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up and down here, and I will fing, that they fhall hear I am not afraid.

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The oufel-cock, fo black of hue,

With orange tawny bill,

The throftle with his note fo true;
The wren with little quill:

[Sings.

Queen. What angel wakes me from my flowery

bed?

[Waking

Bottom fings.

The finch, the fparrow, and the lark,
The plain-fong cuckow gray,

Whofe note full many a man doth mark,
And dares not answer, nay;-

for

The ouzel cock,] The ouzel cock is generally understood to be the cock blackbird. Ben Jonfon ufes the word in The Devil is an Afs:

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ftay till cold weather come,

"I'll help thee to an ouzel and a field-fare.”

P. Holland, however, in his tranflation of Pliny's Nat. Hift. b. x. c. 24. reprefents the ouzle and the blackbird, as different birds. See alfo fir Afhton Lever's Mufeum.

In The Arbor of Amorous Devifes, 4to, bl. 1. are the following lines:

"The chattering pie, the jay, and eke the quaile,

"The thruftle-cock that was fo black of bewe."

The former leaf and the title-page being torn out of the copy I confulted, I am unable either to give the two preceding lines of the stanza, or to ascertain the date of the book. STEEVENS.

4 The throstle with his note fo true,] So, in the old metrical ros mance of The Squhr of Low degree, bl. 1. no date;

"The pee and the popinjaye,

"The thruftele, fayinge both nyght and daye." Again, in the first book of Gower De Confeffione Amantis, 1554 : "The throffel with the nightingale."

It appears from the following paffage in Thomas Newton's Herball to the Bible, 8vo. 1587, that the throfile is a diftinct bird from the thrush. "There is alfo another forte of myrte or myrtle which is wild, whofe berries the mavifes, throfils, owfells, and thrushes delite, much to eate.' STEEVENS.

5-plain-fong cuckow, &c.] That is, the cuckoo, who, having no variety of ftrains, fings in plain fong, or in plano cantu, by

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for indeed, who would fet his wit to fo foolish a bird? who would give a bird the lye, though he cry, cuckoo, never fo.

Queen. I pray thee gentle mortal, fing again: • Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note, So is mine eye enthralled to thy fhape;

And thy fair virtue's force, perforce doth move me, On the first view, to say, to swear, I love thee.

Bot. Methinks, miftrefs, you should have little reason for that: And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together now-a-days: The more the pity, that fome honest neighbours

which expreffion the uniform modulation or fimplicity of the chaunt was anciently diftinguished, in oppofition to prick-fong, or variegated mufic fung by note. Skelton introduces the birds finging the different parts of the fervice of the funeral of his favourite fparrow: among the rest is the cuckoo. P. 277. edit. Lond. 1736:

But with a large and a long
"To keep just playne fonge

"Our chanter fhall be your cuckoue." WARTON.
"Our life is a plain fong with cunning penn'd."

Return from Parnassus,

Again, in Hans Beer-pot's Invifible Comedy, &c.

"The cuckoo fings not worth a groat

"Because she never changeth note." STEEVENS.

• Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note,

So is mine eye enthralled to thy fhape,

And thy fair virtue's force (perforce) doth move me,
On the first view to fay, to fwear, I love thee.]

Thefe lines are in one quarto of 1600, the first folio of 1623, the fecond of 1632, and the third of 1664, &c. ranged in the following order:

Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note,

On the first view to fay, to favear, I love thee ¿

So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape,

And thy fair virtue's force (perforce) doth move me.

This reading I have inferted, not that it can fuggest any thing better than the order to which the lines have been restored by Mr. Theobald from another quarto, but to fhew that fome liberty of conjecture must be allowed in the revifal of works fo inaccurately printed, and fo long neglected. JOHNSON.

will not make them friends. Nay, I can' gleek, upon occafion.

Queen. Thou art as wife, as thou art beautiful.

Bot. Not fo, neither: but if I had wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough to ferve mine

own turn.

Queen. Out of this wood do not defire to go; Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no. I am a fpirit, of no common rate ;

The fummer ftill doth tend upon my state,
And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;
I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee;

And they fhall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
And fing, while thou on preffed flowers doft fleep:
And I will purge thy mortal groffnefs fo,
That thou shalt like an airy fpirit go.-
Pease-bloffom! Cobweb! Moth! and Muftard-feedb
Enter four Fairies.

