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Peafe-bloffom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustard-feed!

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All. Where fhall we go?

Tita. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes;
Feed him with apricocks, and dewberries',
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;
The honey-bags fteal from the humble-bees,
And, for night tapers, crop their waxen thighs,
And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes 2,
To have my love to bed, and to arise ;
And plack the wings from painted butterflies,
To fan the moon-beams from his fleeping eyes:
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtefies.

I dewberries,] Dewberries ftrictly and properly are the fruit of one of the fpecies of wild bramble called the creeping or the leffer bramble: but as they stand here among the more delicate fruits, they must be understood to mean rafpberries, which are alfo of the bramble kind. HAWKINS.

Dewberries are gooseberries, which are still so called in several parts of the kingdom. HENLEY.

2 the fiery glow-worm's eyes,] 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 in his tail. JOHNSON.

The blunder is not in Shakspeare, but in those who have conftrued too literally a poetical expreffion. It appears from every line of his writings that he had ftudied with attention the book of nature, and was an accurate obferver of every object that fell within his notice. He muft have known that the light of the glow-worm was feated in the tail; but furely a poet is juftified in calling the luminous part of a glow-worm the eye. It is a liberty we take in plain profe; for the point of greatest brightness in a furnace is commonly called the of it.

eye

which

Dr. Johnson might have arraigned him with equal propriety for fending his fairies to light their tapers at the fire of the glow-worm, in Hamlet he terms uneffectual:

"The glow-worm fhews the matin to be near,
"And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire." MASON.

Ii4

I Fai.

1. Fai. Hail, mortal3!

2. Fai. Hail!

3. Fai. Hail!

4. Fai. Hail!

Bot. I cry your worships mercy, heartily.-I befeech, your worship's name?

Cob. Cobweb.

Bot. I fhall defire you of more acquaintance, good mafter Cobweb: If I cut my finger, I fhall make bold with you. Your name, honeft gentleman 5?

Peufe. Peafe-bloffom.

Bot. I pray you, commend me to miftrefs Squash, your mother, and to mafter Peafcod, your father. Good matter

3 Hail, mortal!] The old copies read-hail, mortal, bail! The fecond bail was clearly intended for another of the fairies, so as that each of them should addrefs Bottom. The regulation now adopted was propofed by Mr. Steevens. MALONE.

4 I hal defire you of more acquaintance,] This line has been very unneceffarily altered. Such phrafeology was very common to many of our ancient writers. So in Lufty Juventus, a morality, 1561: "I fhall defire you of better acquaintance." Again in An Humourous Days Mirth, 1599: "I do defire you of more acquaintance." STEEVENS.

The alteration in the modern editions was made on the authority of the first folio, which reads in the next speech but one-" I fhall defire of you more acquaintance." But the old reading is undoubtedly the true

one.

5

MALONE.

- good mafter Cobweb: If I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you-Your name, bonest gentleman ?] In The Mayde's Metamorphofis, a comedy by Lilly, there is a dialogue between fome foresters and a troop of fairies, very similar to the present:

"Mopfo. I pray, fir, what might I call you?

1. Fai. My name is Penny.

"Mop. I am forry I cannot purfe you.

"Frifco. I pray you, fir, what might I call you?

2. Fai. My name is Cricket.

Frif. I would I were a chimney for your fake."

The Maid's Metamorphofis was not printed till 1600, but was probably written fome years before. Mr. Warton fays, (Hiftory of English Poetry, vol. I. p. 393.) that Lilly's laft play appeared in 1597.

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MALONE.

miftress Squash, your mother,] A Squash is an immature peafcod. So, in Twelfth Night, Act I. sc. v: “—as a squash is, before 'tis a peafcod." STEEVENS.

Peafe

1

Pease-bloffom, I fhall defire you of more acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you, fir?

Muf. Mustard-feed.

Bot. Good mafter Mustard-feed, I know your patience? well that fame cowardly, giant-like, ox-beef hath devoured many a gentleman of your house: I promise you your kindred hath made my eyes water ere now. I defire you, more acquaintance, good master Mustard-feed.

Tita. Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower. The moon, methinks, looks with a watery eye; And when the weeps, weeps every little flower, Lamenting fome enforced chastity.

Tie up my love's tongues, bring him filently. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Another part of the Wood.

Enter OBERON.

Obe. I wonder, if Titania be awak'd; Then, what it was that next came in her eye, Which the muft dote on in extremity.

Enter PUCK.

Here comes my meffenger.-How now, mad fpirit?
What night-rule now about this haunted grove?
Puck. My miftrefs with a monster is in love.

Near to her clofe and confecrated bower,
While fhe was in her dull and fleeping hour,

7-patience,] By patience is meant, ftanding ftill in a mustard-pot to be eaten with the beef, on which it was a conftant attendant.

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COLLINS.

- my love's tongue,] The old copies read-my lover's tongue.

The emendation was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

STEEVENS.

