Tita. What, jealous Oberon? Fairy, skip hence; Obe. Tarry, rafh wanton; Am not I thy lord? Obe. How canft thou thus, for fhame, Titania, Knowing I know thy love to Thefeus? Didft thou not lead him through the glimmering night & And make him with fair Æglé break his faith, With Ariadne, and Antiopa? Tita. These are the forgeries of jealoufy: And never, fince the middle fummer's fpring, G4 Met 3 The glimmering night is the night faintly illuminated by ftars. In Macbeth our author fays: "The weft yet glimmers with fome streaks of day." STEEVENS. 4 Thus all the editors, but our author who diligently perus'd Plutarch, and glean'd from him, where his fubject would admit, knew, from the life of Thefeus that her name was Perygine, (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 Athenæus1 are both exprefs in the circumftance of Thefeus ravishing her. THEOBALD. In North's tranflation of Plutarch (Life of Thefeus) this lady is called. Perigouna. The alteration was probably intentional, for the fake of har-mony. Her real name was Perigune. MALONE. 5 By the middle fummer's fpring, our author feems to mean the beginning of middle or mid fummer.. STEEVENS. The middle fummer's Spring, is, I apprehend, the feafon when trees put forth their fecond, or as they are frequently called their midfummer shoots. Thus, Evelyn in his Silva: "Cut off all the fide boughs, and especially at midfummer, if you spy them breaking out." And again, "Where the rows and brufh lie longer than midfummer, unbound, or made up, you' endanger the lofs of the fecond spring." HENLEY. Met we on hill, in dale, foreft, or mead. 8 up from the fea And 15 A fountain laid round the edge with tone. JOHNSON. Perhaps paved at the bottom. So, Lord Bacon in his Efay on Gardens: "As for the other kind of fountaine, which we may call a bathing poole, may admit much curiofity and beauty. As that the bottom be finely paved. STEEVENS. it • ... the fides likewife," &c. The epithet feems here intended to mean no more than that the beds of these fountains were covered with pebbles in oppofition to those of the rushy brooks which are oozy. HENLEY. 7 Thus the quartos: the folio reads-petty. Shakspeare has in Lear the fame word, low pelting farms. The meaning is plainly, defpicable, mean, forry, wretched; but as it is a word without any reasonable etymology, İ fhould be glad to difmifs it for petty: yet it is undoubtedly right. We have "petty pelting officer" in Measure for Measure. JOHNSON. & Born down the banks that contain them. MALONE. 9 The murrain is the plague in cattle. It is here used by Shakspeare as an adjective: as a fubftantive by others. STEEVENS. 2. In that part of Warwickshire where Skakspeare was educated, and the neighbouring parts of Northamptonshire, the fhepherds and other boys dig up the turf with their knives to reprefent a fort of imperfec chefs-board. It confifts of a fquare, fometimes only a foot diameter, fometimes three or four yards. Within this is another fquare, every fide of which is parallel to the external fquare; and thefe fquares 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 ftones, which they move in fuch a manner as to take up each other's men as they are called, and the area of the inner fquare is called the Pound, in, which the men taken up are impounded. Thefe figures are by the country people And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,3 G 5 No people called Nine Men's Morris, or Merrils; and are fo called, because each party has nine men. Thefe figures are always cut upon the green turf or leys, as they are called,.or upon the grafs at the end of ploughed lands, and in rainy seasons never fail to be choaked up with mud. JAMES. Nine mens' morris is a game still play'd by the fhepherds, cow-keepers, &c. in the midland counties, as follows: A figure is made on the ground (like this which I have drawn) by cutting out the turf; and two perfons take each nine ftones, which they place by turns in the angles, and afterwards move alternately, as at chefs or draughts. He who can place three in a ftraight line, may then take off any one of his adversary's, where he pleases, till one, having lost all his men, lofes the game. ALCHORNE. 3 This alludes to a fport ftill followed by boys ; i. e. what is now called Tanning the figure of eight. STEEVENS. 