1 Fair. Ready.

2 Fair. And I.

3 Fair. And I.

4 Fair. And I where fhall we :

go 6 $

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Queen. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman; Hop in his walks, and gamból in his eyes;

5gleck,] Joke or fcoff. POPE.

Gleek was originally a game at cards. The word is often used by our ancient comic writers in the same sense as by our author. So, in Mother Bombie, 1594:

"There's gleek for you, let me have my gird."

Again, in Tom Tyler and his Wife, 1661:

"The more that I get her, the more she doth gleek me.”

Again, in Greene's Farewell to Follie, 1617:

Meffieur Benedetto galled Peratio with this gleek." Mr. Lambe obferves in his notes on the ancient metrical history of the Battle of Floddon, that in the North to gleek is to deceive, or beguile; and that the reply made by the queen of the fairies, proves this to be the meaning of it. STEEVENS.

-Where ball we go?] Perhaps this question should be propofed by the four fairies together. STEEVENS.

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Feed him with apricocks, and dewberries',
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;
The honey-bags fteal from the humble bees,
And, for night tapers, crop their waxen thighs,
And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,
To have my love to bed, and to arife;

And pluck the wings from painted butterflies,
To fan the moon-beams from his fleeping eyes:
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtefies.
1 Fair. Hail, mortal, hail !

2 Fair. Hail!

3 Fair. Hail!

Bot. I cry your worship's mercy heartily.—I befeech, your worship's naihe.

Cob. Cobweb.

Bot. I fhall defire you of more acquaintance', good mafter cobweb: If I cut my finger, I fhalb make

7 Dewberries,] Dewberries ftrictly and properly are the fruit of one of the fpecies of wild bramble called the creeping or the leffer bramble but as they stand here among the more delicate fruits, they must be understood to mean raspberries, which are alfo of the bramble kind. HAWKINS.

:

Dewberries are goofeberries, which are ftill fo called in feveral parts of the kingdom. HENLEY.

8

the fiery glow-worm's eyes,] I know not how Shakfpeare, who commonly derived his knowledge of nature from his own obfervation, happened to place the glow-worm's light in his eyes, which is only in his tail. JOHNSON.

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hail!] Out of the four fairies, only three addrefs themselves to Bottom. If this falutation be given to the fecond fairy, the repetition of the fame word will ferve for the other tyo. STEEVENS.

1fball defire you of more acquaintance,] This line has been very unneceffarily altered. The fame mode of expreffion occurs in Lufty Juventus, a morality, 1561:

"I fhall defire you of better acquaintance." Such phrafeology was very common to many of our ancient writers.

So, in An Humourous Day's Mirth, 1599:

"I do defire you of more acquaintance."

make bold with you.-Your name, honeft gentleman ?

Peafe. Peafe-bloffom.

Bot. I pray you commend me to mistress Squash* your mother, and to mafter Peafcod, your father. Good mafter Peafe-bloffom, I fhall defire you of more acquaintance too. -Your name, I beseech you, fir?

Muf. Muftard-feed.

Bot. Good mafter Muftard-feed, I know your 3 patience well that fome cowardly, giant-like, oxbeef hath devoured many a gentleman of your houfe I promise you your kindred hath made my eyes water ere now. Í defire you, more acquaint ance, good master Mustard-feed.

Again, in Greene's Groatsworth of Wit, 1621:

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I fhall defire you of more acquaintance, good mafter Cobweb; if I cut my finger Ifhall make bold with you.] In The Mayde's Metamor phofis, a comedy, by Lilly, there is a dialogue between fome foresters and a troop of fairies, very fimilar to the prefent:

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"Mopfo. I pray you, fir, what might I call you?
"Fai. My name is Penny.

"" Мор. I am forry I cannot purfe you.

"Frifco. I pray you, fir, what might I call you?
66 2 Fai. My name is Cricket.

Frif. I would I were a chimney for your fake."

The Maid's Metamorphofis was not printed till 1600, but was probably written fome years before. MALONE.

2

miftrefs Squath your mother,] A Squash is an immature peafcod. So, in Twelfth Night, act i. fc.

5:

as a fquah is before 'tis a peafcod." STEEVENS. 3patience] The Oxford edition reads, I know your parentage avell. I believe the correction is right. JOHNSON.

Parentage was not eafily corrupted to patience. I fancy, the true word is, paffions, fufferings. FARMER.

By patience is meant, ftanding fill in a mustard pot to be eaten with the beef, on which it was a conftant attendant. COLLINS.

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