Re-enter QUINCE.

Quin. Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art translated. [Exit.

Bot. I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me; to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir from this place, do what they can: I will walk up and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear I am not afraid.

The ousel-cock, so black of hue,
With orange-tawny bill,
The throstle with his note so true,
The wren with little quill;

[Sings.

Tita. What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?

Bot. The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,
The plain-song cuckoo gray,

5

Whose note full many a man doth mark,
And dares not answer nay ;

[Waking

for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry, cuckoo, never so ?

Tita. I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:

Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note,

So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;

And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me,
On the first view, to say, to swear, I love thee.

Bot. Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that: And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together now-a-days: The more the pity, that some honest neighbours will not make them friends. Nay, I can gleek, upon occasion.

[4] The ouzel cock is generally understood to be the cock black-bird.

STEEVENS.

The Ousel differs from the Black-bird by having a white crescent upon his breast, and is besides rather larger. See Lewin's English Birds. DOUCE.

[5] That is, the cuckoo, who, having no variety of strains, sings in plain song, or in plano cantu; by which expression the uniform modulation or simplicity of the chaunt was anciently distinguished, in opposition to prick-song, or variegated music sung by note. Skelton introduces the birds singing the different parts of the service of the funeral of his favourite sparrow: among the rest is the cuckoo.

T. WARTON.

[6] Gleek was originally a game at cards. The word is often used by other ancient comic writers, in the same sense as by our author. Mr. Lambe observes in his notes on the ancient metrical history of The Battle of Flodden, that, in the North, to gleek is to deceive or beguile; and that the reply made by the queen of the fairies, proves this to be the meaning of it. STEEVENS

Tita Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.

Bot. Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn. Tita. Out of this wood do not desire to go;

Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.
I am a spirit, of no common rate;

The summer still doth tend upon my state,

And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;

I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee;

And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
And sing, while thou en pressed flowers dost sleep:
And I will purge thy mortal grossness so,
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.

--Peas-blossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustard-seed!

1 Fai. Ready. 2 Fai. And I.

3 Fai. And I.

Enter four Fairies.

4 Fai. Where shall we go ?

Tita. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes;
Feed him with apricocks, and dewberries,"
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;
The honey bags steal from the humble-bees,
And, for night tapers, crop their waxen thighs,
And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,
To have my love to bed, and to arise;
And pluck the wings from painted butterflies,
To fan the moon-beams from his sleeping eyes:
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.

[7] Dewberries are gooseberries, which are still so called in several parts of the kingdom. HENLEY.

[8] I know not how Shakespeare, who commonly derived his knowledge of nature from his own observation, happened to place the glow-worm's light in his eyes, which is only in his tail. JOHNSON.

The blunder is not in Shakespeare, but in those who have construed too literally a poetical expression. It appears from every line of his writings that he had studied with attention the book of nature, and was an accurate observer of any object that fell within his notice. He must have known that the light of the glow-worm was seated in the tail; but surely a poet is justified in calling the luminous part of a glow-worm the eye. It is a liberty we take in plain prose; for the point of greatest brightness in a furnace is commonly called the eye of it.

Dr. Johnson might have arraigned him with equal propriety for sending his fairies to light their tapers at the fire of the glow-worm, which in Hamlet he terms uneffectual:

"The glow-worm shews the matin to be near,
"And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire."

M. MASON.

1 Fai. Hail, mortal!

2 Fai. Hail!

3 Fai. Hail !

4 Fai. Hail!

Bot. I cry your worship's mercy, heartily.I beseech, your worship's name.

Cob. Cobweb.

Bot. I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good master Cobweb: If I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you. Your name, honest gentleman?

Peas. Peas-blossom.

Bot. I pray you, commend me to mistress Squash, your mother, and to master Peascod, your father. Good master Peas-blossom, I shall desire you of more acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you, sir?

Mus. Mustard-seed.

Bot. Good master Mustard-seed, I know your patience well: that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath devoured many a gentleman of your house: I promise you, your kindred hath made my eyes water ere now. I desire you more acquaintance, good master Mustard-seed.

Tita. Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower. The moon, methinks, looks with a watery eye; And when she weeps, weeps every little flower, Lamenting some enforced chastity.

Tie up my love's tongue, bring him silently. [Exe.

SCENE II.

Another Part of the Wood. Enter OBERON.

Ob. I wonder, if Titania be awak'd;
Then, what it was that next came in her eye,
Which she must dote on in extremity.

