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ir--, ■■/. ^'^ 




ftacvarB (tollcae Xibrat? 







SHAKESPEARE 



SELECT PLAYS 




A MIDSUMMER NIGHT;!^ 



DREAM 



EDITED BY 



WILLIAM ALDIS WRIGHT, M.A. 

Bursar of Trinity College, Cambridge 



©xforto 

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 

M DCCC LXXVII 
[il// rights reserved} 



' ■' I •^ Sept. 9. 1888. 
Msrch B«QneBti 



ZonOaN 
MACMILLAN AND CO. 




PUBLISHERS TO THE VHIVERSITY OF 



PREFACE. 



The first edition of this play was issued in quarto in 1600 
by Thomas Fisher, under the title 'A Midsommer nights 
dreame. As it hath beene sundry times publickely acted, by 
the Right honourable, the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. 
Written by William Shakespeare.' It was entered at Sta- 
tioners* Hall on the 8th of October, and in the same year 
a pirated edition by James Roberts appeared. Fisher's and 
Roberts's editions are spoken of in the Notes as the first 
and second quartos, and from the latter of these the play 
as it appears in the first folio was printed in 1623. But 
although it was not printed, so far as we know, before 1600, 
it was written at least as early as 1598, for 'Midsummers 
Night Dreame* is enumerated among Shakespeare's plays 
by Francis Meres in his Palladis Tamia (p. 282), which was 
published in that year. How long before this time it had 
been written is to a great extent a matter of pure conjecture. 
Steevens, in his note on ii. i. 15, 'And hang a pearl in every 
cowslip's ear,' quotes a passage in which the same thought 
occurs from an old comedy called The Wisdom of Doctor 
DodypoU, 1600, where an enchanter says: — 

*'Twas I that led you through the painted meads 
When the light fairies danc*d upon the flowers, 
Hanging on every leaf an orient pearl.* 

Malone pointed out that although no earlier edition is known 
of this anonymous comedy than that of 1600 yet Doctor Dodi- 
powle is mentioned by Nashe in 1596, in his preface to Gabriel 
Harvey's Hunt is Up. This however proves nothing, for Nashe 



iv PREFACE. 

only mentions the name 'doctor Dodypowle,' without refer- 
ring to the play, and DodipoU was a synonym for a blockhead 
as early as Latimer's time. In endeavouring therefore to 
approximate to the date of our play, we may leave out of 
consideration the passage quoted by Steevens ; for it is, to say 
the least, quite as probable that the author of the Wisdom 
of Doctor Dodypoll borrowed from the Midsummer Night's 
Dream, as that Shakespeare borrowed from him a conceit 
which is not very far-fetched. All that we really know is 
that the Midsummer Night's Dream was written before 1598. 
Chetwood, in his British Theatre, published in Dublin in 
1750, gives a list of the early editions of Shakespeare's plays, 
in which appears 'A moste pleasaunte comedie, called A 
Midsummer Night's Dreame, wythe the freakes of the fayries,* 
which is said to have been published in 1595. But Chetwood's 
descriptions have been pronounced fictitious by Steevens, and 
the spelling of * wythe ' is sufficient to condemn the present 
title as spurious. Malone at first placed the Midsummer 
Night's Dream in the year 1595, then as early as 1592, but 
his later opinion was that it was written in 1594. In that 
year Dr. King, afterwards Bishop of London, preached at 
York a series of sermons upon the history of Jonah, which 
were published in 16 18 under the title * Lectures upon lonas.' 
The second lecture (p. 36) contains a description of the 
disastrous season, to which Titania is supposed to refer in 
her reproaches of Oberon (ii. i. 81-117), and which she 
attributes to their quarrel. * The moneths of the year haue 
not yet gone about, wl^erin the Lord hath bowed the heauens, 
and come down amongst vs with more tokens and earnests 
of his wrath intended, then the agedst man of our land is 
able to recount of so small a time. For say, if euer the 
"w^indes, since they blew one against the other, haue beene 
niore common, & more tempestuous, as if the foure endes of 
heauen had conspired to turne the foundations of the earth 
vpside downe ; thunders and lightnings neither seasonable for 
^he time, and withall most terrible, with such effects brought 



PREFACE. V 

forth, that the childe vnborne shall speake of it. The anger 
of the clouds hath beene powred downe vpon our heads, 
both with abundance and (sauing to those that felt it) with 
incredible violence; the aire threatned our miseries with a 
blazing starre ; the pillers of the earth tottered in many whole 
countries and tracts of our llande ; the arrowes of a woefull 
pestilence haue beene cast abroad at large in all the quarters 
of our realme, euen to the emptying and dispeopling of some 
parts thereof; treasons against our Queene and countrey wee 
have knowne many and mighty, monstrous to bee imagined, 
from a number of Lyons whelps, lurking in their dennes 
and watching their houre, to vndoe vs ; our expectation and 
comfort so fayled vs in France, as if our right armes had 
beene pulled from our shoulders.' The marginal note to this 
passage shews the date to which it refers. * The yeare of 
the Lord 1593, and 1594.' Dr. King's description of the 
extraordinary disturbance of the elements is confirmed by 
Stowe in his Annals for the same year. Under date 1594 
he says, ' In this moneth of March was many great storm es 
of winde, which ouerturned trees, steeples, barns, houses, &c. 
namely in Worc^tershire, in Beaudly forrest many Oakes were 
ouerturned .... The 11. of Aprill, a raine continued very 
sore more then 24. houres long and withall, such a winde 
from the north, as pearced the wals of houses, were they 
neuer so strong . . . This yeere in the month of May, fell 
many great showres of raine, but in the moneths of lune 
and luly, much more: for it commonly rained euerie day, 
or night, till S. lames day, and two dales after togither most 
extreamly, all which notwithstanding, in the moneth of August 
there followed a faire haruest, but in the moneth of September 
fell great raines, which raised high Waters, such as staled the 
carriages, and bare downe bridges, at Cambridge, Ware, and 
else where, in many places. Also the price of graine grewe 
to be such, as a strike or bushell of Rie was sold for fiue 
shillings, a bushel of wheat for sixe, seuen, or eight shillings, 
&c, for still it rose in price, which dearth happened (after 



VI PREFACE, 

the common opinion) more by meanes of ouermuch trans- 
porting, by our owne merchants for their priuate gaine, 
than through the vnseasonablenesse of the weather passed.' 
(Annales, ed. i6oi,pp. 1274-9). A similar description is given 
in the journal of Dr. Simon Forman, the astrologer, which 
is quoted by Mr. Halliwell (Phillipps) in his Introduction to 
A Midsummer Night's Dream (p. 6, ed. 1841), from MS. 
384 in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. These passages 
have been so often referred to as containing the prose version 
of Titania's speech that I have thought it best to give them 
at length, if only for the purpose of shewing that in all 
probability Shakespeare had not the year 1594 in his mind 
at all. It is true that King, and Stowe, and Forman alike 
describe great storms of wind and rain and disastrous floods 
as characterising this year, but notwithstanding we are told 
'in the moneth of August there followed a faire haruest,* 
and the subsequent high prices of com are attributed not 
to a deficiency in the crop but to the avarice of merchants 
in exporting it for their own gain. Now this does not agree 
with Titania's description of the fatal consequences of her 
quarrel with Oberon, through which 

*The green corn 
Hath rotted, ere his youth attaiii'd a beard.' 

In this point alone there is such an important discrepancy 
that if Shakespeare referred to any particular season we may 
without doubt affirm it was not to the year 1594, and there- 
fore the passages which have been quoted have no bearing 
upon the date of the play. I am even sceptical enough to 
think that Titania's speech not only does not describe the 
events of the year 1594, or of the other bad seasons which 
happened at this time, but that it is purely the product of the 
poet's own imagination, and that the picture which it presents 
had no original in the world of fact, any more than Oberon's 
bank or Titania's bower. 
Another passage which has been appealed to as afford- 



PREFACE. Vll 

ing internal evidence of the date of our play is in v. i. 
52, 53, where Theseus reads from the list of performances 
submitted to him for approval by the master of the revels, 

* The thrice three Muses mourning for the death 
Of learning, late deceased in beggary ' ; 

in which some see an allusion to the death of Spenser in 1599, 
others to that of Greene in' 1592. In the former case the 
lines must have been interpolated after Spenser's death, for we 
know the play was in existence in 1598. It was Knight who 
first suggested that the reference is to the death of Greene. 
Rejecting the supposition of Warton that Shakespeare here 
* alluded to Spenser's poem entitled " The Teares of the Muses, 
on the neglect and contempt of learning," ' which appeared 
in 1 59 1, he maintains, 'These expressions are too precise and 
limited to refer to the tears of the Muses for the decay of 
knowledge and art. We cannot divest ourselves of the belief 
that some real person, and some real death, was alluded to. 
May we hazard a conjecture? Greene, a man of learning, 
and one whom Shakspere in the generosity of his nature 
might wish to point at kindly, died in 1592, in a conditiqn 
that might truly be called beggary. But how was his death, 
any more than that of Spenser, to be the occasion of " some 
satire keen and critical"? Every student of our literary 
history will remember the famous controversy of Nash and 
Gabriel Harvey, which was begun by Harvey's publication,' in 
1592, of "Four Letters, and certain Sonnets, especially 
touching Robert Greene, and other parties by him abused." 
Robert Greene was dead; but Harvey came forward, in 
revenge of an incautious attack of the unhappy poet, to 
satirize him in his grave — ^to hold up his vices and his mis- 
fortunes to the public scorn — to be "keen and critical" 
upon "learning, late deceas'd in beggary." The conjecture 
which we offer may have little weight, and the point is 
certainly of very small consequence.' It may safely be said 
that the conjecture would have had n:K)re weight if the reasons 



Vlii PREFACE, 

for it had not been given, for it is difficult to see any parallel 
between Gabriel Harvey's satire and 

*The thrice three Muses mourning for the death 
Of learning,* 

which must of necessity satirize some person or persons other 
than him whose death is mourned, even supposing that any 
particular person is referred to. On the whole, I am inclined 
to think that Spenser's poem may have suggested to Shake- 
speare a title for the piece submitted to Theseus, and that we 
need not press for any closer parallel between them. 

Chalmers, in his Supplemental Apology for the Believers in 
the Shakspeare-Papers (pp. 359-370), gives the reasons which 
induced him to place the composition of the Midsummer 
Night's Dream in the early part of 1598. He finds, in the 
speech of Theseus at the beginning of the fifth act, the line, 

'One sees more devils than vast hell can hold/ 

which, he says, ' is, plainly, a sarcasm on Lodge's pamphlet, 
called Wits Miserie, and the Worlds Madnesse ; discovering 
the Incarnate Devils of this age.' Lodge's tract was printed 
in 1596, and as he mentions other poets and suppresses 
Shakespeare's name Chalmers infers that Shakespeare in 
revenge wrote the line which is quoted above. An equally 
strong reason for believing that Shakespeare had read Lodge's 
tract before writing Midsummer Night's Dream, is that he 
usfes the word ' compact,' which is also found in Lodge. 

The next step in Chalmers's argument is that in 1597 there 
was a poem, entitled Pyramus and Thisbe, published by 
Dunstan Gale, which in his opinion was prior to Shakespeare's 
work. But as no one has seen this edition of Gale's poem, 
and as the story of Pyramus and Thisbe was accessible to 
Shakespeare from other sources long before 1597, we may 
dismiss this piece of evidence brought forward by Chalmers as 
having no decisive weight. He next takes for granted what 
is merely suggested by Malone, that Shakespeare borrowed 
from a comedy called the Wisdom of Doctor Dodipoll^ and 



PREFACE. IX 

further that this comedy was published in, or before, the year 
1596. I have given reasons above for believing that this 
suggestion also may be disregarded. Again, says Chalmers, 
*The Faiery Queen helped Shakspeare to many hints,' and 
* the second volume of the Faiery Queen was published in 
1596.' To this I would add, what Chalmers himself should 
have stated, that although the second volume of Spenser's 
poem was not published till 1596, the first appeared in 1590, 
and if Shakespeare borrowed any ideas from it at all he had 
an opportunity of doing so long before 1596. This therefore 
may be consigned to the limbo of worthless evidence. Fur- 
ther, in the speech of Egeus, in which he claims the ancient 
.privilege of Athens, to dispose of his daughter either to 
Demetrius or to death, Chalmers sees a direct reference to 
a bill which was introduced into parliament in 1597 for 
depriving offenders of clergy who should be found guilty of 
taking away women against their wills. This is certainly the 
weakest of all the proofs by which Chalmers endeavours to 
make out his case, for the law which Egeus wished to enforce 
was against a refractory daughter, who at the time at which 
he was speaking had not been stolen away by Lysander, and 
was only too willing to go with him. I have given Chalmers's 
theory rather more consideration than it deserves, because he 
has supported it by a parade of evidence, which to him no 
doubt appeared satisfactory, but which upon examination 
proves to be of absolutely no value. 

Another point, which has a bearing upon the date of the 
play, is the occasion for which it was written. If this could 
be determined with any degree of probability we should be 
able to ascertain within a little the time at which it was 
composed. But here again we embark upon a wide sea of 
conjecture, with neither star nor compass to guide us. That 
the Midsummer Night's Dream may have been first acted at 
the marriage of some nobleman, and that, from the various 
compliments which are paid to Elizabeth, the performance 
may have taken place when the Queen herself was present. 



X PREFACE. 

are no improbable suppositions. But when was this conj uncture 
of events ? No theory which has yet been proposed satisfies 
both conditions. On the one hand Mr. Gerald Massey 
maintains that it was to celebrate the marriage of Lord 
Southampton with Elizabeth Vernon that Shakespeare com- 
posed the Midsummer Night's Dream ; but as this marriage 
did not take place till 1598, and was then kept secret in order 
to avoid the Queen's displeasure, Mr. Massey supposes that 
the play was written some time before, when it was thought 
probable that the Queen's consent might have been obtained, 
and he accordingly places it in 1595. He goes further and 
believes that in the play 'many touches tend to show that 
Hermia is Lady Rich, and Helena, Elizabeth Vernon ' (The 
Secret Drama of Shakespeare's Sonnets unfolded, p. 475). 
* Perhaps,' he adds in a note (p. 481), it was one of the Plays 
presented before Mr, Secretary Cecil and Lord Southampton, 
when they were leaving London for Paris, in January, 1598, 
at which time, as Rowland White relates, the Earl's marriage 
was secretly talked of.' It appears that the exigencies of Mr. 
Massey's theory have here driven him into great straits. That 
Southampton was not married to Elizabeth Vernon till the 
summer of 1598, is all but certain. If therefore the Mid- 
summer Night's Dream was one of the plays acted before 
Cecil and Southampton in January, 1598, it was not in honour 
of the marriage of the latter. If it was not one of these plays 
we are not concerned with what happened on that occasion. 
In fact we know nothing whatever about the matter, and of 
guesses like these there is neither end nor profit. Elze, who 
rejects the date offered by Mr. Massey's theory as too late, 
advances a conjecture of his own which must be regarded as 
a conjecture only, having no evidence whatever to support it. 
To use his own language, he maintains that ' all indications 
point to the fact that the Midsummer Night's Dream was 
written for and performed at the marriage of the Earl of 
Essex in 1590' with Lady Frances Sidney the widow of Sir 
Philip Sidney. He regards Theseus and Hippolyta as the 



PREFACE. XI 

representatives of the bridal couple. Theseus was a cap- 
tain, so was Essex. Theseus was a huntsman, so may 
Essex have been. Theseus was welcomed by * great clerks ' ; 
Essex had an Eclogue Gratulatory addressed to him by 
George Peele on his return from the Spanish campaign in 
1589. Theseus was faithless in love, and the amours of 
Es^ex were matters of public notoriety. So, there being 
a river at Monmouth and a river in Macedon, the parallel 
is complete. Moreover, Kurz, who adopts Elze's hypothesis 
and thinks that the Midsummer Night's Dream was per- 
formed, * not on the marriage-day itself but on the May-day 
festival which followed close afterwards,' looking in the 
calendar found out moonshine, and ascertained that there was 
a new moon on April 30, 1590, giving thereby an unexpected 
significance to the introductory lines of the play ^. We have 
but to take another step on this baseless ladder and we find 
the Essex hypothesis explains, what has been hitherto un- 
proved, how it was that Shakespeare enjoyed the early 
patronage of Essex, and who it was that introduced him to 
Southampton. It was the performance which *must ne- 
cessarily have drawn the attention of Essex to the poet,* 
and *it is now beyond all doubt' that Essex brought him 
to the notice of Southampton. In such questions it would 
be well to remember the maxim of the ancient rabbis, * Teach 
thy tongue to say, I do not know.* 

If we attempt to arrange the plays which Meres attributes 
to Shakespeare, so as to distribute them over the period from 
1589 to 1598, we shall find two gaps, in either of which we 
might conjecturally place the Midsummer Night's Dream. 
The interval from 1589 to 1591 is filled up by Love's Labour's 
Lost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Comedy of Errors, 
and Titus Andronicus. In 1593, 1594 are placed Richard 

* But in the play the new moon is on Theseus' wedding day, that is, 
the 1st of May ; and the kindness of Professor Adams enables me to 
state that the nearest new moon to May i, 1590, was on April 23, and 
that there was a new moon on May i in 1592. 



XU PREFACE, 

the Second, Richard the Third, King John, and in these years 
appeared Venus and Adonis and Lucrece. The Merchant 
of Venice is assigned to 1596, and Henry the Fourth to 1597. 
Besides these there are the three Parts of Henry the Sixth, 
which Meres does not mention, but which, if Shakespeare's at 
all, must belong to the earlier part of this period, and * Loue 
Labours Wonne,* whatever this may have been. On the 
whole, I am disposed to agree with Professor Dowden in 
regarding the Two Gentlemen of Verona as earlier than 
the Midsummer Night's Dream, while I cannot think the 
latter was composed after the plays assigned above to 1593, 
1594, and would therefore place it in the interval from 1 591 to 
1593, when perhaps Romeo and Juliet may have been begun. 

But if conjecture has dealt freely with the indeterminate 
problem of the date and first occasion of our play, these 
speculations are outdone by the theories which have been 
advanced to explain the famous speech of Oberon to Puck 
(ii. I. 148-1^8), regarded as a political allegory. Warburton 
was the first to propound an elaborate interpretation from 
this point of view. Starting with the assumption that by the 

* fair vestal throned by the west * is meant Queen Elizabeth, 
he argues that the mermaid must denote some eminent 
personage of her time, *of whom it had been inconvenient 
for the author to speak openly, either in praise or dispraise.' 

* All this agrees with Mary Queen of Scots, and with no other. 
Queen Elizabeth could not bear to hear her commended ; and 
her successor would not forgive her satirist.' * She is called 
a mermaid, i. To denote her reign over a kingdom situate in 
the sea, and 2. Her beauty and intemperate lust.' That she 
was on a dolphin's back points to her marriage . with the 
dauphin of France. * Uttering such dulcet and harmonious 
breath,' alludes to her great abilities and learning which 
rendered her the most accomplished princess of her age. 
The rude sea which grew civil at her song was * Scotland 
encircled with the ocean, which rose up in arms against the 
regent while she was in France. But her return home 



PREFACE, Xllt 

presently quieted those disorders.* The * certain stars ' who 
shot madly from their spheres were some of the English 
nobility who espoused her cause; 'the Earls of Northumberland 
and Westmoreland, who fell in her quarrel ; and principally 
the great Duke of Norfolk, whose projected marriage with 
. her was attended with such fatal consequences.* Such is the 
elaborate allegory which Warburton finds concealed in the 
fanciful description given by Oberon of the origin of the 
flower by means of whose magical properties he wished to 
revenge himself upon Titania. That in the fair vestal throned 
by the west Shakespeare intended a compliment to Queen 
Elizabeth is probably the only part of Warburton's theory 
with which any one will agree. Ritson and others have 
pointed out important discrepancies in his interpretation 
which is really not worth serious investigation. But War- 
burton is outdone by^Boaden, who in his Essay on the Sonnets 
of Shakespeare (1837) finds in Oberon*s description of the 
mermaid no royal siren like Mary Queen of Scots, but the 
sham mermaid of the Princely Pleasures at Kenilworth when 
Elizabeth paid her famous visit to Leicester in 1575. Shake- 
speare was then a boy of eleven, and we are told may have 
been present as a delighted spectator. His childhood recollec- 
tion of the pageant takes the form some fifteen or twenty 
years afterwards in which it now appears. Oberon speaks of 
a mermaid on a dolphin's back, and at Kenilworth there was 
Triton in the likeness of a mermaid, and Proteus appeared 
sitting on a dolphin's back, * within the which dolphyn,' says 
Gascoigne, 'a consort of musicke was secretly placed,* which 
of course is in plain prose the dulcet and harmonious breath of 
which Oberon describes the wondrous effects. The * certain 
stars ' which shot madly from their spheres are according to 
this interpretation no misguided nobles rushing upon their 
own destruction, but the fireworks which accompanied the 
royal entertainment. Surely no fireworks before or dnce 
have been so glorified. Finally, misW >- 
Walter $cott, the author of < 



XIV PREFACE, 

western flower * poor Amy Robsart, who had been dead fifteen 
years before. But what is more remarkable even than that 
the wit of man should have conceived such an interpretation 
is that the same conclusion was independently arrived at by 
another investigator. Mr. Halpin, in his Oberon's Vision 
(Shakes. Soc. Publ), not only follows the outline of Boaden's 
theory, that we have in this description an allegorical account 
of what happened upon the occasion of Elizabeth's visit to 
Kenilworth, but pursues the allegory with a minuteness of 
detail which Boaden did not attempt. In fact he takes up the 
interpretation where Boaden leaves it, and identifying the 
promontory on which Oberon sat with the * brays ' which are 
described by Laneham as ' linking a fair park with the castle 
on the south,' he disposes of the rest of the allegory in this 
wise. Cupid all armed, flying between the cold moon and 
the earth, is the Earl of Leicester, wavering in his passion 
between Queen Elizabeth and the Lady Douglas, Countess 
of Shefl&eld, to whom he was believed to be privately married. 
The aim which he took at a fair vestal throned by the west is 
the attempt made by him upon this occasion to win the hand 
of Elizabeth. This was defeated by ' the pride, prudery, and 
jealousy of power, which invariably swayed the tide of 
Elizabeth's passions, and the Virgin Queen finally departed 
from Kenilworth Castle unshackled with a matrimonial 
engagement, and as heartwhole as ever.' The little western 
flower is Lettice, Countess of Essex, with whom Leicester 
intrigued during the lifetime of her husband, and whom he after- 
wards married. We must at any rate give the inventor of this 
interpretation credit for remarkable ingenuity, but to accept 
it requires the exercise of something more than faith. If there 
be an allegorical meaning in Oberon's words why does he 
suddenly drop allegory and come back to reality when he says 
to Puck, * Fetch me that flower ' ? No one pretends that this 
has an allegorical significance, and if so, how can it be 
separated in such a manner from what precedes, that up to 
this point all is allegory and from this point all is fact ? 



PREFACE, XV 

The fairy mythology of Shakespeare in the Midsummer 
Night's Dream is described by Keightley (Fairy Mythology, 
p. 325) as an attempt to blend *the Elves of the village with 
the Fays of romance. His Fairies agree with the former in 
their diminutive stature, — diminished, indeed, to dimensions 
inappreciable by village gossips, — in their fondness for dancing, 
their love of cleanliness, and their child-abstracting propensi- 
ties. Like the Fays, they form a community, ruled over by 
the princely Oberon and the fair Titania. There is a court 
and chivalry: Oberon would have the Queen's sweet changeling 
to be a " knight of his train to trace the forest wild." Like 
earthly monarchs he had his jester, " the shrewd and knavish 
sprite, called Robin Goodfellow." ' It is true that Shakespeare 
has presented these purely English fairies in combination with 
'the heroes and heroines of the mythic age of Greece,* but 
indeed Theseus is Greek in name only. He is an English 
nobleman, who after service in the wars has returned to his 
estate and his field sports, and Bottom and his fellows may 
have been any Warwickshire peasants, hard-handed men of 
Coventry, but no Athenians. There is no attempt in the whole 
course of the play to give it a classical colouring, and there is 
therefore nothing incongruous to a reader in finding himself in 
company with ihe Greek-sounding names of Theseus, Egeus and 
Philostrate in one scene, and Oberon and Robin Goodfellow in 
another. The play is thoroughly English from beginning to end. 

Oberon the fairy king first appears in the old French Ro- 
mance of Huon of Bourdeaux, and is identical with Elberich 
the dwarf kmg of the German story of Otnit in the Helden- 
buch. The name Elberich, or as it appears in the Nibelung- 
enlied, Albrich, was changed in passing into French first into 
Auberich, then into Auberon, and finally became our Oberon. 
He is introduced by Spenser in the Fairy Queen (bk. ii. cant. 
I. St. 6), where he describes Sir Guy on : — 

*Well coald he touraay, aad in lists debate, 
And knighthood tooke of good Sir Huon's hand. 
When with King Oberon he came to Faery land.' 



XVI PREFACE. 

And in the tenth canto of the same book (st, 75) he is the 
allegorical representative of Henry VI 11. The wise Elficleos 
left two sons, 

* Of which faire Elferon, 
The eldest brother, did untimely dy; 
Whose emptie place the mightie Oberon 
Doubly supplide, in spousall and dominion.* 

^ Oboram King of Fayeries' is one of the characters in Greene's 
James the Fourth, which was not printed till 1598, but was of 
course written in or before 1592. 

The name Titania for the Queen of the Fairies appears to 
have been the invention of Shakespeare. In Romeo and 
Juliet she is known by the more familiar appellation Queen 
Mab, and in an entertainment given to Elizabeth by the 
Earl of Hertford at Elvetham in 159 1, there was a speech 
addressed to the Queen by * Aureola, the Queue of Fairy land,' 
in which Auberon is mentioned as the Fairy King. Keightley 
explains the origin of the name Titania, * It was the belief of 
those days that the Fairies were the same as the classic 
Nymphs, the attendants of Diana: "That fourth kind of 
spirits," says King James, " quhilk be the gentilis was called 
Diana, and her wandering court, and amongst us called the 
PbairieJ' The Fairy Queen was therefore the »me as Diana, 
whom Ovid (Met. iii. 173) styles Titania.' (Fairy Mythology, 
p. 325, note.) In Chaucer's Merchant's Tale, Pluto is the 
King of Faerie and his Queen Proserpina, who danced and 
sang about the well under the laurel in January's garden. 

Puck or Robin Goodfellow is the mischief-loving sprite who 
in one fairy genealogy is said to be the son of Oberon. His 
former title is an appellative and not strictly a proper name, 
and we find him speaking of himself, ^ As I am an honest 
Puck,' * Else the Puck a liar call.' In fact Puck, or pouke, is 
an old word for devil, and it is used in this sense in the 
Vision of Piers Ploughman, 11 345 (ed. T. Wright) : 

'Out of the poukes pondfold 
No maynprise may us fecche.* 



PREFACE, Xvii 

And in the Romance of Richard Goer de Lion, 4336 (printed 
in Weber's Metrical Romances, vol. ii) : 

'He is uo man he is a pouke.' 

The Icelandic puki is the same word, and in Friesland the 
kobold or domestic spirit is called Puk. In Devonshire, pixy 
is the name for a fairy, and in Worcestershire we are told 
that the peasants are sometimes poake iedden, that is, misled by 
a mischievous spirit called Poake, * Pouk-laden ' is also given 
in Hartshome's Shropshire Glossary. Keightley was of 
opinion that Shakespeare was the first to confound Puck with 
the house-spirit or Robin Goodfellow, but it is evident that 
.. ' in popular belief the same mischief-loving qualities which 
belong to Puck were attributed to Robin Goodfellow long 
before the time of Shakespeare. Tyndale, in his Obedience of a 
Christian Man (Parker Soc. ed. p. 321) says, * The pope is kin 
to Robin Goodfellow, which sweepeth the house, washeth the 
dishes, and purgeth all, by night ; but when day cometh, there 
is nothing found clean.' And again, in his Exposition of the 
ist Epistle of St. John (Parker Soc. ed. p. 139), *By reason 
whereof the scripture ... is become a maze unto them, in 
which they wander as in a mist, or (as we say) led by Robin 
Goodfellow, that they cannot come to the right way, no, 
though they turn their caps.' The great source of information 
with regard to popular beliefs in fairies and spirits is Reginald 
Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft, first published in 1584, Of 
Robin Goodfellow he says (Book iv. ch. 10), * In deede your 
grandams maides were woont to set a boll of milke before 
him (Incubus) and his cousine Robin good-fellow, for grinding 
of malt or mustard, and sweeping the house at midnight : and 
you haue also heard that he would chafe exceedingly, if the 
maid or good- wife of the house, hauing compassion of his naked- 
neSy laid anie clothes for him, beesides his messe of white bread 
and milke, which was his standing fee. For in that case he saith ; 
What haue we here ? Hemton hamten, here will I neuer more 
tread nor stampen.' Again (Bk. vii. ch. 15), ' It is a common 

b 



XVlll PREFACE. 

saieing ; A lion feareth no bugs. But in our childhood our 
mothers maids haue sq terrified vs with an ouglie diuell hauing 
homes on his head, fier in bis mouth, and a taile in his breech, 
eies like a bason, fanges like a dog, clawes like a beare, a skin 
like a Niger, and a voice roring like a lion, whereby we start 
and are afraid when we heare one crie Bough : and they haue so 
fraied us with bull beggers, spirits, witches, vrchens, elues, hags, 
fairies, satyrs, pans,faunes, sylens, kit with the cansticke,tritons, 
centaurs, dwarfes, giants, imps, calcars, coniurors, nymphes, 
changlings,/«ftt^ttj, Robin good-fellowe, the spoorne,the mare, 
the man in the oke, the hell waine, the fierdrake, the puckle, 
Tom thbmbe, hob gobblin, Tom tumbler, boneles, and such 
other bugs, that we are afraid of our owne shadowes : in so 
much as some neuer feare the diuell, but in a darke night; 
and then a polled sheepe is a perillous beast, and manie times 
is taken for our fathers soule, speciallie in a churchyard, 
where a right hardie man heretofore scant durst passe by 
night, but his haire would stand vpright.' See also in the same 
book A Discourse vpon diuels and spirits, c. 21. Burton, in 
his Anatomy of Melancholy (Part I. Sec. 2. Mem. i. Subs. 2) 
discusses the nature of spirits, and among other points the 
important question whether they are mortal. One of hi^ 
divisions is as follows : * Terrestrial devils are those lares, genii, 
fauneSf satyrs, wood-nymphs, foliots, fairies, Robin Goodfellowsy 
TruUi, &c., which as they are most conversant with men, so 
they do them most harm , , . Some put our fairies into this 
rank, which have been in former time adored with much 
superstition, with sweeping their houses, and setting of a pai! 
of clean water, good victuals, and the like; and then they 
should not be pinched, but find money in their shoes, and be 
fortunate in their enterprises. These are they that dance on 
heaths and greens, as Lavater thinks with Trithemius, and as 
Olaus Magnus adds, leave that green circle, which we com- 
monly find in plain fields, which others hold to proceed from 
a meteor falling, or some accidental rankness of the ground ; 
so nature sports herself . • • . Paracelsus reckons up many 



PREFACE. XIX 

places in Germany, where they do usually walk in little coats, 
some two foot long. A bigger kind there is of them, called 
with us hobgoblins f and Robin Goodfelhws, that would, in those 
superstitious times, grind com for a mess of milk, cut wood, 
or do any manner of drudgery work . . . And so likewise those 
which Mizaldus calls Ambulonesj that walk about midnight on 
great heaths and desert places, which (saith Lavater) drafiv 
men out of the nvay, and lead them all night a by-fivay, or quite 
bar them of their <w ay » These have several names in several 
places ; we commonly call them pucks* To the same effect 
writes Harsnet in his Declaration of Popish Imposture (p. 134), 
a book quoted in the Notes to King Lear : * And if that the 
bowle of curds, & creame were not duly set out for Robin 
good-fellcnu the Frier, & Sisse the dairy-maide, to meete at 
hincb pinch^ and laugh not, when the good wife was a bed, why 
then, either the pottage was burnt to next day in the pot, or 
the cheese would not curdle, or the butter would not come, 
or the ale in the fat would neuer haue good head/ The 
* walking fire ' in Lear, which Edgar takes for the foul fiend 
Flibbertigibbet is but one of the forms in which Robin 
appears. In the black-letter ballad of The Merry Puck, or 
Robin Goodfellow, which is reprinted by Mr. Halliwell 
(Phillipps) in his Introduction to a Midsummer Night's Dream, 
is the following stanza (p. 36) : 

* Sometimes he'd counter&it a voyce, 
And travellers call astray, 
Sometimes a walking fire he'd be. 
And lead them from their way.' 

Another ballad, printed in Percy's Reliques (vol. iii. book 2), 
which relates *The Merry Pranks of Robin Goodfellow,' 
may be consulted by those who wish to pursue the subject 
further. See also Drayton, Nymphidia, 282 &c., Milton, 
L* Allegro, 100-114, and an essay by Mr. Thoms on the 
Folklore of Shakespeare. 

It has been suggested that the device employed by Oberon 
to enchant Titania, by anointing her eyelids with the juice 

b2 



XX PREFACE. 

of a flower, may have been borrowed by Shakespeare from 

the Spanish Romance of Diana by George of Montemayor. 

But apart from the difl&culty which arises from the fact that 

no English translation of this romance is known before that 

published by Yong in 1598, there is no necessity to suppose that 

Shakespeare was indebted to any one for what must have been 

a familiar element in all incantations at a time when a belief 

in witchcraft was common. Percy (Reliques, vol. iii. book 2, 

end) quotes a receipt by the celebrated astrologer Dr. Dee for 

'An unguent to annoynt under the Eyelids, and upon the Eyelids 

eveninge and mominge : but especially when you call,* that is, 

upon the fairies. It consisted of a decoction of various flowers. 

Dr. Farmer observed to Malone that in the lines spoken by 

Pyramus 'Approach, ye furies fell,* &c., and in those of Thisbe*s 

speech, 

*0 sisters three. 

Come, come to me, 

With hands as pale as milk,' 

Shakespeare intended to ridicule a passage in Damon and 
Pythias, by Richard Edwards, 1582 : 

*Ye furies, all at once 
On me your torments trie . . . 
Gripe me, you greedy griefs. 

And present pangues of death. 
You sisters three, with cruel handes 
With speed come stop my breath!' 

Certainly both in this play and in the tragical comedy of 
Appius and Virginia, printed in 1575, maybe found doggrel no 
better than that which he puts into the mouth of Bottom. See 
for example the speech of Judge Appius to Claudius, beginning, 

* The furies fell of Limbo lake 
My princely days do short, &c.' 

It is also worth while to notice that the song quoted in Romeo 
and Juliet, iv. 5. 128, 

* When griping grief the heart doth wound &c.,* 
is by the author of Damon and Pythias. 



PREFACE, XXI 

In Mr. Collier's Annals of the Stage (ii. 30-36) is related 
a curious story of a charge made against the Bishop of Lincoln 
by one John Spencer for having had a play performed in his 
bouse in London on Sunday, September 27, 163 1. From 
what follows it appears that the play in question was A 
Midsummer Night's Dream, but there is evidently something 
wrong about the story, for the 27th of September in the year 
163 1 was on a Tuesday. Taking it however for what it is 
worth, the document from which Mr. Collier quotes, which 
purports to be an order of the Archbishop's Court, decrees, 

* that Mr. Wilson, because he was a speciall plotter and con- 
triver of this business, and did in such a brutishe manner acte 
the same with an Asses head, and therefore hee shall, uppon 
Tuisday next, from 6 of the clocke in the morning till six of 
the clocke at night, sitt in the Porters Lodge at my Lords 
Bishopps House, with his feete in the stocks, and attyred with 
his asse head, and a bottle of hay sett before him, and this 
subscription on his breast : 

•Good people I have played the beast, 

And brought ill things to passe: 
I was a man, but thus have made 
My selfe a silly Asse.' 

After the Restoration we find in 1661 a play called The 
Merry conceited Humors of Bottom the Weaver, in which 
Theseus and his court are left out altogether, and nothing 
remains but the fairies and the clowns. It had perhaps been 
played privately after the suppression of the theatres. On 
the 29th of September 1662, Mr. Pepys having endured a 
period of abstinence from drink and play-going, in accordance 
with a vow which came to an end on that day, rewarded his 
constancy by going to the King's Theatre, where, he say% 

* we saw ** Midsummer's Night's Dream," which I had never 
seen before, nor shall ever again, for it is the most insinU 
ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life.'^ 

perhaps a little difficult to please, and his 
was not final. The Tempest is the moi 



Xxii PREFACE. 

ever saw, and has no great wit. He calls The Taming of 
the Shrew a * silly play/ while Othello, which he had once 
thought * mighty good,* seemed to him but a mean thing 
after reading * The Adventures of Five Houres.' No doubt 
he reflected the taste of his time, and it is not much to be 
wondered at that he did not care for A Midsummer Night's 
Dream. There is in truth no plot in the play at all and 
very little dramatic movement. Indeed it is rather a masque 
than a play, or at any rate a play of situation rather than 
of plot or character. And as with a masque was combined 
the antimasque as a kind of comic counterpart or farce, 
so in the present play the fairies and the clowns supply the 
place of the antimasque of which they form the sub-divisions 
or semi-choruses. 

The title of the play has often been the subject of dispute. 
Aubrey has a story, which is as worthless as most of his 
worthless gossip is, to the effect that *The humour of the 
constable in A Midsommer-Night-Dreame he happened to 
take at Grendon [or Grendon] in Bucks (I think it was 
Midsomer-night that he happened to be there); which is 
the road from London to Stratford; and there was living 
that constable about 1642, when I first came to Oxon.' (Shake- 
speare, ed. 182 1, ii. 491.) In the play itself the time is about 
May day, but Shakespeare from haste or inadvertence has 
fallen into some confusion in regard to it. Theseus* opening 
words point to April 27, four days before the new moon which 
was to behold the night of his marriage with Hippolyta. He 

orders Hermia 

*By the next new moon, 

The sealing day between my love and me/ 

to make up her mind either to wed Demetrius or be con- 
demned to death or perpetual virginity. The next night, 
which would be April 28, Lysander appoints for Hermia to 
escape with him from Athens. * Steal forth thy father's house 
to-morrow night.' The night of the second day is occupied 
with the adventures in the wood, and in the morning the 



PREFACE. XXlll 

lovers are discovered by Theseus and his huntsmen, and it is 
supposed that they have risen early to observe the rite of 
May. So that the morning of the third day is the ist of 
May, and the last two days of April are lost altogether. 
Titania's reference to the 'middle-summer's spring' must 
therefore be to the summer of the preceding year. It is 
a curious fact, on which however I would not lay too much 
stress, that in 1592 there was a new moon on the ist of 
May; so that if A Midsummer Night's Dream was written so 
as to be acted on a May day when the actual age of the 
moon corresponded with its age in the -play, it must have 
been written for May day 1592. 

Midsummer Eve appears to have been regarded as a period 
•when the imagination ran riot, and many of the old super- 
stitions which characterised it are recorded in Brand's Popular 
Antiquities. For instance, * Grose tells us that any person 
fasting on Midsummer Eve, and sitting in the church porch, 
will at midnight see the spirits of the persons of that parish 
who will die that year, come and knock at the church door, 
in the order and succession in which they will die (i. p. 331), 
* Maidens practised divination on this night to find out their 
future husbands, and Levinus Lemnius . . . tells us that the 
Low Dutch have a proverb, that when men have passed a 
troublesome night's rest, and could not sleep at all, they say, 
we have passed St. John Baptist's Night ; that is, we have not 
taken any sleep, but watched all night ; and not only so, but 
we have been in great troubles, noyses, clamours, and stirs, 
that have held us waking ' (i. p. 305). We know that Mal- 
volio^s strange conduct is described by Olivia (Twelfth Night, 
iii. 4. 61) as very Midsummer madness, and A Midsummer 
Night's Dream therefore is no inappropriate title for the series 
of wild incongruities of which the play consists. 

W. A. W. 
Cambridge, 

so October, 1877, 



A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S 
DREAM. 



HTLRUIA^daughUrTaEfCAinlai 






Scene I, Athem. Tht palace of THESEUS. 
er Theseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate, and Attendants. 

'be. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour 

iws on apace ; four happy days bring in 

ither moon : but, O, methinks, how slow 

is old moon wanes! she lingers my desires, 

e to a step-dame or a dowager 

ig withering out a young man's revenue. 

iif. Four days will quickly steep themselves in night; 

IT nights will quickly dream away the time; 

i tlien the moon, like to a silver bow 

«-bent in heaven, shall behold the night lo 

our solemnities. 

'hi. Go, Pij 

- up the Athenian j 



2 A midsummer-night's DREAM. 

Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth : 

Turn melancholy forth to funerals; 

The pale companion is not for our pomp. [Exit PJbilostrate, 

Hippolyta, I woo*d thee with my sword, 

And won thy love, doing thee injuries; 

But I will wed thee in another key, 

With pomp, with triumph and with revelling. 

Enter Egeus, Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius. 
Ege, Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke! 2< 

TJbe, Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with thee? 

Ege, Full of vexation come I, with complaint 
Against my child, my daughter Hermia. 
Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord, ' 

This man hath my consent to marry her. 
Stand forth, LysMider: and, my gracious duke. 
This man hath(byvitch'd the bosom of my child : 
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes 
And interchanged love-tokens with my child: 
Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung 
With feigning voice verses of feigning love. 
And stolen the impression of her fantasy 
With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits, 
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers 
Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth: 
With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart, 
Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me. 
To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke, 
Be it so she will not here before your grace 
Consent to marry with Demetrius, 
I beg the ancient privilege of Athens, 
As she is mine, I may dispose of her: 
Which shall be either to this gentleman 
Or to her death, according to our law 
Immediately provided in that case. 

The. What say you, Hermia? be advised, fair maid: 
To you your father should be as a god ; , ' 

One that composed your beauties, yea, and one 



ACT I. SCSNS I, 

'o whom you are but as a. form in wax 

>7 him imprinted and witliin his power 51 

"o leave the figure or disfigure it. 

lemetrius is a worthy gentleman. 

Her, So is Lysander. 

TAf. In himself he is; 

lut in this kind, wanting your father's voice, 
The other must be held the worthier. 

Her. I would my father loot'd but with my eyes. 

The. Rather your eyes must %rith his judgement loot. 

Her. I do entreat your grace to pardon me. 

know Dot by what power I am made bold, 
for how it may concern my modesty, 61 

a such a presence here to plead my thoughts ; 
ut I beseech your grace that I may know 
he worst that may befall me in this case, 

I refuse to wed Demetrius. 
^Ibe. Either to die the death or to abjure 
sr ever the society of men. 
therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires; 
now of your youth, exaihine well your blood, 
"liether, if you yield not to your father's choice, 
:>n can endure the livery of a nun, 71 

*r aye to be in shady cloister mew'd, 
> live a barren sister all your life, 
^anting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. 
ti rice-blessed they that master so their blood, 
a undergo such maiden pilgrimage ; 
at earthlier happy is the rose distill'd, 
han that which withering on the virgin th^n 
f<Dws, lives and dies in single blessedoeaa. 

tfrr. So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord, 
»e I will yield my virgin patent up 8( 

'nto his lordship, whose unwished yoke 
fly soul consents not to give sovereignty. 

Tie. Take time to pause; and, by the nest new moon— 
rtie sealing-day betwixt my love and m^ . 



4 A midsummer-night's dream. 

For everlasting bond of fellowship — 
Upon that day either prepare to die 
For disobedience to your father's will, 
Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would; 
Or on Diana's altar to protest 
For aye austerity and single life, 

Dem, Relent, sweet Hermia: and, Lysander, yield 
Thy crazed title to my certain right. 

Lyj, You have her father's love, Demetrius; 
Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him. 

Ege, Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love. 
And what is mine my love shall render him. 
And she is mine, and all my right of her 
I do estate unto Demetrius. 

Lyj. I am, my lord, as well derived as he. 
As well possessed; my love is more than his; 
My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd. 
If not with vantage, as Demetrius'; 
And, which is more than all these boasts can be, 
I am beloved of beauteous Hermia : 
Why should not J then prosecute my right? 
Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head. 
Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena, 
And won her soul ; and she, sweet lady, dotes. 
Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry, 
Upon this spotted and inconstant man. 

Tbe. 1 must confess that I have heard so much, 
And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof; 
But, being over-full of self-affairs, 
My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come; 
And come, Egeus; you shall go with me, 
I have some private schooling for you both. 
For you, fair Hermia, look you arm youi*self 
To fit your fancies to your father's will; 
Or else the law of Athens yields you up — 
"Which by no means we may extenuate — 
To death, or to a vow of single life. 



ACT I. SCENE I. 5 

Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love? 

Demetrius and Egeus, go along: 

I must employ you in some business 

Against our nuptial and confer with you 

Of something nearly that concerns yourselves, 

Ege, With duty and desire we follow you. 

[Exeunt all but Lysander and Hennia* 

Lys, How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale? 
How chance the roses there do fade so fast? 

Her. Belike for want of rain, which I could well 130 
Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes. 

Lys, Ay me! for aught that I could ever read, 
Could ever hear by tale or history. 
The course of true love never did run smooth ; 
But, either it was different in blood, — 

Her. O cross! too high to be enthralled to low. 

Lys. Or else misgraffed in respect of years, — 

Her, O spite! too old to be engaged to young. 

Lys. Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,— 

Her. O hell! to choose love by another's eyes. 140 

Lys, Or, if there were a sympathy in choice, 

War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it, 

Making it moment any as a sound, 

Swift as a shadow, short as any dream; 

^rief as the lightning in the coUied night, 

^hat, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, 

^nd ere a man hath power to say * Behold ! ' 

J"lie jaws of darkness do devour it up : 

^ quick bright things come to confusion. 

Jier. If then true lovers have been ever cross'd, 150 
l^ stands as an edict in destiny: 
Then let us teach our trial patience, 
Because it is a customary cross. 
As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs, 
Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers. 
Lys, A good persuasion: therefore, hear me, Hermia. 



6 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT* S DREAM. 

I have a widow aunt, a dowager 
Of great revenue, and she hath no child: 
From Athens is her house remote seven leagues ; 
And she respects me as her only son. 
There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee; 
And to that place the sharp Athenian law 
Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then. 
Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night; 
And in the wood, a league without the town. 
Where I did meet thee once with Helena, 
To do observance to a morn of May, 
There will I stay for thee. 

Her, My good Lysander! 

I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow. 
By his best arrow with the golden head. 
By the simplicity of Venas* doves. 
By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves. 
And by that fire which bum*d the Carthage queen, 
"When the false Troyan under sail was seen. 
By all the vows that ever men have broke, 
In number more than ever women spoke, 
In that same place thou hast appointed me, 
To-morrow truly will I meet with thee. 

Lyi. Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Heler 

Enter HELENA. 

Her^ God speed fair Helena! whither away? 

HeL Call you me fair? that fair again unsay. 
Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair! 
Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's sweet aii 
'More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear. 
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear. 
Sickness is catching : O, were favour so. 
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go; 
My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye, 
My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody. 
Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated. 
The rest I 'Id give to be to you translated. 



ACT I. SCENE 7, 7 

O, teach me how you look, and with what art 
You sway the motion of Demetrius* heart. 

Her, I frown upon him, yet he loves me still. 

Hel. O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill ! 

Her. I give him curses, yet he gives me love. 

HeL O that my prayers could such affection move ! 

Her. The more I hate, the more he follows me. 

HeL The more I love, the more he hateth me. 

Her. His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine. 300 

HeL None, but your beauty : would that fault were mine ! 

Her. Take comfort: he no more shall see my face; 
Lysander and myself will fly this place. 
Before the time I did Lysander see, 
Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me :• 
0, then, what graces in my love do dwell. 
That he hath turn*d a heaven unto a hell ! 

Lyj. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold: 
To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold 
Her silver visage in the watery glass, 210 

decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass, 
A time that lovers* flights doth still conceal, 
through Athens* gates have we devised to steal. 

-ffer. And in the wood, where often you and I 
^Pon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie, 
-tiiptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet, 
- here my Lysander and myself shall meet ; 
^nci thence from Athens turn away our eyes, 
'^ ^ seek new friends and stranger companies, 
'arewell, sweet playfellow: pray thou for us; 220 

^i^d good luck grant thee thy Demetrius! 
^^ep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight 
^^oin lovers' food till morrow deep midnight. 

Lyj. I will, my Hermia. [ExitHerm,] Helena, adieu : 
^ you on him, Demetrius dote on you ! [Exit. 

HeL How happy some o*er other some can be! 
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she. 



8 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT* S DREAM. 

But what of that ? Demetrius thinks not so ; 

He will not know what all but he do know : 

And as he errs, doting on Hermia*s eyes, 230 

So I, admiring of his qualities : 

Things base and vile, holding no quantity. 

Love can transpose to form and dignity: 

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; 

And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind: 

Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste ; 

Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste : 

And therefore is Love said to be a child, 

Because in choice he is so oft beguiled. 

As waggish boys in game themselves forswear, 240 

So the boy Love is perjured every where: 

For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne, 

He haiPd down oaths that he was only mine; 

And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt. 

So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt. 

I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight : 

Then to the wood will he to-morrow night 

Pursue her; and for this intelligence 

If I have thanks, it is a dear expense : 

But herein mean I to enrich my pain, 250 

To have his sight thither and back again. [Ex'tU 



Scene H. Athens. Quince's house. 

Enter QuiNCE, SNUG, Bottom, Flute, Snout, and 

Starveling. 

Qu'm. Is all our company here? 

Bot. You were best to call them generally, man by man, 
according to the scrip. 

Quin. Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is 
thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our interlude 
before the duke and the duchess, on his wedding-day at 
night. 



ACT 7. SCENE II. 9 

BoU First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats 
on; then read the names of the actors, and so grow to 
a point. 10 

Qmn, Marry, our play is. The most lamentable comedy, 
and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby. 

BoU A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry. 
Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your actors by the scroll. 
Masters, spread yourselves. 

Quin. Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver, 

BoU Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed. 

Qmn. You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus. 

BoU What is Pyramus ? a lover, or a tyrant ? 

Quin. A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love. 20 

Bot, That will ask some tears in the true performing of 
it: if I do it, let the audience look to their eyes; I will 
move storms, I will condole in some measure. To the rest : 
yet my chief humoiu- is for a tyrant: I could play Ercles 
rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split. 

The raging rocks 

And shivering shocks 

Shall break the locks 
Of prison gates; 

And Phibbus* car 30 

Shall shine from far 

And make and mar 
The foolish Fates. 
This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players. This 
is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is more condoling. 

Quin, Francis Flute, the bellows-mender. 

Flu, Here, Peter Quince. 

Quin, Flute, you must take Thisby on you. 

Flu, What is Thisby? a waiidering knight? 

Quin, It is the lady that Pyramus must love. 40 

Flu, Nay, faith, let not me play a woman ; I have a beard 
coming. 



lO A MIDSUMMER-NIGHtS DREAM. 

Quin, That's all one: you shall play it in a mask, and 
you may speak as small as you will. 

Bot, An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too, 
I'll speak in a monstrous little voice, * Thisne, Thisne;* 
*Ah Pyramus, my lover dear! thy Thisby dear, and lady 
dear ! * 

Quin. No, no ; you must play Pyramus : and, Flute, you 
Thisby. 50 

Bot, Well, proceed. 

Quin. Robin Starveling, the tailor. 

Star. Here, Peter Quince. 

Quin. Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother. 
Tom Snout, the tinker. 

Snout. Here, Peter Quince. 

Quin. You, Pyramus* father : myself, Thisby's father. 
Snug, the joiner ; you, the lion's part : and, I hope, here is 
a play fitted. 

Snug. Have you the lion's part written ? pray you, if it 
be, give it me, for I am slow of study. • 61 

Quin. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but 
roaring. 

Bot, Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I will 
do any man's heart good to hear me; I will roar, that I 
will make the duke say *Let him roar again, let him roar 
again.' 

Quin. An you should do it too terribly, you would fright 
the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek; and that 
were enough to hang us all. 70 

j^II, That would hang us, every mother's son. 

Bot. I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the 
ladies out of their wits, they would have no more discretion 
but to hang us : but I will aggravate my voice so, that I will 
roar you as gently as any sucking dove ; I will roar you an 
'twere any nightingale. 

Quin. You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus 
is a sweet-faced man; a proper man, as one shall see in a 



ACT II. SCENE I. II 

lunmer's day ; a most lovely gentleman-like man : therefore 
Toxx must needs play Pyramus. 80 

Bot, Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best 
to play it in? 

Qmn, Why, what you will. 

BoU I will discharge it in either your straw-colour beard, 
your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your 
French-crown-colour beard, your perfect yellow, 

Quin, Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, 
and then you will play barefaced. But, masters, here are 
your parts: and I am to entreat you, request you and de- 
sire you, to con them by to-morrow night ; and meet me 
in the palace wood, a mile without the town, by moonlight ; 
there will we rehearse, for if we meet in the city, we shall 
be dogged with company, and our devices known. In the 
meantime I will draw a bill of properties, such as our play 
wants. I pray you, fail me not. 95 

Bot. We will meet; and there we may rehearse most 
obscenely and courageously. Take pains ; be perfect : adieu. 

Quin, At the duke's oak we meet. 

Bot, Enough; hold or cut bow-strings. [Exeunt, 



ACT 11. 

Scene I. A <wood near Athens, 

Enter y from opposite sides ^ a FAIRY, and PuCK. 

^uck. How now, spirit ! whither wander you ? 

Eai, Over hill, over dale. 

Thorough bush, thorough brier. 
Over park, over pale, 

Thorough flood, thorough fire, 
I do wander every where, 
Swifter than the moon's sphere; 



*A. 



12 A MIDSUMMER'NIOHt*S DREAM. 

And I serve the fairy queen. 
To dew her orbs upon the green. 
The cowslips tall her pensioners be: lo 

In their gold coats spots you see; 
Those be rubies, fairy favours. 
In those freckles live their savours: 
I must go seek some dewdrops here 
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear. 
Farewell, thou lob of spirits ; I *11 be gone : 
Our queen and all her elves come here anon. 

Puck. The king doth keep his revels her« to-night: 
Take heed the queen come not within his sight; 
For Oberon is passing fell and wrath, ao 

Because that she as her attendant hath 
A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king; 
She never had so sweet a changeling; 
And jealous Oberon would have the child 
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild ; 
But she perforce withholds the loved boy. 
Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy: 
And now they never meet in grove or green, 
By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen. 
But they do square, that all their elves for fear 3® 

Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there. 

Fat, Either I mistake your shape and making quite, 
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite 
Gaird Robin Goodfellow: are not you he 
That frights the maidens of the villagery; 
Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern 
And bootless make the breathless housewife chum; 
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm; 
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm? 
Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck, 4 

You do their work, and they shall have good luck: 
Are not you he ? 

PucA, Thou speak'st aright; 

I am that merry wanderer of the night. 



ACT IT. SCENE I. 13 

I jest to Oberon and make him smile 

WTien la fat and bean-fed horse beguile, 

Neighing in likeness of a filly foal : 

And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl, 

In very likeness of a roasted crab, 

And when she drinks, against her lips I bob 

And on her withered dewlap pour the ale. 50 

The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale, 

Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me ; 

Then slip I from her bum, down topples she, 

And ^ tailor ' cries, and falls into a cough ; 

And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh. 

And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear 

A merrier hour was never wasted there. 

But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon. 

Fat, And here my mistress. Would that he were gone ! 

£nter, from one side, OBERON, <ivith his train ; from the other, 

TiTANIA, <ivith hers. 

Obe. Ill met by moonlight, proud Titan ia. 60 

^tta. What, jealous Oberon ! Fairies, skip hence : 
^ /lave forsworn his bed and company. 

Obe, Tarry, rash wanton : am not I thy lord ? 

^ita. Then I must be thy lady: but I know 
*^lien thou hast stolen away from fairy land, 
^^»^<i in the shape of Gorin sat all day, 
*^^^ying on pipes of com and versing love 
•*^<:> amorous Phillida. Why art thou here, 
^<^Tne from the farthest steppe of India? 
^'•^t that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, 70 

^<^ur buskin'd mistress and your warrior love, 
*- c> Theseus must be wedded, and you come 
^^Ci give their bed joy and prosperity, 

Obe, How canst thou thus for shame, Titania, 
^lance at my credit with Hippolyta, 
^Tiowing I know thy love to Theseus? 
*^idst thou not lead him through the glimmering night 



14 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT^ S DREAM, 

From Perigenia, whom he ravished ? 

And make him with fair ^gle break his faith. 

With Ariadne and Antiopa? 

^ Ttta. These are the forgeries of jealousy : 
And never, since the middle summer's spring, 
Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead, 
By paved fountain or by rushy brook, 
Or in the beached margent of the sea. 
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind. 
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport. 
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain. 
As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea 
Contagious fogs; which falling in the land 
Have every pelting river made so proud 
That they have overborne their continents: 
The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain. 
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn 
Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard; 
The fold stands empty in the drowned field. 
And crows are fatted with the murrion flock; 
The nine men's morris is fiU'd up with mud. 
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green 
For lack of tread are undistinguishable : 
The human mortals want their winter here; 
No night is now with hymn or carol blest: 
Therefore the niioon, the governess of floods. 
Pale in her anger, washes all the air. 
That rheumatic diseases do abound : 
And thorough this distemperature we see 
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts 
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose, 
And on old Hiems* thin and icy crown 
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds 
Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer. 
The childing autumn, angry winter, chanM^ - 
Their wonted liveries, and the ma* 
By their increase, now kno^r 
And this same progeny of e 



ACT 11. SCENE I. 



O 



I20 



130 



From our debate, from our dissension ; 
We are their parents and original. 

Oie, Do you amend it then; it lies in you: 
Why should Titania cross her Oberon? 
I do but beg a little changeling boy, 
To be my henchman. 

Itta, Set your heart at rest: 

The fairy land buys not the child of me. 

His mother was a votaress of my order : 

And, in the spiced Indian air, by night. 

Full often hath she gossip*d by my side. 

And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands. 
Marking the embarked traders on the flood, 
When we have laughed to see the sails conceive 
And grow big-bellied with the wantdh wind; 
Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait 
Following, — her womb then rich with my young squire, 
Would imitate, and sail upon the land, 
^0 fetch me trifles, and return again, 

^ from a voyage, rich with merchandise. 

■^ot she, being mortal, of that boy did die ; 

^<i for her sake do I rear up her boy, 
^^ £br her sake I will not part with him. 

OA^^ How long within this wood intend you stay? 

^'<'^», Perchance till after Theseus' wedding-day. 
will patiently dance in our round 

our moonlight revels, go with us; 
shun me, and I will spare your haunts. 

Give me that boy, and I will go with thee. 

'*'!«», Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away! 
^* sfaaU chide downright, if I longer stay. 

• [Exit Titania with her train, 

WdHf go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove 
for this injury. 

hither. Thou rememberest 
iiromontory, 



140 



ti. ^ 



1 6 A midsummer-night's dream. 

And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back 15 

Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath 

That the rude sea grew civil at her song 

And »certain stars shot madly from their spheres, 

To hear the sea-maid's music. 

Puck, I remember. 

Obe. That very time I saw, but thou couldst not. 
Flying between the cold moon and the earth, 
Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took 
At a fair vestal throned by the weit. 
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow. 
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts; i6( 

But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft 
Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon, 
And the imperial votaress passed 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. 
Fetch me that flower ; the herb I shew'd thee once ; 
The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid 17 

Will make or man or woman madly dote 
Upon the next live creature that it sees. 
Fetch me this herb ; and be thou here again 
Ere the leviathan can swim a league. 

Puck. I '11 put a girdle round about the earth 
In forty minutes. [Exi 

Obe, Having once this juice, 

I '11 watch Titania when she is asleep. 
And drop the liquor of it in her eyes. 
The next thing then she waking looks upon. 
Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull, i8c 

On meddling monkey, or on busy ape, 
She shall pursue it with the soul of love: 
And ere I take this charm from off her sight. 
As I can take it with another herb, 



ACT II. SCENE /. 17 

11 make her render up her page to me. 
at who comes here? I am invisible; 
nd I will overhear their conference. 

Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA follofwing him, 

Dent, I love thee not, therefore pursue me not. 

''here is Lysander and fair Hermia? 

he one I *11 slay, the other slayeth me. 1 90 

hou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood; 

id here am I, and wood within this wood, 

icause I cannot meet my Hermia. 

ence, get thee gone, and follow me no more. 

Hel, You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant: 
it yet you draw not iron, for my heart 
true as steel : leave you your power to draw, 
ad I shall have no power to follow you. 

Dem, Do I entice you? do I speak you fair? 

r, rather, do I not in plainest truth 200 

ell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you? 

Hel, And even for that do I love you the more. 

am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, 

le more you beat me, I will fawn on you : 

5e me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, 

iglect me, lose me; only give me leave, 

iworthy as I am, to follow you. 

hat worser place can 1 beg in your love, — 

id yet a place of high respect with me, — 

lan to be used as you use your dog? 210 

Dem, Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit, 
►r I am sick when I do look on thee. 

Hel, And I am sick when I look not on you. 

Dem, You do impeach your modesty too much, 

> leave the city and commit yourself 

to the hands of one that loves you not ; 

i trust the opportunity of night 

id the ill counsel of a desert place 

Ith the rich worth of your virginity. 

C 



l8 A MIDSUMMERrNIGHT's DREAM, 

HeL Your virtue is my privilege: for that 
It is not night when I do see your face, 
Therefore I think I am not in the night; 
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of coiftpany, 
For you in my respect are all the world: 
Then how can it be said I am alone, 
When all the world is here to look on me? 

Dem, I '11 run from thee and hide me in the brak( 
And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts. 

HeL The wildest hath not such a heart as you. 
Run when you will, the story shall be changed: 
Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase; 
The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind 
Makes speed to catch the tiger; bootless speed. 
When cowardice pursues and valour flies. 

Dem, I will not stay thy questions; let me go: 
Or, if thou follow me, do not believe 
But I shall do thee mischief in the wood. 

Hel. Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field, 
You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius ! 
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex: 
We cannot fight for love, as men may do; 
We should be woo'd and were not made to woo. 

[Exit Demi 
I '11 follow thee and make a heaven of hell. 
To die upon the hand I love so well. 

Obe, Fare thee well, nymph : ere he do leave this { 
Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love. 

Re-enter PuCK. 

Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer. 

Puck. Ay, there it is. 

Obe. I pray thee, give it me. 

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, 
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, 
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine. 
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine: 



ACT II. SCENE II, 19 

There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, 

Luird in these flowers with dances and delight^ 

And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin, 

Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in: 

And with the juice of this I '11 streak her eyes, 

And make her full of hateful fantasies. 

Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove : 

A sweet Athenian lady is in love 260 

With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes; 

But do it when the next thing he espies 

May be the lady: thou shalt know the man 

By the Athenian garments he hath on. 

Effect it with some care that he may prove 

More fond on her than she upon her love: 

And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow. 

Puck. Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so. 

{Exeunt, 

Scene II. Another part of the wood. 

Enter TiTANIA, (with her train. 

Ttta, Come, now a roundel and a fairy song; 
Then, for the third part of a minute, hence ; 
8ome to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds. 
Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings, 
To make my small elves coats, and some keep back 
The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders 
^f our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep; 
Tlien to your oflBces and let me rest. 

The Fairies sing. 

You spotted snakes with double tongue, 

Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen; 10 

Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong. 

Come not near our fairy queen. 

Philomel, with melody 

Sing in our, sweet lullaby; 
Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, luUaby: 

c a 



20 A midsummer-night's DREAM. 

Never Barm, 
Nor spell nor charm, 
Come our lovely lady nigh; 
So, good night, with lullaby. 
Weaving spiders, come not here; 20 

Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence! 
Beetles black, approach not near; 
Worm nor snail, do no offence. 
Philomel, with melody, &c. 

ji Fairy, Hence, away ! now all is well : 
One aloof stand sentinel. 

[Exeunt Fairies. Titania skeft. 

Enter Oberon, and squeezes the Jlo«wer on Titania^ s eyelids, 

Obe. What thou seest when thou dost wake, 
Do it for thy true-love take. 
Love and languish for his sake: 
Be it ounce, or cat, or bear, 30 

Pard, or boar with bristled hair, 
In thy eye that shall appear 
When thou wakest, it is thy dear: 
Wake when some vile thing is near. [Exit, 

Enter Lysander and Hermia. 

Lys. Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood; 
And to speak troth, I have forgot our way: 
We *11 rest us, Hermia, if you think it good, 
And tarry for the comfort of the day. 

Her, Be it so, Lysander : find you out a bed ; 
For I upon this bank will rest my head. 40 

Lys, One turf shall serve as pillow for us both; 
One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth. 

Her, Nay, good Lysander ; for my sake, my dear, 
Lie further off yet, do not lie so near. 

Lys, O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence ! 
Love takes the meaning in love*s conference. 
I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit 
So that but one heart we can make of it ; 



ACT II. SCENE IT. ' iil 

Two bosoms interchained with an oath; 

So then two bosoms and a single troth. 50 

Then by your side no bed-room me deny ; . 

For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie. 

Her, Lysander riddles very prettily : 
Now miich beshrew my manners and my pride, 
If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied. 
But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy 
Lie further off; in human modesty. 
Such separation as may well be said 
Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid. 
So far be distant; and, good night, sweet friend: 60 

Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end! 

Lyj. Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I ; 
And then end life when I end loyalty ! 
Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest! 

Her. With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd ! 

[They sleep. 
Enter PuCK. 

PucA. Tlirough the forest have I gone, 
But Athenian found I none, 
On whose eyes I might approve 
This flower's force in stirring lo^e. 
Night and silence. — Who is here? 70 

Weeds of Athens he doth wear: 
This is he, my master said. 
Despised the Athenian maid ; 
And here the maiden, sleeping sound. 
On the dank and dirty ground. 
Pretty soul ! she durst not lie 
Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy. 
Churl, upon thy eyes I throw 
All the power this charm doth owe. 
When thou wakest, let love forbid 80 

Sleep his seat on thy eyelid: 
So awake when I am gone ; 
Fca* I must now to Oberon. [Exit, 



ail A midsummer-night's dream. 

Enter DEMETRIUS and Helena, running. 

Hel, Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius. 

Dem, I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus. 

Hel, O, wilt thou darkling leave me ? do not so, 

Dem, Stay, on thy peril : I alone will go. [Exit, 

Hel, O, I am out of breath in this fond chase ! 
The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace, 
Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lie'fe ; 90 

For she hath blessed and attractive eyes. 
How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears: 
If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers. 
No, no, I am as ugly as a bear ; 
For beasts that meet me run away for fear : 
Therefore no marvel though Demetrius 
Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus. 
What wicked and dissembling glass of mine 
Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne ? 
But who is here? Lysander! on the ground! 100 

Dead ? or asleep ? I see no blood, no wound. 
Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake. 

Lys, [Awaking,'] And run through fire I will for thy sweet 
sake. 
Transparent Helena! Nature shows art, 
That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart. 
Where is Demetrius ? O, how fit a word 
Is that vile name to perish on my sword ! 

Heh Do not say so, Lysander ; say not so. 
What though he love your Hermia ? Lord, what though ? 
Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content. no 

Lys, Content with Hermia! No; I do repent 
The tedious minutes I with her have spent. 
Not Hermia but Helena I love : 
Who will not change a raven for a dove? 
The will of man is by his reason sway'd ; 
And reason says you are the worthier maid. 



ACT 11. SCENE II. 23 

Things growing are not ripe until their season: 

So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason ; 

And touching now the point of human skill, 

Reason becomes the marshal to my will 120 

And leads me to your eyes, where I overlook 

Love's stories written in love's richest book. 

HeL Wherefore was I to this keen mockery bom ? 
When at your hands did I deserve this scorn? 
Is 't not enough, is 't not enough, young man, 
That I did never, no, nor never can. 
Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye, 
But you must flout my insufficiency ? 
Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do. 
In such disdainful manner me to woo. 150 

But fare you well: perforce I must confess 
I thought you lord of more true gentleness, 
O, that a lady, of one man refused. 
Should of another therefore be abused ! [Exit. 

Lys. She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there : 
And never mayst thou come Lysander near I 
For as a surfeit of the sweetest things 
The deepest loathing to the stomach brings. 
Or as the heresies that men do leave 
Are hated most of those they did deceive, 140 

So thou, my surfeit and my heresy. 
Of all be hated, but the most of me ! 
And, all my powers, address your love and might 
To honour Helen and to be her knight! \Exit, 

Her. \A<waking^ Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy 
best 
To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast ! 
Ay me, for pity ! what a dream was here ! 
Lysander, look how I do quake with fear : 
Methought a serpent eat my heart away, 
And you sat smiling at his cruel prey. 150 

Lysander ! what, removed ? Lysander ! lord ! 
What, out of hearing ? gone ? no sound, no word ? 



24 A midsummer-night's DREAM. 

« 

Alack, where are you ? speak, an if you hear ; 

Speak, of all loves ! I swoon almost with fear. 

No ? then I well perceive you are not nigh : 

Either death or you PU find immediately. [Exit, 



ACT III. 

Scene I. The wood, Titania lying asleep. 
Enter QuiNCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FlUTE, SnOUT, and 

Starveling. 

Bot, Are we all met ? 

Quin, Pat, pat ; and here 's a marvellous convenient place 
for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage, this 
hawthorn-brake our tiring-house ; and we will do it in action ! 
as we will do it before the duke. | 

Bot, Peter Quince, — 

Qmn, What sayest thou, bully Bottom ? 

Bot, There are things in this comedy of Pyramus 
and Thlsby that will never please. First, Pyramus must-^ 
draw a sword to kill himself ; which the ladies cannot abide^^ 
How answer you that? ie^^ 

Snout, By'r lakin, a parlous fear. • 

Star, I believe we must leave the killing out, when al^ 
is done. 

Bot, Not a whit : I have a device to make all well. Write:^ 
me a prologue ; and let the prologue seem to say, we will do*^ 
no harm with our swords and that Pyramus is not killed ^ 
indeed ; and, for the more better assurance, tell them that - 
I Pyramus am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this 
will put them out of fear. 20 

Quin, Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall 
be written in eight and six. 



ACT III. SCENE J. 25 

BoL No, make it two more; let it be written in eight 
and eight. 

Snout, Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion ? 

Star. I fear it, I promise you. 

Bot. Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves : to 
bring in — God shield us ! — a lion among ladies, is a most 
dreadful thing ; for there is not a more fearful wild-fowl than 
your lion living ; and we ought to look to 't. 30 

Snout. Therefore another prologue must tell he is not 
a lion. 

Bot, Nay, you must name his name, and half his face 
must be seen through the lion's neck: and he himself must 
speak through, saying thus, or to the same defect, — * Ladies,' 
— or * Fair ladies, — I would wish you,' — or * I would request 
you,* — or * I would entreat you, — not to fear, not to tremble: 
my life for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it 
were pity of my life : no, I am no such thing ; I am a man 
as other men are ; ' and there indeed let him name his name, 
and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner. 41 

Quin, Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard things ; 
that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber; for, you 
know, Py ramus and Thisby meet by moonlight. 

Snout. Doth the moon shine that night we play our play ? 

Bot. A calendar, a calendar ! look in the almanac ; find 
>ut moonshine, find out moonshine. 
Quin, Yes, it doth shine that night 
Bot. Why, then may you leave a casement of the great 
-liamber window, where we play, open, and the moon may 
*l:iine in at the casement. - 51 

Quin. Ay ; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns 
•-"■id a lanthom, and say he comes to disfigure, or to present, 
person of Moonshine. Then, there is another thing: 
must have a wall in the great chamber; for Pyramus 
^^nd Thisby, says the story, did talk though the chink of a 
^valL 

Snout. You can never bring in a wall. What say you, 
Bottom ? 59 



\ 



26 A midsummeR'Night's dream. 

Bot, Some man or other must present "Wall : and let him 
have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast about 
him, to signify wall ; and let him hold his fingers thus, and 
through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper. 

Quin, If that may be, then all is well. Gome, sit down, 
every mother's son, and rehearse your parts. Pyramis, you 
begin: when you have spoken your speech, enter into that 
brake : and so every one according to his cue. 

Enter PuCK hebinJ, 

Puck. "What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering 
here, 
So near the cradle of the fairy queen ? 
What, a play toward! I'll be an auditor; 70 

And actor too perhaps, if I see cause. 

Quin. Speak, Pyramus. Thisby stand forth, 

Bot. Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet, — 

Quin. Odours, odours. 

Bot odours savours sweet: 

So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear. 
But hark, a voice ! stay thou but here awhile. 
And by and by I will to thee appear. [Exit* 

Puck. A stranger Pyramus than e*er played here, [Exit* 

Flu. Must I speak now ? 

Quin. Ay, marry, must you ; for you must understand h^ 
goes but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again. 

FJu. Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue, 8 

Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier, 
Most brisky juvenal and eke most lovely Jew, 

As true as truest horse that yet would never tire, 
I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb. 

Quin. * Ninus' tomb,' man : why, you must not speak tha^ - 
yet ; that you answer to Pyramus : you speak all your paiW 
at once, cues and all. Pyramus enter: your cue is past; i^ 
is, * never tire.' 9C==^ 

Flu. O,— As true as truest horse, that yet would nevei ' 
tire. 



ACT III. SCENE /. 27 

Be'cnter PuCK, and Bottom witb an ass^s bead, 

BoU If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine. 

Qiwi. O monstrous ! O strange ! we are haunted. Pray, 
masters ! fly, masters ! Help ! 

[Exeunt Quince^ Snug, Flute, Snout, and Starveling, 

Puck, VU follow you, I'll lead you about a round. 
Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier : 
Sometime a horse 1*11 be, sometime a hound, 

A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire ; 
And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, 100 
Like horsie, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn. [Exit, 

Bot, Why do they run away ? this is a knavery of them 
to make me afeard. 

Re-enter SNOUT. 

Snout, O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on 
thee ? 

Bot, What do you see? you see an ass-head of your 
own, do you ? [Exit Snout, 

Re-enter QuiNCE. 

Quin, Bless thee. Bottom ! bless thee ! thou art trans- 
lated. [Exit, 

Bot, I see their knavery : this is to make an ass of me ; 

to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir from this 

place, do what they can: I will walk up and down here, 

and I will sing, that they shall hear I am not afraid, [Sings, 

The ousel cock so black of hue, 114 

With orange-tawny bill. 
The throstle with his note so true, 
The wren with little quill, — 

Tita, [ji<waking,] What angel wakes me from my flowery 

bed? 
Bot. [Sings] 

The finch, the sparrow and the lark, 

The plain-song cuckoo gray, 120 

Whose note full many a man doth mark. 
And dares not answer nay; — 



28 A MIDSUMMER'NIGHts DREAM. 

for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a bird ? who 
would give a bird the lie, though he cry * cuckoo ' never so ? 

Tita, I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again: 
Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note ; 
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape; 
And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move jne 
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee. 129 

Bot, Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for 
that ^ and yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little 
company together now-a-days ; the more the pity that some 
honest neighbours will not make them friends. Nay, I can 
gleek upon occasion. 

Ttta, Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful. 

Bot, Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get 
out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn. 

Ttta. Out of this wood do not desire to go: 
Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no. 
I am a spirit of no common rate : 140 

The summer still doth tend upon my state; 
And I do love thee: therefore, go with me; 
rU give thee fairies to attend on thee. 
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep, 
And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep: 
And I will purge thy mortal grossness so 
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go. 
Peaseblossom ! Cobweb ! Moth ! and Mustardseed ! 

Enter PEASEBLOSSOM, CoBWEB, MoTH, and Mustardseed* 

Peas, Ready. 

Cob, And I, 

Moth, And I. 

Mm, And I. 

All, Where shall we go 

Ttta. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman; 15^ 
Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes; 
Feed him with apricocks and dewberries, 



ACT III. SCENE I. 29. 

With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries; 

The honey -bags steal from the humble bees, 

And for' night-tapers crop their waxen thighs 

And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes, 

To have my love to bed and to arise ; 

And pluck the wings from painted butterflies 

To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes : 

Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies, 160 

Peas, Hail, mortal ! 
Cob. Hail! 
Moth. Hail ! 
Mus. Hail ! 

Bot. I cry your worships mercy, heartily : I beseech your 
worship's name. 

Cob, Cobweb. 

Bot, I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master 
Cobweb: if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you. 
Your name, honest gentleman ? 170 

Peas. Peaseblossom. 

Bot. I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your 
mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. Good Master 
Peaseblossom, I shall desire you of more acquaintance too. 
Your name, I beseech you, sir ? 

Mus. Mustardseed. 

Bot, Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience 
^^U: that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath devoured 
many a gentleman of your house : I promise you your kin- 
"^^d hath made my eyes water ere now. I desire your 
®ore acquaintance, good Master Mustardseed. 18 1 

^^«. Gome, wait upon him; lead him to my bower. 
T'lic moon methinks looks with a watery eye ; 
And >vhen she weeps, weeps every little flower, 
^^menting some enforced chastity. 
Ti** up my love's tongue, bring him silently. [Exeunt, 



30 A MIDSUMMER'NJGHTf S DREAM. 



Scene II. Another part of the wood. 

Enter Oberon. 

Obe, I wonder if Titania be awaked; 
Then, what it was that next came in her eye, 
Which she must dote on in extremity. 

Enter PuCK, 

Here comes my messenger. How now, mad spirit ! 
What night-rule now about this haunted grove? 

Puck. My mistress with a monster is in love. 
Near to her close and consecrated bower, 
While she was in her dull and sleeping hour, 
A crew of patches, rude mechanicals. 
That work for bread upon Athenian stalls. 
Were met together to rehearse a play 
Intended for great Theseus' nuptial-day. 
The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort. 
Who Pyramus presented, in their sport 
Forsook his scene and entered in a brake: 
When I did him at this advantage take, 
An ass's nole I fixed on his head: 
Anon his Thisbe must be answered. 
And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy. 
As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye. 
Or russet-patted choughs, many in sort, 
Rising and cawing at the gun's report. 
Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky. 
So, at his sight, away his fellows fly; 
And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls; 
He murder cries and help from Athens calls. 
Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears thus stroni 
Made senseless things begin. to do them wrong; 
For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch; 
Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all things catch. 



ACT III. SCENE II. 31 

I led them on in this distracted fear, 
And left sweet Py ramus translated there: 
"When in that moment, so it came to pass, 
Titania waked and straightway loved an ass. 

Ohe, This falls out better than I could devise. 
But hast thou yet latch'd 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 waked, of force she must be eyed. 40 

Enter Hermia and DEMETRIUS. 

Obe. Stand close: this is the same Athenian. 

Puck. This is the woman, but not this the man. 

Dem. O, why rebuke you him that loves you so? 
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 the deep, 
And kill me too. 

The sun was not so true unto the day 50 

As he to me : would he have stolen away 
From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon 
This whole earth may be bored and that the moon 
May through the centre creep and so displease 
Her brother's noontide with the Antipodes. 
It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him ; 
So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim. 

Dem. So should the murder'd look, and so should I, 
Pierced through the heart with your stem cruelty: 
Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear, 60 

As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere. 

Her. What 's this to my Lysander ? where is he ? 
Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me ? 

Dem. I had rather give his carcass to my hounds. 



33 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' & DREAM. 

Her. Out, dog! out, cur! thou drivest me past the 
bounds 
Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him, then ? 
Henceforth be never numbered among men ! 
O, once tell true, tell true, even for my sake! 
Durst thou have looked upon him being awake, 
And hast thou killed him sleeping? O brave touch! 70 
Could not a worm, an adder, do so much? 
An adder did it; for with doubler tongue 
Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung. 

Dem, You spend your passion on a misprised mood: 
I am not guilty of Lysander's blood ; 
Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell. 

Her. I pray thee, tell me then that he is well. 

Dem, An if I could, what should I get therefore? 

Her, A privilege never to see me more. 
And from thy hated presence part I so: 8c 

See me no more, whether he be dead or no. [Exit. 

Dem, There is no following her in this fierce vein: 
Here therefore for a while I will remain. 
So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow 
For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe; 
Which now in some slight measure it wiil pay, 
If for his tender here I make some stay. 

[Lies down and slee^* 

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 9^ 

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, 
With sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear: 
By some illusion see thou bring her here: 
I'll charm his eyes against she do appear. 



ACT III. SCENE II. 33 

Puck, I go, I go; look how I go, loo 

Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow. [Exit. 

Obe. Flower of this purple dye, 

Hit with Cupid's archery, 
Sink in apple of his eye. 
When his love he doth espy. 
Let her shine as gloriously 
As the Venus of the sky. 
When thou wakest, if she be by, 
Beg of her for remedy. 

Re-enter PuCK. 

Puck, Captain of our fairy band, no 

Helena is here at hand; 
And the youth, mistook by me. 
Pleading for a lover's fee. 
Shall we their fond pageant see? 
Lord, what fools these mortals be^ 

Obe. Stand aside: the noise they make 

Will cause Demetrius to awake. 

Puck. Then will two at once woo one ; 

That must needs be sport alone; 
And those things do best please me 120 

That befal preposterously. 

Enter Lysander and HELENA. 

Lys, Why should you think that I should woo in scorn ? 

Scorn and derision never come in tears: 
^ook, when I vow, I weep; and vows so bom, 

In their . nativity all truth appears. 
How can these things in me seem scorn to you, 
Scaring the badge of faith, to prove them true? 

Hel. You do advance your cunning more and more. 

When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray! 
T^^ese vows are Hermia's: will you give her o'er? 130 

Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh: 
Your vows to her and me, put in two scales, 
Will even weigh, and both as light as tales, 

D 



34 A midsummer-night's dream. 

Lys. I had no judgement when to her I swore. 

Hel, Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er. 

Lys, Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you. 

Dem, [Awaking,'] O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfe 
divine ! 
To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne ? 
Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show 
Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow! i 

That pure congealed white, high Taurus' snow, 
Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow 
When thou hold'st up thy hand : O, let me kiss 
This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss ! 

Hel. O spite ! O hell ! I see you all are bent 
To set against me for your merriment: 
If you were civil and knew courtesy. 
You would not do me thus much injury. 
Can you not hate me, as I know you do. 
But you must join in souls to mock me too ? i 

If you were men, as men you are in show, 
You would not use a gentle lady so; 
To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts. 
When I am sure you hate me with your hearts. 
You both are rivals, and love Hermia; 
And now both rivals, to mock Helena: 
A trim exploit, a manly enterprise, 
To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes 
With your derision! none of noble sort 
Would so offend a virgin and extort 
A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport. 

Lys. You are unkind, Demetrius ; be not so ; 
For you love Hermia; this you know I know: 
And here, with all good will, with all my heart. 
In Hermia's love I yield you up my part; 
And yours of Helena to me bequeath, 
Whom I do love and will do till my death. 

HeL Never did mockers waste more idle breath. 



i 



ACT III. SCENE II. 35 

Dem, Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none: 
If e'er I loved her, all that love is gone. 170 

My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd, 
And now to Helen is it home return'd, 
There to remain. 

Ljs. Helen, it is not so. 

Dem. Disparage not the faith thou dost not know, 
Lest, to thy peril, thou aby it dear. 
Look, where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear. 

Re-enter HermiA. 

Her. Dark night, that from the eye his function takes. 
The ear more quick of apprehension makes ; 
Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense. 
It pays the hearing double recompense. 180 

Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found ; 
Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound. 
But why unkindly didst thou leave me so ? 

Lys. Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go ? 

Her. What love could press Lysander from my side? 

Lys. Lysander's love, that would not let him bide, 
Fair Helena^ who more engilds the night 
T"lian all yon fiery oes and eyes of light. 
^hy seek'st thou me? could not this make thee know, 
^he hate I bear thee made me leave thee so? 190 

•fier. You speak not as you think: it cannot be. 

■ff^l. Lo, she is one of this confederacy! 
^c>w I perceive they have conjoin'd all three 
^c> fashion this false sport, in spite of me. 
'^J Prions Hermia! most ungrateful maid! 
Have you conspired, have you with these contrived 
^c^ bait me with this foul derision? 
^5 a.11 the counsel that we two have shared, 
^^e sisters* vows, the hours that we have spent, 
^^en we have chid the hasty-footed time a 00 

^or parting us,— O, is all forgot? 

^ school-days' friendship, childhood innocence? 

D 2 



36 A midsummer-night's dream. 

We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, 

Have with our needles created both one flower, 

Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion, 

Both warbling of one song, both in one key, 

As if our hands, our sides, voices and minds, 

Had been incorporate. So we grew together. 

Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, 

But yet an union in partition; 

Two lovely berries moulded on one stem; 

So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart ; 

Two of the first, like coats in heraldry. 

Due but to one and crowned with one crest. 

And will you rent our ancient love asunder. 

To join with men in scorning your poor friend? 

It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly: 

Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it, 

Though I alone do feel the injury. 

Her. I am amazed at your passionate words. 
I scorn you not: it seems that you scorn me. 

Heh Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn, 
To follow me and praise my eyes and face? 
And made your other love, Demetrius, 
Who even but now did spurn me with his foot, 
To call me goddess, nymph, divine and rare, 
Precious, celestial ? Wherefore speaks he this 
To her he hates? and wherefore doth Lysander 
Deny your love, so rich within his soul. 
And tender me, forsooth, affection. 
But by your setting on, by your consent? 
What though I be not so in grace as you, 
So hung upon with love, so fortunate. 
But miserable most, to love unloved? 
This you should pity rather than despise. 

Her. I understand not what you mean by this. 

Hel, Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks, 
Make mouths upon me when I turn my back; 
Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up: 



ACT III. SCENE II. 37 

This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled. 240 

If you have any pity, grace, or manners. 
You would not make me such an argument. 
But fare ye well : 'tis partly my own fault ; 
Which death or absence soon shall remedy. 

Lys, Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse : 
My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena! 

HeL O excellent! 

Her, Sweet, do not scorn her so. 

Dem, If she cannot entreat, I can compel. 

Lys. Thou canst compel no more than she entreat : 
Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers. 
Helen, I love thee; by my life I do: 251 

I swear by that which I will lose for thee, 
To prove him false that says I love thee not. 

Dem. I say I love thee more than he can do. 

Lys. If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too. 

Dem. Quick, come! 

Her. Lysander, whereto tends all this? 

Lys. Away, you Ethiope! 

Dem. No, no; he Ml . . . 

Seem to break loose; take on as you would follow, 
But yet come not: you are a tame man, go! 

^ys. Hang off, thou cat, thou burr ! vile thing, let loose, 
^^ I will shake thee from me like a serpent! 261 

&/-• Why are you grown so rude ? what change is this ? 
Sw^eet love,— 

-^j'-r. Thy love ! out, tawny Tartar, out I 

^t, loathed medicine ! hated potion, hence ! 

^'•. Do you not jest ? 

^^i. Yes, sooth; and so do you. 

^y-s^ Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee. 

k i^ejw. I would I had your bond, for I perceive 
fc K weak bond holds you : I '11 not trust your word. 



38 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT* S DREAM. 

Lys, What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her deadl 
Although I hate her, I *11 not harm her so. 270 

Her, What, can you do me greater harm than hate? 
Hate me ! wherefore ? O me ! what news, my love ! 
Am not I Hermia? are not you Lysander? 
I am as fair now as I was erewhile. 
Since night you loved me; yet since night you left me: 
Why, then you left me — O, the gods forbid! — 
In earnest, shall I say? 

Zyj. Ay, by my life; 

And never did desire to see thee more. 
Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt ; 
Be certain, nothing truer ; 'tis no jest J^** 

That I do hate thee and love Helena. 

Her. O me ! you juggler ! you canker-blossom ! 
You thief of love ! what, have you come by night 
And stolen my love's heart from him? 

HeL Fine, i' faith ! 

Have you no modesty, no maiden shame. 
No touch of bashfulness ? What, will you tear 
Impatient answers from my gentle tongue? 
Fie, fie ! you counterfeit, you puppet, you ! 

Her, Puppet? why so? ay, that way goes the game. 
Now 1 perceive that she hath made compare ^ 

Between our statures; she hath urged her height; 
And with her personage, her tall personage, 
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him. 
And are you grown so high in his esteem. 
Because I am so dwarfish and so low? 
How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak; 
How low am I? I am not yet so low 
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; 3^ 

I have no gift at all in shrewishness; 
I am a right maid for my cowardice : 
Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think, 



ACT III. SCENE II. 39 

Because she is something lower than myself^ 
That I can match her. 

Her, Lower! hark again. 

HeL Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me. 
I evermore did love you, Hermia, 
Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you; 
Save that, in love unto Demetrius, 

I told him of your stealth unto this wood. 310 

He foUow'd you; for love I followed him; 
But he hath chid me hence and threatened me 
To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too : 
And now, so you will let me quiet go, 
To Athens will I bear my folly back 
And follow you no further: let me go: 
You see how simple and how fond I am. 

Her. Why, get you gone; who is't that hinders you? 

Hel. A foolish heart, that I leave here behind. 

Her. What, with Lysander ? 

Hd. With Demetrius. 320 

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 when she went to school; 
And though she be but little, she is fierce. 

Her. * Little ' again ! nothing but * low ' and * little ' ! 
^hy will you suffer her to flout me thus? 
Let me come to her. 

Lys. Get you gone, you dwarf; 

You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made ; 
You bead, you acorn. 

I>em. You are too officious 330 

In her behalf that scorns your services. 
Let her alone : speak not of Helena ; 
Take not her part; for, if thou dost intend 



40 A midsummer-night's dream. 

Never so little show of love to her, 
Thou shalt aby it. 

Lys» Now she holds me not ; 

Now follow, if thou darest, to try whose right. 
Of thine or mine, is most in Helena. 

Dem, Follow ! nay, I '11 go with thee, cheek by jole. 

[Exeunt Lysander and Demetrius, 

Her, You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you : 
Nay, go not back. 

HeL I will not trust you, I, 340 

Nor longer stay in your curst company. 

Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray. 

My legs are longer though, to run away. \ExiU 

Her. I am amazed, and know not what to say. \ExiU 
Ohe, This is thy negligence, still thou mistakest. 

Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully. 

Piick, Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook. 
Did not you tell me I should know the man 
By the Athenian garments he had on? 
And so far blameless proves my enterprise, 350 

That 1 have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes; 
And so far am I glad it so did sort 
As this their jangling I esteem a sport. 

Ohe, Thou see'st these lovers seek a place to fight : 
Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night ; 
The starry welkin cover thou anon 
With drooping fog as black as Acheron, 
And lead these testy rivals so astray 
As one come not within another's way. 
Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue, 360 

Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong; 
And sometime rail thou like Demetrius; 
And from each other look thou lead them thus. 
Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep 
With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep : 
Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye; 
Whose liquor hath this virtuous property. 



ACT III. SCENE 11. 41 

To take from thence all error with his might, 

And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight. 

When they next wake all this derision 370 

Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision, 

And back to Athens shall the lovers wend, 

With league whose date till death shall never end. 

Whiles I in this affair do thee employ, 

I'll to my queen and beg her Indian boy ; 

And then I will her charmed eye release 

From monster's view, and all things shall be peace. 

Puck. My fairy lord, this must be done with haste. 
For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast, 
And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger; 380 

At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there, 
Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all, 
That in crossways and floods have burial. 
Already to their wormy beds are gone ; 
For fear lest day should look their shames upon, 
They wilfully themselves exile from light 
And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night. j- 

Obe. But we are spirits of another sort : 
I with the morning's love have oft made sport, 
And, like a forester, the groves may tread, 390 

Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red. 
Opening on Neptune with fair^ blessed beams. 
Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams. 
But, notwithstanding, haste ; make no delay : 
We may effect this business yet ere day. \Exit, 

Puck. Up and down, up and down, 

I will lead them up and down: 
I am fear'd in field and town : 
Goblin, lead them up and down. 
Here comes one. 400 

Re-enter Lysander. 

Lys> Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou 

now. 
Puck. Here, villain ; drawn and ready. Where art thou ? 



42 A midsummer-night's DREAM. 

Lys, I will be with thee straight. 

Puck, Follow me, then, 

To plainer ground. [Exit Lysander, as following the voice. 

Re-enter DEMETRIUS. 

Dem, Ly Sander! 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 ; 
ril whip thee with a rod: he is defiled 410 

That draws a sword on thee. 

Dem,. Yea, art thou there ? 

Puck, Follow my voice : we '11 try no manhood here. 

\_Exeunt, 
Re-enter Lysander. 

Lys, He goes before me and still dares me on: 
When I come where he calls, then he is gone. 
The villain is much lighter-heerd than I : 
I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly ; 
That fallen am I in dark uneven way. 
And here will rest me. [Lies dofwn.] Come, thou gentle 

day! 
For if but once thou show me thy grey light, 
rU find Demetrius and revenge this spite. [Sleeps - 

Re-enter PuCK and DEMETRIUS. 

Puck, Ho, ho, ho ! Coward, why comest thou not? 42 r 

Dem, Abide me, if thou darest ; for well I wot 
Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place. 
And darest not stand, nor look me in the face. 
Where art thou now? 

Puck, Come hither: I am here. 

Dem, Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this 
dear, 
If ever I thy face by daylight see : 
Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me 



ACT III. SCENE II. 43 

To measure out my length on this cold bed. 

By day's approach look to be visited. [Lies do<ivn and sleeps. 

Re-enter HELENA. 

Hel, O weary night, O long and tedious night, 431 

Abate thy hours! Shine comforts from the east, 
That I may back to Athens by daylight, 

From these that my poor company detest : 
And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye. 
Steal me awhile from mine own company. 

[Lies dofivn and sleeps. 

Puck. Yet but three? Come one more; 
Two of both kinds makes up four. 
Here she comes, curst and sad i 
Cupid is a knavish lad, 440 

Thus to make poor females mad. 

Re-enter Hermia* 

Her, Never so weary, never so in woe. 
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. 
^ere will I rest me till the break of day. 
heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray ! 

[Lies down and sleeps, 
-f^uck. On the ground 

Sleep sound: 

ru apply 450 

To your eye. 
Gentle lover, remedy. 

[Squeezing the Juice on Lysander*s eyes. 
When thou wakest, 
Thou takest 
True delight 
In the sight 
Of thy former lady's eye : 
And the country proverb known. 
That every man should take his own, 
In your waking shall be shown : 460 



44 A MIDSUMMER'NIGHT^S DREAM. 

Jack shall have Jill; 
Nought shall go ill; 
The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well. 

[Exiu 



ACT IV. 
Scene I. ^be same, Lysander, Demetrius, Helena, 

and Hermia lying asleep. 

Enter TiTANiA and BOTTOM; Peaseblossom, Cobweb, 
Moth, Mustardseed, and other Fairies attending; Oberon 
behind unseen, 

Tita. Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed, 
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy, 
And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head, 
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy. 

Bot. Where *s Peaseblossom ? 
Peas. Ready. 

Bot. Scratch my head, Peaseblossom, Where 's Mounsieur 
Cobweb ? 

Cob, Ready. 9 

Bot, Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get you your 
weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped humble-bee 
on the top of a thistle ; and, good mounsieur, bring me the 
honey-bag. Do not fret yourself too much in the actioUj 
mounsieur ; and, good mounsieur, have a care the honey-ba^ 
break not; I would be loath to have you overflown with * 
honey-bag, signior. Where's Mounsieur Mustardseed? 

Mus, Ready. 

Bot, Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray 
you, leave your courtesy, good mounsieur. 

Muj, What's your will? 20 



,m» , m J *li- 



ACT IV. SCENE I. 45 

Bot. Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery 
Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber's, mounsieur ; for 
methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face; and I am 
such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must 
scratch. 

Tita, What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love ? 

Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let 's have 
the tongs and the bones. 

Tita. Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat. 

Bot. Truly, a peck of provender: I could munch your 
good dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle 
of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow. 32 

Ttta. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek 
The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts, 

Bot, I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas. 
But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me ; I have 
an exposition of sleep come upon me. 

Ttta. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. 
Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away. [Exeunt /ainej. 

80 doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle 40 

Gently entwist ; the female ivy so 
Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. 
0, how i love thee ! how I dote on thee ! [TJbey sleep. 

Enter Puck. 

Obe. [Advancing.l Welcome, good Robin. See'st thou 
this sweet sight? 
Her dotage now I do begin to pity : 
Por, meeting her of late behind the wood, 
Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool, 
* did upbraid her and fall out with her; 
^or she his hairy temples then had rounded 53 

With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers; 
And that same dew, which sometime on the buds 
Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls, 
S^ood now within the pretty flowerets* eyes 
Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail. 



46 A MIDSUMMER-NIGH fs DREAM. 

When I had at my pleasure taunted her 

And she in mild terms begg'd my patience, 

I then did ask of her her changeling child; 

Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent 

To bear him to my bower in fairy land. 

And now I have the boy, I will undo 

This hateful imperfection of her eyes: 

And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp 

From off the head of this Athenian swain ; 

That, he awaking when the other do, 

May all to Athens back again repair 

And think no more of this night's accidents 

But as the fierce vexation of a dream. 

But first I will release the fairy queen. 

Be as thou wast wont to be; 

See as thou wast wont to see: 

Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower 

Hath such force and blessed power. 
Now, my Titania ; wake you, my sweet queen. 

Tita, My Oberon ! what visions have I seen ! 
Methought I was enamour'd of an ass! 

Obe, There lies your love. 

Tit a. How came these things to pas 

O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now ! 

Obe. Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head. 
Titania, music call ; and strike more dead 
Than common sleep of all these five the sense. 

Ttta, Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep! [Music ^ si 

Puck, Now, when thou wakest, with thine own fool's e 
peep. 

Obe, Sound, music ! Gome, my queen, take hands with i 
And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be. 
Now thou and I are new in amity 
And will to-morrow midnight solemnly 
Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly 
And bless it to all fair prosperity: 



At:T IV. SCENE 7. 47 

i 

I shall the pairs of faithful lovers be 90 

ed, with Theseus, all in jollity. 

k. Fairy king, attend, and mark : 
I do hear the morning lark. 

Then, my queen, in silence sad, 
Trip we after night's shade: 
We the globe can compass soon, 
Swifter than the wandering moon. 

Come, my lord, and in our flight 
Tell me how it came this night 
That I sleeping here was found 100 

With these mortals on the ground. [Exeunt. 

[Horns twinded ivithin. 

Enter THESEUS, HiPPOLYTA, Egeus, and train. 

Go, one of you, find out the forester ; 
low our observation is perform*d ; 
iince we have the vaward of the day, 
ve shall hear the music of my hounds, 
jple in the western valley; let them go: 
tch, I say, and find the forester. [Exit an Attendant. 
i^ill, fair queen, up to the mountain's top 
nark the musical confusion 
(unds and echo in conjunction. no 

. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once, 
I in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear 
hounds of Sparta : never did 1 hear 
gallant chiding ; for, besides the groves, 
skies, the fountains, every region near 
d all one mutual cry : I never heard 
usical a discord, such sweet thunder. 

. ^Ay hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, 
.'w'd, so sanded, and their heads are hung 

ears that sweep away the morning dew; 120 

i-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls; 

in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells, 

under each. A cry more tuneable 



48 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT* S DREAM. 

Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn, 

In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly: 

Judge when you hear. But, soft! what nymphs are these? 

Ege. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep; 
And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is; 
This Helena, old Nedar's Helena: 
I wonder of their being here together. 130 

The. No doubt they rose up early to observe 
The rite of May, and, hearing our intent, 
Came here in grace of our solemnity. 
But speak, Egeus; is not this the day 
That Hermia should give answer of her choice ? 

Ege, It is, my lord. 

The. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horm. 
[Horn and shouts <wtthm, Lysander, Demetrius^ Helena, and 

Hermia, fivake and start up. 
Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past: 
Begin these wood-birds but to couple now? 

Lys, Pardon, my lord. 

The. I pray you all, stand up, 140 

I know you two are rival enemies: 
How comes this gentle concord in the world, 
That hatred is so far from jealousy. 
To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity? 

Lys. My lord, I shall reply amazedly. 
Half sleep, half waking: but as yet, I swear, 
I cannot truly say how I came here; 
But, as I think, — for truly would I speak, 
And now I do bethink me, so it is, — 
I came with Hermia hither: our intent i5® 

Was to be gone from Athens, where we might. 
Without the peril of the Athenian law. 

Ege. Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough: 
I beg the law, the law, upon his head. 
They would have stolen away; they would, Demetrius, 
Thereby to have defeated you and me, 



ACT IV. SCENE I. 49 



You of your wife and me of my consent, 
Of my consent that she should be your wife. 

Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth, 
Of this their purpose hither to this wood; 160 

And I in fury hither foUow'd them, 
Fair Helena in fancy following me. 
But, my good lord, I wot not by what power, — 
But by some power it is, — my love to Hermia, 
Melted as the snow, seems to me now 
As the remembrance of an idle gawd 
Which in my childhood I did dote upon; 
And all the faith, the virtue of my heart, 
The object and the pleasure of mine eye, 
Is only Helena. To her, my lord, 170 

Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia: 
But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food; 
But, as in health, come to my natural taste, 
Now I do wish it, love it, long for it, 
And will for evermore be true to it. 

The, Fair lovers, you are fortunately met: 
Of this discourse we more will hear anon. 
Egeus, I will overbear your will; 
For in the temple, by and by, with us 
These couples shall eternally be knit: 180 

And, for the morning now is something worn, 
Our purposed hunting shall be set aside. 
i^ Away with us to Athens ; three and three, 
We'll hold a feast in great solemnity. 
Come, Hippolyta. 

[Exeunt Theseus^ Hippolyta, Egeus j and train. 

Ofw. These things seem small and undistinguishable, 
Like far-off mountains turned into clouds. 

^fr, Methinks I see these things with parted eye, 
when every thing seems double. 

^A So methinks: 

And I have found Demetrius like a jewel, 190 

Mine own, and not mine own. 

£ 



50 A MIDSUMMER'NIQHtS DREAM. 

Bern, Are you sure 

That we are awake? It seems to me 
That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think 
The duke was here, and bid us follow him? 

Her, Yea; and my father. 

HeL And Hippolyta. 

Lyj. 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. lExewit> 

Bot. [Aivaking^ When my cue comes, call me, and I wiD 
answer : my next is, * Most fair Pyramus.* Heigh-ho ! Peter 
Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout, the tinker! 
Starveling ! God's my life, stolen hence, and left me asleq)! 
I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the 
wit of man to say what dream it was: man is but an ass, 
if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was— 
there is no man can tell what. Methought I was, — and 
methought I had, — ^but man is but a patched fool, if he wiB 
offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath 
not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is 
not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to 
report, what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write 
a ballad of this dream : it shall be called Bottom's Dream, 
because it hath no bottom ; and I will sing it in the latter 
end of the play, before the duke: peradventure, to make 
it the more gracious, I shall sing it at her death. [Exit, 



Scene II. Athens, Quince's bouse. 

Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING. 

Quin, Have you sent to Bottom's house? is he come 
home yet ? 

Star. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is 
transported. 



ACT IV. SCENE II. 51 

Flu. If he come not, then the play is marred : it goes not 
forward, doth it ? 

Qmn, It is not possible : you have not a man in all Athens 
able to discharge Pyramus but he. 

Flu, No, he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft 
man in Athens. 10 

Quin, Yea, and the best person -too ; and he is a very 
paramour for a sweet voice. 

Flu. You must say * paragon * : a paramour is, God bless 
us, a thing of naught. 

Enter SNUG. 

Snug. Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and 
there is two or three lords and ladies more married : if our 
sport had gone forward, we had all been made men. 

Flu. O sweet bully Bottogi ! Thus hath he lost sixpence 

a day during his life ; he could not have *scaped sixpence a 

day: an the duke had not given him sixpence a day for 

• playing Pyramus, I Ml be hanged ; he would have deserved it : 

sixpence a day in Pyramus, or nothing. 

Enter BOTTOM, 

Bot. Where are these lads ? where are these hearts ? 

Quin. Bottom ! O most courageous day ! O most happy 
hour ! 

Bot. Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask me 
not what ; for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I will 
tell you every thing, right as it fell out, 

Quin. Let us hear, sweet Bottom. 

Bot. Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that 
the duke hath dined. Get your apparel together, good strings 
to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps ; meet presently 
at the palace; every man look o*er his part; for the short 
and the long is, our play is preferred. In any case, let Thisby 
have clean linen ; and let not him that plays the lion pare 
his nails, for they shall hang out for the lion's claws. And, 
most dear actqrs, eat no onions nor garlic^ for we are tq 

£ 2 



52 A midsvmmeR'Night's dream. 

utter sweet breath; and I do not doubt but to hear them 
say, it is a sweet comedy. No more words: away! go, 
away ! [Examt, 



ACT V. 

Scene I. Athens. The palace of THESEUS. 

Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate, Lords, and 

Attendants. 

Hip, 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of. 

The, More strange than true: I never may believe 
These antique fables, nor these* fairy toys. 
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains. 
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend 
More than cool reason ever comprehends. 
The lunatic, the lover and the poet 
Are of imagination all compact: 
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold, 
That is, the madman : the lover, all as frantic, lo 

Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt: 
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling. 
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; 
And as imagination bodies forth 
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen 
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing 
A local habitation and a name. 
Such tricks hath strong imagination. 
That, if it would but apprehend some joy. 
It comprehends some bringer of that joy ; 2^ 

Or in the night, imagining some fear. 
How easy is a bush supposed a bear! 

lUp, But all the story of the night told over, 
And all their minds transfigured so together^ 



ACT V. SCENE I. 53 

3re witnesseth than fancy's images 

d grows to something of great constancy; 

t, howsoever, strange and admirable. 

The. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth. 

Enter Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena. 

y, gentle friends I joy and fresh days of love 
company your hearts ! 

Lyj. More than to us 30 

ait in your royal walks, your board, your bed! 

The. Come now; what masques, what dances shall we 

have, 
> wear away this long age of three hours 
tween our after-supper and bed-time? 
here is our usual manager of mirth ? 
hat revels are in hand? Is there no play, 
) ease the anguish of a torturing hour ? 
.11 Philostrate. 

PbtL Here, mighty Theseus. 

The. Say, what abridgement have you for this evening? 
hat masque ? what music ? How shall we beguile 40 
lie lazy time, if not with some delight? 

PbiL There is a brief how many sports are ripe : 
ake choice of which your highness will see first. 

[Giving a paper. 

The. [Reads] 'The battle with the Centaiu^, to be sung 

an Athenian eunuch to the harp.' 
B '11 none of that : that have I told my love, 
glory of my kinsman Hercules. 
'£idj] * The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals, 
aring the Thracian singer in their rage.' 
at is an old device; and it was play'd 50 

lien I from Thebes came last a conqueror. 
^adi] ' The thrice three Muses mourning for the death 

Learning, late deceased in beggary.' 
aat is some satire, keen and critical, 
ot sorting with a nuptial ceremony. 



54 A MIDStrMMER'NIGRfS DREAM. 

[Reads] ' A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus 
And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.' 

.. Merry and tragical! tedious and brief! 

* That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow. 
How shall we find the concord of this discord ? 

Phil. A play there is, my lord, some ten words long, 
Which is as brief as I have known a play; 
But by ten words, my lord, it is too long. 
Which makes it tedious; for in all the play 
There is not one word apt, one player fitted : 
And tragical, my noble lord, it is; 
For Pyramus therein doth kill himself. 
Which, when I «aw rehearsed, I must confess. 
Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears 
The passion of loud laughter never shed. ; 

7be, What are they that do play it? 

PbiL Hard-handed men that work in Athens here, 
Which never laboured in their minds till now. 
And now have toilM their unbreathed memories 
With this same play, against your nuptial. 

The. And we will hear it. 

Phil. No, my noble lord; 

It is not for you : I have heard it over, 
And it is nothing, nothing in the world; 
Unless you can find sport in their intents. 
Extremely stretched and conn'd with cruel pain. 
To do you service. "*' 

TJbe. I will hear that play; 

For never anything can be amiss, 
When simpleness and duty tender it. 
Go, bring them In: and take your places, ladies. 

[Exit Philostr^ 

Htp, I love not to see wretchedness overcharged 
And duty in his service perishing. 

TJi>e, Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing. 

