Fai. Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough briar, Thorough flood, thorough fire, g In those freckles live their savours: Puck. The king doth keep his revels here to-night; Because that she, as her attendant, hath Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy: when bows were in use, was probably a common practice of those who bore enmity to the archer. 9 To dew her orbs upon the green:] These orbs are circles supposed to be made by the fairies on the ground, whose verdure proceeds from the fairies' care to water them. The cowslips tall her pensioners be;] 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. lob of spirits,] Lob, lubber, looby, lobcock, all denote both inactivity of body and dulness of mind, and were used as terms of contempt. And now they never meet in grove, or green, Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quite, Puck. 3 sheen,] Shining, bright, gay. JOHNSON. 4 But they do square ;] To square here is to quarrel. 6 in the quern,] Quern is a hand-mill: kuerna, mola. no barm;] Barme is a name for yeast, in some parts of England, and universally in Ireland and Scotland. 7 sweet Puck,] The epithet is by no means superfluous; as Puck alone was far from being an endearing appellation. It signified nothing better than fiend, or devil. It seems that in the fairy mythology, Puck, or Hobgoblin, was the trusty servant of Oberon, and always employed to watch or detect the intrigues of Queen Mab, called by Shakspeare, Titania. a roasted crab;] i. e. a wild apple of that name. And tailor cries, and falls into a cough; And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe;' A merrier hour was never wasted there. gone! -'Would that he were SCENE II. Enter OBERON, at one door, with his train, and TITANIA, at another, with hers. Obe. Ill met by moon-light, proud Titania. Obe. Tarry, rash wanton; Am not I thy lord? Obe. How canst thou thus, for shame, Titania, Knowing I know thy love to Theseus? Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night3 9 And tailor cries,] The custom of crying tailor at a sudden fall backwards, I think I remember to have observed. He that slips besides his chair, falls as a tailor squats upon his board. JOHNSON. ·hold their hips, and loffe;] i. e. laugh. 1 2 And waxen-] And encrease, as the moon waxes. 3 stars. the glimmering night-] the night faintly illuminated by From Perigenia, whom he ravished? And make him with fair Æglé break his faith, up 4 Tita. These are the forgeries of jealousy : 6 9 4 And never, since the middle summer's spring, &c.] The middle summer's spring, is, I apprehend, the season when trees put forth their second, or, as they are frequently called, their mid-summer shoots. HENLEY. 5 6 pelting ―] This word is always used as a word of contempt. overborne their continents:] Borne down the banks that contain them. 7 murrain flock;] The murrain is the plague in cattle. › The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud;] Nine men's morris · is a game still played by the shepherds, cowkeepers, &c. in the midland counties, as follows: A figure is made on the ground by cutting out the turf; and two persons take each nine stones, which they place by turns in the angles, and afterwards move alternately, as at chess or draughts. He who can place three in a straight line, may then take off any one of his adversary's where he pleases, till one, having lost all his men, loses the game. 9 the quaint mazes in the wanton green,] This alludes to a For lack of tread, are undistinguishable : From our debate, from our dissention; We are their parents and original. Obe. Do you amend it then: it lies in you: sport still followed by boys: i. e. what is now called running the figure of eight. STEEVENS. The human mortals—] Shakspeare might have employed this epithet, which, at first sight, appears redundant, to mark the difference between men and fairies. Fairies were not human, but they were yet subject to mortality. 2 That rheumatick diseases do abound:] Rheumatick diseases signified in Shakspeare's time, not what we now call rheumatism, but distillations from the head, catarrhs, &c. 3 this distemperature,] is either this perturbation of the elements, or the perturbed state in which the king and queen had lived for some time past. 4 The childing autumn,] is the pregnant autumn, which unseasonably produces flowers on those of summer. 5 By their increase,] that is, by their produce. 6 henchman.] Page of honour. This office was abolished at court by Queen Elizabeth, but probably remained in the city. Hench |