S SIC s SPEARE ME p. -\f SM^>\ x\sx ;V \ \ ^N ^\ <^ SpraguM r^-*^l^^^ V ^^ Sik^^^v , ^^ V ; \ ^\\ xc^.::^ COM! ii^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Cliap. - Copyright No. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. *' Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact : One sees more devils than vast hell can hold. That is the madman : the lover, all as frantic, Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt : The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven ; And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name." V, i, 4-17. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. w- SHAKESPEARE'S COMEDY OF A Midsummer Night's Dream EDITED WITH NOTES BY HOMEE.B. SPRAGUE, A.M., Ph.D. FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC IN CORNELL UNIVERSITY ; AFTERWARD PRESIDENT OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA ; FOUNDER OF THE MAETHA'S VINEYARD SUMMER INSTITUTE ; LECTURER ON SHAKESPEARE UNDER THE AUSPICES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY (1896), AND ON SHAKESPEARE, MILTON, GOLDSMITH, ETC., UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE EXTENSION OF UNIVERSITY TEACHING; EDITOR OF ANNOTATED SELECTIONS FROM CHAUCER, BACON, IRVING, SCOTT, BUNYAN, GOLDSMITH, MILTON, ETC. ALSO SUGGESTIONS AND PLANS FOR STUDY, TOPICS FOR ESSAYS, ETC. I NOV 19 ^^' O SILVEK, BUUDETT AND COMPANY New York BOSTON Chicago 1896 OOPTEIGHT, 1896, By silver, BtJEDETT & COMPANY. /:^'5^^^v/ NotbJflDft iptess J. S. CuBhing & Co. - Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A. PREFACE. The plan pursued in the preparation of this edition of A Mid- summer Night's Dream is substantially the same as that in our annotated Hamlet, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice^ Julius Ccesar, As You Like It, and The Tempest, the design being to meet the wants especially of teachers and students, as well as to aid the general reader. All the notes, of course, will not be alike valuable to each ; but it is hoped that every reader may find in them some- thing helpful. Attention is called to the following points of difference between this and most, if not all, of the other school editions of the play : — 1. The notes are intended to stimulate rather than supersede thought. They are believed to furnish sufficient material to enable one who thinks to arrive at correct interpretations of the meaning. 2. Etymologies which throw light on the signification are care- fully given, as also some others, the curious nature of which is likely to awaken interest in such investigations. 3. It gives many results of the latest studies of Shakespeare scholars. 4. It continually presents for choice various opinions of leading editors and commentators on disputed points. 5. It suggests some of the best methods of studying English literature, and shows how to make the choicest passages the basis of lessons in language and rhetoric. 5 6 PREFACE. 6. It contains suggestive critical comments by recent writers, besides those of eminent scholars of past generations. Especially are we indebted to the great work of Dr. Furness, Vol. X, of his Variorum Edition, 1895. The text we follow for the most part is the excellent edition of Dr. Rolfe, and his numbering of the lines in referring to other plays. The text of the first folio is, however, more closely adhered to in this edition than in his. East Orange, N.J., MAy, 1896. CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction to Midsummer Night's Dream .... 9 Date of Composition 9 Sources op the Plot 10 Critical Comments 10-17 Samuel Pepys. — Samuel Johnson. — Joseph Addison. — A. W. Schlegel. — William Hazlitt. — A. Skottowe. — T. B. Macaulay. — T. Campbell. — Henry Hallam. — G. G. Ger- vinus. — Hartley Coleridge. — H. Woelffel. — William Maginn. — F. Kreyssig. — Charles Cowden-Clarke, — Edward Dowden. — John Weiss. — F. J. Furnivall. — Henry Hudson. — T. S. Baynes. — R. G. White. — F. A. Marshall. — Barrett Wendell. — Horace Howard Furness. Explanations of Abbreviated Forms . . . . .18 Midsummer Night's Dream — Text and Notes ... 21 Appendix. Duration of the Action 115 How TO Teach and Study English Literature . . 116 Topics for Essays . . . . . . . • 122 Index ...=... ... 123 7 INTEODUOTIOF. FIRST MENTION AND EARLIEST EDITIONS. The earliest mention of Midsummer NighVs Dream appears to have been that of Francis Meres, who in 1598 named twelve of Shake- speare's plays, this being one of them. The play was entered in the Stationers'' Begister, London, October 8, 1600, and during this year it was twice published in quarto form. The first of these quartos [Fisher's] is declared by Furness to have 'the better text, but inferior typography'; the second [Roberts's] to be 'superior in stage directions, in spelling, and, occasionally, in the division of the lines,' but 'inferior in punctuation.' "The first Folio" (1623), Furness continues, "was printed from a copy of Rob- erts's quarto, which had been used as a prompter's stage copy. Thus theoretically there are three texts ; virtually there is but one. The variations between the three will warrant scarcely more than the in- ference that possibly in the Folio we can now and then detect the revising hand of the author. In any microscopic examination of the quartos and folios, with their commas and their colons, we must be constantly on our guard lest we fall into the error of imagining that we are dealing with the hand of Shakespeare ; in reality it is simply that of a mere compositor." DATE OP COMPOSITION. With two or three exceptions, some thirty of the leading Shake- spearian editors and commentators of the last hundred years are inclined to fix upon the year 1593, 1594, or 1595, as being about the time of the composition of the play. (See Furness, 248-267.) THE TEXT. With the usual modernization of orthography, our text is substan- tially that of the first Folio. The three early editions already men- tioned were evidently printed with a carefulness rather unusual at that day. 9 10 INTRODUCTION. SOURCES OF THE PLOT. Stray hints, which may have influenced Shakespeare, are perhaps found in Plutarch, Chaucer, Ovid, Greene, George of Montemayor, Reginald Scot, Spenser, etc. At best they are mere hints ; and scholars generally concur with White, who says (Studies in Shake- speare, 1886, p. 14), "The Dream seems to be in substance and in structure entirely Shakespeare's. No prototype of it is known either in drama or in story." CRITICAL COMMENTS. (From Diary of Samuel Fepys, September 29,J^62.) To the King's Theatre, where we saw Midsummer Night'' s Dream, which I had never seen before, nor shall ever again ; for it is the most insipid, ridiculous play that I ever saw in my life. (From Samuel Johnson^s Edition of Shakespeare, 1765.) Wild and fantastical as this play is, all the parts in their various modes are well written, and give the kind of pleasure which the author designed. Fairies in his time were much in fashion ; common tradition had made them familiar, and Spenser's poem had made them great. {From Addison'' s Spectator, No. 419, 1712.) Among the English [who have introduced ghosts, fairies, witches, etc.] Shakespeare has incomparably excelled all others. That noble extravagance of fancy, which he had in so great profusion, thoroughly qualified him to touch this weak, superstitious part of the reader's imagination, and made him capable of succeeding where he had nothing to support him besides the strength of his own genius. (From SchlegeVs Lectures on Dramatic Literature, translated by J. Black, 1815.) In the Midsummer NighVs Dream there flows a luxuriant vein of the boldest and most fantastical invention; the most extraordinary combination of the most dissimilar ingredients seems to have arisen without effort by some ingenious and lucky accident, and the colors are of such clear transparency that we think the whole of the varie- INTRODUCTION. 11 gated fabric may be blown away with a breath. The fairy world here described resembles those elegant pieces of Arabesque where little genii, with butterfly wings, rise, half embodied, over the flower cups. {From HazliWs Characters of Shakespeare's Plays, 1817.) Puck is borne along on his fairy errand like the light and glittering gossamer before the breeze. He is, indeed, a most epicurean little gentleman, dealing in quaint devices, and faring in dainty delights. Prosper© and his world of spirits are a set of moralists ; but with Oberon and his fairies we are launched at once into the empire of the butterflies. How beautifully is this race of beings contrasted with the men and women actors in the scene by a single epithet which Titania gives to the latter, "the human mortals "! {From Augustine Skottovje^s Life of Shakespeare, 1824.) An air of peculiar lightness distinguishes the poet's treatment of this extremely fanciful subject from his subsequent and bolder flights into the regions of the spiritual world. He rejected from the drama on which he engrafted it [the fairy mythology?] everything calcu- lated to detract from its playfulness or to encumber it with serious- ness, and, giving rein to the brilliancy of youthful imagination, he scattered from his superabundant wealth the choicest flowers of fancy over the fairies' paths ; his fairies move amidst the fragrance of enamelled meads, graceful, lovely, and enchanting. {From Macaulay''s Essay on Dryden, 1828.) Nothing is omitted ; nothing is crowded. Great as are the changes, narrow as is the compass within which they are exhibited, they shock us as little as the gradual alteration of the familiar faces we see every evening and every morning. The magical skill of the poet resembles that of the Dervise in the Spectator, who condensed all the events of seven years into the single moment during which the king held his head under water. {From CampbelVs Introductory Notice to the Dramatic Works of Shakespeare, 1838.) Of all his works, the Midsummer Nighfs Dream leaves the strong- est impression on my mind that this miserable world must have for once, at least, contained a happy man. This play is so finely delicious, so little intermixed with the painful passions from which Poetry dis- 12 INTRODUCTION. tils her sterner sweets, so fragrant with hilarity, so bland and yet so bold, that I cannot imagine Shakespeare's mind to have been in any other frame than that of healthful ecstasy when the sparks of inspira- tion thrilled through his brain in composing it. {From Hallani's Literature of Europe^ II, vi, 39, 40 ; a.d. 1839.) The beautiful play of Midsummer NighVs Dream . . . evidently belongs to the earlier period of Shakespeare's genius ; poetical, as we account it, more than dramatic ; yet rather so because the indescrib- able profusion of imaginative poetry in this play overpowers our senses till we can hardly observe anything else, than from any de- ficiency of dramatic excellence. ... It is, I believe, altogether origi- nal in one of the most beautiful conceptions that ever visited the mind of a poet — the fairy machinery. (From Gervinus's Shakespeare Commentaries, 1849, quoted by Furness.) Shakespeare depicts [his fairies] as creatures devoid of refined feel- ings and of morality ; just as we too in dreams meet with no check to our tender emotions and are freed from moral impulse and responsi- bility . . . they tempt mortals to be unfaithful . . . with the mental torture of the lovers they have no jot of sympathy, but over their blunders they rejoice, and at their fondness they wonder. Further- more, the poet depicts his fairies as creatures devoid of high intellect- uality. . . . Nowhere is there a thoughtful reflection ascribed to them. (From Hartley Coleridge'' s Essays and Marginalia, 1851.) It is all poetry, and sweeter poetry was never written. . . . The characters might be arranged in a chromatic scale, gradually shading from the thick-skinned Bottom and the rude mechanicals, the absolute old father, the proud and princely Theseus and his warrior bride, to the lusty, high-hearted wooers, and so to the sylph-like maidens, till the line melts away in Titania and her fairy train, who seem as they were made of the moonshine wherein they gambol. (From Dr. H. Woelffel Album d. lit. Vereins, etc., 1852, quoted by Furness.) ... In Lysander, the poet wished to represent a noble, magnan- imous nature sensitive to the charms of the loveliness of soul and of spiritual beauty ; but in Demetrius he has given us a nature funda- mentally less noble ; in its final analysis, even unlovely, and sensitive only to the impression of physical beauty. . . . The effect of the INTRODUCTION. 13 same magic juice on the two men is that Demetrius is rendered faith- ful, Lysander unfaithful. . . . The very names Hermia and Helena seem to corroborate our view. For just as Hermes, the messenger of the gods, harmonizes heaven and earth, and, as Horace sings, first brought gentler customs and spiritual beauty to rude primitive man, — so the name Hermia hints of a charm, which, born in heaven, out- shines physical beauty, and is as unattainable to common perception as is the sky to him who bends his eyes upon the earth. But since the days of Homer and of Troy, Helen has been the symbol of the charm of earthly beauty. And it is to Lysander that the poet gives Hermia, and to the earth-born Demetrius, Helena. {From Dr. William Maginn''s Shakespeare Papers, reprinted, 1860, from Fraser''s Magazine, quoted by Furness.) As Borneo, the gentleman, is the unlucky man of Shakespeare, so here does he exhibit Bottom, as the lucky man. . . . The mermaid chanting on the back of her dolphin; the fair vestal throned in the west ; the bank blowing with wild thyme, and decked with oxlip and nodding violet; the roundelay of the fairies singing their queen to sleep ; and a hundred images of aerial grace and mythic beauty are showered upon us ; and in the midst of these splendors is tumbled in Bottom the weaver, blockhead by original formation, and rendered doubly ridiculous by his partial change into a literal jackass. He, the most unfitted for the scene of all conceivable personages, makes his appearance, not as one to be expelled with loathing and derision, but to be instantly accepted as the chosen lover of the Queen of the Fair- ies. . . . We see the same thing every day in the plain prose of the world. . . . Woe to the unhappy lady who is obliged to confess, when the enchantment has passed by, that she was " enamoured of an ass! ''^ . . . He proceeds onward as luckily as ever. . . . Adieu, then, Bottom the weaver ! . . . Go on your path rejoicing ! . . . (From Kreyssig^s Vorlesungen ueber Shakespeare, 1862, quoted by Furness.) When foreigners question the musical euphony of the English lan- guage. Englishmen are wont to point to A Midsummer Nighfs Dream. . . . The most pronounced contemner ... of the scrunching, lisp- ing, and hissing sounds of English words must be here fairly astonished at the abundance of those genuine beauties. . . , Note, for instance, the compliment to the 'fair vestal throned by the West,' the picture of Titania's bower, the bank whereon the wild thyme blows, the grand daybreak after the night of wild dreams, and, above all, the glorifica- tion of the poet by Theseus. 14 INTRODUCTION. {From Charles C owden- Clarke' s Shakespeare Characters^ 1863.) Bully Bottom, the epitome of all the conceited donkeys that ever strutted or straddled on this stage of the world ! In his own imagina- tion equal to the performance of anything separately, and of all things collectively ; the meddler, the director, the dictator ! (From Dowdeii's Shakspere: His Mind and Art, 1875.) . . . The method of Bottom and his company is precisely the re- verse, as Gervinus has observed, of Shakspere's own method. They are determined to leave nothing to be supplied by the imagination. Wall must be plastered ; moonshine must carry lanthorn and bush. And when Hippolyta, again becoming impatient of absurdity, exclaims, "I am aweary of this moon! would he would change!" Shakspere further insists on his piece of dramatic criticism by urging, through the duke's mouth, the absolute necessity of the man in the moon being within his lanthorn. Shakspere as much as says, " if you do not ap- prove of my dramatic method of presenting fairy-land and the heroic world, here is a specimen of the rival method. ... I can do no more unless I adopt the artistic ideas of these Athenian handicraftsmen." (From Weiss^s Wit, Humor, and Shakespeare, p. 110, 1876.) It is a suggestion of the subtlest humor when Titania summons her fairies to wait upon Bottom ; for the fact is that the soul's airy and nimble fancies are constantly detailed to serve the donkeyism of this world. "Be kind and courteous to this gentleman." Divine gifts stick musk-roses in his sleek, smooth head. The world is a peg that keeps all spiritual being tethered. Watt agonizes to teach this vis inertice to drag itself by the car-load ; Palissy starves for twenty years to enamel its platter ; Franklin charms its house against thunder ; Eaphael contributes halos to glorify its ignorance of divinity; all the poets gather for its beguilement, hop in its walk and gambol before it, scratch its head, bring honey-bags, and light its farthing dip at glow- worms' eyes. (^From FurnivalVs Introduction to the Leopold Shakespeare, 1877.) The play is an enormous advance on what had gone before. But it is a poem, a dream, rather than a play ; its freakish fancy of fairy- land fitting it for the choicest chamber of the student's brain, while its second part, the broadest farce, is just the thing for the public stage. INTRODtfCTION. 16 {From Hudson's Introduction to the Play, pp. 21, 22, 1880.) . . . A Midsummer JSfighVs Dream is a most effectual poser to criticism. Besides that its very essence is irregularity, so that it can- not be brought to the test of rules, the play forms properly a class by itself : literature has nothing else really like it ; nothing therefore with which it may be compared, and its merits adjusted ... all is in the land of dreams, — a place for dreamers, not for critics. For who can tell what a dream ought or ought not to be, or whether natural conditions of dream-life are or are not rightly observed? {From Baynes^s Shakespeare Studies, reprinted in 1894 from Fraser^s Magazine, 1879, 1880.) . . . Diana, Latona, and Circe are each styled by Ovid Titania. This designation illustrates Ovid's marked power of so employing names as to increase both the musical flow and imaginative effect of his verse. The name Titania, as thus used, embodies rich and com- plex associations. . . . Diana, Latona, Hecate are all goddesses of night, queens of the shadowy world, ruling over its mystic elements and spectral powers. The common name thus awakens recollections of gleaming huntresses in dim and dewy woods, of dark rites and potent incantations under moonlit skies, of strange aerial voyages, and ghostly apparitions from the underworld. . . . Shakespeare clearly derived it from his study of Ovid in the original. ... It is not to be found in the only translation which existed in his day. (From Whitens Studies in Shakespeare, pp. 14, 15, 1886.) The ' Dream ' seems to be in substance and in structure entirely Shakespeare's. No prototype of it is known either in drama or in story. . . . Eor the first time (unless we except Jack Cade) we have here a personage whose character has made him a widely known and accepted type. The conceited, pretentious man of some ability, who is yet an ass, has in Nick Bottom his earliest and also his most admir- able representative in literature. On the other hand, we have in this comedy the first childing of its author's fruitful fancy, and of his ability to clothe his fancies in phrases of delicious beauty, the sweet- ness of which never palls upon ear or mind. {From F. A. Marshall, quoted by Furness, Irving Shakespeare, In- troduction, ii, 325, 1888.) It is in the comic portion of this play that Shakespeare manifests his dramatic genius ; here it is that his ^ower of characterization, his 16 ^ introduction; close observation of human nature, his subtle humor, make them- selves felt. [From AssH Prof. WendelVs William Shakespeare, pp. 105, 106, 1894.) The first, constant, and last effect of the Midsummer NigMs Dream is one of poetry so pervasive that one feels brutally insensitive in seeking here anything but delight. Nowhere does Shakespeare more fully justify Milton's words : — " Then to the well-trod stage anon, If Jonson's learned sock be on, Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, Warble his native wood-notes wild.' ' Nothing of Shakespeare's, on the other hand, better confutes the saying which Drummond of Hawthornden attributes to Ben Jonson, that Shakespeare wanted art. While it is undoubtedly true that, over and over again, Shakespeare stopped far short of such laborious finish as makes the plays of Jonson, whatever else, so admirably conscien- tious, it is equally true that, when Shakespeare chose to take pains, his technical workmanship was as artistic as his imaginative impulse. Few works in any literature possess more artistic unity than the Midsummer NigJifs Dream, few reveal on study more of that mas- tery whose art is so fine as to seem artless. Alike in spirit and in form, then, — in motive and in technical detail, — this play is a true work of art ; its inherent beauty is the chief thing to realize, to appreciate, to care for. (From Furness''s Variorum Edition, Preface, pp. xx, xxi, 1895.) . . . Many of my superiors assert that this subject [fixing the dates of the plays], to me so jejune, is of keen interest, and the source of what they think is, in their own case, refined pleasure. To this deci- sion, while reserving the right of private judgment, I yield, at the same time wishing that these, my betters, would occasionally go for a while ' into retreat,' and calmly and soberly, in seclusion, ask them- selves what is the chief end of man in reading Shakespeare. I think they would discern that not by the discovery of the dates of these plays is it that fear and compassion, or the sense of humor, are awakened : the clearer vision would enable them, I trust, to separate the chaff from the wheat ; and that when, before them, there pass scenes of breathing life, with the hot blood stirring, they would not seek after the date of the play nor ask Shakespeare how old he was when he wrote it. ' The poet,' says Lessing, ' introduces us to the introduction; 17 1 feasts of the gods, and great must be our ennui there, if we turn round and inquire after the usher who admitted us.' When, however, between every glance we try to comprehend each syllable that is uttered, or strain our ears to catch every measure of the heavenly harmony, or trace the subtle workings of consummate art, — that is a far different matter ; therein lies many a lesson for our feeble powers ; then we share with Shakespeare the joy of his meaning. 18 INTRODUCTION. ABBREVIATED FORMS. The abbreviations of the titles of books in the Bible and of the names of Shakespeare's plays hardly need explanation. The same is true of the names of dictionaries, as Worcester's, Webster's, The Century, The New English, The Standard, etc. AhhotU Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar. Ace, accent. Adj., adjective. Adv., adverb. Ante^ before. Antiq., Antiquities. Arm., Armoric. A. S., Anglo-Saxon. Bracket, Brachet's Etymological French Dictionary. Bret., Breton, of Bretagne or Brit- tany. Celt., Celtic. Class., Classical. Comus, Milton'' s Masque of Comus. Dan., Danish. Diet., Dictionary. Dim. or dimin., diminutive. Dis. or dissyl., dissyllable. Du. or Dut., Dutch. E., early or East. E. or Eng., English. Ed. , edition or editions. et seq.j et sequentia, and the fol- lowing. Faerie Q., Faerie Queene. Er., French. Fr., from. Furness, Furness, or Furness's Variorum Edition. G., or Ger., German. Gael., Gaelic. H. G., High German. lb. or ibid., ibidem, the same, in the same place. Icel., Icelandic. Int., International. Ital., Italian. Lat., Latin. Met. or Metam., Ovid's Meta- morphoses. Mid., Middle. N., North. Norw., Norwegian. 0., old. Orig. , original or originally. Par. L., Paradise Lost. Pers., person. Plu., plural. Post, later, on a subsequent page. Q. v., quod vide, which see. Eolfe, Rolfe's edition. San. or Sansk., Sanskrit. Schmidt, Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexicon. Sing., singular. Skeat, Skeat's Etymological Dic- tionary of the Eng. Language. Span., Spanish. Supra, above or before-mentioned. Swed., Swedish. Tris. or trisyl., trisyllable. Var. Ed., Variorum Edition, PEESONS OF THE PLAY. Theseus, Duke of Athens. Egeus, Father of Hermia. Lysandeb, } .^ j^^^ ^.^^ jj^j.^.^ Demetrius, J Philostrate, Master of the revels to Theseus. Quince, a carpenter. Snug, a joiner. Bottom, a weaver. Flute, a bellows-mender. Snout, a tinker. Starveling, a tailor. HippOLYTA, Queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus. Hermia, Daughter of Egeus, in love with Lysander. Helena, in love with Demetrius. Oberon, King of the fairies. TiTANiA, Queen of the fairies. Puck, or Eobin Goodfellow. Peas-blossom, ^ Cob-web, Moth, Mustard-seed, J Other fairies attending their King and Queen. Attendants on Theseus and Hippol- yta. fairies. Scene : Athens, and a wood near it. 20 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. ACT I. Scene I. Athens. The Palace of Theseus. Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate, and Attendants. Theseus. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour Draws on apace ; four liappy days bring in Another moon : but, 0, methinks, how slow This old moon wanes ! she lingers my desires, Like to a stepdame or a dowager 5 Long withering out a young man's revenue. ACT I, Scene I. Theseus. Ch?iucer in his Knight's Tale, iiom. which. Shakespeare drew a little of his material for this play, makes ' Theseus ' three syllables, accenting the first. So it evidently is in II, i, 76, and very likely was meant to be throughout the play. Butthe classic authors and the dictionaries make it a dissyllable. — In classical legend he was the son of ^geus, king of Athens. "He rid Attica of Procrustes and other evil- doers ; slew the Minotaur, and carried off Minos' daughter Ariadne ; con- quered the Amazons and married their queen, variously called Antiope and Hippolyta : and after ber death espoused Phaedra." — Furness erro- neously marks the e long before u in ' Theseus.' 4. lingers. Dr. Abbott in his Shakes. Gramma?', sec. 290, gives many instances of Shakespeare's use of intransitive verbs as transitive. — A. S. lang, long ; langan, to prolong, put off ; Ger. verldngern, to linger : Skeat. See annos demoror {^neid, ii, 047), I delay or linger the years.— 5. dowager = widow receiving dower or having a jointure as long as she lives; the property going to the heirs at her death. Theseus seems to think dowagers to be like office-holders who "seldom die and never resign." — 0. withering out. Like dream away, line 8. — Chapman (1598) in his translation of the Iliad, iv, 528, uses this phrase. — Skt. vd, to blow ; A. S. iveder, loind, air, weather ; Mid. Eng. ivederen, loidren, to expose to the weather. Skeat. — As she withers, the property dwindles? — revenue = that which comes back as income. Lat. re, back; venire, to. come. Accent often on 2d syl. See line 158 ; see our Hamlet, III, ii, 21 22 'a midsummer NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT I. Hippolyta. Four days will quickly steep themselves in night ; Four nights will quickly dream away the time ; And then the moon, like to a silver bow New bent in heaven, shall behold the night 10 Of our solemnities. TJieseus. Go, Philostrate, Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments ; Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth : Turn melancholy forth to funerals ; The pale companion is not for our pomp. ^Exit Philostrate. Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword, 16 And won thy love, doing the injuries ; But I will wed thee in another key. With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling. Enter Egeus, Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius. Egeus. Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke ! 20 Theseus. Thanks, good Egeus : what's the news with thee ? Egeus. Full of vexation come I, with complaint Against my child, my daughter Hermia. — Stand forth, Demetrius. — My noble lord, This man hath my consent to marry her. — 25 Stand forth, Lysander : — and, my gracious duke, 53. —10. All modern editors follow Rowe (1709) in reading new for ' now.' "An for an e was the easiest of all misprints." White. — 13. pert = brisk, lively? Welsh pert, smart, spruce. In America 'peart' is some- times used by country people of a bright child. — In Tempest, IV, i, 58, * pertly ' = quickly. — 15. companion = fellow? associate? — "Famil- iarity breeds contempt," and there is supposed to be a tinge of disdain in ' companion ' here, as there often is in ' fellow.' — Lat. con, com, together ; panis, bread. A 'companion' was orig. a messmate. — pomp. Gr. Tre/aTTw, pempo, I Send ; Tro/an-jy, pompe, a sending ; an escort. A ' pomp ' was orig. a grand ' send-off ' ! — " ' Funerals ' (line 14), with its imagery of long processions, suggested here, I think," says Furness, " this word ' pomp ' in its classic sense." See line 19. — 16. with my sword. In the war with the Amazons ? So Chaucer and Plutarch show us. — 19. Triumph. Gr. ©pia/a/So?, Thriambos, Bacchus; a hymn to Bacchus; Lat. triumphus, a solemn and magnificent processional march of a victorious general into Rome and through the streets to the Capitol. For description, see our ed. of Jul. Cses. I, i, 31.