These be rubies, fairy favours, In those freckles live their savours: 5 I must go seek some dewdrops here, Take heed the queen come not within his sight. 6 4 In the old comedy of Doctor Dodypoll, 1600, an enchanter says: "'Twas I that led you through the painted meads It would seem that Puck, though he could "put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes," was heavy and sluggish in comparison with the other fairies: he was the lubber of the spirit tribe. Shakespeare's "lob of spirits " is the same as Milton's "lubbar fiend," thus spoken of in his L'Allegro : "And he, by friar's lantern led, Tells how the drudging goblin swet, And crop-full out of doors he flings, H. A changeling was a child taken or given in exchange; it being a roguish custom of the fairies, if a child of great promise were born, to steal it away, and leave an ugly, or foolish, or ill-condi tioned one in its stead. Thus, in The Faerie Queene, Book i Can. 10, stan. 65: "From thence a Faery thee unweeting reft, There as thou sleptat in tender swadling band, And jealous Oberon would have the child Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quite, Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite, And her base Elfin brood there for thee left: 10 Such, men do chaungelings call, so chaung'd by Faeries theft." Sir Thomas Browne, in his Religio Medici, sec. 30, speaking of the devil's practices, says, -"Of all the delusions wherewith he deceives mortality, there is not any that puzzleth me more than the legerdemain of changelings." How much comfort this old belief sometimes gave to parents, may be seen from Drayton's Nymphidia : 7 Shining. "When a child haps to be got, Which after proves an idiot, When folk perceive it thriveth not; H. 8 That is, quarrel. See Much Ado about Nothing, Act i. sc. 1, note 12. 9 A quern was a handmill. H. 10 Barm is yeast. Thus, in Holland's Pliny: "Now the froth or barm, that riseth from these ales or beers, have a property to keep the skin fair and clear in women's faces." B. Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puch, 11 Thou speak'st aright; 12 11 That this whole account of Puck was gathered from the popular notions of the time, might be shown from many passages. Thus, in Harsnet's Declaration of Popish Impostures: "And if that the bowl of curds and cream were not duly set out for Robin Goodfellow, the friar, and Sisse the dairy-maid, why, then either the pottage was burnt next day in the pot, or the cheeses would not curdle, or the butter would not come, or the ale in the fat never would have good head." Likewise, in Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft: "Your grandames' maids were wont to set a bowl of milk for him, for his pains in grinding malt and mustard, and sweeping the house at midnight; this white bread and milk was his standing fee." See also the preceding quotation from Milton, note 5, the ballad entitled The Merry Pranks of Robin Goodfellow, in Percy's Reliques, and Drayton's Nymphidia; from the latter of which we subjoin one stanza : "This Puck seems but a dreaming dolt, Of purpose to deceive us ; And, leading us, makes us to stray 18 Wild apple. R. And "tailor" cries,13 and falls into a cough; were gone! 'Would that he Enter OBERON, from one side, with his Train, and TITANIA, from the other, with hers. Obe. Ill met by moon-light, proud Titania. Tita. What! jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence: I have forsworn his bed and company. Obe. Tarry, rash wanton: Am not I thy lord? Tita. Then I must be thy lady: but I know When thou hast stol'n away from Fairy-land, And in the shape of Corin sat all day, Playing on pipes of corn, and versing love To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here, Come from the farthest steep of India? But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, Your buskin'd mistress, and your warrior love, To Theseus must be wedded; and you come To give their bed joy and prosperity. Obe. How canst thou thus, for shame, Titania, Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, 13 Dr. Johnson thought he remembered to have heard this ludi. crous exclamation upon a person's seat slipping from under him. He that slips from his chair falls as a tailor squats upon his board. 14 Waxen seems to be an old plural form of wax; the meaning of course being, increase in their mirth. Dr. Farmer proposed to read yexen. Yex is an old synonyme of hiccup: so that the sense in this case would be, they laugh themselves into a hiccuping; which is indeed very good, but by no means such as to warrant the change. The Chiswick editor adopted yexen: why he should think that only "a glimmering of sense may be extracted from the passage as it stands in the old copies," is too deep for us H. Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puch, You do their work; and they shall have good luck : Are not you he ? 11 Puck. Thou speak'st aright; 12 I am that merry wanderer of the night. 11 That this whole account of Puck was gathered from the popular notions of the time, might be shown from many passages. Thus, in Harsnet's Declaration of Popish Impostures: "And if that the bowl of curds and cream were not duly set out for Robin Goodfellow, the friar, and Sisse the dairy-maid, why, then either the pottage was burnt next day in the pot, or the cheeses would not curdle, or the butter would not come, or the ale in the fat never would have good head." Likewise, in Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft: "Your grandames' maids were wont to set a bowl of milk for him, for his pains in grinding malt and mustard, and sweeping the house at midnight; this white bread and milk was his standing fee." See also the preceding quotation from Milton, note 5, the ballad entitled The Merry Pranks of Robin Goodfellow, in Percy's Reliques, and Drayton's Nymphidia; from the latter of which we subjoin one stanza : "This Puck seems but a dreaming dolt, Still walking like a ragged colt, Of purpose to deceive us ; 18 Wild apple. R. |