Puts the wretch that lies in woe

In remembrance of a shroud.
Now it is the time of night

That the graves all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite,
In the church-way paths to glide:
And we fairies, that do run

By the triple Hecate's team,
From the presence of the sun,

Following darkness like a dream,
Now are frolic: not a mouse
Shall disturb this hallow'd house:

I am sent with broom before,

To sweep the dust behind the door.

Enter OBERON and TITANIA with their train.

Obe. Through the house give glimmering light,
By the dead and drowsy fire:

Every elf and fairy sprite

Hop as light as bird from brier;
And this ditty, after me,

Sing, and dance it trippingly.

Tita. First, rehearse your song by rote,
To each word a warbling note:

Obe.

Hand in hand, with fairy grace,

370

380

Will we sing,`and bless this place. [Song ana dance.
Now, until the break of day,

Through this house each fairy stray.

To the best bride-bed will we,

Which by us shall blessed be;
And the issue there create
Ever shall be fortunate.

So shall all the couples three
Ever true in loving be;

And the blots of Nature's hand
Shall not in their issue stand;
Never mole, hare lip, nor scar,
Nor mark prodigious such as are

390

Despised in nativity,

Shall upon their children be.

With this field-dew consecrate,
Every fairy take his gait;

And each several chamber bless,

Through this palace, with sweet peace;

And the owner of it blest

Ever shall in safety rest.

400

Trip away; make no stay;

Meet me all by break of day.

[Exeunt Oberon, Titania and train.

Puck. If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
If you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck

Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;

Else the Puck a liar call:

So, good night unto you all.

Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

410

420

[Exit.

1. The names of Theseus and Hippolyta queen of the Amazons may have been borrowed by Shakespeare from Chaucer's Knight's Tale, although there is nothing else in the play for which he can have been indebted to the same source. But he was no doubt acquainted with the story of Theseus in North's translation of Plutarch's Lives, and hence also he may have taken the Greek names which he uses, Egeus, Lysander, Demetrius, and Philostrate, which all occur in that work. Philostrate however is also the name assumed by Arcite in the Knight's Tale, 1. 1428.

4. She lingers my desires, protracts, delays the accomplishment of my desires. For linger' in this transitive sense see Richard II, ii. 2. 72:

"Who gently would dissolve the bands of life,

Which false hope lingers in extremity.'

And Othello, iv. 2. 231: Unless his abode be lingered here by some accident.' 5. a step-dame, or a dowager, who has a life interest in the property which falls to the heir at her death. Whalley quotes Horace [Epist. i. I. 21, 22]: 'ut piger annus

Pupillis quos dura premit custodia matrum.'

6. withering out, causing the revenue to dwindle as she herself withers away. For the phrase Steevens quotes from Chapman's Homer, Iliad iv. [528]:

'And there the goodly plant lies withering out his grace.'

10. New-bent. Rowe's reading; the quartos and folios have Now bent.' II. solemnities, applied to the festivities festivities on on the solemnization of marriage, as in King John, ii. 1. 555, of the marriage of Blanch and the Dauphin :

'Call the Lady Constance:

Some speedy messenger bid her repair

To our solemnity.'

13. pert, lively; used in a good sense, and not as now as equivalent to something a little less than impudent, saucy. Compare Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. 272:

'This pert Biron was out of countenance quite.'

F

Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.) has, 'Godinet: m. ette: f. Prettie, dapper, feat, peart, indifferently handsome. Godinette; f. A prettie peart lasse; a louing, or louelie girle.' So Milton, Comus, 118:

'And on the tawny sands and shelves

Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves.'

It is probably connected with the Fr. appert (whence malapert), for which Cotgrave gives the equivalents Expert, readie, dexter, prompt, actiue, nimble; feat, handsome, in that he does.' Mr. Wedgwood however connects it with 'perk,' 'to perk up the head, to prick up the head, or appear lively.' In this sense 'pert' is used as a verb in Beaumont and Fletcher, Knight of the Burning Pestle, i. I: 'Sirrah, didst thou ever see a prettier child? how it behaves itself, I warrant ye! and speaks and looks, and perts up the head.'

15. companion, fellow. These two words have completely exchanged their meanings in later usage. Companion' is not now used contemptuously as it once was, and as fellow' frequently is. fellow' frequently is. Compare 2 Henry IV,

ii. 4. 132: 'I scorn you, scurvy companion.'

Ib. pomp. See below, note on 1. 19.

19. With pomp, with triumph. A triumph was a public exhibition or show, such as was originally used to celebrate a victory. The title of Bacon's 37th Essay is 'Of Masques and Triumphs,' and the two words appear to have been synonymous, for the Essay treats of masques alone. In the same way Milton uses the word. See L'Allegro, 120:

'Where throngs of knights and barons bold,

In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold.'

And Samson Agonistes, 1312:

This day to Dagon is a solemn feast,

With sacrifices, triumph, pomp, and games.'

In his note on the latter passage Warton suggests that Milton ‘applied pomp in the appropriated sense which it bore to the Grecian festivals, where the πоμη, a principal part of the ceremony, was the spectacular procession.' Shakespeare also, in King John, iii. 1. 304, has the word with a trace of its original meaning:

Shall braying trumpets and loud churlish drums,
Clamours of hell, be measures to our pomp?'

20. duke, a title which Shakespeare might have found attached to Theseus in Chaucer. See the Knight's Tale (Cant. Tales, 1. 860): 'Whilom as olde stories tellen us,

There was a duk that highte Theseus.'

21. Egeus. Shakespeare for his own purposes makes three syllables of

this name.

Ib. what's the news with thee? What has happened to thee? Compare iii. 2. 272.

27. This man hath bewitch'd. The later folios omit 'man.' Theobald reads' witch'd.'

Ib. bosom, used like heart' for the seat of the affections and desires. See Lear, v. 3. 49, where 'common bosom' means the affections of the common people:

'To pluck the common bosom on his side.'

32. stolen the impression of her fantasy, secretly stamped his image on her imagination.

33. gawds, trifling ornaments, toys. See iv. 1. 166; and Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3. 176:

'One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,

That all with one consent praise new-born gawds.'

Both 'gawd' and 'jewel' are derived ultimately from the Latin gaudium; the latter coming to us immediately from the Old French joel, which is itself gaudiale.

Ib. conceits, fanciful devices. Cotgrave has 'Gentilesses. Prettie conceits, deuises, knacks, feats, trickes.'

34. Knacks, knick-knacks, trinkets. Compare Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 360 : "Sooth, when I was young

And handed love as you do, I was wont

To load my she with knacks.'

35. prevailment, influence.

Ib. unharden'd, tender, and capable of receiving impressions; inexperienced.

38. harshness, unkindness, want of tenderness. Compare Lear, ii. 4. 175: Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give

Thee o'er to harshness.'

41. Solon's laws gave a father the power of life and death over his child. See Sextus Empiricus, Pyrrhon. Hypot. iii. 24. But we need not suppose that Shakespeare knew of this.

45. Immediately provided &c., as Steevens has remarked, smacks of an attorney's office.

50. and within his power it is &c. For this ellipsis see Abbott § 403. 51. To leave the figure &c., to let the figure remain, or to obliterate it. 54. in this kind, in this respect. Compare As You Like It, ii. 1. 27: And in that kind swears you do more usurp

Than doth your brother that hath banish'd you.' Ib. wanting your father's voice, as he lacks your father's authority or suffrage in your favour. Compare All's Well, ii. 3. 60:

Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing,

O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice

I have to use."