-20. duke. So Chaucer and Plutarch (North's trans, used by Shakes.) style Theseus. — Lat. ducere, to lead, draw; dux, ducis, a leader. Sir T. Elyot (who died in 1546) calls Hannibal duke of Carthage. In Chron. i, 51, we have 'the dukes (i.e. chiefs) of Edom.' — 21. £geus (e-ge'-us) . In Plutarch he is the father of Theseus. — 24, 26. — Stand forth, etc. All editors follow Rowe in restoring to the text these SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 23 This hatli bewitcli'd the bosom of my child. — Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes And interchang'd love tokens with my child : Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung 30 With faining voice verses of faining love, And stolen impression of her fantasy With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gauds, conceits, Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth. 35 With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart, Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me. To stubborn harshness : — and, my gracious duke. Be it so she will not here before your grace Consent to marry with Demetrius, 40 I beg the ancient privilege of Athens, As she is mine, I may dispose of her : Which shall be either to this gentleman Or to her death, according to our law Immediately provided in that case. 45 words of command, which are stage directions in the orig. — 27. This hath. We follow the 2d, 3d, and 4th folios in omitting 'man,' because the word is entirely unnecessary and spoils the metre. The antithetic emphasis is not on ' man ' in line 25 and * man ' in line 27, but on ' this man ' and * this.' Theobald and some others change ' bewitch'd ' to 'witch'd' or 'witched.' — 31. faining = loving, longing, yearning; love- sick [Furness]? — A. Q.fsecje7i, glsid; fsegnian, to rejoice; akin to fawn, to court favor. " Whoso fair thing does fain to see." Spenser. " It is not easy to see why every editor, without exception, I believe, should have followed Row^e's change to feigniyig . . . Surely there was nothing feigned or false in Lysander's love, nor any discernible reason why he should sing in a falsetto voice. His love was sincere, and because it was outspoken, Demetrius's wrath was stirred." Furness. — 32. stolen impression of lier fantasy = ' secretly stamped his {sic) image on her imagination ' [Wright] ? gained, in a bland and imperceptible manner, the form, the image dwelling in her imagination [Schmidt] ? stealthily obtained influence over her fancy [John Hunter] ? made a stolen impression (on her fancy) [Moberly] ? stealthily created the image which her fancy cherishes of thee? — 33. gauds = trinkets ? jewels? — Gr. yaUiv, gaiein, to rejoice ; Lat. gaudium ; Fr. joie, joy. — 34. knacks = toys, knick- knacks? — Imitative word. Gaelic cnac ; Du. knak, crack, snap. — con- ceits = devices like our 'Yankee notions 'f — 35. unhardened. Sug- gested by ' impression ' in line 32 ? So lines 49, 50, 51 ? — On the ' associa- tion of ideas,' one word suggesting another, etc., see our ed. of As You Like It, II, vii, 44, and Furness on same, — 39. be it so = if it be so that [Abbott, 133] ? — 44. our law. Shakespeare may have known that, long after Theseus, Solon's law (about 590 b.c.) gave the father power of life and death over his child. — 45. immediately provided in that case = directly bearing on the case [3Ioberly] ? expressly (provided in that case) [Rolfe]? — "The line has an undoubted smack of legal common-place. M A MIDSUMMEtt NIGHT^S DUEAM. [act i. Theseus. What say you, Hermia ? be advis'd, fair maid : To you your father should be as a god ; One that compos'd your beauties, yea, and one To whom you are but as a form in wax By him imprinted and within his power 60 To leave the figure or disfigure it. Demetrius is a worthy gentleman. Hermia. Bo is Lysander, Theseus. In himself he is ; But in this kind, wanting your father's voice, The other must be held the worthier. 55 Hermia. I would my father look'd but with my eyes. Theseus. Bather your eyes must with his judgment look. Hermia. I do entreat your grace to pardon me. I know not by Avhat power I am made bold, Nor how it may concern my modesty, 60 In such a presence here to plead my thoughts ; But I beseech your grace that I may know The worst that may befall me in this case, If I refuse to wed Demetrius. Theseus. Either to die the death, or to abjure 65 Forever the society of men. Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires ; Know of your youth, examine well your blood, Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice, You can endure the livery of a nun, 70 Poetry disclaims it." Steevens. May not a poet occasionally walk on terra firma ? — 46. advis'd = careful, deliberate, considerate. On advis'd in this sense, see our ed. of Mer. of Ven., I, i, 142; II, i, 42.-54. in this kind = in this respect [Wright] ? as to the present question of marriage [Furness] ? in the special point that your father is against him [Moberlyj ? — 65. die the death. Shakespeare always uses the expression of a judicial punishment [Wright]? — Mattheio, xv. 4. — 68. know of your youth = enquire of your youth [Moberly] ? ascertain from your youth [Staunton] ? bring your youth to the question ; consider your youth [John- son] ? — 69. whether. Monosyl., like Uncle Remus's hr'er for ' brother ' ? Frequently so in Shakes, f Abbott, 466. — 70. livery = a distinctive dress ? See our ed. of Mer. of Ven., II, i, 2. — nun. Wright quotes the word from North's Plutarch, 1631. Might Shakespeare thus poetically designate a virgin consecrated to Diana at Athens? "They were really debarred from marriage and subject to a kind of monastic rule." Moberly. Sanscr. nana, mother ; Gr. vawr}, nanne, aunt. Formed like mama, by a repeti- tion of the syl, na, used by little children to a father, mother, aunt, or nurse. A. S. nanna; Low Lat. nunna, a title of respect, esp. used in addressing an old maiden lady, or a widow who had devoted herself to SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. 26 For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd^ To live a barren sister all your life, Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. Thrice blessed they that master so their blood. To undergo such maiden pilgrimage ; 76 But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd, Than that which withering on the virgin thorn Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness. Hermia. So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord, Ere I will yield my virgin patent up 80 Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke My soul consents not to give sovereignty. Theseus. Take time to pause 5 and, by the next new moon — The sealing-day betwixt my love and me For everlasting bond of fellowship — 85 Upon that day either prepare to die For disobedience to your father's will. Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would ; Or on Diana's altar to protest For aye austerity and single life. 90 Demetrius. Relent, sweet Hermia : — and, Lysander, yield Thy crazed title to my certain right. Lysander. You have her father's love, Demetrius ; Let me have Hermia's : do you marry him. sacred duties. The old sense is mother. (SA;ea^. — 71. aye = ever? See our ed. of Macbeth, IV, i, 134, as to etymology, true meaning, etc. — mew'd = cooped, caged, penned up?— Lat. ynutare, to change ; Fr. muer, to moult, shed feathers; 7nue, a bird-cage. — 73. faint = without feeling or fervor [Rolfe] ? " But is such an imputation [as Rolfe's] of insincerity, almost of hypocrisy, in keeping with the dignified seriousness of the Duke's adjuration? May it not be that the midnight hymns chanted by nuns within a convent's walls must always sound ' faint ' to the ears of men outside?" Furness. May not the faintness of sound be the effect of feebleness due to penance, or self-mortification, fasting, and vigils ? — 75. to undergo = in order to undergo ? as to undergo [Abbott, 281]? which ? — pilgrimage. Scriptural? Genesis, xlvii, 9; Hebrews, xi, 13. — 76. earthlier happy. " Theseus' meaning," says Furness, " is clear, however much we may disagree with the sentiment, that in an earthly sense the married woman is happier than the spinster." Trans- pose so as to make Furness's meaning clear ! — Of course ' earthly ' is the opposite of ' spiritual ' ? See Shakespeare's Sonnets, v, liv, for a like senti- ment. — 80. virgin patent = my privilege of virginity and the liberty that belongs to it [Wright] ? my patent to be a virgin [Furness] ? Legal phraseology? — 81. lordship = lord ? dominion, government? — Ellipsis of to? Abbott, 201.— 92. crazed = invalid [Schmidt]? flawed? infected with lunacy? — Swed. krasa, to crackle; Mid. Eng. crasen, to crack, 2^ A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [ACT I. Egeus. Scornful Lysander ! true, he hath my love, 95 And what is mine my love shall render him ; And she is mine, and all my right of her I do estate unto Demetrius. Lysander. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he. As well possess'd ; my love is more than his ; 100 My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd, If not with vantage, as Demetrius' ; And, which is more than all these boasts can be, I am belov'd of beauteous Hermia : Why should not I then prosecute my right ? 105 Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head. Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena, And won her soul ; and she, sweet lady, dotes. Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry, Upon this spotted and inconstant man. 110 Theseus. I must confess that I have heard so much, And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof ; But, being over full of self-affairs. My mind did lose it. — But, Demetrius, come ; And come, Egeus ; you shall go with me : 115 I have some private schooling for you both. — For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself To fit your fancies to your father's ivill ; Or else the law of Athens yields you up — Which by no means we may extenuate — 120 To death, or to a vow of single life. — Come, my Hippolyta : what cheer, my love? — Demetrius and Egeus, go along : I must employ you in some business break. 'Cracked' is colloquial for crack-brained? — 98. estate = settle (or convey as an estate) ? So in As Tou Like It, V, ii, 11. — 100. well possessed = in possession of as much property? — 102. vantage = ad- vantage (over him in this respect) [Wright] ? For the etymology and root meaning, see our Macbeth, I, ii, 31. — 103. which. Abbott, 271. — 104. of. Abbott, 170. — 106. avouch. See our note on Macbeth, III, i, 119. — 110. spotted — treacherous [Moberly] ? opposite of spotless ? Moberly cites Lat. varius (particolored), and Gr. aloAo?, aiolos (changeful of hue, speckled), meaning crafty. So 'toad-spotted,' Lear, V, iii, 138. — 111. so. Abbott, 275. — 113. self. Abbott, 20.-116. schooling. Sig- nificant of correction, reprimand? 117. For you = as to you? Abbott, 149.-120. extenuate = mitigate [Wright]? invalidate [Moberly]? See our ed. of Jul. Cass., Ill, ii, 36.— 122. what cheer. See our Mer. of Ven., Ill, ii, 307 ; and Tempest^ I, i, 2. — 123. go = come [Abbott, 30] ? SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER SIGHT'S BREAM. 27 Against our nuptial, and confer with you 125 Of something nearly that concerns yourselves. Egeiis. With duty and desire we follow you. \_Exeunt all hut Lysander and Hermia. Ly Sander. How now, my love ! why is your cheek so pale ? How chance the roses there do fade so fast ? Hermia. Belike for want of rain, which I could well 130 Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes. Lysander. Ay me ! for aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history. The course of true love never did run smooth ; But, either it was different in blood, — 135 Hermia. cross ! too high to be enthralFd to low. Lysander. Or else misgraffed in respect of years, — Hermia. spite ! too old to be engag'd to young. Lysander. Or else it stood upon the choice of friends, — Hermia. hell ! to choose love by another's eyes. 140 Lysander. Or, if there were a sympathy in choice, War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it. Making it momentary as a sound. Swift as a shadow, short as any dream ; Brief as the lightning in the collied night, 145 That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, 125. nuptial. Shakes, once or twice uses the plural; often the sin- gular. Tempest, V, i, 309. — 126. nearly that = that nearly? Abbott, 421. — 130. Belike = probably [Wright]? as it seems [Schmidt]? by likelihood? ' Jul. Csbs., Ill, ii, 269. — 131. beteem = afPord [White]? spare [Moberly] ? allow [Hudson, Wright, Kolfe]? See, as to its ety- mology our Hamlet, I, ii, 141. — "The root sense," says Moberly, "is 'to think right' or 'beseeming.' " — 1.32. Ay me! Omitted in folio 1. The 2d folio has Hermia, for, etc. We follow the authority of the quartos, supposed to be better than that of the 2d folio. They read Eigh me : for, etc. The ay almost reproduces the Gr. al, ai (monosyl.) (Lat. vx), alas! which Shakespeare's 'small Greek' might have made familiar to him. So the Gr. oljuoi, oimoi, woe's me! — 134. etc. So Mil- ton thought. Par. Lost, x, 898-906. — 136. Scriptural? Matthew, x, 38. — enthralled. For the meaning of thrall, see our ed. of Macbeth, III, vi, 13. — 137. misgraffed. See our As You Like It, III, ii, 107; Tioelfth Night, II, iv, 29-41. — 139. of friends. So the quartos. The folios have 'of merit,' which White adopts. Better? — 140. eyes. So the quartos. The folio has the singular. As good? — 143. momentary. So the folio. The quartos have momentany. — Root mu, Sansc. mii, to push; Lat. 7no- vere, to move ; momentum {movimentum) , a movement ; hence an instant of time; mome^iianews, for a moment, momentary. — 144. shadow. Job, xiv, 2. — 145. collied = coal-black ? A. S. col, Ger. kohle, coal. — 146. spleen = sudden burst [Moberly] ? swift, sudden fit [Wright] ? fit of passion or violence [Hudson]? "The spleen was supposed to be the 28 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [ACT I. And ere a man liath power to say ^ Behold ! ' The jaws of darkness do devour it up : So quick bright things come to confusion. Hermia. If then true lovers have been ever cross'd, 150 It stands as an edict in destiny : Then let us teach our trial patience, Because it is a customary cross, As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs, Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers. 155 Lysander. A good persuasion : therefore, hear me, Hermia. I have a widow aunt, a dowager Of great revenue, and she hath no child : From Athens is her house remov'd seven leagues ; And she respects me as her only son. 160 There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee ; And to that place the sharp Athenian law Cannot pursue us. If thou lov'st me then. Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night ; And in the wood, a league without the town, 165 Where I did meet thee once with Helena, To do observance to a morn of May, There will I stay for thee. Hermia. My good Lysander ! I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow. By his best arrow with the golden head, 170 By the simplicity of Venus' doves. By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves. seat of eruptive or explosive emotions." Hudson. See our Jul. Cses., IV, iii, 47; our Hamlet, V, i, 251. — 149. confusion. Four syllables? — See on ' confounds' in our Macbeth, II, ii, 11. — 151. edict. Ace. 2d syl. as in Lat. edictum, proclamation; ordinance? Lat. e, forth, dic-^re, to speak. ^660^^,490. — 155. fancy = love? Often so in cheiraa, winter weather: Skt. hima, snow. 'Himalaya ' is said to mean abode of snow. — thin = thin-haired ? The early editions have chinne or chin; but Grant White well voices the objections to such a reading: " What was a chaplet doing on old Hyenis's chin ? How did it get there ? and, when it got there, how did it stay?" Tyrwhitt first suggested thin, and this change is countenanced by Lear, IV, vii, 36; Richard II, III, ii, 112; Timo7i of Athens, TV, in, 143. If ' chin ' were right, ' garland ' would have been better than ' chaplet,' according to Furness. Is chaplet derived from luSit. caput, head? — 112. childing a,iitumn= f rug if er autiimnus (fruit- bearing autumn) [Steevens] ? — In sonnet 97 we have 'teeming autumn.' Much discussion of this word 'childing' and many proposed changes, among which are chiding, chilling, churlish, etc. — 11.3. mazed. See on amazement in our Hamlet, III, ii, 303. — 114. increase = products [Wright] ? So in Psalms, Ixvii, 6. — 118. lies in you = is in your power? — 121. henchman = page ? See note on henchman in our Lady of the Lake, Canto II, xxxv, 809. — 123. votaress = female votary? i.e. one 44 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [ACT II. Marking the embarked traders on the flood, Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait Would imitate, and sail upon the land, To fetch me trifles, and return again, 130 As from a voyage, rich with merchandise. But she, being mortal, of that boy did die ; And for her sake do I rear up her boy. And for her sake I will not part with him. Oberon. How long within this wood intend you stay ? 135 Titania. Perchance till after Theseus' wedding day. If you will patiently dance in our round And see our moonlight revels, go with us ; If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts. Oberon. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee. 140 Titania. Not for thy fairy kingdom. — Fairies, away ! We shall chide downright, if I longer stay. [^Exit Titania ivith her train. Oberon. Well, go thy way : thou shalt not from this grove .Till I torment thee for this injury. — My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest 145 Since once I sat upon a promontory. And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath That the rude sea grew civil at her song. And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, 150 To hear the sea-maid's music. under a vow? — Lat. votum, vow. — 127. embarked. Transpose this word? — 128. swimming. "There was a step in dancing called 'the swim,'" Furness. — 135. stay = to stay. Abbott, 349. — 137. round = circular dance [Wright] ? What is now called the country dance [Halli- well] ? See II, ii, 1 ; and on round in our Macbeth, IV, i, 130. Line 9. — 141. fairy. "By the advice of Dr. Farmer," says Furness, " Steevens ' omitted this useless adjective, as it spoils the metre.' And then, can it be believed? pronounced the following 'Fairies' as a trisyllable"? Prosody run mad ! — 142. chide. A. S. ciddn, to chide, brawl. — 143. thou shalt not from. Ellipsis as in "It shall to the barber's," Hamlet, II, ii, 485. — 144. injury = insult combined with injury [Wright] ? offence, insult [Schmidt] ? See ' injurious,' 1 Tim., i, 13. — 146. since. " The use of ' since ' for ' when ' arises from the omission of ' it is ' in such phrases as ' it is long since.' " Abbott, 132. — 147. mermaid. Do mermaids belong to northern mythology as sirens to southern? — Lat. mare, Fr. mer, the sea ; A. S. m,ere, a lake ; A, S. msegd, maid ; akin to Celt, mac, a son, root of may, might, expressive of vigor. — dolphin's. The dolphin was noted for beauty, swiftness, and supposed friendliness to man. E.g. see Arion in Class. Diet. — certain = fixed [Schmidt] ? particular ? sundry ? some ? — spheres. See note on line 7; also, in our Masterpieces in Eng. Lit., SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 45 Puck. I remember. Oberon. That very time I saw, but thou couldst not, Flying between the cold moon and the earth, Cupid all arm'd : a certain aim he took At a fair vestal throned by the west, 155 And loos'd his love shaft smartly from his bow, As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts ; But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon. And the imperial votaress passed on, 160 In maiden meditation, fancy-free. Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell : It fell upon a little western flower, Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound, And maidens call it love-in-idleness. 165 notes on stanza xiii of Milton's Hymn on the Nativity. — 153. cold. Never warmed by love? I, 1, 73. — 154. all arm'd. I, i, 169, 170.— 155. vestal. To Vesta, ' goddess of conserving forces and life-giving warmth,' were consecrated, under a vow of perpetual chastity, originally four, afterwards six, ' vestal virgins.' They were selected by thQ pontifex maximus, and served thirty years. Special honors were paid them. Their duty was to keep the * eternal fire ' burning on Vesta's altar day and night. She was worshipped in private as the goddess of hearth and home in every Roman house. Her public sanctuary stood in the Forum. Gr. 'Eo-rta, Hestia; fr. e^ojaai, hezomai, root eS, hed, to sit. See Bid. of Antiquities. — 158. might = was able to? Abbott, 312.-159. watery moon. In Hamlet, I, i, 118, 119, the moon is characterized as ' the moist star Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands.' — 161. fancy-free = unenslaved by love, heart-whole? This line is de- clared by White to be * the most beautiful example in literature of the beauty of alliteration.' See V, i, 145, 146. — Lines 145-165 have elicited a vast deal of comment. A hundred and fifty years ago, Warburton, afterwards Bishop of Gloucester, discovered, as he thought, in these lines ' the noblest and justest allegory ever written.' Following Rowe (1709) he makes the ' fair vestal ' to be Queen Elizabeth ; and, so far, all concur. He then goes on to claim that the ' mermaid ' was Mary Queen of Scots ; that the ' dolphin ' was the Dauphin of France, son of Henry II ; that the ' dulcet and harmonious breath ' signified Mary's great abilities of genius and learning ; ' the rude sea,' Scotland encircled with the ocean ; the ' stars ' that ' shot madly from their spheres ' were ' the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland who fell in her quarrel and the great duke of Norfolk.' Other commentators suggest additional particulars with modifications. The reader who is curious to know more of the argument will find in Furness sixteen closely packed large octavo pages given up to the discussion. Very charming the pages are. The argument is cleverly put and cleverly answered.^— Lines 145 to 151 are quite generally believed to be a reminiscence of the ' princely pleasures ' with which the Earl of Leicester entertained Elizabeth at Ken- ilworth Castle in 1575, so graphicalljr described by Walter Scott in his great novel Kenilw orth. —1Q5, love-in-idleness = the tricolored violet, 46 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [act II. Fetcli me that flower ; the herb I show'd thee once : The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid Will make or man or woman madly dote Upon the next live creature that it sees. T'etch me this herb ; and be thou here again 170 Ere the leviathan can swim a league. Pack. I'll put a girdle round about the earth In forty minutes. \_Exit. Oberon. Having once this juice, I'll watch Titania when she is asleep, And drop the liquor of it in her eyes. 175 The next thing then she waking looks upon, Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull. On meddling monkey, or on busy ape, She shall pursue it with the soul of love ; And ere I take this charm off from her sight, 180 As I can take it with another herb, I'll make her render up her page to me. But who comes here ? I am invisible ; And I will overhear their conference. Enter Demetrius, Helena following him. Demetrius. I love thee not, therefore pursue me not. 185 Where is Lysander and fair Hermia ? The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me. called also 'pansy,' or 'heartsease,' or 'three faces in one hood.' Dr. Prior, according to Ellacombe, quoted by Furness, adds other names; as ' herb trinity,' ' fancy,' ' flamy,' ' kiss me,' ' cull me,' ' cuddle me to you,' 'jump up and kiss me,' ' pink of my John,' etc., etc. Furness adds, " I think the commonest name in this country is ' Johnny-jump-up ' " ! — 171, leviathan. Shakes, is supposed to mean the whale. Psalms, civ., 26. But see Job, xli. — Heb. livydthdn, an aquatic animal, dragon, serpent; so called from its twisting itself in curves ; fr. Heb. Idvdh, to cleave ; Arab, root laioa', to bend, lawd, the twisting or coiling of a serpent, Skeat. See our ed. of 1st 2 books of Par. Lost, 1, 201,-172. girdle round, about the earth. The expression, accordiag to Steevens, Staun- ton, and Halliwell, is almost proverbial of a voyage round the world. An Emblem by Whitney, 1586, represents "a globe whereon rides Drake's ship, which first circumnavigated the earth ; to the prow of this ship is attached a girdle which goes round the world, while the other end is held by the hand of God, issuing from the clouds." Green's Emblem Writers, quoted by Furness. — 179. soul of love. So 'soul of goodness' in King Henry's "There is some soul of goodness in things evil," Henry V, IV, i, 4. —180. off from. So all the early ed. except 1st quarto. — 187. slay . . . slayeth. This reading, first suggested by Rev. Styan Thirlby in SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 47 Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood ; And here am I, and wode within this wood, Because I cannot meet my Hermia. 190 Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more. Helena. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant ; But yet you draw not iron, for my heart Is true as steel : leave you your power to draw, And I shall have no power to follow you. 195 Demetrius. Do I entice you ? do I speak you fair ? Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you ? Helena. And even for that do I love you the more. I am your spaniel ; and, Demetrius, 200 The more you beat me, I will fawn on you : Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, Neglect me, lose me ; only give me leave. Unworthy as I am, to follow you. What worser place can I beg in your love, — 205 And yet a place of high respect with me, — Than to be used as you use your dog ? Demetrius. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit, For I am sick when I do look on thee. Helena. And I am sick when I look not on you. 210 Demetrius. You do impeach your modesty too much, To leave the city and commit yourself Into the hands of one that loves you not ; To trust the opportunity of night And the ill counsel of a desert place 215 With the rich worth of your virginity. 1729, is almost universally adopted in place of the early reading stay . . . stayeth. The st and si are so near alike m the old MSS., and even in the old fonts of type, as to be nearly undistinguishable, and surely ' slay ' and ' slayeth ' give a far better meaning than ' stay ' and ' stayeth ' ? Hermia does not 'stay' him, and he is 'mad' enough to Mil! Ill, ii, 64. — 189. wode = mad, raging [Hanmer, Capell, etc.]? A. S wdd, mad, raging; akin to Lat. vat-es, prophet or poet, filled with divine frenzy; hence Woden, applied to the highest of Scandinavian divinities. Skeat. — Note the paronomasia. — 192. adamant = loadstone [Wright] ? magnet [Rolfe]? hardest metal? diamond ? — See note on adamantine in our ed. 1st 2 books Par. Lost, i, 48. — 196. speak you fair = speak well of or to you ? See Mer. of Yen., IV, i, 266; Rom. and Jul., Ill, i, 150. — 198. nor I cannot. Abbott, 406.-200. spaniel. Span, espanol. — 205. worser. Frequent in Shakes.; as in Hamlet, III, iv, 155. — 211. impeach = bring discredit upon? — Lat. pes, ped-is, a foot ; pedica, a fetter ; Low Lat. impedicare, to fetter ; Fr. empecher, to clog an animal ; or it may be derived from (or at 48 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT ^S DREAM. [ACT II. Helena. Your virtue is my privilege for that. It is not night when I do see your face, Therefore I think I am not in the night ; Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company, 220 For you in my respect are all the world : Then how can it be said I am alone, When all the world is here to look on me ? Demetrius. I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes, And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts. 225 Helena. The wildest hath not such a heart as you. Run when you will, the story shall be chang'd : Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase ; The dove pursues the griffin ; the mild hind Makes speed to catch the tiger ; bootless speed, 230 When cowardice pursues and valor flies. Demetrius. 1 will not stay thy questions; let me go : Or, if thou follow me, do not believe But I shall do thee mischief in the wood. Helena. Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field, 235 You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius ! Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex : We cannot fight for love, as men may do ; We should be woo'd, and were not made to woo. [Exit Demetrius. I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell, 240 To die upon the hand I love so well. \^Exit. least influenced by) Low Lat. impactare, to bind fast ; fr. impingere, im- pactum, to fasten, to bind ; fr. Lat. in, on, in, and pangere, pactum, to fasten. Skeat, Bracket. — Mer. of Ven., Ill, ii, 273; iii, 29. —217. privi- lege = protection ? warrant (against wrong) ? immunity ? Lat. privus, single ; lex, leg-is, law ; prnvilegium, a law relating to a single person ; a privilege. — 218. It is not night, etc. Johnson notes the similarity of thought and expression to those of TibuUus. Carm., IV, xiii, 11 : Tu node vel atra Lumen, et in solis tu miM turba locis. You, even in night's darkness, are my light ; and you in lonely places are my abundant company. Psalms, cxxxix, 11. — 221. respect = regard or estimation [Wright]? eyes, view [Rolf e] ? — 228. Daphne. Daughter of a river-god in Thessaly. Beloved by Apollo, she fled from him, and was changed into an ever-living laurel, the favorite tree of the god. — 229. griffin = a fabulous monster, half lion and half eagle. It was named from its hooked beak. Gr. 7pu>, grups, a griffin ; ypv-rrog, grupos, curved. See gryphon in our 1st 2 books of Par. Lost, ii, 943. —232. stay — wait for? stop? V,i,24:8. — 234. but =but that? ^&6o«, 122.— 237. scandal, Jul. SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. 49 Oheron. Fare thee well, nymph : ere he do leave this grove, Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love. — Enter Puck. Hast thou the flower there ? Welcome, wanderer. Puck. Ay, there it is. Oheron. I pray thee, give it me. 245 I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows. Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine : There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, 250 Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight ; And there the snake throws her enamel'd skin. Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in : Cxs., I, ii, 72.-242. thee = thou? Our Hamlet, I, i, 40; Abbott, 212.— nympli. Our Hamlet, III, i, 87. — As to the flowers in lines 246-249, see our notes on the famous flower passage in Lycidas, 140-151, — 246. where the wild. Abbott, 480. Malone, Keightly, Wright, White, Rolfe, and other prosodists ease their souls by making where a dissyllable ; thus; I know a bank whe-ere the wild thjone blows 1 '*To me," says Furness, "it would be better ignominiously to adopt Pope's lohereon. . . . With my latest editorial breath I will denounce these dissyllables devised to supply the place of a pause." Furness would " let a pause, before where, take the place of a syllable," and surely this is immeasurably better than the drawling lohere : but why not cut the matter short by making the line a tetrameter (i.e. one of four accents) ? thus : I know I a bank | where the wild | thyme blows. The rhythm flows harmoniously. See line 7. — 247. grows. ' The image in the mind of one bed of oxlips and violets growing together'? — 248. luscious = sweet-scented [Wright] ? — Mid. Eng. lusty, pleasant, delicious ; suffix -ous. Skeat. Furness suggests that * luscious ' may be a trisyllable and the line an Alexandrine : Quite 6|ver can|opied | with lus|cious | wood bine. Others would squeeze 'luscious' into a monosyllable, lush. Abbott, 470. 