Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires, For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd, Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd, The. Take time to pause: and, by the next new moon (The sealing-day betwixt my love and me, Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would: For aye, austerity and single life. Dem. Relent, sweet Hermia;—And, Lysander, yield Thy crazed title to my certain right. Lys. You have her father's love, Demetrius; Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him. Ege. Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love, And what is mine my love shall render him; I do estate unto Demetrius. 6 Ever. 7 Earthlier happy for earthly happier, which Capel proposed to substitute. Lys. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he, And, which is more than all these boasts can be, Upon this spotted and inconstant man. The. 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; I must employ you in some business you Of something nearly that concerns yourselves. 8 As spotless is innocent, so spotted is wicked. So in Cavendish's Metrical Visions: "The spotted queen causer of all this strife.' and again: 'Spotted with pride, viciousnes, and cruelty.' Lys. How now, my love? Why is your cheek so pale? How chance the roses there do fade so fast? Her. Belike, for want of rain; which I could well Beteem9 them from the tempest of mine eyes. Lys. Ah me! for aught that ever I could read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth: Her. O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low! 11 Swift as a shadow, short as any dream; So quick bright things come to confusion. Her. If then true lovers have been ever cross'd, It stands as an edíct in destiny: Then let us teach our trial patience, Because it is a customary cross; 9 Bestow, give, afford, or deign to allow. The word is used by Spenser : 'So would I, said the Enchanter, glad and fain Beteem to you his sword, you to defend.' Thus also in Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2: 'That he might not beteeme the winds of heaven 10 Momentary. 11 Blackened, as with smut, coal, &c. ; figuratively, darkened. See Othello, Act ii. Sc. 3. As due to love, as thoughts, and dreams, and sighs, I have a widow aunt, a dowager Of great revenue, and she hath no child: Her. By that which knitteth souls, and prospers loves; 13 Lys. Keep promise, love: Look, here comes, Helena. Enter HELENA. Her. God speed fair Helena! Whither away ? Hel. Call you me fair? that fair again unsay. 12 Fancy is love. So afterwards in this play: 'Fair Helena in fancy following me.' And again in the celebrated passage applied to Q. Elizabeth : "In maiden meditation fancy-free.' 13 Shakspeare forgot that Theseus performed his exploits before the Trojan war, and consequently long before the death of Dido. Demetrius loves your fair 14: O happy fair! sweet air More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear, 16 When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear. Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated, such skill! my smiles Her. I give him curses, yet he gives me love. Hel. O, that my prayers could such affection move! Her. The more I hate, the more he follows me. Her. Take comfort; he no more shall see my face; Lysander and myself will fly this place.- Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me: 14 Fair for fairness, beauty. Very common in writers of Shakspeare's age. 15 The lode-star is the leading or guiding star, that is the polar star. The magnet is for the same reason called the lodestone. The reader will remember Milton's beauty: The cynosure of neighb'ring eyes. 16 Countenance, feature. 17 i. e. changed, transformed. |