Mr. Tyrwhitt's remark that the Pluto and Proserpine of Chaucer were the true progenitors of Oberon and Titania, may be perfectly true; but the name of Oberon as king of the fairies, must have been exceedingly well known from the romance of Huon of Bourdeaux, in which this Oberon makes a very conspicuous figure.
Scene 2. Page 41.
Tita. Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
By paved fountain.
Milton, doubtless, had these lines in recollection when he wrote,
"To hill or valley, fountain or fresh shade."
Par. lost, b. v. l. 203.
Scene 2. Page 41.
Tita. To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind.
An allusion to what the country people call fairy rings, which they suppose to be the tracks of the dances of those diminutive beings.
Scene 2. Page 43.