51. Thisne, Thisne. The Cambridge editors think "it may be questioned whether the true reading is not 'thisne, thisne'; that is, in this manner,' a meaning which 'thissen' has in several dialects"; but thisne is an improbable misprint for thissen, and the repetition is against its being that word. It seems more likely to indicate Bottom's attempt to say Thisbe in "a monstrous little voice," in spite of the fact that he doesn't keep up in the rest of the speech. Elsewhere S. fails to maintain consistency in provincial speech and that of foreigners using English-in M. W. and Hen. V., for instance. In the present passage, however, there may the text.

be some corruption of 59. Thisby's mother. For this and other characters mentioned below that do not appear in the clowns' play, see on p. 23 above. 64. A play fitted. Cf. v. 1. 65: "There is not one word apt, one player fitted"; T. of S. ind. i. 87: —

"but sure, that part

Was aptly fitted and naturally perform'd."

69. I will roar, that. The omission of so before that is common. 76. Every mother's son. As Halliwell-Phillipps shows, a phrase of great antiquity. He cites the Thornton MS. in Lincoln Cathedral (15th century): "And he and his oste . . . slewe thame ilke a moder sone"; also MS. Cantab. v. 48:

"Thryes throw at them he ran,

81. An 't were.

Then forsothe as I yow sey,
And woundyt many a modur sone,
And xij. he slew that day."

Cf. T. and C. i. 2. 189: "He will weep you an 't were a man born in April."

83. Sweet-faced. Cf. C. of E. v. 1. 418: "a sweet-faced youth." 84. See in a summer's day. A common phrase. Cf. Sidney, Arcadia: "a tricke and bonny lasse, as in a sommer day a man might see"; Lyly, Mother Bombie: "as goodly a youth as one shail see in a summer's day"; Gratia Ludentes, 1638: "One walk

ing abroad in a cleare moone-shining night, said it was as fine a night as any is in England. Another swore it was as fine a night as a man shall see in a summer's day," etc.

86. What beard, etc. It was the custom at that time to dye the beard. Steevens quotes the old comedy of Ram-Alley, 1611:—

"What colour'd beard comes next by the window? ...

I think, a red: for that is most in fashion;'

"

also Jonson, The Silent Woman: "I have fitted my divine and canonist, dyed their beards and all."

89. Discharge. Perform. Cf. Temp. iii. 1. 22, etc.

=

90. Orange-lawny. Cf. iii. 1. 124 below. Purple-in-grain purple dyed in grain. Marsh (Lect. on Eng. Lang.) shows that grain originally meant the dye kermes, obtained from the coccus insect; but as this sense grew less familiar, and the word came to be used chiefly as expressive of fastness of colour, an idea which was associated with dyeing in the wool or other raw material, dyed in grain got this latter meaning. Cf. Cotgrave, Fr. Dict.: "Graine: ... graine wherewith cloth is dyed in graine; Scarlet dye, Scarlet in graine."

IOI. Properties. Stage requisites; still used in the same sense. Cf. M. W. iv. 4. 78: ·

"Go get us properties

And tricking for our fairies."

We have a curious list of ancient properties in The Antipodes, a comedy by R. Brome, 1640:

"He has got into our tyring-house amongst us,

And tane a strict survey of all our properties;
Our statues and our images of gods,

Our planets and our constellations,

Our giants, monsters, furies, beasts, and bugbeares,
Our helmets, shields and vizors, haires and beards,
Our pastbord march paines, and our wooden pies."

104. Obscenely. Probably used for obscurely. If Bottom, like Mrs. Malaprop, "reprehends anything in this world, it is the use of his oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs."

107. Hold or cut bow-strings. That is, whatever may happen. The origin of the phrase is uncertain, but it seems to belong to archery. Cf. Much Ado, iii. 2. 11: "he hath twice or thrice cut Cupid's bow-string, and the little hangman dare not shoot at him.”

