TITA. Or, fay, fweet love, what thou defir'ft to

eat.

Bor. Truly, a peck of provender; I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks, I have a great defire to a bottle of hay: good hay, fweet hay, hath no fellow.

TITA. I have a venturous fairy that fhall seek The fquirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.

Bor. I had rather have a handful, or two, of dried peas. But, I pray you, let none of your people ftir me; I have an expofition of fleep come upon me.

TITA. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my

arms.

Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away."

So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle,'

8 The Squirrel's hoard,] Hoard is here employed as a diffyllable.

STEEVENS.

9 and be all ways away.] i. e. disperse yourselves, and scout out feverally, in your watch, that danger approach us from no quarter. THEOBALD.

The old copies read—“ be always." Corrected by Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

Mr. Upton reads:

"And be away-away." JOHNSON.

Mr. Heath would read-and be always i' th'

So doth the woodbine, the feet honeysuckle,
Gently entwift, the female ivy fo

way. STEEVENS.

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.] What does the woodbine entwift? The boney-fuckle. But the woodbine and honey fuckle were, till now, but two names for one and the fame plant. Florio, in his Italian Dictionary, interprets Madre Selva by woodbine or honnie-fuckle. We must therefore find a fupport for the woodbine as well as for the ivy. Which is done by reading the lines thus: "So doth the woodbine, the feet honey-fuckle, "Gently entwift the maple; ivy fo

"Enrings the barky fingers of the elm."

The corruption might happen by the firft blunderer dropping the in writing the word maple, which word thence became male. A

Gently entwift,-the female ivy' fo
Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.

O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!

[They fleep.

following tranfcriber, for the fake of a little fenfe and measure, thought fit to change this male into female; and then tacked it as an epithet to ivy. WARBURTON.

Mr. Upton reads:

"So doth the woodrine the fweet honey fuckle,"

for bark of the wood. Shakspeare perhaps only meant, fo the leaves involve the flower, ufing woodbine for the plant, and honeyfuckle for the flower; or perhaps Shakspeare made a blunder.

JOHNSON. The thought is Chaucer's. See his Troilus and Creffeide, v. 1236, Lib. III:

"And as about a tre with many a twist

"Bitrent and writhin is the fwete woodbinde,
"Gan eche of hem in armis other winde."

What Shakspeare seems to mean, is this-So the woodbine, i. e, the fweet honey-fuckle, doth gently entwift the barky fingers of the elm, and fo does the female ivy enring the fame fingers. It is not unfrequent in the poets, as well as other writers, to explain one word by another which is better known. The reafon why Shakspeare thought woodbine wanted illuftration, perhaps is this. In fome counties, by woodbine or woodbind would have been generally underftood the ivy, which he had occafion to mention in the very next line. In the following inftance from Old Fortunatus, 1600, woodbind is ufed for ivy:

"And, as the running wood-bind, fpread her arms.

"To choak thy with'ring boughs in her embrace." And Barrett in his Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580, enforces the fame diftinction that Shakspeare thought it neceffary to make:

"Woodbin that beareth the honey-fuckle." STEEVENS. This paffage has given rife to various conjectures. It is certain, that the wood-bine and the honey-fuckle were fometimes confidered as different plants. In one of Taylor's poems, we have

"The woodbine, primrofe, and the cowflip fine,
"The bonifuckle, and the daffadill.”

But I think Mr. Steevens's interpretation the true one. The old writers did not always carry the auxiliary verb forward, as Mr. Capell feems to fuppofe by his alteration of enrings to enring. So bithop Lowth, in his excellent Introduction to Grammar, p. 126, has without reafon corrected a fimilar paffage in our tranflation of St. Matthew. FARMER.

OBERON advances. Enter Puck.

OBE. Welcome, good Robin. See'ft thou this fweet fight?

Her dotage now I do begin to pity.

For meeting her of late, behind the wood,

Were any change neceffary, I fhould not fcruple to read the weedbind, i. e. fmilax: a plant that twifts round every other that grows in its way. STEEVENS.

In lord Bacon's Nat. Hift. Experiment 496, it is obferved that there are two kinds of "honeysuckles, both the woodbine and the trefoil." i. e. the first is a plant that winds about trees, and the other is a three-leaved grafs. Perhaps these are meant in Dr. Farmer's quotation. The distinction, however, may ferve to shew why Shakspeare and other authors frequently added woodbine to honey-fuckle, when they mean the plant and not the grass. TOLLET.

The interpretation of either Dr. Johnson or Mr. Steevens removes all difficulty. The following paffage in Sicily and Naples, or The Fatal Union, 1640, in which the honey fuckle is fpoken of as the flower, and the woodbine as the plant, adds fome fupport to Dr. Johnson's expofition:

—as fit a gift

"As this were for a lord,—a honey-fuckle,

"The amorous woodbine's offspring."

But Minfhieu in v. Woodbinde, fuppofes them the fame : " Alio nomine nobis Anglis Honyfuckle dictus." If Dr. Johnson's explanation be right, there fhould be no point after woodbine, honeyfuckle, or enrings. MALONE.

2 — the female iny-] Shak fpeare calls it female ivy, because it always requires fome fupport, which is poetically called its hufband. So Milton:

"To wed her elm: she spous'd, about him twines

"Her marriageable arms.

"Ulmo conjuncta marito." Catull.

"Platanufque celebs

"Evincet ulmos." Hor. STEEVENS.

Though the y here reprefents the female, there is, notwithftanding, an evident reference in the words enrings and fingers, to the ring of the marriage rite. HENLEY.

In our ancient marriage ceremony, (or rather, perhaps, contract,) the woman gave the man a ring, as well as received one from him.

Seeking fweet favours for this hateful fool,
I did upbraid her, and fall out with her:
For the his hairy temples then had rounded
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
And that fame dew, which fometime on the buds
Was wont to fwell, like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flourets' eyes,*
Like tears, that did their own difgrace bewail.
When I had, at my pleasure, taunted her,
And fhe, in mild terms, begg'd my patience,
I then did afk of her her changeling child;
Which straight she gave me, and her fairy fent
To bear him to my bower in fairy land.
And now I have the boy, I will undo
This hateful imperfection of her eyes.
And, gentle Puck, take this transformed fcalp
From off the head of this Athenian fwain;
That he awaking when the other do,'

To this cuftom the conduct of Olivia (See Twelfth Night, fc. ult.) bears fuficient teftimony:

"A contract of eternal bond of love, &c.

"Strengthen'd by interchangement of your rings." STEEVENS. 3-feet favours-] Thus Roberts's quarto and the firft folio. Fisher's quarto reads-favours; which, taken in the fense of ornaments, fuch as are worn at weddings, may be right. STEEVENS. 4 — flaurets' eyes,] The eye of a flower is the technical term for its center. Thus Milton, in his Lycidas, v. 139:

"Throw hither all your quaint enamel'd eyes." STEEVENS. That he awaking when the other do,] Such is the reading of the old copies, and fuch was the phrafeology of Shakspeare's age; though the modern editors have departed from it.-So, in King Henry IV. P. I: -and unbound the reft, and then came in the

ather."

Again, in King Henry IV. P. II: "For the other, Sir John, let me fee," &c.

So, in the epiftle prefixed to Pierce Pennileffe his Supplication to the Devil, by Thomas Nafhe, 4to. 1592: "I hope they will give me leave to think there be fooles of that art, as well as of all ather." MALONE.

May all to Athens back again repair;
And think no more of this night's accidents,
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
But first I will release the fairy queen.
Be, as thou waft wont to be;

[Touching her eyes with an berb.

See, as thou waft wont to fee:

Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower" Hath fuch force and bleffed power. Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen. TITA. My Oberon! what visions have I seen! Methought, I was enamour'd of an ass.

OBE. There lies your love.

TITA.

How came these things to pafs? O, how mine eyes do loath this visage now! OBE. Silence, a while.-Robin, take off this head.

Titania, musick call; and strike more dead Than common sleep, of all these five the sense."

TITA.Mufick,ho! mufick; fuch as charmeth fleep. PUCK. Now, when thou wak'ft, with thine own fool's eyes peep.

OBE. Sound, mufick. [Still mufick.] Come, my queen, take hands with me,

And rock the ground whereon thefe fleepers be.

6 Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower. -] The old copies read-or Cupid's. Corrected by Dr. Thirlby. The herb now employed is ftyled Diana's bud, becaufe it is applyed as an antidote to that charm which had conftrained Titania to dote on Bottom with " the foul of love." MALONE.

Dian's bud, is the bud of the Agnus Caftus, or Chafte Tree. Cupid's flower, is the Viola tricolor, or Love in Idleness. STEEVENS. 7 of all these five the fenfe.] The old copies read-these fine; but this moft certainly is corrupt. My emendation needs no justification. The five, that lay afleep on the ftage were Demetrius, Lyfander, Hermia, Helena, and Bottom.-Dr. Thirlby likewise communicated this very correction. THEOBALD.