Or sleep I now, and think I hear all this? dinner. · Dro. S. O, for my beads! I cross me for a sinner. This is the fairy land ;-0, spite of spites ! We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish sprites ;? o the offer'd fallacy.] The old copy has : the free'd fallacy. Which perhaps was only, by mistake, form. in the offer'd fallacy. · This conjecture is from an anonymous correspondent, Mr. Pope reads-favour'd fallacy. STEEVENS. ? We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish sprites;] Here Mr. Theobald calls out, in the name of Nonsense, the first time he had formally invoked her, to tell him how owls could suck their breath, and pinch them black and blue. He therefore alters owls to ouphs, and dares say, that his readers will acquiesce in the justness of his emendation. But, for all this, we must not part with the old reading. He did not know it to be an old popular superstition, that the screech-owl sucked out the breath and blood of infants in the cradle. On this account, the Italianş called witches, who were supposed to be in like manner mischievously bent against children, strega from strix, the screechowl. This superstition they had derived from their pagan ancestors, as appears from this passage of Ovid: « Sunt avidæ volucres; non quæ Phineïa mensis “ Guttura fraudabant; sed genus inde trahunt. " Canities pennis, unguibus hamus inest. “ Et vitiant cunis corpora rapta suis. « Et plenum poto sanguine guttur habent. WARBURTON. Ghastly owls accompany elvish ghosts, in Spenser's Shepherd's VOL. XX. 20 If we obey them not, this will ensue, not? Dromio, thou drone, thou snail, thou slug, thou sot! Calendar for June. So, in Sheringham's Disceptatio de Anglorum Gentis Origine, p. 333 : “ Lares, Lemures, Stryges, Lamiæ, Manes (Gastæ dicti) et similes monstrorum, Greges, Elvarum Chorea dicebatur.” Much the same is said in Olaus Magnus de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, p. 112, 113. TOLLET. Owls are also mentioned in Cornucopiæ, or Pasquil's Nightcap, or Antidote for the Headach, 1623, p. 38: “ Dreading no dangers of the darksome night, STEEVENS. How, it is objected, should Shakspeare know that striges or screech-owls were considered by the Romans as witches? The notes of Mr. Tollet and Mr. Steevens, as well as the following passage in The London Prodigal, a comedy, 1605, afford the best answer to this question: "'Soul, I think, I am sure cross'd or witch'd with an owl.” MALONE. The epithet elvish is not in the first folio, but the second has-elves, which certainly was meant for elvish. STEEVENS. All the emendations made in the second folio having been merely arbitrary, any other suitable epithet of two syllables may have been the poet's word. Mr. Rowe first introduced elvish. MALONE I am satisfied with the epithet-elvish. It was probably in serted in the second folio on some authority which cannot now, be ascertained. It occurs again, in King Richard III: “ Thou elvish-mark'd abortive, rooting hog.” Why should a book, which has often judiciously filled such vacuities, and rectified such errors, as disgrace the folio 1623, be so perpetually distrusted? STEEVENS. 8 Dromio, thou drone, &c.] The old copy reads Dromio, thou Dromio, snail, thou slug, thou sot! · STEEVENS. This verse is half a foot too long; my correction cures that fault: besides, drone corresponds with the other appellations of reproach. THEOBALD. Dro. S. I am transformed, master, am not I?!" Ant. S. I think, thou art, in mind, and so am I., Dro. S. Nay, master, both in mind, and in my shape. ANT. S. Thou hast thine own form. DRO. S. No, I am an ape. Luc. If thou art chang’d to aught, 'tis to an ass. Dro. S. 'Tis true; she rides me, and I long for grass. ADR. Come, come, no longer will I be a fool, ANT. S. Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell? : Drone is also a term of reproach applied by Shylock to he sleeps by day STEEVENS. - am not I?] Old copy--am I not? Corrected by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. - "And shrive you-] That is, I will call you to confession, and make you tell your tricks. Johnson. So, in Hamlet : “ — not shriving time allow'd.” STEEVENS. I'll say as they say, and perséver so, DRO. S. Master, shall I be porter at the gate? pate. [Exeunt. ACT III. SCENE I. The same. Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus, Dromio of Ephesus, ANGELO, and BALTHAZAR. Ant. E. Good signior Angelo, you must excuse us all ;? ---° Good signior Angelo, you must excuse us all;] I suppose, the word-all, which overloads the measure, without improvement of the sense, might be safely omitted, as an interpolation. STEEVENS. 3 carkanet,] Seems to have been a necklace, or rather chain, perhaps hanging down double from the neck. So, Lovelace, in his poem : Li “ The empress spreads her carcanets.” JOHNSON. . “ Quarquan, ornement d'or qu’on mit au col des damoiselles.” Le grand Dict. de Nicot. A carkanet seems to have been a necklace set with stones, or strung with pearls. Thus, in Partheneia Sacra, &c. 1633 : And that to-morrow you will bring it home. .. this? DRO. E. Say what you will, sir, but I know what I know: That you beat me at the mart, I have your hand to show: If the skin were parchment, and the blows you gave were ink, Your own handwriting would tell you what I think. Ant. E. I think, thou art an ass. Marry, so it doth appear By the wrongs I suffer, and the blows I bear.“ “ Seeke not vermillion or ceruse in the face, bracelets of oriental pearls on the wrist, rubie carkanets on the neck, and a most exquisite fan of feathers in the hand.” Āgain, in Histriomastix, or the Player whipt, 1610: « Nay, I'll be matchless for a carcanet, - « Whose pearls and diamonds plac'd with ruby rocks “ Shall circle this fair neck to set it forth.” " she sat on a rich Persian quilt “ Bigger than pigeons eggs.” the drops - Shew like a carkanet of pearl upon it.”. In the play of Soliman and Perseda, 1599, the word carčanet occurs eight or nine times. STEEVENS. * Marry, so it doth appear By the wrongs I suffer, and the blows I bear.] Thus all the printed copies; but, certainly, this is cross-purposes in rea. soning. It appears, Dromio is an ass by his making no resistance; |