Hip, He says they can do nothing in this kind. 



ACT V. SCENE I. 55 

The, The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing. 
Our sport shall be to take what they mistake: 90 

And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect 
Takes it in might, not merit. 
Where I have come, great clerks have purposed 
To greet me with premeditated welcomes; 
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale, 
Make periods in the midst of sentences, 
Throttle their practised accent in their fears 
And in conclusion dumbly have broke off. 
Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet. 
Out of this silence yet I pick*d a welcome; 100 

And in the modesty of fearful duty 
I read as much as from the rattling tongue 
Of saucy and audacious eloquence. 
Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity v . 

In least speak most, to my capacity. 

Re-enter Philostrate. 
Phil, So please your grace, the Prologue is addressed. 
The. Let him approach. [Flourish of trumpets. 

Enter QviNC^ for the Prologue. 

Pro. If we offend, it is with our good will. 

That you should think, we come not to offend. 
But with good will. To show our simple skill, no 

That is the true beginning of our end. 
Consideflf^en we come but in despite. 

We do not come as minding to content you. 
Our true intent is. All for your delight 

We are not here. That you should here repent you, 
The actors are at hand and by their show 
You shall know all that you are like to know. 

The, This fellow doth not stand upon points. 

Lys. He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows 
not the stop, A good moral, my lord : it is not enough to 
speak, but to speak true. 121 



56 A midsummer-night's dream. 

Hip, Indeed he hath played on his prologue like a child on 
a recorder ; a sound, but not in government. 

The. His speech was like a tangled chain; nothing im- 
paired, but all disordered. Who is next ? 

Enter Pyramus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, anJ Lion. 

Pro. Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show; 

But wonder on, till truth make all things plain. 
This man is Pyramus, if you would know ; 

This beauteous lady Thisby is certain. 
This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present 130 

Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder; 
And through Wall's chink, poor souls, they are content 

To whisper. At the which let no man wonder. 
This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn, 

Presenteth Moonshine; for, if you will know. 
By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn 

To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo. 
This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name, 
The trusty Thisby, coming first by night, 
Did scare away, or rather did affright; 1^0 

And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall, 

Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain. 
Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall. 

And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain: 
Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade, 

He bravely broach*d his boiling bloody breast; 
And Thisby, tarrying in mulberry shade. 

His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest, 
Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain 
At large discourse, while here they do remain. J 5° 

[Exeunt Prologue, Jhisbe, Lion, and Moonsbff^' 

The. I wonder if the lion be to speak. 

Dem, No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when ma^^ 
asses do. 

Wall. In this same interlude it doth befall 
That I, one Snout by name, present a wall; 



ACT V. SCENE T. 57 

nd such a wall, as I would have you think, 

hat had in it a crannied hole or chink, 

hrough which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby, 

id whisper often very secretly. 

his loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show i6o 

hat I am that same wall; the truth is so: 

nd this the cranny is, right and sinister, 

hrough which the fearful lovers are to whisper. 

The. Would you desire lime and hair to speak better? 

Dem. It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard- dis- 
)urse, my lord. 

Enter Pyramus. 

The. Pyramus draws near the wall: silence! 

Pyr. O grim-look*d night ! O night with hue so black ! 

night, which ever art when day is not! 

) night, O night! alack, alack, alack, 170 

1 fear my Thisby's promise is forgot ! 
nd thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall. 

That stand'st between her father's ground and mine! 
hou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall. 
Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne! 

[fVall holds up his fingers, 
lanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this! 
But what see I? No Thisby do I see. 
'^^icked wall, through whom I see no bliss! 
Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me! 

r^<?. The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse 
iiB. 181 

f^r. No, in truth, sir, he should not. ' Deceiving me ' is 
^isby*s cue: she is to enter now, and I am to spy her 
"ough the wall. You shall see, it will fall pat as I told you. 
wilder she comes. 

Enter Thisbe. 

"^his, O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans, 
^or parting my fair Pyramus and me ! 
y cherry lips have often kiss*d thy stones, 
'I'liy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee. 



58 A midsummeR'Night's dream. 

Pyr, I see a voice: now will I to the chink, 190 

To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face. 
Thisby ! 

This, My love thou art, my love I think. 

Pyr, Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace; 
And, like Limander, am I trusty still. 

Thtj, And I like Helen, till the fates me kill. 
Pyr. Not Shafalus to Proems was so true. 
7Mj, As Shafalus to Proems, I to you. 
Pyr, O, kiss me through the hole of this vile wall! 
T/6/J. I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all. 
Pyr, Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway? 
7^ij, 'Tide life, 'tide death, I come without delay. 201 

[Exeunt Pyramus and Tifhie, 
fVall, Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so: 
And, being done, thus Wall away doth go. [JBjwf. 

7he, Now is the mural down between the two neighbours. 

Dem, No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to 
hear without warning. 

Hip, This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard. 

The, The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst 
are no worse, if imagination amend them. 

Hip, It must be your imagination then, and not theirs. 

The, If we imagine no worse of them than they of therci- 
selves, they may pass for excellent men. Here come t^w^< 
noble beasts, in a man and a lion. » ^: 

Enter LlON and MOONSHINE. 

Lion, You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear 
The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor, 

May now perchance both quake and tremble here, 
When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar. 

Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am 

A lion fell, nor else no lion's dam; 

For, if I should as lion come in strife ^ 

Into this place, 'twere pity on my life. 






ACT V. SCENE I. 59 

TJbe. A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience. 

Dem, The very be^ at a beast, my lord, that e'er I saw. 

' Lyj, This lion is a very fox for his valour. 

TJbe. True; and a goose for his discretion. 

Dem. Not so, my lord; for his valour cannot carry his 
discretion; and the fox carries the goose. 

The, His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valour; 
for the goose carries not the fox. It is well : leave it to 
his discretion, and let us listen to the moon. 230 

Moon, This lanthom doth the homed moon present;— 

Dem. He should have worn the horns on his head. 

The. He is no crescent, and his horns are invisible within 
the circumference. 

Moon. This lanthom doth the homed moon present; 
Myself the man i- the moon do seem to be. 

^Jbe, This is the greatest error of all the rest: the man 
should be put into the lanthorn. How is it else the man i* 
the moon? 

Dem. He dares not come there for the candle; for, you 
see, it is already in snuff. 241 

Hip. I am aweary of this moon : would he would change ! 

The. It appears, by his small light of discretion, that he is 
in the wane ; but yet, in courtesy, in all reason, we must stay 
the time, 

Ljj. Proceed, Moon. 

Moon. All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the lant- 
hom is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this thorn- 
bush, my thom-bush; and this dog, my dog. 249 

Dem. Why, all these should be in the lanthorn ; for all 
these are in the moon. But, silence ! here comes Thisbe. 

Enter Thisbe. 

This. This is old Ninny's tomb. Where is my love ? 

Lion. [Roaring] Oh \Thisbe runs off. 

Dem. Well roared. Lion, 



6o A MIDSUMMER'NIGHfS DREAM. 

The. WeU run, Thisbe. 

Hip, Well shone, Moon. Truly the moon shines \^ 
a good grace. \T'he Lion shakes Thisbe* s mantle^ and ex 

The, Well moused, Lion. 

Lys. And so the lion vanished. 

Dem, And then came Pyramus. 2 

Enter PyramUS. 

Pyr. Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams 
I thank thee. Moon, for shining now so bright; 
For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams, 
I trust to take of truest Thisby sight. 
But stay, O spite! 
But mark, poor knight, 
What dreadful dole is here! 
Eyes, do you see? 
How can it be? 
O dainty duck! O dear! 
Thy mantle good. 
What, stain'd withv blood ! 
Approach, ye Furies fell! 
O Fates, come, come. 
Cut thread and thrum; 
Quail, crush, conclude, and quell! 

The. This passion, and the death of a dear friend, wc 
go near to make a man look sad. 

Hip, Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man. 

Pyr, O wherefore. Nature, didst thou lions frame? 
Since lion vile hath here deflower'd my dear: 
Which is — no, no — which was the fairest dame 
That lived, that loved, that liked, that look*d with ch( 
Come, tears, confound; 
Out, sword, and wound 
The pap of Pyramus; 
Ay, that left pap. 
Where heart doth hop : [Stabs him. 



ACT V. SCENE I. 6l 

Thus die I, thus, thus, thus. 
Now am I dead, 290 

Now am I fled; 
My soul is in the sky : 
Tongue, lose thy light; 
Moon, take thy flight : [Exit Moonshine, 

Now die, die, die, die, die. [Diej. 

Dem, No die, but an ace, for him ; for he is but one. 
Ljj. Less than an ace, man ; for he is dead ; he is nothing. 

The. With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover, and 
K>TOve an ass. 

Hip. How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe comes 
back and finds her lover ? 301 

TAf. She will find him by starlight. Here she comes ; and 
l^er passion ends the play. 

Re-enter Thjsbe. 
Hip, Methinks she should not use a long one for such a 
^yramus : I hope she will be brief. 

JDem. A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which 
^I'hisbe, is the better ; he for a man, God warrant us ; she for 
5^ woman, God bless us. 

* Lys. She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes. 
JDem. And thus she means, videlicet : — 310 

T/fif, Asleep, my love? 

What, dead, my dove? 
O Pyramus, arise! 

Speak, speak. Quite dumb? 
Dead, dead ? A tomb 
Must cover thy sweet eyes. 
These lily lips, 
This cherry nose, 
These yellow cowslip cheeks. 
Are gone, are gone: 320 

Lovers, make moan: 
His eyes were green as leeks. 
O Sisters Three, 
Come, come to me, 



62 A MIDSUMMER'NIGHT^S DREAM. 

With hands as pale as milk; 

Lay them in gore, 

Since you have shore 
With shears his thread of silk. 

Tongue, not a word: 

Gome, trusty sword: 330 

Come, blade, my breast imbrue : [Stais herself. 

And, farewell, friends; 

Thus Thisby ends: 
Adieu, adieu, adieu. [Dies, 

The. Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead. 

Dem, Ay, and Wall too. 

Bot. [Starting up,] No, I assure you ; the wall is down that' ] 
parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the epilogue, 
or to hear a Bergomask dance between two of our company? 

The. No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no 
excuse. Never excuse; for when the players are all dead, 
there need none to be blamed. Marry, if he that writ it had 
played Pyramus and hanged himself in Thisbe's garter, it 
would have been a fine tragedy : and so it is, truly ; and very 
notably discharged. But, come, your Bergomask : let your 
epilogue alone. [ji dance. 

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve: 
Lovers, to bed; *tis almost fairy time. 
I fear we shall out-sleep the coming mom 
As much as we this night have overwatched. 350 

This palpable gross play hath well beguiled 
The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed. 
A fortnight hold we this solemnity, 

In nightly revels and new jollity. [Exeunt, 

Enter PuCK. 

Puck, Now the hungry lion roars, 

And the wolf behowls the moon; 
Whilst the heavy ploughman snores, 

All with weary task fordone. 
Now the wasted brands do glow. 

Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud, 360 



ACT V, SCENE I. 63 

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, 370 

Now are frolic : not a mouse 
Shall disturb this hallowM house: 
I am sent with broom before, 
To sweep the dust behind the door. 

Enter Oberon and TiTANIA <witb their train, 

^e. 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. 380 

ta. First, rehearse your song by rote, 
To each word a warbling note: 
Hand in hand, with fairy grace. 
Will we sing, and bless this place. [Song ana dance. 

be. 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 shalh be fortunate. 390 

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 



64 A MIDSUMMER'NIGHT'S jbREAM. 

Despised in nativity, 

Shall upon their children be. 

With this field-dew consecrate, 

Every fairy take his gait; 4 

And each several chamber bless, 

Through this palace, with sweet peace; 

And the owner of it blest 

Ever shall in safety rest. 

Trip away; make no stay; 

Meet me all by break of day. 

[Exeunt Oberoriy Jitania and tra, 
Puck, If we shadows have oflfended, 

Think but this, and all is mended, 

That you have but slumber*d here 

While these visions did appear. 4 

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. 4 

Give me your hands, if we be friends, 

And Robin shall restore amends. [iS'^ 



NOTES. 



ACT I. 

Scene I. 

I. 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 
uanie 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 on the solemnization of 
marriage, as in King John, ii. i. 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, ▼. 2. 372: 

•This pert Biron was out of countenance quite.' 

F 



66 NOTES. 

Cotgravc (Fr. Diet.) has, *Godinet : m. ette: f. Pretde, dapper, feat 
indifferently handsome. Godinette ; f. A prettie peart lasse ; a km 
louelic girie/ So Milton, Comus, ii8: 

'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 
(/Otgravc gives the equivalents 'Expert, readie, dexter, prompt, 
nimble ; feat, handsome, in that he does.' Mr. Wedgwood however cc 
it with ' perk,' ' to perk up the head, to prick up the head, or appear 
In this sense 'pert* is used as a verb in Beaumont and Fletcher, 
of the Durning Pestle, i. I : * Sirrah, didst thou ever see a prettier 
how it behaves itself, I warrant ye ! and speaks and looks, and perts 
head.' 

15. companion^ fellow. These two words have completely exc 
their meanings in later usage. 'Companion' is not now used coi 
uuusly as it once was, and as ' fellow ' frequently is. Compare 2 He 
ii. 4. 13a : * I scorn you, scurvy companion.' 

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

19. With pompt u/iih triumph, A triumph was a public exhib 
show, such as was originally used to celebrate a victory. The 
Dacon's 37th Essay is 'Of Masques and Triumphs,' and the twc 
appear to have been synonymous, for the Essay treats of masques al< 
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 ' appli« 
in the appropriated sense which it bore to the Grecian festivals, wl 
vofjiirrit a' principal part of the ceremony, was the spectacular proi 
Shakespeare also, in King John, iii. 1 . 304, has the word with a trac 
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 ' 
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 syll 
this name. 

lb. what '5 the ntws with thee f What has happened to thee ? C 
iii. 2. 372. 



SCI.] A midsummer-night's DREAM. 6 J 

27. This man hath bewitched. The later folios omit *man.' Theobald 
reads * witchM.* 

lb, 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 phick the common bosom on his side/ 

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

33. gawds, trifling ornaments, toys. See iv. i. 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. 

lb. conceits, fanciful devices. Cotgrave has * Gentilesses. Prettie con- 
ceits, 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. 

lb, unharden*d, tender, and capable of receiving impressions; inex- 
perienced. 

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 Ufe and death over his child. 
See Seztus 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. i. 27 : 

'And in that kind swears you do more usurp 
Than doth your brother that hath banish'd you.' 
lb. wanting your father's voice, as he lacks your father's authority or 
suffrage in your favour. Compare All's Well, ii. 3. 60 : 

•This youthful parcel 
Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing, 
O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice 
I have to use.' 

F 2 



68 NOTES, [acti. 

60. Nor how it may concern my modesty, nor how much it may affect my 
modesty. 

61. /o plead my thoughts^ to utter my thoughts by way of plea or 
argument. * Plead ' is in many cases little more than * speak.' 

65. to die the death, to die ; generally but not uniformly applied to death 
inflicted by law : for instance, it is apparently an intensive phrase in Sackville's 
Induction, 1. 55 : 

* It taught mee well all earthly . things be borne 
To dye the death.' 
Shakespeare however uses the expression always of a judicial punishmeDt. 
Compare Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 14. 26 : 

'She hath betrayM me, and shall die the death.* 
Even when Cloten says (Cymbeline, iv. 2. 96) to Guiderius 'Die the death,' 
he looks upon himself as the executioner of a judicial sentence in killing 
an outlaw. See Matthew xv. 4. 

68. Know of your youth, enquire of your youth, ascertain from your 
youth. So King Lear, v. I. 1 : 

* Know of the duke if his last purpose hold.' 
Twelfth Night, iii. 4, 278: 'Do me this courteous office, as to know of 
the knight what my offence to him is.' 

lb. blood, passion as opposed to reason. See below, 1. 74, and Hamlet, iii. 
2. 74: 

•Whose blood and judgement are so well commingled.' 

69. Whether, a monosyllable ; as frequently in Shakespeare. See iii !• 
139 ; iii. 2. 81. It is sometimes written • where'; as in The Tempest, v. 2* ^ 
III, the first folio has * Where thou bee'st he or no.' 

70. the livery of a nun. For the word * nun * applied to a woman in the tiiiJ^ 
of Theseus see North's Plutarch (1631), p. 2 : 'But -^geus desiring (as they 
say) to know how he might haue children, went into the city of Delphes, t(? 
the Oracle of Apollo : where, by a Nunne of the temple, this notable propheci^ 
was giuen him for an answer.* * Livery,' which now denotes the dress 
of servants, formerly signified any distinctive dress, as in the present passage. 
Compare Pericles, ii. 5. 10 : 

'One twelve moons more she'll wear Diana's livery.* 
Again in the same play, iii. 4. 10: 

*A vestal livery will I take me to.* 

71. For aye, for ever. A. S. d, or aa, ever, always. 

lb. mew*d, penned up, cooped up. Compare Richard III, i. I. 132 : 
*More pity that the eagle should be mew'd. 
While kites and buzzards prey at liberty.* 
From the French mue, which Cotgrave defines, * A Mue, or Coope wherein 
foule is fattened.' 



c. I.] A midsummer-night's dream. 69 

75. undergo^ endure. So in The Tempest, iii. 1.3: 

* Some kinds of baseness 
Are nobly undergone.* 

lb. maiden pilgrimage^ a course of life passed in virginity. This sense of 
pilgrimage' is in accordance with the usage of scripture. Compare Genesis 
dvii. 9 : * The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and 
thirty years.' And see As You Like It, iii. 2. 138 : 

• Some, how brief the life of man 
Runs his erring pilgrimage.* 

76. earthlier happy^ more earthly happy, happier in an earthly sense. 
Pope read • earlier happy*; Capell, * earthly happier*; and Steevens proposed 
* earthly happy.* 

lb. the rose distilVd, Malone refers to other instances in which Shake- 
speare has used the same figure. See Sonnet v. 13, 14: 

*But flowers distill'd, though they with winter meet, 
Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweet.' 
The next sonnet begins, following up the same idea, 

* Then let not winter's ragged hand deface 
In thee thy summer, ere thou be distill'd: 
Make sweet some vial, Sec* 

80. my virgin patent^ my privilege of virginity and the liberty that belongs 
to it. Compare Othello, iv. i. 209: 'If you are so fond over her iniquity, 
give her patent to offend. * The word is derived from the literce patentee ^ 

; or letters patent, which conveyed the privilege. 

81. lordships power, authority; especially used of the authority of a 
husband, as in All's Well, v. 3. 156: 

*I wonder, sir, sith wives are monsters to you. 
And that you fly them as you swear them lordship, 
Yet you desire to marry.* 
Ih. whose unwished yoke. So the quartos and first folio. The second 
folio, to mend the grammar, read *to whose unwish'd yoke.' But the 
omission of the preposition in such cases is of common occurrence. Compare 
I Henry VI, iii. 2. 25 : 

'No way to that, for weakness, which she enter'd' ; 
that is, by which she entered. See also Much Ado about Nothing, v. 2. 47 : 
'Let me go with that I came [for].' In his note on Cymbeline, v. 5. 465, 
Malone quotes Winter's Tale, ii. i • 94 : 

•Even as bad as those 
That vulgars give bold'st titles [to].* 
Again, in the same play, ii. i. 131 : 

* That the queen is spotless 

r the eyes of heaven and to you ; I mean, 
In this which you accuse her [of].* 



70 NOTES. [act I. 

89. to protest to profess, promise solemnly to observe. Compare Two 
Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 2. 7 : 

*When I protest true loyalty to her.* 

90. austerity y severe self-mortification; used technically of the religiow 
discipline of a nun. 

92. crazed title, a title with a flaw in it. Compare Lyly's Euphues (ei 
Arber), p. 58 : • Yes, yes, Lucilla, well doth he knowe that the glasse once 
erased, will with the least clappe be cracked.' 

98. estate, convey as an estate. In other passages it is used with the 
preposition *on * or *upon.' See The Tempest, iv. i. 85 : 

* And some donation freely to estate 
On the blest lovers.' 

And As You Like It, v. 2. 13: *A11 the revenue that was old Sir 
Rowland's will I estate upon you.' 

99. derived, descended. So in Two Gentlemen of Verona, v. 4. 146 : 

* Thou art a gentleman and well derived.' 

100. As well possessed, with as good possessions or property. 

102. If not with vantage, if I have not even an advantage over him in 
this respect. 

106. to his head, before his face, openly and unreservedly. Compare 
Measure for Measure, iv. 3. 147: 

* He shall bring you 
Before the duke, and to the head of Angelo 
Accuse him home and home.' 
And Much Ado about Nothirig, v. I. 62 ; 

* Know, Claudio, to thy head. 
Thou hast so wrong'd mine innocent child and me.* 

no. spotted, polluted, guilty; the opposite of 'spotless.' Compare 
Richard II, iii. 2. 134: 

* Terrible hell make war 
Upon their spotted souls for this offence 1' 

And Titus Andronicus, ii. 3. 74: 

* Spotted, detested, and abominable.' 

112. spoke. Seel. 175. 

113. self-affairs, my own business. Shakespeare has many similar 
compounds : as * self-abuse,' for self-deception, Macbeth, iii. 4, 142 ; ' self- 
bounty,' natural goodness or benevolence, Othello, iii. 3. 200 ; • self-breath,' 
one's own breath or words, Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3. 182; * self-danger/ 
personal risk, Cymbeline, iii. 4. 149; * self-wrong,' injury done to oneself. 
Comedy of Errors, iii. 2. 168; &c. 

1 20. extenuate, mitigate, weaken the force of. 



«c. I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 7 1 

123. go along, go with us. So in 3 Henry VI, iv. 5. 25 : 

* Huntsman, what say*st thou ? wilt thou go along ? ' 

1 25. nuptial. The second and later folios read * nuptialls,' in accordance 
nrith modem usage. Shakespeare, except in two instances, employs the 
singular form. See note on The Tempest, v. i. 308. In the same way 
we have ' funeral ' and ' funerals.' Compare Julius Caesar, v. 3. 105 : 

'His funerals shall not be in our camp'; 
although in this case it is the singular form that has survived. 

1 26. nearly that concerns, that nearly concerns. 

127. Exeunt &c. In the quartos and folios the stage direction is 
• Exeunt. Manet Lysander and Hermia.* It was a strange oversight on the 
part of Egeus to leave his daughter with Lysander. 

129. How chance &c., how chances it. Compare King Lear, ii. 4. 64 : 
* How chance the king comes with so small a train ? ' 

Abbott, § 37. 

130. Belike, probably, by likelihood. See Julius Caesar, iii. 2. 275 : 

* Belike they had some notice of the people.* 
The word is unusual if not singular in form. It is recorded in Nodal and 
Milner^s Lancashire Glossary as still in use. 

131. Beteem them, allow them. Compare Hamlet, i. 2. 141 : 

* So loving to my mother 
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven 
Visit her face too roughly.* 
lo the present passage, as suggested in the notes to Hamlet, there is 
probably a reference to the other meaning of the word ' to pour.' In this 
sense ' teem * is still used in the North and East of England. 

X 34 Sec. Bishop Newton in his edition of Milton called attention to the 
resemblance between Lysander's complaint and that of Adam in Paradise 

Lost, X. 898-906 : 

* For either 

He never shall find out fit mate, but such 

As some misfortune brings him, or mistake; 

Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain 

Through her perverseness, but shall see her gainM 

By a far worse ; or, if she love, withheld 

By parents ; or his happiest choice too late 

Shall meet, already link'd and wedlock-bound 

To a fell adversary, his hate or shame.' 

1 36. cross, vexation, trial ; from the figurative usage of the word in 

Scripture. See Matthew x. 38 ; As You Like It, v. 4. 137; and below, 1. 1 53. 
Jh, low. Theobald's correction. The quartos and folios read Moue.' 

In support of the correction Malone refers to a very parallel passage in 

Venus and Adonis, 1 1 36-1 140 : 



72 NOTES, [actl 

* Sorrow on love hereafter shall attend: 
It shall be waited on with jealousy, 
Find sweet beginning, but unsavoury end. 
Ne'er settled equally, but high or low. 
That all love's pleasure shall not match his woe.' 

137. misgraffedf ill grafted. Shakespeare uses both forms *graff,' Fr. 
greffer^ and * graft.' See As You Like It, iii. 2. 124 (106 Clar. Prejs ed.), 
and Richard II, iii. 4. loi. 

139. friends. The reading of the quartos. The folios have 'merit.' 

141. sympathy, congruity, equality. Compare Richard II, iv. I. 33 : 

' If that thy valour stand on sjmipathy' ; 

that is, as explained in the note to the Clarendon Press edition, *Ifyoor 

valour is so punctilious as to insist upon an antagonist of similar rank.' 

See also Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. I. 7-10, and Othello, ii. i. 232: 

* Sympathy in years, manners and beauties.* 

143. momentany. The reading of the quartos, altered in the folios to 

* momentary.* The former seems to have been the earlier form of the 
word, from Fr. momentaine, Lat. momentaneus, although both forms were 
in use in Shakespeare's time. See Lucrece, 690. Tyndale's translation oi 
2 Cor." iv. 1 7, is, * For oure excedinge tribulacion which is momentany 
(Vulg, momentaneum) and light prepareth an excedinge and an etemall 
wayght of glorye vnto vs.* 

145. eolliedy black; literally, begrimed as with soot or coal. In Hereford- 
shire * colly * signifies ' dirty, smutty.* See Sir G. C. Lewis's Glossary of 
Provincial Words used in Herefordshire. * Collow, or Colly' is in Wil- 
braham's Cheshire Glossary. Palsgrave (Lesclaircissement de la Langue 
Francoyse) gives : * I colowe, I make blake with a cole. le charbonne.' 
And Cotgrave has, • Charbonner. To paint, marke, write, or smeare, with 
a coale ; to collowe ; to bleach, or make black, with a coale.* 

147. in a spleen, in a swift, sudden fit, as of passion or caprice. The 
word is used of swift and violent motion in King John, ii. I. 448 : 

*With swifter spleen than powder can enforce, 
The mouth of passage shall we fling wide ope.* 

And again, v. 7. 50 : 

• O, I am scalded with my violent motion, 
And spleen of speed to see your majesty ! ' 

148. Halliwell quotes Romeo and Juliet, ii. 2. 119, 120: 

' Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be, 
Ere one can say "It lightens.'" 
151. edict, with the accent on the last syllable. So in Love's Labour's 
Lost, i. I. II : 

' Our late edict shall strongly stand in force.' 



sc. I.] A MIDSUMMER'NIGHT^S DREAM. 73 

It occurs also with the accent on the penultimate, in accordance with 
. modern usage. See i Henry IV, iv. 3. 79 : 

*Some certain edicts and some strait decrees.' 
155- fancy* s, love's. See iv. i. 162, and compare * fancy-sick,* iii. 2. 96; 

* fancy-free/ ii. i. 164. 

1.^6. persuasion^ opinion, conviction. Compare Cymbeline, i. 4. 125: 

* You are a great deal abused in too bold a persuasion.* It also signifies 
a persuasive argument, and perhaps has that sense here. 

"^ 159. remote. The reading of the quartos. The folios have 'remov'd,' 

which is used in the same sense in Hamlet, i. 4. 46. 

160. respects^ regards, considers. See ii. i. 224, and compare Coriolanus, 
iii. I. 307: 

* The service of the foot 
Being once gangrened, is not then respected 
For what before it was.' 
164. forthf out of. So Coriolanus, i. 4. 23 : 

* They fear us not but issue forth their city.* 

And Romeo and Juliet, i. i. 126 : 

* Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun 
Peer'd forth the golden window of the east.' 

167. To do observance to a mom of May, to observe the rites of May- 
day. See iv. i. 132, and Chaucer, Knight*s Tale, 1500: 

*And for to doon his observance to May.* 

' It was anciently the custom for all ranks of people to go out a Maying 

; early on the first of May. Bourne tells us that in his time, in the villages in 

the North of England, the juvenile part of both sexes were wont to rise a 

little after midnight on the morning of that day, and walk to some 

^ neighbouring wood, accompanied with music and the blowing of horns, 

where they broke down branches from the trees and adorned them with 

nosegays and crowns of flowers. This done, they returned homewards with 

» their booty about the time of sunrise, and made their doors and windows 

triumph in the flowery spoil.' (Brand's Popular Antiquities, i. 212; Bohn's 

Ant. Lib.) The early rising is referred to in Henry VIII, v. 4. 14, 15 : 

* 'Tis as much impossible . . . 
To scatter 'em, as 'tis to make 'em sleep 
On May-day morning; which will never be.* 
As fit, says the clown in Airs Well, ii. 2. 25, as *a morris for May-day.' 
Traces of this morris-dancing still remain in the villages about Cambridge. 
The gathering of the whitethorn is described by Herrick in his poem on 
Corinna*s Going a Maying (Hesperides, i. 87, ed. 1846), and scarcely an 
English poet from Chaucer to Tennyson is without a reference to the 
simple customs by which our ancestors celebrated the advent of the flowers. 
May-dew was held of virtue as a cosmetic. Mrs. Pepys would go to 



74 NOTES, [act 

Woolwich fw air and to gather May-dew while her husband divertc 
himself at Vauxhall. For further iaformation see Brand's Popular Ant 
quities already quoted, and Channbers's Book of Days, i. 570-582. 

169. Venus swears by Cupid's bow, Venus and Adonis, 581 : 

* Bids him farewell, and look well to her heart, 
The which, by Cupid's bow she doth protest, 
He carries thence incaged in his breast.' 

170. vnth the golden head, Cupid's arrows in the old mythology we 
tipped either with gold or lead ; the former causing, the latter repelling, lov 
See Ovid, Metam. i. 468-471 : 

* Eque sagittifera promsit duo tela pharctra 
Diversorum operum: fugat hoc, facit illud amorem. 
Quod facit, auratum est et cuspide fulget acuta; 
Quod fugat, obtusum est et habet sub arundine plumbum.' 

Compare Twelfth Night, i. I. 35 : 

* How will she love, when the rich golden shaft 
Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else 
That live in her.* 

171. Venus* doves f which drew her chariot. See Venus and Adonis, 153 
1 190 ; Lucrece, 58 ; Romeo and Juliet, ii. 5. 7. 

173. See Virgil, Aeneid, iv. 584, &c. Steevens pointed out the ana 
chronism of making Dido and Aeneas earlier in point of time than Theseus 
But Shakespeare's Hermia lived in the latter part of the sixteenth centur 
and was contemporary with Nick Bottom the weaver. * Carthage ' as a 
adjective occurs several times in Marlowe's Tragedy of Dido, as for instan< 
in Act iv. (p. 269, ed. Dyce, 1862) : 

* Ye shall no more offend the Carthage queen.' 
And again in Beaumont and Fletcher, The Maid's Tragedy, li. 2 : 

'Now, a tear; 
And then thou art a piece expressing fully 
The Carthage queen, when from a cold sea-rock. 
Full with her sorrow, she tied fast her eyes 
To the fair Trojan ships.' 

1 74. Troyan, the spelling of the quartos and first folio. 

175. broke, broken. Shakespeare uses both forms. See note c 
Richard II, iii. I. 13. 

182. your fair, your beauty. Compare As You Like It, iii. 2. 99 (J 
Clar. Press ed. and note) ; and Sonnet xvi. 11 ; 

* Neither in inward worth nor outward fair.' 

183. lode-stars, leading or guiding stars; as the polar star is to sailo 
Compare Lucrece, 179 : 



I.] A midsummer-night's dream. 75 

* Whereat a waxen torch forthwith he lighteth, 
Which must be lode-star to his lustful eye.* 

.And Chaucer, Knight's Tale, 2059 • 

•Ther saugh I how wofiil Calystopc, 
Whan that Dyane was agreved with here, 
Was turned from a womman to a here, 
And after was sche maad the loode sterre/ 

So also in Maundevile's Travels, ed. HalHwell, p. 180: 'In that Lond, ne in 
Knany othere be^onde that, no man may see the Sterre transmontane, that is 
«:lept the Sterre of the See, that is unmevable, and that is toward the 
INorthe, that we clepen the Lode Sterre.* In the alliterative poem Morte 
JVrthur (ed. Brock), 1. 751, the word occurs in the form * lade sterne ': 

* Lukkes to ])e lade-steme, whene ])e lyghte faillez.' 
It is the • cynosure * of Milton's L'Allegro, 80 : 

* Where perhaps some beauty lies. 
The cynosure of neighbouring eyes*; 
MwoiTcvpa being the Greek name for the constellation Ursa Minor, in which 
is the pole-star. 

1 86. favour, outward appearance, aspect ; with a play upon the other 
meauing of the word. Compare As You Like It, iv. 3. 87 : 

*The boy is fair, 
Of female favour.' 
It is generally applied to the face. See Macbeth,!. 5. 73; Hamlet, v. i. 
314; and Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 363 : 
* Ant. You do mistake me, sir. 
First Off, No, sir, no jot ; I know your favour well.* 
Rosaline in Love*s Labour *s Lost (v. 2. 33) plays upon the word as Helena 
does here: 

'An if my face were but as fair as yours 
My favour were as great.* 

187. Yovrz would I catch, Hanmer*s reading. The quartos and first 
folio have ' Your words I catch ' ; the later folios * Your words Ide catch.* 
This Staunton approves, remarking, ' Helena would catch not only the beauty 
of her rival's aspect, and the melody of her tones, but her language also.* 
But Hanmer's correction gives a better sense. 

190. bated, excepted. So The Tempest, ii. l. 100: *Bate, I beseech 
yoo, widow Dido.' 

191. trandattd, transformed. See iii. I. 107. Compare Coriolanus, ii. 
3. 196 : 

'So his gracious nature 
Would think upon you for your voices and 
Translate his malice towards you into love.' 



76 NOTES. [acti. 

And Sonnet xcvi. lo : 

* How many lambs might the stern wolf betray, 
If like a lamb he could his looks translate I ' 
200. no fault. So the first quarto. The second quarto and the folios 
read • none.* 

209. To-morrow night. There is a discrepancy here in point of time. 
At the opening of the play there are four days before the new moon. 

211. liquid pearl. See ii. I. 15. 
lb. bladed, with fresh green shoots. Compare Macbeth, iv. I. 55* 

* Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down.* - 

212. still, constantly. See iii. i. 158 ; The Tempest, i. 2. 229; iii. 3- 
64; and Two Gentlemen, iv. 3. 31 : 

* To keep me from a most unholy match, 
Which heaven and fortune still rewards with plagues.' 

215. faint primrose-beds, on which those rest who are faint and weary. 
This proleptic use of the adjective is common in Shakespeare. Compare 
Troilus and Cressida, i. 3. 147 : 

*With him Patroclus 

Upon a lazy bed the livelong day 
Breaks scurril jests.' 
And As You Like It, ii. 7. 132 : 

• Oppress'd with two weak evils, age and hunger.' 

216. sweet. Theobald's correction. The quartos and folios read 'sweld, 
or * swell'd,' which some have defended, although the rhyme is decisive '^^ 
favour of Theobald's conjecture. In support of this Heath quotes Psalm K- 
14, • We took sweet counsel together,* which Shakespeare may have had i^ 
his mind. 

219. stranger companies. Another emendation of Theobald's for *stran^^ 
companions ' which is the reading of the quartos and folios. He justifies tl>^ 
use of • stranger ' as an adjective by referring to Richard II, i. 3. 143 : 

• But tread the stranger paths of banishment * ; 

and of ' companies ' for companions, associates, from Henry V, i. i. 55 : 

* His companies unletter'd, rude and shallow.' 

222. Keep word. Compare * Keep promise,' 1. 179* 

223. morrow, to-morrow. As in Romeo and Juliet, ii. 2. 186 : 

* Good night, good night ! parting is such sweet sorrow. 
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.' 

226. other some, others. Compare The Two Noble Kinsmen, iv. 3: 

* Her distraction is more at some time of the moon than at other some, is it 
not?' And Measure for Measure, iii. 2. 94: 'Some say he is with the 
Emperor of Russia ; other some, he is in Rome.' Also 2 Esdras xiii. 13: 

* Some of them were bound, and other some brought of them that were 
offered.* And Acts xvii. 18. 



