Came here in grace of our folemnity.— THE. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns. Horns, and bout within. DEMETRIUS, LYSANder, HERMIA, and HELENA, wake and start up. THE. Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is paft;" 6 Begin these wood-birds but to couple now? THE. [He and the reft kneel to THESEUS. I pray you all, stand up. I know, you two are rival enemies ; How comes this gentle concord in the world, To fleep by hate, and fear no enmity? Lrs. My lord, I fhall reply amazedly, But, as I think, (for truly would I speak,— I came with Hermia hither: our intent Was, to be gone from Athens, where we might be Without the peril of the Athenian law. "Come bring in Maye with me, "A difcourfe of Rebellion, drawne forth for to warne the wanton wittes how to kepe their heads on their fhoulders." 66 Imprinted at London, in Fleteftreat by William Griffith, Anno Domini 1570. The firft of Maye." STEEVENS. 6 Saint Valentine is past;] Alluding to the old faying, that birds begin to couple on St. Valentine's day. STEEVENS. EGE. Enough, enough, my lord; you have I beg the law, the law, upon his head.- You, of your wife; and me, of my confent; But, my good lord, I wot not by what power, 6 Fair Helena in fancy following me.] Fancy is here taken for love or affection, and is oppofed to fury, as before: Sighs and tears, poor Fancy's followers." Some now call that which a man takes particular delight in, his fancy. Flower-fancier, for a florist, and bird-fancier, for a lover and feeder of birds, are colloquial words. JOHNSON. So, in Barnaby Googe's Cupido Conquered, 1563: "The chyefe of them was Ifmenis, "Whom beft Diana lov'd, "And next in place fat Hyale Whom Fancye never mov'd." Again, in Hymen's Triumph, a Mafque by Daniel, 1623: "With all perfuafions fought to win her mind Again: 7 "To fancy him." "Do not enforce me to accept a man "I cannot fancy." STEEVENS. as doth the fnow,] The word doth which feems to have been inadvertently omitted, was fupplied by Mr. Capell. The emendation here made is confirmed by a paffage in K. Henry V : as doth the melted fnow Upon the vallies." MALONE. an idle gawd,] See note on this word, p. 7. STEEVENS. H 'The object, and the pleasure of mine eye, But, like in fickness,' did I loath this food: THE. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met: For in the temple, by and by with us, And, for the morning now is fomething worn, [Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS and train. DEм. These things feem fmall, and undistinguishable, Like far-off mountains turned into clouds. HER. Methinks, I see these things with parted eye, When every thing feems double. So methinks: HEL. 2 ere I faw Hermia:] The old copies read—ere I see—。 STEEVENS. like in fickness,] So, in the next line--" as in health—.” The old copies erroneoufly read-"like a fickness." I owe the prefent correction to Dr. Farmer. STEEVENS. 3 Come, Hippolyta.] I fuppofe, for the fake of measure, we should read-" Come my Hippolyta." STEEVENS. 4 And I have found Demetrius like a jewel, Mine own, and not mine own.] Hermia had obferved that things appeared double to her. Helena replies, fo methinks; and DEM. It seems to me,' then fubjoins, that Demetrius was like a jewel, her own and not her own. He is here, then, compared to fomething which had the property of appearing to be one thing when it was another. Not the property fure of a jewel: or, if you will, of none but a falfe one. We should read: "And I have found Demetrius like a gemell, "Mine own, and not mine own." From Gemellus, a twin. For Demetrius had that night acted two fuch different parts, that she could hardly think them both played by one and the fame Demetrius; but that there were twin Demetriufes like the two Sofias in the farce. From Gemellus comes the French, Gemeau or Jumeau, and in the feminine, Gemelle or Jumelle: So, in Maçon's tranflation of The Decameron of Boccace"Il avoit trois filles plus âgées que les mafles, des quelles les deux qui eftoient jumelles avoient quinze ans." Quatrieme Jour. Nov. 3. WARBURTON. This emendation is ingenious enough to deserve to be true. "The JOHNSON. Dr. Warburton has been accufed of coining the word, gemell; but Drayton has it in the preface to his Baron's Wars. quadrin doth never double; or to ufe a word of heraldrie, never bringeth forth gemels." FARMER. Again: "unless they had been all gemels or couplets." STEEVENS. Helena, I think, means to fay, that having found Demetrius unexpectedly, the confidered her property in him as infecure as that which a perfon has in a jewel that he has found by accident; which he knows not whether he fhall retain, and which therefore may properly enough be called his own and not his own. She does not fay, as Dr. Warburton has reprefented, that Demetrius avas like a jewel, but that he had found him, like a jewel, &c. A kindred thought occurs in Antony and Cleopatra: by starts "His fretted fortunes give him hope and fear The fame kind of expreffion is found alfo in The Merchant of "Where ev'ry fomething, being blent together, See alfo, Mr. Heath's REVISAL, p. 57. REED. It feems to me,] Thus the folio. The quartos begin this speech as follows: That yet we fleep, we dream.-Do not you think, The duke was here, and bid us follow him? HER. Yea; and my father. HEL. And Hippolyta, Lrs. And he did bid us follow to the temple. DEM. Why then, we are awake: let's follow him; And, by the way, let us recount our dreams. As they go out, BOTTOM awakes. [Exeunt. Bor. When my cue comes, call me, and I will anfwer-my next is, Moft fair Pyramus.-Hey, ho!-Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout the tinker! Starveling! God's my life! ftolen hence, and left me afleep! I have had a moft rare vision. I have had a dream,-past the wit of man to say what dream it was: Man is but an ass, if I had once injudicioufly restored thefe words; but they add no weight to the fense of the paffage, and create fuch a defect in the measure as is beft remedied by their omiffion. STEEVENS. Are you fure That we are awake?] Sure is here used as a diffyllable: so fire, fire, hour, &c. The word now [That we are now awake?] seems to be wanting, to complete the metre of the next line. MALONE. I cannot accede to a belief that fure was ever employed as a diffyllable, much lefs at the end of a verfe. Fire (anciently fpelt fier) and hour (anciently fpelt bower) might be diffyllabically ufed, becaufe the duplicate vowels in each of them were readily feparated in pronunciation. Our author might have written "But are you fure "That we are now awake?—” Having exhibited this paffage, however, only in my note on the hemiftich that follows it, I have little folicitude for its reformation. STEEVENS. |