Page:Midsummer Night's Dream (1918) Yale.djvu/93

A Midsummer Night's Dream   Thisne. This word may mean 'in this way' (in which case it should be written without a capital), or it may represent Bottom's first attempt to say Thisbe in a 'monstrous little voice.'

 hold, or cut bow-strings. 'This phrase is of the proverbial kind, and was born in the days of archery: when a party was made at butts [archery], assurance of meeting was given in the words of that phrase ; the sense of the person using them being that he would "hold" or keep promise, or they might "cut his bowstrings," demolish him for an archer.' (Capell.) This explanation is not certain, but the phrase undoubtedly means, 'Be there without fail.'

 at one door. This refers to one of the side doors on the Elizabethan stage, and not, of course, to the imagined locality.

Robin Goodfellow. This is the proper name of the character referred to indiscriminately in the old copies as Robin or Puck. The latter was often used in the sixteenth century as a generic name for a kind of sprite or goblin. Nash, in his Terrors of the Night (1594), says that such mischievous beings 'did most of their merry prankes in the Night. Then ground they malt, and had hempen shirts for their labours, daunst in greene meadowes, pincht maids in their sleep that swept not their houses cleane, and led poor Trauellers out of their way notoriously.'

 moon's sphere. According to the Ptolemaic system of astronomy accepted in Shakespeare's day, the sun, moon, and stars revolved about the earth fixed in transparent spheres.

 orbs. The circles of dark green grass often seen in old pastures, once supposed to be produced by the care of fairies in watering such spots.

 pensioners. Queen Elizabeth had a bodyguard of tall and handsome gentlemen, many of them noble, who were called her pensioners.