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Haskell Data Analysis
Cookbook

Explore intuitive data analysis techniques and

powerful machine learning methods using
over 130 practical recipes

Nishant Shukla

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Haskell Data Analysis Cookbook

Copyright © 2014 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher,
except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the
information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without
warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers
and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or
indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies
and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt
Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: June 2014

Production reference: 1180614

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place
35 Livery Street
Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78328-633-1

www.packtpub.com

Cover image by Jarek Blaminsky ([email protected])

 Credits

Author Project Coordinator

Nishant Shukla Mary Alex

Reviewers Proofreaders
Lorenzo Bolla Paul Hindle
James Church Jonathan Todd
Andreas Hammar Bernadette Watkins
Marisa Reddy
Indexer
Commissioning Editor Hemangini Bari
Akram Hussain
Graphics
Acquisition Editor Sheetal Aute
Sam Wood Ronak Dhruv
Valentina Dsilva
Content Development Editor
Disha Haria
Shaon Basu

Production Coordinator
Technical Editors
Arvindkumar Gupta
Shruti Rawool
Nachiket Vartak Cover Work
Arvindkumar Gupta
Copy Editors
Sarang Chari
Janbal Dharmaraj
Gladson Monteiro
Deepa Nambiar
Karuna Narayanan
Alfida Paiva
 About the Author

Nishant Shukla is a computer scientist with a passion for mathematics. Throughout

the years, he has worked for a handful of start-ups and large corporations including
WillowTree Apps, Microsoft, Facebook, and Foursquare.

Stepping into the world of Haskell was his excuse for better understanding Category Theory
at first, but eventually, he found himself immersed in the language. His semester-long
introductory Haskell course in the engineering school at the University of Virginia
(http://shuklan.com/haskell) has been accessed by individuals from over
154 countries around the world, gathering over 45,000 unique visitors.

Besides Haskell, he is a proponent of decentralized Internet and open source software. His
academic research in the fields of Machine Learning, Neural Networks, and Computer Vision
aim to supply a fundamental contribution to the world of computing.

Between discussing primes, paradoxes, and palindromes, it is my delight to

invent the future with Marisa.

With appreciation beyond expression, but an expression nonetheless—thank

you Mom (Suman), Dad (Umesh), and Natasha.
 About the Reviewers

Lorenzo Bolla holds a PhD in Numerical Methods and works as a software engineer in
London. His interests span from functional languages to high-performance computing to
web applications. When he's not coding, he is either playing piano or basketball.

James Church completed his PhD in Engineering Science with a focus on computational
geometry at the University of Mississippi in 2014 under the advice of Dr. Yixin Chen. While
a graduate student at the University of Mississippi, he taught a number of courses for the
Computer and Information Science's undergraduates, including a popular class on data
analysis techniques. Following his graduation, he joined the faculty of the University of
West Georgia's Department of Computer Science as an assistant professor. He is also
a reviewer of The Manga Guide To Regression Analysis, written by Shin Takahashi,
Iroha Inoue, and Trend-Pro Co. Ltd., and published by No Starch Press.

I would like to thank Dr. Conrad Cunningham for recommending me to Packt

Publishing as a reviewer.

Andreas Hammar is a Computer Science student at Norwegian University of Science and

Technology and a Haskell enthusiast. He started programming when he was 12, and over the
years, he has programmed in many different languages. Around five years ago, he discovered
functional programming, and since 2011, he has contributed over 700 answers in the Haskell
tag on Stack Overflow, making him one of the top Haskell contributors on the site. He is
currently working part time as a web developer at the Student Society in Trondheim, Norway.
Marisa Reddy is pursuing her B.A. in Computer Science and Economics at the University
of Virginia. Her primary interests lie in computer vision and financial modeling, two areas in
which functional programming is rife with possibilities.

I congratulate Nishant Shukla for the tremendous job he did in writing this
superb book of recipes and thank him for the opportunity to be a part of
the process.
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 Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: The Hunt for Data 7
Introduction 8
Harnessing data from various sources 8
Accumulating text data from a file path 11
Catching I/O code faults 13
Keeping and representing data from a CSV file 15
Examining a JSON file with the aeson package 18
Reading an XML file using the HXT package 21
Capturing table rows from an HTML page 24
Understanding how to perform HTTP GET requests 26
Learning how to perform HTTP POST requests 28
Traversing online directories for data 29
Using MongoDB queries in Haskell 32
Reading from a remote MongoDB server 34
Exploring data from a SQLite database 36
Chapter 2: Integrity and Inspection 39
Introduction 40
Trimming excess whitespace 40
Ignoring punctuation and specific characters 42
Coping with unexpected or missing input 43
Validating records by matching regular expressions 46
Lexing and parsing an e-mail address 48
Deduplication of nonconflicting data items 49
Deduplication of conflicting data items 52
Implementing a frequency table using Data.List 55
Implementing a frequency table using Data.MultiSet 56
Computing the Manhattan distance 58
Table of Contents
Computing the Euclidean distance 60
Comparing scaled data using the Pearson correlation coefficient 62
Comparing sparse data using cosine similarity 63
Chapter 3: The Science of Words 65
Introduction 66
Displaying a number in another base 66
Reading a number from another base 68
Searching for a substring using Data.ByteString 69
Searching a string using the Boyer-Moore-Horspool algorithm 71
Searching a string using the Rabin-Karp algorithm 73
Splitting a string on lines, words, or arbitrary tokens 75
Finding the longest common subsequence 77
Computing a phonetic code 78
Computing the edit distance 80
Computing the Jaro-Winkler distance between two strings 81
Finding strings within one-edit distance 84
Fixing spelling mistakes 86
Chapter 4: Data Hashing 91
Introduction 92
Hashing a primitive data type 92
Hashing a custom data type 95
Running popular cryptographic hash functions 97
Running a cryptographic checksum on a file 100
Performing fast comparisons between data types 102
Using a high-performance hash table 103
Using Google's CityHash hash functions for strings 106
Computing a Geohash for location coordinates 107
Using a bloom filter to remove unique items 108
Running MurmurHash, a simple but speedy hashing algorithm 110
Measuring image similarity with perceptual hashes 112
Chapter 5: The Dance with Trees 117
Introduction 118
Defining a binary tree data type 118
Defining a rose tree (multiway tree) data type 120
Traversing a tree depth-first 121
Traversing a tree breadth-first 123
Implementing a Foldable instance for a tree 125
Calculating the height of a tree 127
Implementing a binary search tree data structure 129
Verifying the order property of a binary search tree 131

ii
 Table of Contents
Using a self-balancing tree 133
Implementing a min-heap data structure 135
Encoding a string using a Huffman tree 138
Decoding a Huffman code 141
Chapter 6: Graph Fundamentals 143
Introduction 144
Representing a graph from a list of edges 144
Representing a graph from an adjacency list 145
Conducting a topological sort on a graph 147
Traversing a graph depth-first 149
Traversing a graph breadth-first 150
Visualizing a graph using Graphviz 151
Using Directed Acyclic Word Graphs 152
Working with hexagonal and square grid networks 154
Finding maximal cliques in a graph 156
Determining whether any two graphs are isomorphic 157
Chapter 7: Statistics and Analysis 159
Introduction 160
Calculating a moving average 160
Calculating a moving median 162
Approximating a linear regression 165
Approximating a quadratic regression 167
Obtaining the covariance matrix from samples 168
Finding all unique pairings in a list 170
Using the Pearson correlation coefficient 171
Evaluating a Bayesian network 173
Creating a data structure for playing cards 175
Using a Markov chain to generate text 178
Creating n-grams from a list 179
Creating a neural network perceptron 180
Chapter 8: Clustering and Classification 185
Introduction 186
Implementing the k-means clustering algorithm 186
Implementing hierarchical clustering 190
Using a hierarchical clustering library 193
Finding the number of clusters 196
Clustering words by their lexemes 198
Classifying the parts of speech of words 200
Identifying key words in a corpus of text 201
Training a parts-of-speech tagger 204

iii
Table of Contents
Implementing a decision tree classifier 205
Implementing a k-Nearest Neighbors classifier 210
Visualizing points using Graphics.EasyPlot 213
Chapter 9: Parallel and Concurrent Design 215
Introduction 216
Using the Haskell Runtime System options 216
Evaluating a procedure in parallel 217
Controlling parallel algorithms in sequence 219
Forking I/O actions for concurrency 220
Communicating with a forked I/O action 221
Killing forked threads 223
Parallelizing pure functions using the Par monad 225
Mapping over a list in parallel 227
Accessing tuple elements in parallel 228
Implementing MapReduce to count word frequencies 229
Manipulating images in parallel using Repa 232
Benchmarking runtime performance in Haskell 235
Using the criterion package to measure performance 237
Benchmarking runtime performance in the terminal 239
Chapter 10: Real-time Data 241
Introduction 242
Streaming Twitter for real-time sentiment analysis 242
Reading IRC chat room messages 248
Responding to IRC messages 249
Polling a web server for latest updates 251
Detecting real-time file directory changes 252
Communicating in real time through sockets 254
Detecting faces and eyes through a camera stream 256
Streaming camera frames for template matching 259
Chapter 11: Visualizing Data 263
Introduction 264
Plotting a line chart using Google's Chart API 264
Plotting a pie chart using Google's Chart API 267
Plotting bar graphs using Google's Chart API 269
Displaying a line graph using gnuplot 272
Displaying a scatter plot of two-dimensional points 274
Interacting with points in a three-dimensional space 276
Visualizing a graph network 279
Customizing the looks of a graph network diagram 281

iv
 Table of Contents
Rendering a bar graph in JavaScript using D3.js 284
Rendering a scatter plot in JavaScript using D3.js 286
Diagramming a path from a list of vectors 288
Chapter 12: Exporting and Presenting 293
Introduction 294
Exporting data to a CSV file 294
Exporting data as JSON 295
Using SQLite to store data 297
Saving data to a MongoDB database 298
Presenting results in an HTML web page 300
Creating a LaTeX table to display results 302
Personalizing messages using a text template 304
Exporting matrix values to a file 305
Index 307

v
 Preface
Data analysis is something that many of us have done before, maybe even without knowing
it. It is the essential art of gathering and examining pieces of information to suit a variety of
purposes—from visual inspection to machine learning techniques. Through data analysis, we
can harness the meaning from information littered all around the digital realm. It enables us
to resolve the most peculiar inquiries, perhaps even summoning new ones in the process.

Haskell acts as our conduit for robust data analysis. For some, Haskell is a programming
language reserved to the most elite researchers in academia and industry. Yet, we see it
charming one of the fastest growing cultures of open source developers around the world.
The growth of Haskell is a sign that people are uncovering its magnificent functional
pureness, resilient type safety, and remarkable expressiveness. Flip the pages of this
book to see it all in action.

Haskell Data Analysis Cookbook is more than just a fusion of two entrancing topics
in computing. It is also a learning tool for the Haskell programming language and an
introduction to simple data analysis practices. Use it as a Swiss Army Knife of algorithms
and code snippets. Try a recipe a day, like a kata for your mind. Breeze through the book
for creative inspiration from catalytic examples. Also, most importantly, dive deep into the
province of data analysis in Haskell.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without a thorough feedback from the
technical editors, brilliant chapter illustrations by Lonku (http://lonku.tumblr.com),
and helpful layout and editing support by Packt Publishing.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, The Hunt for Data, identifies core approaches in reading data from various external
sources such as CSV, JSON, XML, HTML, MongoDB, and SQLite.

Chapter 2, Integrity and Inspection, explains the importance of cleaning data through recipes
about trimming whitespaces, lexing, and regular expression matching.
Preface

Chapter 3, The Science of Words, introduces common string manipulation algorithms,

including base conversions, substring matching, and computing the edit distance.

Chapter 4, Data Hashing, covers essential hashing functions such as MD5, SHA256,
GeoHashing, and perceptual hashing.

Chapter 5, The Dance with Trees, establishes an understanding of the tree data structure
through examples that include tree traversals, balancing trees, and Huffman coding.

Chapter 6, Graph Fundamentals, manifests rudimentary algorithms for graphical networks

such as graph traversals, visualization, and maximal clique detection.

Chapter 7, Statistics and Analysis, begins the investigation of important data analysis
techniques that encompass regression algorithms, Bayesian networks, and neural networks.

Chapter 8, Clustering and Classification, involves quintessential analysis methods that involve
k-means clustering, hierarchical clustering, constructing decision trees, and implementing the
k-Nearest Neighbors classifier.

Chapter 9, Parallel and Concurrent Design, introduces advanced topics in Haskell such as
forking I/O actions, mapping over lists in parallel, and benchmarking performance.

Chapter 10, Real-time Data, incorporates streamed data interactions from Twitter, Internet
Relay Chat (IRC), and sockets.

Chapter 11, Visualizing Data, deals with sundry approaches to plotting graphs, including line
charts, bar graphs, scatter plots, and D3.js visualizations.

Chapter 12, Exporting and Presenting, concludes the book with an enumeration of algorithms
for exporting data to CSV, JSON, HTML, MongoDB, and SQLite.

What you need for this book

ff First of all, you need an operating system that supports the Haskell Platform such as
Linux, Windows, or Mac OS X.
ff You must install the Glasgow Haskell Compiler 7.6 or above and Cabal,
both of which can be obtained from the Haskell Platform from
http://www.haskell.org/platform.
ff You can obtain the accompanying source code for every recipe on GitHub at
https://github.com/BinRoot/Haskell-Data-Analysis-Cookbook.

