To many a youth, and many a maid,
Dancing in the chequer'd fhade;
And young and old come forth to play
On a fun-fhine holy-day,

Till the live-long day-light fail:
Then to the spicy nut-brown ale,

"of every municipal [town] FIDLER, for thefe are the country“man's ARCADIAS, and his MONTEMAYORS." PR. W. vol. i. p. 149. Where he means Sydney's ARCADIA, and the DIANA of George of Montemayor, two pastoral romances, then popular.

In ENGLAND'S HELICON, there is "A Shepheard's Song to "his Rebeck." Edit. 1614. Signat. M. In Shakespeare, a fidler is called Hugh REBECK. See ROM. JUL. A. iv. S. iv. and Steevens's Note. If, as I have supposed, it is Chaucer's RIBIELE, the diminutive of RIBIBE ufed alfo by Chaucer, I must agree with Sir John Hawkins, that it originally comes from REBE B, the name of a Moorish mufical inftrument with two ftrings, played on by a bow. [See Tyrwhitt's CHAUCER, N. on v. 6959.] Sir John adds, that the Moors brought it into Spain, whence it paffed into Italy, and obtained the appellation of RIBECA. HIST. MUS. ii. 86. Perhaps we have it from the French Rebec and Rebecquin. In the Percy Houshold book, 1512, are recited, Mynftralls in "Houshold iij, viz. a Taberett, a Luyte, and a REBECC." It appears below queen Elizabeth's reign, in the mufic-establishment of the royal houfhold.

97. And young and old come forth to play

On a funfbine holy-day.] Thus alfo in the MASK, v. 959. Back, fhepherds, back, enough your play,

Till next SUNSHINE HOLY-DAY.

Holiday-fports are ftill much encouraged in the counties to which Milton was used. See Note on SAMS. AGON. v. 1418.

99. Till the live-long day-light fail.] Here the poet begins to pafs the Night with Mirth. And he begins with the night or evening of the funshine holy-day, whose merriments he has just celebrated.

100. Then to the spicy nut-brown ale.] See the old play of HENRY THE FIFTH. In fix OLD PLAYS, &c. Lond. 1779. P. 336.

Yet we will have in store a crab i' th' fire,
With NUT-BROWN ale, that is full ftale.

This was Shakespeare's "goffip's bowl," MIDS. N. DR. A. i. S.i.
The compofition was ale, nutmeg, fugar, toaft, and roasted crabs

or

With ftories told of many a feat,
How faery Mab the junkets eat;
She was pincht, and pull'd she fed,
And he by friers lantern led

or apples. It was called LAMBS-WOOL. Our old dramas have frequent allufions to this delectable beverage. In Fletcher's FAITHFULL SHEPHERDESS it is stiled " the spiced waffel boul." A. v. S. i. vol. iii. p. 177.

101. With ftories, &c.] Shakespeare's WINTER'S TALE is supposed to be of "sprights and goblins." A. ii. S.i.

103. She was pincht and pull'd she fed, &c.] HE and SHE are perfons of the company affembled to spend the evening, after a country wake, at a rural junket. All this is a part of the paftoral imagery which now prevailed in our poetry. Compare Drayton's NYMPHIDIA, Vol. ii. p. 453.

These make our girles their fluttery rue,

By pinching them both black and blue, &c.

And Shakespeare, Coм. ERR. A. ii. S. ii. Of the fairies.

They'll fuck our breath, and pinch us black and blue. And the MERRY WIVES, where Falstaffe is pinched by fairies. A. v. S. v. And Browne, BRIT. PAST. B. i. S. ii. p. 31. And Heywood's HIERARCHIE OF ANGELS, B. ix. p. 574. edit. 1635. fol. Who also, among the domeftic demons, gives what he calls" a "ftrange story of the Spirit of the Buttery." Ibid. p. 577. But almost all that Milton here mentions of these house-fairies appears to be taken from Jonfon's ENTERTAYNMENT AT ALTROPE, 1603. WORKS, fol. p. 872. edit. 1616.

When about the CREAM-BOWLES sweete,
You and all your elves do meet.
This is MAB, the miftris fairy,
That doth nightly rob the dairy,
And can help or hurt the churning,
As fhee please, without difcerning.-
She that PINCHES country wenches,
If they rub not cleane their benches;
And with sharper nayles remembers
When they raké not up their embers.
This is the that empties cradles, &c.
Traynes forth midwives in their flumbers,
And then leades them from their burrowes,
Home through PONDS and WATER-FURROWES.

VOL. I.

H

As

Tells how the drudging Goblin fwet,

To earn his cream-bowl duly fet,

105

As Milton here copied Jonfon, fo Jonfon copied Shakespeare, MIDS. N. DR. A. ii. S. i.

Are you not he

That frights the maidens of the villagery, &c.

It is remarkable, that the Demon who was faid to haunt women in child-bed, and steal their infants, is mentioned fo early as by Michael Pfellus, a Byzantine philofopher of the eleventh century, on the OPERATIONS of DEMONS. Edit. Gaulmin. Parif. 1615. 12mo. p. 78.

104. And he by friers lantern led, &c.] Thus the edition of 1645. But in the edition 1673, the context ftands thus,

She was pincht and pull'd, fhe fed,

And by the friers lantern led

Tells how, &c.

I know not if under the poet's immediate direction. And in Tonfon's, 1705. This reading at least removes à flight confusion arifing from his, v. 106. Nor is the general fenfe much altered. Friers lantern, is the JACK AND LANTERN, which led people in the night into marshes and waters. Milton gives the philosophy of this fuperftition, PARAD. LOST, ix. 634.

-A wandering fire

Compact of unctuous vapour, which the night
Condenses, and the cold environs round,
Kindled through agitation to a flame,

Which oft, they fay, fome EVIL SPIRIT attends,
Hovering and blazing with delufive light,

Mifleads th' amaz'd night-wanderer from his way

To bogs and mires, and oft through pond and pool.

In the midst of a folemn and learned enarration, his strong imagination could not resist a romantic tradition, confecrated by popular credulity. Shakespeare has finely transferred the general idea of this fuperftition to his Ghoft in HAMLET, A. i. S. iii.

Mar. It waves you to a more removed ground;

But do not go with it.

Hor. What if it tempt you to the FLOOD, my Lord ?

But then, from the ground-work of a vulgar belief, fo beautifullyaccommodated and improved, how does he rife in the progreffion of his imagination to the fuppofition of a more alarming and horrible danger!

Or to the dreadful fummit of the cliff
That beetles o'er his base into the sea,

And

When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
His fhadowy flail had thresh'd the corn,

And there affume some other horrible form,
Which might deprive your fovereignty of reason,
And draw you into madness ?

105. Tells how the drudging goblin fwet,

To earn his cream-bowl duly fet, &c.] This goblin is Robin Goodfellow. See Note on v. 103. And the commentators on Shakespeare's MIDS. N. DREAM, vol. iii. p. 27. edit. 1778. His cream-bowl was earned, and he paid the punctuality of those by whom it was duly placed for his refection, by the fervice of threshing with his invifible fairy flail, in one night, and before the dawn of day, a quantity of corn in the barn, which could not have been threshed in fo fhort a time by ten labourers. He then returns into the houfe, fatigued with his task; and overcharged with his reward the cream-bowl, throws himself before the fire, and ftretched along the whole breadth of the fire-place, basks till the morning. Robin Goodfellow, who is here made a gigantic spirit, fond of lying before the fire, and called the LUBBAR-FIEND, seems to be confounded with the fleepy giant mentioned in Beaumont and Fletcher's KNIGHT OF THE BURNING PESTLE, A. iii. S. i. vol. vi. p. 411. edit. 1751. "There is a pretty tale of

witch that had the devil's mark about her, god bless us, that "had a gyaunt to her fon that was called Lob-lye-by-the-fire.' Jonfon introduces Robin Goodfellow as a perfon of the drama, in LOVE RESTORED, A Mafque at Court, where more of his fervices, and a great variety of his gambols, are recited. WORKS, edit. 1616. p. 990. Burton, speaking of thefe fairies, fays that “ a bigger kind there is of them, called with us Hob-goblins and "Robin Goodfellowes, that would in thofe fuperftitious times grinde corne for a meffe of milke, cut wood, or do any manner "of drudgery worke." MELANCH. P. i. §. 2. p. 42. edit. 1632. Afterwards, of the demons that mislead men in the night, he says, we commonly call them PUCKS." Ibid. p. 43.

66

In GRIM THE COLLIER OF CROYDON, perhaps printed be fore 1600, Robin Goodfellow fays,

I love a Messe of Cream as well as they,-
Ho, Ho, my masters, no good fellowship?
Is Robin Goodfellow a bugbear grown?

A. v. S. i. See Reed's OLD PL. xi. 254. Again, ibid. p. 238.
For I fhall fleet their CREAM-BOWLS night by night.

In the old Moralities, it was cuftomary to introduce the Devil with the cry, ho, ho, ho! GAM. GURT. N. ibid. ii. 34. See Note on V, 113. infr.

That ten day-lab'rers could not end;

Then lies him down the lubbar fiend,

And stretch'd out all the chimney's length,
Basks at the fire his hairy ftrength,

And crop-full out of door he flings,
Ere the first cock his matin rings.

110

168. We have the flail, an implement here given to Robin Goodfellow, in the exhibition of that favourite character in GRIM THE COLLIER OF CROYDON, See A. iv. S.i. Reed's OLD. PL. xi. 238. "Enter Robin Goodfellow in, a fuit of leather close to his body, his face and hands coloured ruffet colour, with a FLAIL." In which fcene he fays, p. 241.

What, miller, are you up agin?

Nay, then my FLAIL fhall never lin.

Robin Goodfellow, cloathed in green, was a common figure in the old city-pageants. Mayne's CITY MATCH, A. ii. S. vi. edit. 1639.

Some fpeeches, fit, in verfe which I have spoke

By a green Robin Goodfellow from Cheapfide Conduit,

113. And crop-full out of doors he flings,

Ere the firft cock his matin rings.] Milton remembered the old Song of Puck or ROBIN GOODFELLOW, rescued from oblivion by Peck.

"

When larks gin fing

Away we fling.

The chorus of this fong is "Ho, Ho, Ho!" Hence fays Puck,

Ho, Ho, Coward why comeft not thou?" MIDS. N. DR. A. iii. S. ii. See the laft Note on the ODE ON THE NATIVITY. Mr. Bowle fuggefts an illuftration of the text from Warner's ALBION'S ENGLAND, ch. 91. Robin Goodfellow is the speaker.

Hoho, hoho, needs must I laugh, fuch fooleries to name,

And at my CRUMMED MESSE OF MILKE, each night from maid or dame

To do their chares, as they suppos'd, when in their deadest fleepe

I pull'd them out their beds, and made themselves their

houfes fweepe.

How clatter'd I amongst their pots and pans, &c.

Much the fame is faid in Scot's DISCOUERIE of WITCHCRAFT,

Lond. 1588. 4to. p. 66. See alfo, To the readers.

114. Mr. Bowle fuppofes, that the poet here thought of a paffage in the FAERIE QUEENE, V. vi. 27.

The