Mr. Steevens in a note on this word in the last mentioned play has observed that the _primitive_ sense of _urchin_ is a hedge-hog, whence it came, says he, to signify any thing dwarfish. There is however good reason for supposing it of Celtic origin. _Erch_ in Welsh, is _terrible_, and _urzen_, a _superior intelligence_. In the Bas Breton language _urcha_ signifies to _howl_. "_Urthinwad Elgin_," says Scot in his _Discovery of witchcraft_, p. 224, edit. 1665, "was a spirit in the days of King Solomon, came over with Julius Cæsar, and remained many hundred years in Wales, where he got the above name." The _urchin_ or _irchin_, in the sense of a hedge-hog, is certainly derived from the Latin _ericeus_; and whoever is desirous of more information concerning the radical of _ericeus_ may be gratified by consulting Vossius's _Etymologicon_ v. _erinaceus_. With respect to the application of urchin to any thing dwarfish, for we still say a _little urchin_, this sense of the word seems to have originated rather from the circumstance of its having once signified a fairy, who is always supposed to be a diminutive being, than from the cause assigned by Mr. Steevens. It is true that in the ensuing act Caliban speaks of Prospero's _spirits_ as attacking him _in the shape of hedge-hogs_, for which another reason will be offered presently; and yet the word in question is only one out of many used by Shakspeare, which may be best disposed of by concluding that he designed they should be taken in both or either of their senses. In a very rare old collection of songs set to music by John Bennett, Edward Piers or Peirce, and Thomas Ravenscroft, composers in the time of Shakspeare, and entitled _Hunting_, _hawking_, _dauncing_, _drinking_, _enamoring_, 4to, no date, there are, the _fairies_ dance, the _elves_ dance, and the _urchins_ dance. This is the latter: "By the moone we sport and play, With the night begins our day; As we friske the dew doth fall, Trip it little _urchins_ all, Lightly as the little bee, Two by two, and three by three, And about goe wee, goe wee." SCENE 2. Page 40. CAL. It would control my dam's God _Setebos_. In Dr. Farmer's note it should have been added that the passage from Eden's _History of travayle_ was part of Magellan's _Voyage_; or in Mr. Tollet's, that Magellan was included in Eden's collection. SCENE 2. Page 42. ARI. Those are pearls, that were his eyes. We had already had this image in King Richard the third, where Clarence, describing his dream, says: "... in those holes Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept (As 'twere in scorn of eyes) reflecting gems." SCENE 2. Page 44. MIRA ... What is't, a spirit? Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir, It carries a brave form.