III. Through bogge, through bush,]

Thro' brook, thro bog, Peck. Through bog, through mire, through bush, Johns, conj. Through bog, through bum, through bush, Ritson. Through bog, through brook, through bush Lettsom ap. Dyce, Marshall.
bujh ] bnjh F3.
1 1 2. Sometime ] Sometimes Rowe + . fometime] fometimes F^F^,
Rowe+.
1 13. headleffe] heedless Del. conj. curbless Gould.
fometime] fometimes F
1 16. Enter...] Om. Qq. Enter Bot¬ tom with an Ass Head. Rowe, Pope.
of its use by eminent modem writers, as collected in the N. E. D. All that is humbly urged for it here is that it may receive the stamp of respectability by admission to Shakespeare’s vocabulary. — Ed.
H2, 1 13. Collier and Halliwell appeal to sundry popular ballads as authority for these transformations.
1 14, II5- Note the pelting, rattling staccato, which sounds like the explosion of a pack of Chinese firecrackers, at the heels of the flying clowns ? _ Ed.
1 1 6. Enter, &c.] It is needless to call attention to the patent dislocation of this stage-direction— B. Nicholson (N. &- Qu. 4th Ser. V, 56) justifies its present posi¬ tion on the ground that according to line 109 all the clowns, Pyramus included, had rushed off, and for ‘ Enter' we should here read Re-enter . But no trust is to be placed in the stage-directions on this imperfectly printed page of the Folio, where, at line 54, we have 1 Enter Pucke,' who says no word for more than twenty lines nor goes out, and yet, at line 77, we have ‘ Enter Robin.' It is, however, a simple matter to arrange the present action; we have Puck’s account of it all in III, ii, 21, and by it we know that Pyramus enters with the ass’s head after line 105— Ed.
1 16. the Asse head] I cannot but think that this trifling expression stamps this stage-direction as taken from a play-house copy. See Preface. _ Ed.
1 16. Asse head] can set an horsse or an asses head upon a mans shoulders, I shall not be beleeved ; or if I doo it, I shall be thought a witch. And yet if J. Bap. Neap, experiments be true, it is no difficult matter to make it seeme so; and the charme of a witch or papist joined with the experiment, will also make the woonder seeme to proceed thereof. The words used in such case are uncerteine, and to be recited at the pleasure of the witch or cousener. But the conclusion is this : Cut off the head of a horsse or an asse (before they be dead), otherwise the vertue or strength thereof will be the lesse effectuall, and make an earthen vessell of fit capacitie to conteine the same, and let it be filled with the oile and fat thereof: cover it close, and dawbe it over with lome : let it boile over a soft fier three daies continuallie, that the flesh boiled may run into oile, so as the bare bones may be seene : beate the haire into powder, and mingle the
*CT III, sc. i.] A MIDSOMMER NIGHTS DREAME
123
Sn. O Bottom , thou art chang’d ; What doe I fee on thee ?
120
Bot. What do you fee? You fee an Affe-head of your owne, do you ?
122
120. thee ?~\ thee? An Ass’s head ? Johns, conj.
’13, ’21, Sing. i.
122. [Exit Snout. Dyce, Cam.
121. AJfe-head~\ ass’s head Var.’03,
Coll.'
[Exit. Cap. Exit frightened.
