Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

Those be rubies, fairy favours,

In those freckles live their favours:
I must go feek fome dew-drops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowflip's ear.8
Farewel, thou lob of fpirits,' I'll be gone;
Our queen and all her elves come here anon.

PUCK. The king doth keep his revels here to night; Take heed, the queen come not within his fight. For Oberon is paffing fell and wrath,

Because that fhe, as her attendant, hath
A lovely boy, ftol'n from an Indian king;
She never had fo fweet a changeling: 2

In their gold coats fpots you fee;] Shakspeare, in Cymbeline, refers to the fame red spots:

"A mole cinque-fpotted, like the crimson drops

"I' th' bottom of a cowflip." PERCY.

Perhaps there is likewife fome allufion to the habit of a penfioner. See a note on the second act of The Merry Wives of Windsor, fc. ii. STEEVENS.

8 And hang a pearl in every cowflip's ear.] The fame thought occurs in an old comedy call'd The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll, 1600; i. e. the fame year in which the firft printed copies of this play made their appearance. An enchanter fays:

" "Twas I that led you through the painted meads
"Where the light fairies danc'd upon the flowers,

[ocr errors]

Hanging on every leaf an orient pearl." STEEVENS. 2 lob of fpirits,] Lab, lubber, looby, lobcock, all denote both inactivity of body and dulnefs of mind. JOHNSON.

Both lob and lobcock are used as terms of contempt in The Riva! Friends, 1632.

Again, in the interlude of Jacob and Efau, 1568:

"Should find Efau fuch a lout or a lab.

Again, in The Knight of the Burning Peffle, by Beaumont and Fletcher: "There is a pretty tale of a witch that had the devil's mark about her, that had a giant to her fon, that was called Loblye-by-the-fire." This being feems to be of kin to the lubbar-fiend of Milton, as Mr. Warton has remarked in his Obfervations on the Faery Queen. STEEVENS.

changeling] Changeling is commonly used for the child

And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forefts wild: "
But the, perforce, withholds the loved boy,
Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy:
And now they never meet in grove, or green,
By fountain clear, or fpangled ftar-light fheen,*
But they do fquare;' that all their elves, for fear,
Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there.

fuppofed to be left by the fairies, but here for a child taken away. JOHNSON.

So Spenfer, B. I. c. X:

And her bafe elfin brood there for thee left, "Such men do changelings call, fo call'd by fairy theft." STEEVENS.

It is here properly ufed, and in its common acceptation; that is for a child got in exchange. A fairy is now fpeaking. RITSON. 3-trace the forefts wild:] This verb is used in the fame fenfe in Browne's Britannia's Paftoralls, B. II. Song II. 1613: "In fhepherd's habit feene

"To trace our Woods."

Again, in Milton's Comus, v. 423:

[ocr errors]

May trace huge forefts, and unharbour'd heaths."

HOLT WHITE.

4-fbeen,] Shining, bright, gay. JOHNSON. So, in Tancred and Guifmund, 1592:

[ocr errors]

-but why

"Doth Phoebus' fifter been defpife thy power?" Again, in the ancient romance of Syr Tryamoure, bl. 1. no date: "He kyffed and toke his leve of the quene,

"And of other ladies bright and hene." STEEVENS. 5 But they do fquare;] To Square here is to quarrel. The French word contrecarrer has the fame import. JOHNSON.

So, in Jack Drum's Entertainment, 1601:

[ocr errors]

let me not feem rude,

"That thus I feem to fquare with modefty."

[ocr errors]

pray let me go, for he'll begin to square," &c.

Again, in Promos and Caffandra, 1578:

[ocr errors]

Marry, the knew you and I were at square,

"And left we fell to blowes, fhe did prepare." STEEVENS. It is fomewhat whimfical, that the glafiers ufe the words fquare

and quarrel as fynonymous terms, for a pane of glafs.

BLACKSTONE,

FAI. Either I mistake your shape and making quite,

Or else you are that fhrewd and knavish sprite,
Call'd Robin Good-fellow: are you not he,
That fright the maidens of the villag'ry;
Skim milk; and fometimes labour in the quern,
And bootlefs make the breathlefs housewife churn;

6 Robin Good-fellow;] This account of Robin Good-fellow correfponds, in every article, with that given of him in Harfenet's Declaration, ch. xx. p. 134: "And if that the bowle of curds and creame were not duly fet out for Robin Good-fellow, the frier, and Siffe 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 never would have good head. But if a Peeter-penny, or an houfle-egge were behind, or a patch of tythe unpaid, then 'ware of bull-beggars, fpirits," &c. He is mentioned by Cartwright [Ordinary, Act III. fc. i.] as a spirit particularly fond of difconcerting and difturbing domestic peace and œconomy. T. WARTON.

Reginald Scot gives the fame account of this frolick fome fpirit, in his Difcoverie of Witchcraft, Lond. 1584, 4to. p. 66: " Your grandames' maids were wont to fet 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 ftanding fee." STEEVENS.

That fright-] The old copies read-frights; and in grammatical propriety, I believe, this verb, as well as thofe that follow, fhould agree with the perfonal pronoun be, rather than with you If fo, our author ought to have written-frights, fkims, labours, makes, and misleads. The other, however, being the more common usage, and that which he has preferred, I have corrected the former word. MALONE.

8 Skim milk; and fometimes labour in the quern,

And bootlefs make the breathless housewife churn;] The fenfe of thefe lines is confused. Are not you he, fays the fairy, that fright the country girls, that skim milk, work in the hand-mill, and make the tired dairy-woman churn without effect? The mention of the mill feems out of place, for fhe is not now telling the good, but the evil that he does. I would regulate the lines thus:

"And jometimes make the breathless housewife churn
"Skim milk, and bootless labour in the quern."

And fometime make the drink to bear no barm;" Miflead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm? Those that Hobgoblin call you, and fweet Puck,' You do their work, and they fhall have good luck:

Or, by a fimple tranfpofition of the lines:

"And bootless make the breathless bouferwife churn

"Skim milk, and fometimes labour in the quern." Yet there is no neceffity of alteration. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson thinks the mention of the mill out of place, as the Fairy is not now telling the good but the evil he does. The obfervation will apply, with equal force, to his skimming the milk, which, if it were done at a proper time, and the cream preferved, would be a piece of fervice. But we muft understand both to be mischievous pranks. He fkims the milk, when it ought not to be skimmed :— (So, in Grim the Collier of Croydon :

"But woe betide the filly dairy-maids,

"For I shall fleet their cream-bowls night by night.") and grinds the corn, when it is not wanted; at the fame time perhaps throwing the flour about the house. RITSON.

A Quern is a hand-mill, kuerna, mola. Ilandic. So, in Stanyburft's tranflation of the first book of Virgil, 1582, quern-ftones are

mill-ftones :

"Theyre corne in quern-floans they do grind," &c. Again, in The More the Merrier, a collection of epigrams, 1608: "Which like a querne can grind more in an hour." Again, in the old Song of Robin Goodfellow, printed in the 3d volume of Dr. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry:

"I grind at mill,

"Their malt up ftill," &c. STEEVENS.

no barm;] Barme is a name for yeaft, yet used in our midland counties, and univerfally in Ireland. So, in Mother Bombie, a comedy, 1594: "It behoveth my wits to work like barme, alias yeaft." Again, in The Humorous Lieutenant of Beaumont and Fletcher:

"I think my brains will work yet without barm."

STEEVENS.

2 Thofe that Hobgoblin call you, and feet Puck, You do their work,] To thofe traditionary opinions Milton has reference in L'Allegro:

"Then to the fpicy nut-brown ale,
"With ftories told of many a feat,
"How fairy Mab the junkets eat;

Are not you he?

"She was pinch'd and pull'd, fhe said,
"And he by friers' lanthorn led;
"Tells how the drudging goblin fweat
"To earn his cream-bowl duly fet,
"When in one night, ere glimpfe of morn,
"His fhadowy flail hath thresh'd the corn
"That ten day-labourers could not end;
"Then lies him down the lubber fiend.”

A like account of Puck is given by Drayton, in his Nymphidia :
"He meeteth Puck, which most men call
"Hobgoblin, and on him doth fall.-
"This Puck feems but a dreaming dolt,
"Still walking like a ragged colt,
"And oft out of bed doth bolt,

[ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]

Long winters' nights out of the way, "And when we ftick in mire and clay,

"He doth with laughter leave us."

It will be apparent to him that fhall compare Drayton's poem with this play, that either one of the poets copied the other, or, as I rather believe, that there was then fome fyftem of the fairy empire generally received, which they both reprefented as accurately as they could. Whether Drayton or Shakspeare wrote first, I cannot discover. JOHNSON.

The editor of The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, in 4 vols. 8vo. 1775, fuppofes Drayton to have been the follower of Shakspeare; for, fays he, "Don Quixote (which was not published till 1605,) is cited in The Nymphidia, whereas we have an edition of A Midfummer-Night's Dream in 1600."

In this century fome of our poets have been as little fcrupulous in adopting the ideas of their predeceffors. In Gay's ballad, inferted in The What d'ye call It, is the following ftanza:

"How can they say that nature

"Has nothing made in vain;

Why then beneath the water

"Should hideous rocks remain ?" &c. &c.

Compare this with a paffage in Chaucer's Frankeleines Tale, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. i. 11179, &c.

"In idel, as men fain, ye nothing make,

"But, lord, thife grifly fendly rockes blake," &c. &c. And Mr. Pope is more indebted to the fame author for beauties inferted in his Eloifa to Abelard, than he has been willing to acknowledge. STEEVENS.

« PředchozíPokračovat »