two editions printed in the Poet's life. The folio, followed by Stevens, Knight, and others, has-" that ever I could read."

"The passage in 'Paradise Lost,' in which Milton has imitated this famous passage of Shakespeare, is conceived in a very different spirit. Lysander and Hermia lament over the evils by which

true lovers have been ever cross'd

as an edict in destiny,' to which they must both submit with patience and mutual forbearance. The Adam of Milton reproaches Eve with the

He never shall find out fit mate, but such
As some misfortune brings him, or mistake;
Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain
Through her perverseness, but shall see her gain'd
By a far worse, or if she love, withheld

By parents; or his happiest choice too late

Shall meet, already link'd and wedlock-bound
To a fell adversary, his hate or shame:

Which infinite calamity shall cause

To human life, and household peace confound."
("Paradise Lost," book x. ver. 895.)

Adam had certainly cause to be angry when he uttered these reproaches; and, therefore, Milton has dramatically forgotten that man is not the only sufferer in such disturbances on earth.'"-KNIGHT.

"too high to be enthrall'd to Low"-The quartos and folios read

O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to love. Theobald altered love to "low;" and the antithesis, which is kept up through the subsequent lines, justifies the change-high, low: old, young.

"the choice of FRIENDS"-For "friends" the first folio reads merit. It is difficult to account for the variation, which certainly gives a sense less clear, and less suited to the next line.

"MOMENTANY as a sound"-The folio changes "momentany" into momentary, which the "Pictorial" and other late editions follow. I have preferred retaining the Old-English variation of the word, as it stood in the two first editions; it being the older word, and used by Bacon, Hooker, and Crashaw, and still in use in Dryden's time.

"the COLLIED night"-i. e. Black, smutted. This is a word still in use in the Staffordshire collieries. Shakespeare found it there, and transplanted it into the region of poetry.

"-in a SPLEEN"-i. e. In a sudden fit of passion, or caprice. Shakespeare repeatedly uses it, in the sense of violent hasty motion: as in KING JOHN

With swifter spleen than powder can enforce. "FANCY's followers"-i. e. The "followers" of love. "Fancy" is here used in the same sense as in the MERCHANT OF VENICE

A sunny look of his would soon repair.

"Your eyes are LODE-STARS"—" This was a compliinent not unfrequent among the old poets. The 'lodestar' is the leading, or guiding star-i. e. the pole-star.

"YOURS WOULD I catch"-The reading of all the old editions is, "Your words I catch," which, though Collier retains, I cannot comprehend, and, with all the other editors presume it to be a misprint; and have adopted the correction of Hanmer.

"what graces in my love do dwell, That he hath turn'd a heaven into a hell!" "Hermia is willing to comfort Helena, and to avoid all appearance of triumph over her. She, therefore, bids her not to consider the power of pleasing as an advantage, to be much envied or much desired; since Hermia, whom she considers as possessing it in the supreme degree, has found no other effect of it than the loss of happiness."-JOHNSON.

STRANGE COMPANIES"-In the original editions we have the following reading:

And in the wood, where often you and I Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lie, Emptying our bosoms, of their counsel swell'd, There my Lysander and myself shall meet, And thence from Athens turn away our eyes To seek new friends and strange companions. The scene is in rhyme; and the introduction of four lines of blank verse has a harsh effect. Swell'd, too, is a harsh and obscure epithet. The emendations were made by Theobald; and they are certainly ingenious and unforced. "Companies," for companions, has an example in HENRY V.:

"Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING"-The old stage-direction gives their different trades-"Enter Quince, the carpenter; and Snug. the joiner; and Bottom, the weaver; and Flute, the bellows-mender; and Starveling, the tailor."

"In this scene, Shakespeare takes advantage of his knowledge of the theatre to ridicule the prejudices and competitions of the players. Bottom, who is generally acknowledged the principal actor, declares his inclination to be for a tyrant, for a part of fury, tumult, and noise, such as every young man wants to perform, when he first steps upon the stage. The same Bottom, who seems bred in a 'tiring-room, has another histrionical passion. He is for engrossing every part, and would exclude his inferiors from all possibility of distinction. He is, therefore, desirous to play Pyramus, Thisby, and the Lion, at the same time."-JOHNSON.

"according to the SCRIP"-i. e. Script-a written paper. Bills of exchange are called, by Locke, “scrips of paper;" and the term is still known upon the Stock Exchange.

