Quin. Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and then you will play bare-faced.8-But, masters, here are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request you, and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night; and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the town, by moon-light; there will we rehearse: for if we meet in the city, we shall be dog'd with company, and our devices known. In the mean time, I will draw a bill of properties, such as our play wants. I pray you, fail me not. 9 Bot. We will meet; and there we may rehearse more obscenely, and courageously. Take pains; be perfect; adieu. 8 Quin. At the duke's oak we meet. Bot. Enough; Hold, or cut bow-strings.1 [Exeunt. French crowns, &c.] That is, a head from which the hair has fallen, in one of the last stages of the lues venerea, called the corona veneris. To this our poet has too frequent allusions. Steevens. 9 — properties,] Properties are whatever little articles are wanted in a play for the actors, according to their respective parts, dresses and scenes excepted. The person who delivers them out is, to this day, called the property-man. In The Bassingbourne Roll, 1511, we find "garnements and propyrtes." See Warton's History of English Poetry, Vol. III, p. 326. Again, in Albumazar, 1615: "Furbo, our beards, "Black patches for our eyes, and other properties." Again, in Westward-Hoe, 1607: "I'll go make ready my rustical properties." Steevens. 1 At the duke's oak we meet. Hold, or cut bow-strings.] This proverbial phrase came originally from the camp. When a rendezvous was appointed, the militia soldiers would frequently make excuse for not keeping word, that their bow-strings were broke, i. e. their arms unserviceable. Hence when one would give another absolute assurance of meeting him, he would say, proverbially-hold or cut bow-strings-i. e. whether the bow-strings held or broke. For cut is used as a neuter, like the verb fret. As when we say, the string frets, the silk frets, for the passive, it is cut or fretted. Warburton. This interpretation is very ingenious, but somewhat disputable. The excuse, made by the militia soldiers, is a mere supposition, without proof; and it is well known that while bows were in use, no archer ever entered the field without a supply of strings in his pocket; whence originated the proverb, to have two strings ACT II.....SCENE I. A Wood near Athens.. Enter a Fairy at one door, and Puck at another. Puck. How now, spirit! whither wander you? Thorough bush, thorough briar, Over park, over pale, Thorough flood, thorough fire, I do wander every where, 3 Swifter than the moones sphere; 3 to one's bow. In The Country Girl, a comedy, by T. B. 1647, is the following threat to a fidler: 66 fiddler, strike ; "I'll strike you, else, and cut your begging bowstrings." Again, in The Ball, by Chapman and Shirley, 1639 : 66 have you devices to jeer the rest? “ Luc. All the regiment of 'em, or I'll break my bowstrings.” The bowstrings, in both these instances, may only mean the strings, which make part of the bow with which musical instruments of several kinds are struck. The propriety of the allusion I cannot satisfactorily explain. Let the curious reader, however, consult Ascham's Toxophilus, edit. 1589, p. 38, b. Steevens. To meet, whether bow-strings hold or are cut, is to meet, in all events. To cut the bowstring, when bows were in use, was probably a common practice of those, who bore enmity to the archer. "He hath twice or thrice cut Cupid's bowstring, (says Don Pedro, in Much Ado about Nothing) and the little hangman dare not shoot at him." Malone. 2 Over hill, over dale, &c.] So Drayton, in his Nymphidia: Thorough brake, thorough brier, 3 66 "Thorough muck, thorough mire, "Thorough water, thorough fire." Johnson. the moones sphere;] Unless we suppose this to be the Saxon genitive case, (as it is here printed) the metre will be defective. So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. III, c. i, st. 15: "And eke through feare as white as whales bone." Again, in a letter from Gabriel Harvey to Spenser, 1580: "Have we not God hys wrath, for Goddes wrath, and a thousand of the same stampe, wherein the corrupte orthography, in the most, hath been the sole or principal cause of corrupte prosodye in over-many?" The following passage, however, in the 3d Book of Sidney's Arcadia, may suggest a different reading : what mov'd me to invite "Your presence (sister deare) first to my moony sphere?" And I serve the fairy queen, To dew her orbs upon the green:4 In those freckles live their savours: 4 To dew her orbs upon the green:] The orbs, here mentioned, are circles supposed to be made by the fairies on the ground, whose verdure proceeds from the fairies' care to water them. Thus, Drayton : They in their courses make that round, "In meadows and in marshes found, "Of them so called the fairy ground." Johnson. Thus, in Olaus Magnus de Gentibus Septentrionalibus: “ similes illis spectris, quæ in multis locis, præsertim nocturno tempore, suum saltatorium orbem cum omnium musarum concentu versare solent." It appears, from the same author, that these dancers always parched up the grass, and therefore it is properly made the office of the fairy to refresh it. Steevens. 