which there was great resort." In a note he explains "not long since" as "Michaelmas Term, 1629." We therefore can have no doubt that in Shakspere's time the parts of women were personated by men and boys; and, indeed, Prynne denounces this as a more pernicious custom than the acting of women. The objection of Flute that he had "a beard coming," was doubtless a common objection; and the remedy was equally common-" You shall play it in a mask." Quince instructing his

"Hard-handed men, that work in Athens here," reminds us of the celebrated picture, found at Pompeii, of the Choragus giving directions to the actors. The travestie would probably have been as just two thousand years ago as in the days of Shakspere.

• SOENE II.-"Properties."

The technicalities of the theatre are very unchanging. The person who has charge of the

wooden swords, and pasteboard shields, and other trumpery required for the business of the stage, is still called the property man. In 'The Antipodes,' by R. Brome, 1640, we have the following ludicrous account of the "properties," which form as curious an assemblage as in Hogarth's Strollers :

"He has got into our tiring-house amongst us,
And ta'en a strict survey of all our properties;
Our statues and our images of gods,
Our planets and our constellations,
Our giants, monsters, furies, beasts, and bugbears,
Our helmets, shields and vizors, hairs and beards,
Our pasteboard marchpanes, and our wooden pies."

(Quoted in Mr. Collier's History of the Stage.")

den Theatre was examined in an appeal of the In 1839 the "property-man" of Covent Garproprietors of the theatre against the poor-rate

assessment, when he said that the articles under his charge consisted of "almost everything in creation-from the fly to the whale." He was worthy to be a property-man to Shakspere, who "exhausted worlds."

7 SCENE I.-"Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough briar," &c. THEOBALD printed this passage as it appears in the folio and one of the quartos

"Through bush, through briar." Coleridge is rather hard upon him :-"What a noble pair of ears this worthy Theobald must have had!" He took the passage as he found it. It is remarkable that the reading was corrupted in the folio; for Drayton, in his imitation in the Nymphidia,' which was published a few years before the folio, exhibits the value of the word "thorough:'

"Thorough brake, thorough briar,
Thorough muck, thorough mire,
Thorough water, thorough fire."

On the other hand, Steevens had not the justification of any text when he gave us―

"Swifter than the moones sphere."

Mr. Guest, in his 'History of English Rhythm,' (a work of great research, but which belongs to a disciple of the school of Pope, rather than of

one nurtured by our elder poet,) observes upon the passage as we print it,—

"Swifter than the moon's sphere," "The flow of Shakspere's line is quite in keeping with the peculiar rhythm which he has devoted to his fairies." This rhythm, Mr. Guest, in another place, describes as consisting of "abrupt verses of two, three, or four accents."

• SCENE I.

-"that shrewd and knavish sprite, Call'd Robin Good-fellow."

There can be no doubt that the attributes of

Puck, or Robin Good-fellow, as described by Shakspere, were collected from the popular superstitions of his own day. In Harsnet's 'Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures' (1603) he is mixed up as a delinquent with the friars ::-"And if that the bowle of curds and creame were not duly set out for Robin Goodfellow, the frier, and Sisse 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 not come, or the ale in the fat

[vat] never would have good head.”—Again, in Scot's 'Discoverie of Witchcraft' (1584), we have, "Your grandames' maids were wont to set a bowl of milk for him, for his pains in grinding malt and mustard, and sweeping the house at midnight-this white bread, and bread and milk, was his standing fee." But Robin Good-fellow does not find a place in English poetry before the time of Shakspere. He is Puck's poetical creator. The poets who have followed in his train have endeavoured to vary the character of the "shrewd and meddling elf;" but he is nevertheless essentially the Drayton thus describes him in the

same.

