Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,

Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?

Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night

From Perigenia," whom he ravished?

And make him with fair Æglé break his faith,

With Ariadne, and Antiopa?

Tita. These are the forgeries of jealousy:
And never, since the middle summer's spring,"
Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead,
By paved fountain, or by rushy brook,
Or on the beached margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea
Contagious fogs; which falling in the land,
Have every pelting" river made so proud,
That they have overborne their continents:
The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat; and the green corn
Hath rotted, ere his youth attain'd a beard :
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
The crows are fatted with the murrain flock;
The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud ;d
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,*

y Perigenia,] Our ancient authors were not scrupulous about proper names, -the real name was Perigune, Ægle, Ariadne, and Antiopa, were all at different times mistresses of Theseus.-STEEVENS.

2 And never, since the middle summer's spring, &c.] The middle summer's spring, is, I apprehend, the season when trees put forth their second, or, as they are frequently called, their midsummer shoots.-HENLEY.

b

pelting-] Despicable, mean, sorry, wretched.

overborne their continents:] Borne down the banks that contain them. The word continents is used in Lear in the same sense.-JOHNSON. murrain-] The plague in cattle here used as an adjective, signifying dead of the murrain.

C

The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud;] Nine men's morris is a game still played by the shepherds, cowkeepers, &c. in the midland counties, as follows:

A figure is made on the ground by cutting out the turf; and two persons take each nine stones, which they place by turns in the angles, and afterwards move alternately, as at chess or draughts. He who can place three in a straight line, may then take off any one of his adversary's, where he pleases, till one, having lost all his men, loses the game.-ALCHORNE.

e

the quaint mazes in the wanton green,] This alludes to a sport still followed by boys; i. e. what is now called running the figure of eight.

STERVENS.

268

MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM.

For lack of tread, are undistinguishable :
The human mortalsf want their winter here;
No night is now with hymn or carol blest:—
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatick diseases do abound:
And thorough this distemperatures we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose;
And on old Hyems' chin, and icy crown,
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set: The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn," angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries; and the 'mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which:
And this same progeny of evils comes

From our debate, from our dissention;
We are their parents and original.

Obe. Do you amend it then: it lies in you:
Why should Titania cross her Oberon ?

I do but beg a little changeling boy,

To be my henchman.

Tita.

Set your heart at rest,

The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a vot'ress of my order
And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,
Full often hath she gossip'd by my side;
And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,
Marking the embarked traders on the flood;
When we have laughed to see the sails conceive,

The human mortals-] Men, as distinguished from fairies; who, though not human were subject to mortality.-The death of fairies was questioned by Mr. Ritson; but Spenser has established the fact beyond a doubt, by giving the pedigree of Oberon himself, who succeeded Elferon, and, after his death, was succeeded by Tanaquil, or Gloriana.-See Spenser's Fairy Queen, b. 2 c. x. from the seventieth stanza to the end.

8- · distemperature—] i. e. The discord of the king and queen.—MALONE. Or, the perturbation of the elements.-STEEVENS.

The childing autumn,]—is the pregnant autumn, frugifer autumnus.— STEEVENS.

k

By their increase,] i. e. By their produce.

henchman.] Page of honour. This office was abolished at court by Queen Elizabeth.-GREY.

And grow big-bellied, with the wanton wind:
Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait,
Following, (her womb, then rich with my young squire,)
Would imitate; and sail upon the land,

To fetch me trifles, and return again,
As from a voyage, rich with merchandize.
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;
And, for her sake, I do rear up her boy:
And, for her sake, I will not part with him.

Obe. How long within this wood intend you stay?
Tita. Perchance, till after Theseus, wedding-day.

If you will patiently dance in our round,

And see our moonlight revels, go with us;

If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

Obe. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee. Tita. Not for thy fairy kingdom.—Fairies, away: We shall chide down-right, if I longer stay.

[Exeunt TITANIA, and her train.

Obe. Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove,

Till I torment thee for this injury.—

My gentle Puck, come hither: Thou remember'st

Since once I sat upon a promontory,

And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back,

Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song;

And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear the sea-maid's music.

Puck.

I remember.

Obe. That very time I saw, (but thou could'st not,)
Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
Cupid all arm'd a certain aim he took

At a fair vestal, throned by the west;

And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts :

But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quench'd in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon;
And the imperial votress passed on,

In maiden meditation, fancy-free :'

1 -fancy-free:] i. e. Exempt from the power of love.-The whole of this beautiful passage is designed as a compliment to Queen Elizabeth.-Dr. War

Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,—

Before, milk-white; now purple with love's wound,—
And maidens call it, love-in-idleness."

Fetch me that flower; the herb I show'd thee once;
The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid,
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb: and be thou here again,
Ere the leviathan can swim a league.

Puck. I'll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes.

Obe.

Having once this juice, I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,

And drop the liquor of it in her eyes;

The next thing then she waking looks upon,
(Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,

On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,)
She shall pursue it with the soul of love.

And ere I take this charm off from her sight,
(As I can take it, with another herb,)

I'll make her render up her page to me.
But who comes here? I am invisible;
And I will over-hear their conference.

[Exit PUCK.

Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA following him. Dem. I love thee not, therefore pursue me not. Where is Lysander, and fair Hermia?

The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.

Thou told'st me, they were stol'n into this wood,
And here am I, and wood" within this wood,

Because I cannot meet with Hermia.

Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.

Hel. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;

But yet you draw not iron, for my heart

m

burton has attempted to shew that the mermaid meant Mary Queen of Scots : but this was a task which it exceeded even his ingenuity to accomplish. love-in-idleness.] The flower commonly called pansies, or heart's-ease, is named love-in-idleness in Warwickshire, and in Lyte's Herbal. There is a reason why Shakspeare says it is "now purple with love's wound," because one or two of its petals are of a purple colour.-TOLLET.

wood-] i. e. Mad.

Is true as steel: Leave you your power to draw,
And I shall have no power to follow you.

Dem. Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair?
Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth

Tell you I do not, nor I cannot love you?

Hel. And even for that do I love you the more.
I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,

The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
What worser place can I beg in your love,
(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.
Dem. You do impeach your modesty too much,

To leave the city, and commit yourself

Into the hands of one that loves you not;
To trust the opportunity of night,
And the ill counsel of a desert place,
With the rich worth of your virginity.

Hel. Your virtue is my privilege for that.
It is not night, when I do see your face,
Therefore I think I am not in the night:
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company;
For you, in my respect, are all the world:
Then how can it be said, I am alone,

When all the world is here to look on me?

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 chace;
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: