There to remain.

Lrs.

Helen, it is not fo.

DEM. Difparage not the faith thou doft not know, Left, to thy peril, thou aby it dear.

Look, where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear.

Enter HERMIA.

HER. Dark night, that from the eye his function, takes,

The ear more quick of apprehension makes;
Wherein it doth impair the feeing sense,
It pays the hearing double recompence :-
Thou art not by mine eye, Lyfander, found;
Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy found.
But why unkindly did'ft thou leave me fo?

Lrs. Why fhould he stay, whom love doth prefs to go?

HER. What love could prefs Lyfander from my fide?

Lrs. Lyfander's love, that would not let him bide, Fair Helena; who more engilds the night

7

Than all yon fiery oes and eyes of light.

Why feek'st thou me? could not this make thee know, The hate I bare thee made me leave thee fo?

7

all yon fiery oes-] Shakspeare ufes O for a circle. So,

in the prologue to K. Henry V.

can we crowd

"Within this little O, the very cafques

"That did affright the air at Agincourt?"

Again, in The Partheneia Sacra, 1633:

"the purple canopy of the earth, powder'd over and befet with filver oes, or rather an azure vault," &c. 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 haberdafhers call small curtain rings, O's, as being circular. TOLLET.

HER: You fpeak not as you think; it cannot be.
HEL. Lo, fhe is one of this confederacy!
Now I perceive they have conjoin'd, all three,
To fashion this falfe fport in fpite of me.
Injurious Hermia! moft ungrateful maid!
Have you confpir'd, have you with these contriv'd
To bait me with this foul derifion?

Is all the counfel that we two have fhar'd,
The fifters' vows, the hours that we have spent,
When we have chid the hafty-footed time.
For parting us,-O, and is all forgot??

All fchool-days' friendship, childhood innocence?
We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,*
Have with our neelds created both one flower,

The fifters' vows,] We might read more elegantly,-The fitter vows, and a few lines lower,-All fchool-day friendship. The latter emendation was made by Mr. Pope; but changes merely for the fake of elegance ought to be admitted with great caution.

MALONE.

9 For parting us,-O, and is all forgot?] The first folio omits the word-and. I have received it from the folio 1632. Mr. Malone reads-now. STEEVENS.

The editor of the fecond folio, to complete the metre, introduced the word and;" O, and is all forgot?" It ftands fo aukwardly, that I am perfuaded it was not the author's word. MALONE.

O, and is all forget?] Mr. Gibbon obferves, that in a poem of Gregory Nazianzen on his own life, are fome beautiful lines which burit from the heart, and fpeak the pangs of injured and loft friendship, refembling thefe. He adds "Shakspeare 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 fame in Cappadocia and in Britain."

Gibbon's Hift. Vol. III. p. 15. REED. 2 artificial gods,] Artificial is ingenious, artful.

STEEVENS.

3 Have with our neelds, &c.] Moft of our modern editors, with the old copies, have-needles; but the word was probably written by Shakspeare neelds, (a common contraction in the inland counties at this day) otherwife the verfe will be inharmonious See Gammer Gurton's Needle.

Both on one fampler, fitting on one cushion,
Both warbling of one fong, both in one key;
As if our hands, our fides, voices, and minds,
Had been incorporate. So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, feeming parted;
But yet a union in partition,

Two lovely berries moulded on one stem:
So, with two feeming bodies, but one heart;
Two of the firft, like coats in heraldry,
Due but to one, and crowned with one creft.*

Again, in fir Arthur Gorges' tranflation of Lucan, 1614:
Thus Cato fpake, whofe feeling words

"Like pricking neelds, or points of fwords," &c. Again, in Stanyhurst's Virgil, 1582:

on neeld-wrought carpets."

The fame ideas occur in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609:

66

-fhe

"Would ever with Marina be:

"Be't when they weav'd the fleded filk,
"With fingers long, fmall, white as milk,
"Or when the would with sharp neeld wound
"The cambrick," &c.

Again, ibid.

"Deep clerks fhe dumbs, and with her neele compofes
"Nature's own shape."

In the age of Shakspeare many contractions were used. Ben Jonfon has wher for whether in the prologue to his Sad Shepherd; and in the earl of Sterline's Darius is sport for support, and twards for towards.

