I fwear by that which I will lofe for thee,
To prove him falfe, that fays I love thee not.
DEM. I fay, I love thee more than he can do.
Lrs. If thou fay fo, withdraw, and prove it too.
DEM. Quick, come,-

HER.

Lyfander, whereto tends all this?

Lrs. Away, you Ethiop!

DEM.
No, no, fir:-he will
Seem to break loose; take on, as you would follow ;
But yet come not: You are a tame man, go!

Lrs. Hang off, thou cat, thou burr: vile thing,
let loose;

Or I will shake thee from me, like a ferpent.
HER. Why are you grown fo rude? what change
is this,

Sweet love?

Lrs.

Thy love? out, tawny Tartar, out! Out, loathed medicine! hated potion, hence! HER. Do you not jeft?

No, no, fir-he will, &c.] This paffage, like almoft all those in thefe plays in which there is a fudden tranfition, or the fenfe is haftily broken off, is much corrupted in the old copies. My text [No, no; he'll-fir,] is formed from the quarto printed by Fifher and the first folio. The words " he'll" are not in the folio, and Sir is not in the quarto. Demetrius, I fuppofe, would fay, No, no; he'll not have refolution to disengage himself from Hermia. But turning abruptly to Lyfander, he addreffes him ironically: "Sir, feem to break loofe;" &c. MALONE.

No critical remedy is nearer at hand, than a fuppofition that obfcure paffages are fentences defignedly abrupt and imperfect.Lyfander calls Hermia an " Æthiop." "No, no, fir:" replies Demetrius; i. e. fhe is none; and then ironically speaks to her of Lyfander, as of one whofe ftruggle to break loofe is merely a pretended effort. He next addreffes his provocation perfonally to Lyfander. I have left the text as I found it; only reading (for the fake of metre,) he will, instead of he'll. STEEVENS.

HEL.

Yes, 'footh; and fo do you. Lrs. Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee. DEM. I would, I had your bond: for, I perceive, A weak bond holds you; I'll not truft your word. Lrs. What, fhould I hurt her, ftrike her, kill her dead?

Although I hate her, I'll not harm her fo.

HER. What, can you do me greater harm, than hate?

Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my love? Am not I Hermia? Are not you Lyfander?

I am as fair now, as I was erewhile.

Since night, you lov'd me; yet, since night, you left

me:

Why, then you left me,-O, the gods forbid !— In earnest, fhall I say?

Lrs.

Ay, by my life;
And never did defire to fee thee more.
Therefore, be out of hope, of queftion, doubt,
Be certain, nothing truer; 'tis no jeft,
That I do hate thee, and love Helena.

HER. O me! you juggler! you canker-blossom! You thief of love! what, have you come by night, And stol'n my love's heart from him?

9 O me! you juggler! you canker-bloffom!] Juggler in this line is used as a trifyllable: So again, in K. Henry VI. P. I: "She and the dauphin have been juggling."

So alfo tickling, wreftler, and many more. MALONE.

-you canker-bloffom!] The canker-bloffom is not in this place the bloffom of the canker or wild rofe, which our author alludes to in Much ado about Nothing, A&t I. fc. iii:

"I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rofe in his grace:" but a worm that preys on the leaves or buds of flowers, always beginning in the middle. So, in this play, Act II. fc. iii:

66 Some to kill cankers in the mufk-rofe buds."

HEL.

Fine, i'faith! Have you no modefty, no maiden fhame, No touch of bafhfulness? What, will you tear Impatient answers from my gentle tongue? Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet, you! HER. Puppet! why fo? Ay, that way goes the

game.

Now I perceive that fhe hath made compare
Between our ftatures, the hath urg'd her height;
And with her perfonage, her tall perfonage,
Her height, forfooth, fhe hath prevail'd with him.-
And are you grown fo high in his eftcem,
Because I am fo dwarfish, and fo low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? fpeak;
How low am I? I am not yet fo low,

But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.

HEL. I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen, Let her not hurt me: I was never curft;"

I have no gift at all in fhrewishness;

I am a right maid for my cowardice;

Let her not ftrike me: You, perhaps, may think,
Because she's fomething lower than myself,
That I can match her.

HER.

Lower! hark, again.

HEL. Good Hermia, do not be fo bitter with

me.

I evermore did love you, Hermia,

Did ever keep your counfels, never wrong'd you; Save that, in love unto Demetrius,

I told him of your ftealth unto this wood:

He follow'd you; for love, I follow'd him.
But he hath chid me hence; and threaten'd me

curfi ;] i. e. fhrewith or mischievous.

Thus in the old proverbial faying: "Carft cows have fhort horns." STEEVENS.

To ftrike me, fpurn me, nay, to kill me too:
And now, fo you will let me quiet go,
To Athens will I bear my folly back,
And follow you no further: Let me go:
You fee how fimple and how fond I am.3

HER. Why, get you gone: Who is't that hinders you?

HEL. A foolish heart, that I leave here behind. HER. What, with Lysander?

HEL.

With Demetrius.

Lrs. Be not afraid: she shall not harm thee,

Helena.

DEM. No, fir; fhe shall not, though you take her

part.

HEL. O, when she's angry, fhe is keen and fhrewd; She was a vixen, when the went to school; + And, though fhe be but little, fhe is fierce.

HER. Little again? nothing but low and little?Why will you fuffer her to flout me thus ?

Let me come to her.

Lys.

Get you gone, you dwarf; You minimus, of hind'ring knot-grass made; ' You bead, you acorn.

3 how fond I am.] Fond, i. e. foolish. So, in The Mer chant of Venice:

66

I do wonder,

"Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond

"To come abroad with him." STEEVENS.

She was a vixen, when she avent to school;] Vixen or fixen primitively fignifies a female fox. So, in The boke of hunting, that is cleped Mayfter of Game; an ancient MS. in the collection of Francis Douce, Efqr. Grays Inn: "The fixen of the Foxe is affaute onys in the yer. She hath venomous biting as a wolfe." STEEVENS. 5—of bind'ring knot-grafs made;] It appears that knot-grafs was anciently fuppofed to prevent the growth of any animal or child.

DEM.

You are too officious,

In her behalf that scorns your fervices.

Let her alone; fpeak not of Helena;
Take not her part: for if thou doft intend $
Never fo little fhow of love to her,

Thou shalt aby it."

Lys.

Now the holds me not;

Now follow, if thou dar'ft, to try whose right,
Or thine or mine, is moft in Helena."

Beaumont and Fletcher mention this property of it in The Knight of the Burning Poles

Should they put him into a ftraight pair of gafkins, 'twere worfe than two-gras, he would never grow after it."

Again, in 7de Caxcambe

"We want a boy extremely for this function, kept under, for a year, with milk and kuat-graji,” Daify-roots were fuppofed to Aave the time effect.

That prince of verbose and pedantic coxcombs, Richard Tomdinon, avebecary, in his tranilation of Remadras bis Di penjarary, 10c", informs us that kno-gran “ is a low reptant hearb, with eulo, apunte, madose, and geniculated branches." Perhaps no Aypochondriack is to be found, who might not derive his cure from the pervial of an Engle chapter in this work. STEVENS.

-} à a pretend. So, in Mach adi abeat. No

** Trovnu, a kind of real both to the prince and Chandio."