We two in great amazedness will fly:
Then let them all encircle him about,

And, fairy-like, to pinch the unclean knight;
And ask him, why, that hour of fairy revel,
In their so secret paths he dares to tread,
In shape profane.

Mrs. Ford.

And till he tell the truth,

Let the supposed fairies pinch him sound,
And burn him with their tapers.

Merry Wives Act 4 Scene 4.

but find money in their shoes, and be fortunate in their entreprises. These are they that dance on heaths and greens, as Lavater thinks with Trithemius, and as Olaus Magnus adds, leave that green circle,

Prospero.

Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves;
And ye, that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him
When he comes back; you demi-puppets, that
By moonshine do the green-sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites.

Elves, list your names; silence, you airy toys.
Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap:

Tempest Act 5.

Where fires thou find'st unraked, and hearths unswept,
There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry:
Our radiant queen hates sluts and sluttery.

Merry Wives Act 5 Scene 5.

which we commonly find in plain fields, which others hold to proceed from a meteor falling, or some occidental rankness of the ground; so nature sports herself. They are sometimes seen by old women and children. Hieron Pauli, in his description of the city of Bercino in Spain, relates how they have been familiarly seen near that town, about fountains and hills.

Puck.

And now they never meet in grove, or green,

By fountain clear, or spangled star-light sheen,
But they do square; that all their elves, for fear,
Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there.

Midsummer Night Act 2 Scene 1.

Titania.

These are the forgeries of jealousy:

And never, since the middle summer's spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead,
By paved fountain, or by rushy brook,

Or in the beached margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.

Midsummer Night Act 2 Scene 2.

Nonnunquam (saith Trithemius) in sua latibula montium simpliciores homines ducunt, stupenda mirantibus ostendentes miracula, molarum sonitus, spectacula, &c. Giraldus gives instance of a monk in Wales that was so deluded. Paracelsus reckons up many places in Germany, where they do usually walk in little coats, some two foot long.

Enter Titania, with her train.

Titania.

Come, now a roundel, and a fairy song;
Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;

Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds;

Some, war with rear-mice for their leathern wings,

To make my small elves coats; and some, keep back
The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, and wonders

At our quaint spirits: Sing me now asleep;

Then to your offices, and let me rest.

Midsummer Night Act 2 Scene 3.

A bigger kind there is of them, called with us hobgoblins, and Robin Goodfellows,

Fairy.

Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite,
Call'd Robin Good-fellow: are you not he,
That fright the maidens of the villagery;
Skim milk; and sometimes labour in the quern,
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;
And sometime 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 shall have good luck:
Are not you he?

Puck.

Thou speak'st aright;
I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon, and make him smile,
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
And sometime lurk I in a gossip'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 wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,

And tailor cries, and falls into a cough;

And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe;
And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear

A merrier hour was never wasted there.

But room, Faery, he comes Oberon.

Midsummer Night Act 2 Scene 1.

that would in those superstitious times, grind corn for a mess of milk, cut wood, or do any manner of drudgery work. They would mend old irons in those Aeolian isles of Lipara, in former ages, and have been often seen and heard. Tholosanus calls them Trullos and Getulos, and saith that in his dayes they were common in many places in France. Dithmarus Bleskenius, in bis description of Island, reports for a certainty, that almost in every family they have yet some such familiar spirits; (Archiv Band XXXI. p. 174, 175, 176) and Felix Malleolus, in his book de crudel. daemon, affirms as much, that these Trolli, or Telchines, are very common in Norwey and seen to do drudgery work; to draw water, saith Wierus (lib. I. p. 22) dressment, or any such thing."

"

Those which Mizaldus calls Ambulones, that walk about midnight on great heaths and desart places, which saith Lavater draw men out of the way, and lead them all night a by-way, or quite bar them of their way. These have several names in several places; we commonly call them pucks.

Puck.

Up and down, up and down;
I will lead them up and down:
I am fear'd in field and town;
Goblin, lead them up and down.

Here comes one.

Enter Lysander.

Lysander.

Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now.

Enter Demetrius.

Demetrius.

Lysander! speak again.

Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?

Speak. In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?

Puck.

Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars,

Telling the bushes, that thou look'st for wars,

And wilt not come? Come, recreant; come, thou child;
I'll whip thee with a rod: He is defiled

That draws a sword on thee.

Demetrius.

Yea; art thou there?

Puck.

Follow my voice; we'll try no manhood here.

Midsummer Night Act 3 Scene 2.

In the desarts of Lop in Asia, such illusions of walking spirits are often perceived, as you may read in M. Paulus the Venetian his travels. If one

lose company by chance these devils will call him by his name, and coun terfeit voices of his companions to seduce him. Hieronym. Pauli, in his book of the hills of Spain, relates of a great mountain in Cantabria, where such spectrums are to be seen. Lavater and Cicogna have variety of examples of spirits and walking devils in this kind. Sometimes they sit by the high-way side, to give men falls, and make their horses stumble and start as they ride (if you will believe the relation of that holy man Ketellus in Nubrigensis.) that had an especial grace to see devils, gratiam divinitus collatum, and talk with them, et impavidus cum spiritibus sermonem miscere, without offence: and if a man curse or spur his horse for stumbling, they do heartily rejoice at it; with many such pretty feats. (Anat. Melan. Part Í. Sec. 2. Mem. I. Subs. 2.)

