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

OBE. Do you amend it then; it lies in
Why fhould Titania crofs her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy,
To be my henchman. 7

i

you:

henchman.] Page of honour. This office was abolished by queen Elizabeth. GREY.

The office might be abolished at court, but probably remained in the city. Glapthorne, in his comedy called Wit in a Conftable, 640, has this paffage :

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I will teach his hench-boys,
Serjeants, and trumpeters to act, and fave 1
The city all that charges."

When he was lady may'refs, and you
As her trim hench-boys.'

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humble

I be faid grace as

Again, in Ben Jonfon's Christmas Mafque: "
well as any of the fheriff's hench-boys."
Skinner derives the word from Hine A. S.
Spelman from Hengftman, equi curator, inμ.

famulus.

quafi domefticus

STEEVENS.

In a letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury dated 11th of December 1565, it is faid, "Her highness (i. e. Queen Elizabeth) hathe of lac, wherat fome doo moche marvell, diffolved the auncient office of Flenchemen." (Lodge's Illustrations, Vol. I. p. 35%.) On this pallage Mr Lodge obferves that Henchmen were "a certain number o youths, the fons of gentlemen, who flood or walked near the perfon of the monarch on all publick occafions. They are menLoed in the fumptuary flatutes of the 4th of Edward the Fourth, and 24th of Henry VIII. and a patent is preferved in the Fodera, Vol. XV. 242, whereby Edward VI. gives to William Bukley, A. propter gravitatem morum & do&rine abundantiam, officium docendi, erudiendi, atque inftituendi adolefcentulos vocalos HENCHMEN ; with a falary of 40l. per annum. Henchman, or Heinfman, is a German word, as Blount informs us in his Cloffographia, fignifying a domeftic, whence our ancient term Hind, a fervant in the houfe of a larmer. Dr. Percy, in a note on the Earl of Northumberland's houfehold-book, with lefs probability, derives the appellation from their custom of ftanding by the fide, or Haunch of their Lord."

M.

REED.

Upon the establishment of the houshold of Edward IV. were henxmen fix enfants, or more, as it pleyfeth the king, eatinge in the

TITA.

Set your heart at reft The fairy land buys not the child of me. His mother was a vot'refs of my order: And, in the fpiced 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 fwimming gait, (Following her womb, then rich with my young 'fquire, $)

halle, &c. There was also a maifter of the henxmen, to fhewe them the fchoole of nurture, and learne them to ride, to wear their harnesses to have all courtefie- to teach them all languages, and other virtues, as harping, pipynge, finging, dancing, with honeft behavioure of temper aunce and patyence.' MS. Harl. 293.

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At the funeral of Henry VIII. nine henchmen attended with fir Francis Bryan, mafter of the henchmen.

1

Strype's Eccl. Mem. v. 2. App. n. 1.
Henchman. Quafi haunch-man.

another. Pedifequus. BLACKSTONE.

TYRWHITT.
One that goes behind

The learned commentator might have given his etymology fome support from the following paffage in King Henry IV. P. II. Aa IV. fc. iv :

"O Weftmoreland, thou art a fummer bird,
"Which ever in the haunch of winter fings
"The lifting up of day." STEEVENS.

8 Which fhe, with pretty and with fwimming gait,

Following her womb, then rich with my young Jquite,)

Would imitate] Perhaps the parenthefis fhould begin fooner

as I think Mr. Kenrick obferves:

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(Following her womb, then rich with my young squire,)”.

So, in Trulla's combat with Hudibras ;

She pfs'd fo home,

"That he retired, and follow'd's. bum."

And Dryden fays of his Spanish Friar," his great belly walks in ftate before him, and his gouty legs come limping after it."

FARMER.

I have followed this regulation, (which is likewife adopted by Mr. Steevens,) though I do not think that of the old copy at all liable to the objection made to it by Dr. Warburton.

She did

Would imitate; and fail upon the land,
To fetch me trifles, and return again,
As from a voyage, rich with merchandize.
But fhe, being mortal, of that boy did die,
And, for her fake, I do rear up her boy:
And, for her fake, I will not part with him.
OBE. How long within this wood intend you ftay?
TITA. Perchance, till after Thefeus' wedding-day.
If you will patiently dance in our round,
And fee our moon - light revels, go with us,
If not, fhun me, and I will fpare your haunts.
OBE. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee,
TITA. Not for thy kingdom.-Fairies, away:
We fhall chide down-right, if I longer stay.

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[Exeunt TITANIA, and her train. OBE. Well, go thy way: thou fhalt not from this grove,

Till I torment thee for this injury.

My gentle Puck, come hither: Thou remember'st
Since once I.fat upon a promontory,

And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back,
Uttering fuch dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude fea grew civil at her fong;

not, he fays) follow the fhip whofe motion fhe imitated; for that failed on the water, fhe on land." But might she not on land move in the fame direction with the fhip at fea, which certainly would outftrip her? and what is this but following ?

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Which, according to the prefent regulation, muft mean which motion of the ship with fwelling fails, &c: according to the old regu lation it must refer to embarked traders." MALONE.

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"Not for thy fairy kingdom. - Fairies, away."

By the advice of Dr. Farmer I have omitted the ufelefs adje&ive fairy, as it fpoils the metre; Fairies, the following fubflantive, being apparently used, in an earlier inftance, as a triffyllable.

STEEVENS.

And certain ftars fhot madly from their fpheres,
To hear the fea-maid's mufick. 9

Thou remember'

Since once I fat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back,
Ultering fuch dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude fea grew civil at her fong;

And certain ftars fhot madly from their Spheres,

To hear the fea-maid's mufick.] The firft thing obfervable on thefe words is, that this action of the mermaid is laid in the fame time and place with Cupid's attack upon the veftal. By the vestal every one knows is meant queen Elizabeth. It is very natural and reasonable then to think that the mermaid ftands for fome eminent perfonage of her time. And if fo, the allegorical covering, in which there is a mixture of fatire and panegyric, will lead us to conclude that this perfon was one of whom it had been inconve nient for the author to speak openly, either in praise or difpraife. All this agrees with Mary queen of Scots, and with no other. Q. Elizabeth could not bear to hear her commended; and her fucceffor would not forgive her fatirift. But the poet has fo well marked out every diftinguished circumftance of her life and character in this beautiful allegory, as will leave no room to doubt about his fecret meaning. She is called a mermaid, 1. to denote her reiga over a kingdom fituate in the fea, and 2. her beauty, and intemperâte luft:

46

Ut turpiter atrum

"Definat in pifcem mulier formofa fupernè."

for as Elizabeth for her chastity is called a veftal, this unfortunate lady on a contrary account is called a mermaid. 3. An ancient story may be fuppofed to be here alluded to. The emperor Julian tells us, Epistle 41. that the Sirens (which, with all the modern poets, are mermaids) contended for precedency With the Mufes, who overcoming them, took away their wings. The quarrels between Mary and Elizabeth had the fame caufe, and the fame iffue.

on a dolphin's back,] This evidently marks out that diftinguishing circumftance of Mary's fortune, her marriage with the dauphin of France, fon of Henry II.

Uttering fuch dulcet and harmonious breath,] This alludes to her great abilities of genius and learning, which rendered her the moft accomplished princefs of her age. The French writers tell us, that, while he was in that court, the pronounced a Latin oration in the great hall of the Louvre, with fo much grace and eloquence, as filled the whole court with admiration.

Риск.

I remember.

OBE. That very time I faw, (but thou could'st

not,)

That the rude fea grew civil at her fong ;] By the rude fea is meant Scotland encircled with the ocean; which role up in arms against the regent, while fhe was in France. But her return home prefently quieted thofe diforders: and had not her strange ill condud afterwards more violently inflamed them, fhe might have paffed her whole life in peace. There is the greater juftness and beauty in this image, as the vulgar opinion is, that the mermaid always fings in ftorms: And certain fars fhot madly from their Spheres,

To hear the fea-maid's mufick.] Thus concludes the defcription, with that remarkable circumftance of this unhappy lady's fate, the deftruction the brought upon feveral of the English nobility, whom The drew in to fupport her caufe. This, in the boldet expreffion of the fublime, the poet images by certain flars shooting madly from their pheres: By which he meant the earls of Northumberland and Weftmoreland, who fell in her quarrel; and principally the great duke of Norfolk, whose projeded marriage with her was attended with fuch fatal confequences. Here again the reader may observe a peculiar juftnefs in the imagery. The vulgar opinion being that the mermaid allured men to deftruction by her fongs. To which opinion Shakspeare alludes in his Comedy of Errors:

"O train me not, fweet mermaid, with thy note,

"To drown me in thy fifter's flood of tears."

On the whole, it is the nobleft and jufteft allegory that was ever written. The laying it in fairy land, and out of nature, is in the character of the speaker. And on thefe occafions Shakspeare always excels himself. He is borne away by the magic of his enthusiasm, and hurries his reader along with him into these ancient regions of poetry, by that power of verfe, which we may well fancy to be like what,

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Olim fauni vatefque canebant." WARBURTON. And certain fars fot madly from their Spheres,] So, in our au thor's Rape of Lucrece :

"And little fars fhot from their fixed places." MALONE. Every reader may be induced to wish that the foregoing allufion, pointed out by fo acute a critic as Dr. Warburton, should remain uncontroverted; and yet I cannot diffemble my doubts concerning it. Why is the thrice-married Queen of Scotland stiled a SeaMAID? and is it probable that Shakspeare (who understood his own political as well as poetical intereft,) fhould have ventured fuch a panegyric on this ill-fated Princess, during the reign of her rival Elizabeth? If it was unintelligible to his audience, it was thrown away; if obvious, there was danger of offence to her Majefty.

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