Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

In fhape no bigger than an agat-ftone
On the fore-finger of an alderman+,
Drawn with a team of little atomies s
Athwart men's nofes as they lie afleep:
Her waggon-fpokes made of long spinners' legs;

The

I apprehend, and with no violence of interpretation, that by "the fairies' midwife," the poet means, the midwife among the fairies, because it was her peculiar employment to steal the new-born babe in the night, and to leave another in its place. The poet here ufes her general appellation, and character, which yet has fo far a proper reference to the prefent train of fiction, as that her illufions were practifed on perfons in bed or afleep; for fhe not only haunted women in childbed, but was likewife the incubus or nightmare: Shakspeare, by employing her here, alludes at large to her midnight pranks performed on feepers; but denominates her from the most notorious one, of her perfonating the drowsy midwife, who was infenfibly carried away into fome diftant water, and fubftituting a new birth in the bed or cradle. It would clear the appellation to read the fairy midwife.-The poet avails himfelf of Mab's appropriate province, by giving her this nocturnal agency. T. WARTON.

4 On the fore-finger of an alderman,] The quarto, 1597, reads, of a burgomafter. The alteration was probably made by the poet himself, as we find it in the fucceeding copy, 1599: but in order to familiarize the idea, he has diminished its propriety. In the pictures of burgomafters, the ring is generally placed on the fore-finger; and from a paflage in The firft Part of Henry IV. we may fuppofe the citizens in Shakspeare's time to have worn this ornament on the thumb. So again, Glapthorne, in his comedy of Wit in a Conftable, 1639: -and an alderman, as I may fay to you, he has no more wit than the reft o' the bench; and that lies in his thumb ring." STEEVENS.

5-of atomies-] Atomy is no more than an obfolete fubftitute for So, in Heywood's Brazen Age, 1613:

atom.

I'll tear thy limbs into more atomies

"Than in the fummer play before the fun."

In Drayton's Nimphidia there is likewise a description of Queen Mab's chariot:

"Four nimble gnats the borfes were,
"Their barneffes of goflamere,

"Fly cranion, ber charioteer,

Upon the coach-box getting:
Her chariot of a frail's fine fhell,
"Which for the colours did excell,
The fair Queen Mab becoming well,
So lively was the limning:

The

The cover, of the wings of grafhoppers;
The traces, of the smallest spider's web;
The collars, of the moonshine's watry beams:
Her whip, of cricket's bone; the lash, of film:
Her waggoner, a fmall grey-coated gnat,
Not half fo big as a round little worm
Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid:
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut,
Made by the joiner fquirrel, or old grub,
Time out of mind the fairies' coach-makers.
And in this ftate fhe gallops night by night

Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love:
On courtiers' knees, that dream on court'fies ftraight:
O'er lawyer's fingers, who ftraight dream on fees:
O'er ladies' lips, who ftraight on kiffes dream;
Which oft the angry Mab with blifters plagues,
Because their breaths with sweet-meats tainted are.
Sometime the gallops o'er a courtier's nofe,
And then dreams he of fmelling out a suit:

"The feat, the foft wool of the bee,
"The cover (gallantly to fee)

The wing of a py'd butter flee,

"I trow, 'twas fimple trimming:

"The wheels compos'd of cricket's bones,

"And daintily made for the nonce,

"For fear of rattling on the ftones,

"With tbiftle-down they food it." STEEVENS.

And

Drayton's Nimphidia was written feveral years after this tragedy.

See Vol. II. p. 460, n. 7. MALONE.

with fweet-meats-] i. e. kiffing-comfits.

These artificial

aids to perfume the breath, are mentioned by Falstaff in the laft act of the Merry Wives of Windfor. MALONE.

• Sometime fhe gallops o'er a courtier's nofe,

And then dreams be of smelling out a fuit:] Dr. Warburton has justly obferved, that in Shakspeare's time "a court-folicitation was called fimply a fuit, and a procefs, a fuit at law, to diftinguish it from the other. The king (fays an anonymous contemporary writer of the life of Sir William Cecil,) called him (Sir William Cecil,) and after long talk with him, being much delighted with his answers, wished his father to find [i. e. to smell out] a fuit for him. Whereupon he became fuitor for the reverfion of the cuftos brevium office in the Common Pleas; which the king willingly granted, it being the firft fuit he had in his life.'

As

And fometimes comes fhe with a tithe-pig's tail,
Tickling a parfon's nofe as 'a lies afleep,
Then dreams he of another benefice:
Sometime the driveth o'er a foldier's neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambufcadoes, Spanish blades",

Of

As almost every book of that age furnishes proofs of what Dr. Warburton has obferved, I fhall add but one other inftance, from Decker's Guls Hornebooke, 1609: " If you be a courtier, discourse of the obtaining of fuits."

To avoid the repetition of the word courtiers in this fpeech, Mr. Tyrrwhitt propofed to read-O'er counties' knees, i, e. the knees of counts; for in old language county fignified a nobleman. So, as he obferves, in Holinfhed, p. 1150, "the Countie Egmond," and in the Burleigh papers, I. p. 7, "The Countie Palatine, Lowys." Paris, he adds, who, in one place is called earl, is most commonly styled the County in this play. See alfo Vol. I. p. 270, n. 8; Vol. III. p. 13, D. 5; and p. 431, n. *. He, however, candidly acknowledges that the repetition of the courtier, which offends us in this paffage, may be owing to the players having jumbled together the varieties of feveral editions, as they certainly have done in other parts of the play."

In the prefent inftance I think it is more probable that the repe tition arofe from the caufe affigned by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. This fpeech at different times received much alteration and improve. ment. The part of it in queftion, ftands thus in the quarto, 1597: And in this fort the gallops up and down

Through lovers braines, and then they dream of love:
O'er courtiers knees, who strait on curfies dream:

O'er ladies lips, who dream on kiffes ftrait;

Which oft the angrie Mab with blifters plagues,
Because their breaths with fweetmeats tainted are.
Sometimes the gallops o'er a lawyer's lap,
And then dreames he of smelling out a fuit:
And fometimes comes the with a tithe-pig's taile,
Tickling a parfon's nofe that lies afleepe,
And then dreames he of another benefice,
Sometimes the gallops o'er a fouldier's nofe,
And then dreames he of cutting forraine throats,

Of breaches, ambuscadoes, countermines,

Of healths five fadome deepe, &c.

Shakspeare, as I obferved before, did not always attend to the propriety of his own alterations. STEEVENS.

7-Spanish blades,] A sword is called a toledo, from the excellence of the Toletan fteel. So Grotius:

Gladius

Of healths five fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear; at which he starts, and wakes;
And, being thus frighted, fwears a prayer or two,
And fleeps again. This is that very Mab,
That plats the manes of horfes in the night;
And bakes the elf-locks in foul fluttish hairs,
Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes.
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs',
That preffes them, and learns them firft to bear,
Making them women of good carriage.
This is fhe-

Rom. Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace;
Thou talk'ft of nothing.

Mer. True, I talk of dreams:

Which are the children of an idle brain,

Gladius Toletanus.

"Unda Tagi non eft uno celebranda metallo;

"Utilis in cives eft ibi lamna fuos." JOHNSON.

The quarto, 1597, instead of Spanish blades, reads countermines. STEEV. In the paffage quoted from Grotius, alio has been conftantly printed inftead of uno, which makes it nonfenfe; the whole point of the couplet depending on that word. I have corrected it from the original. MALONE.

28 Of bealths five fatbom deep ;] So, in Weftward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: "troth, fir, my mafter and fir Goflin are guzzling; they are dabbling together fathom deep. The knight has drunk fo much bealth to the gentleman yonder, on his knees, that he hath almoft loft the ufe of his legs." MALONE.

9 And bakes the elf locks, &c.] This was a common fuperftition; and feems to have had its rife from the horrid difeafe called the Plica Polonica. WARBURTON.

So, in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632:

"And when I fhook thefe locks, now knotted all,

"As bak'd in blood,"-. MALONE.

wben maids, &c.] So, in Drayton's Nimphidia:

"And Mab, bis merry queen, by night

"Beftrides young folks that lie upright,

(In elder times the mare that bight)

Which plagues them out of measure."

So, in Gervafe of Tilbury, Dec. 1. c. 17. Vidimus quofdam dæmones tanto zelo mulieres amare, quod ad inaudita prorumpunt ludibria, et cum ad concubitum earum accedunt, mirâ mole eas opprimunt, nec ab aliis videntur." ANONYMUS.

of good carriage.] So, in Love's Labour's Loft, A& I. fc. ii.
let them be men of good repute and carriage."

Motb. Samplon, mafter; he was a man of good carriage; great carriage; for he carried the town-gates," &c. STEEVENS.

Begot

Begot of nothing but vain fantafy;

Which is as thin of fubftance as the air;

And more inconftant than the wind, who wooes
Even now the frozen bofom of the north,
And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence,
Turning his face to the dew-dropping fouth.

Ben. This wind, you talk of, blows us from ourselves; Supper is done, and we fhall come too late.

Rom. I fear, too early: for my mind mifgives,
Some confequence, yet hanging in the stars,
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date

With this night's revels; and expire the term
Of a defpifed life 3, clos'd in my breast,
By fome vile forfeit of untimely death:
But He, that hath the fteerage of my courfe,
Direct my fail!-On, lufty gentlemen.
Ben. Strike, drums.

SCENE V.

A Hall in Capulet's House.

Muficians waiting. Enter Servants.

[Exeunt.

1. Serv. Where's Potpan, that he helps not to take away? he shift a trencher?! he scrape a trencher!

2. Serv.

2-from thence,] The quarto, 1597, reads:-in hafte, STEEVENS. -bis face-] So the quarto, 1597. The other ancient copies have fide. MALONE.

3

and expire the term

Of a defpifed life,] So, in the Rape of Lucrece:

"An expir'd date, cancell'd ere well begun."

See Vol. X. p. 87, n. 8. MALONE.

• Direct my fail!] I have restored this reading from the elder quarto, as being more congruous to the metaphor in the preceding line. Suit is the reading of the folio. STEEVENS.

Suir is the corrupt reading of the quarto 1599, from which it got into all the fubfequent copies. MALONE.

5 Strike, drum.] Here the folio adds: They march about the flage, and ferving men come forth with their napkins. STEEVENS.

This fcene is added fince the first copy. STEEVENS.

7-be fhift a trencher!] Trenchers were ftill ufed by perfons of good fashion in our author's time. In the houshold-book of the earls of Northumberland, compiled at the beginning of the fame century, it appears that they were common to the tables of the firft nobility. PERCY.

They

« AnteriorContinua »