Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

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,

8

Because that she, as her attendant, hath
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 forefts wild;
But the per-force, with-holds the loved boy,
Crowns him with flowers, 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. Either I mistake your fhape and making quite,
Or else you are that fhrewd, and knavish sprite,
Call'd Robin-good-fellow. Are you not he,
That fright the maidens of the villag❜ry;

Skim

8-Changeling.] Changeling is commonly used for the child fuppofed to be left by the fairies, but here for the child taken away. JOHNSON.

9-Sheen,] Shining, bright, gay. JOHNSON.

But they do fquare.] To Square here is to quarrel.

And now you are fuch fools to fquare for this? GRAY. The French word contrecarrer has the fame import. JOHNSON.

3 Robin-good-fellow;] This account of Robin-good-fellow correfponds, in every article, with that given of him in Harfenet's Declaration, ch. xx. p. 135: "And if that the bowle of curds and creame "were not duly fet out for Robin-good-fellow, the frier, and Siffe "the dairy-maid, why then either the pottage was burnt to next "day in the pot, or the cheefes would not curdle, or the butter "would not come, or the ale in the fat never would have got "head. But if a pater nofter, or an houfle-egge were beturned, "or a patch of tythe unpaid-then beware of bull-beggars, fpi"rits, &c." He is mentioned by Cartwright as a spirit particularly fond of difconcerting and difturbing domeftick peace and ecconomy.

Saint Francis and Saint Benedight

Bleffe this boufe from wicked wight;

CA

From

4

Skim milk; and fometimes labour in the quern, And bootless make the breathlefs hufwife churn: And fometime make the drink to bear no barm; " Mif-lead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm? Those that Hobgoblin call you, and fweet Puck, You do their work, and they shall have good luck.

From the night-mare and the goblin,
That is bight good-fellow Robin.

Keep it, &c.

Arc

Cartwright's Ordinary, act iii. fc. 1. v. 8. WARTON. Reginald Scot gives the fame account of this frolicksome spirit, in his Discovery of Witchcraft, Lond. 1588. 4to. p. 66" Your "grandames, maids, were wont to fet a bowl of milk for him,

for his pains in grinding of malt and muftard, and sweeping the houfe at midnight-this white bread and bread and milk, " was his standing fee." STEEVENS.

4 Skim milk, and fometimes labour in the quern,

And bootlfs make the breathless bufwife churn.]

The sense of these lines is confufed. Are not you be, fays the fairy, that fright the country girls, that fkim milk, work in the band-mill, and make the tired dairy-woman churn without effe&? The mention of the mill feems out of place, for fhe is not now telling the good but the evil that he does. I would regulate the lines thus: And fometimes make the breathless housewife churn Skim milk, and bootlefs labour in the quern,

Or by a fimple tranfpofition of the lines;

And bootless, make the breathless housewife churn
Skim milk, and fometimes labour in the quern.

Yet there is no neceffity of alteration. JOHNSON.

5 Barme, a name for yeaft, yet ufed in the midland counties. So in Mother Bombie, a Comedy, 1594: "It behoveth my wits to work like barme, alias yeast."

Again in the Humourous Lieutenant, of B. and Fletcher:

"I think my brains will work yet without barm,"

STEEVENS.

Thofe that Hobgoblin call you, and fweet Puck,
You do their work.]

To thofe traditionary opinions Milton has reference in L'Allegro,

Then to the Spicy nut-brown ale,

With flories told of many a feat,
How Fairy Mab the junkets eat

She

Are not you he?
Puck. Thou speak'ft aright;"

I am that merry wanderer of the night:
I jest to Oberon, and make him fmile,
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
And fometimes lurk I in a goffip's bowl,

She was pinch'd and pull'd fhe faid,
And be by Frier's lanthorn led;
Tells how the drudging goblin sweat
To earn his cream-bowl duly fet,
When in one night ere glimpse of morn
His fhadowy flail bad thresh'd the corn
Which ten day-labourers could not end,
Then lies him down the lubber fiend.