9 What night-rule-] Night-rule in this place fhould feem to mean, what frolick of the night, what revelry is going forward? So, in Tom Tyler and bis Wife, 1661: "Marry, here is good rule." It appears, from the old fong of Rubin Goodfellow, in the third volume of Dr. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, that it was the office of this waggish fpirit" to viewe the night-fports." STEEVENS.

A crew

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A crew of patches', rude mechanicals,
That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,
Were met together to rehearse a play,
Intended for great Thefeus' nuptial day.
The shallowest thick-skin of that barren fort",
Who Pyramus prefented, in their sport
Forfook his scene, and enter'd in a brake:
When I did him at this advantage take,
An afs's now! 3 I fixed on his head;
Anon, his Thisbe must be answered,

And forth my mimick comes: When they him spy,
As wild geefe that the creeping fowler eye,

Or ruffet-pated choughs, many in forts,
Rifing and cawing at the gun's report

1-patches,] Patch was in old language used as a term of opprobry; perhaps with much the fame import as we use raggamuffin, or tatterdemalion. JOHNSON.

This common opprobious term, probably took its rife from Patch, cardinal Wolfey's fool. In the western counties, cross-patch is ftill used for perverse, ill-natured fool. T. WARTON.

The name was rather taken from the patch'd or pyed coats worn by the fools or jefters of those times. STEEVENS.

I should fuppofe patch to be merely a corruption of the Italian pazze, which fignifies properly a fool. So, in the Merchant of Venice, A& II. fc. v. Shylock fays of Launcelot, The patch is kind enough;—after having just called him, that fool of Hagar's offspring. TYRWHITT. 2 -fort,] See note 5. MALONE.

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-nowl) A head. Saxon JOHNSON.

4-my mimick-] This is the reading of the folio. The quarto printed by Fither has minnick; that by Roberts, minnock: both evidently corruptions. The line has been explained as if it related to Thibe; but it does not relate to her, but to Pyramus. Bottom had just been playing that part, and had retired into a brake; (according to Quince's direction: "When you have spoken your fpeech, enter into that brake.") "Anon his Thishe must be answered, And fortb my mimick (i. e. my actor) comes." In this there feems no difficulty.

Mimick is ufed as fynonymous to actor, by Decker, in his Guls Hornebooke, 1609: "Draw what troop you can from the ftage after you; the mimicks are beholden to you for allowing them elbow room." Again, in his Satiromaftix, 1602: "Thou [B. Jonfon] haft forgot how thou ambleft in a leather pilch by a play-waggon in the highway, and took'ft mad Jeronymo's part, to get fervice amongst the mimicks." MALONE. 5-fort,] Company. So above: "—that barren fort; and in Waller: "A fort of lufty fhepherds frive." JOHNSON. 5

Sever

Sever themselves, and madly fweep the sky;

So, at his fight, away his fellows fly:

And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls;

He murder cries, and help from Athens calls.

Their fenfe, thus weak, loft with their fears, thus strong, Made fenfeless things begin to do them wrong:

For briers and thorns at their apparel fnatch;

Some, fleeves; fome, hats: from yielders all things catch.
I led them on in this diftracted fear,

And left sweet Pyramus translated there:
When in that moment (fo it came to pass)
Titania wak'd, and ftraightway lov'd an afs.
Obe. This falls out better than I could devise.
But haft thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes
With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?

6 And, at our stamp,-] This feems to be a vicious reading. Fairies are never reprefented ftamping, or of a fize that should give force to a ftamp, nor could they have diftinguished the stamps of Puck from those of their own companions: I read :

And at a lump bere o'er and o'er one falls." JoннSON.

I adhere to the old reading. The ftamp of a fairy might be efficacious, though not loud; neither is it neceflary to fuppofe, when fupernatural beings are spoken of, that the fize of the agent determines the force of the action. That fairies did ftamp to fome purpose, may be known from the following paffage in Olaus Magnus de Gentibus Septentrionalibus." Vero faltum adeo prefundè in terram imprefferant, ut locus infigni ardore orbiculariter perefus, non parit arenti redivivum cefpite gramen.' Shakspeare's own authority, however, is most decifive. See the conclufion of the first scene of the fourth act :

-Come, my queen, take hand with me,

"And rock the ground whereon these fleepers be." STEEVENS. Our "grandams maides were woont to fet a boll of milke before Incubus, and his coufin Robin Goodfellow, for grinding of malt or mustard, and fweeping the house at midnight: and he would chafe exceedingly if the maid or good wife of the house, having compaflion of his nakednes, laid anie clothes for him, beefides his meile of white bread and milke, which was his ftanding fee: for in that cafe he faith, What have we here? Hemton hamten, here will I never more tread, nor fampen." Difcoverie of Witchcraft by Reginald Scott, 1584, p. 85.

ANONYMOUS.

HANMER.

7-latcb'd] or letch'd, lick'd over; lecher, to lick, French. In the North, it fignifies to infe. STEEVENS.

Puck.

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