same with the oile ; and annoint the heads of the standers by, and they shall seeme to have horsses or asses heads.’ — Scot’s Discovery of Witchcraft , 1584, p. 315, ed. Nich¬ olson. — That this -was the passage whence Shakespeare took the idea of fixing an ass’s head on Bottom was suggested first by Douce, i, 192, aud the suggestion has been since then generally adopted. — B. Nicholson, however, is inclined to think [N. &■ Qu. 6th Ser. IV, 2) that a previous passage (p. 99, ed. Nicholson) gave the first and greater foundation to work upon. “ The bodie of man is subject to . . . sicknesses and infirmities whereunto an asses body is not inclined ; and man’s body must be fed with bread, &c, and not with hay. Bodins asseheaded man must either eat haie or nothing; as appeareth by the storie.” Nicholson thinks that this eating hay is very likely to have suggested Bottom’s ‘ great desire to a bottle of hay ’ ; and furthermore, both passages from Scot, especially the former, ‘ show that Shakspeare here intro¬ duced no unknown creature of his imagination, but brought before his audiences one which they had known by report. It was not the creature so much as his walking and talking as set forth, that made it supremely ridiculous.’ — Thoms, also ( Three Notelets, p. 68), infers from Scot that ‘ the possibility of such transformations was in Shakespeare’s day an article of popular belief.’ Bodin’s story is to be found on p. 94 of Scot, ed. 1584, wherein a young man, as in Apuleius, was changed completely into an ass. — Steevens : The metamorphosis of Bottom’s head might have been sug¬ gested by a trick mentioned in the History of the Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Dr. John Faustus, chap, xliii : — ‘ The guests having sat, and well eat and drank, Dr. Faustus made that every one had an ass’s head on, with great and long ears, sc they fell to dancing, and to drive away the time until it was midnight, and then every one departed home, and as soon as they were out of the house, each one was in his natural shape, and so they ended and went to sleep.’ — Douce refers to a receipt for this metamorphosis in Albertus Magnus de Secretis Natures, of which there was an English translation printed at London by William Copland. This receipt is thus given by W. A. Wright (it is much less elaborate than Scot’s, and really places the experiment within reach of the humblest) : ‘ If thou wilt that a mans head seeme an Asse head. Take vp the couering of an Asse & anoint the man on his head.’
120. thee?] Johnson: It is plain by Bottom’s answer, that Snout mentioned an ass’s head. Therefore we should read : ‘ what do I see on thee ? An ass’s head ?’ — Halliwell : This suggestion by Dr Johnson is not necessary, the phrase being a vernacular one of the day, and originally in the present place created probably great amusement when thus spoken by Bottom in his translated shape. Mrs Quickly, in the Merry Wives, says, ‘ You shall have a fool’s head of your own.’ According to Pinkerton, ‘The phrase — You see an ass’s head of your own; do you? — is a trite vulgarism, when a person expresses a foolish amazement at some trifling oddity in another’s dress or the like.’
124
A MID SOMMER NIGHTS DREAME [act hi, sc. i.
Enter Peter Quince.
Pet. Bleffe thee Bottome, bleffe thee; thou art tranfla-
Exit.
Bot. I fee their knaueiy; this is to make an affe of me, to fright me if they could; but I will not ftirre from this place, do what they can. I will walke vp and downe here, and I will fmg that they fhall heare I am not a- fraid.
The Woofell cocke, fo blacke of hew,
With Orenge-tawny bill.
The Throftle, with his note fo true,
The Wren and little quill.
Tyta. What Angell wakes me from my flowry bed ? Bot. The Finch, the Sparrow, and the Larke,
The plainfong Cuckow gray ;
123
125
130
135
137
125. Exit.] Exit frightened. Coll. Ex¬ eunt Snout and Quince. Sta.
129. I will ] will F3F4, Rowe i.
130. [Sings. Pope et seq.
1 3 1. Woofell cocke~\ Woof el cock F4, Rowe. Ousel cock Pope + . ouzel cock Cap. oosel-cock Steev.
132. Orenge ] Orange Qq, Rowe ii et seq.
133- tenth] wilt F4, Rowe i.
134. anti] with Qq, Pope et seq.
quill.] quill ; Cap. et seq.
I3S- [waking. Rowe. Sings waking. Pope.
136. Sings. Theob. et seq.
129. they shall] For other examples of the future where we should use the infin¬ itive or subjunctive, see Abbott, § 348.
131. Woos el Cocke] W. A. Wright: The male blackbird. The word in the Ff and Qq is probably the same as French oiseau, of which the old form was oisel. Cotgrave gives, ‘ Merle : m. A Mearle, Owsell, Blackbird. Merle noir The Black bird, or ordinarie Owsell.’ [For further ornithological discussion, of great interest, doubtless, to British naturalists, the student is referred to the voluminous notes of Halliweli., Steevens, Douce, and Collier. Harting’s decision (p. 139) that the cwzel-cock is the Turdus merula, and Cotgrave’s definition, are ample for us in
this country, and perhaps for all others elsewhere. _ Ed.]