:. 2.] A midsummer-night's dream. 77 

231. admiring of. In this construction 'admiring* is a verbal noun, 
iginally governed by a preposition * in * or * on/ which has disappeared. 
It which exists sometimes in the degraded form ' a/ in such words as * a 
inting,* 'a building.' See King Lear, ii. 1.41: 'mumbling of wicked 
larms.* Also As You Like It, ii. 4. 44 : * searching of thy wound.' 

232. holding no quantity, having no proportion to the estimate formed 
" them. Compare Hamlet, iii. 2. I77 • 

*For women's fear and love holds quantity.' 

233. transpose f transform, 

239. beguiled, deceived. So in Genesis iii. 13: * The serpent beguiled 
le, and I did eat.' 

240. in game, in sport or jest. Chaucer (C. T. 1. 9468) has * Bitwix 
rnest and game * ; that is, between earnest and jest. 

242. eyne, eyes ; the Old English plural, which occurs again in ii. 2. 99 ; 
i. 2. 138 ; V. I. 178. See also Venus and Adonis, 633 : 

*Nor thy soft hands, sweet lips and crystal eyne.' 
a Shakespeare it is always used on account of the rhyme, except in Lucrece 
229 and Pericles, iii. Gower, 5 : 

* The cat with e3me of burning coal.* 

t occurs in Chaucer in the forms eien, eyen, or ei^en, A. S. e6gan. 

246. go tell. See ii. i. 14. So *go sleep,' The Tempest, ii. i. 190; 
go pray,* Hamlet, i. 5. 132. See note on the latter passage for other 
samples. 

249. it is a dear expense, it will cost me dear, because it will be in return 
>r my procuring him a sight of my rival. 

251. kis sight, the sight of him. 

Scene II, 

Enter &c. The first folio has * Enter Quince the Carpenter, Snug the 
^yner, Bottome the Weauer, Flute the bellowes-mender, Snout the Tinker, 
^d Starueling the Taylor.' Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps thinks that Bottom 
J«ing a weaver takes his name from a * bottom ' of thread. 

2. Vou were best, it were best for you. See note on The Tempest, i. 2. 
367 : ' Be quick, thou 'rt best.' 

Jh, generally in Bottom's language means particularly, severally. 

3. the scrip, or written document. Chaucer (C. T. 9571, ed. Tyrwhitt) 
iJS€s • sCTipt ' in the same sense : 

* If I you told of every script and bond.' 

The MSS. of the Six-text edition read * sent' or 'scrite.' Compare Hol- 
land's Pliny, vii. 25 : ' But herein appeared his true hautinesse of mind 
ffldeed, and that unmatchable spirit of his. That when upon the battell 
at Pharsalia, as wel the cofers and caskets with letters 8c other writings of 



78 NOTES. [actl 

JPompey, as also those of Scipioes before Thapsus, came info his hands, he 
was most true unto them, & burnt al, without reading one script or sooIL' 
In Chaucer's Troylus and Creseyde (ii. 1 130), to which Tyrwhitt in hit 
Glossary refers s. v. Script ^ we find in the edition of 1542 : 

*Scripe nor byl 
For loue of god, that toucheth such matere 
Ne bring me none.' 
All the forms are from Lat. scriptum^ through the Fr. escript, or escrit, 
6, 7. on his wedding-day at night. Compare Romeo and Juliet, i. 3. 21: 

* On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen/ 

9, 10. grow to a pointf so the quartos. The first three folios have 'gw* 
on to a point,' and the fourth * grow on to appoint.' It is not always qui** 
safe to interpret Bottom, but he seems to mean ' come to the point.' 

1 1 . Steevens quotes the title page of Cambyses, • A lamentable Tragcdiei 
mixed full of pleasant Mirth, containing, The Life of Cambises King ^ 
Percia, &c. By Thomas Preston.' We might also refer to *A ne* 
Tragicall Comedie of Apius and Virginia . . . By R. B. . . . 1575/ 

12. Warton, in his History of English Poetry (ed. 1824),. iv. 243, bmb* 
tions that *in 1562 was licenced **the boke of Perjrmus and Thesbye* 
copied perhaps in the Midsummer Night's Dream.' He adds, * I suppose a 
translation from Ovid's fable of Pyramus and Thisbe.' 

20. gallant. The reading of the quartos. The folios have * gallantly.' 

21. askf require. Compare Richard II, ii. i. 159: 

'And for these great alBiirs do ask some charge.' 
And Bacon, Advancement of Learning, ii. 14 (p. 85 Clar. Press ed.): 'F* 
as it asketh some knowledge to demand a question not impertinent, so ^ 
requireth some sense to make a wish not absurd.' 

23> condole. Bottom of course blunders, but it is impossible to say wl»* 
word he intended to employ. Shakespeare only tses 'condole* once 
besides, and he then puts it into the mouth of Ancient Pistol, who in $«<* 
matters is as little of an authority as Bottom. See Henry V, ii. 1. 133' 

* Let us condole the knight ' ; that is, mourn for him. In Hamlet, i. 2. 93' 

* condolement ' signifies the expression of grief: 

*To persever 
In obstinate condolement.' 

25, 24. To the rest; yet my &c., Theobald's reading. The early cojBC* 
print * To the rest yet, my &c.,' which may be the right punctuation : * yd 
in this unemphatic position being used in the sense of * however.' Compai^ 
Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Life, p. 57 : * Before I departed yet I left her witH 
child of a son.' And Measure for Measure, iii. 2. 187: * The duke yet 
would have dark deeds darkly answered.' 

24. Ercles, The part of Hercules in the old play to which reference is 
made was like that of Herod in the mysteries, one in which the actor could 



Ei 



jfl A midsummer-night's dream. 79 

ilge to the utmost his passion for ranting. Compare Sidney's Arcadia, 
• P» 50 (®^* 1598)1 * With the voyce of one that playeth Hercules in a 
f* Again in Greene's Groatsworth of Wit (p. 23, New Shakspere 
. ed.), quoted by Malone : * The twelue labors of Hercules haue I 
ibly thundred on the stage.' The verses recited by Bottom may be a 
•tation from such a play. 

55. to tear a cat in, to rant violently. Steevens refers to MiddIeton*s 
aring Girl, v. I (Works, ed. Dyce, ii. 535) : * I am called by those who 
e seen my valour Tear-cat.* Again, he quotes from the anonymous play 
triomastix : * Sirrah, this is you that yrould rend and tear a cat upon a 



je.' 



\h. to make all split, used to denote violent action or uproar ; originally a 
or's phrase. Farmer quotes Beaumont and Fletcher, Scornful Lady, 

3]: 

* Two roaring boys of Rome that made all split, 
also Middleton, The Roaring Girl, iv. 2 (Works, ed. Dyce, ii. 518): 
^ell, since you'll needs be clapped under hatches, if I sail not with you till 
split, hang me up at the mainyard and duck me.* And Beaumont and 
itcher. The Wild-Goose Chase, v. 6 ; 

* I love a sea-voyage, and a blustering tempest; 
And let all split.' 
ain Chapman, The Widdowes Tears (Works, iii. 20) : * Her wit I must 
ploy vpon this businesse to prepare my next encounter, but in such a 
hion as shall make all split.' Compare with all this, which it illustrates, 
mlet's advice to the players, iii. 2. 9 &c.: * O, it offends me to the soul to 
ir a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, 
split the ears of the groundlings.' 
39. a wandering knight, or knight errant. 

41. let not me play a woman. Women's parts were commonly played by 
in or boys till after the Restoration. See note on As You Like It, 
'ilogue, 14, 15. 

43. all one, all the same, no matter. So As You Like It, iii. 5. 133: 

' But that's all one ; omittance is no quittance.' 

44. you may speak as small, in as thin and clear a voice.. Compare 
erry Wives of Windsor, i. i. 49: *She has brown hair, and speaks small 
e a woman.' And Chaucer, C. T. 3360 : 

*He syngeth in his voys gentil and smal.' 

45. An, if. Printed ' And * in the old copies. 

^6. Thisne, Thisne. These words are printed in italic in the old copies, 
if they represented a proper name, and so * Thisne* has been regarded as 
lunder of Bottom's for Thisbe. But as he has the name right in the 
Y next line it seems more probable that * Thisne ' signifies * in this way *; 
he then gives a specimenof how he would aggravate his voice. * Thissen' 



8o NOTES. [act i^sc. 

is given in Wright's Provincial Dictionary as equivalent to *in this manne 
and 'thissens* is so used in Norfolk. 

54. Theobald has pointed out that the father and mother of Thisbe a 
the father of Pyramus do not appear in the interlude. 

74. aggravate. Bottom of course means the very opposite, like Mi 
Quickly in 2 Henry IV, ii. 4. 1 75 • 'I beseek you now, aggravate yoi 
choler.* 

75. roar you. For this superfluous use of the pronoun see Abbott, § 221 
Ih, an *ttueret as if it were. Compare Troilus and Cressida, i. 2. 189, 'H 

will weep you, an 'twere a man bom in April.' 

lb. sucking dove. Oddly enough Bottom's blunder of 'sucking dove'fo 
'sucking lamb* has crept into Mrs. Cowden Clarke's Concordance t( 
Shakespeare, where 2 Henry VI, iii. i. 71 is quoted * As is the sucking dov 
or &c.* 

78. as one shall see in a summer* s day. So Henry V, iii. 6. 67: 'I' 
assure you, a' uttered as brave words at the bridge as you shall see iQ ' 
summer's day.' And again in the same play iv. 8. 23. 

84. discharge^ perform. See iv. 2. 8; Coriolanus, iii. 2. 106: 
* You have put me now to such a part which never 

I shall discharge to the life.' 
It appears to have been a technical word belonging to the stage, ai> 
occurs in this connexion in The Tempest, ii. i. 254: 

*To perform an act 
Whereof what 's past is prologue, what to come 
In yours and my discharge.* 

85. oran^c-Zawny, reddish yellow. See iii. i. 115. Cotgrave (Fr. Diet 
-, gives, ' Grange ; m. ^e: f. Orange-tawnie, orange-coloured.' 

Ih. purple-in-grain^ the dye obtained from the hermes (whence Fr. cramoi 
'. and English crimson)^ an insect which attached itself to the leaves of t 
Kermes oak {Quercus cocci/era)^ a tree found in the south of Euro] 
' especially in Spain, and also in India and Persia. Cotgrave (Fr. Diet.) h 
* Migraine : f. . . . Scarlet, or Purple in graine.* An interesting discussi 
of the etymology of * grain ' in the sense of dye will be found in MarsJ 
Lectures on the English Language, 66-75. 

86. French-crown-colour, the colour of the gold coin of that nan 
There are many equivocal references in Shakespeare to the * French crow 
which was a name for baldness produced by a certain disease. 

85. I am to entreat you. See iv. 3. 39. 

90. to con them, to study them, learn them by heart. See v. i . 80, and 
You Like It, iii. 2. 289. * Have you not been acquainted with goldsmit 
wives, and conned them out of rings ? * 

91. a mile. In i. i. 165 it is a league. 
94. properties, a theatrical term for all the adjuncts of a play except t 



. I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT^ S DREAM. 8l 

nd the dresses of the actors. Compare Merry Wives of Windsor, 

*Go get us properties 

And tricking for our fairies.* 

obscenely. Misused by Bottom as by Costard in Love's Labour's 

1. 145 •• 

sn it comes so smoothly off, so obscenely, as it were, so fit.' 

)ld or cut bowstrings, Capell seems to have hit upon the true 

on of this expression. ' When a party was made at butts, 

of meeting was given in the words of that phrase: the sense of the 
)ing them being, that he would " hold," or keep promise, or they 

cut his bowstrings," demolish him for an archer.' Keep the 
lent, or give up shooting. Malone explains it, ' To meet, whether 
fs hold or are cut, is to meet in all events.* * To break 
vstrings* was a phrase denoting the giving up of anything that was 

Steevens quotes from The Ball, a play by Chapman and Shirley : 
Have you devices to jeer the rest ? 

All the regiment of *em, or I'll break my bowstrings.* 
ase the bowstrings are the strings of the bow of a musical instni- 
?oT an illustration of CapelFs note, see Much Ado about Nothing, 
: ' He hath twice or thrice cut Cupid's bowstring,* and so disabled 



ACT n. 

Scene I, 

early copies Puck is called Robin good*fellow. See Preface. 
orough. The spelling of the first quarto. The second quarto and 
. have * Through.' Drayton imitates this passage in his Nymphidia, 

* Thorough Brake, thorough Brier, 
Thorough Mucke, thorough Mier, 
Thorough Water, thorough Fieri* 
on^s, a disy liable, as 'Earth's' in The Tempest, iv. I. 1 10: 

'Earth's increase, foison plenty.* 
quotes from Spenser, Fairy Queen, iii, I. 15 : 

'And eke through fear as white as whales bone.* 
5 also iv. I. loi of the present play, where the true reading is that 

:st quarto : 

*Trip we after night's shade.' 

ond quarto and the folios read 'the night's,* in which modem 
ave followed them ; but this disturbs the accent of the verse. 

G 



82 NOTES. [a 

76. ^here, orbit. See 1. 153, and The Tempest, ii. i. 183: 'You ^ 
lift the moon out of her sphere.' Also Marlowe's Doctor Fanstus (V 
ed. D}xe, 1862), p. 83 : 

*Be it to make the moon drop from her sphere.' 

9. deWf bedew, water. Compare Venus and Adonis, 66: 

•Wishing her cheeks were gardens fiall of flowers. 
So they were dew'd with such distilling showers.' 
And Romeo and Juliet, v. 3. 14: 

•Which with sweet water nightly I will dew.' 
lb. orbs, the circles in the grass called fairy rings, popularly believ 
be caused by the fairies dancing. See line 86, and compare The, Ten 

▼. I. 37 ' 

• You demi-puppcts that 

By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make.' 
And Merry Wives of Windsor, v. 5. 69, 70 : 

•And nightly, meadow-fairies, look you sing. 
Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring.' 

10. her pensioners, her body-guard. Henry the Eighth and Eliz 
both had such a band of attendants. Compare Meriy Wives of Wi 
ii. 2. 79 ; of Mrs. Ford's suitors says Mrs. Quickly, * and yet there has 
earls, nay, which is more, pensioners.' They were young gentlemen 
and fortune who were selected for their handsome faces and figures. 
Osborne's Traditional Memoirs of Queene Elizabeth (in Secret Hist( 
the Court of James the First, i. 55). Tyrwhitt quotes from Holles's I 
the first Earl of Clare : * I have heard the Earl of Clare say, that when 1 
pensioner to the Queen, he did not know a worse man of the whole 
than himself: and that all the world knew he had then an inherita 
£4000 a year.' From the present passage it may be inferred that 
dress was splendid. When Queen Elizabeth visited Cambridge in 151 
was present at a performance of the Aulularia of Plautus in the ante-cha 
King's College, on which occasion her gentlemen pensioners kept the 
holding staff torches in their hands. (Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, ii. 

XI. spots. Compare Cymbeline, ii. 2. 38, 39 : 

•A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops 
I' the bottom of a cowslip.* 
12. favours, love-tokens. See iv. i. 47, and Love's Labour's Lost 
130: 

' 'Hold, Rosaline, this favour thou shalt wear, 

And then the king will court thee for his dear.* 
14. go seek. See i. i. 246. 

15.0 pearl in every cowslip* s ear. There are numberless allusions 
wearing of jewels in the ear both by men and women, in Shakespeare 
contemporary writers. Compare Romeo and Juliet, i. 5, 48 : 



. I.] A midsummer-night's dream. 83 

* It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night 
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear/ 
arlowe, Tamburlaine, First Part, i. i : 

'With costly jewels hanging at their ears/ 
Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humonr, iv. 7^, Matthew says : * O yes, 
1 pawn this jewel in my ear/ Again, Every Man out of his Humour, 

duction : 

'Coin new conceits, and hang my richest words 

As polish'd jewels in their bounteous ears/ 

16. i)wu lob. 'Lob ' is equivalent to lubber, lout, and like them is used 
•ntemptuously. Other synonyms arc given by Cotgrave (Fr. Diet.) s. v. 
3urdaut, which he defines by the following equivalents: 'A sot, dunce^ 
lUard, grotnoll, iobernoU, blockhead; a lowt, lob, luske, boore, clowne, 
Lurle, clusterfist ; a proud, ignorant, and vnmannerlie swaine/ 

17. elves, fairies; A. S. alf. The singular occurs in v. i. 400: 

'Every elf and fairy sprite/ 
se notes on King Lear, ii. 3. 10, and The Tempest, v. I. 33. 

20. /ell, fierce ; from Old French, fel, Italian fello, with which felon is 
onnected. Compare Othello, v. 2. 362 : 

'More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea!' 

lb, tvrath, wroth, angry. So written for the sake of the rh3rme. In 
iVaglo-Saxon ivrdb is both the substantive 'wrath^' and the adjective 
'wroth/ 

23. changeling, usually a child left by the fairies : here, as a fairy is the 
speaker, it denotes the one taken by them. See Winter's Tale, iii. 3. 122 : 
'It was told me I should be rich by the fairies. This is some changeling: 
open*t* 

25. to trace, to traverse, wander through. So Much Ado about Nothing, 

2.1. 16: 

' As we do trace this alley up and down.' 

Spenser uses it as equivalent to * walk, travel/ See Fairy Queen, iv. 8. 34 : 

'How all the way the Prince on footpace traced.* 

And vi. 3. 29 : 

'Not wont on foote with heavy armes to trace/ 

Holt White quotes from Milton, Comus, 423 : 

•And, like a quivered nymph with arrows keen, 

May trace huge forests, and unharboured heaths.* 

29. sheen, shining* brightness. As in Hamlet, iii. 2. 167 : 

'And thirty dozen moons with borrow' d sheen/ 

fohnson takes it as an adjective, and renders it * shining, bright, gay ' ; but 

ifilton, with the passage in his mind, uses it as a substantive. See Comus, 

903: 

G 2 



84 NOTES. [act 

* But far above, in spangled sheen, 
Celestial Cupid her famed son advanced.' 

30. square^ quarrel. Cotgrave (Fr. Diet.) has, * Rioter. To chic 
brabble, scould, brawle ; iangle ; debate, square, contend^ fall out, in word 
Compare Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 1 3. 41 : 

•Mine honesty and I begin to square.' 
Again, Titus Andronicus, ii. i. 100 : 

'And are you such fools 
To square for this?* 

Hence ' squarer'=s quarreler ; see Much Ado about Nothing, i. i. 82: ' 
there no young squarer now that will make a voyage with him to the devil 
In his description of the singing in the church at Augsburg, Ascham uses tl 
word * square * in the sense of jar or discord : * The praecentor begins t) 
psalm, all the church follows without any square, none behind, none befor 
but there doth appear one sound of voice and heart amongst them all 
(Works, ed. Giles, i. 270.) 
lb. that, so that. 

32. Either, used as a monosyllable. See ii. 2. 156, Macbeth, v. 7* i^ 
and Richard III, iv. 4. 182 : 

'Either thpu wilt die by God's just ordinance.' 

So also ' neither,* ' whether,' are frequently metrical monosyllables. 

33. shrewdy mischievous. See note on As You Like It, v. 4. 165 (Clar 
Press ed.). 

lb, sprite, the spelling of the first quarto, and in consequence of the rhym* 
the pronunciation of the other copies, although they read 'spirit.* Se< 
Macbeth, ii. 3. 84 : 

'As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites.' 

34. Robin Goodfellow, See Preface. 

35. That frights. The later folios read 'fright,' so as to agree witl 
' skim ' &c., that follow. Others rectify the irregularity by reading * skinos, 
' labours,' and so on. But it is not necessary to correct what Shakespear 
may very well have written. The first verb * frights * is of course goveme 
by • he ' which immeidiately precedes. The others are in agreement wit 
* you.* We have in English both constructions. For instance in Exodus v 
7 : ' And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth yc 
out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.' And in 2 Samuel v. 2 : ' Tb( 
wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel.' 

lb. villagery, village population, and so peasantry. Johnson defines it 
a district of villages, but it denotes rather a collection of villagers that 
collection of villages. The first quarto reads * Viilageree ' ; the other ( 
copies 'villagree' or 'vilagree.* No other instance of the word is 
corded. 



.1.] A midsummer-night's dream. 85 

36. quern, a hand-mill. A. S. cweom or cwym ; Gothic kwaimus. 
ompare Chaucer, Monkes Tale, I. 14080 (ed. Tyrwhitt) of Samson : 
'But now is he in prison in a cave, 
Wheras they made him at the querne grinde.* 
>hnson imagined a difficulty. ' The mention of the mill,' he says, ' seems 
It of place, for she is not now telling the good but the evil he does.' He 
iggested the transposition of lines 36 and 37, or the reading 
'And sometimes make the breathless housewife churn 
Skim milk, and bootless labour in the quern.' 
nt the fairy is enumerating all Robin Goodfellow's pranks, and among 
lem when he was in a good humour the old song makes him say (Percy's 
.cliques, vol. iii.) : 

'I grind at mill 
Their malt up still.' 
ee the quotation from Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy in the Preface. 
Che only alternative is with Delius to regard * quern * as equivalent to 'churn' 
or which there appears to be no authority. 

38. some/im6, sometimes. Compare 'beside' and * besides '^; 'while' and 
whiles'; 'toward' and 'towards'; and see iii. I. 98; iii. 2. 360. 

Ih, harm, yeast ; so called in many provincial dialects still : A. S. beortna. 
Cotgrave has, * Leveton : m. Yeast, or Barme.' 

39. night-^vanderers. Milton had probably this passage in his mind when he 
described the Will o' the wisp (Paradise Lost, ix. 640) which 

'Hovering and blazing with delusive light. 
Misleads the amazed night wanderer from his way.' 
/&. harm, misfortune. Compare As You Like It, iii. 2. 80: 'Glad of 
other men's good, content with my harm.' 

40. Hobgoblin. So Drayton, Nymphidia, 283 : 

•He meeteth Pucke, which most men call 

Hobgoblin, and on him doth fall.' 

47. a gossip's bowl, originally a christening cup ; for a gossip or godsib 

^^ properly a sponsor. Hence, from signifying those who were associated 

^ the festivities of a christening, it came to denote generally those who were 

accustomed to make merry together. Archbishop Trench mentions that the 

^ord retains its original signification among the peasantry of Hampshire. 

Be adds, ' Gossips are, first, the sponsors, brought by the act of a common 

^nsorship into affinity and near familiarity with one another; secondly, 

these sponsors, who being thus brought together, allow themselves one with 

the other in familiar, and then in trivial and idle, talk ; thirdly, any who 

lllow themselves in this trivial and idle talk, — called in French " comm^rage," 

wm the fact that " comm^re " has run through exactly the same stages as 

5 English equivalent.' (English Past and Present, pp. 204-5, 4th ed.). 

barton, in his note on Milton's L' Allegro, 100, identifies 'the spicy 



86 NOTES. [actil 

nut-brown ale ' with the gossip's bowl of Shakespeare. ' The compositioa 
was ale, nutmeg, sugar, toast, and roasted crabs or apples. It was called 
Lambs-wool.* See Breton's Fantastickes, January : * An ^)ple and a Nntm^ 
make a Gossips cup.' Compare Ctxnedy of Errors, v. i. 405 : 

* Go to a gossips' feast, and go with me.' 
And Romeo and Juliet, iiL 5. 175 : 

•Utter your gravity o'er a gossip's bowl.' 
48. erah, crab apple. See King Lear, L 5. 16 : 'For though ihe's as like 
this as a crab 's like an apple, yet I can tell what I can telL* 

50. dewlaps spelt * dewlop ' in the quartos and folios, is properly the looH 
skin which hangs from the throat of cattle. See iv. I. lai, and Ths 
Tempest, iii. 3. 45 : * Dewlapp'd like bulls.' Baret (Alvearie, t. v.) has: 
* the Dewlap of a rudder beast, hanging downe vnder the necke. Palear.' 

51. aunty a familiar name for an old woman. Compare 'nancle' in 'Sxa^ 
Lear, i. 4. 117. It is elsewhere used in a bad sense, but not in this ptssagi 
or in Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, ii. i ; where Justice Overdo in the 
habit of a fool says^ ' Ale for thine aunt, boy.' Mr. Grant White remada 
that 'In New England villages good-natured old peofde are still calkd 
" aunt" and "uncle" by the whole community.' In Cornwall, according to 
Pegge (Grose's Glossary), the same usage prevails. 

lb. saddest tale, most grave or serious stoiy. Compare Merchant of , 
Venice, ii. 2. 205 : 

'Like one well studied in a sad ostent 
To please his grandam'; 
where *sad ostent' means an assumed appearance of gravity. In the 
present passage ' sad ' may possibly be understood in its ordinary sense. 

54. tailor. Johnson says, * The custom of crying tailor at a sudden fitU 
backwards, I think I remember to have observed. He that slips beside his 
chair, falls as a tailor squats upon his board.' If this be not the true ex- 
planation it is at least the only one which has been proposed. 

54-55. cough . . . laugh. The old copies for the sake of the rhyme 
print • cofFe . . . lofFe.' 

56. waxen in their mirth, grow merrier and merrier. Fanner conjectwed 
*yoxen ' or *yexen,' to hiccup ; the latter was adopted by Singer. The oU 
plural ' waxen' probably survived in the country dialects of Shakespeare's 
time. 

lb. neeze, sneeze ; A. S. niesan, Germ, niesen. Similarly we find the t^ 
forms of the same word *knap' and 'snap'; 'top' and 'stop,' 'cratch' aod 
'scratch'; * lightly * and ' slightly ' ; ' quinsy ' and ' squinancy.' In 2 King» 
iv. 35 the text originally stood, ' And the child neesed seven times ' ; but the 
word has been altered in modem editions to ' sneezed.' In Job zli. 18 
however 'neesings' still holds its place. Compare Homilies (ed. Griffiths, 
1859), p, 227: 'Using these sayings: such as learn, God and St. Nichofait 



«c. I.] A midsummer-night's dream. 87 

be my speed ; such as neese, God help and St John ; to the horse, God and 
St. Loy save thee.' Palsgrave (Lresclarcissement de la Langue Francoyse) 
has, * I ncse, le esteme.' And Cotgrave gives both forms, * Estemuer. To 
neeze, or sneeze.* 

58. Johnson on account of the metre would read ' fairy' as a trisyllable. 
Dr. Abbott, for the same reason, would prolong * room ' (Shakesperian 
Grammar, § 484). The metre is scarcely mended in either way. Pope read 
* make room.' Dyce in his second edition read ' room, now.' Dr. Nicholson 
suggests ' roomer,' a sea term, which is applied to a ship when going from 
the wind. 

59. In the stage direction as it appears in the quartos and folios Oberon 
is called * the King of Fairies,' and Titania ' the Queen.' 

61. FatrieSt skip hence. The old copies have * Fairy/ which Capell 
understands of the leading fairy, her gentleman-usher, and therefore considers 
Theobald's change to ' Fairies ' unnecessary. See however 1. 144. 

67* pipes of com, made of oat straw. Ritson quotes from Chaucer [House 
of Fame, iii. 134] : 

'And many a fioyte and litling home. 
And pipes made of greene come.' 
Compare Cotgrave, ' Sampongne : f. A bagpipe, or oaten pipe.' And Love's 
Labour's Lost, y. 2. 913: 

'When shepherds pipe on oaten straws.' 
Also Milton, Lycidas, 33 : 

' Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute, 
Temper'd to the oaten flute.' 
And Comus, 345 : 

' Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops.' 
lb. versing love, making love in verse. 

69. steppe. So the first quarto. The second, followed by the folios, 
xeads 'steepe'; and this was apparently in Milton's mind when he wrote 

Comus, 139: 

'Ere the blabbing eastern scout. 

The nice mom on the Indian steep 

From her cabin'd loop-hole peep.' 
To the reading * steppe ' it is objected that the word in the sense in which it 
is applied to the vast plains of Central Asia was not known in Shakespeare's 
day, but it is dangerous to assert a proposition which may be disproved 
by a single instance of the contrary. There is certainly no a priori reason 
why the present passage should not furnish that instance, inasmuch as a 
word of similar origin, ' horde,' was perfectly well known in England at 
the beginning of the 1 7th century. On the other hand, too much weight 
must not be attached to the spelling of the first quarto, for in iii. 2.^85 
' sleep ' ii misprinted ' slippe/ 



88 NOTES. [AC 

75. Glance at, hint at, indirectly attack. Compare Julius Caesar, i. 2. 3 

•Wherein obscurely 
Czsar's ambition shall be glanced at' 
For the substantive ' glance ' in the sense of ' hint, allusion,' see As ^ 
Like It, ii. 7. 57 : 

'The wise man's folly is anatomized 
Even by the squandering glances of the fool.* 
And Bacon's Advancement of Learning, 1. 7, § 8 (p. 57, ed. Wrigl 

* But when Marcus Philosophus came in, Silenus was gravelled and oul 
countenance, not knowing where to carp at him ; save at the last he ga^i 
glance at his patience towards his wife.' 

78. Perigenia, In North's Plutarch she is called Perigouna, the daugl 
of the famous robber Sinnis, by whom Theseus had a son Menalippus. 

79. Mgle. Rowe's correction. The quartos and folios have *£ag1 
In North's Plutarch (ed. 1631), Theseus, p. 9, we read: * For some s 
that Ariadne hung herselfe for sorrow, when she saw that Theseus had ( 
her off. Other write, that she was transported by mariners into the lie 
Naxos, where she was married unto Oenarus the priest of Bacchus : i 
they thinke that Theseus left her because he was in love with another, as 
these verses should appeare, 

.ffigles the Nymph was lou'd of Theseus, 
Who was the daughter of Panopeus.* 

80. Antiopay according to some, was the name of the Amazon queen, a 
the mother of Hippolytus. See North's Plutarch, p. 14. 

8a. middle summer's spring, the beginning of midsummer. Steeve 
quotes 2 Henry IV, iv. 4. 35 : 

' As humorous as winter and as sudden 
As flaws congealed in the spring of day.' 
Also Luke i. 78 ; * Whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited i« 
Again we find in Gower's Confessio Amantis (ii. p. 97) : 

* For till I se the daies spring, 
I sette slepe nought at a risshe.' 

84. paved fountain, a fountain with pebbly bottom ; not artificial 
paved, for a fountain of this kind would scarcely be frequented by fairii 
See Milton, Comus 119, of the wood-nymphs' dance : 

* By dimpled brook and fountain-brim.' 
And Paradise Lost, i. 7S3. 

85. m, on. See below, 1. 90, and compare Venus and Adonis, 11^ 

• What seest thou in the ground ? ' And the Lord's Prayer, * Thy will 1 
done in earth as it is done in heaven.' 

lb. beached, formed by a beach, or which serves as a beach. Compa 
Timon of Athens, v. i. 219 : 

•Upon the beached verge of the salt flood.' 



:. I.] A midsummer-night's DREAM. 89 

or similar instances of adjectives formed from substantives, see ' guiled/ 
ferchant of Venice, iii. 2. 97 ; 'disdain'd,' i Henry IV, i. 3. 183 ; 'simple- 
QswePd,' that is, simple in your answer, furnished with a simple answer, 
'hich is the reading of the folios in King Lear, iii. 7. 43 : ' the caged cloister,' 
le cloister which serves as a cage, A Lover's Complaint, 249 : ' ravin'd,' for 
I venous, Macbeth, iv. i. 24 : * poysened * for poisonous, Lyly, Euphues 
id, Arber), p. 196 : * Nylus breedeth the precious stone and the poysened 
jrpent.* 

lb. margenty margin. So in A Lover's Complaint, 39: 
• Which one by one she in a river threw. 
Upon whose weeping margent she was set.' 

nd Romeo and Juliet, i. 3. 86 : 

'And what obscured in this fair volume lies 
Find written in the margent of his eyes.' 

or the form of the word, compare 'aliant' for 'alien,* 'tyrant' from Tupowotj 
ad ' vild ' which is a corrupt spellinjg of ' vile.' Milton has the same spelling 
1 Comus, 232 : 

*By slow Maeander's margent green.' 

!hake^)eare never uses 'margin'; but in The Tempest, iv. I. 69, he 
kas 

'And thy sea-marge, sterile and rocky-hard.' 

86. dance our ringlets. See above, 1. 9. 

87. brawls^ quarrels. Originally a brawl was a French dance, as in 
Love's Labour 's Lost, iii. i. 9 : * Will you win your love with a French 
^rawl?' And it was a dance of a violent and boisterous character, as 
appears by the following extract from Cotgrave: 'Bransle: m. A totter, 
wing, or swidge ; a shake, shog, or shocke ; a stirring, an vncertain and 
^constant motion; . . . also, a brawle, or daunce, wherein many (men, 
Qd women) holding by the hands sometimes in a ring, and otherwhiles at 
*gth, moue altogether.* It may be however that there is no et}miological 
^>nnexion between these two words which are the same in form; and 
brawl * in the sense of ' quarrel ' may be an imitative word and akin to 
t>rabble.' 

88. piping to us in vain^ because we could not dance to them. See 
latthew xi. 17 : * We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced.' 

89. 90. Compare King Lear, ii. 4. 168, 169 : 

' Infect her beauty. 
You fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful sun.* 

91. Have. So Rowe corrected the 'Hath' of the quartos and folios, 
'^ich is attracted into the singular by the preceding ' land,' See note on 
iamlet, i. 2. 38. 

Ih. pelting, paltry, insignificant. The folios have * petty.' The two 



9© NOTES, [icin. 

words occur together in Measure for Measure, ii. a. XI2 : ' Ereiy peitiD& 
petty officer.' Compare Richard II, ii. i. 60 : 

*Like to a tenement or pelting farm.* 
And King Lear, ii. 3. 18 : 

*Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes, and mills.' 
92. TTiat they &c. The plural follows loosely as representing thecoilM' 
tion of individual rivers. 

76. their continents, the banks that contain them, or hold them ib< 
Compare King Lear, iii. 2. 58 : 

'Close pent-iip guilts. 
Rive your concealing continents, and cry 
These dreadful summoners grace.' 

And Hamlet, iv. 4. 64 : 

* Which is not tomb enough and continent 
To hide the slain.' 
95. a heard, Malone quotes Sonnet xii. 8 : 

*And summer's green all girded up in sheaves 
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard.' 

97. fatted f fattened. Compare Hamlet, iu 2. 607 : 

' I should have fatted all the region kites 
With this slave's offal.' 
Ih, murrion. So the quartos and folios. Warburton altered it to 
' murrain,' the more common spelling. The murrain was a disease amoog 
cattle, see Exodus ix. 3, and the murrion or murrain flock is the flock 
that had died of the cattle plague. For the variety of the spelling compare 
King Lear, i. i. 65, where the folios are divided between *champains'aod 

* champions.' 

98. nme merCs morris. A rustic game, which is still extant in some parts 
of England, so called from the counters (Fr. merelles) with which it is 
played. It is described by James in the Variorum Shakespeare as follows: 

* In that part of Warwickshire where Shakspeare was educated, and tift 
neighbouring parts of Northamptonshire, the shepherds and other boys dig 
up the turf with their knives to represent a sort of imperfect chess-board. 
It consists of a square, sometimes only a foot diameter, sometimes three 01 
four yards. Within this is another square, every side of which is parallel t( 
the external square ; and these squares are joined by lines drawn from ead 
corner of both squares, and the middle of each line. One party, or playd 
has wooden pegs, the other stones, which they move in such a manner as t 
take up each other's men, as they are called, and the area of the ino* 
square is called the pound, in which the men taken up are impound^ 
These figures are by the country people called Nine MerCs Morris, ' 
Merrils ; and are so called because each party has nine men. These figuf 
are always cut upon the green turf or leys, as they are called, or upon tl 



sc. I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT^ S DREAM, 9I 

gi^&ss at the end of ploughed lands, and in rainy seasons neirer fail to be 

choked up with mud.' Another variety of the game as described by Alchorne 

ui the Variorum Shakespeare corresponds with what I have seen in Suffolk. 

Three squares, instead of two, are drawn one within the other, and the 

piiddle points of the parallel sides are joined by straight lines, leaving the 

I'^nermost square for the pound. But the comers of the squares are not 

joined. The corners of the squares and the middle points of the sides are 

the places where the men may be put, and they move from place to place 

along the line which joins them. *A figure is made on the ground by 

^^ting out the turf; and two persons take each nine stones, which they 

Pl*ce by turns in the angles, and afterwards move alternately, as at chess or 

Naughts. He who can play three in a straight line may then take off any 

^<ie of his adversary's, where he pleases, till one, having lost all his men, 

'<Hes the game.' See also Strutf s Sports and Pastimes, iv. a, § 13. 

