Mary Queen of Scots
.Shakespeare being under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth, and knowing her jealousy, would not, of course, praise openly her rival queen; but in the Midsummer Night’s Dream, composed in 1592, that is, five years after the execution of Mary, he wrote these exquisite lines:—
“Thou rememberest
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid (1) on a dolphin’s back (2)
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea (3) grew civil at her song;
Act ii. 1.
(1) Mermaid and sea-maid, that is, Mary; (2) on the dolphin’s back, she married the Dolphin or Dauphin of France; (3) the rude sea grew civil, the Scotch rebels; (4) certain stars, the Earl of Northumberland, the Earl of Westmoreland, and the Duke of Norfolk; (5) shot madly from their spheres, that is, revolted from Queen Elizabeth, bewitched by the sea-maid’s sweetness.
