GHASS AND GREEN THINGS. 7 



To-morrow night, when PhcEbe doth behold 

 Her silver visage in the watery glass, 

 Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass.* 



Again, in the song of the fairy : — 



To wander everj'where 

 Swifter than, the moon's sphere: 

 And I do serve the fairy queen, 

 To dew her orbs upon the green, t 



It was on the "green plot," J too, that Quince and his companions 

 held the rehearsals of their revels. It is in the allusion to grass that 

 the consolation which Gaunt offers to the banished Bolingbroke 

 derives its cheering freshness and its sunny hope ; he tells him — 



All places that the eye of Heaven visits 

 Are, to a wise man, happy ports and havens. 

 ***** 

 Suppose 

 Devouring pestilence hangs in our air. 

 And thou art flying to a fresher clime. 

 Look, what thy soul holds dear, imagine it 

 To lie that way thou go'st, not that thou com'st. 

 Suppose the singing birds, musicians ; 

 The grass whereon thou tread' st, the presence strew' d; 

 The flowers, fair ladies; and thy steps, no more 

 Than a delightful measure or a dance. § 



The most noble of Shakspere's songs are those which partake 

 most of the rural character, and these embody choicer, fresher, 

 quainter allusions to green things, than the songs of any other poet, 

 either ancient or modern, of this or other countries. 



"Where shall we find anything which bears comparison with FalstafF's 

 last hour, " babbling o' green fields ; " or the magical scenery of the 

 Midsummer NiyMs Bream, and the Tempest ? Chaucer and Spenser 

 are the only authors who dare be mentioned at such a moment. In 

 his "nodding violets" and "kissing cherries," his "green holly" 



* Midsummer Night's Dream, Act i., sc. 1. 

 + Midsummer Night's Dream, Act ii., sc. 1. 

 X Midsummer Night's Dream, Act iii,, sc. 1. 

 § King Richard II., Act i., sc. 3. 



