Confent to marry with Demetrius ;
I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,
As the is mine, I may dispose of her:
Which shall be either to this gentleman,
3 Or to her death, according to our law,
Immediately provided in that cafe.

The. What fay you, Hermia? be advis'd, fair maid.
4 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

To 'leve the figure, or disfigure it:
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
Her. So is Lyfander.

The. In himself he is;

But in this kind, wanting your father's voice,
The other muft be held the worthier.

Her. I would, my father look'd but with my eyes.
The. Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.

3 Or to her death, according to our law,] By a Law of Solon's, Parents had the abfolute power of life and death over their children. So it fuited the poet's purpose well enough to fuppofe the Athenians had it before.- -Or perhaps he neither thought nor

knew any thing of the matter.

4 To you your father should be as a God,

One, who compos'd your beauties; yea, and one,
To whom you are but as a form in wax

By him imprinted; and within his power

To LEAVE the figure or disfigure it.] We fhould read,
To 'LEVE the figure, &c.

i. e. releve, to heighten or add to the beauty of the figure, which is faid to be imprinted by him. 'Tis from the French, relever. Thus they fay, Tapifferies relevées d'or. In the fame fenfe they ufe enlever, which Maundevile makes English of in this Manner

-And alle the walles withinne ben covered with gold and fylver, in fyn Plates: and in the Plates ben Stories and Batayles of Knyghtes ENLEVED. p. 228. Rablais, with a strain of buffoon humour, that equals the fober elegance of this paffage in our Poet, calls the fmall gentry of France, Gentilhommes de bas relief.

Her.

Her. I do intreat your Grace to pardon me: s I know not, by what pow'r I am made bold Nor how it may concern my modefty,

In fuch a prefence here, to plead my thoughts:
But, I beseech your Grace, that I may know
The worst that may befal me in this case,
If I refufe to wed Demetrius.

The. Either to die the death, or to abjure
For ever the fociety of men.

Therefore, fair Hermia, queftion your defires;
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;

For aye to be in fhady cloifter mew'd,
To live a barren fifter all your life,

Chanting faint hymns to the cold, fruitless, moon?
Thrice bleffed they, that master so their blood,
To undergo fuch maiden pilgrimage!
But earthlier happy is the rose diftill'd,

Than that, which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies, in fingle blessedness.

Her. So will I grow, fo live, fo die, my lord,
Ere I will yield my virgin patent up

Unto his lordship, to whose unwish'd yoak
My foul confents not to give Sov'reignty.

The. Take time to paufe; and by the next new

moon,

(The fealing day betwixt my love and me,
For everlasting bond of fellowship).
Upon that day either prepare to die,
For difobedience to your father's will;
Or elfe to wed Demetrius, as he would;

5 I know not, by what power 1 am made bold;] It was the Opinion of the Ancients, that when a perfon did or faid any thing that exceeded his common faculties of performance, that he did it by the Affiftance of fome God. So here the infinuates, that it was Love that enabled her to plead his cause.

Or

Or on Diana's altar to proteft,
For aye, aufterity and fingle life.

Dem. Relent, fweet Hermia; and, Lyfander, yield Thy crazed title to my certain right.

Lyf. You have her father's love, Demetrius; Let me have Hermia's; do you marry him.

Ege. Scornful Lyfander! true, he hath my love;
And what is mine, my love fhall render him.
And she is mine, and all my right of her
I do eftate unto Demetrius.

Lyf. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he,
As well poffeft: my love is more than his :
My fortune's 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 profecute my right?
Demetrius (I'll avouch it to his head)
Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena;
And won her foul; and fhe, fweet lady, doats,
Devoutly doats, doats in Idolatry,

Upon this fpotted and inconftant man.

The. I must confefs, that I have heard so much, And with Demetrius thought t'have spoke thereof; But, being over-full of felf-affairs,

felf

My mind did lofe it. But, Demetrius, come;
And come, Egeus; you fhall go with me;
I have fome private fchooling for you both.
For you, fair Hermia, look, you arm your
To fit your fancies to your father's will;
Or elfe the law of Athens yields you up
(Which by no means we may extenuate)
To death, or to a vow of fingle life.
'Come, my Hippolita ; what cheer, my love?
Demetrius,

6 Come, my Hippolita ; what cheer, my love?] Hippolita had not faid one fingle word all this while. Had a modern poet had VOL. I.

H

the

Demetrius, and Egeus, go along;

I must employ you in fome bufinefs
Against our nuptials, and confer with you
Of fomething nearly that concerns your felves.
Ege. With duty and defire we follow you.

[Exeunt.

Lyf. How now, my love? why is your cheek fo pale?

How chance, the rofes there do fade fo faft?

Her. Belike, for want of rain; which I could well
? Beteem them from the tempeft of mine eyes.
Lyf. Hermia, for aught that ever I could read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,

The course of true love never did run fmooth;
But, either it was different in blood-

Her. O crofs! too high, to be enthrall❜d to

(a)

Lyf. Or elfe mifgraffed, in refpect of years →→→→ Her. Ofpight! too old, to be engag'd to young! Lyf. Or elfe it ftood upon the choice of friends Her. O hell! to chufe love by another's eye! Lyf. Or if there were a fympathy in choice, War, death, or fickness did lay fiege to it; Making it momentary as a found,

Swift as a fhadow, fhort as any dream,

the teaching of her, we should have found her the bufiest amongst them; and, without doubt, the Lovers might have expected a more equitable decifion. But Shakespear knew better what he was about; and obférved decorum.

7 Betéem, or pour down upon them.

Mr. Pope.

Vulg. to love.]

" & Brief

"Brief as the lightning in the collied night, "That (in a spleen) unfolds both heav'n and earth; "And ere a man hath power to fay, Behold! "The jaws of darkness do devour it up; So quick bright things come to confufion.

Her. If then true lovers have been ever croft, It stands as an edict in destiny:

Then, let us teach our tryal patience:

Because it is a customary cross,

As due to love, as thoughts and dreams, and fighs, Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers!

Lyf. A good perfuafion; therefore hear me, Hermia. I have a widow-aunt, a dowager

Of great revenue, and fhe hath no child;
From Athens is her house remov'd feven leagues,
And the refpects me as her only fon.
There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;
And to that place the fharp Athenian law
Cannot purfue us. If thou loy'ft me then,

8 Brief as the light'ning in the collied Night,
That, in a Spleen, unfolds both Heaven and Earth,
And ere a man bath power to fay, behold!

Steal

The jaws of darkness do devour it up.] Tho' the word Spleen be here employed odly enough, yet I believe it right. Shakespear always hurried on by the grandeur and multitude of his Ideas affumes, every now and then, an uncommon licence in the use of his words. Particularly in complex moral modes it is usual with him to employ one, only to exprefs a very few ideas of that number of which it is compofed. Thus wanting here to express the ideas of a fudden, or in a trice, he ufes the word Spleen; which, partially confidered, fignifying a hafty fudden fit is enough for him, and he never troubles himself about the further or fuller fignification of the word. Here, he ufes the word Spleen for a fudden hafty fit; fo juft the contrary, in the Two Gentlemen of Ve rona, he uses fudden for fpleenatic-fudden quips. And it must be owned this fort of converfion adds a force to the diction. 9 Collied or black.

Mr. Pope.

1 Lyf. If thou lov'ft me, then Steal forth thy father's houfe &c. Her. My good Lyfander,

H 2

I fwear