"Nymphidia:'

"This Pu k seems but a dreaming dolt,

Still walking like a ragged colt, And oft out of a bush doth bolt, of purpose to deceive us ; And leading us, makes us to stray, Long winter nights, out of the way, And when we stick in mire and clay, He doth with laughter leave us.' In the song of Robin Good-fellow, printed in 'Percy's Reliques' (which has been attributed to Ben Jonson), we have the same copy of the original features:—

"Yet now and then, the maids to please,
At midnight I card up their wool;
And while they sleep, and take their ease,
With wheel to threads their flax I pull.
I grind at mill

Their malt up still;

I dress their hemp, I spin their tow. If any wake,

And would me take,

I wend me, laughing, ho, ho, ho!" The "lubbar-fiend" of Milton is the "lob of spirits" of Shakspere. The hind, "by friar's lanthorn led,"

"Tells how the drudging Goblin sweat,
To earn his cream-bowl duly set,
When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
His shadowy flail hath thresh'd the corn
That ten day-lab'rers could not end;
Then lies him down the lubbar-fiend,
And, stretch'd out all the chimney's length,
Barks at the fire his hairy strength,
And crop-full out of door he flings,
Ere the first cock his matin rings."—(L'Allegro.)

• SCENE II.—" Ill met by moonlight, proud
Titania," &c.

The name of "Oberon, King of Fairies," is found in Greene's 'James the IVth.' Greene died in 1592. But the name was long before familiar in Lord Berners' translation of the French romance of 'Sir Hugh of Bordeaux.' It is probable that Shakspere was indebted for

"

the name to this source. Tyrwhitt has given his opinion that the Pluto and Proserpina of Chaucer's 'Marchantes Tale' were the true progenitors of Oberon and Titania. Chaucer calls Pluto the "King of Faerie," and Proserpina is Queen of Faerie;" and they take a solicitude in the affairs of mortals. But beyond this they have little in common with Oberon and Titania. In the 'Wife of Bathes Tale,' however, Shakspere found the popular superstition presented in that spirit of gladsome revelry which it was reserved for him to work out in this matchless drama:

"In olde dayes of the King Artour,

Of which that Bretons speken gret honour,
All was this land fulfilled of faerie,
The Elf-queene with her joly compagnie,
Danced ful oft in many a grene mede.”

10 SCENE II.-"Playing on pipes of corn." "Pipes made of grene corne were amongst the rustic music described by Chaucer. Sydney's 'Arcadia,' at the time when Shakspere wrote his 'Midsummer-Night's Dream,' had made pastoral images familiar to all. It is pleasant to imagine that our poet had the following beautiful passage in his thoughts:"There were hills which garnished their proud heights with stately trees: humble valleys, whose base estate seemed comforted with the refreshing of silver rivers: meadows enamelled with all sorts of eye-pleasing flowers; thickets, which being lined with most pleasant shade were witnessed so too by the cheerful disposition of many well-tuned birds: each pasture stored with sheep, feeding with sober security, while the pretty lambs with bleating oratory craved the dam's comfort: here a shepherd's boy piping, as though he should never be old; there a young shepherdess knitting, and withal singing, and it seemed that her voice comforted her hands to work, and her hands kept time to her voice-music."

11 SCENE II. "Therefore, the winds, piping to us in vain," &c.

In Churchyard's 'Charitie,' a poem published in 1595, the "distemperature" of that year is thus described :

"A colder time in world was never seen:

The skies do lower, the sun and moon wax dim;
Summer scarce known but that the leaves are green.
The winter's waste drives water o'er the brim;
Upon the land great floats of wood may swim.
Nature thinks scorn to do her duty right,
Because we have displeased the Lord of Light."

This "progeny of evils" has been recorded by the theologians as well as the poets. In Strype's 'Annals' we have an extract from a lecture preached by Dr. J. King, at York, in which are enumerated the signs of divine wrath with which England was visited in 1598 and 1594. The lecturer says:-"Remember that the spring" (that year when the plague broke out) was very unkind, by means of the abundance of rains that fell. Our July hath been like to a February; our June even as an April: so that the air must needs be infected.".... Then, having spoken of three successive years of scarcity, he adds,-" And see, whether the Lord doth not threaten us much more, by sending such unseasonable weather, and storms of rain among us: which, if we will observe, and compare it with that which is past, we may say that the course of nature is very much inverted. Our years are turned upside down. Our sum

mers are no summers: our harvests are no harvests: our seed-times are no seed-times. For a great space of time, scant any day hath been seen that it hath not rained upon us."

draughts, till the game was finished by one of the players having all his pieces taken or impounded. This was the nine men's morris. It is affirmed that the game was brought hither by the Norman conquerors, under the name of merelles; and that this name, which signifies counters, was subsequently corrupted into morals and morris. In a wet season the lines upon which the nine men moved were “filled up with mud;" and "the quaint mazes," which the more active of the youths and maidens in propitious seasons trod "in the wanton green," were obliterated.

