;

And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green:4
all The cowslips tall"her pensioners be;"
cups In their gold coats spots you see ;6
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours:

I must go seek some dew-drops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.7

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:

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For the queen a fitting tower,

"Quoth he, is that fair cowslip flower.

" In all your train there's not a fay

"That ever went to gather May,
"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 pensioner. See a note on the second Act of The Merry Wives of Windsor, sc. ii. Steevens.

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:9
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild:1

1

But she, perforce, withholds the loved boy,
Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy:
And now they never meet, in grove, or green,
By fountain clear, or spangled star-light sheen,2
But they do square; 3 that all their elves, for fear,
Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there.

Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite,
Call'd Robin Good-fellow: 4 are you not he,
That frights the maidens of the villagery;

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 economy. 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, la

Skim milk; and sometimes labour in the quern,
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;"
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;7
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?

more common usage, and that which he has preferred, I have corrected the former word. Malone.

6 Skim milk; and sometimes labour in the quern,

And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;] The sense of these lines is confused. Are not you he, (says the fairy,) that fright the country girls, that skim milk, work in the handmill, and make the tired dairy-woman churn without effect? The mention of the mill seems out of place, for she is not now telling the good, but the evil that he does. I would regulate the lines thus:

And sometimes make the breathless housewife churn
Skim milk, and bootless labour in the quern.

Or, by a simple transposition of the lines:

And bootless make the breathless housewife churn
Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern.

Yet there is no necessity of alteration. Johnson.

Dr. Johnson thinks the mention of the mill out of place, as the fairy is not now telling the good, but the evil he does. The observation will apply, with equal force, to his skimming the milk, which, if it were done at a proper time, and the cream preserved, would be a piece of service. But we must understand both to be mischievous pranks. He skims the milk, when it ought not to be skimmed :

(So, in Grim the Collier of Croydon :

"But woe betide the silly dairy-maids,

" For I shall fleet their cream-bowls night by night.") and grinds the corn, when it is not wanted; at the same time, perhaps, throwing the flour about the house. Ritson.

A Quern is a hand-mill, kuerna, mola. Islandic. So, in Chaucer's Monkes Tale:

"Wheras they made him at the querne grinde." Again, in Stanyhurst's translation of the first book of Virgil, 1582, quern-stones are mill-stones:

"Theyre corne in quern-stoans they do grind," &c. Again, in The More the Merrier, a collection of epigrams, 1608: "Which like a querne can grind more in an hour." Again, in the old Song of Robin Goodfellow, printed in the 3d volume of Dr. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry:

1

Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck:

8 Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,

You do their work,] To those traditionary opinions Milton has reference in L'Allegro:

"Then to the spicy nut-brown ale,

"With stories told of many a feat,
"How fairy Mab the junkets eat;

"She was pinch'd and pull'd, she said,
"And he by frier's lanthorn led;

"Tells how the drudging goblin sweat

"To earn his cream-bowl duly set,

"When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
"His shadowy flail hath thresh'd the corn,

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That ten day-labourers could not end;

"Then lies him down the lubber fiend."

A like account of Puck is given by Drayton, in his Nymphidia:
"He meeteth Puck, which most men call
"Hobgoblin, and on him doth fall.-

"This Puck seems but a dreaming dolt,
"Still walking like a ragged colt,
"And oft out of a bush doth bolt,

"Of purpose to deceive us;
" And leading us, makes us to stray,
"Long winter's nights, out of the way,
"And when we stick in mire and clay,
"He doth with laughter leave us."

It will be apparent to him, that shall compare Drayton's poem with this play, that either one of the poets copied the other, or, as I rather believe, that there was then some system of the fairy empire generally received, which they both represented as accurately as they could. Whether Drayton or Shakspeare wrote first, I cannot discover. Johnson.

Gervase of Tilbury, speaking of the Portunus, a species of dæmon, says:-" Cum inter ambiguas noctis tenebras Angli solitarii equitant, Portunus nonnunquam invisus equitanti se copulat, et cum diutius comitatur euntem, tandem loris arreptis equum in lutum ad manum ducit, in quo dum infixus volutatur, Portunus exiens cachinnum facit, & sic hujuscemodi ludibrio humanam simplicitatem deridet." See also Mr. Tyrwhitt, on v. 6441, of the Cant. Tales of Chaucer.

The same learned editor supposes Drayton to have been the follower of Shakspeare; for, says he, Don Quixote (which was not published till 1605) is cited in the Nymphidia, whereas we have an edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream, in 1600.

In this century, some of our poets have been as little scrupulous in adopting the ideas of their predecessors. In Gay's ballad, inserted in The What d've call it is the following stanza: