town, by moon-light, there we will rehearfe; for if we meet in the city, we fhall be dog'd with company, and our devices known. In the mean time I will draw a bill of properties, fuch as our play wants. I pray you, fail me not.

Bot. We will meet, and there we may rehearfe more obfcenely and courageously. Take pains, adieu.

be perfect,

10 mitanot ?

Quin. At the Duke's oak we meet. 16.

Bot. Enough; hold, or cut bow-ftrings.

«X*X*X*X*X*XX*X*X*X*X*)

ACT II.

[Exeunt.

SCENE, A Wood in midd A taitood brA, Enter a Fairy at one door, and Puck (or Robin-good

fellow) at another.

PUCK. & 131 15: : slodT

you

por

ob go

WOW now, fpirit, w whither wander Fai. Over hill, over dale, Through bufh, through briar, Over park, over pale, Through flood, through fire, I do wander every where, Swifter than the moon's fpheres And I ferve the Fairy Queen, To dew her orbs upon the green; The couflips tall her penfioners bey belt ny w baê. In their gold coats fpots you fee, bhodaiw and no linâ, Thofe be rubies, fairy-favours:ller mur father anT In those freckles live their favours: smitemod I must go feek fome dew-drops here,noitus?" And hang a pearl in every cowflip's ear. 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 the, as her attendant, hath

A lovely

A lovely boy, ftol'n from an Indian king:
She never had fo fweet a changeling;
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;
But the per-force with-holds the loved boy,

Crowns him with flow'rs, 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.

Fai. Or I miftake your fhape and making quite,
Or elfe you are that fhrewd, and knavish sprite,
Call'd Robin-goodfellow. Are you not he,
That fright the maidens of the villageree,
Skim milk, and fometimes labour in the quern,
And bootlefs make the breathlefs hufwife chern;
And fometime make the drink to bear no barm,
Mif-lead night-wand'rers, laughing at their harm?
Thofe that Hobgoblin call you, and fweet Puck,
You do their work, and they fhall have good luck.
Are not you he?

Puck. Thou speak'ft aright;

I am that merry wand'rer of the night.
I jeft to Oberon, and make him fmile,
When I a fat and bean-fed horfe beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly-foal;
And fometimes lurk I in a goffip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roafted crab,
And when the drinks, against her lips I bob,
And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale,
The wifeft aunt, telling the faddeft tale,
Sometime for three-foot ftool miftaketh me;
Then flip I from her bum, down topples fhe,
And taylor cries, and falls into a cough;

And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe,
And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and fwear,
A merrier hour was never wafted there.

But make room, fairy, here comes Oberon.

Fai. And here my miftrefs: would, that he were gone!

Enter

Enter Oberon King of Fairies at one door with his train, and the Queen at another with hers.

Ob. Ill met by moon-light, proud Titania.
Queen. What, jealous Oberon ? fairies, fkip hence,
I have forfworn his bed and company. D

Ob. Tarry, rafh wanton; am not I thy Lord?
Queen, Then I must be thy Lady; but I know,
When thou ha'ft ftoll'n away from fairy land,
And in the shape of Corin fat all day,
Playing on pipes of corn, and verfing love
To am'rous Phillida. Why art thou here,
Come from the fartheft steep of India!
But that, forfooth, the bouncing Amazon,
Your bufkin'd mistress and your warrior love,
To Thefeus must be wedded; and you come
To give their bed joy and profperity.

Ob. How can't thou thus for fhame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolita;

Knowing, I know thy love to Thefeus?

આ માટે વાસ

IC

Didft thou not lead him through the glimmering night
From Perigune, whom he ravished; (6)

And make him with fair Egle break his faith,
With Ariadne, and Antiopa?