5 The cowslips tall her pensioners be;] The cowslip was a favourite among the fairies. There is a hint in Drayton of their attention to May morning: For the queen a fitting tower, "But she hath made it in her way, "The tallest there that groweth." Johnson. This was said in consequence of Queen Elizabeth's fashionable establishment of a band of military courtiers, by the name of pensioners. They were some of the handsomest and tallest young men, of the best families and fortune, that could be found. Hence, says Mrs. Quickly, in The Merry Wives, Act II, sc. ii: “—and yet there has been earls, nay, which is more, pensioners." They gave the mode in dress and diversions.-They accompanied the Queen in her progress to Cambridge, where they held stafftorches, at a play on a Sunday evening, in King's College Chapel. T. Warton. In their gold coats spots you see;] Shakspeare, in Cymbeline, refers to the same red spots: "A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops "I' th' bottom of a cowslip." Percy. Perhaps there is likewise some allusion to the habit of a penSee a note on the second Act of The Merry Wives of Windsor, sc. ii. Steevens. sioner. And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.] The same thought 8 Farewel, thou lob of spirits, I'll be gone; Our queen and all her elves come here anon. Puck. The king doth keep his revels here to-night; Take heed, the queen come not within his sight. For Oberon is passing fell and wrath, Because that she, as her attendant, hath A lovely boy stol'n from an Indian king; She never had so sweet a changeling: " And jealous Oberon would have the child Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild:1 9 occurs in an old comedy, called The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll, 1600; i. e. the same year, in which the first printed copies of this play made their appearance. An enchanter says: 8 ""Twas I that led you through the painted meads, "Where the light fairies danc'd upon the flowers, lob of spirits,] Lob, lubber, looby, lobcock, all denote both inactivity of body, and dulness of mind. Johnson. Both lob and lobcock are used as terms of contempt in The Rival Friends, 1632: Again, in the interlude of Faccb and Esau, 1568: "Should find Esau such a lout or a lob.” Again, in the second book of Homer, as translated by Arthur Hall, 1581: 66 yet fewe he led, bycause he was a lobbe." Again, in The Knight of the Burning Pestle, by Beaumont and Fletcher: "There is a pretty tale of a witch that had the devil's mark about her, that had a giant to her son, that was called Loblye-by-the-fire." This being seems to be of kin to the lubber-fiend of Milton, as Mr. Warton has remarked in his Observations on the Fairy Queen. Steevens. 9 changeling] Changeling is commonly used for the child supposed to be left by the fairies, but here for a child taken away. So, Spenser, B. I, c. x: Johnson. "And her base elfin brood there for thee left, Steevens. It is here properly used, and in its common acceptation; that is, for a child got in exchange. A fairy is now speaking. Ritson. trace the forests wild:] This verb is used in the same sense in Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, B. II, Song II, 1613: "In shepherd's habit seene 1 "To trace our woods." Again, in Milton's Comus, v. 423: 66 May trace huge forests, and unharbour'd heaths." Holt White. But she, perforce, withholds the loved boy, Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quite, That fright the maidens of the villagery; 2 sheen,] Shining, bright, gay. Johnson. So, in Tancred and Gismund, 1592: 66 but why "Doth Phabus' sister sheen despise thy power?" Again, in the ancient romance of Syr Tryamoure, bl. 1. no date: "He kyssed, and toke his leave of the quene, "And of other ladies bright and shene." Steevens. 3 But they do square;] To square here is to quarrel. The French word contrecarrer has the same import. Johnson. So, in Jack Drum's Entertainment, 1601: 66 let me not seem rude, "That thus I seem to square with modesty." pray let me go, for he 'll begin to square," &c. Again, in Promos and Cassandra, 1578: 66 Marry, she knew you and I were at square, "And lest we fell to blowes, she did prepare." Steevens. It is somewhat whimsical, that the glasiers use the words square and quarrel as synonymous terms for a pane of glass. Blackstone. 4 Robin Good-fellow;] This account of Robin Good-fellow corresponds, in every article, with that given of him in Harsenet's Declaration, ch. xx, p. 134; " And if that the bowle of curds and creame were not duly set out for Robin Good-fellow, the frier, and Sisse the dairy-maid, why then either the pottage was burnt to next day in the pot, or the cheeses would not curdle, or the butter would not come, or the ale in the fat never would have good head. But if a Peeter-penny, or an housle-egge were behind, or a patch of tythe unpaid, then 'ware of bull-beggars, spirits," &c. He is mentioned by Cartwright [Ordinary, Act III, sc. i,] as a spirit particularly fond of disconcerting and disturbing domestic peace and œconomy. T. Warton. 5 That fright-] The old copies read-frights; and in grammatical propriety, I believe, this verb, as well as those that follow, should agree with the personal pronoun he, rather than with you. If so, our author ought to have written-frights, skims, labours, makes, and misleads. The other, however, being the |