2
 Preface

Who this book is for

ff Those who have begun tinkering with Haskell but desire stimulating examples to
kick-start a new project will find this book indispensable.
ff Data analysts new to Haskell should use this as a reference for functional
approaches to data-modeling problems.
ff A dedicated beginner to both the Haskell language and data analysis is blessed with
the maximal potential for learning new topics covered in this book.

Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of
information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames,
dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "Apply the readString
function to the input, and get all date documents."

A block of code is set as follows:

main :: IO ()
main = do
input <- readFile "input.txt"
print input

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or
items are set in bold:
main :: IO ()
main = do
input <- readFile "input.txt"
print input

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

$ runhaskell Main.hs

3
Preface

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen,
in menus, or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Under the Downloads
section, download the cabal source package."

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.

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4
 Preface

Errata
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5
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
Mr. Reed has "but little doubt that Boccace's Decameron was the book here
alluded to." If this gentleman's quotation from Guazzo's Civile conversation,
1586, be meant to establish the existence of the above work in an English
dress it certainly falls short of the purpose; because it is no more than a
translation of an author, who is speaking of the original Decameron. But there
is a more forcible objection to Mr. Reed's opinion, which is, that the first
complete English translation of Boccaccio's novels was not published till 1620,
and after Shakspeare's death. The dedication states indeed, that many of the
tales had long since been published; but this may allude to those which had
appeared in Painter's Palace of pleasure, or in some other similar work not
now remaining. There are likewise two or three of Boccaccio's novels in
Tarlton's Newes out of purgatory, which might be alluded to in the above
dedication, if the work which now remains under the date of 1630 was really
printed in 1589, as may be suspected from a license granted to Thomas
Gubbin. There seems to have been some prior attempt to publish the
Decameron in English, but it was "recalled by my Lord of Canterbury's
commands." See a note by Mr. Steevens prefixed to The two gentlemen of
Verona. There is a remarkable fact however that deserves to be mentioned in
this place, which is, that in the proem to Sacchetti's Novelle, written about the
year 1360, it appears that Boccaccio's novels had been then translated into
English, not a single vestige of which translation is elsewhere to be traced.
A third work that may appear to possess some right to assert its claim on the
present occasion is the Cento novelle antiche, which might have been
translated before or in Shakspeare's time, as it has been already shown in a
note on the story of Twelfth night that he had probably seen the 13th novel in
that collection. It may likewise be worth mentioning that Nashe in his Pappe
with an hatchet, speaks of a book then coming out under the title of A
hundred merrie tales, in which Martin Marprelate, i. e. John Penry, and his
friends were to be satirized.
On the whole, the evidence seems to preponderate in favour of the Cent
nouvelles nouvelles. As the greatest portion of this work consists of merry
stories, there is no impropriety in calling it The hundred merry tales; the term
hundred being part of the original title, and the epithet merry in all probability
an addition for the purpose of designating the general quality of the stories.
The Decameron of Boccaccio, which contains more tragical subjects than the
other, is called in the English translation A hundred PLEASANT novels.
Whatever the hundred merry tales really were, we find them in existence so
late as 1659, and the entire loss of them to the present age might have been
occasioned by the devastation in the great fire of London.
 Scene 1. Page 432.

Bene. Come, will you go with me?

Claud. Whither?

Bene. Even to the next willow, about your own business,

Count. What
fashion will you wear the garland of?

It was the custom for those who were forsaken in love to wear willow
garlands. This tree might have been chosen as the symbol of sadness from
the verse in psalm 137, "We hanged our harps upon the willows, in the midst
thereof;" or else from a coincidence between the weeping willow and falling
tears. Another reason has been assigned. The Agnus castus or vitex, was
supposed by the ancients to promote chastity, "and the willow being of a
much like nature," says an old writer, "it is yet a custom that he which is
deprived of his love must wear a willow garland." Swan's Speculum mundi,
chap. 6. sect. 4. edit. 1635. Bona, the sister of the king of France, on
receiving news of Edward the Fourth's marriage with Elizabeth Grey, exclaims,
"In hope he'll prove a widower shortly, I'll wear a willow garland for his sake."
See Henry the Sixth, part iii. and Desdemona's willow song in Othello, Act IV.
Two more ballads of a similar nature may be found in Playford's Select ayres,
1659, folio, pp. 19, 21.
Scene 1. Page 438.
Beat. Civil as an orange, and something of that jealous
complexion.
This reading of the older copy has been judiciously preferred to a jealous
complexion. Yellow is an epithet often applied to jealousy by the old writers.
In The merry wives of Windsor, Nym says he will possess Ford with
yellowness. Shakspeare more usually terms it green-eyed.
Scene 3. Page 447.
Bene. ... now will he lie ten nights awake, carving the fashion
of a new doublet.
The print in Borde of the Englishman with a pair of shears, seems to have
been borrowed from some Italian or other foreign picture in ridicule of our
countrymen's folly. Coryat, in his Crudities, p. 260, has this remark; "we weare
more phantasticall fashions than any nation under the sunne doth, the French
onely excepted; which hath given occasion both to the Venetian and other
Italians to brand the Englishman with a notable marke of levity, by painting
him starke naked with a paire of shears in his hand, making his fashion of
attire according to the vaine invention of his braine-sicke head, not to
comelinesse and decorum." Purchas, in his Pilgrim, 1619, 8vo, speaks of "a
naked man with sheeres in one hand and cloth in the other," as a general
emblem of fashion. Many other allusions to such a figure might be cited, but it
was not peculiar to the English. In La geographie Françoise, by P. Du Val
d'Abbeville, 1663, 12mo, the author, speaking of the Frenchman's versatility in
dress, adds, "dans la peinture des nations on met pres de luy le cizeau."
The inconstancy of our own countrymen in the article of dress is described in
the following verses from John Halle's Courte of vertue, 1565, 12mo.

"As fast as God's word one synne doth blame

They devyse other as yll as the same,
And this varietie of Englyshe folke,
Dothe cause all wyse people us for to mocke.

For all discrete nations under the sonne,

Do use at thys day as they fyrst begonne:
And never doo change, but styll do frequent,
Theyr old guyse, what ever fond folkes do invent.

But we here in England lyke fooles and apes,

Do by our vayne fangles deserve mocks and japes,
For all kynde of countreys dooe us deryde,
In no constant custome sythe we abyde
For we never knowe howe in our aray,
We may in fyrme fashion stedfastly stay."

