And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls; For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch ; · from yielders all things catch. I led them on in this distracted fear, And left. sweet Pyramus translated there: Obe. This falls out better than I could devise. But hast thou yet latch'd 5 the Athenian's eyes With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do? Puck. I took him sleeping, — that is finished too, And the Athenian woman by his side; That, when he wak'd, of force she must be ey’d. Enter DEMETRIUS and HERMIA. Obe. Stand close: this is the same Athenian. Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe. Her. Now I but chide; but I should use thee worse, For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse. If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep, Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in knee-deep, The Sun was not so true unto the day As he to me: would he have stol'n away From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon This whole Earth may be bor'd; and that the Moon It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him ; So should a murderer look, so dread, so grim.7 5 Latch'd or letch'd, licked or smeared over; lecher, French. 6 The old copies have "plunge in the deep." Knee-deep was proposed by Coleridge, and is approved by Walker, and adopted by Dyce. A very happy emendation. 7 The old copies have dead instead of dread. What sense dead should have there I fail to perceive. Dr. Johnson found dread written in the margin of his copy. Dem. I had rather give his carcass to my hounds. Her. Out, dog! out, cur! thou driv'st me past the bounds Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him then? Henceforth be never number'd among men! O, once tell true, tell true, even for my sake! Dem. You spend your passion on a mispris'd mood: ' Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell. Her. I pray thee, tell me, then, that he is well. And from thy hated presence part I so: Dem. There is no following her in this fierce vein : [Exit. [Lies down. Obe. What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite, And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight: Of thy misprision must perforce ensue Some true-love turn'd, and not a false turn'd true. Puck. Then fate o'er-rules; that, one man holding troth, A million fail, confounding oath on oath. Obe. About the wood go swifter than the wind, And Helena of Athens look thou find : All fancy-sick she is, and pale of cheer 10 With sighs of love, that cost the fresh blood dear : Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow. 11 [Exit. 8 A touch anciently signified a trick or feat. Ascham has, "The shrewd touches of many curst boys." And, in the old story of Howleglas, "For at all times he did some mad touch." 9 That is, in a mistaken manner. On was sometimes used for in. 10 Cheer is from the old French chère, which Cotgrave thus explains: "The face, visage, countenance, favour, looks, aspect. Hence it naturally came to mean that which affects the face, or gives it expression. - Here, again, fancy-sick is love-sick. See page 11, note 13. 11 According to the old notion, that every sigh consumed a drop of blood. So Shakespeare has the phrases, "blood-consuming sighs," "blood-drinking sighs," and "blood-sucking sighs." See vol. i. page 612, note 15. Obe. Flower of this purple dye, [Squeezes the Flower on his eyelids. When his love he doth espy, Let her shine as gloriously As the Venus of the sky. Beg of her for remedy. Re-enter PUCK. Puck. Captain of our fairy band, And the youth, mistook by me, Shall we their fond pageant see? Lord, what fools these mortals be! Puck. Then will two at once woo one, That must needs be sport alone; 12 And those things do best please me Enter LYSANDER and HELENA. Lys. Why should you think that I should woo in scorn? Scorn and derision never come in tears: Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows so born, How can these things in me seem scorn to you, Hel. You do advance your cunning more and more. Lys. I had no judgment when to her I swore. Dem. [Awaking.] O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine! 12 Rare sport; sport so good as to spoil all other. Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts, your A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport. Hel. Never did mockers waste more idle breath. My heart with her but as guest-wise sojourn'd, Dem. Disparage not the faith thou dost not know, Lest to thy peril thou aby it dear.16 Look, where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear. 18 So in Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 13: "My playfellow, your hand; this kingly seal, and plighter of high hearts." Princess here plainly has the force of the superlative; the paragon, the purest of white. This pretty piece of extravagance reminds me of Spenser's Una: "A lovely ladie rode him faire beside, Yet she much whiter." 14 That is, join heartily, unite in the same mind. 15 Sort here means rank or quality; a common use of the word in Shakespeare's time. So, in Henry V., iv. 7: " It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort." 16 Aby or abie means to suffer for. Skinner thinks it is formed, not from Re-enter HERMIA. Her. Dark night, that from the eye his function takes, press to go Why seek'st thou me? could not this make thee know, Her. You speak not as you think: it cannot be. Now I perceive they have conjoin'd, all three, 18 Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd, 19 abide, but from buy; though the two are often confounded. Thus, in The Faerie Queene, B. ii. Can. 8, s. 33: “That direfull stroke thou dearely shalt aby." And in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, iii. 4: "Fool-hardy knight, full soon thou shalt aby this fond reproach; thy body will I bang." 17 To bait is to worry, to bark at, as bears used to be baited by dogs in the old bear-baiting times. So, in The Faerie Queene, ii. 8, 42: "A salvage bull, whom two fierce mastives bayt." See, also, vol i. page 489, note 4. 18 The and in this line is wanting in all the old copies till the folio of 1632. I am not sure but the gap in the verse, or rather the giving to O the time of two syllables, heightens the force of the passage. White omits the and; Dyce retains it. 19 Artificial is here used for the worker in art, not the work; like its Latin original artifex, artist, or artificer. 20 Neeld was a common contraction of needle. The old copies have needle here; and perhaps it ought to be retained, as it only makes the fourth foot in the verse an Anapest. Modern editors are about equally divided between the two. White has needles, Dyce neelds. |