99. the quaint mazes in the wanton green, * This alludes,' says Steevens, 
' to a sport still followed by boys ; i. e. what is now called running the figure 
height.' But I have seen very much more complicated figures upon village 
greens, and such as might strictly be called mazes or ' labyrinths. On St. 
Catherine's Hill, Winchester, ' near the top of it, on the north-east side, is 
the form of a labyrinth, impressed upon the turf, which is always kept 
entire by the coursing of the sportive youth through its meanderings. The 
fabled origin of this Dasdalaean work is connected with that of the Dulce 
Domum song.' (Milner, History of Wmchestcr, li. 155.) 

loi. human mortals, Titania speaks as a fairy. Compare what she 
says below, 1. 135 : 

*But she, being mortal, of that boy did die.' 
lb. want, lack, are without. Compare The Tempest, iii. i. 79 : 
' At mine unworthiness that dare not offer 
What I desire to give, and much less take 
What I shall die to want.' 

lb. thdr winter here. * Their winter ' Malone explains by ' those sports 
with which country people are wont to beguile a winter's evening, at the 
season of Christmas, which, it appears from the next line, was particularly 
in our author's contemplation.' For * here ' Theobald proposed and Hanmer 
adopted * cheer,* perhaps the true reading. 

103. carol, Christmas carol. 

103. Therefore, because of our quarrel. 

lb. the governess of floods. Compare Hamlet, i. i. 119: 

' The moist star 
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands.' 

104. Pale in her anger. For a similar fancy, compare Romeo and Juliet, 
ii. 2. 4 : 



92 NOTES. [acth. 

' Arise fair sun, and kill the enyious moon. 
Who is already sick and pale with grief.' 
Douce quotes from the Prologue to Lydgate's Siege of Thebes : 
* And was also in tho[^sicioQ 
Of Lucina the Moone, moist and pale 
That many shoures fro heauen made auaile.' 

105. That, so that. See iii. 2. 417. 

lb. rheumatic diseases^ sa3rs Malone, ' signified in Shakespeare's time, not 
what we now call rheumatism, but distillations from the head, catarrhs, he! 
He quotes from the Sydney Memorials, i. 94, where the health of Sir Hemy 
Sydney is described : ' He hath verie much distemporid divers parts of bis 
bodie ; as namelie, his hedde, his stomack, 8cc, And therby is always sobject 
to distillacions, coughes, and other rumatick diseases.' It would be more 
correct to say that the term included all this in addition to what is now 
understood by it. Cotgrave has *Rumatique : com. Rhewmaticke; troi^ed 
with a Rhewme'; and he defines 'Rume: f. A Rhewme, Catarrhe; Pose, 
Murre.* The accent is on the first syllable, as in Venus and Adonis, 135 : 

' O'erworn, despised, rheumatic and cold/ 

106. thorough. See lines 3 &c. 

lb. this distemperature, this disturbance between Oberon and Titaoia; 
not the perturbation of the elements. Compare Pericles, v. i. 27 : 

'Upon what ground is his distemperature ? ' 
where it is used of the disturbance of mind caused by grief. Again, Romeo 
and Juliet, ii. 3. 40 : 

'Therefore thy earliness doth me assure 
Thou art uproused by some distemperature.' 
See also Hamlet, iii. 2. 312 : 
* Guil. The king, sir,— 
Ham. Ay, sir, what of him ? 
Guil, Is in his retirement marvellous distempered. 
Ham. With drink, sir ? 
Guil. No, my lord, rather with choler.* 
109. Hiems*, So Lovers Labour's Lost, v. 2. 901 : * This side is Hiems, 
Winter.' 

76. thin and icy crown. The old copies read * chinne ' or • chin,' which 
Steevens saw was not the place for a chaplet. Tyrwhitt proposed * thin,' 
that is, thin-hair'd; in support of which Steevens quoted King Lear [iv. 

7- 36] : 

* To watch — poor perdu I — 

With this thin helm? 

And Richard II [iii. 2. 112] : 

* White-beards have arm'd their thin and hairless scalps 

Against thy majesty,' 



I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT^ S DREAM. 93 

might have added Timon of Athens, iv. 3. 144: 

* Thatch your poor thin roofs 
With burthens of the dead.' 

112. ckilding autumn, autumn that brings forth the products of the year. 
: Sonnet xcvii. 6, quoted below. Holt White quotes Fairfax's Tasso, 
iii. 26: 

'An hundreth plants beside (euen in his sight) 
Childed an hundreth Nymphes, so great, so dight.' 
: adds, * Childing is an old term in botany, when a small flower grows out 
a large one ' ; and so far his explanation is correct, but he misses the 
int and falls into error when he says 'the childing autumn therefore 
;ans the autumn which unseasonably produces flowers on those of summer,' 
lereas it means the autumn which seasonably produces its own fruits. It 
the change of seasons which makes it abnormal. 

113. mazed, bewildered, thrown into confusion. Compare I Henry VI, 

2.47: 

' A little herd of England's timorous deer. 
Mazed with a yelping kennel of French curs.' 

114. By their increase, by their products or fruits, which formerly dis- 
iguished them. Malone quotes Sonnet xcvii. 6 : 

'The teeming autumn, big with rich increase, 
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime.' 
also Venus and Adonis, 169, 170 : 

' Upon the earth's increase why shouldst thou feed. 
Unless the earth with thy increase be fed?' 
116. debate, quarrel. Compare 2 Henry IV, iv. 4. 2 : 

' Now, lords, if God doth give successful end 
To this debate that bleedeth at our doors.' 
118. it lies in you, it is in your power. So Sonnet ci. 10 : 

* For *t lies in thee 
To make him much outlive a gilded tomb.' 
121. henchman, a page. The word is of uticii;i|Mn origin. Spelman 
irives it from Hengstman, equi curator. Percyijji.ii'jnote to the Earl of 
orthumberland's Household Book (p. 432) says^i'flsiunsmen,' or 'Hanshmen' 
Here frequently written * Henchmen ' or * Henxmen ') was the old English 
lame for the Pages, so called from their standing at their Lords Haunch or 
de. The Earl of Northumberland had three young Gentlemen who 
ttended him in this capacity, and are classed along with his Wards, &c. 
nd next to his own Sons.* Reed quotes from Lodge's Illustrations (i. 358) 
letter from the Earl of Shrewsbury, dated n December, 1 565, in which 
le says : * Her Highnes hathe of late, wherat some doo moche marvell, 
lissolved the auncient oflice of henchemen.' In b\& iio\.t \y^ow ^vs.^V.'^^'^ 
emarks that the heachmen were * a ceitam nwrnbex oi -^onjJs^*^^ ^"^^ ^ 



94 NOTES, [actil 

gentlemen, who stood or walked near the person of the monarch on ail 
public occasions.' In Sherwood's English-French Dictionary (Cotgnve, 
1632), we find, ' A hench-man, or hench-boy. Page d'honneur ; qui maichc 
devant qnelqne Seigneur de grand authority.' 

123. votaress, one that had taken vows. Compare Pericles, n. 
prologue 4 : 

' His woeful queen we leave at Ephesus, 
Unto Diana there a votaress.' 
So Milton, Comus, ^89, uses ' votarist ' : 

*The grey-hooded Even, 
Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed.' 

124. spiced, laden with spices, balmy. 
127. the embarked traders on the flood, the merchants embarked upoo the 

sea. For this position of the participle see Timon of Athens, iv. 2. 13 : 

'A dedicated beggar to the air': 
and note on Richard II, iii. 2. 8 (Clar. Press ed.). And for 'flood' compaFC 
The Merchant of Venice, i. i. 10: 

*Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood.' 
131. Following, — ker womb &c. The words placed between dashes are 
in a parenthesis in the quartos and folios. Steevens adopted Kenrick's wone 
than unnecessary alteration, ' Following her womb &c.' 

138. intend you stay, *To* is frequently omitted in such constructioas> 
See Abbott's Shakespeare Grammar, § 349, and compare The Tempest, iil 
1.63; 

*Than to suffer 
The flesh-fly Wow my mouth.' 
And King Lear, iv. 5. 35 : 

* I pray, desire her call her wisdom to her.* 
140. round, a circular dance. So Macbeth, iv. I. 130 : 

* ril charm the air to give a sound. 
While you perform your antic round,* 

146. thou shall not from this grove, that is, go from this grove. For the 
use of the preposition and an auxiliary verb without the verb of motiofii 
see Hamlet, ii. 2. 521 : ' It shall to the barber's, with your beard.* Abbott, 

§ 405- 

147. injury has here something of the meaning of insult and not of 

wrong only. Compare iii. 2. 148, and the adjective * injurious' in the 
sense of 'insulting, insolent,' in iii. 2. 195. In the Authorised Version 
of I Timothy i. 13, * injurious* is the rendering of the Greek ifipurr^s, 

148 &c. For the supposed reference in this passage to Mary Queen of 
Scots and Elizabeth, see Preface. 

150. a mermaid. For the destructive quality of the mermaid's songi 
compare Comedy of Errors, iii. 2. 45 : 



. I.] A midsummer-night's dream. 95 

' O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note. 
To drown me in thy sister's flood of tears.' 
ad 3 Henry VI, iii. 2. 186 : 

'I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall.' 

)tgrave gives * Serene : f. A Syren, or Mermaid/ 

lb. on a dolphirCs bach, like Arion, who charmed the fish with his song 

id was saved from drowning. See Twelfth Night, i. 2. 15. 

151. breath, voice; used of singing as in Twelfth Night, ii. 3. 21 : 
had rather than forty shillings I had such a leg, and so sweet a breath to 

ig, as the fool has.' 

152. civU, softened and as it were civilized by tiie refining influence of 
osic. Compare iii. 2. 147, and As You Like It, iii. 2. 136 (116 Clar. 

ess ed.) : 

* Tongues I '11 hang on every tree. 
That shall civil sayings show.' 

153. certain, here used of an indefinite number, as in The Tempest, v. 

' I '11 break my staff. 
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth.* 

156. the cold moon, representative of the goddess of chastity. 

157. all amCd, not in full armour but with all his usual weapons. * All ' 
merely emphatic. 

159. loosed, let go; an archery term. Compare Henry V, i. 2. 207 

' As many arrows, loosed several ways. 
Come to one mark.' 

160. As, as if. So Hamlet, iv. 7. 88 : 

' As had he been incorpsed and demi-natnred 
With the brave beast.' 

161. might, cotild, was able. So King John, ii. i. 325 : 

* Heralds, from off our towers we might behold, 
From first to last, the onset and retire 
Of both your armies.' 

162. votaress, having taken the vow of chastity. See 1. 123, 
164. fancy-free, free from the power of love. See i. i. 155. 

167. Shakespeare may have taken the idea of the change of colour in the 
Wcr from the change of the mulberry in the story of Pyramus and Thisbe 
M told by Ovid. 

168. love-in-idleness is one of the names given to the pansy or heartsease 
Lj^e's Herball (1595) : * in English Pances, Loue in Idlenes, and 
7arts ease.' Toilet says it was in use in his time in Warwickshire. Gerarde 
Serball, p. 705, ed. 1597) calls the flower * Hans e?ist, "twv^xe^, \iv»& vcw 
Denes, CvU me to you, and three faces in one \vood.' 



96 NOTES. [aciiu 

171. or ... or, either ... or. Compare The Tempest, i. 2. 249: 
•Without or grudge or grumblings.' 
As You Like It, i. 2. 272: 

'Or Charles or something weaker masters thee.' 

174. ike leviathan. The margins of the Bibles in Shakespeare's day ex- 
plained leviathan as a whale, and so no doubt he thought it. 

175. To * put a girdle round about the earth' was a common ezpresflon 
for making a voyage round the world. It occurs, as Steevens points out, in 
Chapman's Bussy D'Ambois, which was first printed in 1607 (Works, ii. 6), 
* To put a Girdle round about the world.' See also Dekker, If this be not a 
good play, the devil is in it (Works, iii. 277, ed. 1873) : 

'About the world 

My trauailes make a girdle (perfect round:).' 

Staunton quotes from Shirley's Humorous Courtier, i. i : 

' Thou hast been a traveller, and convers'd 

With the Antipodes, almost put a girdle 

About the world.* 

182. the soul of love, the most intense and passionate love. Compare 

I Henry IV, iv. 1.50: 

* The very bottom and the soul of hope.' 

And Troilus and Cressida,Jii. 2. 141 : 

* See, see, your silence. 

Cunning in dumbness, from my weakness draws 

My very soul of counsel.' 

190. slay . . . slayeth. So Theobald, adopting Thirlby's conjecture, cor* 

reeled the ' stay . . . stayeth' of the quartos and folios. If any justificatkn 

were required it would be found in iii. 2. 60, 64. 

192. wood, mad, raging; A. S. Uf6d; Sc. wod or wud. Compare VeDU 

and Adonis, 740 : 

'Life-poisoning pestilence and frenzies wood.' 

I Henry VI, iv. 7. 33 : 

* How the young whelp of Talbot's, raging wood. 

Did flesh his puny sword in Frenchmen's blood t' 

The first quarto reads * wodde.' Compare also Chaucer; C. T. 636 (^ 

Tyrwhitt) : 

'Than wolde he speke and crie as he were wood'; 

and 1659 : 

' Thou mightest wenen, that this Palamon 

In his fighting were as a wood leon.' 

195. adatnantf loadstone. Compare Troilus and Cressida, iii. 2. 18^ " 

'As true as steel, as plantage to the moon. 

As sun to day, as turtle to her mate. 

As iron to adamant, as eatth lo tlie centre.' 



ic. I.] A midsummer-night's dream. 97 

197. leave t give up. See King John, v. 7. 86 : 

* With purpose presently to leavd this war.' 
I Henry VI, iv. i. 108 : 

•Will not this malice, Somerset, be left?* 
201. nor I cannot. For the double negative see Venus and Adonis, 113 : 

* O, be not proud, nor brag not of thy might.' 
I And 409: 

I *\ know not love, quoth he, nor will not know it.' 

^ 208. worser. So Hamlet, iii. 4. 157: 

* O, throw away the worser part of it.* 

210. use. See the quartos. The folios have *do,' and Reed combined 
I the readings into * do use.' 

214. impeach, bring into question, expose to reproach. Compare Mer- 
chant of Venice, iii. 2. 280 : 

* And doth impeach the freedom of the state. 
If they deny him justice.* 

Again, iii. 3. 29 : 

* If it be denied. 
Will much impeach the justice of his state.' 

220. Your virtue is my privilege : for that &c. Your virtue is my pro- 
tectioQ, because it is not &c. This is the reading of the early copies. 
Malone, following Tyrwhitt's conjecture, read 

* Your virtue is my privilege for thstt. 
It is not night &c. 

That is. Your virtue is my protection or warrant against such wrong. 
For * privilege ' in this sense see Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. 1 . 1 60 : 

* And think my patience, more than thy desert. 
Is privilege for thy departure hence.* 

921-4. Johnson points out the resemblance to the lines of Tibullus 

[iv. 13. II, 12]: 

* Tu nocte vel atra 

Lumen, et in solis tu mihi turba locis.* 
333-6. Malone compares 2 Henry VI, iii. 2. 360-362 : 

* A wilderness is populous enough. 

So Suffolk had thy heavenly company: 
For where thou art, there is the world itself.* 
224. in my respect, in my regard or estimation. Compare Cymbeline, ii, 

3. 140: 

' His meanest garment. 
That ever hath but clipp*d his body, is dearer 
In my respect than all the hairs above thee. 
Were they all made such men.* 

H 



98 NOTES. [actd. 

227. in the brakes, in the thickets. See iti. i. 4, 77, no; iil. 2. 15 ; and 
Venus and Adonis, 876 : 

* Hasting to feed her fawn hid in some brake/ 

231. Apollo flies &c. See Ovid, Metam. i. 452 &c. 
lb. holds the chase, pursues. 

232. the griffin^ a fabulous creature, half beast, half bird of prey; now, 
like the unicorn, only known in the zoology of heraldry. It occurs again ii 
I Henry IV, iii. i. 152 : 

•A clip-wing'd griffin, and a moulten raven.* 
And in the form * gripe * in Lucrece, 543 : 

' Like a white hind under the gripers sharp claws.' 
Baret in his Alvearie gives, * a Griffon, or gripe. Gryps.* See also Holland'! 
Pliny, vii. 2 (vol. i. p. 154) : * Griffons, a kind of wild beasts that flie.* Ao( 
again x. 49 : 'As for the foules called Pegasi, headed like horses; and tht 
Griffons, which are supposed to have long eares, and a hooked bill, I tak* 
them to bee meere fables.' 

233. bootless, profitless, worthless : from A. S. bdt, profit, advantage. Sc 
The Tempest, i. 2. 35. 

236. / will not stay thy questions, I will not wait to talk with thee. Fo 
• question* in the sense of conversation see As You Like It, iii. 4. 39 : * I nK 
the duke yesterday and had much question with him.* And Merchant 
Venice, iv. I. 346: * I'll stay no longer question.' Steevens in theprescn 
passage conjectured ' question* in the singular, but the plural may denol 
Helena's repeated efforts at inducing Demetrius to talk with her. 

244. upon the hand. * Upon * occurs in a temporal sense in some phrase 

where it is used with the cause of an3rthing. In such cases the conseqoeno 

follows * upon ' the cause. For instance, in Much Ado about Nothing, iv. ^ 

225: 

'When he shall hear she died upon his words.' 

Again, in the same play, iv. 2. 65 : * And upon the grief of this suddenl 
died.' Also * on ' is used in a local sense with the instrument of an actio! 
See below, ii. 2. 107 : 

* O, how fit a word 

Is that vile name to perish on my sword I* 
And Julius Caesar, v. I.. 58 : 

* I was not bom to. die on Brutus* sword.' v 
Hence metaphorically it occurs in King Lear, ii. 4. 34 : 

* On whose contents, 

They summon'd up their meiny, straight took horse.* 
None of these instances are strictly parallel to the one before us, but tl 
shew how * upon the hand ' comes to be nearly equivalent to * by the hai 
while with this is combined the idea of local nearness to the beloved ob* 



2.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT^ S DREAM. 99 

ich is contained in the ordinary meaning of * upon.* A better example is 

md in Fle.cher^s Chances, i. 9 : 

* Give me dying, 
As dying ought to be, upon mine enemy, 
Parting with mankind by a man that's manly.' 

249. where^ pronounced as a disyllable. See note on 'year* which is so 
:d in The Tempest, i. 2. 53. Pope altered it to * whereon,* to fill up the 

250. oxlips. * The Oxelip, or the small kind of white Mulleyn, is very 
e to the Cowslip aforesaid, sauing that his leaues be greater and larger, 
] his floures be of a pale or faint yelow colour, almost white and without 
lOur.* Lyte*s Herball (1595), p. 134. The second quarto reads ' oxslips* ; 
1 * Oxeslips * is a name of the plant given by Gerarde. 

Tb. the nodding violet. Compare Drayton, Quest of Cynthia, 54 : • 

' I askM a nodding violet why 
It sadly hung the head.' 

lb. grows, attracted into the singular by the nearer subject * violet.' 

251. luscious t sweet scented; generally sweet to the taste. Compare 
ayton, Polyolbion, xv. 153 : 

* The azur'd Hare-bell next, with them, they neatly mixt : 
T' allay whose lushious smell, they Woodbind plac't betwixt.* 
I account of the metre, Theobald conjectured * lush,* luxuriant, thick- 
swing, which occurs in The Tempest, ii. i. 52 : * How lush and lusty the 
iss looks ! * 

lb. woodbine. In Lyte's Herball is a chapter (iii. 51) *0f Woodbine or 
snisuckle,* and it is said ' This herbe or kinde of Bindeweede is called . . . 
English Honisuckle, or Woodbine, and of some Caprifoile.* So also in 
^arde the woodbine and honeysuckle are identified, and bindweed is a 
Terent plant, but Shakespeare elsewhere (iv. i. 47) makes woodbine and 
neysuckle distinct, and apparently regards the former as the same as the 
nvolvulus or bindweed. In the same way Milton (L 'Allegro, 47, 48) 
sntions the sweetbriar and the eglantine as different plants. 

252. muskroses. Of the different kinds of roses, says Lyte (Herball, 
760), * The sixt is named of Plinie in Latine, Rosa Coroneola, of the 
iters at this day Rosa sera, and Rosa autumnalis ; in French, Rose Musquee, 
d Roses de Damas : in base Almaigne, Musket Rooskens : in English also, 
aske Roses, bicause of their pleasant sent.* So Milton, Lycidas, 146 : 

* The glowing violet. 
The musk-rose, and the well attir'd woodbine.* 

cept in fairy land these flowers would not be found all at the same 

SOD. 

lb. eglantine, the sweet briar. See Cymbe^tve, W. a. a'i'>»\ 

H 2 



lOO NOTES. [kCtVL 

* No, nor 

The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander, 
Outsweeten'd not thy breath.' 
Continuing his description of the kinds of roses, L3rte (Herbal!, p. 760) 
says, ' The last is called of Plinie in Greeke Xvxyht Lychnis ; in Latine, 
Rosa Graeca : in French, and base AUnaigne, Eglantier : in English, 
Eglantine.* 

253. sometime. In some editions the words are separated, but the accoit 
shows that they should be combined. 

254. throws^ throws off, sheds. 

lb. snake^ like A. S. snaece^ is feminine, as in Macbeth, iii. 2. 13: 
* We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it : 
She Ml close and be herself.* 

256. Weed, dress, garment ; A. S. weed. Compare Lucrece, 196 : 

• Let fair humanity abhor the deed 
That spots and stains love's modest snow-white weed.' 

257. streak, stroke, touch gently. 

263, 264. Steevens appealed to the rhyme between * man ' and * on * to 
shew that the broad Scotch pronunciation once prevailed in England. In an 
earlier part of the scene * crab ' rhymes to * bob ' and * cough * to * laugh '; 
but from such imperfect rhymes, of which other examples occur* in iii. i. 
348, 9, iii. 2. 411, 412, 462, 463, and v. I. 267, 268, it is unsafe to draw 
any inference as to Shakespeare's pronunciation. 

266. fond, doting. For the construction with * on,' which Rowe changed 
to ' of,' compare Sonnet Ixxxiv. 14 : 

* Being fond on praise, which makes your praises worse.' 

Scene II, 

I. a roundel, like * round,' and * roundelay,* signifies both a circular dance, 

and a part song or catch. In the present passage it has apparently the 

former meaning, as in Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub [ii. i], quoted by 

Tyrwhitt : 

* You'd have your daughter and maids 

Dance o'er the fields like faies to church this frost. 
I'll have no rondels, I, in the queen's paths.* 

In the other sense it is of frequent occurrence ; as for instance in Chanced' 
Legend of Good Women, 423 : 

* And many an himpne for your holy dales. 
That highten balades, rondels, virelaies.' 

And Spenser, Shepherd's Calendar, August, 126 : 

* Wil. Now endeth our roundelay. 

Cud. Sicker, sike a loundle never heard I noDe.' 



I A midsummer-night's dream, ioi 

>assage quoted by Steevens from Puttenham*s Arte of English Poesie is 
ig to the purpose, for the * roundel! ' of Puttenham is merely a circle, 
f the many fanciful figures described by him in which a poem might be 
!n. In the sense of a circular dancing place it is used by Browne, 
mia's Pastorals, book i, song 3, 1. 373 : 

* Thus went they on, and Remond did discusse 
Their cause of meeting, till they won with pacing 
The circuit chosen for the Maidens tracing. 
It was a Roundell seated on a plaine.' 
n the same poem, song 4, 1. 279, * roundelay' is a circular dance: 

* In airie rankes 
Tread Roundelayes vpon the siluer sands/ 
the third part of a minute. The fairy divisions of time are small in 
rtion to their own tiny dimensions. 
musk-rose. See ii. I. 252. 

Som£ war &c. Delius says the construction is ' Some to war * &c. as 
: previous line ; but it seems rather that * war * is imperative, * let some 
&c. 

rere-mice, bats ; A. S. hrere-mus, from hreran to stir, agitate, and so 
alent to the old name • flittermouse.* The old copies spell the word 
imise.' Cotgrave has, • Chauvesouris : m. A Batt, Flittermouse, Rere- 
2.' The word occurs in the Wicliffite Versions of Lev, xi. 19, and the 
in the form * reremees * or ' rere myis * is found in Isa. ii. 20, where the 
version has * backis ether rere myis.' 

quaitftt fine, delicate. So Prospero in The Tempest, i. 2. 317, ex- 
s, • My quaint Ariel I * The word is derived from the Latin cognitus, 
1 in Old French became coint. Cotgrave (Fr. Diet.) gives * Coint . . . 
It, compt, neat, fine, spruce, brisk, smirke, smug, daintie, trim, 
id vp.* 
Sing me now asleep. Compare The Tempest, ii. i. 189: * Will you 
me now asleep, for I am very heavy ? * 

double^ forked, cloven. Compare iii. 2. 72, and Richard II, iii, 2. 21 : 

* A lurking adder. 
Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch 
Throw death upon thy sovereign's enemies.' 
The Tempest, ii. 2. 13: 

* Adders who with cloven tongues 
Do hiss me into madness.' 
. Newts, lizards. See King Lear, iii. 4. 135. * A newt* is an evct or eft 
. efete)^ the * n ' of the article having become attached to the following 
as in 'nonce,* * noumpere ' s= umpire, and others. In 'adder* the 
ite process has taken place, and * a naddet' (^K.^. ii<Eddre^\\^%\s«.««v^ 
dder*; so *&n auger ' is really * a nauget' (^k.S. nafegof^. 



I02 NOTES, [acta. 

lb. blind-worms, also called slow-worms, are used in the witches' caldron 
in Macbeth, iv. i. i6 : 

'Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting.' 

13. Philomel, or Philomela, the daughter of Pandion, was transformed 
into a nightingale and lamented her sad fate in the plaintive notes of the bird 
which bears her name. Compare Lucrece, 1079 : 

* By this, lamenting Philomel had ended 
The well-tuned warble of her nightly sorrow/ 

Her story is told in Ovid, Metam. vi. 

21. spinners. Compare Mercutio's description of Queen Mab, Romeo 
and Juliet, i. 4. 59 : 

* Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners* legs.* 

25-26. These lines in the early editions are printed as part of the fairies' song. 

28. true-love, possibly a corruption. In Icelandic trUrlofa is to betroth. 

30. ounce; Felis uncia, an animal resembling the leopard, but mudi 
smaller. 

lb. cat must here be the wild cat. 

31. Pard, panther or leopard. See notes on As You Like It, ii. 7. 15O' 
and The Tempest, iv. i. 257. 

36. troth, truth. Compare Coriolanus, iv. 5. 198 : * He was too hard for 
him directly, to say the troth on't.' And Cymbeline, v. 5. 274 : 
*Now fear is from me, I'll speak troth.' 
42. one troth, one faith or trust, pledged to each other in betrothaL 

Compare Cymbeline, i. I. 96: 

*I will remain 
The loyalist husband that did e'er plight troth.* 

49. interchained. So the quartos. The folios have * interchanged.' 

45. take the sense, sweet, of my innocence, understand my innocent meaning; 

46. takes the meaning, understands it aright, takes the true meaniiig> 

• Take' is opposed to ' mistake ' in v. I. 90. 

54. beshrew is used in asseverations to give emphasis, or as here for * 
mild oath, a * mischief on,' * evil befall.' See v. I. 279, and compare Sonnet 
cxxxiii. I : 

* Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan!' 

* Shrew 'is used in the same way in Winter's Tale, i. 2. 281 : 'Shrew my 
heart.' See note on * shrewd ' in As You Like It, v. 4. 165. In the early 
copies of Hamlet (ii. i. 113) it is spelt * beshrow,' which no doubt represents 
the pronunciation of the word. 

lb. my manners, here, my ill manners or want of manners. 
57. human. The quartos and early folios have 'humane,* but the 
meaning is the same. 
68, approve, prove, test, try. Compare "WlutetH Ta\e, vj. ^. ^\ •. * Kings 



.2.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT^ S DREAM. IO3 

are no less unhappy, their issue not being gracious, than they are in losing 
them, when they have approved their virtues.* And i Henry IV, iv. i. 9 : 
*Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord.* 
57-60. in human modesty . . . distant. The sense is clear though the 
S3'ntax is imperfect. Delius connects * as may well be said * with * in 
human modesty,' but the construction is rather * in human modesty (let there 
he) such separation &c.,' and ' So far be distant ' is merely a repetition of the 
same thing. 

71. Weeds. See ii. I. 256. 

75. dankf damp, wet. Compare Romeo and Juliet, ii. 3. 6 : 
* Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye. 
The day to cheer and night's dank dew to dry.* 

77. To mend the metre Theobald read *Near to this kill-courtesie.* 
Steevens omits only the second *this.* Malone, reading * Vear ' as a disyllable, 
makes a line of ten syllables. 

78. Churl, a peasant, boor (A. S. ceorl) ; and hence one of rough and 
rude manners. 

79. owe, own, possess. Compare The Tempest, i. 2. 407: 

' This is no mortal business, nor no sound 
That the earth owes.* 
86. darkling, in the dark. See King Lear, i. 4. 237 : * So, out went the 
candle and we were left darkling.* And Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 15. 10 : 

*0 sun, 
Bura the great sphere thou movest in! darkling stand 
The varying shore of the world.' 
Milton borrowed the word in Paradise Lost, iii. 39 : 

'As the wakeful bird 
Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid 
Tunes her nocturnal note.' 

88. fond, foolish, with perhaps something of the other meaning which the 
Word now has. Seeii. I. 266. 

89. my grace, the favour I obtain. 

97. as a monster, in apposition to * my presence.* 
- 99. sphery, starlike. * Sphere * is used by Shakespeare to denote first the 
orbit in which a star moves, and then the star itself. Compare A Lover's 
' Complaint, 23: 

*A8 they did battery to the spheres intend.* 
[ lb, eyne. See i. i. 242. 

104. Nature shows art. The quartos read * Nature shewes art '; the first 
folio 'Nature her shewes art' which was altered in the later folios to 
'Nature here shews art/ and by Malone to 'Nature shews her art.' 

109. what though? what then? what maUeis \t'i ^e^ wo\& wv K^^w^ 
Like It, iU. j. 41 (Clar, Press ed.). 



104 NOTES. [ACTn.sc.i. 

1 1 8. ri^ noit grow not ripe, ripen not. So in As Yon Like It, ii. 7. 26: 

*And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe.' 

119. touching now the point 0/ human skill, hzving reached the height of 
discernment possible to man. 

1 20. My will, or desire, is guided by reason. 

122. lovers richest book. Ck>mpare the description of the County Paris 
in Romeo and Juliet, i. 3. 86 : 

*And what obscured in this fair volume lies 
Find written in the margent of his eyes.' 

128. flout, mock. See iii. 2. 327, and Macbeth, i. 2. 49 ; 

* Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky 
And fan our people cold.' 
Compare Coriolanus ii. 3. 168 : 

« Third Cit, ^ Certainly 

He flouted us downright. 
First Cit. No, 'tis his kind of speech : he did not mock us.' 

1 29. troth. See above, 1. 36. 

lb. good sooth, in honest truth (A. S. s6b). Compare Mercbmt of 
Venice, ii. 6. 42 : 

*They in themselves, good sooth, are too too light.* 
The full phrase is * in good sooth,' as in As You Like It, iii. 2. 410: 'But, 
in good sooth, are you he that hangs the verses on the trees, wherein Rosa* 
lind is so admired?' 

1 50. prey, here used for the act of preying, as in Macbeth, iii. 2. 53 : 
• Good things of day begin to droop and drowse ; 
Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse.' 

153. an if —if, as in The Tempest, v. i. 117 : 

*This must crave. 
An if this be at all, a most strange story.' 
The quartos and folios read * and if as usual. 

154. of all loves I by everything that is loving I entreat you. See Merry 
Wives of Windsor, ii. 2. 119 : *But Mistress Page would desire you to iff^ 
her your little page, of all loves.' In Othello, iii. 1.13, where the folios 
read * for loues sake,' the quarto has 'of all loves* 

Id. swoon. Spelt 'swoune' in the earliest quarto; 'sound' in the first foliOi 
and * swound ' in the rest. 

156. Either, a monosyllable. See ii. i. 32. 



;t. m.sc. I.] A midsummer-night's DREAM. I05 



ACT III. 

Scene I. 

2. Pat, pat, just, exactly. Compare King Lear, i. 2. 146 : * And pat he 
•mes like the catastrophe of the old comedy.' 

Id. marvellous. The first quarto reads 'marvailes,' as in iv. 1. 23, probably 
' represent the vulgar pronunciation. In the same manner 'wonders* is 
und for * wondrous' in More's Utopia (ed. Arber), p. 136 : * And when they 
lue gotten it, they be wonders glad thereof.' Again, p. 141 : * Engines for 
arre they deuyse and inuent wonders wittelye.' 

4. hawthorn brake, thicket of hawthorns. See ii. I. 227, and compare 
ilton, Comus, 147: 

* Run to your shrouds within these brakes and trees.' 
lb. our tiring-house, or dressing room. 

7. bully, a term of familiarity addressed by his companions to a jolly 
ustering fellow. So the Host to Falstaff, in Merry Wives of Windsor, 
3. 6 : • Discard, bully Hercules; cashier.* Again, 1. 11 ; * Said I well, bully 
ector?* It occurs besides only in Henry V, and probably was a slang word 
hich had come into use not long before 1600. Florio (Ital. Diet.) gives, 
Sullo, a swaggerer, a swash-buckler.' 

12. By*r lakin, by our ladykin, or little lady. The same abbreviation is 
'und in The Tempest, iii. 3. I : 

*By'r lakin, I can go no further, sir.* . ^ 

occurs in a fuller form in Skelton*s Magnyfycence, I. 1830 (i. 285) : 
* By our lakyn, syr, I haue ben a hawkyng for the wylde swan.* 
1 the first quarto it is spelt 'Berlakin*: in the second and in the folios 
Berlaken.* 

lb. parlous, perilous, dangerous. See As You Like It, iii. 2. 45 : * Thou 
1 in a parlous state, shepherd.' 

13. when all is done, after all. So Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 3. 63 ; 
welfth Night, ii. 3. 31 : 'Excellent! why, this is the best fooling, when all 
' done.' And Macbeth, iii. 4. 67 : 

* When all 's done. 
You look but on a stool.' 

15. Not a whit. As has been remarked in the note to As You Like 
,iii. 2. 42 (Clar. Press ed.), this is a redundant expression, since *not* itself 
a contraction of nawiht or nawhit. 

16. seem to say. Compare LaunceIot*s language in The Merchant of 
eoice, ii. 4. 1 1 : * An it shall please you to break up this, it shall seem to 
jnify.' 

18. more better. This double compaiative was cotanxou vtv^wi«^«j^'*'^^^ 



Io6 NOTES, [Acrnt 

time, and is suitable to Bottom as being rather exaggerated language, and iMrt 
because it was thought ungrammatical. Compare the Tempest, i. 2. 1^ 

'Nor that I am more better 
Than Prospero.* 
22. in eighth and six^ that is, in alternate verses of eight and six syllaUcs 
each ; the common ballad metre. 

25. qfeard, afraid : though here used as a provincialism appropriate to 
rustics, the word was otherwise in good use. Compare The Merchant of 
Venice, ii. 7. 29 : 

*And yet to be afeard of my deserving 
Were but a weak disabling of myself.' 

26. / promise you, I assure you. See line 179* and The Merchant of 
Venice, iii. 5. 3 : * Therefore, I promise ye, I fear you.' 

27. you ought to consider with yourselves. In the folios there is only » 
comma instead of a colon here, and the construction in this case is* 70a 
ought to consider with yourselves (that) to bring in &c.* 

28. It appears from a pamphlet quoted by Malone in his note on this 
passage (reprinted in Somers* Tracts, ii. 179) that at the christening of 
Prince Henry, the eldest son of James I, in 1594, a triumphal chariot was 
brought in while the King and Queen were at dinner, drawn by *a black* 
moor.' • This chariot, which should have been drawne in by a lyon, (but 
because his presence might have brought some feare to the nearest, or that 
the sight of the lights and torches might have commoved his tameness) it 
was thought meete that the Moor should supply that room.' 