Randle Holme complained that in his time (1680) Englishmen were as

changeable as the moon in their dress, "in which respect," says he, "we are
termed the Frenchmen's apes, imitating them in all their fantastick devised
fashions of garbs." Acad. of armory, book iii. ch. 5.
Scene 3. Page 452.
Claud. Stalk on, stalk on, the fowl sits.
It has been already shown that the stalking bull was equally common with the
stalking horse. It was sometimes used for decoying partridges into a
tunnelling net, or cage of net work, in the form of a tun, with doors. The
process is described at large, with a print, in Willughby's Ornithology, 1678,
folio, p. 34, where an account is also given of the stalking-horse, ox, stag, &c.
Howel in his Vocabulary, sect. xxxv. seems to have mistaken the tun or net
into which the birds were driven, for the stalking bull itself. Sometimes, as in
hunting the wolf, an artificial bush and a wooden screen were used to stalk
with. See Clamorgan, Chasse du loup, 1595, 4to, p. 29.
Scene 3. Page 455.
Leon. She tore the letter into a thousand halfpence.
Mr. Theobald explains this "into a thousand pieces of the same bigness," as if
Beatrice had torn the letter by rule and compass. Mr. Steevens more properly
supposes halfpence to mean small pieces; but his note would have been less
imperfect if he had added that the halfpence of Elizabeth were of silver, and
about the size of a modern silver penny.

ACT III.
Scene 1. Page 469.
D. Pedro. ... the little hangman dare not shoot at him.
Dr. Farmer has illustrated this term by citing a passage from Sidney's Arcadia;
but he has omitted a previous description in which Cupid is metamorphosed
into a strange old monster, sitting on a gallows with a crown of laurel in one
hand, and a purse of money in the other, as if he would persuade folks by
these allurements to hang themselves. It is certainly possible that this might
have been Shakspeare's prototype; we should otherwise have supposed that
he had called Cupid a hangman metaphorically, from the remedy sometimes
adopted by desparing lovers.
Scene 4. Page 488.
Marg. Clap us into light o'love.
When Margaret adds that this tune "goes without a burden," she does not
mean that it never had words to it, but only that it wanted a very common
appendage to the ballads of that time. The name itself may be illustrated by
the following extract from The glasse of man's follie, 1615, 4to. "There be
wealthy houswives, and good house-keepers that use no starch, but faire
water: their linnen is white, and they looke more Christian-like in small ruffes,
then Light of love lookes in her great starched ruffs, looke she never so hie,
with eye-lids awrye." This anonymous work is written much in the manner of
Stubbes's Anatomie of abuses, and for the same purpose.

ACT IV.
Scene 1. Page 510.

Bene. Tarry, sweet Beatrice.

Beat. I am gone, though I am here. There is no love in you—

Nay,
I pray you let me go.

Though three explanations have been already offered, there is room for
further conjecture. From the latter words of Beatrice it is clear that Benedick
had stopped her from going. She may therefore intend to say that
notwithstanding she is detained by force, she is in reality absent; her heart is
no longer Benedick's.

ACT V.
Scene 1. Page 524.
Leon. His May of youth, and bloom of lustyhood.
An allusion to these lines in the old calendars that describe the state of man:

"As in the month of Maye all thyng is in myght

So at xxx yeres man is in chyef lykyng.
Pleasaunt and lusty, to every mannes syght
In beaute and strength, to women pleasyng."

In the Notbrowne mayde we have the expression lusty May. Capel's edit. p. 6.
Roger Ascham, speaking of young men, says; "It availeth not to see them well
taught in yong yeares, and after when they come to lust and youthfull dayes,
to give them licence to live as they lust themselves." Scholemaster, 1571, fo.
13. See a former note in p. 45.
 Scene 1. Page 529.
Claud. If he be, [angry] he knows how to turn his girdle.
Mr. Holt White's ingenious note may be supported by the following passage in
Carew's Survey of Cornwall, 1602, 4to. p. 76: the author is speaking of
wrestling. "This hath also his lawes, of taking hold onely above girdle, wearing
a girdle to take hold by, playing three pulles, for tryall of the mastery, &c."
Scene 4. Page 554.
Bene. Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife;
there is no staff more reverend than one tipp'd with horn.
In this comparison the prince is the staff, and the question is what sort of a
one is here alluded to. Messrs. Steevens, Reed, and Malone, conceive it to be
the staff used in the ancient trial by wager of battle; but this seems to have
but small claim to be entitled reverend. On the contrary, as the combatants
were of the meaner class of people, who were not allowed to make use of
edged weapons, the higher ranks usually deciding the business by hired
champions, it cannot well be maintained that much, if any, reverence belongs
to such a staff. It is possible, therefore, that Shakspeare, whose allusions to
archery are almost as frequent as they are to cuckoldom, might refer to the
bowstaff, which was usually tipped with a piece of horn at each end, to make
such a notch for the string as would not wear, and at the same time to
strengthen the bow, and prevent the extremities from breaking. It is equally
possible that the walking-sticks or staves used by elderly people might be
intended, which were often headed or tipped with a cross piece of horn, or
sometimes amber. They seem to have been imitated from the crutched sticks,
or potences, as they were called, used by the friars, and by them borrowed
from the celebrated tau of St. Anthony. Thus in The Canterbury tales, the
Sompnour describes one of his friars as having "a scrippe and tipped staf,"
and he adds that
"His felaw had a staf tipped with horn."
In these instances the epithet reverend is much more appropriate than in the
others.

Mrs. Lenox, assuming, with the same inaccuracy as had been manifested in
her critique on Measure for measure, that Shakspeare borrowed his plot from
Ariosto, proceeds to censure him for "poverty of invention, want of judgment,
and wild conceits," deducing all her reasoning from false premises. This is
certainly but a bad method of illustrating Shakspeare.
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
ACT I.
Scene 1. Page 6.
Ege. Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke.
This is in reality no "misapplication of a modern title," as Mr.
Steevens conceived, but a legitimate use of the word in its primitive
Latin sense of leader; and so it is often used in the Bible. Not so the
instance adduced of sheriffs of the provinces, which might have
been avoided in our printed bibles. Wicliffe had most properly used
prefectis. Shakspeare might have found Duke Theseus in the book of
Troy, or in Turbervile's Ovid's Epistles. See the argument to that of
Phædra to Hippolytus.
Scene 1. Page 9.

The. You can endure the livery of a nun,

For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd.

The threatening to make a nun of poor Hermia is as whimsical an

anachronism as any in Shakspeare.
Scene 1. Page 13.
Lys. Making it momentany as a sound.
Momentany and momentary were indiscriminately used in
Shakspeare's time. The former corresponds with the French
momentaine.

ACT II.
 Scene 1. Page 30.

Fai. And I serve the fairy queen,

To dew her orbs upon the green.