133. Throstle] Harting (p. 137) : It is somewhat singular that the thrush (Tur¬ dus musicus ), a bird as much famed for song as either the nightingale or the lark has been so little noticed by Shakespeare. We have failed to discover more than three passages in which this well-known bird is mentioned. [The spelling « Trassell ’ in the Qq and F, of The Mer. of Ven. I, ii, S8 (of this ed.), probably, with a broad a, gives the pronunciation. — Ed.]
134. and little quill] Remembering that it is Bottom who is singing, I cannot but think it needless to change ‘and’ to with, as the Qq read. Of course, ‘ quill ’ here means pipe or note. — Ed.
137. plainsong] Chappell (p. 51, footnote) : Prick-song meant harmony written or pncked down, in opposition to plain-song, where the descant rested with the will
ACT III, sc. i.] A MIDSOMMER NIGHTS DREAME
125
Who
And dares not anfwere, nay.
For indeede, who would fet his wit to fo foolifh a bird ? 140
Who would giue a bird the lye, though he cry Cuckow, neuer fo ?
Tyta. I pray thee gentle mortall, fing againe,
Mine eare is much enamored of thy note ;
On the firft view to fay, to fweare I loue thee. 145
So is mine eye enthralled to thy fhape.
And thy faire vertues force (perforce) doth moue me.
Bot. Me-thinkes miftrefle , you fhould haue little reafon for that : and yet to fay the truth, reafon and loue keepe little company together , now-adayes. 150 The more the pittie, that fome honeft neighbours will
139. nay.'] nay ; — Cap. et seq.
144. enamored] enamoured Q,F4. enamour’d Rowe et seq.
145. Transposed to follow line 147, Q,, Theob. et seq.
145. to fweare] to swear , Theob. et seq.
147. vertues] vertue's Rowe ii et seq. virtue , Coll. conj.
doth] do Thirlby.
148. miflreffe] maijlrejfe Ff.
of the singer. Thus the florid counterpoint in use in churches is slyly reproved in The Four Elements , circa 1517: '■Humanity. Peace, man, prick-song may not be despised For therewith God is well pleased, In the church oft times among. Igno¬ rance. Is God well pleased, trow’st thou, thereby ? Nay, nay, for there is no reason why, For is it not as good to say plainly, Give me a spade, As give me a spa, ve, va, ve, va, ve, vade ?’[ — p. 49, ed. Hazlitt. T. WARTON, apparently misled by the word ‘ plain,’ supposed that ‘ plain-song ’ meant ‘ having no variety of strains,’ or having ‘the uniform modulation of the chant,’ and herein he is followed by Dyce and R. G. White. Harting, however, gives a different character to the Cuckoo’s song; of this present line he says, p. 150:] The cuckoo, as long ago remarked by John Heywood, begins to sing early in the season with the interval of a minor third ; the bird then proceeds to a major third, next to a fourth, then to a fifth, after which its voice breaks, without attaining a minor sixth. It may, therefore, be said to have done much for musical science, because from this bird has been derived the minor scale, the origin of which has puzzled so many ; the cuckoo’s couplet being the minor third sung downwards.
139. nay] Halliwell: Bottom here refers to an opinion very prevalent in Shakespeare’s time that the unfaithfulness of a wife was always guided by a destiny which no human power could avert.
140. set his wit to] W. A. Wright: That is, would match his wit against. So Tro. and Cres. II, i, 94 : ‘ Will you set your wit to a fool’s ?’
145-147. See Text. Notes for the proper order of these lines.
149. reason and loue] Verity : Compare the old proverb that * a man cannot love and be wise,’ from the maxim, amare et sapere vix deo conceditur.
126
A MIDSOMMER NIGHTS DREAME [act in, sc. i.
not make them friends. Nay, I can gleeke vpon occa- 152 fion.
Tyta. Thou art as wife, as thou art beautifull.
Bot. Not fo neither .* but if I had wit enough to get 155 out of this wood, I haue enough to ferue mine owne turne.
Tyta. Out of this wood, do not defire to goe,
Thou fhalt remaine here, whether thou wilt or no.