471. May an anapest take the place of the fourth foot ? thus : W W KJ W V-/V^ Quite o|ver can|opied [ with lus|cious wood bine. — 250. sometime of = sometimes during? Abbott, 176.-253. weed = dress? A. S. losed, garment. We still say ' widow's weeds.' 50 A MIDSUMMER WIGHT ^S DREAM. [ACT II. And with, tlie juice of this I'll streak her eyes, And make her full of hateful fantasies. 255 Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove : A sweet Athenian lady is in love With a disdainful youth : anoint his eyes ; But do it when the next thing he espies May be the lady. Thou shalt know the man 260 By the Athenian garments he hath on. Effect it with some care, that he may prove More fond on her than she upon her love : And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow. Puck. Pear not, my lord, your servant shall do so. [^Exeunt. Scene II. Another Part of the Wood. Enter Titania with her train. Titania. Come, now a roundel and a fairy song ; Then, for the third part of a minute, hence ; Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds. Some war with reremice for their leathern wings, To make my small elves coats, and some keep back 5 The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep ; Then to your offices and let me rest. 263. fond = doting [Wright]? loving [Schmidt] ? ~* Fond ' is closely akin to vane, weathercock. Worcester. Hamlet, I, v, 99. Scene II. 1. roundel = circular dance [Wright] ? dance in which the parties join hands and form a ring [Staunton, Hudson] ? stanza that ends as it begins, the first line coming round again ? a kind of rhyming sonnet ? — See on round, II, i, 137, and in our Macbeth, IV, i, 130. — 2. third part of a minute. The fairy divisions of time are proportionately small. — 3. cankers = cankerworms ? caterpillars ? — Sanskrit, karkara, hard ; Lat. cancer, crab (so named from its hard shell) : cancer, corroding tumor, so named from its ' eating ' into the flesh ; Eng. cankerworm, from its eating the life out of the rose. Skeat. See our Lycidas, 45.-4. rere- mice = bats ?— A. S. hror, active, motion; hreran, to agitate; hreremus, a bat (most likely named, like provincial Eng. flitter-mouse, from the flapping of its wings). A. S. mus, mouse; mys; root mus. Sansk. mush, to steal; mouse is the stealing animal. Skeat. — 6. clamorous = wail- ing [Walker]? Repeatedly so in Shakes.— Lat. clamare, to cry out.— 7. quaint = fine? delicate? — See on quaintly in our Hamlet, II, i, 31, and especially our Mer. of Ven., II, iv, 6. — spirits = spiritings [Moberly] ? sports [Farmer, Warburton] ? fairies [Rolfe] ? — 8. offices = duties, em- SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 51 Fairies' Song. I. 1 Fairy. You spotted snakes with double tongue, Thorny hedgehogs, he not seen; 10 Newts and hlindiuornns, do no wrong. Come not near our fairy queen. CHORUS. Philomel, ivith melody Sing in our sweet lullaby ; Lulla, hdla, lidlaby ; lulla, lidla, kdlahy : 15 Never harm, Nor spell nor charm, Come our lovely lady nigh; So, good-night, with lullaby. II. 2 Fairy. Weaving spiders, come not here ; 20 Hence, you long-legged spinners, hence ! Beetles black, approach not near :. Worm nor snail, do no offence. Philomel, with melody, etc. 1 Fairy. Hence, away ! now all is well : 25 One aloof stand sentinel. l^Exeimt Fairies. Titariia sleeps. ployments, functions? — 9. double = forked ? — 9-24. "Eight musical settings of this song are recorded." Furness. — 10. hedgehogs = urchins? porcupines? Macbeth, our ed., IV, i, 2. — 11. newts. Tliese small water lizards were supposed poisonous. — A. S. efeta, an eft, evet, or ewt. A. S. ef- for af-, Aryan root ap, river ; Sansk. ap, water. By a transfer of n of the article an, an ewt became a newt ! So a newt or eft is a 'water-animal,' or 'inhabitant of a stream.' Skeat. Similarly 'then once ' became the ' nonce ' ! — See the words ' newt ' and ' blind-worm ' in our Macbeth, IV, i, 14, 16. — 13. Philomel. Tereus cut out the tongue of his wife Procne and hid her in a wood, that he might marry her sister Philomel. He was changed into a hoopoe, Procne into a swallow, and Philomel into a nightingale. See Class. Diet. — 14. our sweet in first quarto; 'your sweet' in folios. — 20. weaving spiders. Are they all weavers? — Gr. a-nd-etv, spaein, to draw out; A. S. spinnan, to draw out (threads) ; spinther, spither, spider, successively ; -ther is a sufiRx denoting the agent. Skeat. —25, 26. Hence, away! Capell (1765?) first pointed 52 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT II. Enter Oberon, and squeezes the flower on Titania's eyelids. Oberon. What thou seest when thou dost wake, Do it for thy true-love take ; Love and languish for his sake: Be it ounce, or cat, or bear, 30 Pard, or boar with bristled hair, In thy eye that shall appear When thou wak'st, it is thy dear : Wake when some vile thing is near. \_Exit. Enter Lysander and Hermia. Ly Sander. Pair love, you faint with wand'ring in the wood ; And to speak troth, I have forgot our way : 36 We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good. And tarry for the comfort of the day. Hermia. Be it so, Lysander : find you out a bed ; For I upon this bank will rest my head. 40 Lysander. One turf shall serve as pillow for us both ; One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth. Hermia. Nay, good Lysander ; for my sake, my dear, Lie further off yet ; do not lie so near. Lysander. 0, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence ! 45 Love takes the meaning in love's conference. I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit So that but one heart can you make of it ; Two bosoms interchanged with an oath; out that this couplet is no part of the song. All concur. — 30. ounce. An animal leopard-like, but smaller. Lat./e/w uncia [Wright, Schmidt] ? Nasalized form of Persian yoiiz, yuz ; Fr. once. Skeat, Bracket. — cat = wild-cat? — 31. pard = panther? leopard? See our note in As You Like It, on II, vii, 150. — 35. with = because of? Abbott, 193. — 36. troth. See our Mer. of Ven., I, ii, 1. — 46. conference = conversation ? — 48. can you. This folio reading, attributing to Hermia alone the desire of separation, seems more significant than the ' we can ' of the quartos, and the emphasis falls better? — 49. interchanged. The quartos have inter- chained, which most editors have followed. Halliwell says it is * far more forcible and pertinent.' But White affirms that it is iveaker, 'conveying the comparatively common-place thought that the lovers' hearts were bound together ' ; whereas ' interchanged ' represents them ' as having been given to each other as the most solemn instruments are made, ' inter- changeably.' To which we add the following: 'bosoms interchained' is at best a repetition and enfeeblement of an idea already sufficiently ex- pressed ; but ' bosoms interchanged ' adds a new and stronger one. Note SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 53 So then two bosoms and a single troth. 50 Then by your side no bed room me deny ; For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie. Hermia. Lysander riddles very prettily : Now much beshrew my manners and my pride, If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied. 65 But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy Lie further off ; in human modesty, Such separation as may well be said Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid. So far be distant ; and, good-night, sweet friend : 60 Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end ! Lysander. Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I ; And then end life when I end loyalty ! Here is my bed : sleep give thee all his rest ! 64 Hermia. With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd ! \_They sleep. Enter Puck. Puck. Through the forest have I gone, But Athenian find I none, On whose eyes I might approve This flower's force in stirring love. Night and silence. — Who is here ? 70 Weeds of Athens he doth wear: This is he, my master said, Despised the Athenian maid ; And here the maiden, sleeping sound, On the dank and dirty ground 75 Pretty soul ! she durst not lie also the result of the ' knitting ' ; the two hearts became one (line 48) ; but observe the result of the ' interchanging,' the two bosoms still remain two (line 50). See in confirmation of this interpretation our As You Like It, V, iv, 110; Sonnet cix, 4; Love's Labor's Lost, V, ii, 806, " Ever then my heart is in thy breast." Finally, eye hath not seen nor imagination con- ceived the modus operandi of chaining two bosoms together. — 51. bed room. Here White, Singer, Wright, Rolfe, Hudson, etc., use a hyphen, which perforce brings vip the image of a sleeping apartment, a bed-room! in the woods, too! See Webster's Int. Diet.; Standard Diet. — 54. be- shrew. See our ed. of the J/er. of Ven., II, vi, 52; Neio Eng. Diet. — 61. ne'er alter = never alter thou? may [thy love] never alter? Abbott, 364, 365. — 67. find. So all the early eds. except quarto 1. — The change from perfect tense to the present is natural, as in Macbeth, V, i, 1. — 68. approve = prove? Our Macbeth, I, vi, 4. — 71. weeds. II, i, 253. — 72. despised. Ellipsis? Abbott, 2^. — M.etxe'i -46&o«, 604. 54 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT II. Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy. Churl, upon thy eyes I throw All the power this charm doth owe. When thou wak'st, let love forbid 80 Sleep his seat on thy eyelid ! So awake when I am gone ; For I must now to Oberon. \_Exit. Enter Demetrius and Helena running. Helena. Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius. Demetrius. I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus. 85 Helena. 0, wilt thou darkling leave me ? do not so. Demetrius. Stay, on thy peril : I alone will go. ^Exit. Helena. 0, I am out of breath in this fond chase ! The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace. Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies ; 90 For she hath blessed and attractive eyes. How came her eyes so bright ? Not witii salt tears: If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers. No, no, I am as ugly as a bear ; For beasts that meet me run away for fear : 95 Therefore no marvel though Demetrius Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus. What wicked and dissembling glass of mine Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne? — But who is here ? Lysander ! on the ground ! 100 Dead ? or asleep ? I see no blood, no wound. — Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake. Lysander. lAwaM7ig^ And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake. 77. Another line that worries the critics. But if the reader will forget his prosody for a moment and read so as to bring out the sense, he will make four accents, and that is all that is essential ; thus : Near this | lack-love | this kill | courtesy. — 79. owe = possess? stand bound to pay? See our Macbeth, I, iii, 76. — 86. darkling = in the dark? So in Par. Lost, iii, 39.-87. alone will go = will go alone? Abbott, 420, 421. — 88. fond = foolish ? affectionately foolish? See on * fond ' in our 3Ier. of Ven., II, ix, 26.-89. grace = favor (towards me) [Johnson, Wright] ? good fortune, happiness [Schmidt]? — 97. as a monster = as if he fled from a monster? — 99. sphery = starry [Moberly] ? starlike [Wright] ? starlike, heavenly [Rolfe] ? — eyne. I, i, SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. ^b Transparent Helena ! IvTature shows art, That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart. 105 Where is Demetrius ? 0, how fit a word Is that vile name to perish on my sword ! Helena. Do not say so, Lysander ; say not so. What though he love your Hermia ? Lord, what though ? Yet Hermia still loves you : then be content. lio Lysander. Content with Hermia ! No ; I do repent The tedious minutes I with her have spent. JSTot Hermia but Helena I love : Who will not change a raven for a dove ? The will of man is by his reason sway'd ; 115 And reason says you are the worthier maid. Things growing are not ripe until their season : So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason ; And touching now the point of human skill, Reason becomes the marshal to my will, 120 And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook Love's stories written in love's richest book. Helena. Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born ? When at your hands did I deserve this scorn ? Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man, 125 That I did never, no, nor never can. Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye, But you must flout my insufficiency ? Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do, In such disdainful manner me to woo. 130 But fare you well : perforce I must confess I thought you lord of more true gentleness. 0, that a lady, of one man refus'd. Should of another therefore be abus'd ! [Exit. Lysander. She sees not Hermia. — Hermia, sleep thou there ; 135 And never mayst thou come Lysander near ! For as a surfeit of the sweetest things 242. — 104. Nature shows art. So the quartos. The folios vary. — 113. Helena I love. So 1st quarto. The others have ' now ' after ' Helena.' — 118. ripe not = ripen not [Steevens, Schmidt, Wright, Moberly]? not ripe [Rowe, Rolfe]? — 119. point = height, pitch? See Hennj VIII, III, ii, 223. — 120. marshal. See our Macbeth, II, i, 42. — 121. o'erlook = look over, read? — 128. flout. See our Macbeth, I, ii, 49. — 129. troth. Line 36. See our Mer. of Ven., II, i, 1. — 132. gentleness = the spirit of a gentleman [Percy] ? chivalry ? — 133, 134, 140, 142. of = by ? Abbott, 170. 56 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DEE AM. [ACT II. SCENE II. The deepest loathing to the stomach brings, Or as the heresies that men do leave Are hated most of those they did deceive, 140 So thou, my surfeit and my heresy, Of all be hated, but the most of me ! And, all my powers, address your love and might To honor Helen and to be her knight ! \_Exit. Hermia. \^AtvaMng^ Help me, Ly sander, help me ! do thy best 145 To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast ! Ay me, for pity ! what a dream was here ! Lysander, look how I do quake with fear, Methought a serpent eat my heart away, And you sat smiling at his cruel prey. 150 Lysander ! what ! remov'd ? Lysander ! lord ! What ! out of hearing ? gone ? no sound, no word ? Alack, where are you ? speak, an if you hear ; Speak, of all loves ! I swoon almost with fear. No ? then I will perceive you are not nigh 155 Either death or you I'll find immediately. [Exit. — 147. Ay me. See I, i, 132. — 149. eat. Shakes, does not use the past- tense form ate. — 150. you sat. So the quartos; the folios, 'yet sat.' — 153. an if. 'A strongly emphasized if.' Furness. See our Jul. Gses., I, ii, 257 ; Abbott, 105. — 154. of all loves = for the sake of all loves [Abbott, 169] ? by everything that is loving [Wright] ? = swoon. In the folio, * sound.' " As the folio was set up by at least four different sets of compositors, it is irrational to expect any uniformity of spelling. Accord- ingly we find this word, besides its present form ['sound'], spelled ' swoon,' 'swoone,' 'swowne.'" Furness. He might have added 'swound,' and 'swoonded' in Jul. Csss. — 156. Either. Monosyllabic force? II, i, 32. Abbott, 466. ACT III. SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER MIGHT ^S DREAM. 57 ACT III. \ Scene I. The Wood. Titania lying asleep. ! Enter Quince, Snug, Bottom, Flute, Snout, and Starveling. Bottom. Are we all met ? : Quince. Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient ; place for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn brake our tiring-house ; and we will do it in | action as we will do it before the duke. 5 ] Bottom. Peter Quince, — Quince. What sayst thou, bully Bottom ? Bottom. There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill himself, which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that ? ii /Snout. By'r lakin, a parlous fear. : Starveling. I believe we must leave the killing out, ^yhen all is done. Bottom. Not a whit : I have a device to make all well. i ACT III. Scene I. 2. pat, pat = fitly? exactly? quite to the pur- pose? — A. S. plaettan, to strike ; Swedish pldtt, a tap, pat. " The sense \ is clearly due to an extraordinary confusion with Du. pas, fit, convenient, i in time." Skeat. So in Hamlet, III, iii, 73. — 4. tiring-house = attiring- house [Collier] ? dressing room [Wright] ? Hudson prints tiring-house. — i " The old Fr. substantive tire . . . means 'file' (of persons), ' series,' the I phrase a tire meaning 'in order,' 'in succession'; . . . the word, no 1 doubt, also meant ' dress ' (as distinguished from mere ' clothing '), ' orna- ments.' " H. Mcol, quoted by Skeat in his Errata and Addenda, p. 778. — 7. bully. "A term of endearment and familiarity, originally applied to either sex; sweetheart, darling. Later, to men only, implying friendly ; admiration; good friend, fine fellow, 'gallant.' Often prefixed as a sort I of title to the name or designation of the person addressed, as in 'bully ; Bottom,' ' bully doctor.' Etymology obscure." M.m:x?^.Y& Neio Eng. Diet. \ — 12. lakin = little lady, the Virgin Mary. See our Tempest, III, iii, ; 1. — parlous = perilous ? excessive ? wonderful ? See our As You Like It, III, ii, 41. — 13, M. when all is done = after all ? — 18. more better. 58 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, [act III. Write me a prologue ; and let the prologue seem to say, we will do no harm with our swords, and that Pyramus is not killed indeed ; and, for the more better assurance, tell them that I Pyramus, am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver : this will put them out of fear. 20 Quince. Well, we will have such a prologue ; and it shall be written in eight and six. Bottom. No, make it two more ; let it be written in eight and eight. Snout. Will not the ladies be af eard of the lion ? 25 Starveling. I fear it, I promise you. Bottom. Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves : to bring in — God shield us ! — a lion among ladies is a most dreadful thing ; for there is not a more fearful wild fowl than your lion living ; and we ought to look to't. 30 Snout. Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion. Bottom. Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must be seen through the lion's neck : and he himself must speak through, saying thus, or to the same defect, — ' Ladies,'' — or ^ Fair ladies, — / ivoidd tvish you,' — or 'I would request you,' — or 'I would entreat you, — not to fear, not to tremble : my life for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life : no, I am no such thing ; I am a man as other men are ' ; and there indeed let him name his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner. 41 See our Tempest, I, ii, 19, 438; our Mer. of Ven., IV, i, 242; Abbott, 11. — 22. eight and six = 8 lines plus 6 ; or 14 lines [Capell] ? alternate verses of 8 and 6 syllables [Malone, Wright, Hudson, Rolfe, etc.]? "There appears to have been no such prologue." Furness. — 25. af eard. A. S. afeared, frightened ; fr. a (a prefix denoting a state ?) and faeran, to frighten. i¥ac6e^/i, I, vii, 39. — 26. promise. Lat. pro-, forth; mittere, to send ; promittere, to send forth (as a declaration) . — 28. lion among ladies, etc. "At the christening of the eldest son of James I (James VI of Scotland, in 1594) ... a chariot should have been drawn in by a lion ; but because his presence might have brought some fear ... or the lights and torches might have commoved his tameness, it was thought meet that the Moor should supply that room." Somers Tracts. — 30. your lion = leo iste (without contempt) = that lion of yours. Spoken familiarly. Hamlet, IV, iii, 21. —39. pity of my life = all over with my life? As You Like It, I, ii, 48; V, iv, 53 ; Abbott, 174. — 41. tell them plainly he is Snug, etc. A similar incident is recorded as having taken place at Kenilworth in 1575, to the great amusement of Elizabeth. Scott utilizes it in his description : " Lambourne, not knowing his part, tore off his vizard, and swore he was none of Arion or Orion either, but honest Mike Lam- SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'' S DREAM. 59 Quince. Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard things ; that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber ; for, you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moonlight. Snout. Doth the moon shine that night we play our play ? 45 Bottom. A calendar, a calendar ! look in the almanac : find out moonshine, find out moonshine. Quince. Yes, it doth shine that night. Bottom. Why, then may you leave a casement of the great chamber window, where we play, open, and the moon may shine in at the casement. 51 Quince. Ay ; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure, or to present, the person of Moonshine. Then, there is another thing: we must have a wall in the great chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby, says the story, did talk through the chink of a wall. Snout. You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom ? 59 Bottom. Some man or other must present Wall : and let him have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast about him, to signify wall ; or let him hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper. Quince. If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down, every mother's son, and rehearse your parts. Pyra- mus, you begin : When you have spoken your speech, enter into that brake; and so everyone according to his cue. Enter Puck behind. Puck. What hempen homespuns have we swaggering here, So near the cradle of the fairy queen ? bourne," etc. — 42. there is two. Abbott, 335.-48. it doth shine. See the first ten lines of the play. Let Quince, not Shakespeare, blunder! All the better for that? — 52. a bush of thorns, etc. They fancied ' the man in the moon ' was he who gathered sticks on Saturday (Numbers, xv, 32, 33), the bush being the bundle of sticks. See our ed. of The Tempest, II, ii, 126. — 53. lanthorn. Gr. xdixneLv, lanipeiu, to shine; ^aixnT-np, lampter, a light: Lat. lanterna, a lantern. Sometimes spelled lanthorn by a singular popular etymology, which took account of the horn some- times used for the sides of a lantern. Skeat. — 54. present = represent; act the role of? — Milton's II Penseroso, 99.-62. or let. The editors feel it incumbent on them to correct this blunder of Bottom and print * and let.' —67. cue = hint or prompt-word [Hudson] ? Lat. coda, cauda, 60 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [ACT III. What, a play toward ! I'll be an auditor ; 70 An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause. Quince. Speak, Pyramus. — Thisby, stand forth. Bottom. Thisby, the flowers of odious savors sweet, — Quince. Odors, odors. Bottom. odors savors sweet : 75 So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear. But hark, a voice ! stay thou but here awhile, And by and by I will to thee appear. \^Exit. Puck. A stranger Pyramus than e'er play'd here ! \_Exit. This. Must I speak now ? 80 Quince. Ay, marry, must you ; for you must understand he goes but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again. This. Most radiant Pyramus, most lily white of hue. Of color like the red rose on triumphant brier. Most brisky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew, 85 As true as truest horse, that yet would never tire, I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb. Quince. ' Ninus' tomb,' man : why, you must not speak that yet ; that you answer to Pyramus : you speak all your part at once, cues and all. — Pyramus, enter: your cue is past ; it is, ' never tire.' 91 This. 0, — As true as truest horse, that yet would never tire. Enter Puck, and Bottom with an ass's head. Bottom. If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine. — Quince. monstrous ! strange ! we are haunted. Pray, masters ! fly, masters ! Help ! 95 [^Exeunt Quince, Snug, Flute, Snout, and Starveling. Fr. queue, a tail. See our ed. of Hamlet, II, ii, 545. Murray in his New Eng. Diet, questions this derivation of cue. — 70. toward = approaching? See our Hamlet, I, i, 77; As You Like It, V, iv, 35.-73-79. odious savors, etc., etc. Comically twisted ; but not half so funny as the grave attempts of the German and some other critics to straighten it all. Shade of Dogberry ! — odious =^ odorous ? Much Ado, III, v, 15. — 79. a stranger Pyramus, etc. Puck anticipates the reappearance of Pyramus with an ass-head? — 85. juvenal = youth? Sansk. yuvan, young, dyuna, sport- ive; fr. root Div or dyu, to play, sport; 'L^it. juvenis, a young person; juvenalis o-£ juvenilis, youthful. White and Riddle. — eke = also. A. S. ecan, to augment; eac, and. The word was obsolescent, "and is used by Shakespeare only in burlesque passages." Halliwell. — 8S. Ninus. He was husband of Semiramis and the reputed founder of Nineveh, about 2182 B.C. His widow is said to have built his tomb of incredible size. See Class Diet.— 92. ass's head. Douce (1807) suggested that Shakespeare SCEN-E I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 61 Puck. I'll follow you — Pll lead you — about — around, Througli bog, through, bush, through brake, through brier : Sometime a horse Til be, sometime a hound, A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire ; And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, lOO Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire at every turn. {^Exit. Bottom. Why do they run away ? this is a knavery of them to make me afeard. Enter Snout. Snout. Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on thee ? 105 Bottom. What do you see ? you see an ass-head of your own, do you ? [_Exit Snout. Reenter Quince. Quince. Bless thee. Bottom ! bless thee ! thou art trans- lated. [Exit. Bottom. I see their knavery ; this is to make an ass of me ; to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir from this place, do what they can. I will walk up and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear I am not afraid. \_Sings. got this idea from Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), where there is a recipe for the manufacture of a magic oil. With it " anoint the heads of the standei'S by, and they shall seem to have horses' or asses' heads." The possibility of such transformation was quite generally believed in. — 97. I'll lead you — about — around. We adopt Furness' suggestion in place of the folio's ' He leade you about a Round.' ' Round ' is a circular dance? II, i, 137; ii, 1: hardly appropriate here? — 98-101. Various sources of the idea of such transformations are pointed out. See those of Proteus described in Virgil's Georgics, iv, 406-410. "Divers forms and features of wild beasts will be put on to mock you. He will change sud- denly to a bristly boar, and a grim black tiger, a scaly dragon, and a lioness with tawny mane; or he will send forth the sharp crackling of flame, ... or will trickle away into unsubstantial water and be gone." — 99. fire = Jack o' lantern, Will-o'-the-wisp, ignis fatuus (fool's fire), or ' Friar's lantern,' as Milton calls it. — 100, 101 . Note in these lines how the acts and agents correspond, each to each. See onr Hamlet, III, i, 151.— 106. you see an ass-head of your own. ' A piece of familiar banter of the time,' ' a trite vulgarism ' ? Bottom of course is all unconscious of his own looks.— 108. translated = transformed ? I, i, 191. — Is there not here an ironical suggestion, by way of joke, that Bottom is glorified as Enoch was, transformed to something celestial? See Hebrews, :s.\, 5. — 113. that they shall hear. Abbott, 348. — 114. ousel cock = male blackbird [Wright] ? A species of European thrush. A. S. osle ; not akin 62 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [act III. The ousel cock so black of hue, With orange-tawny hill, 115 The throstle with his note so true, The wren with little quill, — Titania. [Awaking"] What angel wakes me from my flow- ery bed ? Bottom. \_Sings'\ Thejinch, the sparrow, and the lark. The plain-song cuckoo gray, 120 Whose note full many a man doth mark, And dares not answer nay ; — for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a bird ? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry ' cuckoo ' never so ? Titania. I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again : Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note ; So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape ; And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee. 130 Bottom. Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together now-a-days ; the more the pity that some honest neighbors will not make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion. 136 Titayiia. Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful. to Fr. oiseaii. — 115. orange-tawny. See on I, ii, 82. — 116. throstle = thrush? See our ed. of Mer. of Ven., I, ii, 52. — 117. wren. Macbeth, IV, ii, 9. — quill = musical pipe? — Ger. kegel, a pin ; Fr. quiUe, a skittle. Lycidas, 188.-120. plain-song = of monotonous note, single melody [Wright]? plaintive song? — Gr. Trkrjaa-eiv, plessein, to strike: fr. base PLAK, to strike; Lat. plangere (nasalized form), to beat the breast as a sign of grief ; planctus, lamentation ; Fr. se plaindere, to mourn ; plainte, complaint. Skeat, Bracket, etc. "The cuckoo . . . begins to sing early in the season, with the interval of a 'minor third.' . . . From this bird has been derived the ' minor scale ' . . . the cuckoo's couplet being the 'minor third' sung downv^ard." — 123. set his wit = oppose his wit [Rolfe]? match his wit against [Wright] ? — 124. cry cuckoo. Sansk. tukila; Lat. cuculus ; Fr. coueou. Imitative ? — never so = ever so much [Rolfe]? never so much? — 128. enthralled. 1,1,136.-130. In some early editions, this line and line 128 have exchanged places. — 135. gleek = jest [Rolfe]? gibe, jeer; in modern slang or colloquial dialect, ' chaff ' [Cowden-Clarkes] ? play or joke : gleek is the name of a game of cards [Moberly] ? — old English for ' jeer ' [White] ? scoff [Schmidt] ? make sport [Int. Die.]? —Pvoh. fr. Icel. leika, to play a trick on, with the prefix SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT ^S DREAM. 63 Bottom. Not so, neither ; but if I had wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn. Titania. Out of this wood do not desire to go : 140 Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no. I am a spirit of no common rate : The summer still doth tend upon my state ; And I do love thee : therefore, go with me ; I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee, 145 And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep, And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep: And I will purge thy mortal grossness so. That thou shalt like an airy spirit go. Peas-blossom ! Cobweb ! Moth ! and Mustard-seed ! 