Mr. Steevens in the happy and elegant remark at the end of his note
on the last line, has made a slight mistake in substituting Puck for
the fairy. When the damsels of old gathered the May dew on the
grass, and which they made use of to improve their complexions,
they left undisturbed such of it as they perceived on the fairy-rings;
apprehensive that the fairies should in revenge destroy their beauty.
Nor was it reckoned safe to put the foot within the rings, lest they
should be liable to the fairies' power.
Scene 1. Page 32.
Puck. But they do square.
Dr. Johnson has very justly observed that to square here is to
quarrel. In investigating the reason, we must previously take it for
granted that our verb to quarrel is from the French quereller, or
perhaps both from the common source, the Latin querela.
Blackstone has remarked that the glaziers use the words square and
quarrel as synonymous terms for a pane of glass, and he might have
added for the instrument with which they cut it. This, he says, is
somewhat whimsical; but had he been acquainted with the reason,
he might have been disposed to waive his opinion, at least on the
present occasion. The glazier's instrument is a diamond, usually cut
into such a square form as the supposed diamonds on the French
and English cards, in the former of which it is still properly called
carreau, from its original. This was the square iron head of the arrow
used for the cross-bow. In English it was called a quarrel, and hence
the glazier's diamond and the pane of glass have received their
names of square and quarrel. Now we may suppose without
straining the point very violently, that these words being evidently
synonymous in one sense, have corruptedly become so in another;
and that the verb to square, which correctly and metaphorically,
even at this time, signifies to agree or accord, has been carelessly
and ignorantly wrested from its true sense, and from frequent use
become a legitimate word. The French have avoided this error, and
to express a meaning very similar to that of to quarrel or dispute,
make use of the word contrecarrer.
Scene 1. Page 37.

Puck. The wisest aunt telling the saddest tale,

Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down-topples she.

The celebrated duchess of Newcastle, in a poem of some fancy,

entitled The queen of fairies, makes Puck or hobgoblin the queen of
fairies' fool, and alludes to the above prank in the following lines:

"The goodwife sad squats down upon a stool,

Not at all thinking it was Hob the fool,
And frowning sits, then Hob gives her a slip,
And down she falls, whereby she hurts her hip."

The above dame is a farmer's wife who has been scolding because
she was unable to procure any butter or cheese, and at Puck's
holding up the hens' rumps to prevent their laying eggs too fast.
With respect to the word aunt, it has been usually derived from the
French tante; but the original Norman term is ante. See examples in
Carpentier Suppl. ad Ducang. v. avuncula. So the author of the old
and excellent farce of Maistre Patelin,
"Vostre belle ante, mourut-elle?"
Scene 2. Page 39.
Enter Oberon and Titania.
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.
Tita. The nine mens morris is fill'd up with mud.
This game was sometimes called the nine mens merrils, from
merelles or mereaux, an ancient French word for the jettons or
counters, with which it was played. The other term morris is
probably a corruption suggested by the sort of dance which in the
progress of the game the counters performed. In the French
merelles each party had three counters only, which were to be
placed in a line in order to win the game. It appears to have been
the Tremerel mentioned in an old fabliau. See Le Grand Fabliaux et
contes, tom. ii. p. 208.
Dr. Hyde thinks the morris or merrils was known during the time that
the Normans continued in possession of England, and that the name
was afterwards corrupted into three mens morals, or nine mens
morals. If this be true, the conversion of morals into morris, a term
so very familiar to the country people, was extremely natural. The
doctor adds, that it was likewise called nine-penny, or nine-pin
miracle, three-penny morris, five-penny morris, nine-penny morris,
or three-pin, five-pin, and nine-pin morris, all corruptions of three-
pin, &c. merels. Hyde Hist. Nerdiludii, p. 202.
Scene 2. Page 44.
Tita. The human mortals want their winter here.
In the controversy respecting the immortality of fairies, Mr. Ritson's
ingenious and decisive reply in his Quip modest ought on every
account to have been introduced. A few pages further Titania
evidently alludes to the immortality of fairies, when, speaking of the
changeling's mother, she says, "but she, being mortal, of that boy
did die." Spenser's fairy system and his pedigree were allegorical,
invented by himself, and not coinciding with the popular
superstitions on the subject. Human mortals is merely a pleonasm,
and neither put in opposition to fairy mortals, according to Mr.
Steevens, nor to human immortals, according to Ritson; it is simply
the language of a fairy speaking of men.
A posthumous note by Mr. Steevens has not contributed to
strengthen his former arguments, as the authors therein mentioned
do not, strictly speaking, allude to the sort of fairies in question, but
to spirits, devils, and angels. Shakspeare, however, would certainly
be more influenced by popular opinion than by the dreams of the
casuists. There is a curious instance of the nature of fairies,
according to the belief of more ancient times, in the romance of
Lancelot of the lake. "En celui temps," (the author is speaking of the
days of king Arthur,) "estoient appellees faees toutes selles qui
sentremettoient denchantemens et de charmes, et moult en estoit
pour lors principalement en la Grande Bretaigne, et savoient la force
et la vertu des paroles, des pierres, et des herbes, parquoy elles
estoient tenues en jeunesse et en beaulte, et en grandes richesses
comme elles devisoient." This perpetual youth and beauty cannot
well be separated from a state of immortality. Nor would it be
difficult to controvert the sentiments of those who have maintained
the mortality of devils, by means of authorities as valid as their own.
The above interesting romance will furnish one at least that may not
be unacceptable. Speaking of the birth of the prophet and enchanter
Merlin, it informs us that his mother would not consent to the
embraces of any man who should be visible; and therefore it was by
some means ordained that a devil should be her lover. When he
approached her, to use the words of the romance, "la damoiselle le
tasta et sentit quil avoit le corps moult bien fait; non pourtant les
dyables n'ont ne corps ne membres que l'en puisse veoir ne toucher,
car spirituelle chose ne peut estre touchée, et tous diables sont
choses spirituelles." The fruit of this amour was Merlin; but he, being
born of woman, was but a semi-devil, and subject to mortality. A
damsel with whom he had fallen in love, prevailed on him to disclose
some of his magical arts to her, by means of which she deceived
him, and preserved her chastity by casting him into a deep sleep
whenever he importuned her. The romance adds, "si le decevoit ainsi
pource qu'il estoit mortel; mais s'il eust este du tout dyable, elle ne
l'eust peu decepvoir; car ung dyable ne peut dormir."
Scene 2. Page 45.

Tita. Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,

Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound.

Thus in Newton's Direction for the health of magistrates and

studentes, 1574, 12mo, we are told that "the moone is ladie of
moysture;" and in Hamlet, Act I. Scene 1, she is called "the moist
star." In Bartholomæus De propriet. rerum, by Batman, lib. 8. c. 29,
the moon is described to be "mother of all humours, minister and
lady of the sea." But in Lydgate's prologue to his Storie of Thebes,
there are two lines which Shakspeare seems closely to have
imitated;
 "Of Lucina the moone, moist and pale,
That many showre fro heaven made availe."

