Could not a worm, an adder, do so much? Dem. You spend your passion on a mispris'd mood: I am not guilty of Lysander's blood; Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell. Her. I pray thee, tell me then that he is well. And from thy hated presence part I so: See me no more, whether he be dead, or no. [Exit. Dem. There is no following her in this fierce vein : [Lies down. Some true-love turn'd, and not a false turn'd true. Puck. Then fate o'er-rules; that, one man holding troth, A million fail, confounding oath on oath. Ob. About the wood go swifter than the wind, And Helena of Athens look thou find : All fancy-sick she is, and pale of cheer With sighs of love, that cost the fresh blood dear: Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow. [Exit. [6] i. e. Mistaken; so below misprision is mistake. JOHNSON. I rather conceive that-" on a mispris'd mood" is put for" in a mispris'd mood," i. e. "in a mistaken manner." The preposition--on, is licentiously used by ancient authors. When Mark Antony says that Augustus Cæsar "dealt on lieutenantry," he does not mean that he dealt his blows on lieutenants," but that he dealt in them;" i. e. achieved his victories by their conduct. STEEVENS [7] Cheer from the Italian cara, is frequently used by the old English writers for countenance. Even Dryden says "Pale at the sudden sight, she chang'd her cheer" Edin. Magazine. STEEVENS [8] So, in King Henry VI. we have "blood-consuming," blood-drinking," and "blood-sucking sighs." All alluding to the ancient supposition that every sigh was indulged at the expense of a drop of blood. STEEVENS. Ob. Flower of this purple dye, Re-enter PUCK. Puck. Captain of our fairy band, And the youth, mistook by me, Shall we their fond pageant see? Ob. Stand aside the noise they make Will cause Demetrius to awake. Puck. Then will two at once, woo one; That must needs be sport alone; And those things do best please me, That befal prepost'rously. Enter LYSANDER and HELEna. Lys. Why should you think, that I should woo in scorn? Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows so born, How can these things in me seem scorn to you, Hel. You do advance your cunning more and more. Lys. I had no judgment, when to her I swore. [9] This alludes to what was said before: "the bolt of Cupid fell: "It fell upon a little western flower, "Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound." STEEVENS, VOL. II. 11 To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne? To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts, And now both rivals, to mock Helena: To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes, Hel. Never did mockers waste more idle breath. Dem. Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none : If e'er I lov'd her, all that love is gone. My heart with her but, as guest-wise, sojourn'd; Lys. Helen, it is not so. Dem. Disparage not the faith thou dost not know, Lest, to thy peril, thou aby it dear. -Look, where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear. Taurus is the name of a range of mountains in Asia. JOHNSON. He has in Measure for Measure, the same image: "But my kisses bring again, "Seals of love, but seal'd in vain. JOHNSON. [3] Harass, torment. JOHNSON. Enter HERMLA. Her. Dark night, that from the eye his function takes, The ear more quick of apprehension makes; Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense, It pays the hearing double recompense: Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found; Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound. But why unkindly didst thou leave me so? Lys. Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go? Her. What love could press Lysander from my side? Lys. Lysander's love, that would not let him 'bide, Fair Helena; who more engilds the night Than all yon fiery oes and eyes of light.* Why seek'st thou me? could not this make thee know, Her. You speak not as you think; it cannot be. Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd, All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence? Have with our neelds created both one flower;" [4] Shakespeare uses O for a circle. STEEVENS. D'Ewes's Journal of Queen Elizabeth's Parliaments, p. 650, mentions a patent to make spangles and oes of gold; and I think haberdashers call small curtain rings O's, as being circular. TOLLET. [5] Mr. Gibbon observes, that in a poem of Gregory Nazianzen on his own life, are some beautiful lines which burst from the heart, and speak the pangs of injured and lost friendship, resembling these. He adds, " Shakespeare had never read the poems of Gregory Nazianzen he was ignorant of the Greek language; but his mother tongue, the language of nature, is the same in Cappadocia and in Britain." Gibbon's Hist. Vol. III. p. 15. REED. [6] Most of our modern editors, with the old copies, have-needles; but the word was probably written by Shakespeare neelds, (a common contraction in the inland counties at this day,) otherwise the verse would be inharmonious. In the age of Shakespeare many contractions were used. Of the evisceration and extension of words, however, T. Churchyard affords the most numerous and glaring instances; for he has not scrupled even to give us rune instead of ruin, and miest instead of mist, when he wants rhymes to soon and criest. STEEVENS. Both warbling of one song, both in one key; Two lovely berries moulded on one stem: Due but to one, and crowned with one crest. Her. I am amazed at your passionate words: (Who even but now did spurn me with his foot,) Her. I understand not what you mean by this. [7] These are, as Theobald observes, terms peculiar to heraldry; but that cbservation does not help to explain them.-Every branch of a family is called a house, and none but the first of the first house can bear the arms of the family, without some distinction. Two of the first, therefore, means two coats of the first house, which are properly due but to one. M. MASON. |