Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort 3,
Rising and cawing at the gun's report
Sever themselves, and madly sweep the sky;
So, at his sight, away his fellows fly :

And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls;

7

CHOUGHS,] The chough is a bird of the daw kind. It is mentioned also in Macbeth:

"By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks," &c. STEEVENS. 8sort,] Company. So above:

that barren sort;

"A sort of lusty shepherds strive." JOHNSON. So, in Chapman's May-day, 1611:

though we neuer lead any other
STEEVENS.

of quart-pots."

9 And, at OUR STAMP,] This seems to be a vicious reading. Fairies are never represented stamping, or of a size that should give force to a stamp, nor could they have distinguished the stamps of Puck from those of their own companions. I read :

"And at a stump here o'er and o'er one falls."

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Against a stubbled tree he reels,

"And up went poor Hobgoblin's heels ;

"Alas, his brain was dizzy.

"At length upon his feet he gets,
"Hobgoblin fumes, Hobgoblin frets,
And as again he forward sets,

"And through the bushes scrambles,
"A stump doth trip him in his pace,
"Down fell poor Hob upon his face,
"And lamentably tore his case,

"Among the briers and brambles." JOHNSON.

I adhere to the old reading. The stamp of a fairy might be efficacious though not loud; neither is it necessary to suppose, when supernatural beings are spoken of, that the size of the agent determines the force of the action. That fairies did stamp to some purpose, may be known from the following passage in Olaus Magnus de Gentibus Septentrionalibus:-"Vero saltum adeo profundè in terram impresserant, ut locus insigni adore orbiculariter peresus, non parit arenti redivivum cespite gramen." Shakspeare's own authority, however, is most decisive. See the conclusion of the first Scene of the fourth Act:

He murder cries, and help from Athens calls. Their sense, thus weak, lost with their fears, thus

strong,

Made senseless things begin to do them wrong: For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch; Some, sleeves; some, hats'; from yielders all things catch.

I led them on in this distracted fear,

And left sweet Pyramus translated there :
When in that moment (so it came to pass,)
Titania wak'd, and straightway lov'd an ass.

OBE. This falls out better than I could devise. But hast thou yet latch'd 2 the Athenian's eyes With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?

PUCK. I took him sleeping,-that is finish'd too,And the Athenian woman by his side;

That, when he wak'd, of force she must be ey'd.

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Come, my queen, take hand with me,

"And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be."

STEEVENS.

Honest Reginald Scott, says: "Our grandams maides were wont to set a boll of milke before incubus, and his cousin Robin Good-fellow, for grinding of malt or mustard, and sweeping the house at midnight: and-that he would chafe exceedingly, if the maid or good wife of the house, having compassion of his nakednes, laid anie clothes for him beesides his messe of white bread and milke, which was his standing fee. For in that case he saith, What have we here? Hemton, hamten, here will I never more tread nor stampen." Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, p. 85.

RITSON.

Some, sleeves; some, hats ;] There is the like image in Drayton, of queen Mab and her fairies flying from Hobgoblin : "Some tore a ruff, and some a gown, "'Gainst one another justling;

2

"They flew about like chaff i' th' wind,

"Some could not stay their gloves to find,

"There never was such bustling." JOHNSON.

latch'd] Or letch'd, lick'd over, lecher, to lick, Fr.

In the North, it signifies to infect. STEEVENS.

HANMER.

Enter DEMETRIUS and HERMIA.

OBE. Stand close; this is the same Athenian. PUCK. This is the woman, but not this the man. DEM. O, why rebuke you him that loves you so? Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.

HER. Now I but chide, but I should use thee worse;

For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse.
If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,

Being o'er shoes in blood3, plunge in the deep,
And kill me too.

The sun was not so true unto the day,

As he to me: Would he have stol'n away
From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon,
This whole earth may be bor'd; and that the moon
May through the center creep, and so displease
Her brother's noon-tide with the Antipodes *.
It cannot be, but thou hast murder'd him;
So should a murderer look; so dead', so grim.