150 Enter Peas-blossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustard-seed. Peas-blossom. Eeady. Cobweb. And I. Moth. And I. Mustard-seed. And I. All. Where shall we go ? Titania. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman ; Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes ; Peed him with apricocks and dewberries. With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries : 155 The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees. And for night tapers crop their waxen thighs And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes, To have my love to bed and to arise ; ge-; akin to A. S. geldcan, Swed. leka, to play. Web. Int. Diet.— 14:1. whether. I, i, 69. — 142. rate. Our Tempest, I, ii, 92 ; our 3fe7\ of Yen., I, i, 127. — 146. jewels. " Reflecting gems, Which woo'd the slimy bot- tom of the deep." Richard III, I, iv, 31, 32. — 151. Grant White was the first to prefix the fairies' names here, instead of reading as follows, ''Fair. Ready; and I, and I, and I." Capell prefixed All to "Where shall we go ? " — 154. apricocks. This is the earlier spelling, and it ought to have been retained. The word has drifted through curious changes, as shown in Skeat, Bracket, Mwvxty, and Webster. Lat. prae, beforehand ; coquere, to ripen, to cook; prae-cox, early ripe; p7xie-coquus, precocious; whence Mid. Gr. n-paiKo/ctov, praikokion, apricot; whence Arab, al-, the, barquq, al-barquq, al-birquq, the apricot; whence Port, albricoque, Span, albari- coque; whence Fr. alricot, Early Eng. apricock ; Eng. apricot. — dew- berries =: fruit of the ' blue bramble ' ? — 156. humble-bees. To humble is to hum, or more literally to ' hum often,' as it is the frequentative form, standing for humm-le. Skeat.— 15S. fiery glow-worm's eyes. A 64 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [act III. And pluck the wings from painted butterflies 160 To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes. Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies. Peas-blossom. Hail, mortal ! Cobweb. Hail ! Moth. Hail! 165 Mustard-seed. Hail ! Bottom. I cry your worship's mercy, heartily : I beseech your worship's name. Cobiveb. Cobweb. Bottom. I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master Cobweb : if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you. — Your name, honest gentleman ? 172 Peas-blossom. Peas-blossom. Bottom. I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. Good Master Peas-blossom, I shall desire you of more acquaint- ance too. — Your name, I beseech you, sir ? Mustard-seed. Mustard-seed. 178 Bottom. Good Master Mustard-seed, I know your patience well : that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath devoured many a gentleman of your house. I promise you your kin- dred hath made my eyes water ere now. I desire you of more acquaintance, good Master Mustard-seed. 183 Titania. Come, wait upon him ; lead him to my bower. The moon, methinks, looks with a watery eye ; And when she weeps, weeps every little flower. Lamenting some enforced chastity. 187 Tie up my love's tongue, bring him silently. \_Exeunt. poet's license here? See Farness. — 163. Hail, mortal! See on line 151. — 167. cry . . . mercy = beg pardon of? So in As You Like It, III, V, 61, and often in Shakesj^eare. — 170. you of. See our Me7\ of Ven., iv, i, 393, and Abbott, 174. — 171. cut, etc. 'A cobweb being sometimes used to stanch blood.' Wright. — 174. Squash = a soft unripe peascod. Skeat. Our American vegetable squash has its name from the Indian asquatasquash. Cent. Diet. — 175. Peascod. As You Like It, II, iv, 46. — 179. patience. "Can there be a better proof of Mustard-seed's long- suffering patience than that, being strong enough to force tears from Bottom's eyes, he permits himself to be devoured by a big cowardly Ox- beef"? Furness. — 185. moon, etc. See II, i, 159; and our ed. of Macbeth, III, v, 23, 24. — 187. enforced chastity = violated chastity [Rolf e] ? compulsory maidenhood? "The rathe primrose dies forsaken, says Milton; type of maidens who live and die unloved." Moberly. "Pale primroses That die unmarried." Wint. Tale, IV, iv, 122,123.— 188. love's. Pope substituted this for lover. — " It is insinuated that, how- SCEXE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. Q$ Scene II. Another Part of the Wood. Enter Oberon. Oheron. I wonder if Titania be awak'd ; Then, what it was that next came in her eye, Which she must dote on in extremity. Enter Puck. Here comes my messenger. — How now, mad spirit ! What night-rule now about this haunted grove ? 5 Puck. My mistress with a monster is in love. Near to her close and consecrated bower, While she was in her dull and sleeping hour, A crew of patches, rude mechanicals. That work for bread upon Athenian stalls, 10 Were met together to rehearse a play Intended for great Theseus' nuptial day. The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort. Who Pyramus presented, in their sport Porsook his scene and enter'd in a brake : 15 When I did him at this advantage take, An ass's ilole I fixed on his head : Anon his Thisbe must be answered, And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy. As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye, 20 ever deeply Titania may be enamoured with Bottom's fair large ears, and her eye enthralled to his shape, she can find no corresponding charm in his talk? There is a limit even to the powers of the magic love-juice; Bottom's tongue must he tied." Fiirness. Scene II. 3. in extremity = to the utmost? — Gr. e/c, ek, Lat. ex, out; ex^er, outward ; extremus, outmost, uttermost, utmost. — 5. night- rule = night-order, revelry, nightly diversion [Wright, Schmidt] ? such conduct as generally 7^ules in the night [Nares] ? revel, noisy sport [Dyce]? — 9. patches = fools [Wright]? clowns [Rolfe] ? ill-dressed fel- low, tatterdemalions [Johnson, Furness] ? See our 3fe?'. of Ven., II, v, 45 ; Macbeth, V, iii, 15. — mechanicals = artisans ? Jul. Cses., 1, i, 3. — 13. barren sort = stupid company [Wright] ? — thick-sliin. " Some . . . suppose creatures are brutish more or less, according as their skin is thicker or thinner." Holland's Trans, of Pliny, i, p. 346. — 14. pre- sented. Ill, i, 54. — 15. in. Abbott, 159. —17. nole = noddle? pate? "A grotesque word for head. . . . The A. S. knoll, the top of anything. 66 A MIDSUMMER WIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT III. Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort, Rising and cawing at the gun's report, Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky, So, at his sight, away his fellows fly ; And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls ; 25 He murder cries and help fromi Athens calls. Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears thus strong, Made senseless things begin to do them wrong ; For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch ; Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all things catch. 30 I led them on this distracted fear. And left sweet Py ramus translated there : When in that moment, so it came to pass, Titania waked, and straightway lov'd an ass. Oberon. This falls put better than I could devise. 35 But hast thou yet latcli'd the Athenian's eyes With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do ? Pack. I took him sleeping, — that is finish'd too, — And the Athenian woman by his side ; That, when he wak'd, of force she must be ey'd. 40 Enter Hermia and Demetrius. Oberon. Stand close : this is the same Athenian. Puck. This is the woman, but not this the man. Demetrius. 0, why rebuke you him that loves you so ? Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe. Hermia. Now I but chide ; but I should use thee worse, 45 For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse. is the same word." [Wright]? — 21. choughs = jackdaws? See our Macbeth, III, iv, 125. — russet-pated = of gray-colored heads [Wright]? See Furness. — 25. at our stamp. Our and stamp are puzzling, ' Our ' may be for my, meaning the ' stamp ' of which we spirits are capable (as the ground 'rocks' beneath their feet in IV, i, 83). 'Stamp' is perhaps the sound of the feet (of the animals in III, i, 98, 99) striking the ground in pursuit. — Another possible interpretation occurs : ' Stamp ' in Shakespeare is impression, print, or j)icture. The * patches ' were frightened first at the semblance (stamp) of an ass-head on a human form, and next at the image (stamp) assumed by Puck of horse, hound, hog, headless bear, or fire. — Still another: At our stamp (in our stampede, i.e. stampede of us, sudden scampering of our feet striking the insecure footing amid bogs, bushes, brakes, and briers) they tumble over each other. Test ! — 30. yielders. "I was not born a yielder," 1 Henry IV, V, iii, 11.— 36. — latched = caught? See our Macbeth, IV, iii, 195. —40. of force. Only used in connection with must. Rolfe. — 44. breath = speech ? SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 67 If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep, Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep, And kill me too. The sun was not so true unto the day 50 As he to me : would he have stolen away From sleeping Hermia ? I'll believe as soon This whole earth may be bor'd, and that the moon May^through the centre creep, and so displease Her brother's noontide with the antipodes. 55 It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him ; So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim. Demetrius. So should the murder'd look, and so should I, Pierc'd through the heart with your stern cruelty : Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear, 60 As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere. Hermia. What's this to my Lysander ? where is he ? Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me ? Demetrius. I had rather give his carcass to my hounds. Hermia. Out, dog ! out, cur ! thou driv'st me past the bounds Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him, then ? 66 Henceforth be never number'd among men ! 0, once tell true, tell true, even for my sake ! Durst thou have look'd upon him being awake. And hast thou kill'd him sleeping ? brave touch ! 70 Could -not a worm, an adder, do so much ? An adder did it ; for with doubler tongue Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung. Demetrius. You spend your passion on a mispris'd mood : * Breath ' is ' too cool ' in Macbeth, II, i, 61. —48. the deep. Maginn, Dyce, Phelps, Hudson, Keightley, and, it is alleged, Coleridge, have changed this to knee-deep ; but divers flippantly answer at once that to plunge in any- thing knee-deep could have but one cause and one consequence, a ' cracked ' cranium ! — Macb., Ill, iv, 136-138. — 49. May a pause with dramatic action fill out this line ? See our Hamlet, I, i, 129, 132, 135.-55. antipodes. Our Mer. of Yen., V, i, 127.— 57. dead - deadly [Schmidt]? pale [Capell] ? Pope, Hudson and others change dead to dread. Well? — 61. sphere = orbit [Wright] ? hollow transparent shell like a bubble, in which the planet was imagined to be fastened ? See our ed. of Hymn on the Na- tivity, stanza xiii. Milton has ' glimmering orbs,' in stanza vi. — 70. brave touch = test or proof of bravery [Schmidt] ? cunning feat or trick [Stee- vens, Hudson]? gallant action? — ^oi^c/i = stroke [Johnson]? exploit [Moberly] ? — 71. worm = small serpent ? See our Macbeth, II, iv, 29. — 72. doubler = more forked ; more deceitful; Lat. bilinguis? In II, ii, 9, 'double' is 'forked.' But see our Mer. of Ven., V, i, 233.-74. on = in 68 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT III. I am not guilty of Lysander's blood ; 75 ]^or is he dead, for aught that I can tell. Hermia. I pray thee, tell me then that he is well. Demetrius. An if I could, what should I get therefore ? Hermia. A privilege never to see me more. And from thy hated presence part I [so] : 80 See me no more, whether he be dead or no. \_Exit. Demetrius. There is no following her in this fierce vein : Here therefore for a while I will remain. So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe ; 85 Which now in some slight measure it will pay. If for his tender here I make some stay. \_Lies down and sleeps. Oheroyi. What hast thou done ? thou hast mistaken quite And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight : Of thy misprision must perforce ensue 90 Some true love turn'd and not a false turn'd true. Puck. Then fate o'errules, that, one man holding troth, A million fail, confounding oath on oath. Oberon. About the wood go swifter than the wind. And Helena of Athens look thou find : 95 All fancy-sick she is and pale of cheer. With sighs of love; that cost the fresh blood dear. By some illusion see thou bring her here : I'll charm his eyes against she do appear. [Abbott, 180] ? — misprised = misapprehended [Hudson] ? mistaken? — Lat. minus, less ; Fr. mes, badly ; Lat. pretium, price ; Low Lat. pretiare, to prize, value; O. Fr. mesprisei^, Fr. mepriser, to undervalue? (or A. S. prefix mis-, amiss, ill, wrongly; Lat. prendere, fr. prehendere, to take, seize ; Fr. meprendre, to be mistaken) ? — on a misprised mood = in a mistaken mood [Johnson] ? in a mistaken humor or caprice, a temper of mind arising from a mistake [Wright] ? in a mistaken capricious fancy [Malone, Rolfe] ? in a mistaken manner [Steevens] ? Rolfe remarks that Shakes, "uses 'misprised' nowhere else." But it is found twice in As You Like It (I, i, 153; ii, 161) in the sense of overlooked, or undervalued. — 80. [so]. So was supplied by Pope? Needed for rhyme? All concur. — 81. whether. I, i, 69. — 85. for debt, etc. = because bankrupt sleep owes it so heavy a debt [Moberly] ? — 87. tender. This and line 85 'smell,' says Marshall, 'of an attorney's office.' — 90. misprision. An- other law M^ord ; but perhaps not used here in a technical sense. Sea line 74. —92. one man holding troth = while one man keeps faith [Wright] ? — 93. confounding = breaking, destroying? — See our Mer. of Ven., Ill, ii, 271. — 96. fancy = love? I, i, 155. — cheer = look? face? See our Me7\ of Ven., Ill, ii, .307. — 97. blood, etc. On the old superstition that sighs draw blood from the heart, see our Hamlet, IV, vii, 121 ; Mer. of Ven., 1, i, 82; 2 Henry VI, III, ii, 60-63. — As to the form 'costs,' J6- 6oi5«, 247.— 99. against. Used metaphorically to express time ? Abbott. SCENE II.j A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. 69 Puck. I go, I go ; look how I go, 100 Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow. \Exit. Oberon. Flower of this purple dye, Hit with Cupid's archery, Sink in apple of his eye. When his love he doth espy, lOo Let her shine as gloriously As the Venus of the sky. When thou wak'st, if she be by. Beg of her for remedy. Enter Puck. Puck. Captain of our fairy band, 110 Helena is here at hand ; And the youth, mistook by me. Pleading for a lover's fee. Shall Ave their fond pageant see ? Lord, what fools these mortals be ! 115 Oberon. Stand aside : the noise they make Will cause Demetrius to awake. Puck. Then will two at once woo one ; That must needs be sport alone ; And those things do best please me 120 That befall preposterously. Enter Lysander and Helena. Lysander. Why should you think that I should woo in scorn ? 142.-101. Tartar's bow. The swiftness of Tartar arrows was famous, if not proverbial. — 103. II, i, 1G3. — 114. lover's fee = three kisses [Hal- liwell] ? estate, right by virtue of liis title as lover [Furness] ? — 114. fond = foolish? affectionate? See II, ii, 88; Hamlet, I, v, 9.9; As You Like It, II, iii, 7. — pageant = theatrical show? See our Mei\ of Ven., I, i, 11; As You Like It, III, iv, 48.-119. needs. Abbott, 125. — alone = above all things [Abbott]? all by itself, unparalleled [Collier] ? — 121. prepos- terously. Lat. p?'93, before ; post, posterus, after ; praeposterus, hind side before, out of the natural or reasonable course. — 122. should woo = ought to? Furness inclines to this interpretation, saying that " the use of 'should ' in Shakes, is of the subtlest." — Abbott, 328, cites this as an in- 70 A MIDSUMMER NIGHf^S DREAM. [acT III. Scorn and derision never come in tears : Look, when I vow, I weep ; and vows so born, In their nativity all truth appears. 125 How can these things in me seem scorn to you, Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true ? Helena. You do advance your cunning more and more. When truth kills truth, devilish-holy fray ! These vows are Hermia's : will you give her o'er ? 130 Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh : Your vows to her and me, put in two scales, Will even weigh, and both as light as tales. Ly Sander. I had no judgment when to her T swore. Helena. Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er. 135 Lysander. Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you. Demetrius. \_Awa'king'] Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine ! To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne ? Crystal is muddy. 0, how ripe in show Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow ! 140 That pure congealed white, high Taurus' snow, Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow When thou hold'st up thy hand. 0, let me kiss This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss ! Helena. spite ! hell ! I see you all are bent 145 To set against me for your merriment : If you were civil and knew courtesy, You would not do me thus much injury. Can you not hate me, as I know you do. But you must join in souls to mock me too ? 150 stance of * should ' used to denote (like sollen in German) a statement not made by the speaker. — 123. come. So the quartos. The folio has comes. — 124. vows so born = vows being so born [Wright]? — 124, 125. My paraphrase is: "Vows, thus born, appear from their very nativity to be all truth." Furness. — 127. badge. "This is an allusion," says Steeveus, " to the badges {i.e. family crests) anciently worn on the sleeves of servants and retainers." — 129. truth, etc. "If Lysander's present protestations are true, they destroy the truth of his former vows to Her- mia, and the contest between these two truths, which in themselves are holy, must in the end be devilish and end in the destruction of both" [Wright] ?— 133. tales = idle words [Wright] ? pure fiction [Furness] ? — 140. cherries. "These ' kissing cherries ' gave Herrick a stock in trade for half a dozen poems." Knight. — 141. Taurus. The mighty range of Taurus stretches west from the Euphrates nearly 400 miles, separating Cilicia from Cappadocia. Many of its peaks are covered with almost per- petual snow. — 141-143. Like Winter's Tale, Act IV, scene iii. — 150. in SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 71 If you were men, as men you are in show, You would not use a gentle lady so ; To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts, When I am sure you hate me with your hearts. You both are rivals, and love Hermia ; 155 And now both rivals, to mock Helena : A trim exploit, a manly enterprise, To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes With your derision ! none of noble sort Would so offend a virgin, and extort 160 A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport. Lysander. You are unkind, Demetrius ; be not so ; For you love Hermia ; this you know I know : And here, with all good will, with all my heart. In Hermia's love I yield you up my part ; 165 And yours of Helena to me bequeath. Whom I do love and will do till my death. Helena. Never did mockers waste more idle breath. Demetrius. Lysander, keep thy Hermia ; I will none : If e'er I lov'd her, all that love is gone. 170 My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd. And now to Helen is it home return' d, There to remain. Lysander. Helen, it is not so. Demetrius. Disparage not the faith thou dost not know, Lest, to thy peril, thou abide it dear. 175 Look, where thy love comes ; yonder is thy dear. souls = heart and soul, heartily [Steevens, Wright]? — 156. to mock = with a view to mock? in mocking? — 157. trim. A. S. t7'um, firm, strong, trymian, to make firm, also to set in order, array : " to trim a boat is to make it steady; hence to put it in perfect order." Skeat. The word is often used ironically. A trim exploit = a pretty achievement. — exploit = a great act; deed. Lat. ex, out, or negative like un- ; plicare, to fold; explicare, to unfold ; expHcatwn, something unfolded or displayed ; Fr. exploit, an act. — 158. conjure. See our Macbeth, IV, i, 50. — 160. ex- tort = take away (patience) ? make impatient? — Lat. ex, out; torquere, tortmn, to twist, to draw away by forcible twisting, wrench away. — Allen suggests that patience (Lat. pati, to suffer) may mean * suffering,' and ' extort patience ' may be ' produce suffering by torture.' Quoted by Fur- ness. — 169. I will none = I desire her not ? Abbott, 53. Scriptural? — "Ye have set at nought all my counsel, and toould none of my reproof," Prov., i, 25. " Ay, sir ; but she will none." Rom. and Jul., Ill, v, 138. — 171. to her, etc. " May not this be like a familiar Greek construction? My heart \_went aioay from its proper home] to her, and sojourned [with her] merely as a guest. Confirmed by: Now it has returned to me." Quoted by Furness. — 175. abide = answer for, stand the consequences 72 A MtDSUMMEB NIGHT^S DREAM. [act III. Enter Hermia. Hermia. Dark night, that from the eye his function takes, The ear more quick of apprehension makes ; Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense, It pays the hearing double recompense. 180 Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found ; Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound. But why unkindly didst thou leave me so ? Lysander. Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go ? 184 Hermia. What love could press Lysander from my side ? Lysander. Lysander's love, that would not let him bide ; Fair Helena, who more engilds the night Than all yon fiery oes and eyes of light. Why seek'st thou me ? could not this make thee know. The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so ? 190 Hermia. You speak not as you think : it cannot be. Helena. Lo, she is one of this confederacy ! Now I perceive they have conjoin'd all three To fashion this false sport, in spite of me. Injurious Hermia ! most ungrateful maid ! 195 Have you conspir'd, have you with these contriv'd To bait me Avith this foul derision ? Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd. The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent, When we have chid the hasty -footed time 200 For parting us, — 0, is all forgot ? of? abide it dear = pay dearly for it? — The early editions, except the 1st quarto, have abide. Yet nearly all the editors read ahy. Ahy is not elsewhere in Shakespea7'e, unless in quarto 1, line 334 ; but abide occurs also in Jul. Cass., Ill, i, 95 ; and ii, 112. Skeat tells us that abide is a mere cor- ruption of uby (A. S. a-, off, and bicgau, to buy, dbicgan, to redeem, to pay for). Doubtless he is right, but doubtless Shakes, wrote abide in nearly the same sense, and are we bound to correct his error, if it be an error? Furthermore, abide seems to us to have been suggested by so- journed, guest, and home. — 188. oes = circles? orbs? stars? — Shakes, repeatedly uses O for circle. Thus, in Henry V, Prol. 13, he calls the Globe Theatre ' this wooden O.' — 194 = in spite of == to the mortification of [Schmidt] ? in derision of [Rolfe] ? in defiance of? notwithstanding? — 195. injurious = insulting? — II, i, 44. — 197. bait = worry? See our ed. of Jul. Cses., IV, iii, 28. — 200. chid. Shakespeare uses also chidden, Jul. Cses., I, ii, 180. — See in Coleridge's Christabel the lines beginning, " Alas, they had been friends in youth! " 202. O, is all forgot. Says Hudson, " Gibbon in his account of the SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. 73 All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence ? We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, Have with our needles created both one flower, Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion, 205 Both warbling of one song, both in one key. As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds, Had been incorporate. So we grew together, Like to a double cherry, seeming parted. But yet an union in partition, 210 Two lovely berries molded on one stem ; So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart ; Two of the first, like coats in heraldry. Due but to one and crowned with one crest. And will you rent our ancient love asunder, 215 To join with men in scorning your poor friend ? It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly : friendship between the great Cappadocian saints, Basil and Gregory Nazi- anzen, Decline and Fall, chap, xxvii, note 29, refers to this passage, and quotes a parallel passage from Gregory's poem on his own life." Gibbon adds, " Shakespeare liad never read the poems of Gregory Nazianzen, he was ignorant of the Greek language; but his mother tongue, the language of Nature, is the same in Cappadocia and in Britain." This is prettily said ; but what evidence have we that Shakespeare was ignorant of Greek? — 203. artificial =artificiug [White] ? exercising creative skill in art [Wright]? produced by art? — artificial gods = creative goddesses, Minerva and Arachne, perhaps [Moberly] ? Lat. ai's, artis, nxX,; fac-ej^e, to make ; artifex, artijicls, artist ; maker. — 204. needles. Steevens and many after him have substituted neelds for this, in order to reduce it to a monosyllable. — 205. sampler. Lat. ex, out; emere, to take, to buy; eximh^e, to take out [a specimen] ; exemplum, a specimen; Fr. exemplaire, a model, pattern. — 208. incorporate = made one body [Schmidt] ? Lat. in: corpus, corporis, body. Jul. Csss., I, iii, 134. — For the omission of final d or ed, see Abbott, 3i2. — 211. lovely. Collier says, " It is unlikely that Helen would call herself a lovely berry." His MS. has loving, which Furness pronounces ' an unusually happy emendation.' We may answer that the prominent idea with Helena is inseparable companionship rather than mutual love : furthermore, Helena is speaking of her childhood, line 202; and if, as a child, she was ' lovely,' why might she not as a woman say she was like a lovely berry ? — 213, 214. like was printed ' life ' in the early editions. Theobald (1733) made the change. These two lines bor- row the language of heraldry. Says Douce (1807), "Helen exemplifies her position by a simile, — *we had tioo of the first, i.e. bodies, like the double coats in heraldry that belong to man and wife as one person, but which, like our single heart, have but one crest.' " Staunton inclines to think that ' first ' applies to heraldical ' partitions.' " They were like the two sides of an escutcheon, on one of which the arms of the husband, and on the other the arms of the wife's family w^ere emblazoned . . . ' two ... of the first ' meaning that the shield is divided by a vertical line from top to bottom." Moberly. — Sqq Furness. — 215. rent. Old form of rend. Jeremiah, iv, 30. A. S. hrandan, rendan, to cut or tear down, 74 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [act III. Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it, Though I alone do feel the injury. Hermia. I am amazed at your passionate words. 220 I scorn you not : it seems that you scorn me. Helena. Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn, To follow me and praise my eyes and face ? And made your other love, Demetrius, Who even but now did spurn me with his foot, 225 To call me goddess, nymph, divine and rare, Precious, celestial ? Wherefore speaks he this To her he hates ? and wherefore doth Lysander Deny your love, so rich within his soul. And tender me, forsooth, affection, 230 But by your setting on, by your consent ? What though I be not so in grace as you, So hung upon with love, so fortunate. But miserable most, to love unlov'd ? This you should pity rather than despise. 235 Hermia. I understand not what you mean by this. Helena. Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks. Make mouths upon me when I turn my back ; Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up: This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled. 240 If you have any pity, grace, or manners. You would not make me such an argument. But fare ye well : 'tis partly my own fault ; Which death or absence soon shall remedy. Lysander. Stay, gentle Helena ; hear my excuse : 245 My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena ! Helena. excellent ! Hermia. Sweet, do not scorn her so. Demetrms. If she cannot entreat, I can compel. Skeat. — 220. passionate. Quarto 2, from which it is supposed the 1st folio (1623) was printed, omits this word ; " another cumulative proof that this quarto was a playhouse copy, and had in its omissions supplied and corrections made before it came to be used as the original from which the folio was set up." Furness. — 22o. even but now. Abbott, 38.— 232. grace = good fortune [Schmidt]? favor? — 237. persever. Accent? Hamlet, I, ii, 92. Abbott, ^92.— ay is always printed I in the old edi- tions. — 239. each at other. In Macbeth, I, iii, 155, ' each to other.' — 240. carried = managed, performed, kept up? — 242. argument = sub- ject of light merriment [Johnson]? object of merriment [Moberly] ? — 248. she = Hermia [Rolf e] ? — compel [you to leave off such insults] SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. 76 Lysander. Thou canst compel no more than she entreat : Thy threats have no more strength than her weak X-rays. — 250 Helen, I love thee ; by my life, I do : I swear by that which I will lose for thee, To prove him false that says I love thee not. Demetrius. I say I love thee more than he can do. Lysander. If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too. 255 Demetrius. Quick, come ! Hermia. Lysander, whereto tends all this ? Lysander. Away, you Ethiope ! Demetrius. No, no, sir; Seem to break loose ; take on as you would follow, But yet come not : you are a tame man, go ! Lysander. Hang off, thou cat, thou burr ! vile thing, let loose, 260 Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent ! Hermia. Why are you grown so rude ? what change is this? Sweet love, — Lysander. Thy love ! out, tawny Tartar, out ! Out, loathed medicine ! hated potion, hence ! Hermia. Do you not jest ? Helena. Yes, sooth ; and so do you. 265 Lysander. Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee Demetrius. I would I had your bond, for I perceive A weak bond holds you : I'll not trust your word. Lysander. What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead ? Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so. 270 Hermia. What, can you do me greater harm than hate ? [Moberly] ? — 250. prays. All the early editors have praise, which makes no good sense. Theobald suggested 'prays,' me^nmg prayers. Furness approves it. Capell and Malone adopted it. However, Theobald, Moberly, Wright, Rolfe, Hudson, etc., read ' prayers.' — 252. by that = by my life [Wright]? — 257. Ethiope. So Hermia w^as dark, a brunette ? — No, no, sir = [in modern street language] " No you don't, You can't come that game over me." Furness. Many readings and interpretations have been proposed of lines 257-259.