"—most LAMENTABLE COMEDY"-Probably a burlesque upon the titles of some of the old dramas; thus:A lamentable Tragedie, mixed full of pleasant mirth. containing the Life of Cambises, king of Percia," etc.; by Thomas Preston, (no date.) So, Skelton's "Magnificence" is called "a goodly interlude and a mery."

"A very good PIECE OF WORK"-Bottom and Sly both speak of a theatrical representation as they would of a piece of cloth, or a pair of shoes. Sly says of the play, "'Tis a very excellent piece of work."

"ERCLES' vein”—i. e. Hercules. He was one of the roaring heroes of the rude drama which preceded

Shakespeare. In Greene's "Groat's-worth of Wit," (1592,) a player says, "The twelve labours of Hercules have I terribly thundered on the stage."

"-play it in a mask"-"This passage shows how the want of women, on the old stage, was supplied. If they had not a young man who could perform the part with a face that might pass for feminine, the character was acted in a mask; which was at that time a part of a lady's dress so much in use, that it did not give any unusual appearance to the scene; and he that could modulate his voice in a female tone might play the woman very successfully. Some of the catastrophes of the old comedies, which make lovers marry the wrong women, are, by recollection of the common use of masks, brought nearer to probability. Prynne, in his "Histriomatix," exclaims with great vehemence through several pages, because a woman acted a part in a play at Blackfriars, in the year 1628."-Illust. Shak.

"-a bill of PROPERTIES"-The technicalities of the theatre are very unchanging. The person who has charge of the wooden swords, and pasteboard shields. and other trumpery required for the business of the stage, is still called the property-man. In the "Antipodes," by R. Brome, 1640, (quoted by Mr. Collier,) we have the following ludicrous account of the " 'properties," which form as curious an assemblage as in Hogarth's "Strollers:"

He has got into our tiring-house amongst us,
And ta'en a strict survey of all our properties;
Our statues and our images of gods,

Our planets and our constellations,

Our giants, monsters, furies, beasts, and bugbears,
Our helmets, shields and vizors, hairs and beards,
Our pasteboard marchpanes, and our wooden pies.

- Hold, or cut bow-strings"-Capell says this is a proverbial expression, derived from archery:-" When a party was made at butts, assurance of meeting was given in the words of that phrase." It means, "at all events," or, as we now say, "rain or shine."

ACT II.-SCENE I.

- from opposite sides"-In the old stage-direction, and in the prefixes to the speeches, Puck is called Robin Good-fellow, until after the entrance of Oberon, Robin Good-fellow was his popular name.

"THOROUGH bush"-" Thorough" is the older form of through, and both were used indiscriminately in Shakespeare's day, though the first began to be a little antiquated. He uses either, as suits his metrical effect. Some editors have shortened the lines by reading through, which is not in the measure the Poet chooses for his fairy rhythm. So Drayton, in his "Nymphidia, or Court of Fairy"—

Thorough brake, thorough briar, Thorough muck, thorough mire, Thorough water, thorough fire.

Swifter than the moon's sphere"-We learn from Mr. Collier, that Coleridge, in his lectures, in 1818, was very emphatic in his praises of the beauty of these lines: "the measure (he said) had been invented and employed by Shakespeare, for the sake of its appropriateness to the rapid and airy motion of the Fairy by whom the passage is delivered." In his "Literary Remains," he dwells upon the subject with more particularity, and dissects the lines according to the Greek measures, observing upon "the delightful effect on the ear in the sweet transition," from the eight amphimacers of the first four lines to the trochees of the concluding verses. Stevens and Collier print "moon's" mone's, as being the Old-Saxon genitive; and Mr. Guest ("History of English Rhythm") is right in saying that this line accords with the peculiar rhythm the Poet has devoted to his fairies," which he well describes as "abrupt

verses of two, three, or four accents."

“—her ORBS_upon the green"—"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,
Of them so called fairy ground.

Olaus Magnus says that these dancers parched up the grass; and, therefore, it is properly made the office of the fairy to refresh it."-JOHNSON and STEVENS.

