The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer night's Dream' by Compiled by Frank Sidgwick
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Compiled by Frank Sidgwick >> The Sources and Analogues of \'A Midsummer night\'s Dream\'
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[17] P. 111, l. 13. _the tune of Broom_. See Chappell, op. cit., 458; but
this song does not fit the metre.
* * * *
_The Romance of Thomas of Erceldoune._
(Fytte I.)
See pp. 45-7. In preparing the text, I have reduced in as simple a manner
as possible the fifteenth-century spelling to modern forms. Dr. J.A.H.
Murray's parallel texts (see note on p. 46) have been consulted, but mainly
I have followed the oldest of them--that of the Thornton MS. in Lincoln
Cathedral Library. The footnotes explain all words save those that are or
ought to be familiar to every reader.
[1] l. 1. _endris_, last.
[2] l. 6. _meaned_, moaned.
[3] l. 7. _bered_, sounded. The woodwale is some kind of wood-bird.
[4] l. 14. _wrable and ivry_, ? wriggle and twist, _i.e._ in the attempt to
describe her.
[5] l. 17. See p. 54.
[6] _Swilk_, such.
[7] l. 21. _roelle-bone;_ a commonplace in early poetry, as the material
for saddles; meaning unknown.
[8] l. 24. _crapotee_, toad-stone.
[9] l. 32. _overbegone_, overlaid.
[10] l. 33. _paytrell_ = poitrail, breast-leather of a horse; _iral_ (?).
[11] l. 34. _orphare_ = orferrie, goldsmith's work.
[12] l. 38. _raches_, dogs.
[13] l. 39. _halse_, neck.
[14] l. 40. _flane_, arrow.
[15] l. 43. See pp. 46-7 and note.
[16] l. 45. _But-if,_ unless.
[17] l. 48. For an elaborate investigation of the circumstances concerning
the _Eildon tree_, see the special section in Murray's edition.
[18] l. 49. _rathely_, quickly.
[19] l. 63. _fee_, beasts, cattle.
[20] l. 71. _sekerly_, truly.
[21] l. 79. _ware_, worse.
[22] l. 86. _byrde_, bride.
[23] l. 89. _stead_, place.
[24] l. 98. _duleful_, painful.
[25] l. 103. _gone_ = go (old infinitive).
[26] l. 104. _Middle-earth_ = Earth, the middle region in the old Northern
cosmogony.
[27] l. 107. Thomas is here addressing the Virgin.
[28] l. 111. _beteach_, entrust, hand over to.
[29] l. 114. _derne_, secret.
[30] l. 117. _mountenance_, space.
[31] l. 121. _herbere_, garden.
[32] l. 126. _bigging,_ building.
[33] l. 127. _papejoys_, popinjays, parrots.
[34] ll. 131-6. On the danger of eating fairy apples, see p. 53.
[35] l. 137. _hight_, command.
[36] l. 141. _hight_ (MS. _hye_), ? pleasure.
[37] l. 143. _pay_, please.
[38] l. 145 et sqq. See p. 46.
[39] l. 145. _fair_, pronounced as two syllables.
[40] l. 150. _rise_, brushwood, undergrowth.
[41] l. 155. _teen and tray_, pain and trouble.
[42] l. 167. _me were lever_, I had rather.
[43] l. 168. _Or that_, ere that, before that.
[44] l. 175. _dess_, dais.
[45] l. 183. _main and mood_, might and main.
[46] l. 188. _kneeland_ = kneeling. Cf. l. 191.
[47] l. 189. _fand_, found.
[48] l. 190. _sawtery_ = psaltery.
[49] l. 191. _ribib_, rebeck, lute.
[50] l. 191. _gangand_ = going.
[51] l. 196. _store_, plentiful.
[52] l. 199. _brittened_ = brittled, cut up (the deer)
[53] l. 208. This sudden and momentary change to the first person is found
in all the older MSS. See p. 47.
[54] l. 209. _thee buse_--it behoves thee. Cf. l. 234.
[55] l. 213. _cheer_, look, face.
[56] ll. 219-24. See p. 54; also Sir Walter Scott's introduction to the
ballad of _The Young Tamlane_, in _The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_.
[57] l. 220. _skill_, reason.
[58] l. 221. _To-morn,_ in the morning.
[59] l. 223. _hend_, noble, mighty.
[60] l. 226. _hethen_ = hence. Cf. sithen = since.