-258. Seem to break loose, etc = make believe you are breaking loose from Hermia ; act as if you wished to fol- low me and fight, but yet don't come? — 259. tame = cowardly ? Gr. haixaeiv, damsein, Lat. domare, to tame, subdue. — 260. burr. Still Hermia sticks to him? — 263. tawny. Her complexion? See note on I, ii, 82. 264. potion. So quarto 1. The other early editions have ' poison.' Your preference? — 268. weak bond = Hermia's arms, which were clinging 76 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [act III. Hate me ! wherefore ? me ! what news, my love ! Am not I Hermia ? are not you Lysander ? I am as fair now as I was erewhile. Since night you lov'd me ; yet since night you left me : 275 Why, then you left me — 0, the gods forbid ! — In earnest, shall I say ? Lysander. Ay, by my life ; And never did desire to see thee more. Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt ; Be certain, nothing truer ; 'tis no jest 280 That I do hate thee and love Helena. Hermia. me ! you juggler ! you canker blossom ! You thief of love ! what, have you come by night And stolen my love's heart from him ? Helena. Fine, i' faith ! Have you no modesty, no maiden shame, 285 No touch of bashfulness ? What, will you tear Impatient answers from my gentle tongue ? Fie, fie ! you counterfeit, you puppet, you ! Hermia. Puppet ! why so ? ay, that way goes the game. Now I perceive that she hath made compare 290 Between our statures ; she hath urg'd her height ; And with her personage, her tall personage, Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him. And are you grown so high in his esteem, Because I am so dwarfish and so low ? 295 How low am I, thou painted maypole ? speak ; around Lysander? — 272. wherefore. Accent? Abbott, 490. — news. Many would substitute means for 'news.' "We must doggedly shut our eyes to the substitution of any phrase which is merely an alleged im- provement, when the sense of the original texts is clear." Furness. — 275. since = in the course of [this night] ? since the end of ? Abbott, 132, 347 ; II, i, 146. —279. Therefore, etc. " Better to accept it as an incorrigi- ble Alexandrine." i^wr«ess. — 282. juggler. Malone, Walker, Wright, Hudson, Kolfe, Moberly, and Abbott, 477, all make juggler a trisyl. But Furness remarks that an exclamation-mark can take the place of a sylla- ble. — canker-blossom = not, 'blossom eaten by a canker,' but 'who cankers blossoms [Capell] ? blossom-cankerer [Wright] ? — 286. touch = delicate feeling [Wright]? sense, feeling [Rolfe]? tender feeling? — 290. compare = comparison? See our ed. of 1st 2 books Par. Lost, i, 588. Abbott, 451.-292. Read the line so as to bring out the sense, even if the metre troubles prosodists. Abbott, 476. The two strongly emphasized words are, the first 'personage' and 'tall.' Furness. — 296. "Twentie or fortie yoke of Oxen . . . draws home this May-pole (this stinking Ydol, rather) which is covered all over with flowers . . . and sometime painted with variable colours." Stubbes's Anatomie of SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT ^S DREAM. 77 How low am I ? I am not yet so low But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes. Helena. I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen, Let her not hurt me : I was never curst ; 300 I have no gift at all in shrewishness ; I am a right maid for my cowardice : Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think, Because she is something lower than myself, That I can match her. Hermia. Lower ! hark, again. 305 Helena. Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me. I evermore did love you, Hermia, Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you ; Save that, in love unto Demetrius, I told him of your stealth unto this wood. 310 He followed you ; for love I f ollow'd him ; But he hath chid me hence and threaten'd me To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too : And now, so you will let me quiet go, To Athens will I bear my folly back 315 And follow you no further. Let me go : You see how simple and how fond I am. Hermia. Why, get you gone : who is't that hinders you ? Helena. A foolish heart, that I leave here behind. Hermia. What, with Lysander ? Helena. With Demetrius. 320 Lysander. Be not afraid ; she shall not harm thee, Helena. Demetrius. No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part. Helena. 0, when she's angry, she is keen and slirewd ! She Avas a vixen when she went to school ; And though she be but little, she is fierce. 325 Abuses, 1583. — 300. curst = forward, malignant, mischievous, spiteful, snarling? A. S. ciirskm, to curse; perhaps allied to Swed. ko7'sa, Dan. korse, to make the sign of the cross ; W. c7^og, a cross ; hanging. The sign of the cross was once used in cursing as well as in blessing. Lat. crux, cruc-is, cross, akin to a^ook. Thus the cross was a gibbet made with a crook or cross piece. Wore, Skeat. The Bible reader will recall, " cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." — 304. something = some- what ? Often so in Shakes. — 310. stealth = stealing away ? — 312. chid. Line 200. — 314. so. I, i, 39. Abbott, 133. — 317. fond. Line 114.— 321. Helena. " Polysyllabic names often receive but one accent at the end of the line." Abbott, 469.-323. shrewd. II, i, 33.-324. vixen. A. S. fox ; Ger. fuchs, fox; A. S. fern, fyzen ; Ger. fern, fuchsin, she-fox, 78 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT III. Hermia. Little again ! nothing but low and little ! Why will you suffer her to flout me thus ? Let me- come to her. Lysander. Get you gone, you dwarf ; You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made ; You bead, you acorn. Demetrius. You are too officious 330 In her behalf that scorns your services. Let her alone : speak not of Helena ; Take not her part ; for if thou dost intend Never so little show of love to her. Thou shalt abide it. Lysander. Now she holds me not ; 335 Now follow, if thou dar'st, to try whose right. Of thine or mine, is most in Helena. Demetrius. Follow ! nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jowl. \_Exeunt Lysander and Demetriys. Hermia. You, mistress, all this coil is long of you. Nay, go not back. Helena. I will not trust you, I, 340 Nor longer stay in your curst company. Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray. My legs are longer, though, to run away. [Exit. cub of a fox. — 329. minimus = smallest. Lysander's Latin might be improved by changing minimus (masc.) to minima (fern.) ; but perhaps the 'humor of it' is in making her a male for the nonce! — knot-grass = the Polygonum aviculare, a British weed, low, straggling, and many- jointed [Eliacombe]? " It was anciently supposed to prevent the growth of any animal or child." Steevens. Another explanation of 'hinder- ing ' is that of Johnstone : ' difficult to cut in the harvest time, or to pull in the process of weeding.' — 331. her . . . that. Abbott, 218.-333. intend = pretend [Steevens, Wright]? — Lat. in, towards; tendere, to stretch. — 334. never. Ill, i, 124. .166oi^ 52. — 335. abide. Line 175.— 337. of thine or mine == I mean, 'of thy right or my right'? See our ed. of The Tempest, II, i, 28, or Farness. Of course the 'of would now be omitted. — 338. cheek by jowl = side by side [Wright] ? — "A. S. ceafl, fr. Teutonic kaf, signifying 'jaw.' . . . Commencing with a Teut. dimin. kaf-la, we deduce A. S. ceafl, whence chafle (weak- ened to c'lsefle in Lay anion), chavel, chaivl, chaul, chol, jol, jole, joiol. . . . Jowl is" used rather vaguely, meaning (1) jaw, (2) flesh on the chin, (3) cheek, (4) head." Skeat. — 'Not elsewhere in Shakes, as a noun ; but see our Hamlet, V, i, 75.-339. coil = confusion, turmoil [Furness]? Gaelic and Irish .goi^, to boil, rage, war, battle. Skeat. — ^eQ our ed. of Hamlet, III, i, 67. — long of = in connection with? in company with? on account of? owing to? So in Love's Labor's Lost, II, i, 118. —This old Eng. idiom is still heard among uneducated people in New England. Abbott, 168. Web. Int. Diet, makes this ' long ' a contraction of ' along ' ; Kolfe saya it is not. —May not ' long of ' be a vulgarism for ' along with,' SCEXE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 79 Hermia. I am amaz'd, and know not what to say. [^Exit. Oberon. This is thy negligence : still thou mistak'st, 345 Or else commit'st thy knaveries wilfully. PiocJc. Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook. Did not you tell me I should know the man By the Athenian garments he had on ? And so far blameless proves my enterprise, 350 That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes ; And so far am I glad it so did sort. As this their jangling I esteem a sport. Oberon. Thou seest these lovers seek a place to fight : Hie therefore, Eobin, overcast the night ; 355 The starry welkin cover thou anon With drooping fog as black as Acheron, And lead these testy rivals so astray As one come not within another's way. Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue, 360 Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong ; And sometime rail thou like Demetrius ; And from each other look thou lead them thus, Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep : 365 Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye ; Whose liquor hath this virtuous property, To take from thence all error with his might, And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight. When they next wake, all this derision 370 Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision ; And back to Athens shall the lovers wend. and may not the meaning, ' because of,' originate as an inference from the idea of companionship, as " Evil communications corrupt good manners " ? — 344. This line is in the quartos, not the folios.— 351. 'nointed. Abbott, 460, gives a list of about fifty words of which the prefixes are dropped in Shakes. — 352. sort = happen? Lat. sors (probably allied to serere, to connect, and series, order), sortem, lot, destiny, chance, condition, state. Skeat. Hamlet, I, i, 109. — 353. jangling. A word of imitative origin. Skeat.—356. welkin. See our 1st 2 books. Far. Lost, II, 538; The Tempest, 1, ii, 4.-357. Acheron = hell ? a river in hell? So Milton, Comus, 604. See our ed. of Macbeth, III, v, 15. — 359. as =:= that ? A bbott, 275. — 365. leaden legs. Shakes, and Spenser have ' leaden mace.' The poets naturally associate lead and sleep? See our Jul. Cses, IV, iii, 266. — batty = bat-like? Abbott, 450. —367. liquor. Lat. liquere, to be liquid ; liquor, liquid. — virtuous = powerful [Rolfe] ? salutiferous [Johnson] ? of corrective or healing power [White]? Milton's Comws, 621. — 368. his = its? See our ed. of Hamlet, I, ii, 216.-370. derision. Syllables? 80 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT III. With league whose date till death shall never end. Whiles I in this affair do thee employ, I'll to my queen and beg her Indian boy ; 375 And then I will her charmed eye release From monster's view, and all things shall be peace. Puck. My fairy lord, this must be done with haste, For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast. And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger, 380 At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there. Troop home to churchyards : damned spirits all. That in crossways and floods have burial. Already to their wormy beds are gone ; For fear lest day should look their shames upon, 385 They wilfully themselves exile from light. And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night. Oheron. But we are spirits of another sort : I with the morning's love have oft made sport ; And, like a forester, the groves may tread, 390 So vision? 311. — 373. date = duration? So in Sonnet, xviii, 4.-374. whiles. See our ed. of Macbeth, I, v, 5. — 379. dragons. Sansk. d7He, to see; Gr. Se>KO/u,ai, derkomai, see; Spa«wi', drakon, a dragon, lit. 'seeing one,' i.e. sharp-sighted one. The winged serpents are named from their bright eyes. Shakespeare makes dragons the steeds of night; Milton yokes them to Cynthia's car. — 380. Aurora's. As a goddess, Aurora, personi- fication of the dawn, is the herald of Helios, the sun-god. But the ' har- binger ' of Aurora is supposed to be Phosphorus or Lucifer (light-bringer) , the morning star. — harbinger. See our Macbeth, I, iii, 45.— Milton, Song on May Mornmg, makes ' the bright morning star day's harbinger? — 381. whose approach. Whose ? — Wandering. So. " I am thy father's spirit, Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night." Hamlet, I, v, 9, 10. — 382. churchyards. The 'yard' (A. S. geard,en- closure) in which the church stood, was almost always used as a burial place. See our Comus, 432 et seq. ; our Hymn on the Nativity, stanza 26. — 383. crossways. The old law, repealed in England in 1824, com- manded that the bodies of suicides be buried in cross-roads, with a stake thrust through them. — floods. The spirits of the unburied dead wan- dered, it was thought by the ancients, a hundred years ; but the souls of buried wicked persons tenanted their graves by day and roamed by night. Hence ' wormy beds ' in the next line, a phrase repeated by Milton in his poem on the Death of a Fair Infant, his sister's child. — 38B. exile. Accent? As You Like It, II, i, 1; Abbott, 490.-387. black-brow'd night. Repeated from Rom. and Jul, III, ii, 20.-389. morning's love = Tithonous, the aged husband of Aurora [Steevens] ? the star Phos- phorus ; possibly the sun; but more likely the morning . . . Aurora [Capell] ? Cephalus, the mighty hunter, paramour of Aurora [Holt White, Dyce, W. A.Wright, Moberly, Hudson] ? the morning's love, Aurora, the first blush of morning, with whom Oberon has sported, he not being compelled, SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 81 Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red, Opening on Neptune, with fair blessed beams Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams. But, notwithstanding, haste ; make no delay : We may effect this business yet ere day. 395 lExit. Puck. Up and down, up and down, I will lead them up and down : I am f ear'd in field and town : Goblin, lead them up and down. Here comes one. 400 Enter Lysander. Lysander. Where art thou, proud Demetrius ? speak thou now. Puck. Here, villain ; drawn and ready. Where art thou ? Lysander. I will be with thee straight. Puck. Follow me, then, To plainer ground. {_Exit Lysander, as folloiving the voice. Enter Demetrius. Demetrius. Lysander ! speak again : Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled ? 405 Speak ! In some bush ? Where dost thou hide thy head ? Puck. Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars, Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars, And wilt not come ? Come, recreant ; come, thou child ; I'll whip thee with a rod : he is defiPd 4io That draws a sword on thee. Demetrius. Yea, art thou there ? Puck. Follow my voice : we'll try no manhood here. lExetmt. like a ghost, to vanish at the dawn of day [Halliwell, Furness] ? — 391. east- ern gate. So Milton, U Allegro, 59.-392. Neptune=the god of the ocean ; the ocean itself ? — 393. turns, etc. See Sonnet, xxxiii, 4. — salt green = sea green [Tathwell, quoted and approved by Furness] ?— 402. drawn. Abbott, 374. — 409. recreant = apostate : cowardly; mean-spirited? — Lat. re, again, back; credere, to believe; hence reci^edere, to disavow one's opinion ; Low Lat. recredere, Fr. recroire, to alter one's faith ; se recredere, to own one's self beaten in a duel or judicial combat. The O.F. recreant, faint-hearted, is properly pres. participle of recroire, Skeatf Webster. — 412. try no manhood == have no fight? 82 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT III. Enter Lysander. Ly Sander. He goes before me and still dares me Oii : When I come where he calls, then he is gone. The villain is much lighter-heel'd than 1 : 415 I followed fast, but faster he did fly ; That fallen am I in dark uneven way, And here will rest me. \_Lies down.'] Come, thou gentle day! For if but once thou show me thy gray light, I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite. \_Sleeps. Enter Puck and Demetrius. Pack. Ho, ho, ho ! Coward, why comest thou not ? 421 Demetrius. Abide me, if thou dar'st ; for well I wot Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place. And dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face. Where art thou now ? Puck. Come hither : I am here. 425 Demetrius. Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this dear, If ever I thy face by daylight see : Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me To measure out my length on this cold bed. By day's approach look to be visited. \_Lies down and sleeps. Enter Helena. Helena. weary night, long and tedious night, 431 Abate thy hours ! Shine comforts from the east, 417. that. ^&&o«, 283.— 421. Ho, ho, ho! " There was an old local prov- erb, ' To laugh like Robin Goodfellows ' ; which probably meant, to laugh in mockery or scorn. In the old Moral-plays, as also in the older Miracle- plays, the Devil was generally one of the leading characters, and his laughter of fiendish mirth was always expressed as in the text." Hudson. See Fur- ??ess. — 422. abide = await ? Line 335.— wot. Sansk. vid, to see; Gr. olfia, oida, I know; Lat. vid-ere, to see; A. S. iv it an, to know, to see; antiquated wot, present indicative. — 420. buy = pay for [Johnson]? — 432. shine comforts = cause to shine, or let comforts shine [Wright] ? shine [ye] comforts [Theobald]? send shining comforts? comforts do SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT \S DREAM. 83 That I may back to Athens by daylight, From these that my poor company detest : And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye, 435 Steal me awhile from mine own company. \^Lies doivn and sleeps. Puck. Yet but three ? Come one more : Two of both kinds makes up four Here she comes, Curst and sad : Cupid is a knavish lad. Thus to make poor females mad. Enter Hermia. Hermia. Never so weary, never so in woe. Bedabbled With the dew and torn with briers, 445 I can no further crawl, no further go ; My legs can keep no pace with my desires. Here will I rest me till the break of day. Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray ! \_Lies down and sleeps. Puck. On the ground 450 Sleep sound : I'll apply To your eye, Gentle lover, remedy. [^Sqxieezing the juice in Lysandei^s eyes. When thou wak'st 465 Thou tak'st True delight In the sight shine? — 434. detest = cry out against [Walker, Furness] ? abhor, loathe [Schmidt, Rolfe] ? — Lat. de, down, fully; testari, to testify, from testis, a witness; detestari, to imprecate evil by calling the gods to witness, to execrate. Skeat. — 437. tliree. By what Furness calls 'a barbar- ous prolongation of sound ' [thre-ee, or ther-ee], Verity, Rolfe, Abbott, 484, etc., give this the force of a dissyl. So comes, three lines later. In the arrangement of the lines of the stanza, we adopt Furness's suggestion. —439. makes. J.&6o«, 443. — 441. curst. Line 300. — 443. females. Hardly used in Shakes, for women, except in the speech of such as Touchstone or Puck. As You Like It, V, i, 48. — 444. never. Ill, i, 124. — 446. go = walk [Schmidt] ? Often so in Shakes . — '153. to. This to was supplied by Rowe. All but Halliwell concur. ' Apply ' re- 84 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT III. SCENE II. \ Of thy former lady's eye : 1 And the country proverb known, 460 j That every man should take his own, I In your waking shall be shown : i Jack shall have Jill ; Naught shall go ill ; \ The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well. ; \_Exit \ quires to. Does the metre also? — 463. Jack shall have Jill. So in ; IleYwood's Epigrammes upon Proverbs, 1567. — Jill seems to be a nick- name for Julia or Julianna. L. Grey, 1754. Julia is fem. of Julius, soft- j haired ? — Jack is from John, ' the gracious gift of Jehovah.' See note on l ' Yaughan ' in our Hamlet, V, i, 58. " The nicknames of Jack and Jill as ] generic names . . . are of great antiquity." — 465. The man shall 1 have, etc. Proverbial. j ACT IV. SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 85 ACT IV. Scene I. The Same. Lysander, Demetrius, Helena, and Hermia, lying asleep. Enter Titania and Bottom; Peas-blossom, Cobweb, Moth, Mustard-seed, and other Fairies attending; Oberon behind, unseen. Titania. Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed, While I thy amiable cheeks do coy, And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head, And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy. Bottom. Where's Peas-blossom? Peas-blossom. Ready. Bottom. Scratch my head. Peas-blossom. Where's Moun- sieur Cobweb ? Cobweb. Eeady. 6 Bottom. Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get you your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped bum- blebee on the top of a thistle ; and, good mounsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, mounsieur; and, good mounsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not ; I would be loath to have you over- flown with a honey-bag, signior. Where's Mounsieur Mustard-seed ? 16 ACT IV. Scene I. "At the close of the last scene the stage is pitch dark, doubly black through Puck's charms, aud a change to daylight is rendered less violent by a new Act." Furness. — 2. amiable. Lat. amare, to love ; amiabilis, Fr. cuniable, lovable. Is the word now con- fined to persons? Psalms, Ixxxiv, 1; Par. Lost, iv, 250. — coy = soothe, caress [Steevens] ? stroke [Hudson, Rolf e] ? stroke gently [Moberly] ? coax [Wright]? — Root ki, to lie; qui-es, rest; quietus, still, quiet; Old Fr. coi, earlier coit, still, quiet. Skeat. See quietus in our Hamlet, III, i, 75. — 7. Mounsieur. See, on monsieur, our As You Like It, I, ii, 88. ** Any indication whatever that tends to differentiate Bottom's pronuncia- tion from Theseus's should be by all means retained." Furness. — 15. overflown = overflowed ? — Flown now limited to flying? 86 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT IV. Mustard-seed. Eeady. Bottom. Give nie your neaf, Moiinsieur Mustard-seed. Pray you, leave your courtesy, good mounsieur. Mustard-seed. What's your will ? 20 Bottom. Nothing, good monsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber's, mounsieur ; for methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face ; and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch. Titania. What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love ? 25 Bottom. I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let's have the tongs and the bones. Titania. Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat. Bottom. Truly, a peck of provender : I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle of hay : good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow. 31 Titania. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee [thence] new nuts. 18. neaf. Icel. hneji, fist; akin to Dan. nseve ; Swed. ndfve, fist. In 2 Henry IV, II, iv, 150, " I kiss thy neaf." — 19. leave your courtesy = put on your hat [W. A. Wright, Schmidt] ? leave off bowing [Moberly] ? — Love's Lab. Lost, V, i, 87, 88. — 21. Cavalery ==: knight? chevalier? cava- lier ? Sir ? — Lat. caballus, a nag ; Fr. cheval, a horse ; Span, cahallero, cava- lier, horseman. — 22. Cobweb. But he had just been ordered to go for honey : accordingly some editors think the name here should be Peas-blos- som. But may not Cobweb have disobeyed the human ass ? — 26. music. Bottom is a weaver, and weavers, says Schmidt, had the reputation of being good psalm-singers, a fact alluded to in Tioelfth N., II, iii, 57; 1 Henry IV, II, iv, 122. —27. tongs and the bones. " ' Sometimes used, even in our own time, as an ironical welcome to a widower who has mar- ried again within the year.' Moberly. — 29. provender = food for beasts, as hay, oats, etc.? See our Jul. Cses., IV, i, 30. — 30. bottle. Not a mere bundle, but some measure of that provender. Halliwell. — Old H. Ger. p6zo, bdzo, a bundle of flax ; Fr. botte, a truss, a bundle of hay; Eng. bottle (dimin.), a bundle (of hay). Bracket, Skeat. — 31. fellow = mate, equal. — Icel. felagi, a partner, fr. felag, a partnership; fe, property, lag, a laying together. SJceat. — 33. The squirrel's, etc. — Gr. o-Kta, skia, shadow; ovpd, oura, tail; o-Kiovpos, shadow-tail; Late Lat. scurellus, squirrel. The line seems to lack a syllable. Hanmer (1744) and many since have supplied thence as the missing word, the similarity between thee and thence having perhaps given rise to the omission. Abbott, how- ever (484), asserts that " either ' and ' must be accented and ' hoard ' pro- longed [try it!], or we must scan as follows: ' The squir | rel's hoard, | and fetch | thee new \ " nuts.' " As to this, Furness says, " I doubt if Titania's meaning demands such an emphasis on new ; and the prolongation of the word so as to supply the missing rhythm, which is what Abbott intends, gives a sound perilously near the characteristic cry of a cat." " In the distinct enunciation of SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 87 Bottom. I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas. But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me : I have an exposition of sleep come upon me. 36 Titania. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. — Fairies, begone, and be all ways away. {^Exeunt Fairies. So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle Gently entwist ; the female ivy so 40 Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. 0, how I love thee ! how I dote on thee ! [They sleep. Enter Puck. Ohei'on. \_AdvanGing'] Welcome, good Eobin. Seest thou this sweet sight ? Her dotage now I do begin to pity ; For, meeting her of late behind the wood, 45 Seeking sweet favors for this hateful fool, I did upbraid her and fall out with her ; For she his hairy temples then had rounded With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers ; And that same dew, which sometime on the buds 50 Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls. Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail. When I had at my pleasure taunted her, And she in mild terms begg'd my patience, 55 'fetch thee,' the time of a syllable is gained." Wright. From all such scansion — " deliver us." — 3H. exposition = disposition [Wright] ? — 38. all ways = in all directions ? — The folio has ' alwaies.' — 39. woodbine . . . honeysuckle. There has been long and laborious discussion of this ; for the two plants have commonly been regarded as one. " The con- sensus of opinion inclines to Gilford's interpretation of woodbine " {i.e. as the 'blue bindweed,' the 'great convolvulus']. Furness. In Ben Jon- son's Vision of Delight, quoted by Furness from Gilford, we read, " How the blue bindweed doth itself infold with honeysuckle," etc. Gifford adds, "In many of our counties the woodbine is still the name for the 'great convolvulus.'" — 'Woodbine' sounds better than 'bindweed'? The names are different in the United States ? — A. S. loudehinde ; wuchi, wood; fetncZcm, to bind.— 40-41. female ivy . . . elm. Why 'female'? " They led the vine to wed her elm; she, spoused, about him twines Her marriageable arms." Pa7\ Lost, v, 215-217.— 44. dotage = senility ? imbecility ? silly affection ? over-fondness ? — Old Du. doten, to mope ; dut, anap, sleep; Icel.c?oi^a, to nod with sleep. Skeat. — 46. favors ^presents, love tokens [Schmidt]? II, i, 12. — 51. orient. See our ed. 1st 2 books Pa7\ Lost, i, 546; also Par. Lost, v, 2.— pearls. II, i, 15; our ed. of Tempest, I, ii, 155.— 55. patience. Syl.? I, 1, 152; Abbott, 479.-63. 88 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT IV. I then did ask of her her changeling child ; Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent To bear him to my bower in fairy-land. And now I have the boy, I will undo This hateful imperfection of her eyes : 60 And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp From off the head of this Athenian swain ; That, he awaking when the other do, May all to Athens back again repair. And think no more of this night's accidents 65 But as the fierce vexation of a dream. But first I will release the fairy queen. Be as thou wast wont to be-, See as thou wast wont to see : Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower 70 Hath such force and blessed power. ]N"ow, my Titania ; wake you, my sweet queen. Titania. My Oberon ! what visions have I seen ! Methought I was enamour'd of an ass. Oberon. There lies your love. Titania. How came these things to pass ? 0, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now ! 76 Oberon. Silence awhile. — Eobin, take off this head. — Titania, music call ; and strike more dead Than common sleep of all these five the sense. Titania. Music, ho ! music, such as charmeth sleep ! 80 \_Music, still. Puck. Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own fool's eyes peep. Oberon. Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands with me, other. Plu.? Ahhott 12; Mer. of Ven., I, i, 54.-64. may all = all may, or they all may [Abbott, 399] ? — 66. fierce. Gr. 0ryp, tlier, a wild animal; Lat. ferus, O. F. Jiers, Fr. fier, wild.— 68. Be as. The folios insert ' thou' between be and as. — 70. Dian's bud = bud of the Agnus Castus or Chaste Tree [Steevens]? more probably a product of Shake- speare's imagination [Wright] ? See Chaucer's The Flower and the Leaf, 472-475.— o'er. Thirlby suggested this for the or of the early editions. All concur. — Cupid's flower. II, i, 163.-76-77. his . . . this. In some of the early editions these words are interchanged. — 79. five. Thirlby suggested this for the fine of the quartos and first two folios. Most concur. The five are Demetrius, Lysander, etc. ? — Stage direction. Music still = soft music [Dyce, Staunton, Rolfe] ? music cease [Collier] ? SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, 89 And rock the groiuid whereon these sleepers be. Now thou and I are new in amity, And will to-morrow midnight solemnly 85 Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly, And bless it to all fair posterity. There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity. Fuck Fairy king, attend, and mark : 90 I do hear the morning lark. Oberon. Then, my queen, in silence sad. Trip we after the night's shade : We the globe can compass soon Swifter than the wand'ring moon. 95 Titania. Come, my lord, and in our flight Tell me how it came this night That I sleeping here was found With these mortals on the ground. lExemit. \_Horns winded within. Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and train. Theseus. Go, one of you, find out the forester; 100 For now our observation is perform'd ; And since we have the vaward of the day. My love shall hear the music of my hounds. — Uncouple in the western valley ; let them go ! — Dispatch, I say, and find the forester. — 105 \_Exit an Attendant. — 84. rock the ground. Like a cradle? Wright. — M.o\iQx\Y quotes from Horace, GrafAse, . . . alterno terram, quatiunt pede, the Graces with alternate step shake the ground.— 85. solemnly = ceremoniously [Schmidt]? See on solemn in our ed. of Macbeth, III, i, 14.-87. pos- terity. So the folios. Preferred by White and others to the prosperity of quarto 1. "To Theseus's [Furness will so mark the possessive of ' Theseus '] marriage, the fairies bring present triumph ; but on his house they confer the blessing of a fair posterity." Furness. — 92. sad = grave, serious [Wright]? melancholy ? — A. S. saed, sated; Ger. satt, satiated, weary; Lat. sat, satis, sufficient. — 95. wandering moon. Vergil's errantem lunam. Mneid, i, 742.-101. observation. I, i, 167.— 102. vaward = vanguard ? fore part? early morning? — Lat. ah, from, ante, before, in front; Low Lat, ahante, Fr. avant, in front, before; A. S. weard, Fr. garde, a guard ; Fr. avant garde, advanced guard of an army ; Eng. vanguard. — IQ^. Halliwell calls attention to Theseus' penchant for hunting as set forth in Chaucer's Knights Tale. — 10^. uncouple = loose 90 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [ACT IV. We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top, And mark tlie musical confusion Gf hounds and echo in conjunction. Hippolyta. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once, When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear iio With hounds of Sparta : never did I hear Such gallant chiding ; for, besides the groves, The skies, the fountains, every region near Seem all one mutual cry. I never heard So musical a discord, such sweet thunder. 115 Theseus. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, So flew'd, so sanded, and their heads are hung With ears that sweep away the morning dew ; Crook-kneed, and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls ; Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells, 120 Each under each. A cry more tunable Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn, In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly : Judge when you hear. — But, soft ! what nymphs are these ? Egeus. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep ; 125 And this, Lysander ; this Demetrius is ; the hounds? Titus Anclr.,ll,\i,o. — 107-108. confusion . . . conjunc- tion. Syllables ? I, i, 149. — 109. Cadmus. Son of King Agenor of Phoe- nicia, and brother of Europa. Credited with having introduced letters into Greece. Shakes., like Milton, dares to originate myths? Pliny (viii. 83) says there were no bears nor boars in Crete. It was famous for hounds. So Sparta.— 112. chiding. II, i, 142; As You Like It, II, i, 7. Any sense of scolding here? — 114. seem. So the 1st folio. The editors generally change it to seem'd. Is the present more vivid, as if she were again beholding the scene? — 117. flew'd = having large hanging chaps [Schmidt] ? — Flews are the chaps of a deep-mouthed hound, which bag downwards, a 'flew' being origin, a drag-net." Moherly. — sanded = marked with small spots [Johnson] ? of a sandy color [Steevens, Schmidt, Dyce, etc.]? — 118. dew-lapped. II, i, 50.-119. Thessalian. Xeno- phon in his treatise on Hunting tells us that the gods taught the art to the Thessalian centaur Chiron, and he to Theseus. — Thessaly in the N.E. of Greece, S. of Macedonia, E. of Epirus, was noted for its pasturage, its horses and herds. — 120. slow. " Fast hounds would run down the chase too soon"? l/o6eW2/. — match'd in mouth like bells. "In Shake- speare's day the greatest attention was paid to the musical quality of the cry. It was a ruling consideration in the formation of a pack, that it should possess the musical fullness and strength of a perfect canine quire. And hounds of good voice were selected and arranged in the hunting chorus on the same general principles that govern the formation of any other more articulate choir." Baynes. Addison's Sir Roger de Coverley, it will be remembered, sent back a hound that a friend had presented him: "The dog he had sent was indeed a most excellent bass, but at present lie only wanted a counter-tenor." — 124. soft = hold? not so fast? SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 91 This Helena, old Nedar's Helena : I wonder of their being here together. Theseus. No doubt they rose up early to observe The rite of May, and, hearing our intent, 130 Came here in grace of our solemnity. — But speak, Egeus ; is not this the day That Hermia should give answer of her choice ? Egeus. It is, my lord. 134 Theseus. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns. \_Horns and shout ivithin. Lysander, Demetrius, Helena, and Hermia, tcake and start up. Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past : Begin these wood birds but to couple now ? Lysander. Pardon, my lord. Theseus. I pray you all, stand up. I know you two are rival enemies : How comes this gentle concord in the world, 140 That hatred is so far from jealousy, To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity ? Lysander. My lord, I shall reply amazedly, Half sleep, half waking : but as yet, I swear, I cannot truly say how I came here ; 145 But, as I think, — for truly would I speak. And now I do bethink me, so it is, — I came with Hermia hither : our intent Was to be gone from Athens, where we might be Without the peril of th' Athenian law — 150 Often so in Shakes. Hamlet, I, v, 58. — 128. wonder of. Ill, i, 39; Abbott, 174. — 130. rite of May. I, i, 167. — 131. grace = honor ? So in Hamlet, 1, ii, 124. —132. Egeus (E-ge'us). — 134. that = in which? A. Y. L. I., Ill, ii, 166: Genesis, ii, 17; Abbott, 284.-136. St. Valentine. Supposed to have suffered martyrdom under the emperor Claudius (Marcus Aurelius) , 270 a.d. " Shakes, knew quite as well as we know that Theseus lived long before St. Valentine." Furness. " Most men are of the opinion that this day [Feb. 14] every bird doth chuse her mate for theyeare." Wither's Epithalamia, 1633. — 137. but . . . now = but now? Abbott, 129.— 141, 142. so far ... to sleep = so far . . . as to sleep? Abbott, 281. — jealousy = being jealous [Moberly] ? — 144. half sleep = half sleeping [Schmidt, Rolf e] ? "I am inclined to think that 'sleep' and 'waking' are here substantives and are loosely connected with the next verb ' reply ' " [Wright, Furness]? — 149. w^here = wherever ? anywhere? to some place in which ? — might be. So all the early editions, except quarto 1, which omits *be.' "I prefer to retain the 'be' notwithstanding its rhythmical superfluity." Furness. — 150. without = beyond [Staun- 92 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [ACT IV. Egeus. Enough, enough, my lord ; you have enough : I beg the law, the law, upon his head. They would have stolen away ; they would, Demetrius, Thereby to have defeated you and me, You of your wife and me of my consent, 155 Of my consent that she should be your wife. Demetrius. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth, Of this their purpose hither to this wood 5 And I in fury hither follow'd them. Fair Helena in fancy following me. 160 But, my good lord, I wot not by what power, — But by some power it is, — my love to Hermia, Melted as [melts] the snow, seems to me now As the remembrance of an idle gaud Which in my childhood I did dote upon ; 165 And all the faith, the virtue of my heart. The object and the pleasure of mine eye, Is only Helena. To her, my lord. Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia : But, like a sickness, did I loathe this food ; 170 But, as in health, come to my natural taste, Now I do wish it, love it, long for it. And will for evermore be true to it. Theseus. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met : Of this discourse we shall hear more anon. 175 Egeus, I will overbear your will ; For in the temple, by and by, with us, ton]? Abbott, 197. — 157. stealth. Ill, ii, 310. — 161. wot. See on III, ii, 422. Properly a preterite used as a present. Wright. — 163. melted, etc. Is a syllable needed to make the line rhythmical? Pope read "Is melted as," etc.; Capell, White and others, 'Melted as doth the snow'; Stevens, 'Melted as is,' etc.; Keightley, 'Melted e'en as'; Staunton, ' All melted as,' etc. ; Kinnear, ' Melted as thaws,' etc. ; Schmidt, ' So melted as,' or ' Being melted as,' etc.; Bulloch (quoted by Furness), 'Immaculate as,' etc. Furness says, " I prefer Dyce's 'Melted as melts ' .* it is smooth, and the iteration may possibly have led to the sophistication." Abbott, 486, suggests the prolongation of Melt ; but such drawling is intolerable to the average ear. — 164. gavid. See on I, i, 33. — 170. like a. Steevens, at Furness' suggestion, changed a to in. Staunton retains a. The rest, except Schmidt, who thinks ' sickness ' is for ' sick person,' use ^?^. To us the change seems unnecessary, and a step proseioard. Schmidt {Shakes. Lexicon, pp. 1421-1423) gives more than sixty illustrations of Shakespeare's use of the abstract for the concrete, and remarks that " no poet has been nearly so bold in this poetic license as Shakespeare." It shows the vividness of Shakespeare's imagination SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 93 These couples shall eternally be knit : And, for the morning now is something worn, Our purpos'cl hunting shall be set aside. 180 Away with us to Athens'; three and three. We'll hold a feast in great solemnity. — Come, Hippolyta. [Exeunt Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and train. Demetrius. These things seem small and undistinguishable. Like far-off mountains turned into clouds. 185 Hermia. Methinks I see these things with parted eye. When everything seems double. Helena. So methinks : And I have found Demetrius, like a jewel. Mine own, and not mine own. [Are you sure Demetrius. That we are awake ?] It seems to me 190 That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think The duke was here, and bid us follow him ? Hermia. Yes ; and my father. Helena. And Hippolyta. Ly Sander. And he did bid us follow to the temple. Demetrius. Why, then, we are awake : let's follow him ; And by the way let us recount our dreams. [^Exeunt. Bottom. [^Aiuaking'] When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer: my next is, ^ Most fair Pyramus.' — Heigh-ho! — Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout, the tinker ! Starveling ! God's my life, stolen hence, and left me asleep ! I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was : man is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream. Me- vitalizing and personifying. — 178. knit. I, i, 172 ; II, ii, 47. — 179. for = because? on the ground that? — 181, 182. Halliwell quotes from Chau- cer's Knight's Tale (2702-2704) : " Duk Theseus, and al his companye, Is comen horn to Athenes his cite, With alle blys and gret solempnite." — 188. jevrel. Not that Demetrius was like a jewel; but found as one finds by accident a jewel, and knows not whether it can be retained. Malone. — 189. mine own, and not mine oion. Sense of insecurity? can hardly believe in her sudden good fortune? — are you sure, etc. The bracketed words are not in the folio. Are they needed? Effect on the metre? — 193. yea. Yea answers here a question framed in the negative. Sir Thomas More's rule would require it to be ' yes.' Wright. 197. cue. See III, i, 67 ; our Hamlet, II, ii, 545. —200. God's my life. See our As You Like It, III, v, 43. — 203. go about. "Why do you 94 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [act IV, thought I was — there is no man can tell what. Methought I was, — and methought I had, — but man is but a patched fool, if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream : it shall be called Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom ; and I will sing it in the latter end of a play, before the duke : perad- venture, to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it at her death. lExit. Scene II. Athens. Quince^s House. Enter Quince, Flute, Snout, and Starveling. Quince. Have you sent to Bottom's house ? is he come home yet ? Starveling. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is transported. Flute. If he come not, then the play is marred : it goes not forward, doth it ? Quince. It is not possible : you have not a man in all Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he. Flute. No, he hath simply the best wit of any handi- craft man in Athens. lo Quince. Yea, and the best person too ; and he is a very paramour for a sweet voice. go about to recover the wind of me?" Our Hamlet, III, ii, 322. — 205. patched = paltry [Schmidt]? motley? — "In a Flemish picture of the sixteenth century . . . tliere is a procession of masquers and mum- mers, led by a fool or jester, Avhose dress is covered with many-colored coarse patches." Staunton (describing a picture he had seen). — See note in our Mer.-of Ven., II, v, 45.— 206. eye . . . ear, etc. See 1 Corinth., ii, 9. "This kind of humor [mistaking words] was so very common, it is by no means necessary to consider (.sic) that Shakespeare intended to parody Scripture." Halliwell. — 210. ballad. Low Lat. ballare, to dance ; Ital. ballata, a dancing song. —212. a play. A was sometimes colloquial for our? — 213. lier = Thisbe's? — Theobald suggested that at her is a copyist's blunder for after. Staunton pronounces Theobald's conjecture extremoly plausible ; W. A. Wright says it is ingenious ; Furness declares it very surely right in his opinion ; Hudson adopts it in his text. After (very vulgar arter !) death would mean after his stage death in the play? Scene II. 4. transported = removed to the next world, killed [Schmidt] ? transformed or metamorphosed [Hudson, Wright, Furness] ? carried off [Rolfe] ? See Quince's 'translated,' III, i, 108. —8. dis- charge. I, li, 81.— 9. best wit of any. This 'confusion of construe- SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 95 Flute. You must say ' paragon : ' a paramour is, God bless us, a thing of naught. Enter Snug. Snug. Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and there is two or three lords and ladies more married. If our sport had gone forward, we had all been made men. 17 Flute. 0, sweet bully Bottom ! Thus hath he lost six- pence a day during his life ; he could not have scaped six- pence a day : an the duke had not given him sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged ; he would have deserved it : sixpence a day in Pyramus, or nothing. 22 Enter Bottom. Bottom. Where are these lads ? where are these hearts ? Quince. Bottom ! — most courageous day ! most happy hour ! Bottom. Masters, I am to discourse wonders : but ask me not what; for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I will tell you everything, right as it fell out. Quince. Let us hear, sweet Bottom. 29 Bottom. Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that the duke hath dined. Get your apparel together, good strings to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps ; meet presently at the palace ; every man look o'er his part ; for the short and the long is, our play is preferred. In any case, let Thisby have clean linen ; and let not him that plays the lion pare his nails, for they shall hang out for the lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath ; and I do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet comedy. No more words : away ! go, away ! [Exeunt. tion ' is constantly heard. E.g. " The Eagle has the largest circulation of any evening paper." Abbott, 409. — 13. paragon. See our Hamlet, II, ii, 302.— is two. Abbott, 335. 14. naught. Hamlet, III, ii, 130.— 17. made = greatly prospered? with fortunes made? See in Tempest, II, ii, 30, "Any strange beast there makes a man." Twelfth N., II, V, 142. — 19. scaped. See our Mer. of Yen., Ill, ii, 265. — 21. I'll be hanged. Many of our colloquialisms and slang terms can be traced to Shakespeare. — 23. hearts. Tempest, I, i, 5.-30. of me = about me? from me ? — Abbott, 165, 166. — 33. strings. For fastening ? — pumps = light shoes, often worn with ornamental ribbons in the shape of flowers [Schmidt]? From pomp in the sense of ornament. Skeat. — 34. pre- ferred = recommended [Hudson] ? offered for acceptance [Wright] ? Mer. of Yen,, II, ii, 131; our Jul Cses., Ill, i, 28. 96 A MIDSUMMER I^IGHT^S DREAM. [ACT V. ACT V. Scene I. Athens. The Palace of Theseus. Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate, Lords, and Attendants. Hippolyta. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of. Theseus. More strange than true : I never may believe These antique fables, nor these fairy toys. Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend 6 More than cool reason ever comprehends. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact : One sees more devils than vast hell can hold ; That is the madman : the lover, all as frantic, 10 Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt : The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling. Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven ; And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen 15 Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing ACT V, Scene I. 2. may = can? Ahhott, 307. "The conduct of the play falsifies the Duke's assertions. Hippolyta having observed to him, * 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of,' he replies, paying no attentio7i, be it observed, to the fact that Hippolyta is speaking from the testimony of four persons ; a very artful stroke on the part of Shake- speare at the sceptics." i?q;fe, quoted by Furness. — 3. antique. See our Macbeth, IV, i, 130. — toys = trifles ? playthings. Aryan duk, as in Lat. duc-ere, to draw, used in the special sense of pulling off clothes. Akin to toio and tug. Du. tool, tuig ; Ger. zeug, stuff, trifles, trash. Skeat, Wore. — 4. seething. A. S. seodan, to hoil. Tempest, Y, i, 59, 60; Mac- beth, II, i, 39. " Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) echoes Shake- speare, alleging that drunkards 'seethe their brains in ale.' — 5. such . . . that. Abbott, 279. — 8. compact, com, for cwm, with, together. Root PAK, to seize, bind, grasp ; Lat, pajigere, pactum, to fasten, plant ; O. F. compacte, joined together. Skeat. — Accent? — 10. After 'is,' Wright, Rolfe, and Moberly insert a comma. Hudson wisely omits it? — 11. Hel- en's. See our As You Like It, III, ii, 135, — of Egypt = of a gypsy SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 97 A local habitation and a name. Such tricks hath strong imagination, That, if it would but apprehend some joy, It comprehends some bringer of that joy ; 20 Or in the night, imagining some fear. How easy is a bush supposed a bear ! Hippolyta. But all the story of the night told over, And all their minds transfigur'd so together, More witnesseth than fancy's images, 25 And grows to something of great constancy, But, howsoever, strange and admirable. Theseus. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth. Enter Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helexa. Joy, gentle friends ! joy and fresh days of love Accompany your hearts ! Lysander. More than to us 30 Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed ! [Steevens] ? — Egyptian? African? — 19. apprehend. Lat. ad, to; pre-, Lat. prae, before; Lat. root, hencl, for hed, cognate with get ;fr. root GHAD, to grasp, seize; Lat. apprehendere, to lay hold of. — 20. compre- hends,! etc. Apprehend denotes the laying hold of a thing mentally, so as to understand it clearly, at least in part. Comprehend denotes the embracing or understanding it in all its compass and extent." Int. Diet. — 21. imagining = in the case of one imagining ? Ahhott/dlS. fear — fearful thing ? — Abstract for concrete ? IV, i, 170.-25. more witness- eth = seems to show that there is more [Moberly] ? testifies that there is more ? — 26. constancy = consistency, stability, certainty [Johnson] ? reality [Wright]? congruity [Hudson]? — 27. howsoever, etc. = any- how, it is strange and wonderful [J. Hunter] ? howsoe'er it be, in any case [Abbott, 47] ? at all events [Hudson] ? — admirable = (in its proper Lat. sense) wonderful [Hudson] ? — strange = marvellous (used by Shakespeare with forcible and extensive meaning) [Cowdeu-Clarkes] ? — 30. more = may more joy, etc. ? 1 Moberl3% quoting ' comprehends some bringer of that joy,' happily remarks, "This maybe said to be mythology in a nutshell," and quotes Wordsworth's Exctor- Sion, p. 146, as follows : " The traveller slaked His thirst from rill or gushing fount, and thanked The iSTaiad. Sunbeams upon distant hills, Ghding apace, with shadows in their train, Might with small help from fancy be transformed Into fleet Oreads, sporting visibly. The Zephyrs fanning, as they passed, their wings. Lacked not for love fair objects that they wooed With gentle whisper. Withered boughs grotesque, Stripped of their leaves and twigs by hoary age . . . These were the lurking satyrs, a wild brood," etc. 98 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT ^S DREAM. [ACT Y. Theseus. Come now ; what masques, what dances shall we have Between our after-supper and bed-time ? Where is our usual manager of mirth ? What revels are in hand ? Is there no play ? Call Philostrate. Pliilostrate. Here, mighty Theseus. Theseus. Say, what abridgment have you for this evening ? What masque ? what music ? How shall we beguile 40 The lazy time, if not with some delight ? Philostrate. There is a brief how many sports are ripe : Make choice of which your highness will see first. \_Oivmg a paper. Lysander. ' The battle with the Centaurs, to he sung By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.' 45 Theseus. We'll none of that : that have I told my love, In glory of my kinsman Hercules. 33. after-supper— a dessert [Staunton] ? later or second supper [NaresJ? the time after supper [Schmidt] ? rear-supper, a banquet so called, which was taken after the meal [Wright]? — 38. Philostrate. Egeus in the folio. Philostrate was master of the revels. See Dramatis Personse, and I, i, 11. — 39. abridgment = that which makes the time seem short . . . pastime, diversion, amusement [Zupitza, 1885, quoted by FurnessJ ? — See our ed. of Hamlet, II, ii, 408. — 42. brief = short account, enumeration [Steevens] ? — ripe = ready for representation [Wright]? — 43. of which. Abbott, 179. 44. The quartos give all the lines, 45-60, to Theseus. In the folios Lysan- der is made to read from the brief, and Theseus comments upon each descriptive title as read by Lysander. This is more dramatic, and more in accordance with the dignity of Theseus. Accordingly, although Lysan- der is no courtier, we follow Furness, w4io is quite sure that folio 1 was printed from a stage copy. Verplanck suggests that the arrangement in folio 1 was an afterthought to add to the theatrical effect. — 45. battle with the centaurs. Pirithous, King of the Lapithae in Thessaly, was the son of Zeus. Having obtained the hand of Hippodamia, daughter of the King of Argos, he invited the Lapithae and the Centaui'S (half man, half horse, as the American aborigines imagined the Spanish horsemen to be!) to the wedding. The feast became a fight. Heated by wine, the Centaurs attempted to carry off Hippodamia and the other women. Theseus assisted Pirithous. The battle was celebrated in song, legend, and art. Says old Nestor in Homer's Iliad (i, 262-268), "I never since saw, nor am I like to see again, such men as Pirithous and Dryas, shep- herd of the peoples, and Caeneus, and Exadius, and godlike Polyphemus, and Theseus, son of ^geus, like the immortals. Mightiest, indeed, were they reared up of earth-born men; mightiest, indeed, they were, and they fought with the mightiest, with Centaurs of the mountain caves, and terribly slew them." Shakespeare may have drawn from this, or from Ovid's Metamorphoses, book xii. — 47. in glory, etc. Shakes, has given to Theseus the attributes of a real hero, amongst which modesty is in- cluded. He has attributed the glory to his kinsman Hercules." Knight, SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 99 Ly Sander. ' The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals, Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.' Theseus. That is an old device ; and it was play'd 50 When I from Thebes came last a conqueror. Lysander. ' The thrice three Muses mourning for the death Of Learning, late deceased in beggary.' Theseus. That is some satire, keen and criticalj Kot sorting with a nuptial ceremony. 55 Lysander. ^ A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.' Theseus. Merry and tragical ! Tedious and brief ! That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow. How shall we find the concord of this discord ? 60 — 48. Bacchanals. The Thracian women, worshippers of Bacchus, god of wine, in their drunken rage at Orpheus, tore him in pieces, because, absorbed in grief at the loss of his wife Eurydice, he cared nothing for them. [See note in our ed. of Milton's Lycidas, on lines 58-63.] They threw his head into the river. " By the rout that made the hideous roar His gory visage down the stream was sent, Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore." — 52. muses. These nine daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne (Memory) were supposed to preside over music, song, poetry, and the fine arts: Calliope, over heroic poetry, eloquence, rhetoric; Clio, history; ErSto, love poetry, marriage; Euterpe, music, lyric poetry; Melpomene, trag- edy; Polymnia, sacred poetry, oratory, myths, and fables; Terpsichore, choral dance and song; Thalia (not Thalia), comedy, burlesque, pastoral poetry; Urania, mathematics, astronomy, astrology. — 53. Learning, etc. Warburton (1747) first sugg-ested that here is a reference to Spen- ser's Teares of the Muses (pub. in 1591) ; Steeveus (1778) remarked that it might refer to Spenser's distressing circumstances and death in 1599; Knight (1840) argued that Robert Greene's death in extreme poverty in 1592 was meant. The majority incline, with W. A. Wright (1877), to think that Spenser's poem at least suggested to Shakespeare a title for the piece submitted to Theseus. See /'Mr^iess, pp. 256-259. — 54. critical = censorious [Wright, Schmidt, Hudson, etc.]? — Root skar, to separate; whence 'shear,' 'skill,' etc.; Gr. Kpiveiv, krinein, to separate; to judge; KptTJj?, krites, a judge ; Kpn-qpiov, kriterion, a test ; /cpiriKo?, kritikos, critical. — "I am nothing, if not critical," says lago, Othello, II, i, 118. — 66. Pyra- mus, etc. I, ii, 10, et seq. — 59. strange snow=unnatural, anomalous, pro- digious snow [Cowden-Clarkes] ? The antithesis, memj and tragical, hot ice, etc., have set the editors at work to find some antithesis to snoio. Thus the Collier MS. has 'seething snow'; Upton and Capell suggest 'black snow'; Staunton and Dyce, ' swarthy snow ' ; Haumer 'scorching snow'; Bailey, Keightley, Elze, 'sable snow'; Bailey again, 'orange (or raven, or azure) snow ' ; Herr, ' sooty snow ' ; Wetherell, ' wind-restrain- ing snow ' ; Nicholson, ' staining snow ' ; Joicey, ' flaming snow ' ; Orger, •fiery snow'; Ebsworth, 'scalding snow'; Perring, 'jet snow.' Pope omits the line ; Warburton reads ' strange shew.' There is no law against carrying this guess-work still further ! -—"wondrous. Syllables ? Abbott-^ 100 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DUE AM. [ACT V. Philostrate. A play there is, my lord, some ten words long, Which, is as brief as I have known a play ; But by ten words, my lord, it is too long, Which makes it tedious -, for in all the play There is not one word apt, one player fitted. 65 And tragical, my noble lord, it is ; For Pyramus therein doth kill himself : Which, when I saw rehears'd, I must confess, Made mine eyes water ; but more merry tears The passion of loud laughter never shed. 70 Theseus. What are they that do play it ? Philostrate. Hard-handed men that work in Athens here. Which never labor' d in their minds till now ; And now have toil'd their unbreath'd memories With this same play, against your nuptial. 75 Theseus. And we will hear it. Philostrate. No, my noble lord; It is not for you : I have heard it over. And it is nothing, nothing in the world, Unless you can find sport in their intents, Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain, 80 To do you service. Theseus. I will hear that play ; For never anything can be amiss. When simpleness and duty tender it. Go, bring them in : and take your places, ladies. [Exit Philostrate. Hippolyta. I love not to see wretchedness o'ercharg'd 85 And duty in his service perishing. Theseus. Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing. 477. — 65. fitted. I, ii, 57. — 74. unbreath'd = unexercised, unpracticed [Schmidt]? untrained [Wright]? See our As You Like It, I, ii, 199; Hamlet, V, ii, 167. —75. nuptial. I, i, 125 ; Tempest, V, i, 308. —76. And = yes: and? See As You Like It, III, ii, 169; Ahhott, 97.-79. ''Their ' intents ' or endeavors have been strained to the utmost to learn their parts, which they have conned or studied with cruel pain." Wright. ^^ Intents here, as the subject of the two verbs, 'stretched' and 'conned,' is used both for endeavor and the object of endeavor, by a license which other writers than Shakespeare have assumed." R. G. White. Furness concurs with White, and cites, as a parallel to ' extremely stretch'd,' the words ' rack'd to the uttermost ' in Mer. of Ven., I, ii, 181. — 82, 83. In these and the following lines to 105, we surely ' hear the voice of Shakespeare, plead- ing the cause of patient effort against the scorn of a hard and narrow dilettantism . . . The greatest genius was one who could show most sympathy with incompleteness and failure.' Julia Wedgewood, 1890, SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. lOl Hippolyta. He says they can do nothing in this kind. Theseus. The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing. Our sport shall be to take what they mistake : 90 And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect Takes it in might, not merit. Where I have come, great clerks have purposed To greet me with premeditated welcomes ; Where I have seen them shiver and look pale, 95 Make periods in the midst of sentences. Throttle their practic'd accent in their fears. And in conclusion dumbly have broke off, ISTot paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet. Out of this silence yet I pick'd a welcome ; lOO And in the modesty of fearful duty I read as much as from the rattling tongue Of saucy and audacious eloquence. Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity In least speak most, to my capacity. 