4 Shakspeare might have employed this epithet, which, at first fight, appears redundant, to mark the difference between men and fairies. Fairies were not buman, but they were yet fubject to mortality. It appears from the Romance of Sir Huon of Bordeaux, that Oberon himself was mortal. STEEVENS. No night is now with hymn or carol bleft: 5- m The "This however (fays Mr. Ritfon,) does not by any means appear to be the cafe. Oberon, Titania, and Puck, never dye; the inferior agents uft neceffarily be fuppofid to enjoy the fame privilege; and the ingenious Commentator may rely upon it, that the oldest woman in England never heard of the death of a Fairy. Human mortals is, notwithstanding, evidently put in oppofition to fairies who partook of a middle nature between men and fpirits." It is a misfortune as well to the commentators, as to the readers of Shakspeare, that fo much of their time is obliged to be employed in explaining and contradicting unfounded conjectures and assertions. Spenfer, in his Faery Queen, B. II. c. x. fays, (I use the words of Mr. Warton; Obfervations on Spenfer, Vol. I. p. 55.) "That man was first made by Prometheus, was called Elfe, who wandering over the world, at length arrived at the gardens of Adonis, where he found a female whom he called Fay.-The iffue of Elfe and Fay were called Fairies, who foon grew to be a mighty people, and conquered all nations. Their eldest fon Elfin governed America, and the next to him, named Elfinan, founded the city of Cleopolis, which was enclosed with a golden wall by Elfinine. His fon Elfin overcame the Gobbelines; but of all fairies, Elfant was the moft renowned, who built Panthea of chryftal. To thefe fucceeded Elfar, who flew two brethren giants; and to him Elfinor, who built a bridge of glass over the fea, the found of which was like thunder. At length Elficleos ruled the Fairy-land with much wisdom, and highly advanced its p wer and honour: he left two fons, the eldest of which, fair Elferon, died a premature death, his place being fupplied by the mighty Oberon; a prince, whose wide memorial' ftill remains; who dying left Tanaquil to fucceed him by will, fhe being alfo called Glorian or Glori ana." I tranfcribe this pedigree, merely to prove that in Shakspeare's time the notion of Fairies dying was generally known. REED. 5 Since the coming of Chriftianity, this feafon, [winter] in commemoration of the birth of Chrift, has been particularly devoted to feftivity. And to this cuftom, notwithstanding the impropriety, hymn or carol bleft certainly alludes. WARBURTON. Hymns and carols, in the time of Shakspeare, during the feafon of Christmas, were fung every night about the ftreets, as a pretext for collecting money from houfe to houfe. STEEVENS. Rheuma ick difeafes, fignified in Shakspeare's time, not what we now call rheumatism, but distillations from the head, catarrhs, &c. MALONE. 7 This ferturbation of the elements. STEEVENS. By demperature, I imagine is meant in this place, the perturbed state in which the king and queen had lived for fome time paft. MALONE. The feafons alter; hoary headed frosts 2. By their increase, now knows not which is which :: From our debate, from our diffention; We are their parents and original. Obe. Do you amend it then; it lies in you I do but beg a little changeling boy,, G 6 3 Dr. Grey, not inelegantly, conjectures, that the poet wrote: : "on old Hyems' chill and icy crown." Tita, It is not indeed easy to discover how a chaplet can be placed on the chin. STEEVENS. It should rather be thin, i. e. thin-hair'd. TYRWHITT. Thinne is nearer to chinne (the spelling of the old copies) than chill, and therefore, I think, more likely to have been the author's word. MALONE. 9 Is the pregnant autumn, frugifer autumnus. Childing is an old term in botany, when a fmall flower grows out of a large one; "the childing autumn," therefore means the autumn which unfeasonably produces flowers on thofe of fummer. Florists have alfo a: cbilding daily, and a childing fcabious. HOLT WHITE.. 2 This is, By their produce.. JOHNSON. 3 Page of honour. This office was abolished by queen Elizabeth. GREY. The office might be abolished at court, but probably remained in the city. Glapthorne, in his comedy called Wit in a Confiable, 1640, has this paffage: When he was lady may'refs, and you humble “As her trim bench-boys.” Again, in Ben Jonfon's Christmas Mafque: "he faid grace as well as any of the fheriff's bench-boys." Skinner derives the word from Hine A. S. quafi domefticus famulus. Spelman from Hengftman, equi curator, inμ STEEVENS In a letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury dated 11th of December 1565,. it is faid, "Her Highness (i. e. Queen Elizabeth) hathe of late, wherat fome doo moche marvell, diffolved the auncient office of Henche |