Thou runn'ft before me, fhifting every place; Again, in Drayton's Nymphidia: "Hob, bob, quoth Hob, God fave thy grace." It was not, however, as has been afferted, the appropriate exclamation, in our author's time, of this eccentric character; the Devil himself having, if not a better, at least an older, title to it. So, in Hiftriomaftix (as quoted by Mr. Steevens in a note on King Richard III.) a roaring devil enters, with the Vice on his back, Iniquity in one hand, and Juventus in the other, crying "Ho, ho, ho! these babes mine are all." Again, in Gammer Gurton's Needle: "But Diccon, Diccon, did not the devil cry ho, ho, ho?” And, in the fame play : By the maffe, ich faw him of late cal up a great blacke O, the knave cryed ha, ha, he roared and he thundred.” "Hob! quoth the devill, 'tis my John o'Combe." Again, in Goulart's Hiftories, 1607: The fellow... coming to the stove... fawe the Diuills in horrible formes, fome fitting, fome ftanding, others walking, fome ramping against the walles, but al of them affoone as they beheld him ran unto him, crying Hoh, Hoh, what makest thou here?" Again, in the fume book: "The black guests returned no anfwere, but roared and cryed out, Hob firra let alone the child, or we will teare thee all to pieces." Indeed, from a paffage in Wily Beguiled, 1606, (as quoted in the new edition of Dodley's Old Plays) I fufpect that this fame "knavifh fprite" was fometimes introduced on the stage as a demidevil: "I'll rather," it is one Robin Goodfellow who speaks. put on my flashing red nofe, and my flaming face, and come wrap'd in a calf's fkin, and cry ho, ho." See alfo, Grim the Collier of Croydon. RITSON. The fong above alluded to may be found in Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry, Vol. III. p. 203. MALONE. • Where art thou?] For the fake of the measure, which is otherwife imperfect, I fuppofe we ought to read "Where art thou now?" Demetrius, conceiving Lyfander to have ftill been fhifting his ground, very naturally asks him where he is at that inftant. STEEVENS. PUCK. Come hither; I am here. DEM. Nay, then thou mock'ft me. Thou fhalt buy this dear," If ever I thy face by day-light fee: Now, go thy way. Faintnefs conftraineth me [Lies down and fleeps. Enter HELENA. HEL. O weary night, O long and tedious night, Abate thy hours: fhine, comforts, from the east; That I may back to Athens, by day-light, From thefe that my poor company deteft:And, fleep, that fometime fhuts up forrow's eye, Steal me a while from mine own company. [Sleeps. PUCK. Yet but three? Come one more; Two of both kinds makes up four. Here she comes, curft, and fad :- Cupid is a knavish lad, Thus to make poor females mad. Enter HERMIA. HER. Never fo weary, never fo in woe, Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briers; I can no further crawl, no further go; My legs can keep no pace with my defires. buy this dear,] i. e. thou shalt dearly pay for this. Though this is fenfe, and may well enough ftand, yet the poet perhaps wrote thou shalt by it dear. So, in another place, thou shalt aby it. So, Milton, "How dearly I abide that boaft fo vain." JOHNSON. 8 Steal me a while from mine own company.] Thus alfo in an addrefs to fleep, in Daniel's Tragedy of Cleopatra, 1599: "That from ourselves fo fteal'ft ourselves away." STEEVENS. Here will I reft me, till the break of day. PUCK. On the ground To your eye, [Lies down. [Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER's eye. When thou wak'ft, Thou tak'ft" True delight In the fight Of thy former lady's eye: And the country proverb known, Nought fhall go ill; The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well. [Exit PUCK.-DEM. HEL. &c, sleep. "When thou wak'ft, Thou tak'ft, &c.] The fecond line would be improved, I think, both in its measure and conftruction, if it were written thus: When thou wak'ft, See thou tak ft, True delight, &c. TYRWHITT. Jack shall have Jill; &c.] Thefe three laft lines are to be found among Heywood's Epigrams on three hundred Proverbs. STEEVENS. 9 — all shall be well.] Well is fo bad a rhyme to ill, that I cannot help fuppofing our author wrote-fill. i. e. all this difcord shall fubfide in a calm, become hufh'd and quiet. So, in Othello: Ha! no more moving? 66 "Still as the grave." STEEVENS. ACT IV. SCENE I.2 The fame. Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM, Fairies attending; OBERON behind, unseen. TITA. Come, fit thee down upon this flowery bed, While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,' And stick mufk-rofes in thy fleek smooth head, And kifs thy fair large ears, my gentle joy. Bor. Where's Peas-bloffom? PEAS. Ready. Bor. Scratch my head, Peas-bloffom.-Where's monfieur Cobweb? * I fee no reason why the fourth act should begin here, when there seems no interruption of the action. In the old quartos of 1600, there is no divifion of acts, which feems to have been afterwards arbitrarily made in the first folio, and may therefore be altered at pleasure. JOHNSON. 3—do coy,] To coy is to footh, to ftroke. So, in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584: Plays with Amyntas' lufty boy, and coys him in the dales." Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602. Book VI. ch. xxx: "And whilft the coys his footy cheeks, or curls his fweaty top.' Again, in Sir A. Gorges' tranflation of Lucan, B. IX: his fports to prove, Again, in Golding's Tranflation of the 7th Book of Ovid's Me-tamorphofis: Their dangling dewclaps with his hand he coid unfearfully." Again, ibid: 66 and with her hand had coid "The dragons' reined neckes-.” The behaviour of Titania, on this occafion, feems copied from that of the Lady in Apuleius, Lib. VIII. STEEVENS. COB. Ready. Bor. Monfieur Cobweb; good monfieur, get your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hip'd humble-bee on the top of a thiftle; and, good monfieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret yourfelf too much in the action, monfieur; and, good monsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not; I would be loth to have you over-flown with a honey-bag, fignior.-Where's monfieur Muftardfeed? MUST. Ready. Bor. Give me your neif, monfieur Muftardfeed. Pray you, leave your courtesy, good monfieur. MUST. What's your will? Bor. Nothing, good monfieur, but to help cavalero Cobweb to fcratch. I must to the barber's, monfieur; for, methinks, I am marvellous hairy about the face: and I am fuch a tender afs, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch. TITA. What, wilt thou hear some musick, my fweet love? Bor. I have a reasonable good car in musick : let us have the tongs' and the bones. —over-flown —] It fhould be overflow'd; but it appears from a rhyme in another play that the mistake was our author's. MALONE. I perceive no mistake. Overflown is the participle paffive. See Johnson's Dict. STEEVENS. 5 neif,] i. e. fift. So, in K. Henry IV. A&t II. fc. x: "Sweet knight, I kifs thy neif." GREY. 6 cavalero Cobweb-] Without doubt it should be Cavalero Peas-bloom; as for cavalero Cobweb, he had just been dispatched upon a perilous adventure. GREY. 7 the tongs-] The old ruftic mufick of the tongs and key. The folio has this stage direction." Muficke Tongs, Rurali Muficke.' STEEVENS. |