1. FAI. Hence, away; now all is well: One, aloof, ftand fentinel." [Exeunt Fairies. TITANIA fleeps. Enter OBERON. OBE. What thou feeft, when thou doft wake, [Squeezes the flower on Titania's eye-lids. Do it for thy true love take; Love, and languish for his fake: 8 Be it ounce, or cat, or bear, Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA. [Exit. Lrs. Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood; And to speak troth, I have forgot our way: We'll reft us, Hermia, if you think it good, And tarry for the comfort of the day. HER. Be it fo, Lyfander: find you out a bed, For I upon this bank will reft my head. Lrs. One turf fhall ferve as pillow for us both; One heart, one bed, two bofoms, and one troth. HER. Nay, good Lyfander; for my fake, my dear, Lie further off yet, do not lie fo near. 7 Hence, away; &c.] This, according to all the editions, is made part of the fong; but, I think, without fufficient reafon, as it appears to be spoken after the fong is over. In the quarto 1600, it is given to the 2d Fairy; but the other divifion is better. STEEVENS. 8 Be it ounce,] The ounce is a fmall tiger, or tiger-cat. JOHNSON. Lrs. O, take the fenfe, fweet, of my innocence; 9 Love takes the meaning, in love's conference.* I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit ; So that but one heart we can make of it: Two bofoms interchained' with an oath; So then, two bofoms, and a single troth... Then, by your fide no bed-room me deny; For, lying fo, Hermia, I do not lie. HER. Lyfander riddles very prettily :Now much befhrew my manners and my pride, If Hermia meant to fay, Lyfander lied. 9 O, take the fenfe, fweet, of my innocence ;] Lysander in the language of love profelles, that as they have one heart, they fhall have one bed; this Hermia thinks rather too much, and intreat him to lye further off. Lyfander answers: O, take the fenfe, Sweet, of my innocence;" Understand the meaning of my innocence, of my innocent meaning. Let no fufpicion of ill enter thy mind. JOHNSON. Love takes the meaning, in love's conference.] In the converfation of those who are affured of each other's kindness, not fufpicion but love takes the meaning. No malevolent interpretation is to be made, but all is to be received in the fense which love can find, and which love can dictate. JOHNSON. The latter line is certainly intelligible as Dr. Johnfon has explained it; but, I think, it requires a flight alteration to make it connect well with the former. I would read: "Love take the meaning in love's conference." That is, Let love take the meaning. TYRWHITT. There is no occasion for alteration. The idea is exactly fimilar to that of St. Paul: " Love thinketh no evil." HENLEY. 3 interchained-] Thus the quartos; the folio interchanged. STEEVENS. 4 Now much befhrew, &c.] This word, of which the etymology is not exactly known, implies a finister wish, and means the fame as if fhe had faid " now ill befall my manners," &c. It is used by Heywood in his Iron Age, 1632: Again, "Bebrew your amorous rhetorick," "Well, Paris, I befbrew you, with my heart." STEEVENS. But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy Lrs. Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, fay I; And then end life, when I end loyalty! Here is my bed: Sleep give thee all his reft! HER. With half that with the wifher's eyes be prefs'd! [They fleep. Enter PUCK. Puck. Through the foreft have I And here the maiden, fleeping found, On the dank and dirty ground. Near this lack-love, kill-courtefy.* See Minfheu's etymology of it, which feems to be an imprecation or wish of fuch evil to one, as the venomous biting of the brewmoufe. TOLLET. 3 But Athenian found I none,] Thus the quarto, 1600, printed by Fisher. That by Roberts, and the folio, 1623, read: “—find I none." STEEVENS. 4 Near this lack-love, kill-courtesy.] The old copies read—– "Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy." . Mr. Theobald and Sir T. Hanmer, for the fake of the measure, leave out this lack-love. I have only omitted-this. STEEVENS. Churl, upon thy eyes I throw All the power this charm doth owe: " Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running. [Exit. HEL. Stay, though thou kill me, fweet Demetrius. DEM. I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus. HEL. O, wilt thou darkling leave me?" do not fo. DEM. Stay, on thy peril; I alone will go. [Exit DEMETRIUS. Might we not adhere to the old copy, and at the fame time preferve the measure, by printing the line thus: "Near this lack-love, this kill-court'fy. We meet with the fame abbreviation in our author's Venus and Adonis: 66 They all ftrain courty, who fhall cope him firft." MALONE. Court'fy can never be admitted at the end of a verse, the penult being always fhort. STEEVENS. 5 All the power this charm doth owe:] i. e. all the power it posfees. So, in Othello: 7 "Shall never medicine thee to that fweet fleep let love forbid STEEVENS. Sleep his feat on thy eye-lid.] So, in Macbeth: "Sleep fhall neither night nor day "Hang upon his pent-houfe lid." STEEVENS. wilt thou darkling leave me?] i. e. in the dark. So, in The Two Angry Women of Abington, 1599: "we'll run away with the torch, and leave them to fight darkling." The word is likewise used by Milton. STEEVENS. HEL. O, I am out of breath, in this fond chace! For beasts that meet me, run away for fear: fake. Lrs. And run through fire I will, for thy fweet [Waking. Tranfparent Helena! Nature here fhows art,' That through thy bofom makes me fee thy heart. Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word Is that vile name, to perifh on my fword! HEL. Do not fay fo, Lyfander; fay not fo: What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though? Again, in King Lear: "And fo the candle went out, and we were left darkling." RITSON. 8 9 my grace.] My acceptablenefs, the favour that I can gain. JOHNSON. Nature [here] fhews art,] Thus the quartos. The folio reads-Nature her fhews art,-perhaps the error of the prefs forNature fhews her art. The editor of the fecond folio changed her to here. MALONE. I admit the word-bere, as a judicious correction of the fecond folio. Here, means-in the prefent inftance. On this occafion, fays Lyfander, the work of nature resembles that of art, viz. (as our author expreffes it in his Lover's Complaint,) an object "glaz'd with crystal." STEEVENS. |