong;] Rounds, or roundels, were like the prefent country dances, and are thus described by Sir John Davies, in his Orchestra, 1622:

"Then firft of all he doth demonftrate plain

"The motions feven that are in nature found,
"Upward and downward, forth, and back again,
"To this fide, and to that, and turning round;

"Whereof a thoufand brawls he doth compound,
"Which he doth teach unto the multitude,
"And ever with a turn they muft conclude.

* * * * * * * * * * *

**

"Thus when at firft love had them marfhalled,
As erft he did the fhapeless mass of things,
"He taught them rounds and winding hays to tread,
"And about trees to caft themselves in rings:
"As the two Bears whom the firft mover flings

"With a fhort turn about heaven's axle-tree,

"In a round dance for ever wheeling be." REED. A roundel, rondill, or roundelay, is fometimes used to signify a fong beginning or ending with the fame fentence; redit in orbem. Puttenham, in his Art of Poetry, 1589, has a chapter On the roundel, or Jphere, and produces what he calls A general refemblance of the roundel to God, the world, and the queen. STEEVENS.

A roundel is, as I fuppofe, a circular dance. Ben Jonfon feems to call the rings which fuch dances are fuppofed to make in the grals, rondels. Vol. V. Tale of a Tub, p. 23:

"I'll have no rondels, I, in the queen's paths."

TYRWHITT.

So, in The Boke of the Governour by Sir Thomas Elyot, 1537: "In ftede of thefe we have now base daunces, bargenettes, pavyons, turgions, and roundes." STEEVENS.

3 Then, for the third part of a minute, hence:] Dr. Warburton

reads

Some, to kill cankers in the mufk-rofe buds; 4 Some, war with rear-mice' for their leathern wings, To make my small elves coats; and fome, keep back The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, and wonders At our quaint fpirits: Sing me now afleep;

6

Then to your offices, and let me rest.

The

But the perfons employed are Fairies, to whom the third part of a minute might not be a very fhort time to do fuch work in. critick might as well have objected to the epithet tall, which the fairy beftows on the cowflip. But Shakspeare, throughout the play, has preserved the proportion of other things in refpect of these tiny beings, compared with whofe fize, a cowflip might be tall, and to whole powers of execution, a minute might be equivalent to an age. STEEVENS.

in the mufk-rofe buds; ] What is at prefent called the Mufk Rofe, was a flower unknown to English botanists in the time of Shakspeare. About fifty years ago it was brought into this country from Spain. STEEVENS.

with rear-mice -] A rere-moufe is a bat, a moufe that rears itself from the ground by the aid of wings. So, in Albertus Wallenftein, 1640:

"Half-fpirited fouls, who ftrive on rere-mice wings." Again, in Ben Jonfon's New Inn:

I keep no fhades

"Nor fhelters, I, for either owls or rere-mice. "

Again, in Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphofis, B. IV. edit. 1587, p. 58. b:

"And we in English language bats or reremice call the fame." Gawin Douglas, in his Prologue to Maphæus's 13th book of the Eneid, alfo applies the epithet leathern to the wings of the Bat: Up gois the bat with her pelit leddern flicht." STEEVENS. quaint fpirits:] For this Dr. Warburton reads against all

6

authority:

But Profpero, in The Tempeft, applies quaint to Ariel. JOHNSON.

"Our quaint Spirits. Dr. Johnson is right in the word, and Dr. Warburton in the interpretation. A fpirit was fometimes used for a Sport. In Decker's play, If it be not good, the Devil is in It, the king of Naples fays to the devil Ruffman, difguifed in the character of Shalcan: "Now Shalcan, fome new fpirit? Ruff. A thousand wenches ftark-naked to play at leap-frog. Omnes. rare fight!" FARMER.

SONG.

1. FAI. You Spotted Snakes, with double tongue,
Thorny hedge-hogs, be not feen;
Newts, and blind-worms, do no wrong;
Come not near our fairy queen:

Chorus.

Philomel, with melody,

Sing in our fweet lullaby;

Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby;
Never harm, nor Spell nor charm,

Come our lovely lady nigh;

So, good night, with lullaby.

II.

2. FAI. Weaving fpiders, come not here;

Hence, you long-legg'd fpinners, hence:
Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm, nor fnail, do no offence.

Chorus.

Philomel, with melody, &c.

with double tongue, ] The fame epithet occurs in a future

fcene of this play:

with doubler tongue

“ Than thine, thou ferpent," &c.

Again, in The Tempest:

adders, who, with cloven tongues,

"Do hifs me into madness.

"

By both these terms, I fuppofe, our author means-forked; as the tongues of snakes are sometimes represented in ancient tapestry and paintings. STEEVENS.

6 Newts, and blind-worms,] The newt is the eft, the blindworm is the Cecilia or flow-worm. They are both ingredients in the cauldron of Macbeth.

VOL. VII.

STEEVENS.

F

1. FAI. Hence, away; now all is well:, One, aloof, ftand fentinel. 7

[Exeunt Fairies, TITANIA Aleeps.

Enter, OBERON.

OBE. What thou feeft, when thou doft wake,
[Squeezes the flower on Titania's eye-lids.

Do it for thy true love take;

Love, and languifh for his fake:
Be it ounce, 8 or cat, or bear,
Pard, or boar with briftled hair,
In thy eye that fhall appear
When thou wak'ft, it is thy dear;
Wake, when fome vile thing is near.

Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA.

[Exit.

Lys. Fair love, you faint with wandering in the

wood;

And to fpeak troth, I have forgot our way:
We'll reft us, Hermia, if you think it good,

And tarry for the comfort of the day.
HER. Be it fo, Lyfander: find you out a bed,
For I upon this bank will reft my head.

LYS. One turf fhall ferve as pillow for us both;
One heart, one bed, two bofoms, and one troth.
HER. Nay, good Lyfander; for my fake, my
dear,

Lie further off yet, do not lie fo near.

7 Hence, away; &c.] This, according to all the editions, is made part of the fong; but, I think, without fufficient reason, as it appears to be spoken after the fong is over. In the quarto 1600, it is given to the 2d Fairy; but the other divifion is better.

8 Be it ounce,

STEEVENS.

JOHNSON.

,] The ounce is a small tiger, or tiger-cat.

C