"Our life is a plain song with cunning penn'd." Return from Parnassus. Again, in Hans Beer-pot`s Invisible Comedy, &c. "The cuckoo sings not worth a groat "Because she never changeth note.' STEEVENS. 138. Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note; So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape; And thy fair virtue's force, perforce doth move me, On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.] These lines are in one quarto of 1600, the first folio of 1623, the second of 1632, and the third of 1664, &c. ranged in the following order : Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note, On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee; And thy fair virtue's force (perforce) doth move me. This reading I have inserted, not that it can suggest any thing better than the order to which the lines have been restored by Mr. Theobald from another quarto, but to shew that some liberty of conjecture must be allowed in the revisal of works so inaccurately printed, and so long neglected. 1 146. gleek] Joke or scoff. JOHNSON. Gleck, was originally a game at cards. The word is often used by our ancient comick writers in the same sense as by our author. So, in Mother Bombie, 1594: "There's gleek for you, let me have my gird." Mr. Lambe observes in his notes on the ancient me trical history of the Battle of Floddon, that in the north to gleek is to deceive, or beguile; and that the reply made by the queen of the fairies, proves this to be the meaning of it. STEEVENS. 166. -Where shall we go?] Perhaps this question should be proposed by the four fairies together. STEEVENS. 169. dewberries,] Dewberries strictly and properly are the fruit of one of the species of wild bramble called the creeping or the lesser bramble : but as they stand here among the more delicate fruits, they must be understood to mean raspberries, which are also of the bramble kind. HAWKINS. Dewberries are gooseberries, which are still so called in several parts of the kingdom. HENLEY. 173. -the fiery glow-worm's eyes,] I know not how Shakspere, who commonly derived his knowledge of nature from his own observation, happened to place the glow-worm's light in his eyes, which is only in his tail. JOHNSON. 180. -hail!] Out of the four fairies, only three address themselves to Bottom. If this salutation be given to the second fairy, the repetition of the same word will serve for the other two. STEEVENS. 184. I shall desire you of more acquaintance, -] This line has been very unnecessarily altered. The same mode of expression occurs in Lusty Juventus, a morality, 1561: "I shall desire you of better acquaintance.” Such Such phraseology was very common to many of our ancient writers. So, in An Humourous Day's Mirth, 1599: 66 STEEVENS. I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good master Cobweb; If I cut my finger I shall make bold with you.] In The Mayde's Metamorphosis, a comedy, by Lilly, there is a dialogue between some foresters and a troop of fairies, very similar to the present. "Mopso. I pray you, sir, what might I call you? "1 Fai. My name is Penny. "Mopso. I am sorry I cannot purse you. "Frisco. I pray you, sir, what might I call you? "2 Fai. My name is Cricket. "Fris. I would I were a chimney for your sake.” The Maid's Metamorphosis was not printed till 1600, but was probably written some years before. MALONE. 188. mistress Squash, your mother,] A squash is an immature peascod. So, in Twelft Night, acti. "-as a squash is before 'tis a peascod.” 193. STEEVENS. -patience] By patience is meant, standing still in a mustard pot to be eaten with the beef, on which it was a constant attendant. 203. read: COLLINS. my love's tongue-] The old copies -my -my lover's tongue STEEVENS. 208. What night-rule-] Night-rule in this place should seem to mean, what frolick of the night, what revelry is going forward? It appears, from the old song of Robin Goodfellow, in the third volume of Dr. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, that it was the office of this waggish spirit to viewe the night-sports." STEEVENS. $212. -patches,- -] Puck calls the players, "a crew of patches." A common opprobrious term, which probably took its rise from Patch, cardinal Wolsey's fool. In the western counties, cross-patch is still used for perverse, ill-natur'd fool. WARTON. The name was rather taken from the patch'd or pyed coats worn by the fools or jesters of those times. So, in the Tempest: -what a py'd Ninny's this?" Again, in Preston's Cambyses: "Hob and Lob, ah ye country patches!” Again, in the Three Ladies of London, 1584: "It is simplicitie, that Patch." 220. STEEVENS. nowl -] A head. Saxon, JOHNSON, So, Chaucer, in The History of Berya, 1524: "Both wit and wysdom," &c. Again, in the Three Ladies of London, 1584: "One thumps me on the neck, another strikes me on the nole." STEEVENS. 222a 222. -minnock -] This 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. The folio reads mimmick; perhaps for mimick, a word more familiar than that exhibited by one of the quartos, for the other reads, minnick. STEEVENS. I believe the reading of the folio is right: And forth my mimick comes. The line has been explained as if it related to Thisbe, but it does not relate to her, but to Pyramus. Bottom had just been playing that part, and had retired into the brake. "Anon his Thisbe must be answered, And forth my mimick (i. e. my actor) comes." In this there seems no difficulty. Mimick is used as synonymous to ador, by Decker, in his Guls's Hornebooke, 1609: "Draw what troope you can from the stage after you: the mimicks are be holden to you for allowing them elbow-room.” Again, in his Satiromastix, 1602: "Thou [B. Jonson]. hast forgot how thou amblest in a leather pilch by a play-waggon in the highway, and took'st mad Jeronymo's part, to get service amongst the mimicks.” MALONE. -sort,] Company. So above: -that barren sort;" 224. and in Waller: "A sort of lusty shepherds strive." So, in Chapman's May-day, 1611: JOHNSON. "--though |