274.

-a roundel and a fairy song ;] Rounds or roundels are thus described by Sir John Davies, in

his Orchestra, 1622:

"Then first of all he doth demonstrate plain

"The motions seven that are in nature found, "Upward and downward, forth and back again "To this side, and to that, and turning round; "Whereof a thousand brawls he doth compound, "Which he doth teach unto the multitude, “ And ever with a turn they must conclude.

"Thus when at first love had them marshalled, "As erst he did the shapeless mass of things, "He taught them rounds and winding hays to tread, "And about trees to cast themselves in rings: "As the two bears whom the first mover flings "With a short turn about heaven's axletree, "In a round dance for ever wheeling be."

REED. A roundell, rondill, or roundelay, is used to signify a song beginning or ending with the same sentence, redit in orbem.

Puttenham, in his Art of Poetry, 1589, has a chapter On the roundel, or sphere, and produces what he calls, A general resemblance of the roundel to God, the world, and the queen. STEEVENS.

A roundel; that is, as I suppose, a circular dance.

Ben Jonson seems to call the rings which such dances

are supposed to make in the grass, rondels. Vol. V. Tale of a Tub, p. 23.

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

275. Then, for the third part of a minute, hence :] So the old copies. But the queen sets them work, that is, to keep them employed for the remainder of the night; the poet, undoubtedly, intended her to say, Dance your round, and sing your song, and then instantly (before the third part of a minute) begone to your respective duties. THEOBALD.

Dr. Warburton reads:

for the third part of the midnight.

The persons employed are fairies, to whom the third part of a minute might not be a very short time to do such work in. The critick might as well have objected to the epithet tall, which the fairy bestows on the cowslip. But Shakspere, throughout the play, has preserved the proportion of other things in respect of these tiny beings, compared with whose size, a cowslip might be tall, and to whose powers of execution, a minute might be equivalent to an age.

STEEVENS.

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

Half-spirited souls, who strive on rere-mice wings."

Again, in Ben Jonson's New-Inn:

-I keep no shades

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

STEEVENS.

280. -quaint spirits:] For this Dr. Warburton reads, against all authority:

-quaint sports

But Prospero, in The Tempest, applies quaint to Ariel.

JOHNSON.

"Our quaint spirits." Dr. Johnson is right in the word, and Dr. Warburton in the interpretation. A spirit was sommes used for a sport. In Decker's play, If it be not good the Devil is in It, the king of Naples says to the devil Ruffman, disguised in the character of Shalcan:

"Now Shalcan, some new spirit? Ruff. A thousand wenches stark-naked to play at leapfrog. Omnes. O rare sight!" FARMER.

297. Hence, away, &c.] This, according to all the editions, is made part of the song; but I think without sufficient reason, as it appears to be spoken after the song is over. In the quarto 1600, it is given to the ed Fairy; but the other division is better.

STEEVENS. 302. Be it ounce, -] The ounce is a small tiger, or tiger-cat. JOHNSON. 317. O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence;

Love takes the meaning, in love's conference.] Lysander in the language of love professes, that as they have one heart, they shall have one bed; this Hermia thinks rather too much, and entreats him to lie further off. Lysander answers:

O take the sense, sweet, of my innocence;

understand

understand the meaning of my innocence, or my innocent meaning. Let no suspicion of ill enter thy mind:

Love takes the meaning, in love's conference.

In the conversation of those who are assured of each other's kindness, not suspicion but love takes the meaning. No malevolent interpretation is to be made, but all is to be received in the sense which love can find, and which love can dictate. JOHNSON. The latter line is certainly intelligible as Dr. Johnson has explained it; but, I think, it requires a slight alteration to make it connect well with the former. I would read:

Love take the meaning in love's conference. That is, Let love take the meaning.

There is no occasion for alteration. exactly similar to that of St. Paul: no evil."

TYRWHITT.

The idea is "Love thinketh HENLEY.

320. -we can make of it:] The folio, instead of we can, reads can you.

STEEVENS.

321. interchained- -] Thus the quarto; the folio interchanged.

STEEVENS.

326. Now much beshrew, &c.] This word, of which the etymology is not exactly known, implies a sinister wish, and means the same as if she had said "now ill befall my manners," &c. It is used by Heywood in his Iron Age, 1632:

Again,

“Beshrew your amorous rhetorick.”

"Well, Paris, I beshrew you, with my heart."

STEEVENS.

See

See Minshew's etymology of it, which seems to be an imprecation or wish of such evil to one, as the venomous biting of the shrew-mouse. TOLLET.

349. Near to this lack-love, this hill-courtesy.] Mr. Theobald and Sir T. Hanmer, for the sake of the measure, leave out this lack-love. I have only omitted the words to and this. STEEVENS.

The old copy has not to. Might we not therefore adhere to it, and at the same time preserve the measure, by printing the line thus:

Near this lack-love, this kill-court'sy.

We meet with the same abbreviation in our author's Venus and Adonis:

"They all strain court'sy, who shall cope him

358.

first."

MALONE.

-wilt thou darkling leave me ?- -] So, in the Two Angry Women of Abington, 1599: "-we'll run away with the torch, and leave them to fight darkling." The word is likewise used by Milton.

STEEVENS.

JOHNSON.

my grace.] My acceptableness, the

361.

favour that I can gain.

385. Not Hermia, but Helena I love:] The first folio

has:

-but Helena now I love.

391.

MALONE.

-touching now the point of human skill,] i. e. my senses being now at their utmost height of perfection. So, in K. Henry VIII.

"I have touch'd the highest point of all my great

ness."

STEEVENS.