105 Enter Philostrate. Philostrate. So please your grace, the Prologue is address'd. Theseus. Let him approach. [Flourish of trumpets. quoted by Furness. — 88, 89. kind . . . kinder. Verbal play?— Words are very 'much alive in Shakes. Thus in Cymbeline, III, iii, 7, 8, rock suggests hardly. "Hail, thou fair heaven! We house in the rock, yet use thee not so hardly," etc. — so take and mistake in the next line; also note on line 123. — 90. take, etc. = accept with pleasure even their blunder- ing attempts [Steevens] ? — 91, 92. noble respect, etc. = noble respect " accommodates its judgment to the abilities of the performers, not to the worth of the performance [Schmidt] ? AVright substantially concurs with Schmidt. Furness remarks, "The difficulty here has arisen, I think, in taking might in the sense of poiver, ability, rather than in the sense of loill ; Kenrick states the meaning concisely when he says it is about the same as ' taking the will for the deed.' " — 93. clerks. Gr. /cAr)po?, kleros, a lot, portion, inheritance ; A. S. clerc, a priest. In ecclesiastical writers the 'clergy' were so called because the Lord was their inheritance. As learning was mostly confined to the clergy, the word ' clerk ' came to mean a scholar. — What is said here by Theseus is supposed by Blakeway to allude to "what happened at AVarwick, Avhere the recorder, being to address the Queen (Elizabeth), was so confounded by the dignity of her presence as to be unable to proceed with his speech"; whereat "her Majesty was very well pleased." Quoted by Furness. So in Pericles, Act V, Prologue, 5, " Deep clerks she dumbs." — 96. periods. A trace of the schoolmaster? See on 'comma,' in our ed. of Hamlet, V, ii, 42. — 98. Ellipsis? Abbott, 399. — 102. fearful = full of fear? inspiring fear? Line 21 ; Jul. Cses., V, i, 10. — 106. to my capacity = as far as I am able to understand [Wright]? in my opinion [Schmidt]? — 107. address'd = 102 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT V. Enter Quince as the Prologue. Prologue. If we offend, it is our good will. That you should think, we come not to offend, But with good will. To show our simple skill, 110 That is the true beginning of our end. Consider then we come but in despite. We do not come as minding to content you. Our true intent is. All for your delight We are not here. That you should here repent you. The actors are at hand, and by their show You shall know all that you are like to know. Theseus. This fellow doth not stand upon points. 118 Ly Sander. He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt ; he knows not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not enough to speak, but to speak true. Hippolyta. Indeed he hath played on his prologue like a child on a recorder ; a sound, but not in government. Theseus. His speech was like a tangled chain ; nothing impaired, but all disordered. Who is next? 125 ready? See in our Jul. Cses., Ill, i, 29. — 109. Prologue. "From the Prologue to Beaumont and Fletcher's Woman Hater, 1607, we learn that it was, even at that date, customary for the person who delivered that portion of the performance, to be furnished with a garland of bay, as well as with a black velvet cloak . . . The bay was the emblem of authorship, and the use of this arose out of the custom for the author or a person rep- resenting him, to speak the prologue." Collier, quoted by Furness. — The reader will do Avell to re-punctuate this prologue so as to show the true meaning. " The stage trick," says Moberly, " is like that in the old comedy (1553) of Roister Doister (from Avhich Shakespeare took many hints), where the hero's love-letter begins — " Sweet Mistress, where as I love thee nothing at all, Kegarding your substance and riches chief of all ; For your personage, beauty, demeanor, and wit, I commend me unto you never a whit ; sorry," etc. — 118. doth not stand upon points = is not over scrupulous [Schmidt] ? is not very particular [Wright] ? does not observe punctuation points? — points = punctilios ? punctuation marks ? — 120. stop. A term in horse- manship [Wright] ? a punctuation mark ? — 123. recorder = wind instru- ment like a flageolet? See our ed. of first two books Par. Lost, i, 551; Hamlet, III, ii, 321. Shakes, twice uses 'record' of the nightingale's singing. Perhaps akin to accord ; Lat. ad, to ; cor, cord-is, the Jieart ; and influenced in meaning by cliord, musical string ; Gr. xopH, chorde, Lat. chorda, gut, as cat-gut. — "To record anciently signified to modulate." Singer. — 123. government. " Govern these ventages [of the recorder] with your fingers and thumb; " our Hamlet, III, ii, 333. — Note the tran- sition of ideas, word suggesting word, the mind leaping from one sense to another — * points,' ' colt/ ' stop,' ' recorder,' ' government.' See note on lines 88, 89 ; also our ^5 Yoic L. I., II, vii, 44. — 125. next. Here the old SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. 103 Tawyer with a trumpet before them. Enter Pyeamus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion. Prologue. Gentles, perchance yoii wonder at this show ; But wonder on, till truth make all things plain. This man is Pyramus, if you would know ; This beauteous lady Thisby is certain. This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present 130 Wall, that vile wall which did these lovers sunder ; And through Wall's chink, poor souls, they are content To whisper ; at the which let no man wonder. This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn, Presenteth Moonshine ; for, if you will know, 135 By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo. This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name. The trusty Thisby, coming first by night. Did scare away, or rather did affright ; 140 And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall, Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain. Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall. And finds his trusty Thisby 's mantle slain : Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade, 145 He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breast ; And Thisby tarrying in mulberry shade. His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest, Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain. At large discourse, while here they do remain. 150 [^Exeunt Prologue, Pyramus, Thisbe, Lion, and Moonshine. Theseus. I wonder if the lion be to speak. Demetrius. No wonder, my lord : one lion may, when many asses do. stage direction occurs, "Tawyer with a Trumpet," etc. Halliwell dis- covered, says Furness, that " Tawyer was a subordinate in the pay of Hemings," and buried at St, Savior's in Southwark in June, 1625. — 134. man, with lanthorn, etc. See III, i, 52 ; our Temjjest, II, ii, 126. — 138. grisly. See our ed. of Lady of the Lake, I, xxxiv, 704, p. 42. —hight = is called? A. S. hataji, Goth, haitan, Ger. heissen, to be called. — 141. fall = drop? So in As You Like It, III, v, 5 ; Jul. Cms., IV, ii, 26, etc. — 144. trusty. Not in folio 1 ; supplied from the quartos : the other folios have gentle. Better? — 14-5, 146. Excessive alliteration ridiculed here? — See on II, i, 161; our Macbeth, III, ii, 23; IV, i, 10; Corson's 104 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT 'S DREAM. [act V. Wall. In this same interlude it doth befall That I, one Snout by name, present a wall ; And such a wall, as I would have you think, 155 That had in it a crannied hole or chink, Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby, Did whisper often very secretly. This loam, this rough-cast, and this stone, doth show That I am that same wall ; the truth is so : 160 And this the cranny is, right and sinister, Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper. Theseus. Would you desire lime and hair to speak better ? Demetrius. It is tlie wittiest partition that ever I heard discourse, my lord. 105 Enter Pyramus. Theseus. Pyramus draws near the wall : silence ! Pyramus. grim-look'd night! night with hue so black! night, which ever art when day is not I O night, night ! alack, alack, alack, 1 fear my Thisby's promise is forgot ! 170 And thou, wall, sweet, lovely wall. That stand'st between her father's ground and mine ! Thou wall, wall, sweet and lovely wall. Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne ! [TFa/^ holds up his fingers. Thanks, courteous wall : Jove shield thee well for this ! 175 But what see I ? No Thisby do I see. O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss ! Curst be thy stones for thus deceiving me ! Theseus. The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again. I80 Pyramus. No, in truth, sir, he should not. '^ Deceiving Primer of English Verse, pp. 9-18. — 154. Snout. So the folio. The quartos have Flute. But see I, ii, 36. — 156. crannied. Golding's trans- lation of Ovid, from which Shakespeare is supposed to have drawn the story, has the line (in iv) , " The wall that parted house from house had riuen therein a cranie." 162. sinister = left. The meaning inauspicious is a Greek notion, as the Greek augurs faced north and had the unlucky quarter, the west, on the left hand. — 167. grim-look'd. Abbott, 374. — 174. eyne. I, i, 242, SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'' S DREAM. 105 me " is Thisby's cue : she is to enter now, and I am to spy her through the wall. You shall see, it will fall pat as I told you. Yonder she comes. 184 Enter Thisbe. Thisbe. wall, full often hast thou heard my moans, Eor parting my fair Pyramus and me ! My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones. Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee. Pyramus. I see a voice : now will I to the chink, To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face. 190 Thisby! Tliisbe. My love thou art, my love I think. Pyramus. Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace; And, like Limander, am I trusty still. TJiisbe. And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill. Pyramus. Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true. TJiisbe. As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you. Pyramus. 0, kiss me through the hole of this vile Avail ! Thisbe. I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all. Pyramus. Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straight- way ? Thisbe. Tide life, tide death, I come without delay. 200 \_Exeunt Pyramus and Thisbe. Wall. Thus have I, Wall, my part discha,rged so ; And, being done, thus Wall away doth go. \_Exit. Theseus. Now is the moral down between the two neighbors. Demetrius. No remedy, my lord, when walls are so will- ful to hear without warning. 206 — 183. pat. See on III, i, 2.— 188. up in thee. Instead of this the quartos have noio again, a variation showing " that the copy of 2d quarto . . . furnished as copy to the printers of folio 1, had been corrected^ by Shakespeare or some one else in his theatre. White. — 189. I see a voice, etc. IV, i, 206. — 193-199. Limander for Leander {As You L. I., IV, i, 90, 95) ; Helen for Hero ; Shafalus, Cephalus (III, ii, 389) ; Procrus, Pro- cris; Ninny, Ninus (III, i, 88). For Cephalus and his wife Procris (or Procne), and their ill-starred marriage, see Class Diet. — 200. tide. Root DA, to divide ; A. S. tid (fr. same root as A. S. tima, time), a division of time, hour; tidan, ge-tidan, to happen; hence betide. — 203. moral. So the folio. Many are the explanations and emendations of this word, none of them quite satisfactory. Furness is inclined to think White's explanation best; viz. that in moral, mo-ral, moo-ral, mure-all (Lat. murus, a wall; mwre is wall in 2 Henry IV, IV, iv, 119), there is a pun, now lost. —206. hear without warning. "Walls have earsl" "A 106 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT V. Hippolyta. This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard. Theseus. The best in this kind are but shadows ; and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them. Hippolyta. It must be your imagination then, and not theirs. Theseus. If we imagine no worse of them than they of themselves, they may pass for excellent men. Here come two noble beasts, in a man and a lion. 214 Enter Lion and Moonshine. Lion. You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor, May now perchance both quake and tremble here, When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar. Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am A lion fell, nor else no lion's dam ; 220 For, if I should as lion come in strife Into this place, 'twere pity on my life. Theseus. A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience. Demetrius. The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I saw. Lysander. This lion is a very fox for his valor. Theseus. True ; and a goose for his discretion. Demetrius. Not so, my lord; for his valor cannot carry his discretion ; and the fox carries the goose. Theseus. His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valor ; for the goose carries not the fox. It is well : leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to the moon. 232 Moonshine. This lanthorn doth the horned moon present ; — Demetrius. He should have worn the horns on his head. between almost any two neighbors would soon be doivn, were it to exercise this faculty, without previous learning." Farmer, approved by Furness. —208, 20i). The best, etc. A pithy sentence to be ' chewed and digested.' — 214. beasts, in a =:= beasts in the character of [Wright] ? We follow the punctuation of all the early editions. Many make the comma follow i/?,. — man. Theobald changed this to moon; but Harness re- marks, " Theseus saw merely a man with a lantern, and could not possi- bly conceive that he was to ^disfigure moonshine.' " — 220. fell. A. S. f'el, fierce, dire; Dan. fgsl, hideous, grim, horrid. Skeat. Macbeth, IV, ii^70.— 224. best . . . beast. Verbal play? White says they were pro- nounced alike. But — ? — See note in our Tempest, III, i, 15. — 233. lan- thorn. See on 111, i, 53. Douce thinks the horn, for glass, is referred to SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 107 Theseus. He is no crescent, and his horns are invisible within the circumference. Moonshine. This lantliorn doth the horned moon present ; Myself the man i' the moon do seem to be. Theseus. This is the greatest error of all the rest: the man should be put into the lanthorn. How is it else the man i' the moon ? 241 Demetrius. He dares not come there for the candle ; for, you see, it is already in snuff. Hippolyta. I am aweary of this moon : would he would change ! Theseus. It appears, by his small light of discretion, that he is in the wane ; but yet, in courtesy, in all reason, we must stay the time. Ly Sander. Proceed, Moon. Moonshine. All that I have to say is to tell you that the lanthorn is the moon ; I, the man i' the moon ; this thorn- bush, my thorn-bush ; and this dog, my dog. 252 Demetrius. Why, all these should be in the lanthorn; for they are in the moon. But silence ! here comes Thisbe. Enter Thisbe. Thisbe. This is old Ninny's tomb. AVhere is my love ? Lio7i. [Roaring^ Oh Demetrius. Well roared, Lion. Lio7i. [Roaring^ Oh [^Thisbe runs off. dl re in 'horned moon.' — 235. crescent = waxing (moon) ? Lat. crescere, to grow, see 'in. the wane,' line 2'47. — 238. man i' the moon. "From tender years every Englisli-speaking child knows that there is a man in the moon, and is familiar with his premature descent and with his mys- terious desire to visit the town of Norwich. Which is all we need to know here." Furness. See III, i, 48, and our Tempest, II, ii, 126; Grimm's German Mythology, p. 412. — 239. the greatest error of all the rest. Like Milton's lines {Par. Lost, iv, 323, 324), " Adam the g-oodliest man of men since born His sons, the fairest of her daughters, Eve." Abbott, 409, makes this 'a thoroughly Greek idiom.' — of = compared with? — See our Macbeth, V, viii, 4. — 243. snuff = both the cinder of a candle and hasty anger [Johnson]? — Quibble? " To take in snuff is to offend." Wright. See Hotspur's " A pouncet-box, Avhich ever and anon He gave his nose and took 't away again ; Who, therewith angry, when it next came there, Took it in snuff." 1 Henry IV, I, iii, 38-41. 244. aweary. See our ed. of Macbeth, V, iv, 49; our Mer. of Ven., I, l08 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [act V. Theseus. Well run, Thisbe. Hippolyta. Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines with a good grace. [ The Lion shakes Thishe^s mwitle, and \_exit. Theseus. Well moused. Lion. 260 Demetrius. And then came Py ramus. Lysander. And so the lion vanished. Enter Pyramus. Pyramus. Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams ; I thank thee. Moon, for shining now so bright ; For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering beams, 265 I trust to take of truest Thisbe sight. But stay, spite ! But mark, poor knight. What dreadful dole is here ! Eyes, do you see ? 270 How can it be ? dainty duck ! dear ! Thy mantle good. What, stain'd with blood ! Approach, ye Furies fell ! 275 Fates, come, come ! Cut thread and thrum ; Quail, crush, conclude, and quell! Theseus. This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad. 280 Hippolyta. Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man. ii, 1; Jul. Gxs., IV, iii, 94. Abbott, 2i. — 260. moused = acted mouse- fashion? cat-fashion, as in tearing a mouse? — Macbeth, II, iv, 13. — 265. beams. We follow here folio 1 and the quartos. The other folios have 'streams.' Most recent editors adopt Knight's reading 'gleams.' But it is Bottom that is talking of the ' sunny beams ' of the moon ; and we say after Furness, "The fact that ' beams ' is wrong and ' streams ' or ' gleams ' manifestly right, seems to me the very reason why it [beams] should be retained in the speech of one whose eye had not heard, nor his ear seen, nor his hand tasted," etc. (See IV, i, 206-209. )— 275. Furies. Lat. FurlsB ; Gr, Epti/u'e?, Erinyes, avenging deities ; Alecto (relentless) ; Megsera (grudging, grim) ; Tisiphone (avenger of murder) . — 277. thread, and tlirum = everything in general [Wright] ? warp and woof? — A. S. thrawan, drehen, to twist; thrsed, thread ; Icel. thromr, edge, verge, brim, rough edge of a web ; allied to Gr. rep/xa, terma. Lat. terminus, end, limit, term. Hence thrum, the tufted end of a weaver's thread, coarse yarn. Skeat. — 278. quell. A. S. cioellan, to kill. See our Macbeth, I, vii, 72.— 281. beshrew. II, ii, 54. SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DItEAM. 109 Pyramiis. wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame ? Since lion vile hath here deflower'd my dear : Which is — no, no — which was the fairest dame That liv'd, that lov'd, that lik'd, that look'd with cheer. 285 Come, tears, confound; Out, sword, and wound The pap of Pyramus ; Ay, that left pap. Where heart doth hop : [Stabs himself. Thus die I, thus, thus, thus ! 291 Now am I dead. Now am I fled ; My soul is in the sky : Tongue, lose thy light ; 295 Moon, take thy flight : [Exit Moonshine. Now die, die, die, die, die ! [Dies. Demetrius. No die, but an ace, for him ; for he is but one. Lysander. Less than ace, man; for he is dead; he is nothing. Theseus. With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover, and prove an ass. 302 Hippolyta. How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe comes back and finds her lover ? Theseus. She will find him by starlight. Here she comes ; and her passion ends the play. Enter Thisbe. Hippolyta. Methinks she should not use a long one for such a Pyramus : I hope she will be brief. 308 Demetrius. A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, 285. cheer = cheerfulness [Wright] ? countenance [Rolfe] ? Ill, ii, 96. See our Jid. Cses., Ill, i, 90. — 286. confound. Our Macbeth, II, ii, 11.— 289. pap. Note the rhyme, as in the Scotch!— 295. tongue, lose thy light. Bottomese ? — Capell, who, if less learned, would have made a good Bottom, suggested that "tongue, instead of sunne or sun, is a very choice blunder." Halliwell thinks 'tongue' 'too absurd to be humorous.' —299. ace = the 'one spot' on cards or dice? Lat. as, a unit; Gr. el?, eis, one. — 303. How chance. I, i, 129; Abbott, 37. — 310. mote. The old copies have moth, meaning mote, and so pronounced.— Ill, i, 150. —which Pyramus, which Thisbe. " Hard to exijlain, unless ' which ' is used for ' whether.' " Abbott, 273. — 311, 312. he for a man . . . God bless us. This, omitted in the folio, is supplied from the quartos. The omission was perhaps due to the 110 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [act which Thisbe, is the better ; he for a man, G-od warned lis ! she, for a woman, God bless us ! Ly Sander. She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes. Demetrius. Thisbe. And thus she means, videlicet : — Asleep, my love ? What, dead, my dove ? Pyramus, arise ! Speak, speak. Quite dumb ? Dead, dead ? A tomb Must cover thy sweet eyes. These lily lips, This cherry nose. These yellow cowslip cheeks. Are gone, are gone. Lovers, make moan ! His eyes were green as leeks. sisters three ! Come, come to me, With hands as pale as milk ; Lay them in gore. Since you have shore With shears his thread of silk. Tongue, not ?. word : Come, trusty sword ; Come, blade, my breast imbrue : ^Stabs herself. And, farewell, friends ; 336 Thus Thisbe ends : Adieu, adieu, adieu ! [^Dies. 315 320 325 330 Statute of 1605, imposing a penalty of £10 on any player who should ' jestingly or prophanely speak or use the holy name of God.' — warned, niay be for ivay^n as in As You L. I., IV, i, 69; or for loaivxmt in same play, III, iii, 4. Staunton conjectured that ' warnd ' should he 'ward' : and he interpreted thus: "From such a man, God defend us; from such a woman, God save us." — 314. means = complains, laments? — Like videlicet (= to wit, viz. : as in As Yoii L. I., IV, i, 87), 'means,' which most editors have changed to ' moans,' is said to he a legal term, ' a com- mon term in the Scotch law, signifying to tell, to relate, to declare.' " Jamieson, Scotch Diet., gives: To mene, nieane, to utter complaints, to make lamentations." Furness. — 321. lips, etc. This is comic ; but less so than the attempts of some of the editors to make sense out of this intentional nonsense. — 327. sisters three. Launcelot's phrase (iJ/er. o/ Fen., II, ii, 54). The Fates (Lat. Farcss, Gr. Moi'pat, Moirai), Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, respectively, spun the thread of life, determined its length, and cut it asunder. See Class. Dlct. — ooi. shore. "The SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Ill Theseus. Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead. Demetrius. Ay, and Wall too. 340 Bottom. [Starting uj)'] No, I assure you ; the wall is down that parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the epi- logue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two of our company ? 344 Theseus. No epilogue I pray you ; for your play needs no excuse. Never excuse ; for when the players are all dead, there need none to be blamed. Marry, if he that writ it had played Pyramus and hanged himself in Thisbe's garter, it would have been a fine tragedy : and so it is, truly ; and very notably discharged. But, come, your Bergomask : let your epilogue alone. [J. dance. The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve : 352 Lovers, to bed ; 'tis almost fairy time. I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn As much as we this night have overwatch'd. 355 This palpable-gross play hath well beguil'd The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed. A fortnight hold we this solemnity, In nightly revels and new jollity. [^Exeunt. Enter Puck. Puck. Now the hungry lion roars, 360 And the wolf behowls the moon, Whilst the heavy plowman snores, All with weary task fordone. rhyme is too much for this Thisbe's grammar." Wright. In Othello, V, ii, 205; shore is old past tense of 'shear.' A. S. sceran; Du. scheren, to cut. — 343. Bergomask. " In Italian ' Bergamasca ' is a kind of dance, so called from Bergamo, or from a song formerly sung in Florence." Wright. Bergamo is the name of a province and fortified city in Italy. The people were noted for their clownishness. The Italian buffoons used to imitate their jargon and their dancing. — 357. heavy gait = slow prog- ress [Steevens] ? — "Our Hamlet, I, ii, 31, on gait. — The folio has gate, which Rowe and Pope adopt. Johnson, and all since, change to gait. See line 403. — Icel. gata, way, path, road; Mid. E. gate, a way; a manner of walking. * And goth him forth, and in his gate ' = and goes forth, and in his way ; Gowev, \'o7ifessio Amantis, iii, 196. Skeat. — 360-390. Says Cole- ridge, " There is nothing in Anacreou more perfect than these thirty lines, or half so rich and imaginative." — 361. behowls. Warburton's emen- dation for 'beholds.' As You L. I., V, ii, 103. For the force of the pre- fix be-, see note on beshreio in our ed. of Hamlet, II, i, 113. 'Howl,' like owl, is of course onomatopoetic. — 363. fordone = overcome [Dyce]? 112 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [act V. Now the wasted brands do glow, Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud, 365 Puts the wretch that lies in woe In remembrance of a shroud. Now it is the time of night That the graves, all gaping wide. Every one lets forth his sprite, 370 In the church-way paths to glide : And we fairies, that do run By the triple Hecate's team, From the presence of the sun. Following darkness like a dream, 375 Now are frolic ; not a mouse Shall disturb this hallow'd house : I am sent with broom before. To sweep the dust behind the door. Enter Oberon and Titania, with their train. Oberon. Though the house give glimmering light 380 By the dead and drowsy fire. Every elf and fairy sprite Hop as light as bird from brier ; And this ditty, after me Sing, and dance it trippingly. 385 exhausted [Wright] ? ou the signification of the prefix for-, see note on fo7xlo in our Hamlet, V, i, 210. —360. time of night, etc. Hamlet, III, ii, 363, 364. — 369. that. IV, i, 133 ; Ahhott, 284.-373. triple Hecate's. Selene, or Luna in heaven ; Artemis or Diana on earth ; Persephone (Pro- serpina) or Hecate in hell. She is sometimes described as having three bodies. See our As You L. I., Ill, ii, 2; our Macbeth, 11, i, 52; III, v, 1. Milton makes Hecate a dissyl. in Comiis, 135. — team. The chariot of the moon was drawn by two or by four horses. Scull. — following darkness. IV, i, 93. — 378. with broom. "Robin Goodfellow, and the fairies generally, were remarkable for their cleanliness." HalHioell. — 379. behind the door. Is the dust swept to or from the space behind the door? — 380. Though, etc. White changed through to though, Sixid restored the old pronunciation, making tolerable sense of this difficult passage. Furness pronounces the change satisfactory. " Plainly Oheron does not intend to command his sprites to ' give glimmering light through the house hy the dead and drowsy fire,' but to direct every elf and fairy sprite to hop as liglit as a bird from brier, though the house give glimmer- ing light by the dead and drowsy fire." White's Works of William Shakespeare, Boston, 1859, Vol. iv, p. 127.-385. dance it. It used in- definitely? Often so in Shakes. As You L. /., I, iii, 120; V, ii, 58; Abbott, 226.— 390-410. The quartos give this song to Oberon; in the SCENE I.] A .MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 113 Titania. First, rehearse your song by rote, To eacli word a warbling note : Hand in hand, with fairy grace, Will we sing, and bless this place. [^Song and dance. Oheron. Now, until the break of day. Through this house each fairy stray. To the best bride-bed will we ; Which by us shall blessed be. So shall all the couples three Ever true in loving be ; And the blots of Nature's hand Shall not in their issue stand ; Never mole, hare-lip, nor scar, Nor mark prodigious, such as are Despised in nativity, Shall upon their children be. With this field-dew consecrate. Every fairy take his gait ; And each several chamber bless, Through this palace, with sweet peace ; And the owner of it, blest, Ever shall in safety rest. Trip away ; Make no stay ; Meet me all by break of day. 410 \Exeimt Oheron, Titania, and train. Puck. If we shadows have offended. Think but this, and all is mended. That you have but slumber'd here While these visions did appear. 395 400 405 folios it is unassigned. — 393. blessed, etc. Such blessing by a priest was regularly a part of marriage ceremonies. — 399. prodigious = ominous of great evil? See our Jul. Cses., I, iii, 76.— 400. nativity = birth ? horoscope? — Lat. nascere, to be born; nativitas, Fr. nativite, hirth. — 402. consecrate. Abbott, 342. — 403. gait. The folio here, as in line 357, has gate. M. Mason retains 'gate,' and thinks the chamber door is meant! ' Samson ? — 404. bless. Like (in L' Allegro, 83, 84,) Milton's " Or the bellman's drowsy charm To bless the door from mighty harm." -|-'4:06, 407. These two lines seem to have been transposed in the first edi- 114 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT V. SCENE I.] And this weak and idle theme, 415 No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend : If you pardon, we will mend. And, as I'm an honest Puck, If we have unearned luck 420 Now to scape the serpent's tongue, We will make amends ere long ; Else the Puck a liar call : So, good-night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, 425 And Eobin shall restore amends. [Exit. tions. — 411. shadows. V, i, 208.— 419. honest Puck. II, i, 40.— "The name [Puck] was no better than fiend or devil." Hudson. — 420. unearned luck = fortune better than we have deserved [Steevens] ? — 421. scape the serpent's tongue = be dismissed without being hissed. Steevens quotes Markham's English Arcadia (1607), in which a hiss is styled 'a snaky salutation.' — 425. hands = applause, hand-clapping? So in the Epilogue to the Tempest, line 10? — 426. restore amends. In explanation Rolfe appositely cites the close of Shakespeare's 30th sonnet, "All losses are restored, all sorrows end." i 1 APPENDIX. DURATION OF THE ACTION, Mr. W. A. Wright (C. P. ed., pp. xxii, xxiii) says — "The time is about May-day. . , . Theseus' opening words point to April 27, four days before the new moon which was to behold the night of his mar- riage. . . . The next night, . . . April 28, Lysander appoints for Hermia to escape with him from Athens. . . . The night of the second day is occupied with the adventures in the wood. . . . The morning of the third day is the 1st of May, and the last two days of April are lost altogether. ... In 1592, there was a new moon on the 1st of May ; so that if A 3Iidsummer NighVs Dream was Avritten so as to be acted on a May-day, when the actual age of the moon corre- sponded with its age in the play, it must have been written for May- day, 1592." Mr. P. A. Daniel, quoted by Furness, concludes as follows : " Accord- ing to the opening speeches of Theseus and Hippolyta in Act I, we should have expected the dramatic action to have comprised five days exclusive of that Act ; as it is we have only three days inclusive of it. "Day 1.