(And yet a place of high respect with me), Than to be used as you do use your dog? Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit; For I am sick, when I do look on thee. Hel. And I am sick, when I look not on you. Hel. Your virtue is my privilege for that. Dem, I'll run from thee, and hide me in the brakes, And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts. Hel. 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! When cowardice pursues, and valour flies. Dem. I 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. Hel. Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field, You do me mischief. Fye, 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. 19 i. e. bring it into question. I'll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell, [Exeunt DEM. and HEL. Obe. Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove, Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love. Re-enter PUCK. Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer. Puck. Ay, there it is. Obe. With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes; grove: 20 To die upon, &c. appears to have been used for 'to die by the hand.' So in The Two Gentlemen of Verona : 'I'll die on him that says so, but yourself.' 21 The greater cowslip. 22 Steevens thinks this rhyme of man and on a sufficient proof that the broad Scotch pronunciation once prevailed in England. But our ancient poets were not particular in making their rhymes correspond in sound, and I very much doubt a conclusion made upon such slender grounds. Effect it with some care, that he may prove [Exeunt. SCENE III. Another part of the Wood. Enter TITANIA, with her train. Tita. Come, now a roundel1, 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 rear-mice for their leathern wings, To make my small elves coats; and some, keep back The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, and wonders At our quaint spirits 3: Sing me now asleep; Then to your offices, and let me rest. SONG. 1 Fai. You spotted snakes, with double tongue, Newts, and blindworms 5, do no wrong; CHORUS. Philomel, with melody, Sing in our sweet lullaby; Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby: So, good night, with lullaby. 1 The roundel, or round, as its name implies, was a dance of a circular kind. Ben Jonson, in the Tale of a Tub, seems to call. the rings which such fairy dances are supposed to make in the grass, rondels: 2 Bats. 'I'll have no rondels, I, in the queen's paths.' 3 Sports. Dr. Farmer has shown that spirit was used for sport in Decker's play, If It be Not Good, the Devil is in It :- Now, Shalcan, some new spirit?-Ruff. A thousand wenches stark naked, to play at leap-frog.-Omnes. O rare sight!' 4 Efts. 5 Slow-worms. II. 2 Fai. Weaving spiders, come not here; Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence: Beetles black, approach not near ; Worm, nor snail, do no offence. CHORUS. Philomel, with melody, &c. 1 Fai. Hence, away; now all is well: One, aloof, stand sentinel. [Exeunt Fairies. TITANIA sleeps. Enter OBERon. Obe. What thou seest, when thou dost wake, [Squeezes the flower on TITANIA's eyelids. Do it for thy true love take; Love, and languish for his sake: In thy eye that shall appear When thou wak'st, it is thy dear; Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA. [Exit. Lys. Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood; And to speak troth, I have forgot our way; Her. Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed, Lys. One turf shall serve as pillow for us both; One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth. Her. Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear, Lie further off yet, do not lie so near. 6 The small tiger, or tiger-cat. Lys. O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence"; 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: my pride, Her. Lysander riddles very prettily:- Here is my bed: Sleep give thee all his rest! Enter PUCK. Puck. Through the forest have I gone, But Athenian found I none, 7 i. e. understand the meaning of my innocence, or my innocent meaning. Let no suspicion of ill enter thy mind.' In the conversation of those who are assured of each other's kindness, not suspicion but love takes the meaning. 8 This word implies a sinister wish, and here means the same as if she had said, 'now ill befall my manners,' &c. Chaucer uses To shrew for to curse; a shrew'd woman and a curst woman were the same. Tooke thinks it is the Saxon imperative of Be-rynepian, Be thou rynepe, or vexed. Florio gives the following old erroneous origin of this expression: 'Museragno. A kinde of mouse called a shrew, which is deadly to other beasts if he but bite them, and laming all if he but touch them, of whome came that ordinary curse, I beshrew you, as much as to say, I wish you death.' |