"The cowslips tall her PENSIONERS be"-i. e. Her guards. The golden-coated cowslips are selected as pensioners to the fairy queen, the dress of Queen Elizabeth's band of gentlemen-pensioners being very splendid, and the tallest and handsomest men being generally chosen for the office. These glittering attendants on royalty are alluded to by Dame Quickly, in the MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

"-thou LOB of spirits"-i. e. Lubber, or clown, "Lob." lobcock, looby, and lubber, all denote inactivity of body and dullness of mind. The reader will remember Milton, in "L'Allegro"

Then lay him down the lubber fiend. "a CHANGELING"-i. e. A child procured in exchange.

"starlight SHEEN"-i. e. Bright, shining.

"they do SQUARE"-i. e. Quarrel. "It is difficult to understand how to square, which, in the ordinary sense, is to agree, should mean to disagree. And yet there is no doubt that the word was used in this sense. Hollingshed has-Falling at square with her husband.' In MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Beatrice says-'Is there no young squarer now, that will make a voyage with him to the devil?' Mr. Richardson, after explaining the usual meaning of this verb, adds- To square is also, consequently, to broaden; to set out broadly, in a position or attitude of offence or defence-(se quarrer.)' The word is thus used in the language of pugilism. There is more of our old dialect in flash terms than is generally supposed."-KNIGHT.

"that shrewd and knavish sprite, Called Robin Good-fellow."

"The account given of this 'knavish sprite' in these lines, corresponds with what is said of him in Harsenet's 'Declaration,' (1603:)—" And if that the bowl of curds and cream were not duly set out for Robin Good-fellow, the friar, and Sisse, the dairymaid, 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 vat never would have good head.' Scott also speaks of him, in his Discovery of Witchcraft:''Your grandams' maids were wont to set a bowl of milk for him, for his pains in grinding of malt and mustard, and sweeping the house at midnight. This white bread, and bread and milk, was his standing fee.'”—T. WARTON.

In his "Nymphidia," (1619,) Drayton thus speaks of Puck, "the merry wanderer of the night;"

This Puck seems but a dreaming dolt;
Still walking like a ragged colt,
And oft out of a bush doth bolt,

Of purpose to deceive us;

And leading us, makes us to stray
Long winter nights, out of the way,
And when we stick in mire and clay,
He doth with laughter leave us.

in the QUERN"-i. e. Handmill; from the AngloSaxon, cwyrn.

"to bear no BARM"-i. e. Not to work: "barm" is yeast.

"sweet PUCK"-"The epithet is by no means superfluous; as 'Puck' alone was far from being an endearing appellation. It signified nothing better than fiend, or devil. So, the author of 'Pierce Ploughman' puts the pouk for the devil-'none helle powke.' It seems to have been an old Gothic word. Puke, puken; Satha nas, Gudm. And. Lexicon Island."-TYRWHITT.

"In Spenser's 'Epithaliam,' (1595:)—

Ne let house-fyres, nor lightning's helpelesse harms,
Ne let the pouke, nor other evil spright,

Ne let mischievous witches with their charmes,
Ne let hobgoblins, etc.

Again, in the ninth book of Golding's translation of
Ovid's Metamorphoses,' (1587 :)—

and the country where Chymæra, that same pooke, Hath goatish bodie," etc.

STEVENS. We have a New-York Americanism, which comes through the Dutch, from the same root-spook; meaning, any fearful and supernatural visitor, though generally a ghost. Ben Jouson calls his Robin Goodfellow, whose occupations are described as resembling Puck's, Pug, in the play of which Pug is the hero, (“The Devil is an Ass.") Burton ("Anatomy of Melancholy") soon after speaks of a Puck as a peculiar sort of demon, like a "Will of the Wisp." It would appear, therefore, to have been already long a familiar name, and not of the Poet's invention. Yet there is a curious coincidence between the name and a similar sounding one familiar to the language of our North American Indians, and connected with a similar playful superstition:

An ingenious attempt has been made by our countrywoman, Mrs. E. Oakes Smith, to identify the Puck of Shakespeare with a noted personage, of similar name, who figures in our aboriginal mythology. Her theory is based upon the curious Indian researches of H. R. Schoolcraft, Esq., published some years since in New York. Puck-pa-wis, it seems, is the name of a mythological character who figures in the fictitious lodgelegends of the Algonquins; whose language, now the principal tongue among the lake-tribes of the northwest, formerly prevailed, with some variations of dialect, from the St. Lawrence to the Roanoke, at the time when those regions were visited by Raleigh, and other contemporaries of Shakespeare. Puck-pa-wis (according to Schoolcraft) is always represented as "a roving, jumping, dancing, adventure-hunting character-a kind of harum-scarum merry-Andrew, who performs all sorts of feats and pranks." He figures sometimes alone, but frequently has an attendant company of sprites called Puck-wudj-inninees"—an epithet commonly translated "the little vanishers," or, to render it more clearly, (inninee being the diminutive form of the term for man,) "the little wild vanishing men of the woods." They are described as inhabiting rocky ledges and crevices, or frequenting rural and romantic points of land on lakes, bays, and rivers, particularly if they be crowned with pine-trees. They are depicted, in the oral language of the Algonquins, as flitting among thickets, or running with a whoop up the sides of mountains, and over plains. Puck-pa-wis, the chief of the troop, is sometimes described as carrying a magic shell; sometimes he is tossing a tiny ball before him. He is always represented as very small, and frequently being invisible-vanishing and re-appearing to those whom he visits with his pranks. (See SCHOOLCRAFT'S "Algic Researches.")

"And TAILOR' cries"-"The custom of crying 'tailor,' at a sudden fall backwards, I think I remember to have observed. He that slips beside his chair falls as a tailor squats upon his board."-JOHNSON.

"WAXEN in their mirth"-Dr. Farmer's conjecture, that "waxen" is a misprint for yexen, (i. e. hiccup,) makes a broader picture. However, "waxen," as the old plural of wax, is also comic enough. They increase their mirth, without new cause, till they sneeze. "Neeze" is the antiquated spelling of sneeze, and retained as late as our common version of the Bible.

-the winds, piping to us in vain"-In Churchyard's "Charitie," a poem published in 1595, the "distemperature" of that year is thus described:

A colder time in world was never seen:

The skies do lower, the sun and moon wax dim;
Summer scarce known but that the leaves are green.
The winter's waste drives water o'er the brim;
Upon the land great floats of wood may swim.
Nature thinks scorn to do her duty right,

Because we have displeased the Lord of Light.

This "progeny of evils" has been recorded by the theologians as well as the poets. In Strype's "Annals," we have an extract from a lecture preached by Dr. J. King, in which are enumerated the signs of divine wrath with which England was visited in 1593 and 1594. The lecturer says:-"Remember that the spring (that year when the plague broke out) was very unkind, by means of the abundance of rains that fell. Our July hath been like to a February; our June even as an April: so that the air must needs be infected." Then, having spoken of three successive years of scarcity, he adds "And see, whether the Lord doth not threaten us much more, by sending such unseasonable weather, and storms of rain among us: which if we will observe, and compare it with that which is past, we may say that the course of nature is very much inverted. Our years are turned upside down. Our summers are no summers: our harvests are no harvests: our seed-times are no seed-times. For a great space of time, scant any day hath been seen that it hath not rained upon us."

"Contagious fogs; which falling in the land”—The manuscript diary of the theatrical astrologist, Dr. Forman, which has recently thrown so much light on Shakespearian chronology, as our readers will find in various parts of this edition, (see CYMBELINE," Introductory which translates into homely prose the fairy poetry of Remarks,") gives an account of the weather in 1594, the dramatist:

"Ther was moch sicknes but lyttle death, moch fruit, and many plombs of all sorts this yeare and small nuts, but fewe walnuts. This monethes of June and July were very wet and wonderfull cold like winter, that the 10 dae of Julii many did syt by the fyer, yt was so cold; and soe was yt in Maye and June; and scarce too fair dais together all that tyme, but yt rayned every day more or lesse. Yf yt did not raine, then was yt cold and cloudye. Mani murders were done this quarter. There were many gret fludes this sommer, and about Michelmas, thorowe the abundaunce of raine that fell sodeinly, the brige of Ware was broken downe, and at Stratford Bowe, the water was never seen so byg as yt was and in the lattere end of October, the waters burst down the bridg at Cambridge. In Barkshire were many gret waters, wherewith was moch harm done sodenly."

- every PELTING river"-i. e. Petty, or rather paltry; for the original word H. Tooke shows to have been palting-whence our paltry. We have, in this sense, "pelting farm," in RICHARD II., (act ii. scene 1.)

"their CONTINENTS"-i. e. Banks. A“ continent" is that which contains.

"The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud”—“ In that part of Warwickshire (says James) where Shakespeare was educated, and the neighbouring parts of Northamptonshire, the shepherds and other boys dig up the turf with their knives, to represent a sort of imper fect chess-board. It consists of a square, sometimes only a foot in diameter; sometimes three or four yards.

Within this is another square, every side of which is parallel to the external square; and these squares are joined by lines drawn from each corner of both squares, and the middle of each line. One party, or player, has wooden pegs, the other stones, which they move in such a manner as to take up each other's men, as they are called; and the area of the inner square is called the pound, in which the men taken up are impounded. The figures are, by the country-people, called 'Nine Men's Morris,' or Merrils: and are so called because each party has nine men.'

"HUMAN MORTALS"-This expression has been supposed to indicate the difference between mankind and fairy-kind, in the following manner-that they were each mortal, but that the less spiritual beings were distinguished as human. Upon this assertion of Stevens, Ritson and Reed enter into fierce controversy. Chapman, in his "Homer," has an inversion of the phrase, "mortal humans;" and we suppose that, in the same way, whether Titania were, or were not, subject to death, she employed the language of poetry in speaking of "human mortals," without reference to the conditions of fairy existence.

"—their winter HERE"-"The emendation proposed by Theobald, their winter cheer,' is plausible. The original reading is

The humane mortals want their winter heere.

Johnson says 'here' means in this country, and their winter' signifies their winter evening sports. The ingenious author of a pamphlet, Explanations and Emendations,' etc., (Edinburgh, 1814,) would read

The human mortals want; their winter here, No night is now with hymn or carol blest. The writer does not support his emendation by any argument; but we believe that he is right. The swollen rivers have rotted the corn, the fold stands empty, the flocks are murrain, the sports of summer are at an end, the human mortals want. This is the climax. Their winter is here-is come-although the season is the lat ter summer, or autumn; and in consequence the hymns and carols which gladdened the nights of a seasonable winter are wanting to this premature one. The therefore which follows introduces another clause in the catalogue of evils produced by the brawls of Oberon and Titania; as in the case of the preceding use of the same emphatic word in two instances:

And on old Hyem's chin, and icy crownwhich does not show any necessity of conjectural emendation. The image of the snowy beard of Winter, as well as his "icy crown," being wreathed with "sweet summer buds," is sufficiently clear, as well as poetical, and suits the personification of Hyem. Thus, in Golding's "Ovid," a great storehouse of the mythology and poetical imagery of the Elizabethan poets, we haveWinter forlorne,

Forladen with the icicles that dangled up and downe, Upon his gray and hoarie beard, and snowy frozen crowne. This has, with much probability, been thought to have suggested the present image-chin being used, with little stretch of poetical license, for beard. Yet there is some ground for the emendation insisted upon by Gifford and Dyce-"Hyems, with a chaplet of summer buds upon his chin, (says Dyce,) is a grotesque figure, which must startle the dullest reader." "What child (says Gifford) does not see that the line should be

And on old Hyems' thin and icy crown!" Certainly thinne, the old spelling, may have been misprinted chinne; and we have in RICHARD II. a similar phraseology:

White beards have armed their thin and hairless scalps.

Still I do not think this sufficient to disturb the authority of three original editions, concurring in an image which has, I believe, been used by ancient poets, and certainly by modern painters.

"The CHILDING autumn"—i. e. Productive, teeming. Sonnets:"or pregnant; as the Poet has in his

The teeming autumn big with rich increase. "a fair VESTAL"-It is well known that a compliment to Queen Elizabeth was intended in this very beautiful passage. Warburton has attempted to show, that by the mermaid, in the preceding lines, Mary. Queen of Scots, was intended. It is argued with his usual fanciful ingenuity, but will not bear the test of examination, and has been refuted by Ritson. Whiter, in his ingenious attempt to trace the association of ideas, which prompted many of Shakespeare's allusions and images, maintains that these images were derived from the masques and pageants which abounded in that age; and that the Poet even may have alluded to some actual exhibition of splendid court-flattery.

← — LOVE-IN-IDLENESS"-The tri-coloured violet, commonly called pansies, or heart's-ease, is here meant. One or two of its petals are of a purple colour. It has other fanciful and expressive names, such as-" Cuddle me to you," "Three faces under a hood," "Herb trinity," etc.

"The one I'll STAY"-This is the invariable reading of the old copies. Theobald, followed by most of the editors, changed it to

The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.