Enter PUCK.

mad spirit?

Here comes my messenger.-How now,
What night-rule now about this haunted grove?
Puck. My mistress with a monster is in love.
Near to her close and consecrated bower,
While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,

[9] These words are spoken ironically. According to the opinion prevailing in our author's time, mustard was supposed to excite choler. REED.

A crew of patches,' rude mechanicals,
That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,
Were met together to rehearse a play,
Intended for great Theseus' nuptial day.
The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort,
Who Pyramus presented, in their sport
Forsook his scene, and enter'd in a brake:
When I did him at this advantage take,
An ass's now I fixed on his head;
Anon, his Thisby must be answered,

And forth my mimic comes: When they him spy,
As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,
Or russet pated choughs2 many in sort,
Rising and cawing at the gun's report
Sever themselves, and madly sweep the sky;

So, at his sight, away his fellows fly:

And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one fails ;

He murder cries, and help from Athens calls.

Their sense, thus weak, lost with their fears, thus strong, Made senseless things begin to do them wrong:

For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch;

Some, sleeves; some, hats: from yielders all things catch. I led them on in this distracted fear,

[1] Patch was in old language used as a term of opprobry; perhaps with much the same import as we use raggamuffin, or tatterdemalion. JOHNSON.

I should suppose patch to be merely a corruption of the Italian pazso, which signines properly a fool. TYRWHITT. [2] The chough is a bird of the daw kind.

STEEVENS.

[3] This seems to be a vicious reading. Fairies are never represented stamping, or of a size that should give force to a stamp, nor could they have distinguished the stamp of Puck from those of their own companions. I read: And at a stump here o'er and o'er one falls. JOHNSON.

I adhere to the old reading. The stamp of a fairy might be efficacious though not loud; neither is it necessary to suppose, when supernatural beings are spoken of that the size of the agent determines the force of the action. That fairies did stamp to some purpose, may be known from the following passage in Olaus Magnus de Gentibus Septentrionalibus:--"Vero saltum adeo profunde in terram impresserant, ut locus insigni adore orbiculariter persus, non parit arenti redivivum cespite gramen." Shakespeare's own authority, however, is most decisive. See the conclusion of the first scene of the fourth Act:

"Come, my queen, take hand with me,

"And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be." STEEVENS. Honest Reginald Scott, says: "Our grandams maids were want to set a boll of milke before Incubus, and his cousin Robin Good-fellow, for grinding of malt or mustard, and sweeping the house at midnight: and-that he would chafe exceedingly, if the maid or good wife of the house, having compassion of his nakedness, laid anie clothes for him beesides his messe of white bread and milke, which was his standing fee. For in that case he saith, What have we here? Hemton, hamten, here will I never more tread nor stampen.” Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1548. p. 85. RITSON

And left sweet Pyramus translated there :
When in that moment (so it came to pass)
Titania wak'd, and straightway lov'd an ass.

Ob. This falls out better than I could devise. But hast thou yet latch'd' the Athenian's eyes With the love-juice, as I bid thee do?

Puck. I took him sleeping,—that is finish'd too,-
And the Athenian woman by his side;

That, when he wak'd, of force she must be ey'd.
Enter DEMETRIUS and HERMIA.

Ob. Stand close; this is the same Athenian.
Puck. This is the woman, but not this the man.
Dem. O, why rebuke you him that loves you so?
Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.

Her. Now I but chide, but I should use thee worse,
For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse.
If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,

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

The sun was not so true unto the day,

As he to me: Would he have stol'n away

From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon,

This whole earth may be bor'd; and that the moon
May through the center creep, and so displease
Her brother's noon-tide with the antipodes.

It cannot be, but thou hast murder'd him ;
So should a murderer look; so dead, so grim.

Dem. So should the murder'd look; and so should I, Pierc'd through the heart with your stern cruelty: Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear, As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere. Her. What's this to my Lysander? where is he?

Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me?

Dem. I had rather give his carcase to my hounds. Her. Out, dog! out, cur! thou driv'st me past the bounds Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him then? Henceforth be never number'd among men! O! once tell true, tell true, even for my sake; Durst thou have look'd upon him, being awake? And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch !

[4] Latch'd, or letch'd, lick'd over, lecher, to lick, French. HANMER. In the North, it signifies to infect. STEEVENS.

[5] Touch in Shakespeare's time was the same with our exploit, or rather stroke A brave touch, a noble stroke, un grand coup. JOHNSON