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To have my love to bed, and to arise;

And pluck the wings from painted butterflies,
To fan the moon-beams from his fleeping eyes;
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtefies.

1. FAI. Hail, mortal!

2. FAI. Hail!

3. FAI. Hail!

4. FAI. Hail!

BOT. I cry your worships mercy, heartily.-I befeech, your worship's name.

COB. Cobweb.

BOT. I fhall defire you of more acquaintance,"

The blunder is not in Shakspeare, but in thofe who have conftrued too literally a poetical expreffion. It appears from every line of his writings that he had studied with attention the book of nature, and was an accurate obferver of any object that fell within his notice. He must have known that the light of the glow-worm was feated 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 profe; 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 fending his fairies to light their tapers at the fire of the glow-worm, which in Hamlet he terms uneffe&ual:

"The glow-worm fhews the matin to be near,
“And 'gins to pale his uneffe&ual fire.

M. MASON.

6 Hail, mortal!] The old copies read—hail, mortal, hail! The fecond hail was clearly intended for another of the fairies, fo as that each of them fhould addrefs Bottom. The regulation now adopted was propofed by Mr. Steevens. MALONE.

7 I fhall defire you of more acquaintance,] This line has been very unneceffarily altered. The fame mode of expreffion occurs in Lufty Juventus, a morality:

"I fhall defire you of better acquaintance.

Such phraseology was very common to many of our ancient writers.

So, in An Humorous Day's Mirth, 1599:

I do defire you of more acquaintance.'

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Again, in Golding's Verfion of the 14th Book of Ovid's Metamorphofis:

good mafter Cobweb: If I cut my finger, I fhall make bold with you.-Your name, honeft gentle

man! 8

FEAS. Peas-bloffom.

BOT. I pray you, commend me to miftrefs Squash, your mother, and to mafier Peafcod, your father. Good mater Peas-bloffom, I fhall defire you of more acquaintance too. Your name, I befeech you, fir?

Mus. Muflard-feed.

Bor. Good mafter Muftard-feed, I know your

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"Him earnestly, with careful voice, of furthrance and of

aid.

"

Again, in Greene's Groatsworth of Wit, 1621:

craving you of more acquaintance." STEEVENS.

-"I fhall

The alteration in the modern editions was made on the authority of the Bift folio, which reads in the next fpeech but one defire of you more acquaintance." But the old reading is undoubtedly the true one.

So, in Spenser's Faery Queen, B. II. c. ix:

8

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with you.

"

If it be I, of pardon I you praye. MALONE.

good mafter Cobweb: If I cut my finger, I fhall make bold Your name, honeft gentleman?] In The Mayde's Metamorphofs, a comedy by Lyly, there is a dialogue between fome forefters and a troop of fairies, very similar to the present:

“Mopso. I pray, fir, what might I call you?

"1. Fai. My name is Penny.

Mop. I am forry I cannot purse you.

Frifco. I pray you, fir, what might I call you?

'' 2. Fai. My name is Cricket.

"Frif. I would I were a chimney for your fake."

The Maid's Metamorphosis was not printed till 1600, but was probably written fome years before. Mr. Warton fays, (Hiftory of English Poetry, Vol. II. p. 393.) that Lyly's laft play appeared in 1597. MALONE.

9

miftrefs Squafh, your mother,] A Squash is an immature peafcod. So, in Twelfth Night, A& I. fc. v:

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as a fquash is, before 'tis a peafcod." STELVENS.

2

patience well: that fame cowardly, giant-like, ox-beef hath devoured many a gentleman of your houfe: I promise you, your kindred hath made my eyes water ere now. I defire you more acquaintance, good master Mustard-feed.

TITA. Come, wait upon him; lead him to my

bower.

The moon, methinks, looks with a wat'ry eye; And when she weeps, weeps every little flower, Lamenting fome enforced chaflity.

2

Tie up my love's tongue,' bring him filently.

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[Exeunt.

your

patience] The Oxford edition reads I know parentage well. I believe the correction is right. JOHNSON. Parentage was not eafily corrupted to patience. I fancy, the true word is, paffions, fufferings.