13 SCENE II.-"My gentle Puck, come hither: Thou remember'st," &c.

There can be no doubt that the "fair vestal " of this exquisite description was Queen Elizabeth. See 'William Shakspere, a Biography,' page 51.

14 SCENE III." You spotted snakes," &c. Fletcher's 'Faithful Shepherdess' has passages which strongly remind us of the 'Midsummer

up with mud."

Upon the green turf of their spacious commons the shepherds and ploughmen of England were wont to cut a rude series of squares, and other right lines, upon which they arranged eighteen stones, divided between two players, who moved them alternately, as at chess or

high genius would naturally produce with a beautiful model before him. Take the Song of the River God as an example :—

"Do not fear to put thy feet
Naked in the river, sweet;
Think not leech, or newt, or toad
Will bite thy foot when thou hast trod."

"SCENE I.—“ A lion among ladies is a most dreadful thing."

THERE was an account published in 1594 of the ceremonies observed at the baptism of Henry, the eldest son of the King of Scotland. Aį triumphal chariot, according to this account, was drawn in by a "black-moor." The writer adds—“This chariot should have been drawn in by a lion, but because his presence might have brought some fear to the nearest, or that the sight of the lighted torches might have commoved his tameness, it was thought meet that the moor should supply that room." It is not

improbable that Shakspere meant to ridicule this incident in-" there is not a more fearful wild-fowl than your lion, living."

16 SCENE I.-"Let him name his name; and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner." This passage will suggest to our readers Sir Walter Scott's description of the pageant at Kenilworth, when Lambourne, not knowing his part, tore off his vizard and swore, "Cogs-bones! he was none of Arion or Orion either, but honest Mike Lambourne, that had been drinking her Majesty's health from morning till

midnight, and was come to bid her heartily welcome to Kenilworth Castle." But a circumstance of this nature actually happened upon the Queen's visit to Kenilworth, in 1575; and is recorded in the 'Merry Passages and Jests,' compiled by Sir Nicholas Lestrange, and lately published by the Camden Society from the Harleian MS.-"There was a spectacle presented to Queen Elizabeth upon the water, and, amongst others, Harry Goldingham was to represent Arion upon the dolphin's back, but finding his voice to be very hoarse and unpleasant when he came to perform it, he tears off his disguise and swears he was none of Arion, not he, but e'en honest Harry Goldingham; which blunt discovery pleased the Queen better than if it had gone through in the right way; yet he could order his voice to an instrument exceeding well." It is by no means improbable that Shakspere was familiar with this local anecdote, and has applied it in the case of Snug the joiner. Bottom and Quince, and the other "hard-handed men," must also have been exceedingly like the citizens of Coventry, who played their Hock play before the Queen, on the memorable occasion of her visit to their neighbourhood.

scientific pretensions, maintaining that the woosel or ousel is something else. It is sufficient for us to show that this name expressed the blackbird in Shakspere's day. It is used by Drayton as synonymous with the merle (about which there can be no doubt) in his description of the "rough woodlands" of the Warwickshire Arden, where both he and his friend Shakspere studied the book of nature:"The throstel, with shrill sharps; as purposely he song T'wake the lustless sun, or chiding that so long He was in coming forth, that should the thickets thrill: The woosel near at hand, that hath a golden bill; As nature him had mark'd of purpose, t' let us see That from all other birds his tunes should different be: For, with their vocal sounds, they sing to pleasant May; Upon his dulcet pipe, the merle doth only play."

(Poly-Olbion, 13th Song.)

19 SCENE I.-" And light them at the fiery glowworm's eyes."

Shakspere was certainly a much truer lover of nature, and therefore a much better naturalist, than Dr. Johnson, who indeed professed to despise such studies; but the critic has, nevertheless, ventured in this instance to be severe upon the poet :-"I know not how Shakspeare, 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

moonshine."

The popular almanac of Shakspere's time was that of Leonard Digges, the worthy precursor of the Moores and Murphys. He had a higher ambition than these his degenerate descendants; for, while they prophecy only by the day and the week, he prognosticated for ever, as his title-page shows:-A Prognostication euerlastinge of right good effect, fruictfully augmented by the auctour, contayning plain, briefe, pleasaunte, chosen rules to iudge the Weather by the Sunne, Moone, Starres, Comets, Rainebow, Thunder, Cloudes, with other extraordinarye tokens, not omitting the Aspects of the Planets, with a briefe iudgement for euer, of Plenty, Lucke, Sickenes, Dearth, Warres, &c., opening also many natural causes worthy to be knowen' (1575).

18 SCENE I.-" The oosel-cock, so black of hue, With orange-tawny bill."

Although Bottom has here described the blackbird with zoological precision, there are some commentators hardy enough to deny his

and make Titania describe the glow-worm with a hatred of all metaphor :

"And light them at the fiery glow-worm's tail." We fear this will not do. It reminds us of the attempt of a very eminent naturalist to unite science and poetry in verses which he called the 'Pleasures of Ornithology,' of which union the following is a specimen :

"The morning wakes, as from the lofty elm
The cuckoo sends the monotone. Yet he,
Polygamous, ne'er knows what pleasures wait
On pure monogamy."

We may be wrong, but we would rather have
Bottom's

" plain-song cuckoo gray," than these hard words.

"I saw a cherry weep, and why?
Why wept it? but for shame;
Because my Julia's lip was by,
And did out-red the same.
But, pretty fondling, let not fall
A tear at all for that;

Which rubies, corals, scarlets, all,
For tincture, wonder at."

21 SCENE II.-" O, and is all forgot?" &c. Gibbon compares this beautiful passage with some lines of a poem of Gregory Nazianzen on his own life.

22 SCENE II.—" So, with two seeming bodies," &c. Mr. Monck Mason's explanation of this pas sage seems more intelligible than some other interpretations :-"Every branch of a family is called a house; and none but the first of the first house can bear the arms of the family without some distinction; two of the first, therefore, means two coats of the first house, which are properly due but to one." But we have pleasure in giving the explanation of an anonymous correspondent, signing himself "A Lover of Heraldry:"

"It is not easy to see how Monck Mason's explanation bears on this passage, or why 'the first house' should have two coats due to him: to a herald his reasoning is very vague.

"I propose to take the passage as it stands, and then the expression 'two of the first' will have nothing to do with the coats of heraldry, but refers to what Helena has just said, 'two seeming bodies :'

Cynthia checks her dragon yoke."

25 SCENE II.-"I with the morning's love have oft made sport."

Whether Oberon meant to laugh at Tithonus, the old husband of Aurora, or sport "like a forester" with young Cephalus, the morning's love, is matter of controversy.

26 SCENE II.-"Even till the eastern gate," &c. This splendid passage was perhaps suggested by some lines in Chaucer's 'Knight's Tale :'— "The besy larke, the messager of day,

Salewith in hire song the morwe gray:
And firy Phebus riseth up so bright,
That all the orient laugheth of the sight,
And with his stremes drieth in the greves
The silver dropes, hanging on the leves."

27 SCENE II.-"Ho, ho! ho, ho!" The devil of the old mysteries was as well known by his Ho, ho! as Henry VIII. by his

pass-word of the ancient devil. Of the old song, which we quoted in Act II., each stanza ends with "ho, ho, ho!"

23 SCENE II.-" Shall seem a dream, and fruitless vision."

Mr. Guest classes this line in the division of

28 SCENE II." When thou wak'st, Thou tak'st." The second line is generally corrupted into

"See thou tak'st."