The same mode of expression occurs in Parkes's Curtaine drawer of

the world, 1612, 4to, p. 48: "the centinels of the season ordained to
marke the queen of floods how she lends her borrowed light." This
book deserves to be noticed for the good sense which it contains,
and the merit of some occasional pieces of poetry.
Scene 2. Page 50.

Obe. I do but beg a little changeling boy

To be my henchman.

Of all the opinions concerning the origin of this word, that of Sir
William Spelman alone can be maintained. If instead of deriving it
from the German, he had stated that it came to us through the
Saxon Henᵹeꞅꞇ, a horse, his information had been more correct.
Although in more modern times the pages or henchmen might have
walked on foot, it is very certain that they were originally horsemen,
according to the term. Thus in Chaucer's Floure and the leafe:

"And every knight had after him riding

Three henshmen, on him awaiting."

If the old orthography henxmen had not been unfortunately

disturbed, we should have heard nothing of the conjectures about
haunch and haunch-men.
Scene 2. Page 58.
Enter Demetrius, Helena following him.
However forward and indecorous the conduct of Helena in pursuing
Demetrius may appear to modern readers, such examples are very
frequent in old romances of chivalry, wherein Shakspeare was
undoubtedly well read. The beautiful ballad of the Nut-brown maid
might have been more immediately in his recollection, many parts of
this scene having a very strong resemblance to it.
Scene 2. Page 61.
Hel. I'll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell.
Imitated by Milton:

"The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heaven."
Par. lost, b. i. l. 254.
Scene 2. Page 62.
Obe. Quite overcanopied with lush woodbine.
See what has been already said on this word in p. 8; the meaning is
the same as there. Theobald's amendment from luscious was
probably in conformity with that passage; and the printers of the old
editions not comprehending the meaning of lush, which even in their
time was an antiquated word, ignorantly, as well as unharmoniously,
substituted luscious.
Scene 3. Page 68.

Her. ... in human modesty

Such separation, as, may well be said,
Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid.

That is, "let there be such separation," &c. A comma should be

placed after modesty.

ACT III.
Scene 1. Page 77.
 Quin. When you have spoken your speech, enter into
that brake.
It is submitted that brake cannot in this instance signify a large
extent of ground, overgrown with furze, but merely the hawthorn
bush or tyring-house as Quince had already called it.
Scene 1. Page 83.
Bot. Nay I can gleek upon occasion.
Again, in Romeo and Juliet, Act IV. Scene 5:

"1. Mus. What will you give us?

Pet. No money, on my faith; but the gleek."

On which consult Mr. Steevens's posthumous note in Mr. Reed's last

edition.
Mr. Pope had justly remarked that to gleek is to scoff. In some of the
notes on this word it has been supposed to be connected with the
card game of gleek; but it was not recollected that the Saxon
language supplied the term Glɩᵹ, ludibrium, and doubtless a
corresponding verb. Thus glee signifies mirth and jocularity; and
gleeman or gligman, a minstrel or joculator. Gleek was therefore
used to express a stronger sort of joke, a scoffing. It does not
appear that the phrase to give the gleek was ever introduced in the
above game, which was borrowed by us from the French, and
derived from an original of very different import from the word in
question.
Scene 1. Page 84.
Tita. And light them at the fiery glow-worms eyes.
Dr. Johnson's objection to the word eyes, has been very skilfully
removed by Mr. Monck Mason; but this gentleman appears to have
misconceived the meaning of Shakspeare's most appropriate epithet
of ineffectual, in the passage from Hamlet. The glow-worm's fire was
ineffectual only at the approach of morn, in like manner as the light
of a candle would be at mid-day.
Scene 1. Page 88.
Obe. What night-rule now about this haunted grove?
Mr. Steevens has properly explained night-rule. Rule in this word has
the same meaning as in the Christmas lord of mis-rule, and is a
corruption of revel, formerly written reuel.
Scene 2. Page 89.
Puck. An ass's nowl I fixed on his head.
The receipt for making a man resemble an ass, already given in a
former note, must give place to the following in Scot's Discoverie of
witchcraft, b. 13. c. xix. "Cutt off the head of a horsse or an asse
(before they be dead), otherwise the vertue or strength thereof will
be the lesse effectuall, and make an earthern vessell of fit capacitie
to conteine the same, and let it be filled with the oile and fat
thereof; cover it close, and dawbe it over with lome: let it boile over
a soft fier three daies continuallie, that the flesh boiled may run into
oile, so as the bare bones may be seene: beate the haire into
powder, and mingle the same with the oile; and annoint the heads of
the standers by, and they shall seem to have horsses or asses
heads."
Scene 2. Page 95.
Obe. All fancy-sick she is, and pale of cheer.
Mr. Steevens deduces this word from the Italian cara; but it is from
the old French chere, face. Lydgate finishes the prologue to his
Storie of Thebes with these lines:

"And as I coud, with a pale cheare,

My tale I gan anone, as ye shall heare."

Scene 2. Page 103.

 Hel. So with two seeming bodies, but one heart;
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,
Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.

It may be doubted whether this passage has been rightly explained,

and whether the commentators have not given Shakspeare credit for
more skill in heraldry than he really possessed, or at least than he
intended to exhibit on the present occasion. Helen says, "we had
two seeming bodies, but only one heart." She then exemplifies her
position by a simile—"we had two of the first, i. e. bodies, like the
double coats in heraldry that belong to man and wife as one person,
but which, like our single heart, have but one crest."
Scene 2. Page 112.

Puck. And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger,

At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there,
Troop home to church-yards.

Aurora's harbinger is Lucifer, the morning star.

"Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger,

Comes dancing from the East——"[11]

It was the popular belief that ghosts retired at the approach of day.
Thus the spirit of Hamlet's father exclaims,
"But soft, methinks I scent the morning air."
In further illustration see a subsequent note on Hamlet, Act I. Scene
1.
Scene 2. Page 117.
Hel. And, sleep, that sometime shuts up sorrow's eye.
Again, in Macbeth:
 "Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care."

ACT V.
Scene 1. Page 145.

Philost. ... I have heard it over,

And it is nothing, nothing in the world;
Unless you can find sport in their intents,
Extremely stretch'd, and conn'd with cruel pain,
To do you service.

