Enter OBERON and TITANIA, with their Train. OBE. Through this house give glimmering By the dead and drowsy fire: Hop as light as bird from brier; Sing, and dance it trippingly. SONG, AND DANCE. OBE. Now, until the break of day,' 4 Through this house give glimmering light,] Milton perhaps had this picture in his thought: And glowing embers through the room Teach light to counterfeit a gloom. Il Penferofo. So Drayton: Hence fhadows, feeming idle shapes Of little frifking elves and apes, To earth do make their wanton 'Scapes, I think it fhould be read: Through this house in glimmering light. JOHNSON. Now, until, &c.] This fpeech, which both the old quartos give to Oberon, is in the edition of 1623, and in all the following, printed as the fong. I have reftored it to Oberon, as it apparently contains not the bleffing which he intends to bestow on the bed, but his declaration that he will blefs it, and his orders to the fairies how to perform the neceffary rites. But where then is the fong?I am afraid it is gone after many other things of greater value. The truth is that two fongs are loft. The feries of the fcene is this; after the fpeech of Puck, Oberon enters, and calls his fairies to a fong, which fong is apparently wanting in all the copies. Next 3 To the best bride-bed will we, So fhall all the couples three And the blots of nature's hand Shall upon their children be. Titania leads another fong, which is indeed loft like the former, though the editors have endeavoured to find it. Then Oberon difmiffes his fairies to the defpatch of the ceremonies. The fongs, I fuppofe were loft, because they were not inferted in the players' parts, from which the drama was printed. 5 To the best bride-bed will we, JOHNSON. Which by us fhall bleffed be;] We learn from "Articles ordained by K. Henry VII. for the Regulation of his Household," that this ceremony was obferved at the Marriage of a Princess. "All men at her comming in to bee voided, except woemen, till fhee bee brought to her bedd; and the man both; he fittinge in his bedd in his thirte, with a gowne caft about him. Then the Bishoppe, with the Chaplaines, to come in, and bleffe the bedd: then everie man to avoide without any drinke, fave the twoe eftates, if they lifte, priviely." p. 129. STEEVENS. 6 -hare-lip,] This defect in children feems to have been fo much dreaded, that numerous were the charms applied for its prevention. The following might be as efficacious as any of the reft." If a woman with chylde have her fmocke flyt at the neather ende or fkyrt thereof, &c. the fame chylde that the then goeth withall, fhall be safe from having a cloven or hare lippe." Thomas Lupton's Fourth Book of Notable Thinges, 4to. bl. 1. STEEVENS. 7 Nor mark prodigious,] Prodigious has here its primitive figniication of portentous. So, in K. Richard III: "If ever he have child, abortive be it, .་ Prodigions, and untimely brought to light." STEEVENS. 8 With this field-dew confecrate, And each feveral chamber bless," Meet me all by break of day. [Exeunt OBERON, TITANIA, and Train, PUCK. If we fhadows have offended, Think but this, (and all is mended,) take his gait;] i. e. take his way, or direct his steps. So, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. I. c. viii: "And guide his weary gate both to and fro." Again, in a Scottish Proverb: "A man may fpeer the gate to Rome." Again, in The Mercers' Play, among the Chester collection of Whitfun Myfteries, p.: "Therefore goe not through his cuntrey, "Nor the gate you came to day." STEEVENS. By gate, I believe is meant, the door of each chamber. 9 Every fairy take his gait; M. MASON. And each feveral chamber blefs, &c.] The fame fuperftitious kind of benediction occurs in Chaucer's Miller's Tale, v. 3479. Tyrwhitt's edit. "I crouche thee from elves, and from wightes. "And on the threfwold of the dore withoute. 66 Jefu Crift, and Seint Benedight, "Fro the nightes mare, the wite Paternofter," &c. Gentles, do not reprehend; Now to 'fcape the ferpent's tongue,+ So, good night unto you all. Give me your bands, if we be friends, [Exit. an honeft Puck,] See Mr. Tyrwhitt's note, &c. A& II. fc. i. on the words feet Puck." STEEVENS. 3 - unearned luck-] i. e. if we have better fortune than we have deferved. STEEVENS. 