The. No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse. Never excuse; for, when the players are all dead, there need none to be blamed. Marry, if he that writ it had play'd Pyramus and hang'd himself in Thisbe's garter, it would have been a fine tragedy: and so it is, truly; and very notably discharged. But, come, your Bergomask: let your epilogue alone.— [A dance by two of the Clowns.

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:

Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy-time.

I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn,
As much as we this night have overwatch'd.
This palpable-gross play hath well beguiled

-

The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed. —
A fortnight hold we this solemnity

In nightly revels and new jollity.

Enter PUCK, with a broom.

Puck. Now the hungry lion roars,21

And the wolf behowls the Moon;

Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,
All with weary task fordone.

Now the wasted brands do glow,

Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud,

Puts the wretch that lies in woe

In remembrance of a shroud.

Now it is the time of night,

[Exeunt.

in their manners and dialect than any other people of Italy. The lingua rustica of the buffoons, in the old Italian comedies, is an imitation of their jargon.

21 Upon this passage Coleridge thus remarks in his Literary Remains: “Very Anacreon in perfectness, proportion, grace, and spontaneity! So far it is Greek; - but then add, what wealth, what wild ranging, and yet what compression and condensation, of English fancy! In truth, there is nothing in Anacreon more perfect than these lines, or half so rich and imaginative. They form a speckless diamond."

That the graves, all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite,
In the church-way paths to glide :
And we fairies, that do run
By the triple Hecate's team
From the presence of the Sun,
Following darkness like a dream,
Now are frolic: not a mouse
Shall disturb this hallow'd house:
I am sent, with broom, before,

To sweep the dust behind the door.22

Enter OBERON and TITANIA, with their Train.
Obe. Through the house give glimmering light,
By 23 the dead and drowsy fire;

Every elf and fairy sprite
Hop as light as bird from brier;
And this ditty, after me,

Sing, and dance it trippingly.

22 That is, "To sweep the dust from behind the door." Collier informs us that on the title-page of the tract, Robin Goodfellow, his Mad Pranks and Merry Jests, Puck is represented in a wood-cut with a broom over his shoulder. The whole fairy nation, for which he served as prime minister, were great sticklers for cleanliness. In the old ballad entitled The Merry Pranks of Robin Goodfellow, and generally ascribed to Ben Jonson, we have the following:

When house or hearth doth sluttish lie,

I pinch the maidens black and blue;
The bed-clothes from the bed pull I,
And lay them naked all to view:
'Twixt sleep and wake I do them take,

And on the key-cold floor them throw :

If out they cry, then forth I fly,

And loudly laugh out, ho, ho, ho!

23 By seems here to have the force of by means of,- no uncommon use of the word.

seroso:

Milton was probably thinking of this passage in his Il Pen

Where glowing embers through the room

Teach light to counterfeit a gloom.

Tita. First, rehearse your song by rote,
To each word a warbling note:
Hand in hand, with fairy grace,
Will we sing, and bless this place.

SONG, AND DANCE.

Obe. Now, until the break of day,
Through this house each fairy stray.
To the best bride-bed will we,
Which by us shall blessèd be ; 24
And the issue there create
Ever shall be fortunate.

So shall all the couples three
Ever true in loving be;

And the blots of Nature's hand
Shall not in their issue stand;
Never mole, hare-lip, nor scar,
Nor mark prodigious,25 such as are
Despised in nativity,

Shall upon their children be.
With this field-dew consecrate,

Every fairy take his gait ; 26

And each several chamber bless,

Through this palace, with sweet peace:

And the owner of it, blest,

Ever shall in safety rest.

24 This ceremony was in old times used at all marriages. Douce has given the formula from the Manual for the use of Salisbury. In the French romance of Melusine, the Bishop who marries her to Raymondin blesses the nuptial bed. The ceremony is there represented in a very ancient cut. The good prelate is sprinkling the parties with holy water. Sometimes, during the benediction, the married couple only sat on the bed; but they generally received a portion of the consecrated bread and wine.

25 Prodigious in the Latin sense of unnatural, portentous, or ill-fated. 26 That is, take his way, pursue his course.

Trip away; make no stay :

Meet me all by break of day.

[Exeunt OBERON, TITANIA, and Train.

Puck. If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,

That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
If you pardon, we will mend.
And, as I'm an honest Puck,27
If we have unearned luck

Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,28
We will make amends ere long;

Else the Puck a liar call:

So, good night unto you all.

Give me your hands,29 if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

[Exit.

27 Puck, it seems, was a suspicious name, which makes that this merry, mischievous gentleman does well to assert his honesty. As for the name itself, it was no better than fiend or devil. In Pierce Ploughman's Vision, one personage is called helle Pouke. And the name thus occurs in Spenser's Epithalamion :

Ne let the pouke, nor other evill sprights,

Ne let mischievous witches with theyr charmes,

Ne let hobgoblins, names whose sence we see not,
Fray us with things that be not.

28 Honest Puck, it seems, has a mortal dread of being hissed.
29 Clap your hands, give us your applause.

CRITICAL NOTES.

ACT I., SCENE 1.

Page 8. And then the moon, like to a silver bow

New-bent in heaven. - Instead of New-bent, the old copies have Now-bent, which is inconsistent with what has been said a little before,-"How slow this old moon wanes! " Corrected by Rowe.

P. 9. This man hath witch'd the bosom of my child. -The quartos and first folio have "This man hath bewitch'd." The second folio rectifies the metre by omitting man. Theobald reads as in the text.

P. 12. O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low! - The old copies have love instead of low. Corrected by Theobald.

P. 13. I have a widow aunt, a dowager

Of great revenue, and she hath no child;

And she respects me as her only son.

From Athens is her house remote seven leagues: &c. - The old text has the last two of these lines transposed. This manifestly upsets the proper order and sequence of the thoughts. The correction is Keightley's. Such transpositions are uncommonly frequent in this play.

P. 14. By his best arrow with the golden head,

By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves;

By the simplicity of Venus' doves. - The third of these lines stands the second in the old copies. I concur with Singer in making the transposition; because, as he aptly notes, the passage clearly alludes to "the golden arrow of Cupid, that knitted souls, as opposed to the leaden one that makes loves unprosperous. The Poet doubtless had in mind Ovid, Metam., i. 468–471:

Eque sagittiferâ prompsit duo tela pharetrâ
Diversorum operum: fugat hoc, facit illud amorem:
Quod facit, auratum est et cuspide fulget acutâ;
Quod fugat, obtusum est et habet sub arundine plumbum.