at all, and then you will play bare-faced 6.—But, masters, here are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request you, and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night; and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the town, by moon-light; there will we rehearse for if we meet in the city, we shall be dogg'd with company, and our devices known. In the mean time I will draw a bill of properties 7, such as our play wants. I pray you, fail me not. Bot. We will meet; and there we may rehearse more obscenely, and courageously. Take pains; be perfect, adieu. Quin. At the duke's oak we meet. Bot. Enough; Hold, or cut bow-strings. [Exeunt. ACT II. SCENE I. A Wood near Athens. Enter a Fairy at one door, and PUCK at another. Thorough bush, thorough briar1, Thorough flood, thorough fire. 6 This allusion to the Corona Veneris, or baldness attendant upon a particular stage of, what was then termed, the French disease, is too frequent in Shakspeare, and is here explained once for all. 7 Articles required in performing a play. 8 To meet whether bowstrings hold or are cut is to meet in all events. But the origin of the phrase has not been satisfactorily explained. So Drayton, in his Nymphidia, or Court of Fairy: Thorough brake, thorough briar, Thorough water, thorough fire. And I serve the fairy queen, In those freckles live their savours: Take heed the queen come not within his sight. 2 The orbs here mentioned are those circles in the herbage commonly called fairy-rings, the cause of which is not yet certainly known. Thus, also, Drayton: "They in courses make that round, In meadows and in marshes found, Olaus Magnus says that these dancers parched up the grass; and therefore is properly made the office of the fairy to refresh it. 3 The allusion is to Elizabeth's band of gentlemen pensioners, who were chosen from among the handsomest and tallest young men of family and fortune; they were dressed in habits richly garnished with gold lace. See vol. i. p. 218, note 9. 4 In the old comedy of Doctor Dodypoll, 1600, an enchanter says, 'Twas I that led you through the painted meads Where the light fairies danc'd upon the flowers, Hanging on every leaf an orient pearl.' 5 Lubber or clown. Lob, lobcock, looby, and lubber, all denote inactivity of body and dulness of mind. The reader will remember Milton in L'Allegro : 'Then lays him down the lubber fiend.' 6 A changeling was a child changed by a fairy; it here means one stolen or got in exchange. But she, perforce, withholds the loved boy, Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quite, Puck. 7 Shining. 8 Quarrel. For the probable cause of the use of square for quarrel, see Mr. Douce's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 182. 9 A quern was a handmill. 10 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 next day in the pot, or the cheeses would not curdle, or the butter would not come, or the ale in the fat never would have good head. But if a Peeterpenny, or an housle-egg were behind, or a patch of tythe unpaid, -then ware of bull-beggars, spirits,' &c. Harsnet's Declaration, &c. ch. xx. p. 134. So also, Reginald Scot, in his Discovery of Witchcraft, 1584, 4to. p. 66. 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 milk was his standing fee.' 11 Milton refers to these traditions in L'Allegro. And Drayton, in his Nymphidia, gives a like account of Puck. Drayton followed Shakspeare; the Nymphidia was one of his latest poems, and was published for the first time in 1619. Neighing in likeness of a filly foal: And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob, and swear A merrier hour was never wasted there. But room, Faëry, here comes Oberon. Fai. And here my mistress :-'Would that he were gone! SCENE II. Enter OBERON, at one door, with his Train, and TITANIA, at another, with hers. Obe. Ill met by moon-light, proud Titania. Obe. Tarry, rash wanton: Am not I thy lord? 12 Wild apple. 13 Dr. Johnson thought he remembered to have heard this ludicrous exclamation upon a person's seat slipping from under him. He that slips from his chair falls as a tailor squats upon his board. Hanmer thought the passage corrupt, and proposed to read rails or cries.' 14 The old copy reads: And waxen in their mirth, &c.' Though a glimmering of sense may be extracted from this passage as it stands in the old copy, it seems most probable that we should read, as Dr. Farmer proposed, yexen. To yex is to hiccup, and is so explained in all the old dictionaries. The meaning of the passage will then be, that the objects of Puck's waggery laughed till their laughter ended in a yex or hiccup. Puck is speaking with an affectation of ancient phraseology. When thou hast stol'n away from fairy land, Obe. How, canst thou thus, for shame, Titania, Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, Knowing I know thy love to Theseus? Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night And make him with fair Æglé break his faith, Tita. These are the forgeries of jealousy: 'Many a floite and litling horne And pipés made of grené corne.' 2 See the Life of Theseus in North's Translation of Plutarch. Æglé, Ariadne, and Antiopa were all at different times mistresses to Theseus. The name of Perigune is translated by North Perigouna. 3 Spring seems to be here used for beginning. The spring of day is used for the dawn of day in K. Henry IV. Part II. A very common epithet with our old writers, to signify paltry, palting appears to have been its original orthography. |