by Hary Sutton, dwellyng in Poules Churchyard," and therefore considerably before the earliest date that could be assigned to any of Shakespeare's plays. It was probably reprinted.

"Of such as on fantesye, decree and discus

On other men's works, lo, Ovid's tale thus!

"Rude Pan wold nedes one day in companie,
Compare to mend Apollo's melodye,
And toke his homlie pipe and gan to blo;
The gentil God, that saw his rudnes so,
Although himselfe knewe how for to excell,
Contented stode, to here his conning well.
Pan played and played boystiouslye,
Apollo played but much melodiously,
And such a tune wyth such musicke gave,
As wel became hys knowledge for to have;
Midas stode by to judge, and to decre

Whych of them both should best in musycke be;
And as he herde Pan playe and use hys song,
He thought it such as he had lyked long,
And wonted was to here of others oft;
Apollo's harpe and song went very soft,

And swete and straunge, as none might sweter be,
But yet, thought Midas, thys musycke lykes not me.
And therfore strayght ful loude he cried and said,

Pan to myne eares of both hath better plaied.'
Quoth then Apollo, syns thus thou demest Pan,
Me to excel, that God of connyng am,

And so doest judge of thynges thou canst no skyll,
Midas henceforth, lo! thus to the I wyll;
Thou shalte have eares to shewe and tell I wys,
Both what thy skyll and what thy reason is;
Whych on thy head shall stande and wytnes be,
Howe thou haste judged thys rurall God and me.
Nay, be content, for I have it sayd.'

A full sad man stood Mydas then dismayde,
And as he felt to trye if it so was,

He found he had two eares as hath an asse,
Newly growen out wheras hys own eares stoode.
Sore chaunged then his collour and his moode,
But yet for thie, havyng no worde to say,
He shooke hys eares and sadly went hys waye.
I know no more, but thys I wot and know,
That tho the Phrigian Kyng be buryed lo,

And both hys eares eke wyth hym hydden be,
And so far worne that no man shall them se,
Syns such there are that lyve at thys day yet,
Whych have hys skyl, hys judgement, and his wit,
And take upon them both to judge and know,
To them I wyshe even thus, and to no mo,
That as they have hys judgement and hys yeares,
Even so I would they had hys fayre long eares."

We consider this tale of the transformation of the ears of Midas to have furnished Shakespeare with the notion of causing a similar change to take place in the appearance of Bottom the weaver. We would be understood not to refer to any portion of his plot, but merely to the single idea of the transformation; and even if our conjecture be right, we think it possible that Shakespeare might only have been influenced in his choice by a slight recollection of it.

The only verbal similarity is in the last line of the ballad

"Even so I would they had hys fayre long eares."

and Titania's invitation to the Weaver

"Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,

And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy."

There is perhaps nothing very remarkable in this coincidence; but let us read a little further on :

"Tita. What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love? Bot. I HAVE A REASONABLE GOOD EAR IN MUSIC: let us have the tongs and the bones."

How pointless is Bottom's answer taken separately, and yet how full of rich satire and humour, if the speaker be considered a second Midas! Bot

tom had not, like Midas, received the asses head, as a punishment for his presumption, ignorance, and self-conceit; but, even in that point of view, the metamorphosis would have been justifiable; and, at the risk of being thought to overstep the bounds of probability, we are glad to convict our poet of one very good joke.*

The tale of Midas is of course to be found in Golding's Ovid, a book with which Shakespeare was, beyond all doubt, very intimately acquainted. The ballad we have given, moreover, if it fail to convince our readers of the correctness of the view we have taken, will serve as a striking example of the popular manner in which the mythological tales of the ancients were then made current among all classes.

Before we change the subject, we will take the opportunity of saying a few words relative to the character of Bottom the weaver. There is a connexion between this name and the trade, which the obsoleteness of the term has caused to escape the commentators. A ball of thread wound upon any cylindrical body was formerly called A BOTTOM OF THREAD. How appropriate a name then for a weaver! We can furnish our readers with an allusion to this mode of designation. It occurs in a rare little book, called Grange's Garden, 4to. Lond. 1577

L'Estrange has the following fable:-"There was a question. started betwixt a cuckoo and a nightingale, which of the two had the better voice, and the better way of singing. It came at last to a trial of skill, and an ass was to be the judge; who, upon hearing both sides, gave it clearly for the cuckoo."Fables, Edit. 1694, No. 414.

"A bottome for your silke it seemes,
My letters are become,
Whiche, with oft winding off and on,
Are wasted whole and some."

Nick Bottom was the name of our weaver.

We

suspect, from the following contemporary epigram, that the first name was common for professors of that trade:

"Nicke, the weaver's boy, is dead and gone,

Surely his life was but a thrume."*

Our readers will immediately call to mind the invocation of Bottom, in the part of Pyramus, while reciting his "last dying speech:"

"O fates! come, come;

Cut thread and thrum."

" I

Bottom appears to have been of Aristotle's opinion, that the chief end of tragedy is to raise terror. could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split." This may perhaps be an allusion to Martin Slaughter's play of Hercules, now lost, but written about 1594; or it may more probably refer to a "mask of Greek worthies;" and we find, in a list of properties for such a masque, the following entry, "a great clobb for one of them representing Hercules, 4s." It is difficult to say whether the verses which Bottom uses are an actual quotation or a burlesque, but probably the latter:

* We find this in a work, entitled Pieces of Ancient Poetry from Unpublished Manuscripts and Scarce Books, edited by Fry, 4to. Bristol, 1814, p. 15.

+ Kempe's Loseley Manuscripts, p. 87.

"The raging rocks,
And shivering shocks,
Shall break the locks
Of prison gates:
And Phibbus' car
Shall shine from far,

And make and mar
The foolish fates."

In 1581, a translation of one of Seneca's plays, entitled Hercules, by John Studley, was published. It is so bombastically rendered, that we are inclined to think it may be the original of the above, especially as similarities may be found. For instance, take the commencing lines:

And again,

"O Lorde of ghostes! whose fyrye flashe
That forth thy hande doth shake,
Doth cause the trembling lodges twayne,
Of Phoebus' carre to shake.

Raygne reachlesse nowe: in every place
Thy peace procurde I have,

Aloffe where Nereus lookes up lande,
Empalde in winding wave."

"The roring rocks have quaking sturd,

And none thereat hath pusht;

Hell gloummy gates I have brast oape,
Where grisly ghosts all husht
Have stood."-

Shakespeare, however, may allude to some production nearer his own time, and it is very possible that the burlesque may be general.