A like account of Puck is given by Drayton,

He meeteth Puck, which most men call
Hobgoblin, and on him doth fall.-
This Puck feems but a dreaming delt,
Still walking like a ragged colt,
And oft out of a bed doth bolt,
Of purpofe to deceive us ;
And leading us makes us to ftray,
Long winter's nights out of the way,
And when we flick in mire and clay,
He doth with laughter leave us.

It will be apparent to him that shall compare Drayton's poem with this play, that either one of the poets copied the other, or, as I rather believe, that there was then fome fyftem of the fairy empire generally received, which they both reprefented as accurately as they could. Whether Drayton or Shakespeare wrote first, I cannot difcover. JOHNSON.

7 Puck. Thou Speak'ft aright.] I have filled up the verse which I fuppofe the author left complete,

It feems that in the Fairy mythology Puck, or Hobgoblin, was the trufty fervant of Oberon, and always employed to watch or detect the intrigues of Queen Mab, called by Shakespeare Titania. For in Drayton's Nymphidia, the fame fairies are engaged in the fame bufinefs. Mab has an amour with Pigwiggen; Oberon being jealous, fends Hobgoblin to catch them, and one of Mab's nymphs opposes him by a fpell. JOHNSON.

likeness of a roasted crab,

In very

And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob,
And on her wither'd dew-lap 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 tailor cries, and falls into a cough:
And then the whole quire hold their hips and loffe,
9 And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and fwear,
A merrier hour was never wafted there.-

But room, Faery, here comes Oberon.

8

Fai. And here my miftrefs.-Would that we were gone!

[blocks in formation]

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.

Ob. Tarry, rafh wanton; am not I thy lord?
Queen. Then I must be thy lady, but I know,
When thou haft ftol'n away from fairy land,
And in the shape of Corin fate all day,
Playing on pipes of corn, and verfing love
To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,
Come from the further fteep of India?
But that, forfooth, the bouncing Amazon,

8 And tailor cries] The custom of crying tailor at a fudden fall backwards, I think I remember to have obferved. He that flips befide his chair falls as a taylor fquats upon his board. The Oxford editor and Dr. Warburton after him, read and rails or cries, plaufibly, but I believe not rightly. Befides, the trick of the fairy is reprefented as producing rather merriment than anger. JOHNSON.

And waxen.] And encrease, as the moon waxes. JOHNSON. AH the old copies read-But room Fairy. The word Fairy or Faery, was fometimes of three fyllables, as often in Spenfer.

JOHNSON.

Your

'Your bufkin'd miftrefs and your warrior love, To Thefeus muft 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?

Didft thou not lead him through the glimmering night *

- From Periguné, whom he ravifhed; 3

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

Queen. These are the forgeries of jealousy :
And never, fince the middle fummer's spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, foreft, or mead,

By

2 Didft thou not lead him through the glimmering night.] We fhould read,

Didft thou not lead bim glimmering through the night. The meaning is, She conducted him in the appearance of fire through the dark night. WARBURTON.

3 From Perigenia, whom he ravished:] 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 Perigyne, (or Perigune) by whom Thefeus had his fon Melanippus. She was the daughter of Sinnis, a cruel robber, and tormentor of paffengers in the Ifthmus. Plutarch and Athenæus are both exprefs in the circumftance of Thefeus ravishing her. THEOBALD.

Egle, Ariadne, and Antiopa were all at different times miftreffes to Thefeus. See Plutarch. STEEVENS.

4 And never fince the middle fammer's Spring, &c.] There are not many paffages in Shakespeare which one can be certain he has borrowed from the ancients; but this is one of the few that, I think, will admit of no difpute. Our author's admirable defcription of the miseries of the country being plainly an imitation of that which Ovid draws, as confequent on the grief of Ceres, for the lofs of her daughter.

Nefcit adhuc ubi fit: terras tamen increpat omnes :
Ingratafque vocat, nec frugum munere dignas.
Ergo illic fava vertentia glebas

Fregit aratra manu parilique irata colonos

Ru

« AnteriorContinuar »