[23] In comparing the characters of Sly and Bottom, we must be struck with the remarkable profusion of picturesque and classical allusions with which both these buffoons are surrounded. I have quoted some of the passages from Midsummer Night's Dream above. The Induction to the Taming of the Shrew is equally rich. There, too, we have the sylvan scenery and the cheerful sport of the huntsman, and there we also have references to Apollo and Semiramis; to Cytherea all in sedges hid; to Io as she was a maid; to Daphne roaming through a thorny wood. The coincidence is not casual. Shakspeare desired to elevate the scenes in which such grovelling characters played the principal part by all the artificial graces of poetry, and to prevent them from degenerating into mere farce. As I am on the subject, I cannot refrain from observing that the remarks of Bishop Hurd on the character of the Lord in the Induction to the Taming of the Shrew are marked by a ridiculous impertinence, and an ignorance of criticism truly astonishing. They are made to swell, however, the strange farrago of notes gathered by the variorum editors. The next editor may safely spare them.
I have not troubled my readers with verbal criticism in this paper, but I shall here venture on one conjectural emendation. Hermia, chiding Demetrius, says, Act iii. sc. 2,
"If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,
Being o'er shoes in blood, wade in the deep,
And kill me too,"
Should we not read "knee deep?" As you are already over your shoes, wade on until the bloody tide reaches your knees. In Shakspeare's time knee was generally spelt kne; and between the and kne there is not much difference in writing.
[24] The usual spelling of this word is "huckaback;" but I suppose Mr. Kelly's excuse would be "licet facere verba."
[25] Dudheen, short pipe.
[26] Dartluker, the Irish name for a peculiar kind of leech that preys upon a small fish called pinkeen.
[27] Dhuc-a-Dhurrish, the drink at the door.