Vulgar words in The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-night's Dream' (Page 1)
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~ ~ ~ Sentence 189 ~ ~ ~
The episode of Bottom's "translation," or transformation into an ass, may have been suggested to Shakespeare by a passage in Reginald Scot's _Discovery of Witchcraft_ (1584)--a book with which he must have been acquainted, as we shall see in discussing the fairy-section of the play.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 191 ~ ~ ~
Chief among these is the story[21] of an English sailor abroad, who got into the power of a witch and was transformed by her into an ass, so that when he attempted to rejoin his crew, he was beaten from the gangway with contempt.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 198 ~ ~ ~
Scot mentions further the famous story of the _Golden Ass_ of Apuleius[22]; a legend of the reappearance of one of the Popes, a hundred years after his death, with an ass's head; and gives a charm to put an ass's head on a man.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 778 ~ ~ ~
THE HOSTESS'S TALE OF THE BIRTH OF ROBIN GOOD-FELLOW Once upon a time, a great while ago, when men did eat more and drink less--then men were more honest, that knew no knavery, than some now are that confess the knowledge and deny the practice--about that time (whensoe'er it was) there was wont to walk many harmless spirits called fairies, dancing in brave order in fairy rings on green hills with sweet music (sometime invisible) in divers shapes: many mad pranks would they play, as pinching of sluts black and blue, and misplacing things in ill-ordered houses; but lovingly would they use wenches that cleanly were, giving them silver and other pretty toys, which they would leave for them, sometimes in their shoes, other times in their pockets, sometimes in bright basins and other clean vessels.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 784 ~ ~ ~
The gossips liked this fare so well that she never wanted company; wine had she of all sorts, muskadine, sack, malmsey, claret, white and bastard; this pleased her neighbours well, so that few that came to see her, but they had home with them a medicine for the fleas.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 926 ~ ~ ~
Long were they not in bed, But one knocked at the door, And said, Up, rise, and let me in: This vexed both knave and whore.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 930 ~ ~ ~
At last the bawd arose And opened the door, And saw Discretion cloth'd in rug, Whose office hates a whore.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,029 ~ ~ ~
"Sometimes I find a slut sleeping in the chimney-corner, when she should be washing of her dishes, or doing something else which she hath left undone: her I pinch about the arms, for not laying her arms to her labour.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,031 ~ ~ ~
I find some slovens too, as well as sluts: they pay for their beastliness too, as well as the women-kind; for if they uncase a sloven and not untie their points, I so pay their arms that they cannot sometimes untie them, if they would.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,033 ~ ~ ~
But to the good I do no harm, But cover them and keep them warm: Sluts and slovens I do pinch, And make them in their beds to winch This is my practice, and my trade; Many have I cleanly made."
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,035 ~ ~ ~
When I find a slut asleep, I smutch her face if it be clean; but if it be dirty, I wash it in the next piss pot that I can find: the balls I use to wash such sluts withal is a sow's pancake or a pilgrim's salve.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,056 ~ ~ ~
If we find clean water and clean towels, we leave them money, either in their basins or in their shoes; but if we find no clean water in their houses, we wash our children in their pottage, milk, or beer, or whate'er we find: for the sluts that leave not such things fitting, we wash their faces and hands with a gilded child's clout, or else carry them to some river, and duck them over head and ears.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,161 ~ ~ ~
"Of a man turned into an ass, and returned again into a man, by one of Bodin's witches: S. Augustine's opinion thereof."
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,171 ~ ~ ~
Whither the devil will this ass?"
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,172 ~ ~ ~
The ass, or young man--I cannot tell by which name I should term him--being many times repelled, and understanding their words that called him ass, considering that he could speak never a word and yet could understand everybody, he thought that he was bewitched by the woman at whose house he was.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,173 ~ ~ ~
And therefore, when by no means he could get into the boat, but was driven to tarry and see her departure, being also beaten from place to place as an ass, he remembered the witch's words, and the words of his own fellows that called him ass, and returned to the witch's house; in whose service he remained by the space of three years, doing nothing with his hands all that while, but carried such burthens as she laid on his back; having only this comfort, that, although he were reputed an ass among strangers and beasts, yet that both this witch and all other witches knew him to be a man.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,190 ~ ~ ~
[To set an horse's or an ass's head on a man's neck and shoulders.]
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,194 ~ ~ ~
But at the conclusion of this, cut off the head of a horse or an ass (before they be dead, otherwise the virtue or strength thereof will be the less effectual), and make an earthen vessel of fit capacity to contain the same, and let it be filled with the oil and fat thereof, cover it close, and daub it over with loam; let it boil over a soft fire three days continually, that the flesh boiled may run into oil, so as the bare bones may be seen; beat the hair into powder, and mingle the same with the oil; and anoint the heads of the standers by, and they shall seem to have horses' or asses' heads.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,206 ~ ~ ~
But where foul sluts did dwell, Who used to sit up late, And would not scour the pewter well, There came a merry mate To kitchen or to hall, Or place where sprites resort; Then down went dish and platters all To make the greater sport.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,242 ~ ~ ~
Good housewives, now you may say; For now foul sluts in dairies Do fare as well as they; And though they sweep their hearths no less Than maids were wont to do, Yet who of late for cleanliness Finds sixpence in her shoe?
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,258 ~ ~ ~
And if the house be foul, Or platter, dish, or bowl, Upstairs we nimbly creep And find the sluts asleep; There we pinch their arms and thighs; None escapes nor none espies.