rise to a proverbial expression, Dun is in the mire, used when a person was at a stand, or plunged into any difficulty. We find it as early as Chaucer's time in the Manciple's prologue,

"Ther gan our hoste to jape and to play,

And sayde; sires, what? Dun is in the mire."

How the above sport was practised we have still to learn. Dun is, no doubt, the name of a horse or an ass. There is an equivalent phrase, Nothing is bolder than blynde Bayard which falleth oft in the mire. See Dr. Bullein's dialogue between soarenesse and chirurgi, fo. 10; and there is also a proverb, As dull as Dun in the mire.

Мек.

Sc. 4. p. 376.

This is that very Mab

That plats the manes of horses in the night.

No attempt has hitherto been made to explain this line, which alludes to a very singular superstition not yet forgotten in some parts of the country. It was believed that certain malignant spirits, whose delight was to wander in groves and pleasant places, assumed occasionally the likenesses of women clothed in white; that in this character they sometimes haunted stables in

the night-time, carrying in their hands tapers of wax, which they dropped on the horses' manes, thereby plaiting them in inextricable knots, to the great annoyance of the poor animals and vexation of their masters. These hags are mentioned in the works of William of Auvergne, bishop of Paris in the 13th century. There is a very uncommon old print by Hans Burgmair relating to this subject. A witch enters the stable with a lighted torch; and previously to the operation of entangling the horse's mane, practises her enchantments on the groom, who is lying asleep on his back, and apparently influenced by the nightmare. The Belemnites, or elf-stones, were regarded as charms against the last-mentioned disease and against evil spirits of all kinds; but the cerauniæ or bætuli, and all perforated flintstones, were not only used for the same purpose, but more particularly for the protection of horses and other cattle, by suspending them in stables, or tying them round the necks of the animals. The next line,

"And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs,"

seems to be unconnected with the preceding, and to mark a superstition which, as Dr. Warburton has observed, may have originated from the plica

Polonica, which was supposed to be the opera tion of wicked elves; whence the clotted hair was called elf-locks and elf-knots. Thus Edgar talks of "elfing all his hair in knots." Lodge, in his Wit's miserie, 1599, 4to, describing a devil whom he names Brawling-contention, says; "his ordinary apparell is a little low-crown'd hat with a fether in it like a forehorse; his haires are curld, and full of elves locks and nitty for want of kembing."

ACT II.

Scene 2. Page 398.

ROM. It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.

This line in particular, and perhaps the whole of the scene, has been imitated by the ingenious author of the Latin comedy of Labyrinthus. In Act iii. Sc. 4, two lovers meet at night, and the Romeo of the piece says to his mistress, "Quid mihi noctem commemoras, mea salus? Splendens nunc subitò illuxit dies, ubi tu primum, mea lux, oculorum radiis hasce dispulisti tenebras." This excellent play was acted before King James I. at Cambridge, and for bustle and contrivance has perhaps never been exceeded.

Sc. 2. p. 398.

JUL. Thou art thyself though, not a Montagu.

Dr. Johnson would have substituted then for though; but without necessity, because in that sense the latter word was anciently written tho : unskilful printers, deceived by sound, substituted though; whence the ambiguity has arisen. Thus Chaucer in his Canterbury tales, v. 2214,

"Yet sang the larke, and Palamon right tho
With holy herte and with a high corage

He rose."

And again, v. 2392,

"For thilk sorrow that was tho in thyn herte."

Thus much in explanation of though, if

put

charet, who walketh upon the wings of the winde."

This Shakspeare found in Ovid's Art of love; perhaps in Marlow's translation; book I.

"For Jove himself sits in the azure skies,
And laughs below at lovers perjuries."

With the following beautiful antithesis to the above lines, every reader of taste will be gratified. It is given memoriter from some old play, the name of which is forgotten;

"When lovers swear true faith, the list'ning angels

Stand on the golden battlements of heaven,

And waft their vows to the eternal throne."

Sc. 2. p. 410.

ROM. How silver-sweet sound lovers tongues by night.

In Pericles, Act v., we have silver-voic'd, Perhaps these epithets have been formed from the common notion that silver mixed with bells softens and improves their tone. We say likewise that a person is silver-tongued..