I am a fpirit of no common rate : 160
The Summer ftill doth tend vpon my ftate,
152. gleeke] Pope: Joke or scoff. — Boswell: See Jamieson’s Scottish Diction¬ ary, s. v. Glaik, s. [where the first meaning is : * The reflection of the rays of light on the roof or wall of a house, or on any other object, from a lucid body in motion. Hence, to cast the glaiks on one, to make the reflection fall on one’s eyes so as to con¬ found and dazzle.’ The third meaning is : ‘A deception or trick. To play the glaiks •with one, to gull, to cheat. . . . This sense would suggest that it is radically the same with North of England gleek, to deceive, to beguile, as it is used by Shakespeare, “ I can gleek upon occasion ” ; Lambe thinks it has been improperly rendered joke or scoff.’ Jamieson’s definition of the verb, however, viz. ‘ to trifle with, to spend time idly or playfully,’ does not greatly vary from that of Pope, Nares, Dyce, Staunton, Collier, W. A. Wright, and others, who define ‘gleek’ as scoffing, jesting, &c., a meaning which is certainly borne out in the only other passage where it is used as a verb in Shakespeare. Gower, in referring to Pistol’s treatment of Fluellen, says to the former, ‘ I have seen you gleeking and galling at this gentleman twice or thrice.’ —Hen. V: V, i, 78. The Cowden-Clarkes {Sh. Key, p. 39) thus define the word: ‘That is, gibe, jeer ; in modern slang, chaff. The expression originated in the name for a game of cards, called « gleek,” in which game « a gleek ” was the term for a set of three particular cards; “to gleek,” for gaining an advantage over; and “to be gleeked,” for being tricked, cheated, duped, or befooled. Hence the words “ gleek ” and “ gleeking ” became used for being tauntingly or hectoringly jocose.’ But, after all, is it worth while to strain after any exact meaning in Bot- tom’s'words ? Did he, more than nebulously, know his own meaning ? Staunton says : ‘ The all-accomplished Bottom is boasting of his versatility. He has shown, by his last profound observation on the disunion of love and reason, that he pos¬ sesses a pretty turn for the didactic and sententious ; but he wishes Titania to under¬ stand that upon fitting occasion he can be as waggish as he has just been grave.’ To which W. A. Wright replies: ‘But a “gleek” is rather a satirical than a waggish joke, and in this vein Bottom flatters himself he has just been rather successfully indulging.’ Whatever the meaning of ‘ gleek,’ I think it is clear that Bottom refers to what he has just said, not to what he may say in the future. It is perhaps worth while merely to note that in the Opera of The Fairy- Queen, 1692, Bottom says here, instead of gleek, ‘ Nay I can break a Jest on occasion.’ Garrick in his version, 1763, retained ‘gleek.’ — Ed.]
160, 161. lam... state] Fleay {Life dr* Work, p. 1S1): These lines are so closely like those in Nash’s Summer's Last Will, where Summer says : ‘ Died had I indeed unto the earth, But that Eliza, England’s beauteous Queen, On whom all
*CT III, SC. i.] A MID SOMMER NIGHTS DREAME 127
And I doe loue thee ; therefore goe with me, 162
lie giue thee Fairies to attend on thee ;
And they fhall fetch thee Iewels from the deepe,
And fing, while thou on prefled flowers dofl: fleepe : 165
And I will purge thy mortall groffeneffe fo,
That thou (halt like an airie fpirit go.
Enter Peafe-bloJJome, Cobweb , Moth , Mujlard- feede , and foure Fairies.
Fat. Ready ; and I, and I, and I, Where fhall we go ? 170
165. doJT\ doth F3F4, Rowe i.
167. [Scene III. Pope-K
168, 169. Enter Peafe-bloffome...Muf- tard-feede,] Peafe-bloffome. ..and Muf- tard feede ? (Continued to Titania.) Qq, Theob. et seq.
168. Moth] Mote White.
169. and four Fairies.] Enter four Fairies. Qq, Theob. et seq.
170. Fai.] Fairies. Qq.
Fai. Ready ; and I, and /,] I.
Fair. Ready. 2. Fair. And I. 3. Fair. And I. Rowe et seq. Peas-blossom. Ready. Cobweb. And I. Mote. And I. White, Dyce (subs.).