Queen. These are the forgeries of jealoufy And never fince the middle fummer's fpring Met we on hill, in dale, foreft," or mead, By paved fountain, or by rufhy brook,

3

(6) From Perigenia, zubom be ravib'd:] Thus all the editors, either not knowing, or not attending to, the hiftory of this Lady, have falfely call'd her but our Author, who diligently perus'd Plu tarch, and glean'd from him, where his fubject would admit, knew, from the life of Thefeus, that her name was Perigyne (or Perigune) by whom Thefeus had his fon Melanippus. She was the daughter of Sinnis a cruel robber, and tormenter of paffengers in the Ifthmus, Plutarch and Athenæus are both exprefs in the circumftance of Thefeus ravishing her and the former of them adds (as Diod. Siculus, Apollodorus and Paufanias, likewife tell us ;) that he killed her father into the bargain. I corrected this mistake of the name in my SHAKESPEARE reftor'd; and Mr. Pope has vouchfafed to correct from me in his laft edition,

:

Or

Or on the beached margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls, thou to us in vain,
haft difturb'd our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping-

As in revenge, have fuck'd up from the fea
Contagious Fogs which falling in the land,
Have every pelting river made fo proud,
That

a

have over born their continents. The ox hath therefore ftretch'd his yoke in vain, The ploughman loft his fweat; and the green corn Hath rotted, ere its youth attain'd a beard The fold ftands empty in the drowned field, And crows art fatted with the murrion flock; The nine-mens morris is fill'd up with mud, menta And the queint mazes in the wanton green, For lack of tread, are undiftinguishable, bistoi The human mortals want their winter here, (7.)\e 302 bus a, od uodt & No

(7) want their cuinter here.] The concluding word is, certainly, a very dragging expletive: and though I have not ventur'd to -difplace it, I fcarce believe it genuine. I once fufpected it should be Beyre humko want their winter cheard her for not

vi. e. their jollity, ufual merry-makings at that season. Mr. Warburton has ingeniously advanced a more refin'd emendation; which I'll fubjoin with his own reafoning, in confirmation,

"Is it an aggravating circumftance of the miferies here recapitulated, that the wretched fufferers want their winter? On the contrary, in the defcriptions of the happiness of the golden age, it

10

"was always counted an addition that they wanted winter. It feems as plain to me as as dayers beried;

C

want their

we ought to read:

J

el prais'd, celebrated; an old word; and the line, that follows, fhews propriety of it here. The thing is this; The winter is the feafon for rural rejoicings on feveral accounts because they have got their fruits in, and have wherewithal to make merry. (And therefore, well might the fay,

The human mortals want their winters bereid. stit "when he had defcribed the dearths of the feason, and the fruitless toil of the husbandman.) Then the gloominefs of the season, and "the vacancy of it, encourage them to it; and laftly, which is "principally intimated here, (notwithstanding the impropriety of the fentiment, as it is circumftanc'd) fince Christianity, this feafon, on account of the birth of the author of our faith, is particularly "devoted to feftivity: and to this cuftom, be affured, hymn or carol I should ble alludes."

No night is now with hymn or carol bleft;
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air ;
That rheumatic diseases do abound.
And thorough this diftemperature, we fee
The feafons alter; hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rofe;
And on old Hyems' chin, and icy crown,
An od'rous chaplet of fweet fummer-buds
Is, as in mockery, fet. The spring, the fummer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries; and th' amazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which;
And this fame progeny of evil comes
From our debate, from our diffenfion;
We are their parents and original.

Ob. Do you amend it then, it lies in you.
Why fhould Titania crofs her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy,
To be my henchman.

Queen. Set your heart at reft,

The fairy-land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votrefs of my order,
And, in the fpiced Indian air by night,
Full often the hath goffip'd by my fide;
And fat with me on Neptune's yellow fands,
Marking th' embarked traders on the flood,
When we have laugh'd to see the fails conceive,
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind:
Which the, with pretty and with fwimming gate, (8)
Follying

I should undoubtedly have advanced this conjecture into the text, could I have ever traced the word in any of Shakespeare's writings; but I think, he rather feems fond of bailer'd CHAUCER and SPENCER, I know, both ufe berie, very frequently from the Jatter I'll produce a paffage, where in one couplet it is joined with bymn and carol, as here in our Author;

Tho' wouldeft thou learn to carol of love,
And bery with bymns thy laffes glove.

Vid. Shepherd's Kalendar, for the month of February.

(8) Which the with pretty and with fwimming gate,
Following (her womb then rich with my young squire)

Would