4 Now to Scape the ferpent's tongue,] That is, if we be dismissed without hiffes. JOHNSON. So, in J. Markham's English Arcadia, 1607: "But the nymph, after the cuftom of diftreft tragedians, whose firft act is entertained with a fnaky falutation," &c. STEEVENS. 5 Give me your hands,] That is, Clap your hands. Give us your applaufe. JOHNSON. 6 Wild and fantastical as this play is, all the parts in their various modes are well written, and give the kind of pleafure which the author defigned. Fairies in his time were much in fashion; common tradition had made them familiar, and Spenser's poem had made them great. JOHNSON. See pp. 53, 54, 55. And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back, &c. &c. &c.] Dr. Warburton, whofe ingenuity and acutenefs have been long admired, is now, I believe, pretty generally thought to have fome times feen not only what no other perfon would ever have been able to difcover, but what, in reality, unlefs in his own playful imagination, did not exift. Criticism is a talifman, which has, on more than one occafion, difpelled the illufions of this mighty magician. I fhall not difpute, that, by the fair veftal, Shakspeare intended a compliment to Queen Elizabeth, who, I am willing to believe, at the age of fixty eight, was no lefs chafe than beautiful; but whether any other part of Oberon's speech have an allegorical meaning or not, I prefume, in direct oppofition to Dr. Warburton, to contend that it agrees with any other rather than with Mary Queen of Scots. The mixture of fatire and panegyrick" I fhall examine anon: I only wish to know, for the prefent, why it would have been "inconvenient for the author to fpeak openly" in " difpraife" of the Scotifh Queen. If he meant to please " the imperial votrefs," no incenfe could have been half so grateful as the blackest calumny. But, it seems," her fucceffor would not forgive her fatirift." Who then was her "fucceffor" when this play was written? Mary's fon, James? I am perfuaded that, had Dr. Warburton been better read in the history of thofe times, he would not have found this monarch's fucceffion quite fo certain, at that period, as to have prevented Shakspeare, who was by no means the refined fpeculatist he would induce one to fuppofe, from gratifying the "fair vestal" with fentiments fo agreeable to her. However, if " the poet has fo well marked out every diftinguishing circumftance of her life and character, in this beautiful allegory, as will leave no room to doubt about his fecret meaning," there is an end of all controversy. For, though the fatire would be cowardly, falfe and infamous, yet, fince it was couched under an allegory, which, while perfpicuous as glafs to Elizabeth, would have become opake as a mill-ftone to her fucceffor, Shakspeare, lying as fnug as his own Ariel in a cowflip's bell, would have had no reafon to apprehend any ill confequences from it. Now, though our fpeculative bard might not be able to foresee the fagacity of the Scotish king in smelling out a plot, as I believe it was fome years after that he gave any proof of his excellence that way, he could not but have heard of his being an admirable witch-finder; and, furely, the skill requifite to detect a witch must be fufficient to develope an allegory; fo that I must needs queftion the propriety of the compliment here paid to the poet's prudence. Queen Mary" is called a Mermaid, 1. to denote her reign over a kingdom fituate in the fea." In that respect at least Elizabeth was as much a mermaid as herself. "And 2. her beauty and intemperate luft; for as Elizabeth for her chaftity is called a Veftal, this unfortunate lady, on a contrary account, is called a mermaid." All this is as falfe as it is foolish: The mermaid was never the emblem of luft; nor was the "gentle Shakfspeare" of a character or difpofition to have infulted the memory of a murdered princefs by fo infamous a charge. The moft abandoned libeler, even Buchanan himself, never accufed her of" intemperate luft ;' and it is pretty well understood at present that, if either of thefe ladies were remarkable for her purity, it was not Queen Elizabeth. "3. An ancient story may be fuppofed to be here alluded to; the Emperor Julian tells us that the Sirens (which with all the modern poets are mermaids) contended for precedency with the Mufes, whe |