Dr. Johnson suspects a line to be lost, as he "knows not what it is to

stretch and con an intent;" but it is surely not intents that are
stretch'd and conn'd but the play, of which Philostrate is speaking. If
the line
"Unless you can find sport, &c."
were printed in a parenthesis, all would be right. Mr. Steevens, not
perceiving this, has endeavoured to wrest from the word intents, its
plain and usual meaning, and would unnecessarily convert it to
attention, which might undoubtedly be stretch'd, but could not well
be conn'd.
Scene 1. Page 148.
Philost. The prologue is addrest.
We have borrowed this sense of the word (ready) from the French
adressé.
Scene 1. Page 157.
Moon. This lantern doth the horned moon present.
But why horned? He evidently refers to the materials of which the
lantern was made.
Scene 2. Page 168.
 Puck. By the triple Hecat's team.
By this team is meant the chariot of the moon, said to be drawn by
two horses, the one black, the other white. It is probable that
Shakspeare might have consulted some translation of Boccaccio's
Genealogy of the gods, which, as has been already remarked,
appears to have occasionally supplied him with his mythological
information. As this is the first time we meet with the name of
Hecate in our author, it may be proper to notice the error he has
committed in making it a word of two syllables, which he has done
in several other places, though in one (viz. I. Henry Sixth, if he
wrote that play) it is rightly made a trisyllable:

"I speak not to that railing Hĕcătē."

Act III. Scene 2.
His contemporaries have usually given it properly. Thus Spenser in
the Fairy queen,

"As Hĕcătē, in whose almighty hand."

B. vii. Canto 6.
Ben Jonson has, of course, always been correct. Mr. Malone
observes, in a note on Macbeth, Act III. Scene 5, that Marlowe,
though a scholar, has used the word Hecate as a dissyllable. It may
be added that Middelton and Golding have done the same; the latter
in his translation of Ovid, book vii. has used it in both ways.
Scene 2. Page 168.

Puck. I am sent with broom before,

To sweep the dust behind the door.

In confirmation of Dr. Johnson's remark that fairies delight in

cleanliness, two other poems shall be quoted. The first is the Fairy
queen, printed in Percy's Ancient Ballads, iii. 207, edit. 1775.
 "But if the house be swept,
And from uncleanness kept,
We praise the household maid," &c.

The other is the Fairies farewell, by Bishop Corbet, printed also in

Percy's collection, iii. 210, from his Poetica stromata, 1648, 18mo. It
is also in a preceding edition of the bishop's poems, 1647, 18mo.

"Farewell rewards and fairies!

Good housewives now may say;
For now foule sluts in dairies
Doe fare as well as they:
And though they sweepe their hearths no less
Than mayds were wont to doe,
Yet who of late for cleanliness
Finds sixepence in her shoe?"

Scene 2. Page 170.

Obe. To the best bride bed will we,

Which by us shall blessed be.

Mr. Steevens remarks that the ceremony of blessing the bed was
observed at the marriage of a princess. It was used at all marriages.
This was the form, copied from the Manual for the use of Salisbury.
"Nocte vero sequente cum sponsus et sponsa ad lectum pervenerint,
accedat sacerdos et benedicat thalamum, dicens: Benedic, Domine,
thalamum istum et omnes habitantes in eo; ut in tua pace
consistant, et in tua voluntate permaneant: et in amore tuo vivant et
senescant et multiplicentur in longitudine dierum. Per Dominum.—
Item benedictio super lectum. Benedic, Domine, hoc cubiculum,
respice, quinon dormis neque dormitas. Qui custodis Israel, custodi
famulos tuos in hoc lecto quiescentes ab omnibus fantasmaticis
demonum illusionibus: custodi eos vigilantes ut in preceptis tuis
meditentur dormientes, et te per soporem sentiant: ut hic et ubique
defensionis tuæ muniantur auxilio. Per Dominum.—Deinde fiat
benedictio super eos in lecto tantum cum Oremus. Benedicat Deus
corpora vestra et animas vestras; et det super vos benedictionem
sicut benedixit Abraham, Isaac, et Jacob, Amen.—His peractis
aspergat eos aqua benedicta, et sic discedat et dimittat eos in pace."
We may observe on this strange ceremony, that the purity of modern
times stands not in need of these holy aspersions to lull the senses
and dissipate the illusions of the Devil. The married couple would, no
doubt, rejoice when the benediction was ended. In the French
romance of Melusine, the bishop who marries her to Raymondin
blesses the nuptial bed. The ceremony is there represented in a very
ancient cut, of which a copy is subjoined. The good prelate is
sprinkling the parties with holy water. Sometimes during the
benediction the married couple only sat upon the bed; but they
generally received a portion of consecrated bread and wine. It is
recorded in France, that on frequent occasions the priest was
improperly detained till the hour of midnight, whilst the wedding
guests rioted in the luxuries of the table, and made use of language
that was extremely offensive to the clergy, and injurious to the
salvation of the parties. It was therefore, in the year 1577, ordained
by Pierre de Gondi, archbishop of Paris, that the ceremony of
blessing the nuptial bed should for the future be performed in the
day time, or at least before supper, and in the presence only of the
bride and bridegroom, and of their nearest relations.
There is a singularity in this cut which may well excuse a short
digression. This is the horned head-dress of the bride, a fashion that
prevailed in England during the reign of Henry the Sixth, and for a
short time afterwards. Lydgate has left us an unpublished ditty, in
which he complains of it. As it is, like most of his other poetry, very
dull and very tedious, a couple of stanzas may suffice; each
concludes with a line to recommend the casting away of these
horns.
 "Clerkys recorde by gret auctorite,
Hornys were yove to beestys for diffence;
A thyng contrary to femynyte
To be made sturdy of resistence.
But arche wyves egre in ther violence,
Fers as tygre for to make affray,
They have despyt and ageyn conscience
Lyst nat of pryde ther hornys cast away.

Noble pryncessys, this litel shoort ditee

Rewdly compiled lat it be noon offence
To your womanly merciful pitie,
Thouh it be rad in your audience;
Peysed ech thyng in your just advertence,
So it be no displesaunce to your pay,
Undir support of your patience
Yevyth example hornys to cast away."
Harl. MS. No. 2255.
In France, this part of female dress was a frequent subject of clerical
reprehension. Nicholas de Claminges, a doctor of the Sorbonne, and
contemporary with Lydgate, compares it to the horns of oxen.
"Tenduntur hinc et inde mira et inaudita deformitate gemina cornua
bipedali prope intervallo à se distantia, majorique latitudine caput
fœmineum diffundunt quam bubalinum longitudine distenditur. Auro
ac gemmis omnia rutilant. Stibio et cerusa pinguntur facies; patent
colla; nudantur pectora." Nicolai de Clemangiis opera, Lugd. Batavor.
1613, 4to, p. 144. And again, in his letters, "quid de cornibus et
caudis loquar, quas illic jam vulgo matronæ gestant, qua in re
naturam videntur humanam reliquisse, bestialemque sibi ultro
adscivisse. Adde quod in effigie cornutæ fœminæ Diabolus
plerumque pingitur." We cannot but admire the pious writer's
ingenuity in the latter declaration, and how well it was calculated to
terrify the ladies out of this preposterous fashion.
Scene 2. Page 171.
 Obe. With this field-dew consecrate
Every fairy take his gait;
And each several chamber bless,
Through this palace with sweet peace.