35. defect, for * effect.' Bottom's blunders are generally very intelligible. 

39. it were pity of my life, it were a sad thing for my life, that is, for me. 
See V. I. 221. It would seem that in this expression * of my life' is either 
all but superfluous or else a separate exclamation, as in The Merry Wives of 
Windsor, i. i. 40 : ' Ha ! o' my life, if I were young again, this sword shooM 
end it.' The phrase occurs again in Measure for Measure, ii. i. 77: 'It >s 
pity of her life, for it is a naughty house.' And in the same play, ii. 3. ^» ' 
compare * 'Tis pity of him/ = it is a sad thing for him. 

41. Malone quotes from a collection of stories [made by Sir Nichobs 
L'Estrange, according to a note of Sir F. Madden's] entitled Merry Passages 
and Jeasts (MS. Harl. 6395, fol, 366) ; • There was a spectacle presented to 
Qj Elizabeth vpon the water, and amongst others, Harr. Golding : was to 
represent Arion vpon the Dolphin's backe, but finding his voice to be very 
hoarse and vnpleasant when he came to performe it, he teares of his Disguise, 
and swears he was none of Arion not he, but eene honest Har. Goldingham ; 
which blunt discoverie pleasd the Queene better, then if it had gone thorough 
in the right way ; yet he could order his voice to an instrument exceeding 
well.' The reader of Kenilworth will remember that Scott has transfened 
tA/s story to * honest Mike Lambourne* 



r 



:. I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. IO7 

53. lanthom. This spelling is purposely left on account of the joke in 
. I. 231 : * This lanthom doth the homed moon present.* 

60. present, act the part of. See iii. 2. 14, and The Tempest, iv. i. 167 : 
When I presented Ceres.' 

65. every mother^ s son. See i. 2. 80. 

67. brake. See 1. 4. 

lb. cue, a player's word ; from Fr. quette, -a. tail. It technically denotes 

le last words of a speech which give the next speaker the hint when to hegin. 

!ence it signifies generally the part an actor has to perform. See Othello, 

2. 83: 

*Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it, 

Without a prompter.* 
70. a play toward, or ready to be acted. Compare As You Like It, 
. 4. 35 : * There is, sure, another flood toward, and these couples are 
>ming to the ark.* 

73. odioiis. The same blunder reversed is put into Dogberry's mouth f^ ^ 
Much Ado about Nothing, iii. 5. 18^ ' Comparisons are odorous.* 
76. awhile. Theobald reads * a whit ' to rhyme with * sweet.' Malone ; . 
ipposes two lines to be lost, one rhyming with * sweet,' the other with 
I while.* ^ iJ'Y 

84. Juvenal. See Love*s Labour *s Lost, i. 2. 8 : * How canst thou part ^ 
dness and melancholy, my tender ju venal?* The word was affectedly used V> 
id appears to have been designedly ridiculed by Shakespeare. .V 

92. Malone proposed to print the line thus : ^ 

*If I were, fair Thisby, I were only thine.' *j^ 

97. To make up the line Johnson proposed to read * Through bog, Tvy 
irough mire &c. ' ; Ritson, * Through bog, through bum &c.* 

98. Sometime, sometimes. See King Lear, ii. 3. 19 : "^ 

' Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers.' 
100. The folios here insert the stage direction, * Enter Piramus with the 
^se head,* which the quartos omit. 

105. Johnson proposed to add to Snout*s speech, 'An ass's head?* in 
rder to give point to what Bottom says. 

106. you see an ass-head of your own. Bottom indulges in what appears 
) have been a piece of familiar banter of the time, without knowing how 
luch it affected himself. Compare Mrs. Quickly 's speech in The Merry 
i^ives of Windsor, i. 4. 1 34 : * You shall have an fool's head of your 
wn.* 

107* translated, transformed. See i. i. 191. 

114. The ousel cock, the male blackbird. In the quartos and folios it is 
«It *woosell,* or *woosel,' and is probably the same as Fr. oiseau, of 
hich the old form was oisel. Cotgrave (^Ft. D\c\.^ %vj«&-. "'^^'^^*- 'W!!.. K 
[carle, Owsell, Bkckbird. Merle nolt. TVit ^UcVMvx^, q.\ w^vw-^v^ 



lo8 NOTES. [act IB. 

Owsell.' Florio (Ital. Diet.) has, * Merlo, an Owsell, a Blackmacke,a 
Merle, or Blacke-bird.' In a note written by Douce he says, on the authori^ 
of Lewin's £nglish Birds, that the ousel differs from the blackbird by having 
a white crescent on the breast. This is true of what is now called the rflg 
ousel. Willoughby (Ornithology, B. ii. ch. 1 6) says, *Of Blackbirds or 
Ouzels England breeds and feeds three kinds, i. The Common Blackbiid; 
a. The Ring-Ouzels ; 3. The Water-Ouzel.' In Breton's Arbor of Am«- 
ous Devises [1587] occur the two following lines which SteeTcns quotes 
from Capell's copy in Trinity College Library : 

* The chattering Pie, the lay, and eke the Quaile, 
The Thrustle-Cock that was so blacke of hewe.' 

115. orange-tawny. See i. 2. 85. This is descriptive of the colour of 
the bill of the male bird only, which is of a deep orange yellow. Com{>aie 
Drayton, Polyolbion, xiii. 58 : 

* The Woosell neere at hand, that hath a golden bill* 

116. The throstle^ or song-thrush. Compare The Merchant of Venice, I i 
2. 65 : * If a throstle sing, he falls straight a capering.* Steevens quotes a 
passage from Thomas Newton's Herball to the Bible (p. aoo) to show that 
the throstle and thrush are different birds : * There is also another sort of 
myrte or myrtle which is wilde, whose berries the mauisses, throssels, owsels, 
and thrushes, delite much to eate.* But it proves no more than that 

* throssel,' * mavis,' and * thrush,' were names indiscriminately used for the 
same bird ; for a mavis or mavish to this day is a thrush in Suffolk, and 
Cotgrave (Fr. Diet.) has, * Man vis : f. A Mauis ; a Throstle, or thrush.' 
In Wiiloughby's Ornithology (B. ii. ch. 17, § a) is a section on 'The 
Mavis, Throstle, or Song-Thrush.* Compare Drayton's Shepherd's Gar- 
land, Eclogue iii. 67 : 

' The wosell and the throstle cock, chief musick of our May.' 
1 20. plain-song cuckoo, so called from his monotonous note. The plaio- 
song was the simple melody on which variations were made. Warton quotes 
from Skelton [Works, ed. Dyce, i. 64] : 

' But with a large and a longe 
To kepe iust playne songe 
Our chanters shalbe the cuckoue, 
The culuer, the stockedowue.* 
123. would set his wit to so foolish a bird, would match his wit against a 
cuckoo's. So Troilus and Cressida, ii. i. 94: * Will you set your wit to a 
fool's ? ' 

127-129. In the folios and second quarto, line 129 precedes line 126. 
128. thy fair virtue's force, the power of thy beauty. 
134. gleek, jest, scoff. See Henry V, v. i. 78 : * I have seen you gleekiuj 
and galling at this gentleman twice or thrice.' The substantive occurs ii 
I Henry VI, iii. 2. 12^1 



I.] A midsummer-night's dream. log 

'Now where's the Bastard's braves, and Charles his gleeks?' 
unton remarks upon this : ' The all-accomplished Bottom is boasting of 
versatility. He has shown, by his last profound observation on the 
mion of love and reason, that he possesses a pretty turn for the didactic 
1 sententious; but he wishes Titania to understand that, upon fitting 
asion, he can be as waggish as he has just been grave/ But a * gleek' 
rather a satirical than a waggish joke, aud in this vein Bottom flatters 
iself he has just been rather successfully indulging. In Jamieson's Scottish 
:tionary * Glaik * is defined as a glance of the eye, or a reflected gleam or 
nee in general. Hence ' to fling the glaiks in one's e'en * is to dazzle the 
!S, throw dust in one's eyes, and so to cheat. Similarly * to play the 
iks with one ' is to cheat ; and ' to get the glaiks ' is to be cheated, 
th the derived sense of ' glaik ' compare * glance ' in this play, ii. 

7S' 

[40. stilly ever, constantly. See iii. 2. 345, and The Merchant of Venice, 

• 136: 

* And if it stand, as you yourself still do. 

Within the eye of honour.' 
If, tend upon, wait upon. So King Lear, ii. i. 97 : 

' Was he not companion with the riotous knights 
That tend upon my father ? ' 
144. jewels from the deep. Steevens quotes from Richard HI [i. 4. 31] : 

•Reflecting gems 
Which woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep.' 
which may be added what occurs a few lines before : 
' Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels. 
All scattered in the bottom of the sea.' 
[48. Moth. Mr. R. G. White regards this as equivalent to * Mote ' and 
Its it accordingly. No doubt * mote' is commonly though not unifoipily 
It * moth ' in the early editions of Shakespeare. For instance in Love's 
x>ur 's Lost, iv. 3. 161 the first folio has : 

* You found his Moth, the King your Moth did see : 
But I a Beame doe finde in each of three.' 

also the present play, v. i. 306. 

[52. apricockSf the earlier and more correct spelling of * apricots.' See 
e on Richard II, iii. 4. 29 : 

*Go, bind thou up yon dangling apricocks.* 
e word has a curious history. In Latin the fruit was called praecoqua 
artial, Epig. xiii. 46), or praecocia (Pliny, H. N. xv. li) from being 
ly ripe ; Dioscorides (i. 165) called it in Greek trpaiKSKia. Hence in 
ibic it became harquq or birquq, and with the article al-barquq ox al- 
juq, Spanish albarcoque, Italian alhricoceo (Torriaao^ FTWic.^ abrxc^il, -mA. 
jlish abrieo/, abricoct (Holland's Pliny, xv. 1\\ o^cock» w a^nrxcot. 



no NOTES, [act in. 

lb. dewberries^ the fruit of the dewberry bush or blue bramble, of which 
the botanical name is Rubus caesius. None of these fruits of course are ripe 
when the action of the play is supposed to take place, and the same remark 
applies to them as to the flowers in ii. a. 250. 

156. the fiery gloiw-wornCs eyes, Johnson thought that Shakespeare's 
observation was at fault, whereas he only uses the license of a poet. Com* 
pare Herrick's Night-piece, to Julia (Hesperides, ii. 7» ed. 1846) : 

* Her Eyes the Glow-worme lend thee.* 

157. To have my love to bed and to arise, to conduct him to his bed and 
to attend him when he rises. Compare Comedy of Errors, ii. 2. 10: 

* Your mistress sent to have me home to dinner ? ' 
And Taming of the Shrew, Ind. 2. 39 : 

*0r wilt thou sleep? we'll have thee to a couch.* 
See also 2 Kings xi. 15 : * Have her forth without the ranges.' 

161-164. The distribution of these speeches among the four fairies was 
made by Capell. The quartos and folios make but three speakers, giTing 

* Haile, mortall, haile* to the first. 

165, &c. With this conversation of Bottom with the fairies Malone 
compares Lyly^s Maydes Metamorphosis, in which there is a dialogue 
between some foresters and a troop of fairies : 

* Mopso. I pray, Sir, what might I call you ? 

1 Fai. My name is Penny. 

Mop. I am sorry I cannot purse you. 

Frisco. I pray you, Sir, what might I call you ? 

2 Fai. My name is Cricket. 

Fris. I would I were a chimney for your sake.* 

168. / shall desire you of more acquaintance. The same construction is 
found in The Merchant of Venice, iv. i. 402 : 

* I humbly do desire your grace of pardon.' 

And in As You Like It, v. 4. 56 : * I desire you of the like.* Again in 
Chapman's An Humerous Dayes Mirth (Works, i. 55} : * I do desire yon of 
more acquaintance.' 

169. if I cut my finger, a cobweb being sometimes used to stanch blood. 
172. Squash, an unripe peascod. Compare Twelfth Night, i. 5. i66j 

* Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for a boy ; as a sqnai 
is before 'tis a peascod.' 

177' your patience, your endurance, what you have endured. Therci* 
no necessity to alter this, with Hanmer, to * your parentage,' or with Fanntf 
to * your passions'; and Mason^s *I know you passing well* is feeWe.' 
Reed supposes the words to be spoken ironically, because mustard wai 
thought to excite to anger. But what follows shows that they are used &» 
their natural sense. The house of Mustard had endured much oppression 
from the giant Ox-beef. 



2.] A midsummer-night's dream. Ill 

[ 79. I promise you. See 1. 26. 

[80, 181. your more acquaintance. So the third and fourth folios. 

e other early copies read * you more/ and Porson conjectured * you of 

re ' as above, which was adopted by Dyce in his second edition. 

186. love's. Pope's correction. The quartos and folios read * lovers/ 

ieh Malone contended was the true reading and to be pronounced as a 

nosyllable, as in Twelfth Night, ii. 4. 66 : 

*Sad true lover never find my grave.* 
evens however mauitained that here also * true lover ' was a mistake for 
ue love.' 

Scene II. 

3. in extremity^ in the highest degree, to the utmost, excessively. 
5. night-rule^ night-order, revelry, or diversion. *Rule* is used in the 
ise of conduct in Twelfth Night, ii. 3. 132: • Mistress Mary, if you 
zed my lady's favour at anything more than contempt, you would not 
re means for this uncivil rule.* 

7. close, secret, private, retired'. So 2 Henry VI, ii. 2. 3 : 

*Give me leave 
In this close walk to satisfy myself.* 
9. patches, fools, foolish fellows; used as a familiarly contemptuous term, 
in The Merchant of Venice, ii. 5. 46, Shylock says of Launcelot : 

' The patch is kind enough, but a huge feeder.' 
is probably derived from the Italian pazzo. See note on The Tempest, 
. 2. 63 (Clar. Press ed.). Patch was the name of Cardinal Wolsey's 
ol, whom he sent as a present to the king. 
lb. mechanicals, mechanics, artisans. Compare 2 Henry VI, i. 3. 196 : 

' Base dunghill villain and mechanical.* 
13. thick-skin. So in Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 5. 2 : 'What wouldst 
ou have, boor ? what, thickskin ? * 

lb. barren, witless, stupid. Compare Twelfth Night, i. 5. 90 : * I marvel 
)Tir ladyship takes delight in such a barren rascal : I saw him put down 
le other day with an ordinary fool that has no more brain than a stone.* 
nd Hamlet, iii. 2. 46 : * For there be of them that will themselves laugh, 
> set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too.' 
26« sort, company, crew. See Richard II, iv. i. 246 : 

* And yet salt water blinds them not so much. 
But they can see a sort of traitors here.* 
^nd 2 Henry VI, iii. 2. 277 : 

'The lord ambassador 
Sent from a sort of tinkers to the king.* 
14, Who Pyramus presented, played the part of Pyia.m\j&. ^t^ \\\. 'v. ^. 



1 1 i NOTES. [acti 

15. tnttr'J in. In Shake$peare*s time 'enter' was followed either bf 

* in* lur * intv>.' See iii. i. 77, and Hamlet, iii. 4, 95 : 

* These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears.' 
Kichaul ll» ii. 3. itK>: 

• I'lUew you please to enter in the castle.' 
17. moift a grotesque word for head, Uke pate, noddle. The A.i 

A/i(>//. knoll, the top ot' any:h:Dg. is the same word. In the Widifit 
versi\»ns of iie«esi> \U\. S, where the earlier has * thin hondis in the skote 
ot thin cnenues,' the Uter has * thin hondis schulen be in the nollis of diii 
encnwcs * ; the I. Jtin being cfrx-ictbus. Probably * nole,* like * noddle,' w« 
the back part ot' the head and so included the neck. Cotgrave btf 

* (Xvipital . . . belonging to the noddle ; or hinder part of the head.' The 
l\>llo\ving re\*eipt is given in an English translation of Alberttis Magnus^ 
Se^'retis Naturae, printed at Linklon bv William Copland : * If thou wiltdut 
a mans head seeu\e an Asse head. Take vp of the couering of an Asse,ft 
annoint the nun on his head.* Much more elaborate directions are giveoA 
SctU*$ l")isix>very of Witohcratt, x*ii. 19 (ed. 1584), quoted by Douce : *Crtt 
otf the head of a honsse or an asse ^before they be dead) otherwise the vertie 
or strength there\^f will be the lesse effectuall, and make an earthen YtaA 
oi tit capacitie to cv^nteine the same, and let it be filled with the oile and fat 
therof : couer it cU^se, and dawbe it over with lome : let it boile over a $c 
tier three daies continuallie. that the flesh boiled may run into oile, so as the 
bare brnies may be seene : beate the haire into powder, and mingle the same 
with the oile : and annoint the heades of the standers by, and they shal 
seeme to hauc horsses or asses heads.' A trick of this kind is attributed to 
that notable conjurer Dr. Faustus. whose history (c. 43) is referred to 1^ 
Steevens and is printed in Thorns* Early English Prose Romances. 

19. tmniic^ actor, player. The first quarto has * Minnick,' the second 

* Minnock,' which Johnsi'tn thought the right reading. But both ait 
corruptions, the latter oi the former, and the former of * mimick.' Maleoc 
quotes from Decker^s Gub Hornebooke ^1609) : *Draw what troop ycNicai 
from the stage after you ; the mimicks are beholden to you for aUoviflf 
them elbow room.' See also Herrick, The Wake (ii. 63) : 

* Morris-dancers thou shalt see, 
Marian too in Pagentrie : 
And a Mimick to devise 
Many grinning properties.' 1 

20. eycy see ; as below, I. 40, and Coriolanus, ii. I. 2261 ' Clambering the 
walls to eye him.* 

lb. in sort^ in company. See 1. 18. 

21. russet-patted. 1 have not hesitated to adopt Mr. Bennett's snggestioQ 
(Zoological Journal, v. 496), communicated to me by Professor NewtoOi 
to substitute ' russet -patted,' or red-legged (Fr. a paites roussfs), for the old 



.2.] A midsummeR'Night's dream, 113 

adiog • russet-pated,' which is untrae as a description of the chough, for it 
s a russet coloured bill and feet but a perfectly black head. 

25. a/ our stamps at hearing the footsteps of the fairies, which were 
'werful enough to * rock the ground * : see iv. i. 85. Theobald proposed 

read * at our stump,' and Johnson actually substituted * at a stump,* 
loting from Drayton's Nymphidia [ed. 1631, p. 184] : 

*A stump doth trip him in his pace, 
Downe comes poore Hob vpon his face. 
And lamentably tore his case, *> 

Amongst the Bryers and brambles.* 

26. He, used indefinitely for ' one,* as in Sonnet xxix. 6 : 

•Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, 
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed.* 
id The Merchant of Venice, iv. i. 54, 55 : 

* Why he cannot abide a gaping pig, 
Why he, a harmless necessary cat.* 
32. translated. See iii. I. 107. 

36. latcVd. In the other passages where ' latch ' is used by Shakespeare 
has the sense of * catch,* from A. S. laccan, or gelceccan. See Macbetii, 
3. 196 : 

* But I have words 
That would be howrd out in the desert air, 
Where hearing should not fatch them.* 
nd Sonnet cxiii. 6, of the eye : 

* For it no form delivers to the heart 
Of bird, of flower, or shape, which it doth latch.' 
ompare also Holland's Pliny, viii, 24, of the Ichneumon ; * In fight he sets 
> his taile, & whips about, turning his taile to the enemie, & therin 
tcheth and receiveth all the strokes of the Aspis, and taketh no harme 
>ereby.* In .the present passage * latch'd ' must signify caught and held fast 
iby a charm or spell, like the disciples going to Emmaus (Luke xxiv. 16) : 
their eyes were holden, that they should not know him.* Hanmer inter- 
rets it as * lickM over,* that is, smeared, anointed, from Fr. lecher^ but there 
Ppears to be no evidence for this meaning. On the other hand a * latch- 
^n ' in SufiFblk and Norfolk is a dripping-pan, which catches the dripping 
'om the meat; and Bailey gives 'latching' in the sense of catching, 
tfectioDs ; as it is still used in the North of England. With this compare 
taking* in King Lear, ii. 4. 166 : 

'Strike her young bones, 
You taking airs, with lameness!' 
40. of force, of necessity. Compare Julius Caesar, iv. 3. 203 : 
'Good reasons must, of force, give place to better.' 

I 



114 NOTES. [act ID. 

41. close, so as ta be unobserved. See above, 1. 7* ^nd Much Ado aboot 
Nothing, iii. 3. 1 10 : * Stand thee close then under this penthouse.* 

48. Being 6er shoes in blood. Steevens compares Macbeth, iii. 4. 156-138: 

*I am in blood 
SteppM in so far that, should I wade no more. 
Returning were as tedious as go o*er.* 
Coleridge conjectured * plunge in knee deep,' which Phelps adopted. The 
phrase * over shoes * in the sense of moderately deep occurs in The Two 
Gentlemen of Verona, i. i. 24 : 

* Pro, That *s a deep story of a deeper love ; 

For he was more than over shoes in love. 
Vol. *Tis true ; for you are over boots in love. 
And yet you never swum the Hellespont.' 
50. so true unto the day. Compare Troilus and Cressida, iii. 2. 185 : 

* As true as steel, as plantage to the moon. 
As sun to day, as turtle to her mate.' 

53. whole, solid. Compare Macbeth, iii. 4. 22 : 

*I had else been perfect, 
Whole as the marble, founded as the rock.' 

57. so dead, so death-like. See 2 Henry IV, i. i. 71 : 

' Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless. 
So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone. 
Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night' 

58. murdered. The quartos have * murthered ' and * murdered,' the 
folios * murderer.* 

61. sphere, orbit. See ii. 1. 7. The epithet 'glimmering,' or feintly 
shining, seems in contradiction to * bright ' and * clear * of the previoo* 
line. 

62. What *s this to my Lytander f what has this to do with him? 

68. once, for once. So in The Tempest, iii. 2. 24 : * Moon-calf, s^ 
once in thy life, if thou beest a good moon- calf.' 

lb. tell true, speak truth. So in All's Well that Ends Well, i. 3. 225: 

* Count. Wherefore ? tell true. 
Hel 1 will teU truth.* 
And Love's Labour's Lost, iv. i. 18 : 

* Here, good my glass, take this for telling true.' 
So also * say true * in Twelfth Night, ii. 5. 213 ; * speak true,* The Temp«*^ 
iii. I. 70* 

70. brave touch, fine stroke, heroic exploit. 

71. a worm, a serpent. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, v. 2. 243 • 

* Hast thou the pretty worm of Nilus there, 
That kills and pains not?* 

72. doubler tongue. See ii. 2. 9. 



A MIDSUMMER'NIGHT^S DREAM. 11$ 

1 misprised mood, a mistaken humour or caprice ; a temper of mind 
from a mistake. *You spend your passion on/ that is, in giving 
this mistaken mood. So below, 1. 90, * misprision * is ' mistake.' 
An if. See ii. 2. 153. 

here/ore, for that, thereby. So Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3. 20 : 
have you thanks therefore.* 

Jl. part I so : See me &c. This is Pope's correction of the reading 
]uartos and folios, which is ' part I, see me no more Whether &c.' 
lither rhyme nor metre. 
whether, a monosyllable, as in i. i. 69. 

ileepf misprinted * slippe * in the first quarto, and * slip ' in the second 
the folios. Rowe corrected it. 

tender, offer ; keeping up the figure of debt and pa3rment in the 
s lines. Compare The Tempest, ii. 1 . 194 : 

* Do not omit the heavy offer of it : 
It seldom visits sorrow.' 
misprision, mistake. See above, 1. 74, and Much Ado about Nothing, 

87: 

* There is some strange misprision in the princes.' 

troth. See ii. 2. 42. ' One man holding troth,' while one man 
faith. 

confounding oath on oath, breaking one oath after another. For 
und ' in the sense of * ruin, destroy,' see Lucrece, 1 202 : 
' My shame be his that did my fame confound.' 
fancy-sick, love-sick. See i. I. 155. 

cheer, countenance ; Fr. chere, Ital. ciera, or cera. Compare The 
ant of Venice, iii. 2. 314 : 

• Bid your friends welcome, shew a merry cheer.' 
Henry VI, i. 2. 48 : 

* Methinks your looks are sad, your cheer appall'd ' ; 

, your countenance turned pale. 

sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear. * Costs' is here attracted 
le singular by the word * love * which comes between it and its subject. 
)tes on Hamlet, i. 2. 38, King Lear, iii. 6. 4, where the verb is plural 
1 of singular. The following from The Comedy of Errors, v. I. 7O1 
:tly parallel to the present passage : 

* The venom clamours of a jealous woman 
Poisons more deadly than a mad dog's tooth.' 

^e belief that sighs exhausted the blood, see Hamlet, iv. 7. 123 : 

* Like a spendthrift sigh, 
That hurts by easing.' 

I 2 



Il6 NOTES, [act HI. 

And 2 Henry VI, iii. 2. 6i : 

* Might liquid tears or heart-ofTending groans 
Or blood-consuming sighs recall his life, 

I would be blind with weeping, sick with groans, 
Look pale as primrose with blood-drinking sighs.' 
loi. the Tartar's bow. Compare Romeo and Juliet, i. 4. 5 : 
•Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath.' 
Also Bacon's Advancement of Learning, Bk. IL xiv. 11 : *Yet certain it 
is that words, as a Tartar's bow, do shoot back upon the understanding of 
the wisest.* The Tartars were famous for their ddll in archery, like the 
ancient Parthians. Douce quotes from Golding's translation of Ovid's 

Met. X. [fol. 138 6] : 

*And though that she 

Did fly as swift as Arrow* from a Turkye bowe.' 
103. Cupi(fs archery. See ii, 1. 165. 

112. mistook. For this form of the participle see Hamlet, v. 2. 395. 
11^. fond. See ii. 2. 88. * Their fond pageant,' the foolish spectade 
tkey present. 

119. sport alone^ to which nothing can be compared. See Twelfth M^t, 

i. I. 15: 

* So fiill of shapes is fancy 
That it alone is high fantastical.' 
And Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 6. 30 : 

* I am alone the villain of the earth.' 
124. vows so born, vows being so bom. 

127. badge 0/ faith, in allusion to the badges of metal worn by servants 
and marked with a device to indicate the family to which they belonged. 
Compare Lucrece, 1054 : 

* To clear this spot by death, at least I give 
A badge of fame to slander's livery.' 

And 3 Henry VI, v. i. 201 : 

* And that I'll write upon thy burgonet. 

Might I but know thee by thy household badge.' 
129. When truth kills truth. If Lysander's present protestations are tnc 
they destroy the truth of his former vows to Hermia, and the conteit 
between these two truths, which in themselves are holy, must in the issoe 
be devilish and end in the destruction of both. 

I33» Will even weigh, will counterbalance each other. 
134, as light as tales, or idle words. There is the same contrast between 
truths and tales in Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 2. 136 : 

* Truths would be tales, 
Where now half tales be truths.* 
138. eyne. See i. I. 242. 



] A midsummer-night's dream. 117 

[ . Taurus, a lofty range of mountains in Asia Minor. 

2. FantCd with the eastern wind. Compare Winter's Tale, iv, 4. 375 : 

' I take thy hand, this hand, 
As soft as dove's down and as white as it. 
Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the fann'd snow that's bolted 
By the northern blasts twice o'er.' 
y This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss. Steeyens compares 
ly and Cleopatra, iii. 13. 125 : 

' My playfellow, your hand ; this kingly seal 
And plighter of high hearts.' 
)taunton justifies his adoption of * impress ' for * princess,* Mr. Collier's 
oture, by a reference to Beaumont and Fletcher, Double Marriage, 

' May I not take this hand, and on it sacrifice 
The sorrows of my heart ? white seal of virtue I * 
quotation illustrates the present passage, but the change is unnecessary. 
5. To set against me, attack me. 
J, civil, polite, well-mannered. See ii. 1. 152. 

courte^f good manners. 
S. injury, not merely wrong, but insult. See ii. 1. 147. 

3. join in souls, combine heart and soul, join heartily. For this ex- 
on, the meaning of which is so clear, it has been proposed to read 'join 
ats,' * join insolents,' * join in soul,' * join, ill souls,* * join in sport,' * join 



s.' 



3. superpraise, overpraise, praise to excess. 

7. a trim exploit, a pretty achievement! *Trim' is used many times 

lakespeare ironically. Compare i Henry IV, v. i. 137: *What is 

ar? A word. What is in that word honour? what -is that honour? 

A trim reckoning ! ' 

9. sort, quality, kind. Compare 2 Henry IV, v. 2. 18 : 

* How many nobles then should hold their places. 
That must strike sail to spirits of vile sort ! ' 
rave has * Gens de mise. Persons of worth, sort, qualitie.' 
0, 161. extort A poor souts patience, wrest it from her, make her impa- 
Compare Much Ado about Nothing, v. 1. 102 ; * We will not wake 
patience.' 

9. / will none, will none of her, desire her not. Compare Romeo and 
:, iii. 5. 140: 

* Ay, sir ; but she will none, she gives you thanks.' 
fall phrase occurs in 2 Henry IV, iii. 2. 271 : * And for your part, Bull- 
grow till you come unto it : I will none of you.' 

I. to her, in regard to her my heart was but as a sojourner. Johnson 
• with her.* Delius suggests that * to her as guest-wise ' is equivalent 



Il8 NOTES. [ac 

to * as a guest to her/ There are other instances of ' to ' in Shakespes 
a sense not far different from that in the present passage. Ck>mpare Me 
for Measure, i. 2. 186 : 

* Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends 
To the strict deputy.* 

Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. i. 57 : 

* To Milan let me hear from thee by letters.* 
Comedy of Errors, iv. i. 49: 

*Yoa use this dalliance to excuse 
Your breach of promise to the Porpentine.' 
In all these cases the sense is quite clear, but there is a confiisioo ii 
construction. In the Devonshire dialect *to* is frequently used fc^ 
and it is a common Americanism. 

175. ahy it, pay for it, atone for it. See below, 1. 335, and Spi 
Fairy Queen, iv. i. 53 : 

* Yet thou, false squire, his fault shalt deare aby.' 

The folios read * abide ' in both passages, as does the second quarto 
There is another word * aby,* in an entirely different sense, which is et 
logically the same as 'abide*; but our word is from A.S. abicgan,\ 
deem. And * abide,* which is synonjrmous with the former, is 
confounded with the latter. 

188. oes, circles, orbs. Compare Antony and Clec^tra, v. 2. 81 : 
little O, the earth.' Steevens quotes John Davies of Hereford's Microco 
1605, p. 233: 

* Which silver oes and spangles over-ran.* 

Circular discs of metal which were used for ornaments were called 
See Bacon, Essay xxxvii. p. 157 (ed. Wright): 'And Oes, and Span 
they are of no great Cost, so they are of most Glory.* 

195. Injurious, insulting. See ii. i. 147. 

196. contrived, plotted. Compare As You Like It, iv. 3. 135 : 

*Was*t you that did so oft contrive to kill him?* 

200. chid. So in 1. 312. Shakespeare also uses 'chidden* as the 
ciple of 'chide.' So Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. i. la : ' And yet 
last chidden for being too slow.* 

201. O, is all forgot f The verse is defective, as is frequently tl: 
when there is a pause in the middle. To mend it the second and latei 
read 'O, and is all forgot?' Malone, 'O, is all now forgot?' Ree 
now is all forgot ?* Mr. Spedding proposes the slightest change, ' O, i 
forgot ? * But the broken line is suitable to the hurried ejaculations of H 

202. childhood innocence. Compare The Merchant of Venice, i. i 
• I urge this childhood proof.' 

203. two artificial gods, two gods exercising their creative skill in s 
this case the art of embroidery. 



;c.2.] A MIDSUMMER'NIGHT'S DREAM. II9 

204. needles^ a monosyllable ; for which Steevens substituted the old form 
neelds.* But see Lucrece, 319 : 

*And griping it, the needle his finger pricks/ 
\nd King John, v. a. 157 : 

'Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change. 
Their needles to lances, and their gentle hearts 
To fierce and bloody inclination/ 
206. warbling ofom song. See i. i. 231, Abbott, Shakespeare Grammar, 
§ 178, and note on King Lear, ii. i. 39 (Clar. Press ed.). 
208, incorporate. See v, i. 399. 

213. Two of the first f like coats in heraldry. The quartos and folios read 
' life ' for * like,* which Theobald substituted at the suggestion of Folkes. 
Shakespeare borrows the language of heraldry, in which, when a tincture has 
been once mentioned in the description of a coat of arms, it is always after- 
wards referred to according to the order in which it occurs in the descrip- 
tion ; and a charge is accordingly said to be * of the first,* ' of the second,* 
&c., if its tincture be the same as that of the field which is always mentioned 
first, or as that of the second or any other that has been specified. Hence 
Douce's explanation is the correct one : * Helen says, " we had two seeming 
bodies but only one heart." She then exemplifies her position by a simile — 
'* we had two of the first, i. e. bodies, like the double coats in heraldry that 
belong to man and wife as one person, but which, like our single heart, have 
but one crest." * 

215. rent, the old form of * rend.' Compare A Lover's Complaint, 55 : 
* This said, in top of rage the lines she rents/ 
It occurs also in several passages of the Authorised Version of the Bible, but 
has been modernised in later editions, and is only left in Jer. iv. 30. 
230. passionate. So the folios. The quartos omit. 
225. even but now, a redundant phrase, as in Hamlet, i. i. 81. 
237. Ay, do, persever. The first quarto reads * I doe. Persever ; * which 
Hunter maintains is the true reading, making Helena refer to what Hermia 
W said, •! understand not,' &c. To which Helena replies, *I do. Persever,' 
&c The reading of the second quarto and of the folios is * I, do, persever,* 
*hich Is the same as that adopted in the text, * I ' being the common form 
of • Ay * in the printing of Shakespeare's time. 

lb. persever, with the accent on the second syllable, as uniformly in 
Shakespeare. Compare King John, ii. i. 421 : 

• Persever not, but hear me, mighty kings/ 
Jh, sad. See ii. i. 51, iv. i. 94. 
23^* Make mouths upon me, make faces at me in scorn. See Hamlet, iv. 

4-50: 

•Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd 

Makes mouths at the invisible event.' 



I20 NOTES, [ACTin. 

239. hold the sweet jest up^ keep it going, carry it on. Compare Meny 
Wives of Windsor, v. 5. 109: 

* I pray you, come, hold up the jest no higher/ 
And Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 3.126; *He hath ta*en the infection: 
hold it up ;' that is, keep up the sport. 

240. well carried, well managed. Compare Much Ado about Nothing, 
iv. I. 212: 

* Marry, this well carried shall on her behalf 
Change slander to remorse.* 

242. svch an argument, a subject for such merriment. For 'argument' 
in this sense see Much Ado about Nothing, i. I. 258: *Well, if ever thoo 
dost fall from this faith, thou wilt prove a notable argument.* 

250. prayers. The reading of Theobald. The quartos and folios have 
'praise.' Capell, at Theobald's suggestion, read 'prays,* a noun formed 
from the verb in accordance with Shakespeare's usage. So 'entreats' for 
* entreaties,' ' exclaims ' for ' exclamations.' 

252. by that, by my life. 

257. Ethiope. Hcrmia, like Rosaline in Love's Labour *s Lost, was a btHn- 
ette, as we learn from the banter that goes on with Biron, iv. 3. 266-26S: 
' Dum. To look like her are chimney-sweepers black. 
Long. And since her time are colliers counted bright. 
King. And Ethiopes of their sweet complexion crack.* 

257, 8. No, no; he*ll . . . Seem, &c. This is substantially the reading 
of the quartos ; the first has 

* No, no ; heele 
Seeme to breake loose,* &c. 

The second, 

* No, no, hee '1 seeme to breake loose,* 

as one line. The folios, also as one line, read, 

* No, no, sir, seem to break loose.* 
Other readings which have been proposed are Pope*s, 

'No, no, he*ll seem 
To break away*; 
Capeirs, 

* No, no, he *11 not come.— - 
Seem to break loose;' 

Malone*s, combining the quartos and folios, 

* No, no ; he *11 — sir, 
Seem to break loose*; 

which was slightly modified by Steevens, 

* No, no ; sir : he will 
Seem to break loose.' 