3 Being o'er shoes in blood,] An allusion to the proverb, Over shoes, over boots. JOHNSON.

So, in Macbeth :

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I am in blood,

Stept in so far," &c. STEEVENS.

NOON-TIDE with the Antipodes.] Dr. Warburton would read-i' th' antipodes, which Mr. Edwards ridicules without mercy. The alteration is certainly not necessary; but it is not so unlucky as he imagined. Shirley has the same expression in his Andromana:

"To be a whore, is more unknown to her,
"Then what is done in the antipodes."

In for among is frequent in old language. FARMER.

The familiarity of the general idea, is shown by the following passage in The Death of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601: "And dwell one month with the Antipodes."

Again, in King Richard II. :

"While we were wandring with the Antipodes."

STEEVENS.

5- SO DEAD,] All the old copies read-so dead; in my copy of it, some reader has altered dead to dread. JOHNSON.

DEM. So should the murder'd look; and so

should I,

Pierc'd through the heart with your stern cruelty Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear, As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere.

:

HER. What's this to my Lysander? where is he? Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me ? DEM. I had rather give his carcase to my hounds. HER. Out, dog! out, cur! thou driv'st me past the bounds

Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him then?
Henceforth be never number'd among men!
O! once tell true, tell true, even for my sake;
Durst thou have look'd upon him, being awake,
And hast thou kill'd him sleeping"? O brave touch'!
Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?
An adder did it; for with doubler tongue
Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.
DEM. You spend your passion on a mispris'd
mood 8:

Dead seems to be the right word, and our author again uses it in King Henry IV. P. II. Act. I. Sc. III. :

"Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,

"So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone." STEEVENS. So also, in Greene's Dorastus and Fawnia: if thou marry

in age, thy wife's fresh colours will breed in thee dead thoughts and suspicion." MALONE.

6 Durst thou have look'd upon him, being awake,

And hast thou kill'd him sleeping?] She means, Hast thou kill'd him sleeping, whom, when awake, thou didst not dare to look upon? MALONE.

70 brave TOUCH!] Touch in Shakspeare's time was the same with our exploit, or rather stroke. A brave touch, a noble stroke, un grand coup. "Mason was very merry, pleasantly playing both with the shrewd touches of many curst boys, and the small discretion of many lewd schoolmasters." Ascham.

JOHNSON.

A touch anciently signified a trick. In the old black letter story of Howleglas, it is always used in that sense: for at all times he did some mad touch." STEEVENS.

8

mispris'd MOOD:] Mistaken; so below misprision is mistake. JOHNSON.

I am not guilty of Lysander's blood;

Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.

HER. I pray thee, tell me then that he is well. DEM. An if I could, what should I get therefore?

HER. A privilege, never to see me more.― And from thy hated presence part I so 1:

See me no more, whether he be dead or no. [Erit. DEM. There is no following her in this fierce vein: Here, therefore, for a while I will remain.

So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow

For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe;
Which now, in some slight measure it will pay,
If for his tender here I make some stay. [Lies down.
OBE. What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken

quite,

And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight: Of thy misprision must perforce ensue

Some true-love turn'd, and not a false turn'd true. PUCK. Then fate o'er-rules: that, one man holding troth,

A million fail, confounding oath on oath.

OBE. About the wood go swifter than the wind, And Helena of Athens look thou find :

Mood is anger, or perhaps rather in this place, capricious fancy. MALONE.

I rather conceive that-" on a mispris'd mood" is put for"in a mispris'd mood;" i. e. "in a mistaken manner." The preposition-on, is licentiously used by ancient authors. When Mark Antony says that Augustus Cæsar "dealt on lieutenantry," he does not mean that he dealt his blows on lieutenants," but that he dealt in them;" i. e. achieved his victories by their conduct. STEEVENS.

9 AN IF I could, &c.] This phraseology was common in Shakspeare's time. Thus, in Romeo and Juliet, Act V. Sc. I. :

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An if a man did need a poison now." Again, in Lodge's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 85: " meanys was made unto me to see an yff I wold appoynt," &C. REED.

-part I so:] So, which is not in the old copy, was in

serted, for the sake of both metre and rhyme, by Mr. Pope.

MALONE.