[61] l. 228. _rede_, advise.
[62] l. 232. Four lines of the MSS. omitted here.
[63] l. 234. _buse_. See note on l. 209.
[64] l. 235. Fyttes II and III are wholly concerned with the prophecies,
and have nothing to do with the story of Thomas.
* * * *
_Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft._
[1] P. 135, l. 13. (Book IV, chap, x.) _Hemton hamton._ Cf. "himpen hampen"
in _Robin Good-fellow,_ and note, p. 189.
[2] P. 138, l. 20. (Book VII, chap, xv.) _Kit with the canstick._
Christopher-with-the-candlestick is another name for Jack-o'-lantern.
_calkers_ = diviners. For _spoorn_, see Wright, _Dialect Dictionary_, s.v.
[3] P. 140, l. 8. (Discourse, chap. xxi.) _Hudgin_ is more usually spelled
Hodeken, the German familiar fairy. Cf. the French Hugon, a bugbear used to
frighten children.
* * * *
_Strange Farlies._
P. 141. This extract from Churchyard was first cited by E.K. Chambers in
his edition of _M.N.D._ in the _Warwick Shakespeare_.
[1] _farlies_, marvels.
[2] _feared_, frightened.
* * * *
_The Mad Merry Pranks of Robin Good-fellow._
P. 144. This broadside is found in various editions in the larger
collections (Roxburghe Coll., I. 230; Pepys, I. 80; also in the Bagford);
the text here given is Percy's collation (as printed in his _Reliques_) of
one or two of the above. The tune of _Dulcina_ was famous; it may be seen
in Chappell's _Popular Music_, 142.
* * * *
_The Fairies' Farewell._
[1] P. 153, l. 11. [_need_]. _Poetica Stromata_ reads _want_.
* * * *
_The Fairy Queen._
P. 155. The poem was given by Percy in his _Reliques_ from _The Mysteries
of Love and Eloquence_, a curious book of which the preface is signed E.P.;
the British Museum Catalogue attributes these initials to Edward Phillips,
the nephew of John Milton. But Rimbault pointed out that this song occurs
in a tract of 1635, _A Description of the King and Queen of the Fairies_,
attributed to Robert Herrick; a single copy of this pamphlet is known, and
is in the Bodleian Library.
* * * *
_Nymphidia._
P. 158. Michael Drayton's fairy-poem was first published in 1627, and
perhaps owes a little of its charm to Shakespeare's play, though not so
much as Drayton's sonnets to those of the elder poet.
[1] P. 160. _upright_, flat on the back. This is the older meaning, which
Drayton would find in Chaucer.
[2] _hays_, dances. Cf. _heydeguys_, p. 148.
[3] P. 161. _aulfe_. Cf. "ouphs," _Merry Wives of Windsor,_ V. v.
[4] _Pigwiggen_. "Piggy-widden" is a west-country dialect term, meaning a
little white pig, used as an endearment for the youngest of a family.
[5] P. 162. _starved_, i.e. killed.
[6] P. 166. _The Tuscan poet_, Ariosto; _the frantic Paladin,_ Orlando
Furioso.
[7] P. 170. "_Ho, ho._" See note (p. 189) on _Robin Goodfellow_.
[8] _vild_, an old form of "vile."
[9] _lin_, stop.
[10] P. 174. _fern-seed._ A very common superstition, which still survives,
is that the seeds of the fern have power to confer invisibility.
[11] _lunary,_ a name given to several plants, here probably moonwort. It
was supposed to open locks.
[12] P. 175. _lubrican_, the name of an Irish pigmy sprite, otherwise
called _leprechaun_.
[13] _fire-drake,_ a fiery dragon. The word also meant a meteor.
[14] P. 178. _bent_, grass-stalk.