170. and I, Where Jhall we go ?~\ 4. F air. A nd I. Where shall we go? Rowe + . 4. Fai. Where shall we go? Farmer, Steev. ’93) Coll. Mustard-seed. And I. All. Where shall we go ? White, Dyce (subs.). 4. And I. All. Where shall we go ? Cap. et cet. (subs.).
seasons prosperously attend, Forbad the execution of my fate,’ &c., that I think they are alluded to by Shakespeare.
1 61. still] Always.
168. Moth] R. G. White: This is the invariable spelling of mote in the old copies, as, for instance, in this play, V, i, 322. The editors, not having noticed this orthography or that ‘ moth ’ was pronounced mote in Shakespeare’s day, Fairy Mote has been hitherto presented as Fairy Moth. [In his Introduction to Much Ado, and in his note on ‘ Enter Armado and Moth,’ in Love's Lab. L. I, ii, R. G. White has gathered the following instances in proof of the old pronunciation of th : ‘I am here with thee and thy goats as the most capricious poet, honest Ovid, was among the Goths.’ — As You Like It, III, iii, 7 ; ‘ You found his Moth, the King your Moth did see; but I a beame doe finde in each of three.’ — Love's Lab. L. IV, iii, 161; ‘O heaven, that there were but a moth in yours [sc. eye].’ — King John, IV, i, 92. Wic- liff wrote, in Matthew vi, ‘ were rust and mought distryeth.’ To these examples he adds in the present note:] From Withal’s Shorte [Latin] Dictionarie for Young Beginners, London, 1568 : ‘A moth or motte that eateth clothes, tinea.' — fol. 7 a; ‘A barell or greate bolle, Tina, nee. Sed tinea, cum e, vermiculus est, anglicl, A mought.’ —fol. 43 a; and this from Lodge’s Wits Misene, ‘ They are in the aire like atomi in sole, mothes in the sun.’ [In his Memorandums of Eng. Pronunciation, &c., Shake¬ speare’s Works, xii, p. 431, White has collected many more examples, such as : nos¬ trils, nosethrills; apotecary, apothecary; autority, authority; t’ one, the one; t'other, the other ; swarty, swarthy ; fift, fifth ; sixt, sixth ; Sathan, Satan ; Antony, Anthony ; wit, withe [an interesting example, by which alone can be explained the pun in Love's Lab. L. I, ii, 94, ‘green wit’]; pother, pudder, potter; noting, nothing [White contends that the title of the play should be pronounced Much Ado about
128
A MIDSOMMER NIGHTS DREAME [act III, sc. i.
Tita. Be kinde and curteous to this Gentleman,
Hop in his walkes, and gambole in his eies,
Feede him with Apricocks, and Dewberries,
With purple Grapes, greene Figs, and Mulberries,
The honie-bags fteale from the humble Bees,
And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighes,
And light them at the fierie-Glow-wormes eyes,
172. gambole~\ gambol Cap. 177. wormes ] worms' Kinnear.
175. The] Their Coll. MS.
Noting ] ; With Sunday es, Whit Sundays, &c., &c. — A. J. Ellis, after a thorough discussion of this memorandum of White, comes to this temperate general conclu¬ sion ( Early Eng. Pronun. p. 972) : concluding that the genuine English th ever had the sound of t, although some final t’s have fallen into th. As regards the alternate use of d and th in such words as tnurther, further, father, &c., there seems reason to suppose that both sounds existed, as they still exist, dialectically, vulgarly, and obsolescently.’ As regards the name of the little Fairy now present, however, I have no doubt that R. G. White is entirely right. — Ed.
170. R. G. White was the first to substitute the fairies’ names, instead of numerals, before each repetition of ‘ and I.’ — Capell was the first editor to mark that ‘All ’ united in the question ‘ Where shall we go ?’ Chronologically, he was anticipated in The Fairy- Queen, An Opera, 1692.
I73- Apricocks] W. A. Wright: This is the earlier and more correct spelling of apricots. The word has a curious history. In Latin the fruit was called praecoqua (Martial, Epig. xiii, 46) or praecocia (Pliny, H. N. xv, 11), from being early ripe; Dioscorides (i, 165) called it in Greek npaLubma. Hence, in Arabic, it became bar- quq or birquq, and with the article al-barquq or al-birquq ; Spanish, albarcoque ; Ital¬ ian, albricocco (Torriano) ; French, abricot ; and English, abricot, abricoct (Holland’s Pliny, xv, 11), apricock, or apricot.
