Chapter XXXIII: Act II: SCENE 1. Page 30

FAI. And I serve the fairy queen,
_To dew her orbs upon the green_.

Mr. Steevens in the happy and elegant remark at the end of his note on the last line, has made a slight mistake in substituting _Puck_ for the _fairy_. When the damsels of old gathered the May dew on the grass, and which they made use of to improve their complexions, they left undisturbed such of it as they perceived on the fairy-rings; apprehensive that the fairies should in revenge destroy their beauty. Nor was it reckoned safe to put the foot within the rings, lest they should be liable to the fairies' power.

SCENE 1. Page 32.

_Puck._ But they do _square_.

Dr. Johnson has very justly observed that to _square_ here is to quarrel. In investigating the reason, we must previously take it for granted that our verb _to quarrel_ is from the French _quereller_, or perhaps both from the common source, the Latin _querela_. Blackstone has remarked that the glaziers use the words _square_ and _quarrel_ as synonymous terms for a pane of glass, and he might have added for the instrument with which they cut it. This, he says, is somewhat whimsical; but had he been acquainted with the reason, he might have been disposed to waive his opinion, at least on the present occasion. The glazier's instrument is a _diamond_, usually cut into such a _square_ form as the _supposed diamonds_ on the French and English cards, in the former of which it is still properly called _carreau_, from its _original_. This was the _square_ iron head of the arrow used for the cross-bow. In English it was called a _quarrel_, and hence the glazier's diamond and the pane of glass have received their names of _square_ and _quarrel_. Now we may suppose without straining the point very violently, that these words being evidently synonymous in one sense, have corruptedly become so in another; and that the verb _to square_, which correctly and metaphorically, even at this time, signifies _to agree_ or _accord_, has been carelessly and ignorantly wrested from its true sense, and from frequent use become a legitimate word. The French have avoided this error, and to express a meaning very similar to that of _to quarrel_ or _dispute_, make use of the word _contrecarrer_.

SCENE 1. Page 37.

PUCK. The wisest aunt telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down-topples she.

The celebrated duchess of Newcastle, in a poem of some fancy, entitled _The queen of fairies_, makes Puck or hobgoblin the queen of fairies' fool, and alludes to the above prank in the following lines:

"The goodwife sad squats down upon a stool,
Not at all thinking it was Hob the fool,
And frowning sits, then Hob gives her a slip,
And down she falls, whereby she hurts her hip."

The above dame is a farmer's wife who has been scolding because she was unable to procure any butter or cheese, and at Puck's holding up the hens' rumps to prevent their laying eggs too fast.

With respect to the word _aunt_, it has been usually derived from the French _tante_; but the original Norman term is _ante_. See examples in Carpentier _Suppl._ ad Ducang. v. _avuncula_. So the author of the old and excellent farce of _Maistre Patelin_,

"Vostre belle ante, mourut-elle?"

SCENE 2. Page 39.

Enter OBERON and TITANIA.

Mr. Tyrwhitt's remark that the Pluto and Proserpine of Chaucer were the true progenitors of Oberon and Titania, may be perfectly true; but the name of Oberon as king of the fairies, must have been exceedingly well known from the romance of Huon of Bourdeaux, in which this Oberon makes a very conspicuous figure.

SCENE 2. Page 41.

TITA. Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
By paved fountain.

Milton, doubtless, had these lines in recollection when he wrote,

"To hill or valley, fountain or fresh shade."

_Par. lost_, b. v. l. 203.

SCENE 2. Page 41.

TITA. _To dance our ringlets_ to the whistling wind.

An allusion to what the country people call _fairy rings_, which they suppose to be the tracks of the dances of those diminutive beings.

SCENE 2. Page 43.

TITA. The _nine mens morris_ is fill'd up with mud.

This game was sometimes called _the nine mens merrils_, from _merelles_ or _mereaux_, an ancient French word for the jettons or counters, with which it was played. The other term _morris_ is probably a corruption suggested by the sort of _dance_ which in the progress of the game the counters performed. In the French _merelles_ each party had three counters only, which were to be placed in a line in order to win the game. It appears to have been the _Tremerel_ mentioned in an old fabliau. See Le Grand _Fabliaux et contes_, tom. ii. p. 208.

Dr. Hyde thinks the morris or merrils was known during the time that the Normans continued in possession of England, and that the name was afterwards corrupted into _three mens morals_, or _nine mens morals_. If this be true, the conversion of _morals_ into _morris_, a term so very familiar to the country people, was extremely natural. The doctor adds, that it was likewise called _nine-penny_, or _nine-pin miracle_, _three-penny morris_, _five-penny morris_, _nine-penny morris_, or _three-pin_, _five-pin_, and _nine-pin morris_, all corruptions of _three-pin_, &c. _merels_. Hyde _Hist. Nerdiludii_, p. 202.

SCENE 2. Page 44.

TITA. The _human mortals_ want their winter here.

In the controversy respecting the immortality of fairies, Mr. Ritson's ingenious and _decisive_ reply in his _Quip modest_ ought on every account to have been introduced. A few pages further Titania evidently alludes to the _immortality_ of fairies, when, speaking of the changeling's mother, she says, "but she, _being mortal_, of that boy did die." Spenser's fairy system and his pedigree were allegorical, invented by himself, and not coinciding with the popular superstitions on the subject. _Human mortals_ is merely a pleonasm, and neither put in opposition to _fairy mortals_, according to Mr. Steevens, nor to _human immortals_, according to Ritson; it is simply the language of a fairy speaking of men.

A posthumous note by Mr. Steevens has not contributed to strengthen his former arguments, as the authors therein mentioned do not, strictly speaking, allude to the sort of fairies in question, but to spirits, devils, and angels. Shakspeare, however, would certainly be more influenced by popular opinion than by the dreams of the casuists. There is a curious instance of the nature of fairies, according to the belief of more ancient times, in the romance of Lancelot of the lake. "En celui temps," (the author is speaking of the days of king Arthur,) "estoient appellees faees toutes selles qui sentremettoient denchantemens et de charmes, et moult en estoit pour lors principalement en la Grande Bretaigne, et savoient la force et la vertu des paroles, des pierres, et des herbes, parquoy _elles estoient tenues en jeunesse et en beaulte_, et en grandes richesses comme elles devisoient." This perpetual youth and beauty cannot well be separated from a state of immortality. Nor would it be difficult to controvert the sentiments of those who have maintained the mortality of _devils_, by means of authorities as valid as their own. The above interesting romance will furnish one at least that may not be unacceptable. Speaking of the birth of the prophet and enchanter Merlin, it informs us that his mother would not consent to the embraces of any man who should be visible; and therefore it was by some means ordained that a _devil_ should be her lover. When he approached her, to use the words of the romance, "la damoiselle le tasta et sentit quil avoit le corps moult bien fait; non pourtant les dyables n'ont ne corps ne membres que l'en puisse veoir ne toucher, _car spirituelle chose ne peut estre touchée, et tous diables sont choses spirituelles_." The fruit of this amour was Merlin; but he, being born of woman, was but a semi-devil, and subject to mortality. A damsel with whom he had fallen in love, prevailed on him to disclose some of his magical arts to her, by means of which she deceived him, and preserved her chastity by casting him into a deep sleep whenever he importuned her. The romance adds, "si le decevoit ainsi _pource qu'il estoit mortel_; mais s'il eust este _du tout dyable_, elle ne l'eust peu decepvoir; car ung dyable ne peut dormir."

SCENE 2. Page 45.

TITA. Therefore the moon, _the governess of floods_,
_Pale_ in her anger, _washes all the air_,
That rheumatic diseases do abound.

Thus in Newton's _Direction for the health of magistrates and studentes_, 1574, 12mo, we are told that "the moone is _ladie of moysture_;" and in Hamlet, Act I. Scene 1, she is called "the _moist_ star." In Bartholomæus _De propriet. rerum_, by Batman, lib. 8. c. 29, the moon is described to be "mother of all _humours_, minister and _lady of the sea_." But in Lydgate's prologue to his _Storie of Thebes_, there are two lines which Shakspeare seems closely to have imitated;

"Of Lucina the moone, _moist and pale_,
That many _showre fro heaven_ made availe."

The same mode of expression occurs in Parkes's _Curtaine drawer of the world_, 1612, 4to, p. 48: "the centinels of the season ordained to marke the _queen of floods_ how she lends her borrowed light." This book deserves to be noticed for the good sense which it contains, and the merit of some occasional pieces of poetry.

SCENE 2. Page 50.

OBE. I do but beg a little changeling boy
To be my _henchman_.

Of all the opinions concerning the origin of this word, that of Sir William Spelman alone can be maintained. If instead of deriving it from the _German_, he had stated that it came to us through the _Saxon_ Henᵹeꞅꞇ, a _horse_, his information had been more correct. Although in more modern times the pages or henchmen might have walked on foot, it is very certain that they were originally _horsemen_, according to the term. Thus in Chaucer's _Floure and the leafe_:

"And every knight had after him _riding_
Three _henshmen_, on him awaiting."

If the old orthography _henxmen_ had not been unfortunately disturbed, we should have heard nothing of the conjectures about _haunch_ and _haunch_-men.

SCENE 2. Page 58.

Enter DEMETRIUS, _Helena following him_.

However forward and indecorous the conduct of Helena in pursuing Demetrius may appear to modern readers, such examples are very frequent in old romances of chivalry, wherein Shakspeare was undoubtedly well read. The beautiful ballad of the Nut-brown maid might have been more immediately in his recollection, many parts of this scene having a very strong resemblance to it.

SCENE 2. Page 61.

HEL. I'll follow thee, and _make a heaven of hell_.

Imitated by Milton:

"The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a _heav'n of hell_, a hell of heaven."

_Par. lost_, b. i. l. 254.

SCENE 2. Page 62.

OBE. Quite overcanopied with _lush_ woodbine.

See what has been already said on this word in p. 8; the meaning is the same as there. Theobald's amendment from _luscious_ was probably in conformity with that passage; and the printers of the old editions not comprehending the meaning of _lush_, which even in their time was an antiquated word, ignorantly, as well as unharmoniously, substituted _luscious_.

SCENE 3. Page 68.

HER. ... in human modesty
Such separation, as, may well be said,
Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid.

That is, "_let there be_ such separation," &c. A comma should be placed after _modesty_.