To dance our ringlets to the whiftling wind, The human mortals want their winter heried, 5 The nine-mens morris,] A kind of rural chefs. No The human mortals want their winter HERE.] But fure it was not one of the circumftances of mifery, here recapitulated, that the Sufferers wanted their Winter. On the contrary, in the poetical defcriptions of the golden Age, it was always one circumftance of their happiness that they wanted Winter. This is an idle blunder of the Editor's. Shakespear without question wrote, The human mortals want their winter HERYED, i. e. praifed, celebrated. The word is obfolete: But used both by Chaucer and Spencer in this fignification, Tho' wouldeft thou learne to CAROLL of love, -The following line confirms the emendation, Spenc. Cal. Feb. No night is now with Hymn or Carol bleft; and the propriety of the fentiment is evident. For the winter is the feason of rural rejoicing, as the gloominefs of it and its vacancy from country labours give them the inclination and opportunity for mirth; and the fruits, now gathered in, the means. Well therefore might the fay, when the had defcribed the dearths of the feafons and fruitless toil of the husbandmen, that The human mortals want their winter heryed. But, principally, fince the coming of Chriftianity this feafon in commemoration of the birth of Chrift, has been particularly de No night is now with hymn or carol bleft; voted to festivity. And to this cuftom, notwithstanding the impropriety, Hymn or Carol bleft certainly alludes. Mr. Theobald fays, be fhould undoubtedly have advanced this conjecture unto the text, but that Shakespear feems rather fond of hallow'd. Rather than what? ballowed is not fynonymous to heryed but to bleft. What was he thinking of? The ambiguity of the English word bleft confounded him, which fignifies either prais'd or fanctified. 7 The Spring, the Summer, The childing Autumn, angry winter change Their wonted Liveries; and th' amazed World - By their INCREASE now knows not which is which; -] whose increase? or what increase? Let us attend to the Sentiment-Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter change their Liveries, i. e. Spring and Summer are unfeasonably cold; and Autumn and Winter unnaturally warm. This temperature he calls the Liveries or the covering of the Seafons. Which, he fays, confounds the amazed world, that, now, knows not which is which. This being owing then to the Seasons changing their garb, the laft line was doubtless wrote thus, By their INCHASE now knows not which is which. i.e. by the temperature in which they are fet. The metaphor before was taken from Clothing, here from Jewels. Inchafe coming from the French, Enchaffeure, a term in ufe amongst Goldsmiths for the fetting a stone in Gold. 8 The CHIDING Autumn.] The Quarto of 1600, and the Folio of 1623, read CHILDING, and this is right. It is an old word which fignified teeming, bearing fruit. So Chaucer, in his Ballade of our Ladie, fays, Chofin of Jofeph, whom he toke to wive, By By their inchafe, now knows not which is which; Ob. Do you amend it then, it lyes in you. Queen. Set your heart at reft, The fairy-land buys not the child of me. To fetch me trifles, and return again, 9 Or ufher. Mr. Pope. Which he with pretty and with fawimming gate FOLLOWING (her womb then rich with my young squire) Would imitate-] Following what? he did not follow the fhip, whofe motion fhe imitated: for that failed on the water, she on the land. If by following we are to understand imitating, it will be a mere pleonafm-imitating would imitate. From the Poet's description of the actions it plainly appears we should read ters FOLLYING i. e. wantoning in Sport and Gaiety. Thus the old English wriand they beleeven FOLYLY and falfly fays Sir J. Maundeville, from and in the fenfe of folâtrer, to play the wanton. This exactly agrees to the action described-full often has fhe 20ipt by my fide-and-when we have laugh'd to fee. And And, for her fake, I will not part with him. Ob. How long within this wood intend you ftay? Queen. Perchance, 'till after Thefeus' wedding-day. If you will patiently dance in our round, And fee our moon-light revels, go with us; If not, fhun me, and I will spare your haunts. Ob. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee. Queen. Not for thy fairy kingdom. Elves, away: We shall chide down-right, if I longer stay. [Exeunt Queen and her train, Ob. Well, go thy way; thou fhalt not from this grove, "Till I torment thee for this injury. 2 My gentle Puck, come hither; thou remember'ft Since once I fat upon a promontory, 2 Thou remember'ft Since once I fat upon a promontory, And To bear the fea maid's mufick] The firit thing obfer vable on these 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 Vefal 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 forgive her fatirift. But the poet has fo well marked out every diftinguished circumstance of her life and character in this beautiful allegory, as will leave no room to doubt about his fecret meaning. She is called a Mermaid, 1. to dénote her reign over a kingdom fituate in the sea, 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 Vetal, this unfortunate lady on a contrary account is called a Mermaid. 3. An VOL. I. I antient And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back, Puck. 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 Muses, 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 circumftance of Mary's fortune, her marriage with the dauphin of France, fon of Henry II. Uttering fuch dulcet and harmonious breath.] This alludes to her great abilities of genius and learning, which rendered her the most accomplished princefs of her age. The French writers tell us, that, while fhe was in that court, the pronounced a Latin oration in the great hall of the L'ouvre, with fo much grace and eloquence, as filled the whole court with admiration. That the rude fea grew civil at her fong,] By the rude fea is 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 those disorders: And had not her ftrange ill conduct afterwards more violently inflamed them, the might have paffed her whole life in peace. There is the greater justness and beauty in this image, as the vulgar opinion is, that the mermaid always fings in ftorms, And certain fars foot madly from their spheres, To bear the fea maid's mufick.] Thus concludes the defcription, with that remarkable circumftance of this unhappy lady's fate, the deftruction she brought upon feveral of the English nobility, whom he drew in to fupport her caufe. This, in the boldeft expreffion of the fublime, the poet images by certain flars footing madly from their fpheres: By which he meant the earls of Northumberland and Wetmorland, who fell in her quarrel; and principally the great duke of Norfolk, whofe projected marriage with her was attended with fuch fatal confequences. Here again the reader may obferve a peculiar juftnefs in the imag'ry. The valgar opinion being that the mermaid allured men to destruction by her fongs. To which opinion Shakespear alludes in his Comedy of Errors, O train me not, fweet mermaid, with thy note, On |