* * * * *
INDEX
Aegeus, 12
Aegles, 9
Aethra, 9
Alberich, 36
Alcmena, 9
_Amazonide_, 13
_Anelida and Arcite_, 13
Antiopa, 9-10
Apuleius, 30
Arcite, 12-25
Ariadne, 9
Aristotle, 12
Arthur, King, 44, 48, 57
Arthurian cycle, 57-8
Auberon, 35
Avalon, 43
Ballads: _Tam Lin_, 38, 53
_Thomas the Rhymer_, 46-7
_King Orfeo_, 52
Boccaccio, 12-14
Bodin, 30
Bottom, 29-30
Breton lays, 54-5
Chambers, E.K., 9, 24, 40, 64
Characters, 4:
_Theseus and Hippolyta,_ 9-11;
_Egeus, Philostrate, Lysander, Demetrius, Helena, and Hermia_, 12;
_Bottom and his comrades_, 29;
_Oberon_, 35-6;
_Titania_, 36;
_Puck_, 37-40
Chaucer, 9, 10, 12-14, 22-5, 39, 58
Demetrius, 12, 25
_Demonology_, 37
Diana, 36-7
_Discovery of Witchcraft_, 29-30, 36, 39, 133-140
Eddic lays, 42
Edwardes, R., 22
Egeus, 12
Elf-land: _see_ Fairy-land.
Emelye (Emilia), 12, 14-22
Emetreus, 19, 21, 25
Eochaid, 55-7
Etain, 55-7
Eurydice, 49-50
_Fairie Queen_, 36, 39
Fairies, 35, 41, 44, 62-6.
See also under _King_ and _Queen_.
Fairy-land, 35, 46, 55-7, 59
Fairy-lore: sleeping under trees, 53;
the fiend's tithe, 53-4;
white horses, 54;
horns, 62;
hunt, 62
Fates, 42
Fay, 41
Fletcher, John, 23
Golding, A., 31
Gollancz, Prof., 32
Goodfellow, Robin, 37-40, 63, 144-8
Goodfellow, Robin, tract, 39, 81-121
Gower, John, 41
Greene, Robert, 12, 36
Halpin, Rev. N.J., 66-7
Helena, 12
Henslowe's _Diary_, 22-3
Hercules, 9-10
Hermia, 12
Hippodamia, 9
Hippolyta, 9-11
_Huon of Bordeaux_, 35-6, 39, 44, 60-2
James I, 36
_James IV_, 36
King of Fairies, 35-6, 51, 55
Kittredge, Prof., 55
_Knightes Tale_, 11-14, 24-5
" analysis, 14-22
_Launfal_, 47-9
_Legend of Good Women_, 13, 31
Ligurge, 19, 21, 25
_Love's Labour's Lost_, 3
Lysander, 12, 25
Lysidice, 9
Mab, Queen, 37, 64, 149-150
_Malleus Maleficarum_, 30
Marie de France, 47
Massinger, Philip, 23
May, observance of, 24
_Merchant of Venice_, 2
_Metamorphoses_, 31,36
Mider, 55-6
_Midsummer-Night's Dream_: date, 1-2;
character, 2-3;
three component plots, 4;
main (sentimental) plot, 9-25;
grotesque plot and interlude, 29-32;
fairy plot, 35-66
Morgan le Fay, 43, 57
Nashe, Thomas, 12, 40-1
Norns, 42
North, Lord: Plutarch's _Life of Theseus_, 9, 12
Nutt, Alfred, 41
_Nymphidia_, 158-187
Oberon, 35-6.
His Vision, 66-8
Ogier the Dane, 43
_Orpheo_, 49-52
Orpheus, 49-50
Ovid, 31, 36
Palamon, 12-25
_Palamon and Arcite_, 22-3
_Palladis Tamia_, 1
Pelops, 9
Perrault, 35
Philostrate, 12, 24
Pirithous, 16
Pittheus, 9
Plutarch, 9, 12
Pluto, 36
Proserpine, 36
Puck, 37-40, 64
Pyramus, 29, 31-2, 73-80
Queen of Fairies, 36-7, 45, 49
Romances (metrical): _Thomas of Erceldoune_, 45-7, 122-132;
_Sir Launfal_, 47-9;
_Sir (King) Orpheo_, 49-52
Saxo Grammaticus, 42
Scot, Reginald, 29-30, 36, 39
Spenser, Edmund, 36, 39
Statius, 13, 15
Subterranean descents, 44
Superstition (modern), 31
_Tempest_, 3
_Teseide_, 13-14
_Thebais_, 13
Theseus, 9-11
Thisbe, 29, 31-2, 73-80
Thomas of Erceldoune, 45-6, 122-32
Titania, 36
_Troilus and Criseyde_, 14
Tuatha De Danann, 59, 65
_Two Gentlemen of Verona_, 2
_Two Noble Kinsmen_, 23, 25
Witches, 31
* * * * *
_Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London and Bungay_.
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