That I do hate thee, and love Helena. Her. O me! you juggler! you canker-blossom!8 You thief of love! what, have you come by night, And stol❜n my love's heart from him? Hel. Fine, i' faith! Have you no modesty, no maiden shame, Her. Puppet! why so? Ay, that way goes the game. 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 curst; I have no gift at all in shrewdness; I am a right maid for my cowardice; Let her not strike me: You, perhaps, may think, Her. Lower! hark, again. Hel. Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me. Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you ; I told him of your stealth unto this wood : He follow'd you; for love, I follow'd him. But he hath chid me hence; and threaten'd me [8] The canker-blossom is not in this place the blossom of the canker or wild rose, which our author alludes to in Much Ado about Nothing, Act I. sc. iii. but a worm that preys on the leaves or buds of flowers, always begin. ning in the middle. So in the famous passage, "Like a worm i'the bud, Feed on her damask cheek." STEEVENS. Her. Why, get you gone: Whois't that's hinders you? Hel. With Demetrius. Lys. Be not afraid : she shall not harm thee, Helena. Dem. No, sir; she shall not, though you take her part. Hel. O, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd: She was a vixen, 9 when she went to school; And, though she be but little, she is fierce. Her. Little again? nothing but low and little ?— Why will you suffer her to flout me thus ? Let me come to her. Lys. Get you gone, you dwarf; You minimus, of hind'ring knot-grass made ;1 Dem. You are too officious, In her behalf that scorns your services. Let her alone; speak not of Helena; Take not her part: for if thou dost intend Never so little show of love to her, Thou shalt aby it.2 Lys. Now she holds me not; Now follow, if thou dar'st; to try whose right, Or thine or mine, is most in Helena. Dem. Follow? nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jole. [Exe. LYSAN. and DEM. Her. You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you: Nay, go not back. Hel. I will not trust you, I; Nor longer stay in your curst company. [Exit. Your hands, than mine, are quicker for a fray ; STEEVENS. [9] Vixen, or fixen, primitively signified a female fox. [1] It appears that knot-grass was anciently supposed to prevent the growth of any animal or child. Daisy-roots were supposed to have the same effect. That prince of verbose and pedantic coxcombs, Richard Tomlinson, apothecary, in his translation of Renod aus his Dispensatory, 1657, informs us that knot-grass "is a low reptant herb, with exile, copious, nodose, and geniculated branches." Perhaps no hypocondriack is to be found, who might not derive his cure from the perusal of any single chapter in this work. STEE [2] Aby it, is abide by it; i. e. stand to it, answer to it. So, in Psalm cxxx. v. 3, in Common Prayer: "If thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss: O Lord, who may abide it?" HARRIS. Ob. This is thy negligence: still thou mistak'st, Puck. Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook. As this their jangling I esteem a sport. Ob. Thou seest, these lovers seek a place to fight : Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night; The starry welkin cover thou anon I'll to my queen, and beg her Indian boy; From monster's view, and all things shall be peace. At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there, [3] Salutiferous. So he calls, in The Tempest, poisonous dew, wicked dew* JOHNSON. [4] The ghosts of self-murderers, who are buried in cross-roads; and of those who being drowned, were condemned (according to the opinion of the ancients) to wander for a hundred years, as the rites of sepulture had never been regularly bestowed on their bodies. That the waters were sometimes That in cross-ways and floods have burial, For fear lest day should look their shames upon, I with the morning's love have oft made sport ; 5 Puck. Up and down, up and down ; I will lead them up and down: I am fear'd in field and town; Here comes one. Enter LYSANDER. [Exit OB. Ly.Where art thou,proud Demetrius? speak thou now. Puck.Here,villain; drawn and ready. Where art thou? Lys. I will be with thee straight. Puck. Follow me then To plainer ground. [Exit Lys. as following the voice. Enter DEMETRIUS. Dem. Lysander ! speak again. Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled? Speak. In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head? Puck. Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars, Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars, And wilt not come ? Come, recreant; come, thou child; I'll whip thee with a rod: He is defil'd, That draws a sword on thee. Dem. Yea; art thou there? Puck. Follow my voice; we'll try no manhood here. Re-enter LYSANDER. [Exeunt. Lys. He goes before me, and still dares me on ; the place of residence for damned spirits, we learn from the ancient bl. 1. romance of Syr Eglamoure of Artoys, no date: "Let some preest a gospel says, STEEVENS. [5] What the fairy monarch means to inform Puck of, is this. That he was not compelled, like meaner spirits, to vanish at the first appearance of the dawn. STEEVENS. When I come where he calls, then he is gone. And here will rest me. Come, thou gentle day! For if but once thou show me thy grey light, [Lies down. [Sleeps. Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS. Puck. Ho, ho! ho, ho! Coward, why comest thou not? Dem. Abide me, if thou dar'st; for well I wot, Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place; And dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face. Where art thou? Puck. Come hither; I am here. Dem. Nay, then thou mock'st me. this dear, Thou shalt buy If ever I thy face by day-light see : [Lies down and sleeps. Enter HELENA. Hel. O weary night, O long and tedious night, Abate thy hours: shine, comforts, from the east; That I may back to Athens, by day-light, From these that my poor company detest :- Puck. Yet but three? Come one more ; Cupid is a knavish lad, Thus to make poor females mad. Enter HERMIA. Her. Never so weary, never so in woe, [Sleeps. Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briers ; I can no further crawl, no further go; My legs can keep no pace with my desires. Here will I rest me, till the break of day. Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray! [Lies down. |