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And I ferve the fairy queen,

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To dew her orbs upon the green :
The cowflips tall her "penfioners be;
• In their gold coats fpots you fee;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,

In those freckles live their favours:
I must go feek fome dew-drops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowflip's ear.
Farewel, thou lob of fpirits, 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 fight.
For Oberon is paffing fell and wrath,

Because that she, as her attendant, hath
A lovely boy, ftol'n from an Indian king,
She never had fo fweet a 'changeling:
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forefts wild:

But fhe, per-force, 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 fpangled ftar-light' fheen,

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But they do fquare; that all their elves, for fear,
Creep in acorn cups, and hide them there.

morbs]-verdant circles on the ground, where fairies dance. n penfioners]-compofe her train or retinue; band or guard of pen. fioners, prime favourites.

• In their gold coats fpots you fee ;]

"A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops

"I' th' bottom of a cowflip."

Plob]-looby, lubber.

CYMBELINE, A&t II, S. 2. Jack.

4 changeling]-usually applied to the child faid to be left by the fairies, here to that taken away.

fheen,]-gay, bright.

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fquare ;]-jar, quarrel, difagree.

"Mine honesty and I begin to square."

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, A& III, S. 11. Eno.

Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that fhrewd and knavish sprite,
Call'd Robin-goodfellow: Are you not he,
That fright the maidens of the villag'ry;

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"And fometimes make the breathlefs housewife churn
Skim milk; and bootlefs labour in the w quern ;
And fometime make the drink to bear no barm;
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they fhall have good luck :
Are not you he?

Puck. I am, thou fpeak'ft aright;

I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jeft to Oberon, and make him smile,
When I a fat and bean-fed horfe beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
And fometime lurk I in a goffip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab;
And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob,
And on her wither'd dew-lap pour the ale.
The wifeftaunt, telling the faddeft tale,
Sometime for three-foot ftool mistaketh me;
Then flip I from her bum, down topples fhe,
And taylor cries, and falls into a cough:
And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe,

Robin-goodfellow :]-or Puck, a mischievous fprite, fond of creating domestic confufion; employed by Oberon to detect the intrigues of Titania.

quern,

Skim milk; and fometimes labour in the
And bootlefs make the breathlefs bufwife churn;
quern ;]—hand-mill.
xbarm ;]-yeaft.

Y aunt,]-crone, old woman; bawd, trull.

"Are fummer fongs for me and my aunts.”

WINTER'S TALE, A&t IV, S. 2. Aut.

z taylor cries,]—an old exclamation on a person's flipping beside his chair, who then refembles a taylor fquatting on his board-And tail-fore cries—And rails, or cries.

VOL. II.

C

And

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And waxen in their mirth, and 'neeze, and fwear,

A merrier hour was never wafted there.

But make room, fairy, here comes Oberon.

Fai. And here my miftrefs:-'Would that he were gone!

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Enter Oberon, king of Fairies at one door with his train, and the queen at another with hers.

Ob. Ill met by moon-light, proud Titania.

Queen. What, jealous Oberon? Fairy, fkip hence;
I have forfworn his bed and company.

Ob. Tarry, rash wanton; Am not I thy lord?
Queen. Then I must be thy lady: But I know
When thou haft ftol'n away from fairy land,
And in the shape of Corin fate all day,
Playing on pipes of corn, and verfing love
To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,
Come from the fartheft & fteep of India?
But that, forfooth, the bouncing Amazon,
Your buskin'd mistress, and your warrior love,
To Thefeus must be wedded: and you come
To give their bed joy and profperity.

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Ob. How can't thou thus, for fhame, Titania, Glance at my credit with Hippolita,

Knowing I know thy love to Thefeus?

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Didft thou not lead him through the glimmering night

From Periguné, whom he ravifhed?

And make him with fair Ægle break his faith,

With Ariadne, and Antiopa?

Queen. These are the forgeries of jealousy :

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And never, fince that middle fummer's fpring,
Met we on hill, in dale, foreft, or mead,
By paved fountain, or by rufhy brook,
Or on the beached margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou haft difturb'd our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge, have fuck'd up from the fea
Contagious fogs; which falling in the land,
Have every pelting river made fo proud,

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That they have over-borne their continents:—
The ox hath therefore ftretch'd his yoke in vain ;
The ploughman loft his fweat; and the green corn
Hath rotted, ere his youth attain'd a beard;
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock;
The nine-mens' morris is fill'd up with mud;
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread, are undiftinguishable;
The 'human mortals want their winter here;

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No night is now with hymn, or carol bleft:-
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,

f that middle fummer's fpring.]-the beginning of that midfummer, when our quarrel first commenced.

"As flaws congealed in the Spring of day."

HENRY IV, Part 2, A&t IV, S. 4. K. Henry,

* pelting]-paltry, infignificant.

"Poor pelting villages."

LEAR, Act II, S. 3. Edg.
A&

b continents :]-banks.

i nine-mens' morris]-a rural game, on a plot of ground, mark'd out in the form of a chefs-board, play'd with wooden pegs and ftones, in which each party had nine men ;-or the place where the Morifco, or maurice-dance was wont to be performed by nine perfons.

* quaint]-nice, exact, curious.

human mortals]-fo called to diftinguish mankind from fairies, a class of beings between men and spirits.

winter here;]-their accustomed winter, that festivity with which

it was wont to be celebrated-winter cheer.

C 2

Pale

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Pale in her anger, "washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound :-
And, thorough this diftemperature, we fee
The feafons alter; hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose;
And on old Hyems' chin, and icy crown,
An odorous chaplet of fweet fummer buds
Is, as in mockery, fet; The fpring, the fummer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries; and the 'mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which :-
And this fame progeny of evils comes

From our debate, from our diffention;
We are their parents and original.

Ob. Do you amend it then; it lies in you:

Why fhould Titania crofs her Oberon?

I do but beg a little changeling boy,

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The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votress of my order:
And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,
Full often hath fhe goffip'd by my fide;
And fat with me on Neptune's yellow fands,
Marking the embarked traders on the flood;
When we have laugh'd to fee the fails conceive,
And grow big-bellied, with the wanton wind:
Which fhe, with pretty and with swimming gate,
(Following her womb then rich with my young 'fquire)

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afbes]-impregnates with unwholfome moiffure.

• diftemperature,]-irregularity, confufion, perturbation of the eleP chill, thin-hair'd.

ments.

a childing]-fruitful, bearing fruit. increafe,]-their feveral productions. benchman.]-page.

t

goffip'd.]-chatted.

Would

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