To fetch me trifles, and return again, As from a voyage, rich with merchandize, [Exeunt Queen, and her train, Ob. Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this. grove, 'Till I torment thee for this injury. My gentle Puck, come hither; thou remember'ft 7 Since rite might, without much licentioufnefs of language, be faid to follow a fhip that failed in the direction of the coaft; I think there is no fufficient reafon for adopting it. The coinage of new words is a violent remedy, not to be ufed but in the last neceffity. JOHNSON. 7 -thou remember'ft Since once 1 fat upon a promontory, And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back, The first thing obfervable on these words is, that this action of the Since once I fat upon a promontory, And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back, Puck. to hear her commended; and her fucceffor would not forgive her fatyrift. But the poet has fo well marked out every distinguished circumftance of her life and character in this beautiful allegory, as will leave no room to doubt about his fecret meaning. She is called a mermaid, 1. to denote her reign over a kingdom fituate in the fea, and 2. her beauty, and intemperate luft, -Ut turpiter atrum Definat in pifcem mulier formofa fupernè. for as Elizabeth for her chastity is called a veftal, this unfortunate lady on a contrary account is called a mermaid. 3. An ancient ftory may be supposed to be here alluded to. The emperor Julian tells us, Epiftle 41. that the Sirens (which, with all the modern poets, are mermaids) contended for precedency with the Mufes, who overcoming them took away their wings. The quarrels between Mary and Elizabeth had the fame caufe, and the fame iffue. en a delphin's back,] This evidently marks out that diftinguishing circumitance of Mary's fortune, her marriage with. the dauphin of France, fon of Henry II. Uttering fucb dulcet and harmonious breath,] This alludes to her great abilities of genius and learning, which rendered her the most accomplished princefs of her age. The French writers tell us, that, while fhe was in that court, fhe pronounced a Latin oration in the great hall of the Louvre, with fo much grace and eloquence, as filled the whole court with admiration. That the rude fa grew civil at her fong ;] By the rude fea is meant Scotland encircled with the ocean; which rofe up in arms against the regent, while the was in France. But her return home prefently quieted thofe diforders: and had not her ftrange ill conduct afterwards more violently inflamed them, fhe might have paffed her whole life in peace. There is the greater juttnefs and beauty in this image, as the vulgar opinion is, that the mermaid always fings in ftorms. And certain fars fhot madly from their Spheres To bear the fea-maid's mufick.] Thus concludes the defcription, with that remarkable circumstance of this unhappy lady's fate, the deftruction the brought upon seve ral Puck. I remember. Ob. That very time I faw, (but thou could'ft not) Flying between the cold moon and the earth, Cupid all-arm'd: a certain aim he took, 8 of the English nobility, whom the drew in to fupport her caufe. This, in the boldeft expreffion of the fublime, the poet images by certain fars fhooting madly from their fpheres: By which he meant the earls of Northumberland and Weftmorland, who fell in her quarrel; and principally the great duke of Norfolk, whofe projected marriage with her was attended with fuch fatal confequences. Here again the reader may obferve a peculiar juftnefs in the imagery. The vulgar opinion being that the mermaid allured. men to deftruction by her fongs. To which opinion Shakespeare alludes in his Comedy of Errors, O train me not, fweet mermaid, with thy note, On the whole, it is the nobleft and juftest allegory.that was ever written. The laying it in fairy land, and out of nature, is in the character of the fpeaker. And on thefe occafions Shakespeare always excels himself. He is borne away by the magic of his enthusiasm, and hurries his reader aloug with him into thefe ancient regions of poetry, by that power of verfe, which we may well fancy to be like what, -Olim Fauni Valefque cansbant. WARBURTON. * Cupid all-armed:] Surely, this prefents us with a very unclaffical image. Where do we read or fee, in ancient books, or monuments, Cupid armed more than with his bow and arrow; and with these we for ever fee him armed. And thefe are all the arms he had occafion for in this prefent action; a more illuftrious one than any, his friends, the clafficks, ever brought him upon. The change I make is fo fmall, but the beauty of the thought fo great, which this alteration carries with it, that, I think, we are not to hefitate upon it. For what an addition is this to the compliment made upon this virgin queen's celibacy, that it alarmed, the power of love? as if his empire was in danger, when this imperial vtress had declared herself for a fingle life: fo powerful would her great example be in the world.-Queen Elizabeth could not but be pleased with our author's addrefs upon this head. WARBURTON. All-armed, does not fignify dressed in panoply, but only enforces the word armed, as we might fay all-booted. I am afraid that the general fenfe of alarmed, by which it is used for put into fear or care by whatever caufe, is later than our authour. JOHNSON. At a fair veftal, throned by the weft, And loos'd his love-fhaft fmartly from his bow, In maiden meditation, fancy-free. Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell, Before, milk-white; now purple with love's wound, Fetch me that flower; the herb I fhew'd thee once; Puck. I'll put a girdle round about the earth Ob. Having once this juice, [Exit. And maidens call it love in idlness.] This is as fine a metamorphofis as any in Ovid: With a much better moral, intimating that irregular love has only power when people are idle, or not well employed. WARBURTON. I believe the fingular beauty of this metamorphofis to have been quite accidental, as the poet is of another opinion, in the Taming the Shrew, A&I. Sc. 4. But fee, while idly I ftood looking on, And Lucentio's was furely a regular and honeft paffion. It is fcarce "When paffions are let loose without a bridle, STEEVENS. I'll watch Titania when fhe is alleep, And drop the liquor of it in her eyes: Enter Demetrius, Helena following him. Because -1 am invifible.] I thought proper here to observe, that, as Oberon and Puck his attendant, may be frequently obferved to speak, when there is no mention of their entering; they are defigned by the poet to be fuppofed on the stage during the greatest part of the remainder of the play; and to mix, as they pleafe, as fpirits, with the other actors; and embroil the plot, by their interpofition, without being feen, or heard, but when to their own purpose. THEOBALD. The one I'll stay the other stayeth me. ] Thus it has been in all the editions hitherto: but Dr. Thirlby ingenioufly faw, it must be, as I have corrected in the text. THEOBALD. 3 ing. POPE. -and wode, -] Wood, or mad, wild, rav We meet with the word in Chaucer, The Monke's Prologue, 184, "What, should he study, or make himself wood?" Spenfer alfo ufes it, Æglogue III. March, The elf was fo wanton, and fo wode. "The name Woden," fays Verftegan in his Antiquites, "fignifies "fierce or furious, and in like fenfe we ftill retain it, faying, when "one is in a great rage, that he is wood, or taketh on, as if he "were wood." |