Thus in the Merry wives of Windsor, Act V. Scene 5:

"Search Windsor castle, elves, within and out:

Strew good luck, ouphes, on every sacred room."

In the first line of Oberon's speech there seems to be a covert satire

against holy water. Whilst the popular confidence in the power of
fairies existed, they had obtained the credit of occasionally
performing much good service to mankind; and the great influence
which they possessed gave so much offence to the holy monks and
friars, that they determined to exert all their power to expel the
above imaginary beings from the minds of the people, by taking the
office of the fairies' benedictions entirely into their own hands. Of
this we have a curious proof in the beginning of Chaucer's admirable
tale of the Wife of Bath:

"I speke of many hundred yeres ago;

But now can no man see non elves mo,
For now the grete charitee and prayeres
Of limitoures and other holy freres
That serchen every land and every streme.
As thikke as motes in the sonne beme,
Blissing halles, chambres, kichenes, and boures,
Citees and burghes, castles highe and toures,
Thropes and bernes, shepenes and dairies,
This maketh that ther ben no faeries:
For ther as wont to walken was an elf,
Ther walketh now the limitour himself."
The other quotation from Chaucer, which Mr. Steevens has given, is
not to the present purpose. The fairies' blessing was to bring peace
upon the house of Theseus; the night-spell in the Miller's tale, is
pronounced against the influence of elves, and those demons, or evil
spirits, that were supposed to occasion the night-mare, and other
nocturnal illusions. As this is a subject that has never been
professedly handled, it may be worth while to bring together a few
facts that relate to it; to do it ample justice would require an express
dissertation.
A belief in the influence of evil spirits has been common to all
nations, and in the remotest periods of the human history. The gross
superstitions of the middle ages, which even exceeded those in
Pagan times, had given birth to a variety of imaginary beings, who
were supposed to be perpetually occupied in doing mischief to
mankind. The chief of these were the Incubus, or night-mare, and
certain fairies of a malignant nature. It therefore became necessary
to check and counteract their operations by spells, charms, and
invocations to saints. Some of these have been preserved. The lines
given to Mad Tom in Lear, beginning
"Saint Withold footed thrice the wold,"
is one of them; and in the notes belonging to it, as well as in those
by Mr. Tyrwhitt on the Canterbury tales, vol. iv. 242, others have
been collected. To these may be added the following in Cartwright's
play of The Ordinary, Act III. Scene 1:

"Saint Francis, and Saint Benedight,

Blesse this house from wicked wight,
From the night-mare and the goblin,
That is hight good fellow Robin.
Keep it from all evil spirits,
Fayries, weezels, rats and ferrets,
From curfew time
To the next prime."
This indeed may be rather considered as satirical, but it is a parody
on those which were genuine. Sinclair, in his Satan's invisible world
discovered, informs us that "At night, in the time of popery, when
folks went to bed, they believed the repetition of this following
prayer was effectual to preserve them from danger, and the house
too."

"Who sains the house the night,

They that sains it ilka night.
Saint Bryde and her brate,
Saint Colme and his hat,
Saint Michael and his spear,
Keep this house from the weir;
From running thief,
And burning thief;
And from an ill Rea,
That be the gate can gae;
And from an ill weight,
That be the gate can light
Nine reeds about the house;
Keep it all the night,
What is that, what I see
So red, so bright, beyond the sea?
'Tis he was pierc'd through the hands,
Through the feet, through the throat,
Through the tongue;
Through the liver and the lung.
Well is them that well may
Fast on Good-friday."

As darkness was supposed to be more immediately adapted to the

machinations of these malicious spirits, it was natural that, on
retiring to rest, certain prayers should be chosen to deprecate their
influence, which was often regarded as of a particular kind. To this
Imogen alludes when she exclaims,
 "To your protection I commend me, Gods!
From fairies, and the tempters of the night
Guard me, beseech ye!"
Cymbeline, Act II.
Scene 2.
So Banquo in Macbeth:

"Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature

Gives way to in repose."

An ancient hymn by Saint Ambrose goes to the same point:

"Procul recedant somnia

Et noctium phantasmata:
Hostemque nostrum comprime
Ne polluantur corpora."

The demon who was supposed to have particular influence in these

nocturnal illusions, was Asmodeus, the lame devil of whom Mons. Le
Sage has made such admirable use. In expelling him, the sign of the
cross was most efficacious; a very old practice on similar occasions,
as we learn from the following lines in Prudentius:—
 "Fac, cum vocante somno
Castum petis cubile
Frontem, locumque cordis
Crucis figura signes.
Crux pellit omne crimen,
Fugunt crucem tenebræ:
Tali dicata signo
Mens fluctuare nescit.
Procul, ô procul vagantum
Portenta somniorum,
Procul esto pervicaci
Præstigiator astu."

Relics of saints, images of the holy Virgin, sanctified girdles, and a

variety of other amulets were resorted to on the same occasion,
exhibiting a lamentable proof of the imbecility of human nature.
Scene 2. Page 172.
Puck. Give me your hands, if we be friends.
Thus in the epilogue to Stubbes's excellent play of Senile odium,

"... jam vestræ quid valeant manus

Nimis velim experiri: ab illis enim vapulare, munus
erit."

FOOTNOTES:
[11] It has not been recollected to what poet these lines belong.
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST
ACT I.
Scene 1. Page 181.

King. Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,

Live register'd upon our brazen tombs.

It was the fashion in Shakspeare's time, and had been so from the thirteenth
century, to ornament the tombs of eminent persons with figures and
inscriptions on plates of brass: to these the allusion seems rather to be made,
than to monuments that were entirely of brass, such being of very rare
occurrence.
Scene 1. Page 182.
Long. Fat paunches have lean pates.
From the Latin pinguis venter non gignit sensum tenuem. See Ray's Proverbs.
The rest of Longaville's speech, "and dainty bits," &c. merely repeats the
same sentiment for the sake of a rhime.
Scene 1. Page 183.
Biron. If study's gain be thus, and this be so.
Mr. Ritson would read, If study's gain be this. There is no occasion for any
change. Thus means after this manner; but the poet would not write this, in
order to avoid a cacophony.
Scene 1. Page 191.

King. This child of fancy, that Armado hight,

For interim to our studies shall relate,
In high-horn words, the worth of many a knight
From tawny Spain, lost in the world's debate.

The context seems to indicate that child of fancy is here used precisely in the
sense in which Milton applied it to Shakspeare, from whom he probably
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