of contending sorcerers and spirits, for that great achievement of St. John's Eve, the discovery of the wonder-working fern-seed:* though I doubt, even if success were to attend your efforts, whether Titania could confer upon you through such, or any medium, greater potency or more magic influence over the human heart than what you have already been gifted with."

"Indeed, my gracious lady," cried the bard, "this beautiful morning must have inspired you with an overflowing vein of fancy ere you could thus so partially estimate my powers; but

"It was the belief of our credulous ancestors, that the fern-seed became visible only on St. John's Eve, and at the precise moment of the birth of the Saint; that it was under the peculiar protection of the Queen of Faery, and that in this awful night, the most tremendous conflicts took place, for its possession, between sorcerers and spirits; for

The wond'rous one-night seeding ferne,

as Browne calls it, was conceived not only to confer invisibility at pleasure on those who succeeded in procuring it, but it was also esteemed of sovereign potency in the fabrication of charms and incantations. Those, therefore, who were addicted to the arts of magic, and possessed sufficient courage for the enterprise, were believed to watch in solitude during this solemn period, in order that they might seize the seed on the instant of its appearance." Shakspeare and his Times, vol. i. p. 329.

beware how you intoxicate a poet with praise, especially at this season of the year, when the influence of Phoebus, you know, is proverbially liable to heighten imagination into what has been called a Midsummer madness."

"I have no fear of its effects in relation to yourself, my kind friend," she replied, "for the fit has been upon you, and we know the result; and much, indeed, do I wish that you would take it into your head to Dream again. But, to say the truth, you are chiefly indebted for my allusion to the superstitions of this day, to a circumstance which has just now occurred during my walk in the park, where I observed several young women dressed with more than usual care and neatness, busily engaged in searching amongst the plantations, and, on enquiring what object they had in view, I was told they were seeking for a plantain tree, under the root of which they expected to find a small coal, which if dug up this day precisely at noon, and placed under their pillows at night, would infallibly enable them to dream of their future partners for life; a spell or charm of which I scarcely remember to have heard, numerous

as are the credulities connected with the approaching Eve of St. John."

“It is an awful time, my lady," said the poet half in jest," and one peculiarly interesting to the simple love-lorn maiden, more especially when engaged in the fearful occupation of watching by the midnight taper, or sowing hemp seed in the church-yard; and though I can perceive my fair young friend here," slyly looking at Helen as he spoke, "is smiling as it were in conscious superiority to the influence of these wild traditions, yet the time may come when even by her, incredulous as she now appears, the Vigil of St. John shall be recollected with tender though with tremulous hope, and hailed in all its shows of promise."

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Indeed, my dear Sir," said Helen blushing, whilst a sigh involuntarily stole from her bosom, "I am not quite so spell-proof, even at present, as you imagine; and though I shall probably, in spite of your sly prediction, neither watch nor sow, yet I have always felt strongly im

* For an account of this superstition, see Aubrey's Miscellanies, p. 103, and Drake's Shakspeare and his Times, vol. i. p. 333..

pressed with at least one of the visionary terrors of the coming eve; the belief, now so prevalent, that he who shall fast on Midsummer Eve, sitting in the church-porch, will at midnight see the spirits of those who are to die in the parish during that year, approach and knock at the church door, precisely in the order of time in which they are doomed to depart.'

"It is certainly one of those superstitions," remarked Shakspeare, "which, from the object held in view, is well fitted to call forth the most solemn and appalling interest; but it is one also, amongst many others, justly chargeable with a too daring and unhallowed species of curiosity; and, on this account, perhaps, it has been related, as a mode of deterring from the attempt, that, some years ago, one of a company of young men who were said to be watching on this night in the beautiful porch of Stratford church, having fallen into a profound sleep, his ghost or spirit, whilst he lay in this state, was seen by the rest of his companions, knocking at the church-door; a visitation, in all human pro

* Vide Shakspeare and his Times, vol. i. p. 330.

bability, the result of their own fears, but which they had the folly to communicate to their associate, as soon as he awoke; and the effect on his mind was such as to lead to despondency and madness, and, ere the year had closed, to the verification of the omen by his death."

Here the stroke of a clock in one of the turrets gave notice that the morning was wearing away, and Shakspeare and his friends, though highly gratified by their visit, were under the necessity of hastily taking leave of Sir Thomas and Lady Lucy, time having passed away so rapidly as scarcely to allow them the opportunity of reaching New-Place by the hour of noon.

On re-entering Stratford, they observed its inhabitants busily preparing for the celebration of the Vigil of the Saint, every man's door being shadowed with green birch, long fennel, Saint John's wort, orpin, and the like, interspersed with garlands of flowers, and with lamps ready trimmed for the illumination, which was to commence after sun-setting, and last through the night.