— Actl. " 2. — Acts II, III, and part of sc. i, Act IV. " 3. —Part of sc. i, Act IV, sc. ii. Act IV, and Act V." Mr. Fleay, quoted by Furness, would reconcile the apparent incon- sistency, thus: " The marriage of Theseus is on the 1st of May ; the play opens on the 27th of April ; but, at line 137 [126 in our edition, Act I, sc. i], I take it a new scene must begin, and there is no reason why it should not be on the 28th or 29th of April. I would place it on the 28th. On the 29th the lovers go to the wood, and, in IV, i, 114 [99 in our edition], when the fairies leave, it is the morning of the 30th. But at this point Titania's music has struck 'more dead than common sleep ' on the lovers. . . . Surely Act III ends with the fairies' exit, and the lovers sleep through the 30th of April, and wake on May morning. ... If any one would ask why make them sleep during this time, I would answer that the 30th of April, 1592, was a Sunday ! " Henry A. Clapp {Atlantic 3IonthIy, March, 1885) suggests that "a whole day has somehow dropped out" through Puck's manipulation ! "I fancy," he says, " that Shakespeare would smilingly plead guilty, 115 116 APPENDIX. as an accessory after the fact, to the blunder, and charge the principal fault upon Puck and his crew, who would doubtless rejoice in the annihilation of a mortal's day." Furness (Preface, xxviii-xxxiv) elaborately discusses the subject, and concludes that "It is we, after all, not the characters on the stage, about whom Shakespeare weaves his spells. It is our eyes that are latched with magic juice. The lovers on the stage pass but a single night in the enchanted wood, and one dawn awakens them on May- day. We, the onlookers, are bound in deeper charms, and must see dawn after dawn arise until the tale is told, and, looking back, be conscious of the lapse of days as well as of a night." HOW TO TEACPI AND STUDY LITERATURE. \_From F. G. Fleay''s '■^ Guide to Chaucer and Spenser.'''''] No doubtful critical point should ever be set before the student as ascertained. One great advantage of these studies is the acquirement of a power of forming a judgment in cases of conflictiug evidence. Give the student the evidence ; state your own opinion, if you like ; but let him judge for himself. No extracts or incomplete works should be used. The capability of appreciating a whole work, as a whole, is one of the principal aims in sesthetic culture. It is better to read thoroughly one simple play or poem than to know details about all the dramatists and poets. The former trains the brain to judge of other plays or poems ; the latter only loads the memory with details that can at any time be found, when required, in books of reference. For these studies to completely succeed, they must be as thorough as our classical studies used to be. No diificult point in syntax, pros- ody, accidence, or pronunciation ; no variation in manners or customs ; no historical or geographical allusion, — must be passed over without explanation. This training in exactness will not interfere with, but aid, the higher aims of literary training. [From Rev. Henry iV. Hudson., Shakespearian Editor.] I have never had and never will have anything but simple exercises ; the pupils reading the author under the teacher's direction, correc- tion, and explanation ; the teacher not even requiring, though usually advising, them to read over the matter in advance. Thus it is a joint communing of teacher and pupils with the author for the time being ; just that, and nothing more. Nor, assuredly, can such communion, in so far as it is genial and free, be without substantial and lasting good, — far better, indeed, than any possible cramming of mouth and memory for recitation. The one thing needful here is, that the pupils rightly understand and feel what they read ; this secured, all the rest will take care of itself. APPENDIX. 117 \^From Professor J. M. D. Meiklejohn, Univ. of St. Andrews.'] The first purpose in this elaborate annotation is, of course, the full working out of the author's meaning. . . . This thorough excavation of the meaning of a really profound thinker is one of the very best kinds of training that a boy or girl can receive at school. . . . And always new rewards come to the careful reader — in the shape of new meanings, recognitions of thoughts he had before missed, of relations between the characters that had before escaped him. ... It is prob- able that, for those pupils who do not study either Greek or Latin, this close examination of every word and phrase in the text will be the best substitute that can be found for the study of the ancient classics. [From Professor William Taylor Thom.^ Coleridge's dictum remains true: "In order to get the full sense of a word, we should first present to our minds the visual image that forms its primary meaning." [From Professor Hiram Corson, of Cornell University.'] An indispensable condition of the appreciation of poetic forms is a well-cultivated voice. "Without a proper vocal rendering, no poetry, worth reading, can be duly appreciated. The articulating thought may be got through silent reading ; but the indefinite, informing spirit can be reached, if reached at all, only through a proper vocal rendi- tion of the verse. [From Samuel Thurber, Girls'* High School, Boston.] I urge teachers assiduously to cultivate in their pupils the power of poetic expression. The poet, the finest of artists, the maker par excellence, builds his verse with infinite pains, ordering his accents, matching his rhymes, adjusting his pauses, choosing word and phrase for effects of melody, fitting his diction to his theme, elaborating fig- ures to give new tone and elevation to his thought. To interpret, to render, his work requires no painful practice over an instrument of art. This is an attainment quite within the power of every human being. From all that has been quoted from the foregoing authorities, it may justly be inferred that somehow or other the pupil must be made to feel an interest in the subject, to admire what is admirable in the composition, and really to enjoy its study. Secure this interest, admiration, enjoyment ; and all else will follow as a matter of course : fail here, and the time is wasted. 118 APPENDIX. Every good teacher will have methods of his own ; but the follow- ing suggestions, or some of them, may toe of practical value to most instructors : — I. The poem should be read very hastily at first, for the outline of the story or course of thought. II. Having thus grasped it as a whole, it should again be read through ; this time, with some care for the details of the story and course of thought. III. Then the thorough study of each and every part should be begun. IV. At the beginning of the class exercise, or as often as needful, require of the pupil a statement of — {a) The main object of the author in the whole poem, oration, play, or other production of which to-day's lesson is a part. (6) The object of the author in this particular canto, chapter, act, or other division or subdivision of the main work. V. Read or recite from memory (or have the pupils do it) the finest part or parts of the last lesson. The elocutionary talent of the class should be utilized here, in order that the author may appear at his best, VI. Require at times (often enough to keep the whole fresh in memory) a resume of the ' argument,' story, or succession of topics, up to the present lesson. VII. Have the student read aloud the sentence, paragraph, or lines, now (or previously) assigned. The appointed portion should have some unity. VIII. Let the student interpret exactly the meaning by substituting his own words : explain peculiarities. This translation or paraphrase should often be in writing. IX. Let him state the immediate object of the author in these lines. Is this object relevant ? important ? appropriate in this place? X. Let him point out the ingredients (particular thoughts) that make up the passage. Are they in good taste ? just ? natu- ral ? well arranged ? XI. Let him point out other merits or defects, — anything note- worthy as regards nobleness of principle or sentiment, grace, delicacy, beauty, rhythm, subhmity, wit, wisdom, humor, naivete, kindliness, pathos, energy, concentrated truth, logi- cal force, originality ; give allusions, kindred passages, prin- ciples illustrated, etc. As a rule, pupils likely to assist each other should not be set at work upon the same sentences, especially if the exercise is to be in writing. Each should be independent of interference. As an illustration of one method in which a choice passage may be made the basis of language lessons and of rhetorical drill, take the twenty-one lines in which occurs the celebrated compliment to Queen Elizabeth (II, i, 145-166). APPENDIX. 119 Oberon. . . . Thou rememberest 1 Since once I sat upon a promontory, 2 And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back 3 Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath 4 That the rude sea grew civil at her song, 5 And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, 6 To hear the sea-maid's music. Puck. I remember. 7 Oberon. That very time I saw, but thou couldst not, 8 Flying between the cold moon and the earth, 9 Cupid all arm'd : a certain aim he took 10 At a fair vestal throned by the west, 11 And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow, 12 As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts ; 13 But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft 14 Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon, 15 And the imperial votaress passed on, 16 In maiden meditation, fancy-free. 17 Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell : 18 It fell upon a little western flower, 19 Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound, 20 And maidens call it love-in-idleness. 21 (1) Let all the pupils memorize this, and one or more of them recite it vv^ith appropriate vocal expression. (2) Let one to whom the task has been particularly assigned explain any difficult or unusual word, phrase, or sentence in the first seven lines. In like manner let another take the next seven lines, and another the last seven. (3) Let each of the three translate the passage assigned him into exactly equivalent English, avoiding, if possible, the use of the words of the original. (4) Let him point out in the assigned portion peculiarities, merits, palpable blemishes, if any, or possible improvements. (5) Let the teacher call for criticisms, if he has not done so already. (6) Let the lines be now read once more with all the elocutionary skill attainable ; or let it be spoken with proper gestures to accompany. Under heading 2, the average student would perhaps proceed orally, or, better, with a prepared manuscript, substantially as follows : — ' Since ' is used for ' when. ' Mermaids were fabulous marine creatures, represented in the mythology of northern Europe as hav- ing the upper half like a woman, the lower like a fish. J/er etymo- logically means ' sea ' or ' lake.' The ' mermaid on a dolphin's back' suggests the story of the sweet singer Arion, whose life was thus saved by a song-loving dolphin. 'The rude sea grew civil at her song.' This reminds us of the power ascribed by Shakespeare in the Merchant of Venice to the lyre of Orpheus. It ' drew trees, stones, and floods.' ' Spheres ' are the imaginary crystal shells, or transparent, bubble- like globes, concentric, and revolving about the earth, as taught in the Ptolemaic or Alphonsine astronomy. Each of the so-called seven planets was supposed to be fastened in one or other of these hollow ' spheres,' and all the fixed stars were set in the eighth. The spheres, rotating with different degrees of velocity through the all-pervading ether, gave rise to different notes of the scale, and made the skies a 120 APPENDIX. great music organ. The music of the ninth sphere was a diapason, a concentration of the tones of all the rest. 'Cupid.' Four ideals of Eros [Amor, Love, or Cupid] are recogniz- able: (1) That of Hesiod, "Nature-power, a world-making impulse, which, through mysterious attractions, combined all things in pairs" ; (2) "Eros of the philosophers and of the mysteries . . . whose dominion was to extend throughout the universe, and whose mission was to infuse with love hearts human and divine, to harmonize all discords, to ensure victory to the True, the Beautiful, and the Good; " (3) Son of Aphrodite (Venus), "represented by a youth whose face was radiant with a beauty of which it is said, ' It comes from God, and it leads to God' " ; (4) "A later and lighter ideal of Aphrodite's [Venus's] son, better known as Cupid, represented as a mischievous boy with a quiverful of golden arrows, with which he made merciless havoc among human hearts." A ' vestal ' is so called from being consecrated to Vesta, goddess of the hearth. The name became a synonym for purity. All agree that Queen Elizabeth is here meant, although Theseus must have lived, if he lived at all, at least 2500 years before she was born ! 'As'' is for ' as if.' ' Might ' is * could. ' The ' watery moon ' is perhaps so called from its influence on dews and tides. ' In maiden meditation, fancy- free,' is declared by Richard Grant White, in his Studies in Shake- speare, to be ' the most beautiful example in all literature of the beauty of alliteration. ' 'A little western flower' is understood to mean the pansy {viola tricolor), also called ' heart' s-ease,' and by many other names. Under heading 3, the student might perhaps translate somewhat as follows : — You recollect my sitting at one time on a headland, hearkening to a sea-nymph who rode on a delphine fish, and breathed forth a voice so sweet and musical that the rough ocean waxed well-mannered at her singing, and some luminaries in the sky darted in frenzy from their orbs to list the siren's melody. I recollect. At the self-same moment I beheld, winging his way betwixt the chill lunar and the terrestrial world, the love-god completely equipped for war. With sure direction he levelled a shaft at a beauteous maiden, who had been consecrated to Vesta and was sitting in royal state far towards the sunset ; and he sharply let fly from his bent weapon his amatory bolt, seemingly to penetrate ten myriad breasts. Yet could I descry child Eros' s burning dart extinguished in the pure rays of the wet star of Diana, and the empress votary glided past in virgin contemplation, unenthralled by passion. But I observed the spot on which love's missile dropped. It lighted on a diminutive occidental blossom, that formerly was of lacteal whiteness, at present is violet-hued by Cupid's harmful gash ; and virgins name it ' love-in-idleness.' Under heading 4, the student would perhaps suggest some of the following ideas : — The whole passage indicates a most fertile creative imagination. It contains eight or ten distinct pictures, each a remarkable piece of APPENDIX. 121 word-painting, some of them striking in their personification, and tlie whole series, as in a kinetoscope, vividly telling the story continuously from beginning to end. The compliments to Queen Elizabeth are exceedingly graceful, and they revive scenes of great interest, the ' Princely Pleasures of Kenil- worth.' The supposed enchantments wrought by music are powerfully de- scribed. A single Avord, 'spheres,' brings much of the old poetic astronomy to mind. The sentential structure is elegant, the rhythm perfect, the allitera- tion in one line exquisite ; the general strength and the particular weakness of love are set forth in lines which happily illustrate Pope's aphorism, — The sound should seem an echo to the sense. Under heading 5, further criticism and comment are in order. Here, too, if not before, it may be well to explain and discuss War- burton's imagined discovery that the twenty-five lines, beginning "Thou rememberest," "constitute," to use his own language, "the noblest and justest allegory ever written." [See our footnotes, and Furness. ] Lastly, under heading 6, one of the best readers, if necessary the teacher himself, who should always he skilled in vocal expression., should recite the passage with appropriate delivery. The foregoing rather crude treatment of these lines, supplemented by judieious comments, may illustrate what we believe to be one of the best possible exercises for giving fulness and accuracy in language and for cultivating the taste. It will be found, upon inspection, that our notes are prepared with a view to such exercises. Sometimes interpretations that are very nearly equivalent are given, in order that nicety of taste and felicity of expression may be developed in choosing among them. Care must he taken., however, not to push these or any other class exercises so far into detail as to render them uninteresting., or to withdraw attention from the great features of the drama. And especially should it ever he home in mind that it is of vital importance to make the student enjoy this study. 122 APPENDIX. SOME TOPICS FOR ESSAYS. Mythology in a nutshell, V, i, 20. Life as a dream. Theseus and Hippolyta. The Amazons. ' ' The ancient privilege of Athens, ' ' I, i, 41. "The triple Hecate." Py ramus and Thisbe. Anachronisms in the play. The Athenian players. Bottom. Moonshine and Wall. Plays within plays. Puck. Robin Goodfellow. Pairies in general. Spenser's fairies. Shakespeare's fairies. Oberon and Titania. Changelings. Fairy machinery. Pairy rings and dances. Latin meanings of words. Personification in Shakespeare. Apprehension and comprehension. Lunatic, lover, and poet. Poetic frenzy or inspiration. "Princely Pleasures of Kenil- worth." Vesta and vestals. Differentiate Hermia and Helena. Differentiate Lysander and Deme- trius. Legal phraseology in the play. " Cupid is a knavish lad," III, ii, 440. Battle of the Centaurs. Orpheus and the Bacchse. "Learning late deceased in beg- gary," V, i, 53. Theseus and Ariadne. Arion and the Dolphins. ' ' Never anything can be amiss When simpleness and duty ten- der it," V, i, 82, 83. ^ Complaint of Lysander, I, i, 132- 145. The Prologue, V, i, 108-150. "The tongs and the bones," IV, i, 27. Alliteration. Musical cry of hounds, IV, i, 103. "The best in this kind are but shadows, and the worst are no worse if imagination amend them," V, i, 208, 209. The names of the Dramatis Per- sonce. Moral, or lessons of the play. The Man in the Moon, with his dog and bush. Hermia vs. Helena. Warburton's imagined allegory, II, i, 145-165. A lion among ladies. Il^DEX. abbreviated forms, 18 abide, 71, T8, 82 abide it dear, 72 abridgment, 98 ace, 109 Acheron, 79 actresses, 34 adamant, 47 Addison, quoted, 10, 9 address'd, 101 advis'd, 24 JEgle, 41 jEneas, pious, 29 afeard, 58 against, 68 aggravate, 35 all arm'd, 45 all ways, 87 allegory, 45 alliteration, 45 alone, 69 alone will go, 54 Amazons, 21 amiable, 85 and, 100 an, 35 anl(=if I?), 34 an if, 56 an 'twere, 35 Antiopa, 41 antipodes, 67 antique, 96 apprehend, 97 approve, 53 apricocks, 63 arabesque, 11 are you sure, 93 argument, 74 Ariadne, 21, 41 arrow, best, 28 artificial, 73 ass's head, 60 aunt, 40 Aurora's, 80 avouch, 26 aweary, 107 ay me! 27, 56 aye, 26 Bacchanals, 99 badge, 70 bait, 72 ballad, 94 barm, 39 barren sort, 65 bated, 29 batty, 79 Baynes, quoted, 15 be as, 88 be it so, 23 beached, 41 beams, 108 beard, 42 beasts, in a, 106 bed room (or bed-room ?), 53 behold, when Phoebe doth, 30 behowls. 111 beUke, 27 bellows, 33 Bergamo, 111 Bergomask, 111 beshrew, 53, 108 best arrow, 28 best, the, 106 best wit of any, 94 beteem, 27 Bible, 77 black-browed night, 80 bless, 113 blessed, 113 blood, 68 bootless, 39 bottle, 86 Bottom, 12, 13, 14 Bottom-ese, 34, 35, 108, 109 Bottom's pronunciation, 85 bowl, 39 brave touch, 67 brawls, 42 breath, 66 brief. 98 broke, 29 broom, with, 112 bully, 57 burr, 75 bush of thorns, a, 59 123 buskin'd, 41 but, 48 but , . . now, 91 buy, 82 by that, 75 Cadmus, 90 Campbell, quoted, 11 can you (or we can ?), 52 canker-blossom, 76 cankers, 50 capacity, my, 101 Carthage queen, 29 cat, 52 Cavalery, 86 centaurs, battle with, 98 changeling, 38 Chaucer, 21, 22, 28, 93 cheek by jowl, 78 cheer, 68, 109 cherries, 70 chid, 72 chide, 44 chiding, 90 childing autumn, 43 choughs, 66 churchyards, 80 clamorous, 50 clerks, 101 Cobweb, 86 coil, 78 cold, 45 Coleridge, Hartley, quoted, 12 Coleridge, S. T., 82, 37 coUied, 27 come, 70 Comedy, lamentable, 32 comforts, shine, 82 compact, 96 compare, 76 companion, 22 compel, 74 comprehends, 97 conceits, 23 condole, 83 conference, 62 124 confound, 109 confounding, 68 confusion, 28, 90 conjunction, 90 conjure, 71 consecrate, 113 constancy, 97 continent, 42 Corson, Professor, 117 courtesy, leave your, 86 Cowden-Olarke, Charles, quoted, 14 cowslips, 38 coy, 85 crab, 39 crannied, 104 crazed, 25 crescent, 107 critical, 99 critical comments, 10-17 cross-ways, 80 cry cuckoo, 62 cry . . . mercy, 64 cue, 59, 93 Cupid painted blind, 31 Cupid's flower, 88 curst, 77 cut, 64 dance it, 112 Daphne, 48 darkness, following, 112 date, 80 dead, 67 dear expense, 32 debt, for, 68 deep, the, 67 Demetrius, 12, 13 derision, 79 Dervise, his magic, 11 despised, 53 detest, 83 dewberries, 63 dewlap, 40 dew-lapp'd, 90 Dian's bud, 88 Dido, 29 die the death, 24 discharge, 35, 94 door, behind the, 112 dotage, 87 dote, 31 double, 51 doubler, 67 dowager, 21, 28 Dowden, quoted, 14 dragons, 80 Drake's, Sir Francis, 46 drawn, 81 duke, 22 duration of the action, 115 each at other, 74 earthlier happy, 25 eastern gate, 81 edict, 28 INDEX. Egeus, 22, 91 G Egypt, of, 96 eight and six, 58 game, 31 either, 39, 56 gauds, 23, 92 eke, 60 gentleness, 55 Elizabeth, Queen, 45, 58 Gervinus, quoted, 12 \ elm, 87 Gibbon, 72, 73 embarked, 44 girdle round about the enforced chastity, 64 earth, 46 enthraUed, 27, 62 glance, 41 Ercles, 33 gleek, 62 error, the greatest, 107 Globe Theatre, 72 estate, 26 go (= come?), 26, 83 Ethiope, 75 even but now, 74 go about, 93 God bless us, 109 ' exile, 80 gods, artificial, 78 God's my Ufe, 93 expense, a dear, 32 exposition, 87 Golding's Ovid, 104 extempore, 34 gossip's, 39 extenuate, 26 government, 102 extort, 71 grace, 54, 74 eye . . . ear, 94 green, 42 eyes (or eye ?), 27 Gregory Nazianzen, 72, 73 eyne, 31, 54, 104 griffin, 48 grim-look'd, 104 F grisly, 103 grow to a point, 32 faining, 23 grows, 49 faint, 25, 30 fair (= beauty?), 29 H Fairy, 40, 44 fall (= let fall ?), 103 Hail, mortal ! 64 fancy, 28, 68 half sleep, 91 fancy free, 45 Hallam, quoted, 12. fantasy, impression of, 23 hands, 114 Farmer, Dr., 44 hanged, I'll be, 95 Fates, 110 harbinger, 80 favor, 29 hast disturb'd, 42 favors, 87 hath, 42 fear, 97 Hazlitt, quoted, 11 hearts, 95 fearful, 101 fell, 106 hear without warning, 105 fellow, 86 heavy gait. 111 female ivy, 87 females, 83 Hecate's, triple, 112 hedgehogs, 51 fierce, 88 he for a man, 109, 110 find, 53 he is so oft, 31 fiery glow-worm's eyes, 63 Helena, 13, 55, 77 fire, 61, 88 Helius, 80, 96 fitted, 100 hence, away, 51 five (or fine ?), 88 henchman, 43 Fleay, 116 flew'd, 90 Hermes, 13 Hermia, 13 floods, 80 her . . . that, 78, 94 flout. 55 Hiems, 43 fond,' 50, 54, 69, 77 hight, 103 for (=asto?),26 Hippolyta, 21 force, of, 66 his, 42 fordone. 111 his sight, 32 forgeries, 41 his . . . this, 88 \ forth, 28 hiss, 'a snaky salutation,' for you, 26 114 French-crown-color, 35 hobgoblin, 39 French crowns, 35 ho, ho,- ho ! 82 : Furies, 108 hold, 40 Furness, quoted, 16, 25, 43, hold, or cut bowstrings, 86 44,49 holding troth, one man, 68 Furniyall, quoted, 15 honeysuckle, 87 INDEX, 12b hounds, musical voices of, 90 how chance, 109 howsoever, 97 Hudson, quoted, 15, 116 human mortals, 42 humble-bees, 63 I'll lead you — about - around, 61 imagining, 97 immediately provided, 23 impeach, 47 incorporate, 73 increase, 43 India, steep of, 41 in extremity, 65 injurious, 72 injury, 44 in spite of, 72 in this kind, 24 intend, 78 interchanged, 52 is two, there, 95 it doth shine, 59 I win none, 71 Jack shall have Jill, 84 jaugHng, 79 jealousy, 91 ■jewels, 63, 93 Johnson, Samuel, quoted, 10,48 juggler, 76 juvenal, 60 KenUworth, princely pleas- ures of, 45, 58 kind, in this, 24 kind . . . kinder, 101 knacks, 23 knit, 93 know of your youth, 24 Kreyssig, quoted, 13 lakin, 57 lamentable comedy, 32 language lesson, one form of, 118-121 lanthorn, 59, 103, 106 Lapithfe and centaurs, 98 latch'd, 66 laugh, 40 law, our, 23 learning, 99 leaden legs, 79 legal phraseology, 68 Leicester, Earl of, 45 . leviathan, 46 lies in you, 43 Uke, 73, 92 Limander, 105 lingers, 21 Hon, among ladies, 58 lion, your, 58 lips, 110 hquor, 79 literature, study of, 116 livery, 24 lob, 38 lode-stars, 29 long of, 78 lordship, 25 love's, 64 love-in-idleness, 45 lovely, 73 lover's fee, 69 luck, unearned, 114 luscious, 49 Lysander, 12, 13 M Macaulay, quoted, 11 made, 95 Maginn, quoted, 13 make all split, 33 makes, 83 man, 106 man i' the moon, 107 m argent, 41 mask, 34 marry, 32 marshal, 55 Marshall, quoted, 16 match'd in mouth like bells, 90 may, 96 may all, 88 May-day, 28, 76 May-pole, 76 mazed, 43 mazes, 42 mechanicals, 65 Meiklejohn, 117 melted, 92 mermaid, 44 mew'd, 25 middle summer's spring, 41 midnight, 31 might, 45 might be, 91 minimus, 78 miracle plays, 82 misgraffed, 27 mislead, 39 misprised, 68 misprision, 68 Moberly, 24, 97 mock, to, 71 momentary, 27 monster, as a, 54 moon, 43, 64 moon's, 37 moral, 105 moral-plays, 82 more better, 57 more witnesseth, 97 morning's love, 80 morris, 42 muses, nine, 99 N nativity, 113 nature shows art, 55 naught, 95 neaf, 86 nearly that (=that nearly?), 27 needles, 73 needs, 69 ne'er alter, 53 neeze, 40 Neptune, 81 never, 78, 83 never so, 62 news, 76 newts, 51 next, 102 night-rule, 65 night, time of, 112 Ninus, 60 no, no, sir, 75 noble respect, 101 'nointed, 79 nole, 65 none, 30 nor I cannot, 47 nun, 24 nuptial, 27, 100 nymph, 49 0, is all forgot ? 72 Oberon, 11 obscenely, 36 observance, to do, 28 observation, 89 odious savors, 60 o'er, 88 o'erlook, 55 of, 107 of all loves, 56 of friends (or of merit?), 27 off from, 46 offices, 50 of me, 95 of which, 98 on, 67 orange-tawny, 35, 62 orbs, 38 or let, 59 Orpheus and Eurydice, 99 other, 88 other some, 81 ounce, 52 our sweet, 51 ousel cock, 61 overflown, 85 owe, 54 126 INDEX. pageant, 69 pap, 109 paragon, 95 pard, 52 parlous, 57 passing, 38 passionate, 74 pat, 105 pat, pat, 57 patched, 94 patches, 65 patience, 64, 87 paved, 41 pearls, 38, 87 Peascod, 64 pensioners, 38 Pepys, quoted, 10 Perigenia, 41 periods, 101 persevere, 74 persuasion, 28 pert, 22 petty, 42 Philomel, 51 Philostrate, 98 Phoebe, 30 Phosphorus, 80 pilgrimage, 25 pipes of corn, 40 piping, 42 Pirithous, 98 pity of my life, 58 plain-song, 62 play, a, 94 play a woman, 34 Plutarch, 22, 24 point, 55 points,doth not stand upon, 102 pomp, 22 posterity, 89 potion, 75 prays, 75 preferred, 95 preposterously, 69 present, 59 presented, 65 privilege, 48 prodigious, 113 Prologue, 102 promise, 58 proper, 35 properties, 35 Prosper, 11 Proteus, 61 provender, 86 provided, immediately in that case, 23 pumps, 95 purple-in-grain, 35 Pyramus, 32, 60, 99, 109 Q quaint, 50 quantity, 81 queen, Carthage, 29 Queen'Elizabeth, 45 quell, 108 quern, 39 rate, 63 recorder, 102 recreant, 81 remov'd, 28 rent, 73 reremice, 50 respects, 28, 48 restore amends, 114 revenue, 21, 28 rheumatic, 43 ringlets, 41 ripe, 98 ripe not, 55 rite of May, 91 Robin Goodfellow, 82 rock the ground, 89 Roister Boister, the stage trick in, 102 room (metre of?), 40 round, 44 roundel, 50 russet-pated, 66 S sad, 89 salt green, 81 sampler, 73 sanded, 90 scandal, 48 scaped, 95 scape the serpent's tongue, 114 scansion, 49, 54, 76, 83 Schlegel, quoted, 10 schooling, 26 Scott, Walter, 45, 58 scrip, 32 seem, 90 seem to break loose, 75 seething, 96 self (peculiar meaning ?), 26 Semiramis, 60 set his wit, 62 shadows (biblical?), 27, 106, 114 Shakespeare's sj'mpathetic magnanimity, 100 she, 74 sheen, 38 shepherd's pipe, 41 shine comforts, 82 shore, 110 should woo, 69 shrewd, 39, 77 silly, 39 since, 44, 76 sinister, 104 sisters three, 110 Skeat, 21, 86 skim, 39 Skottowe, quoted, 11 slay, 46 slayeth, 46 slow, 90 Snout, 104 snuif, 107 Snug, tell them plainly he is, 58 so, 26 so far . . . to sleep, 91 soft, 90 solemnly, 89 Solon's law, 23 something, 77 sometime of, 49 sort, 79 soul of love, 46 souls, in, 70 sources of the plot, 10 spaniel, 47 speak you fair, 47 Spenser, 99 sphere, 67 spheres, 44 sphery, 54 spirits, 50 spleen, 27 spoke, 29 spotted, 26 square, 38 Squash, 64 squirrel's, 86 stand forth, 22 stay, 44, 48 stealth, 77, 92 still (=ever, always?), 30 stolen, 23 stop, 102 strange, 97 strange snow, 99 strings, 95 such . . . that, 96 sucking dove, 35 supper, after, 98 swimming, 44 swoon, 56 tailor, 40 take, 101 tales, 70 tame, 75 Tartar's bow, 69 Taurus, 70 tawny, 75 team, 112 tender, 68 Tennyson, 28 Tereus and Procne, 51 that, 82, 96, 112 that, they shall hear, 61 the man shall have, 84 thee, 49 there is two, 59 therefore, 76 Theseus, 12, 21, 6tpa88\ Thessalian, 90 INDEX. 127 thick-Bkin, 65 thin, 43 thine or mine, 78 third part of a minute, 50 Thirlby, 46 this half, 23 Thisbe, 32, 109 Thisbe's mother, 34 Thisue, 34 Thorn, Professor, 117 thorough, 37, 43 thou Shalt not from, 44 though, 112 thread and thrum, 108 three, 83 throstle, 62 Thurber, Samuel, 117 Tibullus, 48 tide, 105 tiring-house, 57 Titania, 12, 13, 15, 40, 64, etc. Tithonus, 80 to, 83 to her, 71 tongs and bones, 86 tongue, lose thy light, 109 topics for essays, 122 touch, 76 toward, 60 toys, 96 translated, 29, 61 transported, 94 trim, 71 triple Hecate's, 112 triumph, 22 Trojan, false, 29 troth, 52, 55 trusty, 103 truth, 70 try no manhood, 81 turns, 81 Tyrwhitt, 43 u unbreath'd, 100 unburied dead, spirits of, uncouple, 89 undergo, to, 25 unharden'd, 23 unheedy, 31 up in the, 105 Valentine, 91 vantage, 26 vaward, 89 Venus' doves, 28 versing, 41 vestal, 45 videlicet, 110 villagery, 39 virgin patent, 25 virtuous, 79 vixen, 77 voice, I see a, 105 votaress, 43 vows so born, 70 W wandering, 80 wandering moon, 89 want, 42 Avanton, 42 Warburton, 45, 99 warned, 110 washes, 43 Avatery moon, 45 waxen, 40 weak bond, 75 weavers (psalm-singers ?), 86 weaving spiders, 51 weeds, 49, 53 "Weiss, quoted, 14 welkin, 79 well possessed, 26 Wendell, quoted, 16 what cheer, 26 what graces, 30 when all is done, 57 where, 91 where the wild, 49 wherefore, 76 whether, 24, 63, 68 which (= what ?), 26 whiles, 80 White, E. G., quoted, 15, 43 whose approach, 80 witchcraft, 60, 61 with, 52 with my sword, 22 withering out, 21 without, 91 wode, 47 Woelffel, quoted, 12 wonder of, 91 wondrous, 99 woodbine, 87 Wordsworth, 28; quoted, 97 worm, 67 wot, 82, 92 wrath, 38 wren, 62 yea, 93 yielders, 66 you of (= of you ?), 64 you sat, 56 you see an ass-head of your own, 61 you were best, 32 your fair, 29 your words I catch, 29 youth, know of your, 24 « LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 998 064 5 ^ M