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ACT V. SCENE I.

The fame. An Apartment in the Palace of Thefeus.

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, Lords, and Attendants.

HIP. 'Tis ftrange, my Thefeus, that thefe lovers fpeak of.

THE. More ftrange than true. I never may believe Thefe antique fabies, nor thefe fairy toys. Lovers, and madmen, have such feething brains,* Such fhaping fantafies, that apprehend

More than cool reafon ever comprehends.

The lunatick, the lover, and the poet,'

Are of imagination all compact:"

One fees more devils than vaft hell can hold; That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantick,7

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"Now useless, boil'd within thy fcull.' STEEVENS.

We meet with the fame expreffion in The Winter's Tale: "Would any but these boil'd brains of three and twenty hunt this weather?" MALONE.

The lunatick, the lover, and the poet, ] An ingenious modern writer fuppofes that our author had here in contemplation Oreftes, Mark Antony, and himself; but I do not recolled any paffage in his works that shows him to have been acquainted with the ftory of Agamemnon's fon, fcelerum furiis agitatus Oreftes: and indeed, if even fuch were found, the fuppofed allufion would ftill remain very problematical. MALONE.

6 Are of imagination all compa&:] i. c. made up of mere imagination. So, in As You Like It:

"If he, compact of jars, grow mufical." STEEVENS.

7 That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantick,] Such is the reading of all the old copies; instead of which, the modern editors have given us —

"The madman: while the lover," &c. STEEVENS.

8

Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt :
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,"
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to
heaven;

And, as imagination bodies forth.

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to fhapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation, and a name.

Such tricks hath ftrong imagination;
That, if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends fome bringer of that joy;
Or, in the night, imagining fome fear,
How easy is a bufh fuppos'd a bear?

HIP. But all the ftory of the night told over,
And all their minds transfigur'd fo together,
More witneffeth than fancy's images,

And grows to fomething of great conftancy;*
But, howfoever, ftrange, and admirable.

Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and
HELENA.

THE. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.

Joy, gentle friends! joy, and fresh days of love Accompany your hearts!,

• Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:] By "a brow of Egypt" Shakspeare means no more than the brow of a gipsy. So much for fome ingenious modern's ideal Cleopatra. See note 5.

STEEVENS.

9 in a fine frenzy rolling, ] This feems to have been imitated by Drayton in his Epistle to 7. Reynolds on Poets and Poetry: defcribing Marlowe, he says:

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that fine madness still he did retain,

"Which rightly should poffefs a poet's brain.'

MALONE.

conftancy;] Confiftency, ftability, certainty. JOHNSON.

Lys.

More than to us

Wait on your royal walks, your board, your bed! THE. Come now; what masks, what dances fhall we have,

To wear away this long age of three hours,
Between our after-fupper, and bed-time?
Where is our ufual manager of mirth?
What revels are in hand? Is there no play,
To eafe the anguifh of a torturing hour?
Call Philoftrate.❜

PHILOST.

Here, mighty Thefeus.

THE. Say, what abridgment have you for this

evening?

What mafk? what mufick? How fhall we beguile

2 Wait on 1 The old copies have wait in.

Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

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3 Cail Philofirate.] In the folio, 1623, it is, Call Egeus, and all the fpeeches afterwards fpoken by Philoftrate, except that beginning, "No, my noble lord, &c. are there given to that chara&er. But the modern editions, from the quartos 1600, have rightly given them to Philoftrate, who appears in the firft fcene as mafter of the revels to Thefeus, and is there fent out on a similar kind of errand.

In The Knight's Tale of Chaucer, Arcite, under the name of Philoftrate, is fquire of the chamber to Thefeus. STEEVENS.

4 Say, what abridgment, &c.] By abridgment our author may mean a dramatick performances, which crowds the events of years into a few hours. So, in Hamlet, A&t II. fc. vii. he calls the players abridgments, abftracts, and brief chronicles of the time." Again, in K. Henry V:

66

"Then brook abridgment; and your eyes advance

"After your thoughts

It may be worth while, however, to obferve, that in the North the word abatement had the fame meaning as diverfion or amusement. So, in the Prologue to the 5th Bock of G. Douglas's verfion of the Encid:

"Ful mony mery abaitmentis followis here." STEEVENS. Does not abridgement in the prefent inftance, fignify amusement to beguile the tedioufness of the evening? or, in one word, paflime?

HENLEY.

1

The lazy time, if not with some delight?

PHILOST. There is a brief,' how many sports are ripe;"

Make choice of which your highrefs will fee first. [ Giving a paper. THE. reads.' ] The battle with the Centaurs, to be fung By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.

8

We'll none of that: that have I told my love,
In glory of my kinfman Hercules.

The riot of the tipfy Bacchanals,

Tearing the Thracian finger in their rage. That is an old device; and it was play'd When I from Thebes came laft a conqueror. The thrice three Mufes mourning for the death Of learning, late deceas'd in beggary.

a brief,] i. e. a fhort account or enumeration. So, in Gascoigne's Dulce Bellum Inexpertis:

She fent a brief unto me by her mayd."

Again, in King John:

6

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the hand of time

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"Shall draw this brief into as huge a volume.' STEEVENS. are ripe; ] One of the quartos has ripe, the other old editions - rife. JOHNSON.

Ripe is the reading of Fisher's quarto. Rife, however, is a word ufed both by Sidney and Spenfer. It means abounding, but is now almoft obfolete. Again, in Stephen Goffon's School of Abufe, 1579: - you fhall find the theaters of the one, and the abufes of the other, to be rife among us. STEEVENS.

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7 The. reads.] This is printed as Mr. Theobald gave it from both the old quartos. In the first folio, and all the following edi tions, Lyfander reads the catalogue, and Thefeus makes the remarks. JOHNSON.

8 By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.] This feems to imply a more ancient practice of caftration for the voice, than can be found in opera annals. BURNEY.

9 The thrice three Mufes mourning for the death

Of learning, &c.] I do not know whether it has been before obferved, that Shakspeare here, perhaps, alluded to Spenser's poem, entitled The Tears of the Mufes, on the neglect and contempt

That is fome fatire, keen, and critical,*
Not forting with a nuptial ceremony.

A tedious brief feene of young Pyrantus,
And his love Thibe; very tragical mirth.
Merry and tragical? 3 Tedious and brief?
That is, hot ice, and wonderous frange fnow."
How fhall we find the concord of this difcord?

of learning. This piece firft appeared in quarto, with others 15gi. The oldeft edition of this play now known is dated 1600. If Spenfer's poem be here intended, may we not prefume that there is fome earlier edition of this? But however, if the allufion be allowed, at leaft it feems to bring the play below 1591.

2

T. WARTON:

keen, and critical,] Critical here means criticising, cenfuring. So, in Othello:

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0, I am nothing if not critical." STEEVENS.

3 Merry and tragical?] Our poet is ftill harping on Cambyfes, of which the first edition might have appeared in 1569-70; when "an Enterlude, a lamentable Tragedy full of pleasant myrth" was licensed to John Alde. Regist. Stat. fol. 184. b. STEEVENS.

4 That is, hot ice, and wonderous ftrange fnow. ] The nonfenfe of

this line fhould be corrected thus:

"That is, hot ice, a wonderous ftrange how."

Mr. Upton reads, not improbably:

-

WARBURTON.

And wonderous ftrange black fnow." JOHNSON. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads - wondrous fcorching fnow, Mr. Pope omits the line entirely. I think the pallage needs no change, on account of the verfification; for wonderous is as often ufed as three, as it is as two fyllables. The meaning of the line is

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hot ice, and fnow of as frange a quality."

There is, however, an ancient pamphlet entitled, "Tarlton's Devife upon this unlooked for grete fnowe." And perhaps the paffage before us may contain fome allufion to it. This works is entered on the books of the Stationers' Company; as alfo, "A ballet of a Northerne Man's Report of the wonderful greate fnowe: in the Southerne parts, &c. STEEVENS.

As there is no antithefis between ftrange and fnow, as there is between hot and ice, I believe we fhould read. and wonderous frong fnow.'

M. MASON.

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