Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.

Hel. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamanti
But yet you draw not iron, for my heart
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?

Hél. 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, itrike me,
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
What worfer place can I beg in your love,
(And yet a place of high respect with me)
Than to be used, as you use your dog?

Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit; For I am fick, 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 leaye 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 desart place, With the rich worth of your virginity:

[]cl. Your virtue is my privilege. For that It is not night when I do see your face, + So Star, hurst, in his Translation of the Second Book of Virgil's Æneid, 1982, speaking of Cassandra, “Lo ye, the wood virgin, with locks unbroided is haled.”

STEEVENS.
-For that
It is not nigbt, when I do fee your facr, &c.]
This passage is paraphrased from two lines of an ancient poet,

-Tu no le vel atra
Lumen, ct in folis tu mibi turba locis. Johnson.

There

4

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?

Den. I'll run from thee, and hide me in the brakes. And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.

Hal. The wildest hath not such a heart as you. Run when you will, the story shall be chang'd : Apollo fies, and Daphne holds the chase ; The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind Makes speed to catch the tyger :-Bootless speed ! When cowardice pursues, and valour fies.

Dem. I will not stay thy questions ; let me go; Or, if thou follow me, do not believe, But I shall do thee inischief in the wood.

Hel. Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field, You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius ! Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex : We cannot fight for love, as men may do ; We shou'd be woo'd, and were not made to woo, I'll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell; To die upon the hand, I love so well. [Exeunt. Ob. Fare thee well, nymph: ere he doth leave this

grove, Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love.Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.

Re-enter Puck. Puck. Ay, there it is.

Ob. I pray thee, give it me. I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows; s Quite over-canopy'd with the luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine.

There $ O'er-canopy'd with luscious woorbine,] All the old editions have, D4

Quite

There neeps Titania, some time of the night,
Lullid in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enameld skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in :
And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantasies.
Take thou some of it, and seek though this grove ;
A sweet Athenian lady is in love
With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes ;
But do it, when the next thing he espies
May be the lady. Thou shalt know the man,
By the Athenian garments he hath on.
Effect it with some care, that he may prove
More fond of her, than she upon her love:
And, look, thou meet me ere the first cock crow.
Puck. Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so,

[Exeunt, SCENE II.

Another part of the wood. Enter Queen of Fairies, with her train. Queen. Come, now a rounde), and a fairy song; Then; for the third part of a minute, hence : 7

Some, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine. On the margin of one of my folio's an unknown hand has written lush woodbine, which, I think, is right.

This hand I have since discovered to be Theobald's. JOHNSON. Shakespeare uses the word lujh in Tbe Tempel, A& II. “ How lufo and lufty the grass looks i how green ?"

STEEVENS. -a roundel, and a fairy song ;) A roundel is a dance in a ring. GRAY

A roundel, rondill, or roundelay, is used to signify a song begin. ping or ending with the same sentence, redit in orbem.

Puttenham, in his Art of Porry, 1580, has a chapter On the roundel, or fph re; and produces what he calls A general resemblance of the roundel 10 God, the world, and the queen. STEEVENS.

7 Tbin for ibe third part of a minute hince.) So the old copies, But the queen fets them work, that is to keep them employed for

the

6

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. Sing me now asleep:
Then to your offices, and let me reft,

Fairies sing
You Spotted snakes with double tongue,

Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
Newts, and blind-worms, do no wrong ;

Come not near our fairy queen.
Philomel, with melody,
Sing in your sweet lullaby ;
Lulla, lulla, lullaby ;
Lulla, lulla, lullaby :
Never barm,
Nor spell, nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;

So, good night, wiib lullaby. the remainder of the night; the poet, undoubtedly, intended her to say, Dance your round, and fing your song, and then instantly (before the third part of a minute) begone to your respective duţies. THEOBALD. Dr. Warburton reads,

-- for the third part of the midnight, The persons employed are fairies, to whom the third part of a minute might not be so sort a time to do such work in. The criticks might as well have objected to the epithet rall, which the fairy gives to the cowslip. But Shakespeare, throughout the play, has preserved the proportions of other things in respect of these tiny beings; compared with whose size a cowslip might be tall,

to whose powers of execution, a minute might be equivalent to an age. STEEVENS.

-quaint Spirits.] For this Dr, Warburton reads against all authority,

-quaint sports. Bat Profpero, in Tbe Tempeft, applies quaint to Ariel. Johnson.

2 Fairy

}

2 Fairy
Weaving Spiders, come not bere;
Hence, you long-legg'd Spinners, bence :

Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm, nor snail, do no offence.
Philomel, with melody, &c.

1 Fairy.
Hence, away; now all is well :
One, aloof, stand sentinel.

[Exeunt Fairies. The Queen sleeps..

Enter Oberon.
Ob. What thou seest, when thou doft wake,
Do it for thy true love take;
Love, and languish for his fake :
Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
In thy eye that shall

appear,
When thou wak'st, it is thy dear ;
Wake, when some vile thing is near.

[Exit Oberon. Enter Lysander and Hermia. Lys. Fair love, you faint with wandering in the

wood;
And, to speak troth, I have forgot our way :
We'll rest us Hermia, if thou think it good,
And tarry for the comfort of the day.

Hir. Be't so, Lysander: find you out a bed,
For I upon this bank will rest my head.

' Hince away, &c.] This according to all the editions is made part of the song; but I think without fufficient reason, as it apo pears to be spoken after the song is over. In the quarto 1600, it is given to the ad Fairy, but the other divifion is better. Steev. Be it ounces - The ounce is a small tiger, or tiger-cat.

JOHNSON

Lyf:

}