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- Scene V] Notes 203
In a poem in Poole's English Parnassus, Mab is spoken of as —
" She that pinches country wenches,
If they rub not clean their benches ;
And with sharper nails remembers,
When they rake not up the embers ; "
and in a song in the same volume we find these stanzas : —
" And if the house be foul,
Or platter, dish, or bowl,
Up stairs we nimbly creep.
And find the sluts asleep ;
Then we pinch their arms and thighs,
None escapes, nor none espies.
But if the house be swept.
And from uncleanness kept,
We praise the household maid,
And surely she is paid ;
For we do use before we go
To drop a tester in her shoe."
50. Wink. Shut my eyes; a common meaning in S. See
2 Hen. IV. i. 3. 33, Hen, V. ii. i. 8, iii. 7. 153, v. 2. 327, etc.
53. Raise up the organs of her fantasy. Warburton assumes
that this must mean ** inflame her imagination with sensual ideas,"
and therefore changes Raise to " Rein ; " but, as Steevens says, the
meaning may be " elevate her ideas above sensuality, exalt them to
the noblest contemplation." Malone paraphrases the passage thus :
" Go you, and wherever you find a maid asleep that hath thrice
prayed to the Deity, though, in consequence of her innocence, she
sleep as soundly as an infant, elevate her fancy, and amuse her
tranquil mind with some delightful vision." Clarke also explains
the passage as = " exalt her imagination by pleasant dreams."
Hudson, on the other hand, says that '■^fantasy here stands for
sensual desire, the 'sinful fantasy' reproved afterwards in the
fairies' song ; " and White takes the same ground. I cannot see
Vfhy fantasy should be = sinful fantasy, when it has no such sense
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