Because I cannot meet my Hermia.

3

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

Dem. Do I entice you? Do I fpeak 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:
Ufe me but as your fpaniel, fpurn me, ftrike me,
Neglect me, lofe 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 refpect with me)
Than to be used, as you use your dog?

Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my fpirit; For I am fick, when I do look on thee.

Hel. And I am fick, when I look not on you.
Dem. You do impeach your modefty too much,
To leave the city, and commit yourself
Into the hands of one that loves you not;
To truft the opportunity of night,
And the ill counsel of a defart place,
With the rich worth of your virginity.

Hel. Your virtue is my privilege. For that
It is not night when I do fee your face, +

So Star hurt, in his Tranflation of the Second Book of Virgil's Eneid, 1582, fpeaking of Caffandra,

"Lo ye, the wood virgin, with locks unbroided is haled.”

It is not night, when I do fee your face, &c.]

STEEVENS.

This paffage is paraphrafed from two lines of an ancient poet,

-Tu node vel atra

Lumen, et in folis tu mihi turba locis. JOHNSON.

There

Therefore, I think, I am not in the night:
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company;
For you in my refpect are all the world,
Then how can it be faid, 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 beafts.

Hel. The wildeft hath not fuch a heart as you. Run when you will, the ftory fhall be chang'd: Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chafe ; The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind Makes speed to catch the tyger :-Bootless speed! When cowardice purfues, and valour flies.

Dem. I will not stay thy questions; let me go; Or, if thou follow me, do not believe,

But I fhall do thee mischief in the wood.

Hel. Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius !
Your wrongs do fet a scandal on my fex:
We cannot fight for love, as men may do ;
We fhou'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 fo well.

[Exeunt. Ob. Fare thee well, nymph: ere he doth leave this

grove,

Thou shalt fly him, and he fhall feek thy love.Haft 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;
5 Quite over-canopy'd with the luscious woodbine,
With sweet mufk-roses, and with eglantine.

There

5 O'er-canopy'd with luscious woodbine,] All the old editions have,

D4

Quite

There fleeps Titania, fome time of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamel'd fkin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:

And with the juice of this I'll ftreak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantafies.

Take thou fome of it, and feek though this grove;

A fweet Athenian lady is in love

With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;
But do it, when the next thing he efpies
May be the lady. Thou shalt know the man,
By the Athenian garments he hath on.
Effect it with fome care, that he may prove
More fond of her, than fhe upon her love:

And, look, thou meet me ere the first cock crow. Puck. Fear not, my lord, your fervant fhall do fo. [Exeunt,

.>

SCENE

II.

Another part of the wood.

Enter Queen of Fairies, with her train.

Queen. Come, now a roundel, and a fairy fong; part of a minute, hence:

Then, for the third

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine.

7

Some,

On the margin of one of my folio's an unknown hand has written lub woodbine, which, I think, is right.

This hand I have fince difcovered to be Theobald's. JOHNSON. Shakespeare uses the word lub in The Tempest, A& II.

6

"How lub and lufty the grafs looks how green ???

STEEVENS.

-a roundel, and a fairy fong ;] A roundel is a dance in a ring. GRAY.

A roundel, rondill, or roundelay, is used to fignify a fong begin. ning or ending with the fame fentence, redit in orbem.

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

7 Then for the third part of a minute bence.] So the old copies, But the queen fets them work, that is to keep them employed for

the

Some, to kill cankers in the mufk-rose buds ;
Some, war with rear-mice for their leathern wings,
To make my fmall elves coats; and fome, keep back
The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, and wonders
At our quaint fpirits. Sing me now aflèep:
Then to your offices, and let me rest,

Fairies fing.

You spotted Snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not feen;
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 fpell, nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby.

the remainder of the night; the poet, undoubtedly, intended her to fay, Dance your round, and fing your fong, and then inftantly (before the third part of a minute) begone to your respective duties. THEOBALD.

Dr. Warburton reads,

-for the third part of the midnight,

The perfons employed are fairies, to whom the third part of a minute might not be fo fhort a time to do fuch work in. The criticks might as well have objected to the epithet tall, which the fairy gives to the cowflip. But Shakespeare, throughout the play, has preferved the proportions of other things in refpect of thefe tiny beings; compared with whofe fize a cowflip might be tall, and 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 fports.

But Profpero, in The Tempeft, applies quaint to Ariel. JOHNSON.

2 Fairy.

2 Fairy.

Weaving Spiders, come not bere;
Hence, you long-legg'd fpinners, bence:
Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm, nor fnail, do no offence.
Philomel, with melody, &c.

1 Fairy.

Hence, away; now all is well :*
One, aloof, ftand sentinel.

[Exeunt Fairies. The Queen fleeps..

Enter Oberon.

Ob. What thou feeft, when thou doft wake,

Do it for thy true love take;

Love, and languish for his fake:

2

Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
In thy eye that fhall appear,
When thou wak'ft, it is thy dear;
Wake, when fome vile thing is near.

Enter Lyfander and Hermia.

}

[Exit Oberon.

Lyf. Fair love, you faint with wandering in the

wood;

And, to speak troth, I have forgot our way:

We'll reft us Hermia, if thou think it good,
And tarry for the comfort of the day.

Her. Be't fo, Lyfander: find you out a bed,
For I upon this bank will reft my head.

* Hence away, &c.] This according to all the editions is made part of the fong; but I think without fufficient reason, as it appears to be spoken after the fong is over. In the quarto 1600, it is given to the 2d Fairy, but the other divifion is better. STEEV. 2 Be it ounce,] The ounce is a small tiger, or tiger-cat.

JOHNSON.

Lyf