Now the wasted brands do glow, Whilft the scritch-owl, scritching loud, Puts the wretch, that lies in woe, For fo the wolf is exactly characterized, it being his peculiar property to howl at the moon. (Behowl, as bemoan, befeem, and an hundred others.) WARBURTON. So, in Marston's Antonio and Mellida, where the whole passage feems to be copied from this of our author: " "Now barks the wolfe against the full-cheek'd moon, "Now lyons half-clam'd entrals roar for food, "Now croaks the toad, and night-crows fcreech aloud, Flutt'ring 'bout cafements of departing fouls; "Now gape the graves, and thro' their yawns let loofe " Imprifon'd spirits to revisit earth." THEOBALD. The alteration is better than the original reading; but perhaps the author meant only to fay, that the wolf gazes at the moon. JOHNSON. I think, "Now the wolf behowls the moon," was the original text. The allufion is frequently met with in the works of our author and his contemporaries. "'Tis like the bowling of Irish wolves againft the moon," says he, in his As You Like It; and Massinger, in his New Way to pay old Debts, makes an usurer feel only as the moon is mov'd "When wolves with hunger pin'd, bowl at her brightness." FARMER. The word beholds was in the time of Shakspeare frequently written beboulds (as, I suppose, it was then pronounced,)-which probably occafioned the mistake. It is obfervable, that in the passage in Lodge's Rosalynde, 1592, which Shakspeare seems to have had in his thoughts, when he wrote, in As You Like It" 'Tis like the howling of Irish wolves against the moon:" -the expression is found, that Marston has ufed instead of bebowls. " In courting Phebe, thou barkeft with the wolves of Syria against the moon." These lines also in Spenser's Faery Queen, B. I. c. v. ft. 30. which Shakspeare might have remembered, add fupport to the emendation now made: " And all the while the [Night] stood upon the ground, Now it is the time of night, That the graves, all gaping wide, 9-fordone.] i. e, overcome, So Spenser, Faery Queen, B. I. c. x. ft. 33: "And many fouls in dolour had foredone." Again, in Jarvis Markham's English Arcadia, 1607: "-fore-wearied with striving, and fore-done with the tyrannous rage of her enemy." Again, in the ancient metrical Romance of Sir Bevis of Hampton, bl. 1. no date: "But by the other day at none, "These two dragons were foredone." STEEVENS. * Now it is the time of night, &c.] So, in Hamlet : 3 I am fent, with broom, before, To fweep the dust behind the door.] Cleanliness is always necef. fary to invite the refidence and the favour of fairies : These make our girls their flutt'ry rue, By pinching them both black and blue, And put a penny in their shoe The house for cleanly sweeping. Drayton. JOHNSON. To sweep the dust behind the door, is a common expreffion, and a common practice in large old houses; where the doors of halls and galleries are thrown backward, and feldon or ever shut. FARMER, 1 Enter OBERON and TITANIA, with their Train. OBE. Through this house give glimmering light, By the dead and drowsy fire : Every elf, and fairy sprite, SONG, AND DANCE. OBE. Now, until the break of day, 4 Through this house give glimmering light,] Milton perhaps had this picture in his thought: And glowing embers through the room Teach light to counterfeit a gloom. Il Penferofo. So Drayton : Hence shadows, seeming idle shapes Of little frifking elves and apes, To earth do make their wanton 'Scapes, As hope of pastime haftes them. I think it should be read: Through this house in glimmering light. JOHNSON. $ Now, until, &c.] This speech, which both the old quartos give to Oberon, is in the edition of 1623, and in all the following, printed as the fong. I have restored it to Oberon, as it apparently contains not the blessing which he intends to bestow on the bed, but his declaration that he will bless it, and his orders to the fairies how to perform the necessary rites. But where then is the fong? I am afraid it is gone after many other things of greater value. The truth is that two fongs are loft. The feries of the scene is this; after the speech of Puck, Oberon enters, and calls his fairies to a fong, which fong is apparently wanting in all the copies. Next - - JL To the best bride-bed will we, Shall upon their children be.— Titania leads another fong, which is indeed lost like the former, though the editors have endeavoured to find it. Then Oberon dismisses his fairies to the despatch of the ceremonies. The fongs, I fuppofe were lost, because they were not inserted in the players' parts, from which the drama was printed. 5 To the best bride-bed will we, JOHNSON. Which by us shall blessed be;) We learn from "Articles ordained by K. Henry VII. for the Regulation of his Household," that this ceremony was observed at the Marriage of a Princess. " - All men at her comming in to bee voided, except woemen, till thee bee brought to her bedd; and the man both; he fittinge in his bedd in his thirte, with a gowne caft about him. Then the Bishoppe, with the Chaplaines, to come in, and bleffe the bedd: then everie man to avoide without any drinke, save the twoe estates, if they lifte, priviely." p. 129. STEEVENS. 6 hare-lip,] This defect in children seems to have been fo much dreaded, that numerous were the charms applied for its prevention. The following might be as efficacious as any of the reft. " If a woman with chylde have her smocke flyt at the neather ende or skyrt thereof, &c. the same chylde that the then goeth withall, shall be fafe from having a cloven or hare lippe." Thomas Lupton's Fourth Book of Notable Thinges, 4to. bl. 1. STEEVENS. Nor mark prodigious,] Prodigious has here its primitive fignification of portentous. So, in K. Richard III: If ever he have child, abortive be it, Prodigions, and untimely brought to light." STEEVENS. i i With this field-dew confecrate, Every fairy take his gait ; * 9 And each feveral chamber bless, E'er shall it in safety reft, And the owner of it bleft. 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,) 8-take his gait;] i. e. take his way, or direct his steps. So, in Spenser's Faery Queen, B. I. c. viii: " And guide his weary gate both to and fro." Again, in a Scottish Proverb: "A man may fspeer the gate to Rome." Again, in The Mercers' Play, among the Chester collection of Whitsun Mysteries, p. -: "Therefore goe not through his cuntrey, " Nor the gate you came to day." STEEVENS. By gate, I believe is meant, the door of each chamber. 9 Every fairy take his gait; M. MASON. And each feveral chamber bless, &c.] The same superstitious kind of benediction occurs in Chaucer's Miller's Tale, v. 3479Tyrwhitt's edit. "I crouche thee from elves, and from wightes. "Therwith the nightspel said he anon rightes "On foure halves of the hous aboute, "And on the threfwold of the dore withoute. "Jefu Crift, and Seint Benedight, " Bliffe this hous from every wicked wight, "Fro the nightes mare, the wite Paternofter," &c. 1 |