Enter Demetrius. Dem. Lysander ! speak again. Thou run-away, thou coward, art thou Aed ? Speak in some bush : where dost thou hide thy head ?4

Puck. Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars, Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars, And wilt not come? Come, recreant; come, thou

child;
I'll whip thee with a rod: he is defild,
That draws a sword on thee.

Dem. Yea; art thou there?
Puck. Follow my voice, we'll try no manhood here.

[Exeunt.
Re-enter Lysander.
Lys. He goes before me, and still dares me on;
When I come where he calls me, then he's gone.
The villain is much lighter heel'd, than I:
I follow'd fast, but falter he did Ay;
That fallen am I in dark uneven way,
And here will rest me. Come, thou gentle day!

[Lies down. For if but once thou shew me thy gray light, I'll find Demetrius, and revenge this spight.

Re-enter Puck and Demetrius. Puck. Ho, ho, ho, coward, why comest thou not? Dem. Abide me, if thou dar'it : for well I wot, Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place ; And dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face. Where art thou?

Puck. Come hither, I am here.

Speak in some bufo: where doft thou hide thy bead?] This pas fage is printed thus in all the editions. The sense I think would be clearer if the pointing were regulated thus: Speak. In some bush? Wheré dost thou hide thy head?

STEEVENS.

Dem.

Dem. Nay, then thou mock'st me; thou shalt buy

this dear,
If ever I thy face by day-light see.
Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me
To measure out my length on this cold bed :
By day's approach look to be visited.

(Lies down. Enter Helena, Hel. O weary night, O long and tedious night,

Abate thy hours; shine, comforts, from the eaft: That I may back to Athens by day-light,

From these, that my poor company deteft: And, seep, that sometime shuts up sorrow's eye, Steal me a while from mine own company. (Sleeps.

Puck. Yet but three ? come one more, Two of both kinds make

up

four.
Here she comes, curst and lad :-
Cupid is a knavish lad,
Thus to make poor females mad.

Enter Hermia.
Her. Never so weary, never so in woe,

Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briers; I can no further crawl, no further go;

My legs can keep no pace with my desires. Here will I reft me, 'rill the break of day. Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!

}

[Lies down.

Puck. On the ground

Sleep sound,
I'll apply

To your eye,
Gentle lover, remedy.

[ Squeezing the juice on Lysander's eye. s--buy this dear;] i.e. thou shalt dearly pay for this. Though this is sense, and may well enough stand, yet the poet perhaps wrote hou jhai: 'by ir dar. So in another place, thou shali aby it. So Milton, How dearly I abide ibat toast jo vain. JOHNSON.

When thou wak'lt,
Thou tak't
True delight

In the fight

Of thy former lady's eye:
And the country proverb known,
That every man should take his own,
In your waking shall be shown.

Jack shall have Jill,

Nought shall go ill, The man shall have his mare again, and all be well.

[Exit Puck.

[They seep.

}

6

* A CT IV. SCENE I.

THE

WOOD.

7

coy,

Enter Queen of the Fairies, Bottom, Fairies attending,

and the King bebind iben.

QUE EN.
OME, fit thee down upon this flowery bed,

While I thy amiable cheeks do
And stick musk-roses in thy seek smooth head;
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.

Bot. Where's Pealebloffom ? Pease. Ready. • Jack shall have Jill, &c.] These three last lines are to be found among Heywood's Epigrams on three hundred Proverbs.

STEVENS. * I see no reason why the fourth act Mould begin here, when there seems no interruption of the action. In the old quartos of 1600, there is no division of acts, which seems to have been af. terwards arbitrarily made in the first folio, and may therefore be altered at pleasure. Johnson. ? - do coy] To co; is to sooth. Skinner.

Bot,

Bot. Scratch my head, Peafeblossom.-Where's monsieur Cobweb? Cob. Ready.

Bot. Monsieur Cobweb; good monsieur, get your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipt humble bee on the top of a thistle; and, good monsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, monsieur; and, good monsieur, have a care, the honey-bag break not; I should be loth to have you over-flown with a honey-bag, signior. Where's monsieur Mustard-feed?

Muft. Ready

Bot. Give thy neifs, monsieur Mustard seed; pray you, leave your courtesy, good monsieur. Muft. What's

? Bot. Nothing, good monsieur, but to help Cavalero Cobweb' to scratch. I must to the barber's, monsieur ; for, methinks, I am marvellous hairy about the face:-and I am such a tender ass, if my hair doth but tickle me, I must scratch.

Queen. What, wilt thou hear fome musick, my sweet love?

Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in mufick: let us have the tongs and the bones.

Queen. Or say, sweet love, what thou desir'ft to eat.

Bot. Truly, a peck of provender ; I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath do fellow.

Queen. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek The squirrel's hoard, and ferch thee new nuts.

your will

8 hef:] i. e. fift. Henry IV, act ii. sc. 10.

Sweet knight, I kiss thy neif. GRAY. 9 - Cavalero Cobweb.) Without doubt it should be Cavalero Prasi-blafom; as for Cavalero Cobweb, he had just been dispatched upon a perilous adventure. Gray.

Bot.

Bot. I had rather have a handful or two of dried peale. But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me; I have an exposition of Neep come upon me.

Queen. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms;
Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away."
So doth the woodbine, the sweet honey-suckle,
Gently entwilt--the female ivy: so
Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.
O, how I love thee! how I doat on thee!

Oberon

In the former editions, and be always away.) What I was the giving her attendants an everlasting dismiffion! No such thing; they were to be fill upon duty. I am convinced the poet meant;

-and be all ways away. i.e disperse yourselves, and scout out severally, in your watch that danger approach us from no quarter. TABOBALD. Mr. Upton reads,

And be away-away. JOHNSON.

So doth the woodbine the fweet bonry-fuckle
Gently entwist; th: FEMALE ivy so

Enrings ebe barky fingers of the elm.]
What does the woodbine entwift? The boney-suckle. But the woods
bine and boney-fuckle were, till now, but two names for one and
the same plant. Florio, in his Italian Dictionary, interprets Ma-
dre Selva by woodbinde or bonnie- Juckle. We muft therefore find
a support for the woodbine as well as for the ivy. Which is done
by reading the lines thus ;

So doth the woodbine, the sweet boney-fuckle,
Genıly entwis be MAPLE ; ivy lo

Enrings rbe barky fingers of the clm.
The corruption might happen by the first blunderer dropping the
3 in writing the word maple, which word thence became male. A
following transcriber, for the sake of a little sense and measure,
thought fit to change this male into female; and then tacked it as
an epithet to ivy. WARBURTON.
Mr. Upton reads,

So dorb the wcodrine ibe swert honey-fuckle, for bark of the wood. Shakespeare perhaps only meant fo, the leaves involve the flower, using wnodbine for the plant and boneyfuckle for the lower; or perhaps Shakespeare made a blunder.

JOHNSON.

What