-Hyems' chin, Dr. Grey, not inelegantly, conjectures, that the poet

wrote:

"—on old Hyems' chill and icy crown."

It is not indeed easy to discover how a chaplet can be placed on the thin. STEEV.

It should rather be for thin, i. e. thin-hair'd. TYRWH.

And on old Hyems' chin, and icy crown.' Chin' should undoubtedly be struck from the text, though I do not think that the alteration proposed by either commentator will be right. I read and interpret as follows:

"And on old Hyems' icy cime, a crown,
"An odorous chaplet, &c."

Cime is a french word signifying top (la cime de la montagne). • Crown' in this place, is not the crown of the head, but a wreath, a garland. The justness and propriety of the allusion to the icy top of a hill or mountain, is evident. After having used crown, he adds an odorous chaplet ; in order to shew that by it, nothing like the princely ornament, the diadem, is to be understood. Crown and

chaplet are here the same: but this is what Dr. Johnson would call an" elegant redundancy," and such, indeed, as is found in the best writers. B.

Queen. We have laugh'd to see the sails conceive, And grow big bellied, with the wanton wind: Which she, with pretty and with swimming gate, (Following her womb then rich with my young squire) Would imitate; and sail upon the land,

To fetch me trifles.

Which she with pity and with swimming gate

FOLLOWING (her womb then rich with my young 'squire)

Would imitate

Following what?' she did not follow the ship, whose motion she imitated; for that sailed on the water, she on the land. If by following, we are to understand imitating, it will be a mere pleonasm-imitating would imitate. From the poet's description of the actions, it plainly appears we should read;

FOLLYING

Would imitate ;

i. e. wantoning in sport and gaiety. Thus the old English writers"and they beeleven FOLYLY and falsly," says Sir J. Maundeville, from and in the sense of folatrer, to play the wanton. This exactly agrees to the action described full often has she gossip'd by my side-and-when we have laugh'd to see. WARB.

The foregoing note is very ingenious, but since follying is a word of which I know not any example, and the Fairy's favorite might, without much licentiousness of language, be said to follow a ship that sailed in the direction of the coast; I think there is no sufficient reason for adopting it. The coinage of new words is a violent remedy, not to be used but in the last necessity. JOHN.

Which she with pretty and with swimming gate Following, &c.'

Johnson's objection to follying is without weight. I would willingly receive the word, but that I think we may better read, as being nearer to the expression in the text,

Her fellowing womb, &c.'

Fellowing in the sense of fellow to, or such as might be compared with the sail, when swollen by the wind. B.

Ob. I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows; Quite over-canopy'd with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine : Where oxlips-The orlip is the greater cowslip.

So, in Drayton's Polyolbion, Song 15:

“ To surt these flowers of showe, with other that were sweet,

"The cowslip then they couch, and th' orlip for her meet." STEEV, Quite over-canopy'd with luscious woodbine. Thus all the old editions, On the margin of one of my folios an unknown hand has written lush woodbine, which I think is right.

This hand I have since discovered to be Theobald's. JoHN.

، Luscious woodbine -- Luscious' is not the proper word. It signifies sweet, indeed, and the woodbine is said to be sweet, but this, as every one knows, is meant of the smell, and luscious will only apply to the sense which we denominate taste. But it is not the fragrance of the flower which is spoken of. Lush is undoubtedly right, but the reader should be made acquainted with its meaning, luxuriant, and which is happily descriptive of the plant in question: the "flaunting honey-suckle," as the Poet elsewhere expresses it. B.

Snout. By'rlakin, a parlous fear.

Parlous, a word corrupted from perilous, i. e. dangerous. So Phaer and Twyne translate Virg. Æn. lib. vii. 302 :

"What good did Scylla me? What could prevail Charybdis wood ?` "Or Sirtes parlous sands." STEEV.

"Parlous" is frequently used for perilous, but it is not employed in that sense here. We cannot well read, a perilous fear. Parlous is peerless, as well as dangerous, and will therefore signify, in this place, very great. If, however, we read parlous feat, which I think is rather to be preferred, it will mean a dangerous undertaking. B.

This. Of color like the red rose on triumphant brier, Most brisky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew. Juvenal. i. e. young man. So Falstaff, "—the juvenal thy master. Juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew." Jew," an abbreviation of jewel. It should be printed“ jew'" to mark the contraction. B.

STEEV.

Bot. Good master Mustard-seed, I know your patience well.

Patience. The Oxford edition reads, I know your parentage well. I believe the correction is right. JOHN.

By patience is meant, standing still in a mustard pot to be eaten with the beef, on which it was a constant attendant. COLL.

"Patience." "By patience is meant, standing still in a mustard pot:" so says the sagacious Mr. Collins. But this Mr. C. is evidently no other than Mr. Steevens himself" the same for ever!". to borrow an hemistich from Pope. Yes, the like happiness of thought and expression at all times-" Night as obscure as a dark corner "-" ribbald-rid nag," &c. &c. It was once imagined that the Poet had drawn a tolerable picture of patience :

"She pin'd in thought,

"And sat, like patience on a monument,
"Siniling at grief."

