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At a fair veftal, throned by the weft; 3
And loos'd his love-fhaft fmartly from his bow,
As it fhould pierce a hundred thousand hearts:
But I might fee young Cupid's fiery fhaft
Quench'd in the chafte beams of the wat'ry moon;
And the imperial vot'refs paffed on,

In maiden meditation, fancy-free.*

Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,-
Before, milk-white; now purple with love's
wound,―

And maidens call it, love-in-idleness.'

"That Death shall die, if he attempt her end

"Whofe life is heav'n's delight, and Cynthia's friend.” If incenfe was thrown in cart-loads on the altar, this propitious deity was not difgusted by the smoke of it. STEEVENS.

3 At a fair veftal, throned by the weft;] A compliment to queen. Elizabeth. POPE.

It was no uncommon thing to introduce a compliment to her majefty in the body of a play. So, again in Tancred and Gifmunda, 1592:

"There lives a virgin, one without compare,
"Who of all graces hath her heavenly share;
"In whofe renowne, and for whofe happie days,
"Let us record this Paan of her praise.'

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Cantant.

STEEVENS.

fancy-free.] i. e. exempt from the power of love. Thus in Queen Elizabeth's Entertainment in Suffolke and Norfolke, written by Churchyard, Chastity deprives Cupid of his Bow, and presents it to her Majefty: and bycause that the Queene had chosen the beft life, he gave the Queene Cupid's Bow, to learne to fhoote at whome the pleafed: fince none coulde rounde her highneffe burt, it was meete (faid Chaftitie) that she should do with Cupid's Bowe and arrowes what the pleased." STEEVENS.

And maidens call it, love-in-idlenefs.] This is as fine a metamorphofis as any in Ovid. With a much better moral, intimating that irregular love has only power when people are idle, or not well employed. WARBURTON.

I believe the fingular beauty of this metamorphofis to have been quite accidental, as the poet is of another opinion, in The Taming of a Shrew, Act I. fc. iv:

Fetch me that flower; the herb I fhow'd thee once;
The juice of it, on fleeping eye-lids laid,
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it fees.
Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again,
Ere the leviathan can fwim a league.

PUCK. I'll put a girdle round about the earth"
In forty minutes.
[Exit PUCK.
Having once this juice,
I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,

OBE.

And drop the liquor of it in her eyes :

The next thing then the waking looks upon,
(Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,)

"But fee, while idly I ftood looking on,
"I found th' effect of love in idleness;
"And now in plainnefs I confefs to thee,
"Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio,
"If I atchieve not this young modeft girl."

And Lucentio's was furely a regular and honeft paffion. It is fcarce neceffary to mention that love-in-idleness is a flower. Taylor, the water poet, quibbling on the names of plants, mentions it as follows:

"When paffions are let loofe without a bridle,
"Then precious time is turn'd to love-in-idle.”

STEEVENS.

The flower or violet, commonly called panfies, or heart's ease, is named love-in-idleness in Warwickshire, and in Lyte's Herbal. There is a reason why Shakspeare fays it is "now purple with love's wound," because one or two of its petals are of a purple colour. TOLLET.

It is called in other counties the Three coloured violet, the Herb of Trinity, Three faces in a hood, Cuddle me to you, &c. STEEVENS. 6 I'll put a girdle round about the earth -] This expreffion alfo occurs in The Bird in a Cage, 1633:

Perhaps, it is proverbial:

"And when I have put a girdle 'bout the world,
"This purchase will reward me."

Again, in Buffy d'Ambois, by Chapman, 1613:

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To put a girdle round about the world.”

And in other plays. STEEVENS.

She fhall purfue it with the foul of love.
And ere I take this charm off from her fight,
(As I can take it with another herb,)
I'll make her render up her page to me.
But who comes here? I am invifible;"
And I will over-hear their conference.

Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA following him.

DEM. I love thee not, therefore purfue me not. Where is Lyfander, and fair Hermia? The one I'll flay, the other flayeth me." Thou told'ft me, they were ftol'n into this wood, And here am I, and wood within this wood,"

7-I am invifible;] I thought proper here to obferve, that, as Oberon and Puck his attendant, may be frequently obferved to fpeak, when there is no mention of their entering, they are defigned by the poet to be fuppofed on the ftage during the greatest part of the remainder of the play; and to mix, as they pleafe, as fpirits, with the other actors; and embroil the plot, by their interpofition, without being feen, or heard, but when to their own purpose. THEOBALD.

See Tempeft, page 41, note 5. STEEVENS. 8 The one I'll flay, the other flayeth me.] The old copies read"The one I'll stay, the other stayeth me. STEEVENS. Dr. Thirlby ingenioufly faw it muft be, as I have corrected in the text. THEOBALD.

9

and wood within this wood,] Wood, or mad, wild, raving.

POPE.

In the third part of the Countefs of Pembroke's Ivy-Church, 1591, is the fame quibble on the word:

"Daphne goes to the woods, and vowes herself to Diana; "Phoebus grows ftark wood for love and fancie to Daphne." We alfo find the fame word in Chaucer, in the character of the Monke, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 184:

"What fhulde he ftudie, and make himfelven wood?" Spenfer alfo ufes it, glogue III. March:

"The elf was fo wanton, and fo wode."

"The name Woden," fays Verftegan in his Reftitution of Decayed Intelligence, &c. 1605: "fignifies fierce or furious; and in like fenfe we still retain it, faying when one is in a great rage, that he is wood, or taketh on as if he were wood." STEEVENS.

Because I cannot meet with Hermia.
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 fteel: Leave you your power to draw,
And I fhall have no power to follow you.

DEM. Do I entice you? Do I speak 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 modesty3 too much, To leave the city, and commit yourself

Into the hands of one that loves you not;

2 You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;

But yet you draw not iron,] I learn from Edward Fenton's Certaine Secrete Wonders of Nature, bl. 1. 1569, that-" there is now a dayes a kind of adamant which draweth unto it fleshe, and the fame fo ftrongly, that it hath power to knit and tie together, two mouthes of contrary perfons, and drawe the heart of a man out of his bodie without offendyng any parte of him."

3

STEEVENS.

-impeach your modefty -] i. e. bring it into question. So in The Merchant of Venice, Act III. fc. ii:

"And doth impeach the freedom of the ftate,
"If they deny him juftice." STEEVENS.

To trust the opportunity of night,
And the ill counfel of a defert 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,*
Therefore I think I am not in the night:
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company; '
For you, in my respect, 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 such 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 fpeed to catch the tiger: Bootlefs speed! When cowardice pursues, and valour flies.

3 for that.] i. e. For leaving the city, &c. TYRWHITT. 4 It is not night, when I do fee your face, &c.] This paffage is paraphrafed from two lines of an ancient poet [Tibullus]:

Tu notte vel atra

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

As the works of King David might be more familiar to Shakfpeare than Roman poetry, perhaps on the prefent occafion, the eleventh verfe of the 139th Pfalm, was in his thoughts. "Yea, the darkness is no darkness with thee, but the night is as clear as the day." STEEVENS.

5 Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company;] The fame thought occurs in K. Henry VI. P. II:

"A wilderness is populous enough,

"So Suffolk had thy heavenly company." MALONE.

6 The wildeft hath not fuch a heart as you.]

"Mitius inveni quam te genus omne ferarum." OVID.

See Timon of Athens, Act IV. fc. i:

- where he fhall find

"The unkindeft beafts more kinder than mankind." S. W.

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