Of the evifceration and extension of words, however, T. Churchyard affords the moft numerous and glaring inftances; for he has not fcrupled even to give us rune instead of ruin, and miest instead of mift, when he wants rhimes to foon, and crieft. STEEVENS.

In the old editions of thefe plays many words of two fyllables are printed at length, though intended to be pronounced as one. Thus fpirit is almott always fo written, though often used as a monofyllable; and whether, though intended often to be contracted, is always, (I think, improperly,) written at length. MALONE. 4 Two of the firft, like coats in heraldry,

Due but to one, and crowned with one creft.] The old copies read-life coats, &c. STEEVENS.

And will you rent our ancient love afunder,
To join with men in fcorning your poor friend?
It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly:

Our fex, as well as I, may chide you for it;
Though I alone do feel the injury.

HER. I am amazed at your paffionate words:
I fcorn you not; it feems that you fcorn me.
HEL. Have you not fet Lyfander, as in fcorn,
To follow me, and praise my eyes and face?
And made your other love, Demetrius,
(Who even but now did fpurn me with his foot,)
To call me goddefs, nymph, divine, and rare,
Precious, celeftial? Wherefore fpeaks he this
To her he hates? and wherefore doth Lyfander
Deny your love, fo rich within his foul,
And tender me, forfooth, affection;
But by your fetting on, by your confent?
What though I be not fo in grace as you,
So hung upon with love, fo fortunate;

The true correction of the paffage I owe to the friendship and communication of the ingenious Martin Folkes, efq.-Two of the firft, fecond, &c. are terms peculiar in heraldry, to diftinguish the different quarterings of coats. THEOBALD.

Thefe are, as Theobald obferves, terms peculiar to heraldry; but that obfervation does not help to explain them.-Every branch of a family is called a house; and none but the fift of the first house can bear the arms of the family, without fome diftinction. Tro of the firft, therefore, means two coats of the first house, which are properly due but to one. M. MASON.

According to the rules of heraldry, the firft houfe only, (e. g. a father who has a fon living, or an elder brother as diftinguished from a younger,) has a right to bear the family coat. The fon's coat is diftinguished from the father's by a label; the younger brother's from the elder's by a mullet. The fame creft is common to both. Helena therefore means to fay, that the and her friend were as clofely united, as much one perfon, as if they were both of the fift houfe; as if they both had the privilege due but to one perfon, (viz. to him of the firit houfe,) the right of bearing the family coat without any diftinguishing mark. MALONE.

But miferable moft, to love unlov'd?
This you should pity, rather than despise.
HER. I understand not what you mean by this.
HEL. Ay, do, perféver,' counterfeit fad looks,
Make mows upon me when I turn my back;
Wink at each other; hold the fweet jeft up:
This fport, well carried, fhall be chronicled,
If you have any pity, grace, or manners,

You would not make me fuch an argument."
But, fare ye well: 'tis partly mine own fault;
Which death, or abfence, foon fhall remedy.

Lrs. Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse;
My love, my life, my foul, fair Helena !

HEL. O excellent!

HER.

Sweet, do not scorn her fo. DEM. If fhe cannot entreat, I can compel.

Lrs. Thou canft compel no more than fhe entreat; Thy threats have no more strength, than her weak prayers.

Helen, I love thee; by my life, I do;

5 Ay, do, perféver,] Perfever is the reading of all the old copies. The word was formerly fo pronounced. Thus our author, in All's Well that ends well, Act IV. fc. ii:

fay thou art mine, and ever

"My love, as it begins, fo fhall perfever."

Again, in Glapthorne's Argalus and Parthenia, 1639:

6

66

for ever

"May they in love and union ftill perfever." STEEVENS.
fuch an argument.] Such a fubje&t of light merriment.
JOHNSON.

So, in the first part of King Henry IV. A&t II. fc. ii.
"—it would be argument for a week," &c. STEEVENS.
7 than her weak prayers.] The old copies read:

than her weak praife." STEEVENS.

Mr. Theobald propofed to read-prays. A noun thus formed from the verb, to pray, is much in our author's manner; and the tranfcriber's ear might have been eafily deceived by the fimilarity of founds. MALONE,