173. Dewberries] Halliwell cites Parkinson’s Theatrum Botanicum, 1640, wherein the * Deaw-berry or Winberry ’ is the Rubus tricoccos, and quotes a long description. ‘ Other writers,’ he adds, ‘ make it synonymous with the dwarf mul¬ berry or knotberry, Rubus chamcemorus, and it is worth remarking that this fruit is still called the dewberry by the Warwickshire peasantry. It is exceedingly plentiful in the lanes between Stratford-on-Avon and Aston Cantlowe.’ — W. A. Wright says its botanical name is Rubus caesius .’ But of what avail are botanical names for fruits of autumn and for flowers of spring which are not only in bloom but are ripe tn a dream on a midsummer night ? — Ed.
177. eyes] Johnson: I know not how Shakespeare, 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. — Halliwell, with greater entomological accuracy, describes the light as men,’ and he might also have caught tripping even Dr Johnson himself for referring to the glow-worm as masculine.— M. Mason: Dr Johnson might have arraigned Shakespeare with equal propriety for sending his fairies to light their tapers at the fire of the glow-worm, which in Hamlet he terms uneffectual : ‘ The glow-worm . . . gins
171
175 1 77
ACT in, sc. i.] A MIDSOMMER NIGHTS DREAME
129
178
To haue my loue to bed, and to arife :
And plucke the wings from painted Butterflies,
To fan the Moone-beames from his fleeping eies. 180
Nod to him Elues, and doe him curteftes.
I .Fax. Haile mortall, haile.
2. Fai. Haile.
3 .Fai. Haile.
Bot. I cry your worfhips mercy hartily; I befeech 185 your worfhips name.
Cob. Cobweb.
Bot. I fhall defire you of more acquaintance, good Matter Cobweb : if I cut my finger, I fhall make bold with you. 19°
Your name honeft Gentleman?
Peaf. Peafe blojfome.
Bot. I pray you commend mee to miftreffe Squajh, 193
178. haue ] show Gould.
179. plucke] pluke Fa.
182, 184. I. Fai _ Haile.] I. F. Hail
mortal! 2. hail l 3. hail l 4. hail ! Cap. et seq. (subs.). Yeas. Hail mortal l Cob. Hail! Moth. Hail! Mus. Hail l Dyce,
White.
185. worjhips] worship's Rowe + , Steev.’8s, Var.’2i, Knt, Coll. Hal. Ktlv.
186. worjhips] worship's Rowe et seq.
187. 189. Cobweb.] Cobwed. Fa.
188. you of] of you Rowe+.
to pale his uneffectual fire.’ As we all know, and as Monk Mason himself probably knew, ‘ uneffectual ’ in Hamlet does not mean incapable of imparting fire, but of showing in the matin light. But Dr Johnson, of all men, could not complain at being ‘ knocked down with the butt of a pistol.’ Indeed, he is sufficiently answered by the line in Herrick’s To Julia , familiar as a household word: ‘ Her eyes the glow¬ worm lend thee.’ — Ed. — Hazlitt ( Characters , &c., p. 130) : This exhortation is remarkable for a certain cloying sweetness in the repetition of the rhymes.
188. you of] Steevens, Malone, Staunton, and Halliwell give examples from old authors of this construction, which may be termed common. It is quite suf¬ ficient to refer to the note on line 42 of this scene, where Abbott, § 174, is cited, who gives additional examples, if even a single one be needed. The modem phrase in line 195: ‘I shal desire of you more acquaintance,’ is possibly a misprint. — Ed.
189. if I, &c.] Malone notes that there is a dialogue ‘ very similar to the present ’ in The Mayde's Metamorphosis, by Lilly. This play was published anonymously in 1600, possibly after Lilly’s death, and so little resembles in style all of the other plays by that author that Fairholt does not even include it in Lilly’s Works. — Ed.
193. Squash] Skeat [Diet. s. v. to squash) : To crush, to squeeze flat. No doubt commonly regarded as an intensive form of quash; the prefix s- answering to Old French es- = Latin ex-. But it was originally quite an independent word, and even now there is a difference in sense ; to quash never means to squeeze flat. . . . Deriva¬ tive : squash , substantive, a soft unripe peascod [whereof Shakespeare himself gives the best definition in Twel. N. I, v, 165 : ‘ Not yet old enough for a man, nor young 9
130
A MIDSOMMER NIGHTS DREAME [act iii, sc. i,
your mother, and to matter Peafcod your father. Good matter Peafe-bloffome , I that defire of you more acquain- 195 tance to. Your name I befeech you fir?
Muf. Mujlard-feede.
Pea/. Peafe-bloffome.
hot. Good matter Mu/lard feede , I know your pati¬ ence well : that fame cowardly gyant-like Oxe beefe 200 hath deuoured many a gentleman of your houfe. I pro- mife you, your kindred hath made my eyes water ere now. I defire you more acquaintance, good Matter Muf ard-f cede.
Tita. Come waite vpon him, lead him to my bower. 205 The Moone me-thinks, lookes with a watrie eie,
And when the weepes, weepe euerie little flower, 207
J95- of you more'] you of more Qq, Cap. et seq.
acqtiaintance to.] acquaintance , to. Qz. acquaintance too. Ff et seq.
198. Peaf. Peafe-bloffome.] Om. Qq Ff et seq.
199, 200. your patience] your parent¬ age Han. Warb. your puissance Rann
conj. your passions Farmer, you pass¬ ing Mason.
202. hath] have Cap. conj.
203. you more] your more F3F4, Cam. White ii. more of your Rowe + . you, more Cap. Steev.’85, Mai. ’90. you of more Dyce, White i, Coll. ii.
207. weepe] weepes Qt, Han. Cap. et seq.
enough for a boy; as a squash is before ’tis a peascod.’ Our American vegetable squash, is according to the Century Diet., an abbreviation of squanter-squash, a cor- ruptmn of the American Indian asqutasquash. The authorities are Roger Williams
Key to Lang, of America, ed. 1643, and Josselyn, N. E. Rarities, 1672, Amer’ Antiq. Soc. iv, 193. — Ed.]
198. This is merely a compositor’s negligent repetition of line 192, and was of course, corrected m the next Folio. ’
199. patience] Johnson approved of Hanmer’s change to parentage; Farmer fancied the true word was passions, i. e. sufferings.— Capell : ‘ Patience ’ is put for
applrble’ t0 a Pr0Verb’ t0 the gentleman the speech addresses; and that this is its ironical sense, the ideas that follow after seem to confirm • insinu
atmg that this hotness, being hereditary in the family, had been the cause that many of them had been ‘devour’d’ in their quarrels with ‘ox-beef,’ and of his crying Z riaem._REED: These words are spoken ironically> ^ £
ailing in our author s time, mustard was supposed to excite choler -Knight • The pahence of the family of Mustard in being devoured by the ox-beef is one of those brief touches of wit, so common in Shakespeare, which take him far out of the range of ordinary wnters.-HALLiWELL: Bottom is certainly speaking ironicallv think,™ perhaps of the old proverb-as hot as mustard. [Can there be abetter proof of Mus tard-seeds long suffermg patience than that, being strong enough to force team Horn Bottom s eyes, he permits himself to be devoured by a big cowardly Ox-beef ?-Ed 1 207. she weepes] Waeker (Grf.iii.48): Alluding* to the supposed origin
ACT III, sc. ii] A MIDSOMMER NIGHTS DREAME
131
208
Lamenting fome enforced chaftitie.
Tye vp my louers tongue, bring him filently. Exit.
[Scene II]
Enter King of PJiaries, folus.
Ob. I wonder if Titania be awak’t ;
Then what it was that next came in her eye,
Which the muft dote on, in extremitie.
Enter Pucke. 5
Here comes my meffenger : how now mad fpirit,
What night-rule now about this gaunted groue? 7
209. loners'] love's Pope + , Cap. Steev. Mai. Knt, White, Dyce, Sta. Cam.
louers tongue'] lover’s tongue and Coll, ii (MS).
Exit.] Exeunt. Rowe.
Scene IV. Pope 4- . Scene II. Cap. et seq. Act IV, Sc. i. Fleay. Another Part of the Wood. Cap.