ACT II

SCENE I. For the trochaic metre of the opening lines, see p. 123 above.

3. Thorough. The reading of Ist quarto; the other early eds. have "Through." The words are the same, and S. uses either as suits the measure; and so with the derivatives, thoroughly and throughly, thoroughfares and throughfares, etc. This passage is imitated in The Pranks of Puck, which was quite certainly written after the play:

'If any wanderers I meet

That from their night-sport do trudge home,

With counterfeited voice I greet,

And call them on with me to roam:

Through woods, through lakes,

Through bogs, through brakes,

O'er bush and brier with them I go;

I call upon

Them to come on,

And slide out laughing, ho, ho, ho!"

also in Drayton's Nymphidia: —

"Quoth Puck, - My liege, I'll never lin [stop],

But I will thorough thick and thin,

Until at length I bring her in;

My dearest lord, ne'er doubt it.

7. Moon's sphere. Steevens prints "moones," and compares Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 15: "And eke, through feare, as white as whales bone." He might have added L. L. L. v. 2. 332: “To show his teeth as white as whales bone." But moon's may be metrically a dissyllable. The sphere is the hollow crystalline sphere of the Ptolemaic astronomy, in which the moon was supposed to be fixed. Cf. iii. 2. 61 below.

9. To dew. For the verb, cf. V. and A. 66, Mach. v. 2. 30, R. and J. v. 3, 14, etc. The orbs are the "fairy-rings" so called, which were supposed to be formed by the fairies dancing in a circle. Cf. 86 below.

10. Tall. The cowslips would be tall to beings so diminutive that they could "creep into acorn cups and hide them there."

Pensioners. S. uses the word only here and in M. W. ii. 2. 79. In both places there is an allusion to Queen Elizabeth's band of military courtiers called pensioners. They were the handsomest and tallest young men of good family that could be found. II. In their gold coats, etc. Cf. Cymb. ii. 2. 38:

"

'A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops

I' the bottom of a cowslip."

There is an allusion to the splendid dresses of the pensioners, their coats adorned with gold and jewels; as in Milton, Il Penseroso, 6:

"And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess,

As thick and numberless

As the gay motes that people the sun-beams;

Or likest hovering dreams,

The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train."

13. Freckles. Used by S. nowhere else. He has freckled in Temp. i. 2. 283 and Hen. V. v. 2. 49; in the latter place applied to the cowslip.

15. And hang a pearl, etc. Steevens quotes the old comedy of The Wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll, known to have been written as early as 1596 (but after the present play): —

"'T was I that led you through the painted meades,
Where the light fairies daunst upon the flowers,
Hanging on every leaf an orient pearle.”

Cf. i. 1. 211 above and iv. 1. 54 below.

16. Lob. Lubber; quite certainly suggested by the size of Puck as compared with the fairies that could hide themselves in acorn cups. The general idea of a lubber was a heavy, clumsy, unwieldy fellow. No epithet associated with the word is more common than great or big. Cf. Milton's description of Robin Goodfellow, L'Allegro, 110: "Then lies him down the lubbar fiend"; but this lubber is so active that in one night he does the threshing "that ten daylabourers could not end." The critics dwell overmuch on the dulness and stupidity that have modern meaning of the word. suggested mischief rather than

become more prominent in the So Hobgoblin, which originally malice, came to imply more of

the latter, and therefore something frightful.

20. Passing fell and wrath. Exceeding fierce and wrathful. Cf. T. and C. iv. 5. 269: "fell as death," etc. S. does not elsewhere use wrath as an adjective; nor does he use wroth

(wroth

ruth, misery, occurs in M. of V. ii. 9. 78).

22. Stolen from an Indian king.

wrathful

Halliwell-Phillipps remarks that this is not very easily reconcilable with Titania's own account of the boy's mother in lines 123-134 below.

23. Changeling. It was a common superstition that fairies stole beautiful children, leaving elves in their place. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 65: