and then another fault in the femblance of a fowl:think on't, Jove, a foul fault. When Gods have hot backs, what fhall poor men do? for me, I am here a Windfor ftag, and the fatteft, I think, i'th' foreft. Send me a cool rut-time, Jove, or who can blame me to piss my tallow? who comes here? my Doe?

Enter Mistress Ford and Miftrefs Page.

Mrs. Ford. Sir John? art thou there, my deer? my male-deer?

Fal. My doe with the black fcut? let the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green-Sleeves; hail kiffing-comfits, and fnow eringoes; let there come a tempeft of provocation, I will fhelter me here. Mrs. Ford. Miftrefs Page is come with me, sweet heart.

Fal. Divide me like a (a) bribe-buck, each a haunch; I will keep my fides to myself, my shoulders for the fellow of this walk, and my horns I bequeath your husbands. Am I a woodman, ha? Speak I like Herne the hunter? why, now is Cupid a child of conscience, he makes reftitution. As I am a true fpirit, welcome! [Noife within.

Mrs. Page. Alas! what noife?
Mrs. Ford. Heav'n forgive our fins!
Fal. What fhould this be?

Mrs. Ford.} Away, away.

Mrs. Page.

[The women run out,

Fal. I think the devil will not have me damn'd, left the oil that is in me fhould fet hell on fire; he never would elfe cross me thus.

SCENE

IV.

Enter Sir Hugh like a Satyr; Quickly, and others, dreft like Fairies, with Tapers.

Quic. Fairies, black, gray, green, and white,
You moon-fhine revellers, and fhades of night,
• You Ouphen heirs of fixed destiny,
Attend your office, and your quality.
Crier hobgoblin, make the fairy o-yes.

Eva. Elves, lift your names; filence, you airy toys.
Cricket, to Windfor chimneys fhalt thou leap:
Where fires thou find'ft unrak'd, and hearths unfwept,
There pinch the maids as blue as bilbery.

Our radiant Queen hates sluts and fluttery.

Fal. They're fairies; he, that fpeaks to them, fhall die.

I'll wink and couch; no man their works muft eye. [Lyes down upon bis face. Eva. Where's Pede? go you, and where you find

a maid,

That, ere fhe fleep, hath thrice her prayers faid, • Rein up the organs of her fantafie;

Sleep fhe as found as careless infancy;

But

2 You ORPHAN-beirs of fixed defliny.] But why Orphan-beirs? Defliny, whom they fucceeded, was yet in being. Doubtless the Poet wrote,

You OUPHEN-heirs of fixed defliny.

i. e. you Elves, who minifter, and fucceed in fome of the works of destiny. They are called, in this Play, both before and afterwards, Ouphes; here Ouphen; en being the plural termination of Saxon nouns. For the word is from the Saxon, Alpenne, lamie, dæmones. Or it may be understood to be an adjective, as wooden, woolen, golden, &c.

3 RAISE up the organs of her fantafie;] The fense of this fpeech is that fhe, who had performed her religious duties, fhould be fecure against the illufion of fancy; and have her fleep. like that of infancy, undisturbed by difordered dreams. This was then the popular opinion, that evil fpirits had a power over the

fancy;

But those, that fleep, and think not on their fins, Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, fhoulders, fides and

fhins.

Quick. About, about;

Search Windfor castle, elves, within and out.
Strew good luck, ouphes, on every facred room,
That it may ftand 'till the perpetual Doom,
In ftate as wholfom, as in ftate 'tis fit;

fancy; and, by that means, could infpire wicked dreams into thofe who, on their going to fleep, had not recommended themfelves to the protection of heaven. So Shakespear makes one, on his lying down, fay,

From fairies, and the tempters of the night,

Protect us heav'n!

As this is the fenfe, let us fee how the common reading expreffes it; Raife up the organs of her fantafie,

i. e. inflame her imagination with fenfual ideas; which is juft the contrary to what the Poet would have the speaker say. We cannot therefore but conclude he wrote,

REIN up the organs of her fantafie,

f. e. curb them, that she be no more difturbed by irregular imaginations, than children in their fleep. For, he adds immediately, Sleep fhe as found as careless infancy.

So in the Tempeft,

Give not dalliance too much the REIN.

And in Measure for Measure,

I give my fenfual race the REIN.

To give the rein, being just the contrary to rein up. The fame thought he has again in Mackbeth,

Mercyful powers!

Refrain in me the curfed thoughts that nature
Gives way to in repose.

4 In ftate as wholfom.] The Oxford Editor not knowing the meaning of wholfom, has alter'd it to,

In fite as wholfom,

and fo has made the wifh a moft abfurd one. For the fite or fituation must needs be what it is, till the general destruction. But wholfom here fignifies integer. He wishes the caftle may ftand in its present state of perfection, which the following words plainly fhew —as in flate 'tis fit. Z 4

! Worthy

5 Worthy the owner, as the owner it.

The feveral chairs of Order look you fcour,
With juice of balm and ev'ry precious flow'r :
Each fair Instalment-Coat and fev'ral Creft,
With loyal blazon evermore be bleft!
And nightly-meadow-fairies, look, you fing,
Like to the Garter-compass, in a ring:
Th' expreffure that it bears, green let it be,
More fertile-fresh than all the field to fee;
And, Hony Soit Qui Maly Penfe write,
"In emrold-tuffs, flow'rs purfled, blue and white,
Like faphire, pearl, in rich embroidery,
Buckled below fair Knight-hood's bending knee;
Fairies use flow'rs for their charactery.

}

Away,

5 Worthy the owner, AND the owner it.] And cannot be the true reading. The context will not allow it; and his court to Queen Elizabeth directs us to another,

As the owner it.

for, fure he had more address than to content himself with wishing a thing to be, which his complaifance muft fuppofe actually wai, namely, the worth of the owner.

6 In emrold-tuffs, forv'rs PURPLE, blue and white,

Like faphire, pearl, AND rich embroidery.] Thefe lines are moft miferably corrupted. In the words, Flowers purple, blue and white, the purple is left uncompared. To remedy this, the Editors, who seem to have been fenfible of the imperfection of the comparison, read, AND rich embroidery; that is, according to them, as the blue and white flowers are compared to faphire and pearl, the purple is compared to rich embroidery. Thus inftead of mending one falfe ftep they have made two, by bringing saphire, pearl and rich embroidery under one predicament. The lines were wrote thus by the Poet,

In emrold-tuffs, flor'rs PURFLED, blue and white,
Like faphire, pearl, IN rich embroidery.

i. e. let there be blue and white flow'rs worked on the greenfword, like faphire and pearl in rich embroidery. To purfle is to over-lay with tinfel, gold thread, &c. fo our ancestors called a certain lace of this kind of work a purfling-lace. 'Tis from the French, pourfiler. So Spencer,

She was yclad

All in a filken Čamus, lilly-white,

PURFLED upon, with many a folded plight.

2. 3. 26.

The

Away, difperfe; but, 'till 'tis one o'clock,
Our dance of cuftom round about the Oak
Of Herne, the hunter, let us not forget.

Eva. Pray you, lock hand in hand, yourselves in

order fet:

And twenty glow-worms fhall our lanthorns be,
To guide our measure round about the tree.
But ftay, I fmell a man of middle earth.

Fal. Heav'ns defend me from that Welch fairy, left he transform me to a piece of cheese!

Eva. Vild worm, thou waft o'er-look'd ev'n in thy

birth.

Quic. With tryal-fire touch me his finger-end;
If he be chafte, the flame will back defcend,
And turn him to no pain; but if he start,
It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.

Eva. A tryal, come.

[They burn him with their tapers, and pinch him. Come, with this wood take fire.

Fal. Oh, oh, oh!

Quic. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in defire; About him, fairies, fing a fcornful rhime: And, as you trip, ftill pinch him to your time. Eva. It is right, indeed, he is full of leacheries and iniquity.

The SONG.

Fie on finful phantafie,

Fie on luft and luxury!

Luft is but (a) i'th' blood, a fire,

Kindled with unchafte defire,

Fed in heart, whofe flames afpire,

As thoughts to blow them, higher and higher.

The change of and into in, in the fecond verfe, is neceffary. For flow'rs worked, or purfled in the grafs, were not like faphire and pearl fimply, but faphire and pearl in embroidery. How the corrupt reading and was introduced into the text, we have fhewn above.

[(a) i'th blood, a fire, Oxford Editor-Vulg. a bloody' fire.]