But what is this, when compared with the noble imagery exhibited by Mr. S.?" Patience, standing still in a mustard pot." Alas! poor Shakspeare!-hide, hide thy diminished head. But though the grandeur of the idea must astonish us, there is yet a fault in the expression: for whether it be patience or the mustard-pot that is to be "eaten with the beef," remains doubtful. There can be no kind of question, however, but that it was so intended of one or the other. The reader may employ his penetration in the matter, if he please. Treve de plaisanterie." Patience," is right. It is spoken ironically, and in allusion to the hot and biting quality of mustard. B..

Puck. Anon, his Thisby must be answered, And forth my minnock comes.

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. JOHN.

The folio reads mimmick; perhaps for mimick, a word more familiat than that exhibited by one of the quartos, for the other reads, minnick, STEEV.

"Minnock." I believe minnick, i, e. minikin, will be the right word. It seems to be used for any thing proverbially small or trifling. He afterwards uses minimus, by way of contempt. B.

Dem. That pure congealed white, high Taurus' snow, Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow, When thou hold'st up thy hand: O, let me kiss This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!

This princess of pure white. Thus all the editions to Sir T. Hanmer's. He reads:

"This pureness of pure white;" and Dr. Warburton follows him.

SHAK.

STEEV.

"O, let me kiss

"This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!" I would regulate the passage thus:

i. e.

This let me kiss,

"Thou princess of pure white-O seal of bliss!"

"let me kiss thy hand, peerless princess as thou art." He does so, and then exclaims: "O seal of bliss!" B.

Hel. Can you not hate mc, as I know you do, But you must join, in souls, to mock me too?

Join in souls. i. e. join heartily, unite in the same mind. Shakspeare in Henry V. uses an expression not unlike this:

"For we will hear, note, and believe in heart."

Sir T. Hanmer would read-in flouts; Dr. Warburton, insolents. STEEV. I rather believe the line should be read thus:

"But you must join, ill souls, to mock me too?"

Ill is often used for bad, wicked. So, in the Sea Voyage of Beaumont and Fletcher, Act IV. Sc. 1.:

"They did begin to quarrel like ill men;"

which I cite the rather, because ill had there also been changed into in, by an error of the press, which Mr. Sympson has corrected from the edition, 1647. TYRW.

This is a very reasonable conjecture, though I think it hardly right. JOHN.

"Join in souls." A better reading, and nearer to the text, (which, indeed, we should at all times study) will be "in soulk," i. e. in a state of wretchedness. Wretched, as I am, will you mock me?" Soulk is the old word for wretched. As to the passages brought in support of " in souls," it is not always the English word soul that is to be understood, but the French soul i. e. full, complete. Thus-" Happy in soul only, by winning her," is: fully, completely happy in gaining her. B.

Dem. Disparage not the faith thou dost not know, Lest, to thy peril, thou aby it dear.

Lest to thy peril thou aby it dear." The folio has abide. MAL. "Thou aby it dear." "Aby" should be "abay."

"Lest thou abay it dear."

i. e. Lest thou suffer for it greatly. Abay is a Law term, signifying to suffer. B.

Queen. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.

In the former editions--and be always away. What was she giving her attendants an everlasting dismission? No such thing; they were to be still upon duty. I am convinced the poet meant;

-and be all ways away."

i. e. disperse yourselves, and scout out severally, in your watch, that danger approach us from no quarter. THEOB.

"And be away-away." Jons.

Mr. Upton reads:

Mr. Heath would read: and be always i' th' way. STEEV.

"

Always away" is right. It means not that the fairies were never to return, but that they should not presume to disturb Bottom-that during his repose they should keep aloof.

The expression is according to the idiom of the French-Voila mes ordres; restez toujours a Paris.-This is by no means to signify that the person so enjoined should never return from Paris, but that he should make it his principal place of residence-that he should remain there until he was recalled. B.

Queen. So doth the woodbine, the sweet honey-suckle, Gently entwist, the female ivy so

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.

So doth the woodbine the sweet honey-suckle
Gently entwist; the FEMALE ivy so
Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.

What does the woodbine entwist? The honey-suckle. But the woodbine
and honey-suckle were, till now, but two names for one and the same
plant. Florio, in his Italian Dictionary, interprets Madre Selva by
woodbine or honnie-suckle. We must therefore find a support for the
woodbine as well as for the ivy. Which is done by reading the lines thus:
"So doth the woodbine, the sweet honey-suckle,
"Gently entwist the MAPLE; ivy so

"Enrings the barky fingers of the elm."

The corruption might happen by the first blunderer dropping the p in writing the word maple, which word thence became male. A following transcriber, for the sake of a little sense and measure, thought fit to change this male into female; and then tacked it as an epithet to ivy. WARB.

Mr. Upton reads:

"So doth the woodrine the sweet honey suckle,"

for bark of the wood. Shakspeare, perhaps, only meant, so the leaves Involve the flower, using woodbine for the plant, and honey-suckle for the flower; or perhaps Shakspeare made a blunder. JOHN..

"So doth the woodbine, the sweet honey-suckle," &c. The commentators have mistaken the meaning of the poet, which is not that the woodbine entwists the honey-suckle, (the woodbine and honey-suckle being one and the same) but that the woodbine or honey suckle has simply the property of entwisting or twining round. Titania says: "Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms." "In like manner," continues she, "the woodbine, the honey-suckle, will entwist." She next illustrates it by an example: "the female ivy so," &c. The setting down the agent without the patient has deceived the editors in the first instance. There is nothing wrong. B.

Ob. Then, my queen, in silence sad,
Trip we after the night's shade.