So pleasant their vain conceits are, that they hinder their ordinary tasks and necessary business: they cannot address themselves to them or almost to any study or imployement: these phantastical and bewitching thoughts so covertly so feelingly, so urgently, so continually, set upon, creep in, insinuate, possess, overcome distract, and detain them, they cannot, I say, go about their more necessary business, stave of for extricate themselves, but are ever musing, melancholizing, and carried along, as he (they say) that is led about an heath with a Puck in the night." (Anat. Melan. Part I. Sec. 2. Mem. 2. Subs. 6.)

,,Boccalinus may cite common-wealths to come before Apollo, and seek to reform the world itself by commissioners; but there is no remedy; it may not be redressed: desinent homines tum demum stultescere, quando esse desinent:

Shallow.

Be merry, master Bardolph; and my little soldier there, be merry.

Silence.

Be merry, be merry, my wife's as all: (Singing.)
For women are shrews, both short and tail:

'Tis merry in the hall, when beards wag all,

And welcome merry shrove-tide.

Be merry, be merry, &c.

2. Henry IV. Act 5 Scene 3.

so long as they can wag their beards, they will play the knaves and fools." Anatomy of Melancholy: Democritus to the Reader.

Proteus.

O, 'tis the curse in love, and still approv'd,
When women cannot love where they're belov'd.

Two Gentlemen of Verona Act 5 Scene 6.

What though I be not so in grace as you,
So hung upon with love, so fortunate;
But miserable most, to love unloved?
This you should pity, rather than despise.

Midsummer Nights Dream Act 3 Scene 2.
Χαλεπὸν τὸ μὴ φιλῆσι·
Χαλεπὸν δὲ καὶ φιλῆσι·
Χαλεπότερον δὲ πάντων

Αποτυγχάνειν φιλοῦντα·

Anacreon. M. s' Eis Eqara.

Prince Henry.

O, if it should, now would thy guts fall about thy knees! But, sirrah, there's no room for faith, truth, nor honesty, in this bosom of thine; it is

filled ар with guts, and midriff. Charge an honest woman with picking thy pocket! Why, thou whoreson, impudent, embossed rascal, if there were any thing in thy pocket but tavern-reckonings, memorandums of bawdyhouses, and one poor pennyworth of sugar-candy to make thee longwinded; if thy pocket were enriched with any other injuries but these, I am a villain. And yet you will stand to it; you will not pocket up wrong: Art thou not ashamed?

1. Henry IV. Act 3 Scene 3. According to the Compleat Gamester" sugar-candy was, with other things given to fighting Cocks to make them long-winded; for the author of that old book in his instructions for „dieting and ordering a Cock for Battel says,

You must put them in deep straw-baskets made for the purpose, or for want of them take a couple of Cocking-bags and fill these with straw half ways, then put in your Cocks severally, and cover them over with straw to the top, then shut down the lids and let them sweat; but do not forget to give them first some white Sugar-candy, chopt Rosemary, and Butter mingled and incorporated together, let the quantity be about the bigness of a Walnut, by so doing you will cleanse him of his grease, increase his strength, and prolong his breath."

Saturninus.

Marcus, for thy sake, and thy brother's here,
And at my lovely Tamora's entreats,

I do remit these young men's heinous faults.
Stand up.

Lavinia, though you left me like a churl,

I found a friend; and sure as death I swore,
I would not part a bachelor from the priest.
Come, if the emperor's court can feast two brides.
You are my guest, Lavinia, and your friends:
This day shall be a love-day, Tamora.

Titus Andronicus Act 1 Scene 2.

A day appointed for the settlement differences and quarrels was called a Love-day, and I think Saturninus may refer to such a day. See Bracton, I. V. fol. 369. „si ante judicium capiatur Dies amoris." Rot. Parl. 13.

Hen. IV. n. 13. „agayn the fourme of a Love-day taken bytwen the same parties. Maked I not a Lovedaye between God and Mankynde, and chese a mayde to be nompere, to put the quarell at ende?" Testament of Love I. 319. In the Visions of Pierce Ploughman are these lines:

I can holde Lovedayes, and here a Reves rekenynge,
And in Cannon or in Decretals I cannot read a lyne."

and Chaucer in his description of the Friar in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales uses the word in the same sense:

"His pourchas was wel better than his rent.
And rage he coude as it hadde ben a whelp,
In lovedayes, ther coude he mochel help."

Ye haue another intollerable ill maner of speach, which by the Greekes originall we may call fonde affectation,

Biron.

O! never will I trust to speeches penn'd,

Nor to the motion of a school-boy's tongue;

Nor never come in visor to my friend;