There is an ancient fatirical Poem entitled." The Poor Man's

Paffions, [i. e. fufferings,] or Poverty's patience." Patience and Paffions are fo alike in found, that a carelefs tranfcriber or compofitor might cafily have fubftituted the former word for the latter.

FARMER.

These words are spoken ironically. According to the opinion prevailing in our author's time, muftard was fuppofed to excite to choler. See note on Taming of the Shrew, A& IV. fc. iii. REED. Perhaps we fhould read. "I know you paffing well.

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Our poet has again used lover as a monofyllable in Twelfth

Night:

"Sad true lover never find my grave."

In the paffage quoted from Twelfth Night, dently a mistake for "true love,

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very fcene before us:

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MALONE.

true lover" is evi

a phrafe which occurs in the

"And laid the love-juice on fome true love's fight."

Lover, in both the foregoing inftances, I muft therefore fuppofe to have been a printer's blunder for love, and have therefore continued Mr. Pope's emendation in the text. How is lover to be pronounced as a monofyllable? STEEVENS.

SCENE II.

Another part of the Wood,

Enter OBERON,

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

Enter PUCK.

Here comes my meffenger.-How now, mad fpirit? What night-rule now about this haunted grove?

4

PUCK. My miftrefs with a monfter is in love. Near to her clofe and confecrated bower, While fhe was in her dull and fleeping hour, A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,

That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,

4

what night-rule-] Night-rule in this place fhould feem to mean, what frolick of the night, what revelry is going forward? So, in Tom Tyler and his Wife, 1661:

Again:

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Marry, here is good rule!"

why how now ftrife! here is pretty rule!"

It appears, from the old fong of Robin Goodfellow, in the third volume of Dr. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, that it was the office of this waggifh fpirit to viewe [or fuperiutend] the night-fports." STEEVENS.

patches,] Patch was in old language used as a term of opprobry; perhaps with much the fame import as we ufe raggamuffin, or tatterdemalion. JOHNSON.

Puck calls the players, a crew of patches. A common opprobrious term, which probably took its rife from Patch cardinal Wolfey's fool. In the western countries, cross-patch is ftill ufed for perverfe, ill-natur'd fool. T. WARTON.

The name was rather taken from the patch'd or pyed coats worn by the fools or jefters of thofe times.

Were met together to rehearse a play,
Intended for great Thefeus' nuptial day.
The fhallowest thick-skin of that barren fort,
Who Pyramus prefented, in their sport
Forfook his fcene, and enter'd in a brake:
When I did him at this advantage take,
An afs's nowl I fixed on his head;"
Anon, his Thisbe must be answered,

And forth my mimick comes: When they him spy. As wild geefe that the creeping fowler eye,

So, in The Tempeft:

what a py'd ninny's this?"

Again, in Prefton's Cambyfes:

“Hob and Lob, ah ye country patches!“ Again, in The Three Ladies of London, 1584: "It is fimplicitie, that patch."

STEEVENS.

I should suppose patch to be merely a corruption of the Italian pazzo, which fignifies properly a fool. So, in The Merchant of Venice, A& II. fc. v. Shylock fays of Launcelot: The patch is kind enough; after having juft called him, that fool of Hagar's offSpring. TYRWHITT.

6

barren fort,] Barren is dull, unpregnant. "fome quantity of barren fpectators," &c. Sort is company. STEEVENS.

7 An afs's now I fixed on his head;] A head.

So, in Hamlet:

Saxon.

JOHNSON,

So, Chaucer, in The Hiftory of Beryn, 1524:
"No fothly, quoth the fteward, it lieth all in thy noll,
"Both wit and wyfdom,

&c.

Again, in The Three Ladies of London, 1584:

One thumps me on the neck, and another strikes me on the nole." STEEVENS.

The following receipt for the process tried on Bottom, occurs in Albertus Magnus de Secretis: "Si vis quod caput hominis affimiletur capiti afini, fumé de segimine aselli, & unge hominem in capite, & fic apparebit." There was a tranflation of this book in Shakspeare's DOUGE,

time.

8 mimick Minnock is the reading of the old quarto, and I believe right. Minnekin, now minx, is a nice trifling girl. Minnock is apparently a word of contempt. JOHNSON,

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