But the old reading does not need this violent change of sense, though the verbal change may be small. He will not allow Helena to "stay" him, but he will "stay" (stop) Hermia: Lysander "stayeth" (hindereth) him.

By the Athenian garments he hath os.' "I desire no surer evidence to prove that the broad Scotch pronunciation once prevailed in England, than such a rhyme as the first of these words affords to the second."-STEVENS.

There is an ultraism of the long slender sound of a. which has of late become an affectation among some speakers; and this, it is clear, could not rhyme with on. But man, with the a sounded as in tan, hat, is among the purest English sounds, as can be shown from numerous rhymes which would not allow the sound of mon. The latitude of an occasional rhyme like this is a common poetical license-like that in Puck's speech, (act iii. scene 2,) where one rhymes with alone.

I'll have no rondels, I, in the queen's paths.
REAR-MICE"-A rere-mouse is a bat.

"Love takes the meaning in love's conference"—i. e. "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.

"-wilt thou DARKLING leave me"-i. e. In the dark, a word found also in LEAR, and in Milton. It is now antiquated to the general reader, though Johnson, in his

Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate.

"Speak, OF ALL LOVES"-"Of all loves" is a pleasing adjuration used by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. it may be found in OTHELLO.

66

ACT III.-SCENE I.

-in EIGHT and six"-i. e. In alternate verse of eight and six syllables.

"-a lion among ladies, is a most dreadful thing"There is an odd coincidence between this passage and a real occurrence at the Scottish court, in 1594. Prince Henry, the oldest son of James the First, was christened in August, in that year. While the king and queen were at dinner, a triumphal chariot, with several allegorical personages on it, was drawn in "by a blackmoore. This chariot should have been drawn in by a lyon, but because his presence might have brought some fear to the nearest, or that the sight of the lighted torches might have commoved his tameness, it was thought meet that the Moore should supply that roome."

"-tell them plainly he is Snug, the joiner"-" This passage will suggest to our readers Sir Walter Scott's description of the pageant at Kenilworth, when Lambourne, not knowing his part, tore off his vizard, and swore, Cogs-bones! he was none of Arion or Orion either, but honest Mike Lambourne, that had been drinking her majesty's health from morning till midnight, and was come to bid her heartily welcome to Kenilworth Castle.' But a circumstance of this nature actually happened upon the queen's visit to Kenilworth, in 1575; and is recorded in the Merry Passages and Jests,' compiled by Sir Nicholas Lestrange, and lately published by the Camden Society, from the Harleian MS.:-There was a spectacle presented to Queen Elizabeth upon the water, and, among others, Harry Goldingham was to represent Arion upon the dolphin's back, but finding his voice to be very hoarse and unpleasant when he came to perform it, he tears off his disguise and swears he was none of Arion, not he, but even honest Harry Goldingham; which blunt discovery

the right way; yet he could order his voice to an instrument exceeding well.' It is by no means improbable and has applied it in the case of Snug, the joiner. that Shakespeare was familiar with this local anecdote, Bottom, and Quince, and the other hard-handed men,' must also have been exceedingly like the citizens of Coventry, who played their Hock play before the queen, on the memorable occasion of her visit to their neighbourhood."-KNIGHT.

"-CUES and all"-Untheatrical readers may require to be informed that in Shakespeare's day, as at present, a cue, technically, is the last word of the preceding speech, from which the next speaker commences.

"A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire"-So, in "Robin Good-fellow, his Mad Pranks and Merry Jests," reprinted by the Percy Society

Thou hast the power to change thy shape
To horse, to hog, to dog, to ape.

And in the ballad in the "Introduction" to the same

tract

Sometimes a walking fire he'd be,
And lead them from their way.

"The OOSEL-COCK, so black of hue"-By the "ooselcock," in Shakespeare's day, was meant the black-bird, and not another bird which has in later days been known as the oosel-cock. Yarrell states, ("British Birds," i. 211,) of the black-bird, "the beak and the edges of the eye-lids in the adult male are gamboge yellow," which is what Bottom means by "orangetawney."

"PLAIN-SONG cuckoo"-The "cuckoo," having no variety of note, sings in "plain song," (plano cantu;) by which expression the uniform modulation or simplicity of the chant was distinguished in opposition to pricksong, or variated music sung by note.