ghty air which seemed to express his
sullen greeting,

"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania."

The other children were, as usual, some clever and forward, some loutish
and awkward enough; but the gambols of childhood are sure to receive
applause, paid, perhaps, with a mixture of pity and envy, by those in
advanced life; and besides, there were in the company several fond papas
and mammas, whose clamorous approbation, though given apparently to the
whole performers, was especially dedicated in their hearts to their own
little Jackies and Marias,--for _Mary_, though the prettiest and most
classical of Scottish names, is now unknown in the land. The elves,
therefore, played their frolics, danced a measure, and vanished with
good approbation.

The anti-mask, as it may be called, of Bottom, and his company of
actors, next appeared on the stage, and a thunder of applause received
the young Earl, who had, with infinite taste and dexterity, transformed
himself into the similitude of an Athenian clown; observing the Grecian
costume, yet so judiciously discriminated from the dress of the higher
characters, as at once to fix the character of a thick-skinned mechanic
on the wearer. Touchwood, in particular, was loud in his approbation,
from which the correctness of the costume must be inferred; for that
honest gentleman, like many other critics, was indeed not very much
distinguished for good taste, but had a capital memory for petty matters
of fact; and, while the most impressive look or gesture of an actor
might have failed to interest him, would have censured most severely the
fashion of a sleeve, or the colour of a shoe-tie.

But the Earl of Etherington's merits were not confined to his external
appearance; for, had his better fortunes failed him, his deserts, like
those of Hamlet, might have got him a fellowship in a cry of players. He
presented, though in dumb show, the pragmatic conceit of Bottom, to the
infinite amusement of all present, especially of those who were well
acquainted with the original; and when he was "translated" by Puck, he
bore the ass's head, his newly-acquired dignity, with an appearance of
conscious greatness, which made the metamorphosis, though in itself
sufficiently farcical, irresistibly comic. He afterwards displayed the
same humour in his frolics with the fairies, and the intercourse which
he held with Messrs. Cobweb, Mustard-seed, Pease-blossom, and the rest
of Titania's cavaliers, who lo