Their sense, thus weak, loft with their fears, thus

ftrong,

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.

Alas, his brain was dizzy.

"At length upon his feet he gets,
Hobgoblin fumes, Hobgoblin frets,
"And as again he forward fets,

"And through the bushes fcrambles,
"A ftump doth trip him in his pace,
"Down fell poor Hob upon his face,
"And lamentably tore his cafe,

Among the briers and brambles." JOHNSON.

I adhere to the old reading. The ftamp of a fairy might be efficacious though not loud; neither is it neceffary to fuppofe, when fupernatural beings are fpoken of, that the fize of the agent determines the force of the action. That fairies did ftamp to fome purpofe, may be known from the following paffage in Olaus Magnus de Gentibus Septentrionalibus.—“ Vero faltum adeo profundé in terram imprefferant, ut locus infigni ardore orbiculariter perefus, non parit arenti redivivum cefpite gramen." Shakspeare's own authority, however, is moft 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 sleepers be."

STEEVENS.

Honeft Reginald Scott, fays, "Our grandams maides were wont to fet a boll of milke before Incubus, and his coufin Robin Good-fellow, for grinding of malt or muftard, and sweeping the houfe at midnight: and that he would chafe exceedingly, if the maid or good wife of the houfe, having compaffion of his nakednes, laid anie clothes for him beefides his meffe 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 ftampen." Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, p. 85.

RITSON.

2 Some, fleeves; fome, bats :] There is the like image in Drayton, of queen Mab and her fairies flying from Hobgoblin:

"Some tore a ruff, and fome a gown,
"'Gainft one another justling;

I led them on in this diftracted fear,
And left sweet Pyramus tranflated there:
When in that moment (fo it came to pafs,)
Titania wak'd, and straightway lov'd an ass.

OBE. This falls out better than I could devife. But haft thou yet latch'd3 the Athenian's eyes With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?

Puck.I took him fleeping,-that is finifh'd too,And the Athenian woman by his fide;

That, when he wak'd, of force she must be ey'd.

Enter DEMETRIUS and HERMIA.

OBE. Stand clofe; this is the fame Athenian. PUCK. This is the woman, but not this the man. DEM. O, why rebuke you him that loves you fo? Lay breath fo bitter on your bitter foe.

HER. Now I but chide, but I should use thee, worfe;

For thou, I fear, haft given me cause to curfe.
If thou haft flain Lyfander in his fleep,

Being o'er fhoes in blood, plunge in the deep,
And kill me too.

3

-

"They flew about like chaff i' th' wind,
"For hafte fome left their masks behind,
"Some could not flay their gloves to find,

"There never was fuch bustling." JOHNSON.

- latch'd—] Or letch'd, lick'd over, lecher, to lick, French.

In the North, it fignifies to infect. STEEVENS.

HANMER.

• Being o'er fhoes in blood,] An allufion to the proverb, Over Shoes, ever boots. JOHNSON.

So in, Macbeth:

-I am in blood

"Stept in fo far," &c. STEEVENS,

The fun was not fo true unto the day,
As he to me: Would he have ftol'n away
From fleeping Hermia? I'll believe as foon,
This whole earth may be bor'd; and that the moon
May through the center creep, and fo displease
Her brother's noon-tide with the Antipodes."
It cannot be, but thou haft murder'd him;
So fhould a murderer look; fo dead, fo grim.
DEM. So fhould the murder'd look; and fo
fhould I,

Pierc'd through the heart with your ftern cruelty:
Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear,
As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere.

HER. What's this to my Lyfander? where is he? Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me?

S noon-tide with the Antipodes.] Dr. Warburton would read-i' th' antipodes, which Mr. Edwards ridicules without mercy. The alteration is certainly not neceffary, but it is not fo unlucky, as he imagined. Shirley has the fame expreffion in his An

dromana:

"To be a whore, is more unknown to her,
"Then what is done in the antipodes."

In for among is frequent in old language. FARMER.

The familiarity of the general idea, is shown by the following paffage in The Death of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601:

"And dwell one month with the Antipodes." Again, in K. Richard II :

"While we were wandring with the Antipodes."

STEEVENS.

6% dead,] All the old copies read-fo dead; in my copy of it, fome reader has altered dead to dread. JOHNSON. Dead feems to be the right word, and our author again uses it in K. Henry IV. P. II. Act I. fc. iii:

"Even fuch a man, so faint, so spiritlefs,

"So dull, fo dead in look, fo woe-begone." STEEVENS. So alfo, in Greene's Doraftus and Fawnia: "-if thou marry in age, thy wife's fresh colours will breed in thee dead thoughts and fufpicion." MALONE.

DEM. I had rather give his carcafe to my hounds.
HER. Qut, dog! out, cur! thou driv'ft me past
the bounds

Of maiden's patience. Haft thou flain him then?
Henceforth be never number'd among men!
O! once tell true, tell true, even for my fake;
Durft thou have look'd upon him, being awake,
And haft thou kill'd him fleeping? O brave touch!"
Could not a worm, an adder, do fo much?
An adder did it; for with doubler tongue
Than thine, thou ferpent, never adder ftung.
DEM. You spend your paffion on a mifpris'd

mood: "

I am not guilty of Lyfander's blood;
Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.

HER. I pray thee, tell me then that he is well.

1 Durft thou have look'd upon him, being awake,

And haft thou kill'd him fleeping?] She means, Haft thou kill'd him fleeping, whom, when awake, thou didst not dare to look upon? MALONE.

8-O brave touch!] Touch in Shak fpeare's time was the fame with our exploit, or rather ftroke, A brave touch, a noble stroke, un grand coup. Mafon was very merry, pleasantly playing both with the brewd touches of many curft boys, and the fmall difcretion of many lewd schoolmasters." Afcham. JOHNSON.

black letter story

- for at all times

A touch anciently fignified a trick. In the old of Howleglas, it is always ufed in that fenfe: " he did fome mad touch." STEEVENS. 9-mifpris'd mood:] Mistaken; fo below mifprifion is mistake. JOHNSON. Mood is anger, or perhaps rather in this place, capricious fancy. MALONE.

I rather conceive that—" on a mispriz'd mood" is put for—“ in a mifpriz'd mood;" i. e. " in a mistaken manner." The prepofition-on, is licentioufly ufed by ancient authors. When Mark Antony fays that Auguftus Cæfar" dealt on lieutenantry," he does not mean that he dealt his blows on lieutenants," but that he "dealt in them;" i. e. achieved his victories by their conduct.

STEEVENS.

1

DEM. An if I could, what fhould I get therefore?

HER. A privilege, never to fee me more.-
And from thy hated prefence part I so: '
See me no more, whether he be dead or no. [Exit.
DEM. There is no following her in this fierce
vein :

Here, therefore, for a while I will remain.
So forrow's heaviness doth heavier grow
For debt that bankrupt fleep doth forrow owe;
Which now in fome flight measure it will pay,
If for his tender here I make some stay. [Lies down.
OBE. What haft thou done? thou haft mistaken

quite,

And laid the love-juice on fome true-love's fight: Of thy misprifion must perforce enfue

Some true love turn'd, and not a false turn'd true. PUCK. Then fate o'er-rules; that, one man holding troth,

A million fail, confounding oath on oath.

OBE. About the wood go fwifter than the wind, And Helena of Athens look thou find:

All fancy-fick fhe is, and pale of cheer+

With fighs of love, that coft the fresh blood dear: "

An if I could, &c.] This phrafeology was common in Shakfpeare's time. Thus in Romeo and Juliet, A& V. fci:

"An if a man did need a poifon now.”

Again, in Lodge's Illuftrations, Vol. I. p. 85: "meanys was made unto me to fee an yff I wold appoynt," &c. REED.

3

-part I fo:] So, which is not in the old copy, was inferted for the fake of both metre and rhime, by Mr. Pope.

MALONE.

4-pale of cheer-] Cheer, from the Italian cara, is frequently ufed by old English writers for countenance. Even Dryden says"Pale at the fudden fight, fhe chang'd her cheer."

Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786. STEEVENS. fighs of love, that coft the fresh blood dear:] So, in King Henry VI. we have blood-confuming," "blood-drinking,"