Unless a line has fallen out , the reading in the text gives as good a sen-* 



A midsummer-night's dream. 121 

>emetrius first addresses Hermia, and then breaks off abruptly to 
j^sander with not showing much eagerness to meet him. Delius 
the folios, 'No, no, Sir: — Seem,' &c., and regards the whole as 
d to Lysander, the first words being a remonstrance with him for 
ting language to Hennia. 

you are a tame man, a spiritless, cowardly fellow. Compare Merry 
f Windsor, iii. 5. 153 : * Though what I am I cannot ayoid, yet to 
I would not shall not make me tame.' 

3, be off with you : an exclamation of impatience. See Henry V, v. 
' Go, go ; you are a counterfeit cowardly knave.* And Romeo and 
5. 88 : * You are a princox, go.' 

tbou cat, used as a term of contempt, as in Coriolanus, iv. 2. 34: 

* *Twas you incensed the rabble : 

Cats, that can judge as fitly of his worth 

As I can of those mysteries which heaven 

Will not have earth to know.* 
what news f what has happened ? what is the matter ? Compare i. 
What's the news with thee?' And Hamlet, i. 2. 42 : 

* And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?* 
lite unnecessarily reads *what means my love?' 

?rewhile, a short time since, just nowi So in As You Like It, ii. 
That young swain that you saw here but erewhile,' 
\n Alexandrine. Pope reads * doubt * for * of doubt.' 
mggler, a trisyllable. 

nkerblossom is generally taken to mean a blossom eaten by a canker, 
show of fairness but hollow within. But it is probably a compound 
ke * kill-courtesy' (ii. 2. 77), *kill-joy,* and is equivalent to *blossom- 
* ; Hermia comparing Helena to a canker that has stealthily eaten 
destroyed Lysander*s love for her. 
(ouch, delicate feeling. Compare Richard HI, i. 2. 71 '• 

* No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.' 
note on The Tempest, v. i. 21. 

compare y comparison. So Venus and Adonis, 8 : 

* The field's chief flower, sweet above compare.' 

nples of verbs formed from substantives see note on * exclaims,' 
n, i. 2. 2. 

Personage, figure. See Twelfth Night, i. 5. 164 : * Of what personage 
sis he?' 

hou painted maypole. Stow, in his Survey of London (ed. Thoms, 
ives an account of the great maypole in Cornhill, which when set 
e south side of the church of St. Andrew Undershaft, was higher 
church steeple. Steevens quotes from Stubbes* Anatomic of Abuses 
d. 1585) : • But their cheefest iewell they bring from thence is their 



12* NOTES. [act 

Maie poole, whiche they bring home with greate Teneration, as thus. T 
haue twentie, or fourtie yoke of Oxen, euery Oxe hauyng a sweete Nose; 
of flowers, tyed on the tippe of his homes, and these Oxen drawe home 
Maie poole (this stinckyng Idoll rather) which is couered all oner \ 
Flowers, and Hearbes bounde rounde aboute with stringes, from the to{ 
the bottome, and sometyme painted with variable colours, with twoc 
three hundred men, women, and children followyng it, with greate deuoti 

300. curst, spiteful, mischievous ; used of a woman who is a scold, 
in The Taming of the Shrew, i. 1. 186: *Her eldest sister is so curst 
shrewd.* Also applied to animals, as in Much Ado about Nothing, ii. i. 
*For it is said, God sends a curst cow short horns.' Cotgrave de£ 
' Meschant. Wicked, impious, vngracious . . . also, curst, mischieuous, ha 
froward.* 

302. a right maid, a true maid. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 
a8 : * Like a right gipsy.' 

310. your stealth, your stealing away, going secretly. Compare iv. 1. 1 
and Sonnet Ixxvii. 7 : 

* Thou by thy dial's shady stealth niayst know 
Time's thievish progress to eternity.' 

314. so, provided that. See The Merchant of Venice, iii. 2. 197: 

* With all my heart, so thou canst get a wife.* 
317. fond. See ii. 2. 88. 

323. shrewd, mischievous, especially with the tongue. See ii. i. 33, i 
Much Ado about Nothing, ii. i. 20 : *Thou wilt never get thee a husba 
if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue.* 

324. vixen, properly a she-fox ; hence applied to an ill-tempered spit( 
woman. The form of the word is especially interesting as being the 
instance in which the feminine termination -en has been preserved. 
Morris, English Accidence, c. x. § 73. It occurs in Anglo-Saxon as /a 
and in German zsfuchsin. 

^2"]. flout. Seeii. 2. 128. 

329. minimus, smallest thing. 

Ih. hindering knot-grass. The common knot-grass {polygonum flw 
lore) was formerly believed to have the power of checking the growth 
children. See Beaumont and Fletcher, the Coxcomb, ii. 2 : 

* We want a boy extremely for this function. 
Kept under for a year with milk and knot-grass.' 

And The Knight of the Burning Pestle, ii. 2 : • The child 's a fatherless ch 
and say they should put him into a strait pair of gaskins, 'twere w< 
than knot-grass ; he would never grow after it.* 

330. You head. As beads were generally black, there is a reference 1 
to Hermia's complexion as well as to her size. 

333> intend, pretend. Demetrius does not think Lysander in ean 



A midsummer-night's dream. 123 

are Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 2. 35 : ' Intend a kind of zeal both 
prince and Claudio.' And The Taming of the Shrew, iv. I. ai6 : 
'Ay, and amid this hurly I intend 
That all is done in reverend care of her.* 
. ahy. See 1. 175. 

. Of mine or thine. Compare The Tempest, ii. i. 28 : * Which, of he 
ian, for a good wager, first begins to crow?* And see the note on 
issage (Clar. Press ed.). 

. cheek byjohf side by side, close together, as the cheek to the jole or 
* Jole * is from A. S. ceqfl, 

I. coilf disturbance, turmoil. See The Tempest, i. 2. 207 : 
' Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil 
Would not infect his reason?* 
^long o/yoUf owing to you. Compare Love's Labour 'sLost, ii. 1. 119 : 

* *Tis 'long of you that spur me with such questions.' 

>. I repeated for emphasis, as in Two Gentlemen of Verona, v. 4. 132 : 

* Sir Valentine, I care not for her, L' 
lomeo and Juliet, iii. i. 58 : 

' I will not budge for no man's pleasure, L' 
. curst. See 1. 300. 

. still. See iii. i. 141. m. 

. *nointed, anointed. So in Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 813 : * He has a 
'ho shall be flayed alive ; then 'nointed over with honey, set on the 
)f a wasp's nest.' 
!. sort, turn out, result. Compare Much Ado about Nothing, iv. 1. 242 : 

' And if it sort not well, you may conceal her.' 
Henry VI, i. 2. 107 : 

' Sort how it will, I shall have gold for all.' 
,. Asf inasmuch as. 
>. welkin, sky ; A. S. wolcen, cloud. See Lucrece, 1 16 : 

* No cloudy show of stormy blustering weather 
Doth yet in his fair welkin once appear.' 

'. Acheron, the river of hell in classical mythology, supposed by 
speare to be a pit or lake. Compare Macbeth, iii. 5. 15 : 
* And at the pit of Acheron 
Meet me i' the morning.' 
Andronicus, iv. 3. 44 : 

* I '11 dive into the burning lake below 

And pull her out of Acheron by the heels.' 
i. As, that. Compare Hamlet, ii. i. 95 (Clar. Press ed.) : 
' He raised a sigh so piteous and profound 
As it did seem to shatter all his bulk'; 
the quartos read * As,* the folios * That.* 



1 24 NOTES, [acthl 

360. sometime. See ii. i. 38; iii. i. 98. 

361. wrongy reproach, insult. Compare King John, iii. i. 200 : 

* Well, ruffian, I must pocket up these wrongs/ 
364. death-counterfeiting sleep. Compare Cymbeline, ii. 2. 31 : 

' O sleep, thou ape of death, lie dull upon her I* 

367. virtuous property t healthful, beneficial quality. Compare 2 Henry IV, 

iv. 5. 76: 

* Culling from every flower 

The virtuous sweets.* 
For * virtue * in the sense of * power, efficacy,' see Romeo and Juliet, il 3« 
13, of the herbs gathered by Friar Laurence, 

* Many for many virtues excellent.* 
And The Merchant of Venice, v. i. 199 : 

* If you had known the virtue of the ring.* 
Compare also Milton, II Penseroso, 113: 

* And who had Canac^ to wife. 

That own'd the virtuous ring and glass.* 

And Comus, 621 : 

'Well skill'd 
In every virtuous plant and healing herb.* 
372. wendtgo. See Measure for Measure, iv. 3. 150: *Wend you with 
this letter.* And Comedy of Errors, i. I. 158, where it is used as in the 
present passage for the rhyme : 

* Hopeless and helpless doth ^geon wend, 
But to procrastinate his lifeless end.' 

374. Whiles, while. See As You Like It, ii. 7. 128. 
lb. employ. So the first quarto: thf second has 'apply,* and the folios 
' imply.* 

379. night* s swift dragons. Compare Cymbeline, ii. 2. 48: 

' Swift, swift, you dragons of the night ! ' 
And Troilus and Cressida, v. 8. 1 7 : 

* The dragon wing of night o*erspreads the earth.* 
Milton perhaps had this passage in his mind when he wrote, II Penseroso, 59' 

* While Cynthia checks her dragon-yoke 
Gently o'er the accustom'd oak.' 

On which Keightley remarks it is wrong mythology, * for Demeter, or Ceres, 
alone had a dragon yoke.' Drayton also (The Man in the Moon, 431) s*y* 
that Phoebe 

• Calls downe the Dragons that her chariot drawe.' 

380. Aurora* s harbinger , the morning star. Douce quotes from Milton s 
Song on May Morning what is evidently a reminiscence of this : 

* Now the bright morning-star. Day's harbinger. 
Comes dancing from the East.' 



A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S dream. 125 

See Hamlet, i. i. 150-156. 

The bodies of those who had committed suicide were buried in 
lys, with a stake driven through them. 

ioodSf rivers ; or perhaps any large bodies of water as opposed to land, 
ord is used of the sea in this play ii. 1. 127, and in the sense of * river' 
nd in Joshua xxiv. 15 : * The gods which your fathers served that were 
other side of the flood* ; that is, the river Euphrates. Steevens says the 
of self murderers and of those who were drowned * were condemned 
ling to the opinion of the ancients) to wander for a hundred years, as 
;s of sepulture had never been regularly bestowed on their bodies.* 

their wormy beds, Milton remembered this in his lines On the Death 
ir Infant, 31 : 

* Or that thy beauties lie in wormy bed.' 

upon. For the transposition of the preposition compare All's Well 
ids Well, iii. 4. 6 : 

'That barefoot plod I the cold ground upon.* 
black-brow* d night. Compare King John, v. 6. 17 : 

* Why, here walk I in the black brow of night. 
To find you out.* 

the mornings love, Cephalus, with whom Oberon had hunted. 
:e Milton, II Penseroso, 124, of the Mom: 

*Not trick'd and frounced, as she was wont 

With the Attic boy to hunt.' 
drawn, that is, with sword drawn. Compare The Tempest, ii. i. 
Why are you drawn ? ' 

The folios here give the stage direction, * Shifting places.' 
Hot hOf ho! A taunting cry, which, according to Ritson in his note 
passage, is uttered by Puck as his usual exclamation, having forgotten 
t he was assuming. It is quite true that in an old ballad on Puck, 
by Percy (Reliques, iii. Bk. ii. 25), the stanzas all end with * Ho, ho, 
t there is nothing so exceptional in the cry as to make it inappropriate 
: in an assumed character. 

Abide me, wait for me, that we may encounter. From this sense of 
g for' comes the further sense of awaiting the issue of an event, as 
nry IV, ii. 3. 36 : 

*To abide a field 

Where nothing but the sound of Hotspur's name 

Did seem defensible.* 
mbeline, iii. 4. 186 : 

* This attempt 

I am soldier to, and will abide it with 

A prince's courage.' 



1 26 NOTES. [ 

lb. well I wot J well I know. See iv. i. 163. 
426. Thou shall buy this dear. Johnson conjectured * *by ' for ' : 
in U. 175, 335» but the phrase, if a corruption, was so well estabii; 
Shakespeare's time as to make a change unnecessary. Compare, 
stance, i Henry IV, ▼. 3. 7 : 

* The Lord of Stafford dear to day hath bought 
Thy likeness.* 

And 2 Henry VI, ii. i. 100 : 

*Too true; and bought his climbing very dear.* 
Besides, the two words are etymologically connected. See note on 1. 

432. Shine comforts, cause comforts to shine. Theobald reads 
comforts,* &c. Or it may be simply ' let comforts shine,' &c. ; just a 
we have * And sleep . . . steal me awhile,' &c. 

433. That I may back. For the omission of the verb of motior 
*to ' or an adverb of direction see ii. i. 164, and iv. i. 22 : 'I must 
barber's, mounsieur.' Also note on Hamlet, iii. 3. 4. 

439. curst. See 1. 300. 

461. Steevens refers toHeywood's Epigrams on Three Hundred P: 

12 : 

*A11 shalbe well, lacke shall haue Gill: 

Nay nay. Gill is wedded to wyll.' 

See also Love's Labour 's Lost, v. 2. 805 : 

'Our wooing doth not end like an old play; 
Jack hath not Jill.' 
* The man shall have his mare again ' seems to have been a prover 
pression, implying that all would be right in the end. Compare I 
The Chances, iii. 4 : 

*Fred. How now? How goes it? 
John. Why, the man has his mare again, and all *s well, Frede 



ACT IV. 
Scene 7. 

1. Johnson remarks, * I see no reason why the fourth Act shou 
here, when there seems no interruption of the action.' 

2. amiable, lovely. Compare Psalm Ixxxiv. l, 'How amiable 
tabernacles I ' And Milton, Paradise Lost, iv. 250 : 

• Others whose fruit, bumish'd with golden rind. 
Hung amiable.' 
The word is now used only of persons. 



K3.I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT^ S DREAM, 127 

Ih. coy, coax, caress. Steevens quotes from Warner's Albion's England, 

'And whilst she coyes his sooty Cheekes, or curies his sweaty top.' 
A^nd from Golding's Ovid, vii. (fol. 79 6, ed. 1603) : 

'Their dangling Dew-laps with his hand he coyd vnfearefuUy.' 
rhe verb is formed from the adjective, which is itself derived from the 
French coy or 7»py, the representative of the Latin quietus. 

15. overflown^ flooded and drowned. Compare Titus Andronicus, iii. i. 

230: 

' Then must my earth with her continual tears 

Become a deluge, overflow'd and drown'd.* 

18. neaf, fist ; spelt in the quartos and first folios ' neafe' : corrupted in 
the later folios to * newfe,* * newse,* and finally * news.' In 2 Henry IV, 
ii. 4. 200, it occurs again : * Sweet knight, I kiss thy neif.' It is found in 
Barly English in the form * neve ' or * nefe.' See Havelok the Dane, 2405 : 

•With ])e neue he robert sette 
Bifom ])e teth a dint fill strong.' 
rhe Old Norse word is hnefi (Swedish nafve ; Dan. nceve). See Jamie- 
ion's Scottish Dictionary, s. v. Neive. 

19. leave your courtesy; that is, put on your hat, be covered. Compare 
Love's Labour's Lost, v. 1. 103: *I do beseech thee, remember thy 
zoartesy : I beseech thee, apparel thy head.' 

22. Cobwth, Grey says, 'Without doubt it should be Cavalero Peas- 
blossom; as for cavalero Cobweb, he had just been dispatched upon a 
perilous adventure.' 

i&. I must to the barber's. See iii. 2. 433. 

33. marvellous. See note on iii. i. 2. 

27. the tongs and the bones. After this the folios have the stage direc- 
tion, * Musicke Tongs, Rurall Musicke.' 

31. a great desire to. The same construction is found in Pericles, iv. 

1.44: 

* WeU, I will go ; 

But yet I have no desire to it.' 

Ih. a bottle of hay^ a bundle or truss of hay. The common proverb is 
^ell known of the search for anything hard to find, that it is like looking 
for a needle in a bottle of hay. Baret (Alvearie, s. v.) has, * a Bottle of 
"*y. Fasciculus vel manipulus foeni* : and again, * To binde vp hay in 
"'ottles. Foenum in manipulos vincire & colligare.' Compare Florio (Ital. 
">ct.) : * Gregne, sheafes of corae, handfuls of flowers, wads of straw, bottles 
**f hay.' And Cotgrave (Fr. Diet.) : * Boteau, A bundle, or bottle, as of 
^, &c.' 

34* Steevens reads * hoard ' as a disyllable, for the sake of the metre which 
sndi a reading utterly destroys. Hanmer has * fetch thee thence' and Sidney 



128 NOTES, [activ. 

Walker suggested ' fetch thee the new nuts.' But in the distinct enunciation 
of * fetch thee * the time of a syllable is gained, as in the case of * moon's' 
(ii. I. 7), and * night's* (iv. i. 95). 
37. exposition^ for * disposition.' 

39. be all ways aivay, disperse yourselves in every direction. The quartos 
and folios have * always ' variously spelt, which Theobald corrected to 'aD 
ways.* 

40. So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle &c. Strictly speaking 
' woodbine ' and ^ honeysuckle ' are the same, and in consequence various 
readings and modes of punctuating this passage have been proposed. War- 
burton suggested, 

•So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle. 
Gently entwist the maple ; ivy so 
Enrings,* &c. 
Upton would read * woodrine,' that is, the bark of the wood, instead of 

* woodbine* ; and Steevens says, * Were any change necessary, 1 would not 
scruple to read weedbind, i. e. smilax.* Johnson thought that * woodbine' 
was the plant, and * honeysuckle * the flower, and the same distinction is 
apparently made in Baret's Alvearie, • Woodbin that beareth the Honi^ 
suckle.' But this last-quoted passage perhaps only indicates that ' woo<i- 
bine ' was a name for many climbing plants, one of which was the honey- 
suckle. As a matter of fact it is to this day used in Suffolk to denote the 
large white convolvulus, and Boswell is correct in saying that * in many of 
our counties, the looodbine is still the name for the great convolvulus.' 
Gifford quotes a very parallel passage from Ben Jonson's Vision of Ddight: 

* Behold 

How the blue bindweed doth itself infold 

With honeysuckle ! ' 
The word only occurs in two other passages of Shakespeare, viz. in the 
present play, ii. i. 251, where it is called ' luscious woodbine,' an epithet 
which is appropriate to the honeysuckle ; and in Much Ado about Notjung* 
iii. I. 30, where • the woodbine coverture * is the same as 

•The pleached bower. 

Where honeysuckles, ripen*d by the sun, 

Forbid the sun to enter.* 
Supported by these instances, Steevens interprets the present passage thus: 

* So the woodbine, i. e. the sweet honeysuckle, doth gently entwist the barky 
fingers of the elm, and so does the female ivy enring the same fingers.* Bot^ 
word * entwist ' seems to describe the mutual action of two climbing plantSi 
twining about each other, and I therefore prefer to consider the woodbio* 
and the honeysuckle as distinct, the former being the convolvulus, rathet 
than to adopt a construction and interpretation which do violence to the 
reader's intelligence. Mr. R. G. White finds no difficulty, because to 



ic. I.] A midsummer-night' 1^ DREAM. 129 

America what are called the woodbine and honeysuckle are commonly found 
twining round each other ; but it appears from his description that he calls 
woodbine what we call honeysuckle, and that the honeysuckle of America 
b the trumpet honeysuckle, which is not indigenous in this country, and 
■ras unknown in Shakespeare's time. It is moreover instructive to observe, 
IM shewing how loosely the word is used, that the term 'woodbine' in 
America is sometimes applied to the Virginia creeper. See Bartlett*s Dic- 
tionary of Americanisms. 

lb, the female ivy^ so called because it is as it were married to the elm ; 
BU Catullus says of the vine, Ixii. 54 : 

•Ulmo conjuncta marito.* 
^^idpare Fairfax's Tasso, iii. 75 : 

* The married Elme fell with his fruitfuU vine.* 
^nd Milton, Paradise Lost, v. 215-217 : 

*Or they led the vine 
To wed her elm ; she spoused about him twines 
Her marriageable arms.' 
47. favours, the reading of the first quarto and last folio : the others have 
•savours.* For * favours* see ii. I, 12. 

50. rounded, encircled. Compare Richard II, iii. a. 161 : 

* The hollow crown 
That rounds the mortal temples of a king.' 
-And Macbeth, iv. i. 88 : * the round and top of sovereignty.' 

53. orient pearls, bright, shining pearls. So The Passionate Pilgrim, 133 : 

* Bright orient pearl, alack, too timely shaded f ' 

The epithet appears to be originally applied to the pearl and other gems as 
■ coming from the orient or east, and to have acquired the general sense of 
1^ Wght and shining from the objects which it most commonly describes, 
f Compare Milton, Paradise Lost, i. 546 : 

' Ten thousand banners rise into the air. 
With orient colours waving.' 

54. flowerets*, spelt • flouriets * in the quartos and folios. 

59. her fairy, her chief attendant fairy. See ii. i. 61. Dyce, here as in 
ribe former passage, reads ' fairies.' It may be that in ii. I. 61 Titania gives 
^ order to the fairy who was in immediate attendance, and that Capell is 
Aght in supposing the change unnecessary. 
65. the other, plural: as in Venus and Adonis, 1102 : 

'The birds such pleasure took. 
That some would sing, some other in their bills 
Would bring him mulberries and ripe-red cherries,* 
And The Merchant of Venice, i. i. 54 : 

•And other of such vinegar aspect.* 
(6, May all, that is, they may all, &c. See v. i. 69, Abbott, § 399. 



130 * I^OTES. [act IT.. 

72. Dian*s bud, if it has a botanical existence at all, may be, as Steeveos 
suggests, the bud of the Agnus castus, or Chaste Tree, of which it is said in 
Macer's Herball, * The vertue of this herbe is, that he wyll kepe man and 
woman chaste.* But it is more probably a product of Shakespeare's ima^ 
nation, which had already endued * Cupid's flower/ the heart's ease, with 
qualities not recognized in botany. Steevens's suggestion is indeed supported 
by Chaucer ; see The Flower and the Leaf, 472-5 : 
' That is Diane, goddesse of chastite. 
And for because that she a maiden is. 
In her bond the braunch she beareth this, 
That agnus castus men call properly.' 
Ih. o*erf Thirlby's correction, adopted by Theobald. The quartos and 
folios have • or.* 

81. Than common sleep . . . sense. The quartos and first two folios read. 
' sleepe : of all these, fine the sense'; which was further altered in the thiol 
and fourth folios to ' sleep : of all these find the sense ' ; and by Rowe to 
* sleep. Of all these fine the sense.* The correction is Theobald's, and was 
made independently by Thirlby, ' these five * being the five sleepers. 

85. rock the ground, like a cradle. 

86. are new in amity, are again friends. It is difiicult to say whether 'new 
is here an adjective or adverb. Probably the latter, as in Hamlet, ii. 2. 510: 

'Aroused vengeance sets him new a-work.' 
For * amity* (Fr. amitid) see The Merchant of Venice, iii. 2. 30 : 
'There may as well be amity and life 
'Tween snow and fire, as treason and my love.* 
89. prosperity. So the first quarto. The other early copies haT« 
' posterity,' which Monck Mason defends by referring to Oberon's blessing in 
v. I. 410 &c. But see iu I. 73* 

94. sadf grave, serious. See iii. 2, 237. 

95. night's, a disyllabic, as 'moon's* in ii, I. 7, and 'earth's 'in Th« 
Tempest, iv. i. no: 

•Earth's increase, foison plenty.' 
The first quarto reads 'nights,* the second quarto and the folios 'the 
night's.* 

103. our observation. The * observance to a mom of May* spoken of in 
i. 1. 167. See below, 1. 131. 

104. the vaward, the vanguard (Fr. avantgarde), or advanced guard of 
an army, and hence, the early part of the day. In this metaphorical scnie 
it occurs in 2 Henry IV, i, 2. 199 : * And we that are in the vaward of oof 
youth, I must confess, are wags too.* For the literal meaning see Henry Vi 
iv. 3. 130: 

* My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg 
The leading of the vaward^' 



1 A midsummer-nigbt's dream. 131 

J. We wiUyfcdr queen, up &c. See iii. 2. 433. 

2. they hay^d the bear, Hanmer substituted * boar * for *bear *; but the 
nces to * bear ' and * bear-hunting ' in Shakespeare are sufficiently 
rous to justify the old reading, without going into the naturalist's 
on whether there are bears in Crete. See for instance Venus and 
is, 884 : 

*For now she knows it is no gentle chase. 
But the blunt boar, r«ugh bear, or lion proud.' 
es, according to Pliny (viii. 83) there were neither bears nor boars in 
•land. We may therefore leave the natural history to adjust itself as 
as the chronology which brings Cadmus with Hercules and Hippolyta 
he hunting field together. To ' bay,* which signifies to bark, or bark at, 
d technically for 'to bring to bay,' that is, to drive the animal pursued 
-n upon his pursuers. Compare Julius Csesar, iii. i. 204 : * Here wast 
bay'd, brave hart.* And as * graft ' is a corruption of * graflf,* and 
t ' of * hoise,* so ' bait ' may be a corruption of * bay.* Cotgrave has 
ay : m. a barking, or baying of a dogge ' : and ' Aux derniers abbois. 
s last gaspe, or, breathing his last ; also, put to his last shifts, driuen to 
is last helpes: A metaphor from hunting; wherein a Stag is sayd, 
re les abbois, when wearie of running, he turnes vpon the hounds, and 
them at, or puts them to, a bay.* 

3. hounds 0/ Sparta, The Spartan hounds were celebrated for their 
aess and quickness of scent. Compare Virgil, Georgics, iii. 405 : 

*Veloces Spartae catulos acremque Molossum 
Pasce sero pingui.* 
see Sophocles, Ajax, 8; Callimachus, Dian. 94. Compare also the 
iption of Actaeon's dogs in Ovid's Metamorphoses, iii, (Golding's trans- 
1, cd. 1 603, fol. 33 a) : 

lis Hounds espyde him where he was, and Blackfoote first of all 
Ind Stalker speciall good of sent began aloud to call. 
Phis latter was a hound of Crete, the other was of Spart.* 
Gorges' translation of Lucan's Pharsalia, iv. p. 144 : 
•And therewithall in cooples clogges 
His Spartane, and his Cretan dogges.' 
[4. Chiding, used of noise simply, as in As You Like It, ii. i, 7 : 

*As the icy fang 
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind*; 
re however the word has also, somewhat of the senst of rebuke or 
ling. Compare i Henry IV, iii. l. 45 : 

*Clipp*d in with the sea 
That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales'; 
is, dashes noisily against. So Henry VIII, iii. 2. 197 : 

* As doth a rock against t\ie chi^vcv^ ^00^* 

X 2 



13^ NOTES. ' [actit; 

119. so flew* d. The flews of a hound are the large overhanging chaps. 
Warton quotes from Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, iiL 
(fol. 33 b, ed. 1603) : 

•And shaggie Rugge with other twaine that had a Sire of Crete, 
And Dam of Sparta : Tone of them callde lolly-boy, a great 
And large flewd hound/ 

Ih. so sanded^ of such a sandy colour. 

120. Steevens quotes inaccurately from Hey wood's Brazen Age [ii. i» 
Works iii. p. 190] : 

*The fierce Thessalian hounds 
With their flagge eares, ready to sweep the dew 
From the moist earth.' 

121. dewlapp*d. See ii. 1. 50. 

122. matched in mouth like bells. Compare Markham's Country Content* 
ments, p. 6 : 'If you would have your Kennel for sweetness of cry, then y«» 
must compound it of some large dogs, that have deep solemn Mouths, and 
are swift in spending, which must as it were bear the base in the consort; 
then a double number of roaring, and loud-ringing Mouthes, which must 
bear the counter-tenor ; then some hollow plain sweet Mouths, which must 
bear the mean or middle part ; and so with these three parts of Musick, you 
shall make your cry perfect/ 

lb, mouthy used of the bark of a dog. Compare Venus and Adonis, 695: 
* Then do they spend their mouths.* And I Henry VI, ii. 4. 1 2 : 

•Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth/ 
130. I vfonder of &c. We should now say *! wonder at,* but as 'at' 
marks the object of the wonder, so * of is used with that in respect of which 
the wonder is excited. Compare Timon of Athens, iii. 4. 10: * I wonder 
on't ' ; where * on't ' =* of it. So below, 1. 1 35, * of* = concerning. 

131-132. to observe The rite 0/ May, Compare i. i. 167. The quartos 
and folios have * right ' for ' rite.* See note on The Tempest, iv. I. ^ 
(Clar. Press, ed.). 

133. in grace of, in honour of. Compare Hamlet, i. 2; 124: 

*In grace whereof. 
No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day. 
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell.' 

Id. solemnity. See i. i. 1 1. 

140. Capell adds the stage-direction, ' He and the rest kneel to Theseos.* 

144. To sleep &c. For the omission of * as* after * so ' see Abbott, § 28I1 
As You Like It, ii. 3. 7, and The Merchant of Venice, iii. 3. 10. 

145. amazedly, confusedly ; in a state of astonishment or confusion of 
mind. Compare the stage direction in The Tempest, v. I. 215, and Winter's 

TaJe, V. I. 18^ : 



ij A MIDSUMMm-NIGHT'S DREAM. 1 33 

'I speak amgzedly; and it becomes 
My marvel and my message.' 
[46. Half sleeps half waking. Some editors regard * sleep ' and * waking ' 
adjectives, and print the former * 'sleep * = asleep. Dr. Schmidt, in his 
ikespeare Lexicon, p. 141 9, col. i, gives this as an instance of the same 
nunation applying to two words, so that * sleep and waking * = sleeping and 
kiDg. He quotes, as a possibly parallel case, Troilus and Cressida, v. 

r- 

*Even with the vail and darking of the sun.* 
this case however * vail * may be a substantive formed from a verb, of 
ich there are may instances in Shakespeare. I am inclined to think that 
h • sleep ' and * waking * are here substantives, and are loosely connected 
h the verb * reply' ; just as we find in Merry Wives of Windsor, iii. 2. 69, 
e speaks holiday*; Twelfth Night, i. 5. 115; * He .<tpeaks nothing but 
dman'; King John, ii. i. 462, * He speaks plain cannon fire/ and as the 
OS read in As You Like It, iii. 2. 226, ' Speak sad brow and true maid.' 

52. Without, beyond the reach of. Compare The Tempest, v. I. 271 : 

*And deal in her command without her power'; 
t is, exercise the moon's influence to a greater extent than she has the 
?er to use it. Dyce reads the sentence as incomplete, 

•Where we might, 
Without the peril of the Athenian law — * 
t first quarto has only a comma at * law,' but we cannot lay much stress 
n this. The second quarto and the folios read * where we might be,' 
' where we might * is simply * wheresoever we might.' 

53. you have enough, that is, you have enough evidence to convict him 
[lis own confession. 

59. their stealth, their stealing away. See iii. 2. 310. 

^2. fancy. See i. i. 155. 

63. / wot not, I know not. See iii. 2. 422. 'Wot* is properly a preterite 

S. wdt, from witan to know), and is used as a present, just as ot^a in 

ek and novi in Latin. And not only is it used as a present in sense, but 

s inflected like a present tense, for we find the third person singular 

)ts * or * wotteth.' 

65. Melted as the snow. Pope, for the *ke of the metre, read * Is 
ted as the snow * ; Capell, * Melted as doth the snow.* Staunton con- 
ured, * All melted as the snow.* 

66. gawd. See i. i. 33. 

70. saw. So Steevens. The quartos and folios have * see.* 

71. like in sickness. Farmer's correction, adopted by Steevens. The 
rtos and folios have ' like a sickness.' I am not satisfied with this 
ling, and the repetition of * But ' inclines me to suspect that there is a 
her corruption. » 



134 NOTES, [actiy. 

1 8 1, for, because. Compare Sonnet liv. 9 : 

• But, for their virtue only is their show. 
They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade/ 

lb. tvom, exhausted, consumed, wasted ; used of time, as in v. I. 33, 
and Coriolanus, ii. I. 77: * You wear out a good wholesome forenoon in 
hearing a cause between an orange-wife and a fosset-seller.' 

190. like a jewelf as one finds a jewel which does not belong to him. 
Warburton conjectured *gemell' (from Lat. gemellus, a twin, because 
Demetrius had that night acted two such different parts), which was not too 
absurd to be adopted by Theobald and commended by Johnson. Demetrios 
is not compared to a jewel, but the finding of him to the finding of a jewel. 

191-192. Are you sure That we are awake f These words are in 
the quartos, but are omitted in the folios. The defective metre has been 
variously supplied. 

195. Vea here is the answer to a question framed in the negative, con- 
trary to the rule laid down by Sir Thomas More, according to which it should 
be 'yes.* 

199. The quartos have no stage direction. The folios give * Bottom wakes.' 

202. God^s mylife. This exclamation is put into the mouth of Dogbeny 
in Much Ado about Nothing, iv. 2. 72 : * God *s my life, where *s the sexton?' 

205. go about, endeavour. Compare Lucrece, 412: 
• Who, like a foul usurper, went about 
From this fair throne to heave the owner out.* 

207. a patched fool, a motley fool (As You Like It, ii. 7. 13), a pied ninny 
(The Tempest, iii. 2. 71); so called from the parti-coloured dress worn bjr 
jesters. See note on * patch,' iii. 2. 9. 

208. Douce has pointed out that this is Bottom's blundering version of 
I Corinthians ii. 9. 

215. at her death; that is, at Thisbe's death: for though Thisbc is not 
mentioned. Bottom's head is full of the play. Theobald conjectared 'aftc 
death,* which is certainly ingenious and may be right. 

Scene II, 

4. transported, transformed, transfigured ; in Starveling's language this is ' 
equivalent to 'translated' iiriii. i. 107. Dr. Schmidt takes the word to be 
seriously used, in the sense of removed from this world to the next, killed 
(euphemistically), as in Measure for Measure, iv. 3. 7^ • 
*And to transport him in the mind he is 
Were damnable.' 

5-6. it goes not forward, does not go on, take place. So in As You Like 
It, i. 2. 193; *We will make it our suit to the duke that the wrestling 
might not go forward.' And Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 4. 13 : 'But let 
our plot go forward.' 



c. 2.] A MIDSUMMEf^NIGHT'S DREAM. I35 

8. discharge. See i. 2. 84. 

14. a thing of naught. So the second and later folios. The quartos and 
irst folio have * a thing of nought.' The two words * naught/ signifying 
irorthlessness, good-for-nothingness, and * nought * nothing, are etynio- 
ogically the same, but the different senses they have acquired are distinguished 
Q the spelling. 

1 7. we had all been made men^ our fortunes had all been made. Compare 
The Tempest, ii. 2. 31 : 'There would this monster make a man; any 
trange beast there makes a man.' And Twelfth Night, ii. 5. 168 : 'Go to, 
hou art made, if thou desirest to be so.' 

22. sixpence a day. Steevens supposes that Shakespeare may allude to 
3ine actor, who, like Preston the author of Cambyses, was pensioned for his 
bilities on the stage. 

lb, in Pyramus, in the part of Pyramus. Compare Twelfth Night, i. 5. 
68 : ''Tis with him in standing water, between boy and man' ; tliat is, he 
s in the condition of standing water. 

• 23. where are these hearts! these good fellows. So in Twelfth Night, ii. 
;. 16 : • How now, my hearts I * 

24. courageous. It is not worth while to guess what Quince intended to 
ay. He used the first long word that occurred to him without reference to 
ts meaning, a practice which is not yet altogether extinct. 

26. / am t<y discourse wonders. We should now say * I have to discourse,' 
L form of phrase corresponding with, if not bono wed from, the French idiom. 
3r. Abbott (Shakespearian Grammar, § 405) quotes from Florio's trans* 
ation of Montaigne, p. 3 : * That ancient Painter who being to represent 
;be griefe of the bystanders &c.,* where the original is * ayant k repr^senter.* 
n Latin the construction would be represented by using the participle in 
tins. Compare The Merchant of Venice, i. i. 5 : 

' But how I caught it, found it, or came by it, 
What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born, 
I am to learn.' 
^nd Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. i. 59: 

'I am to break with thee of some affairs.' 

38. right, exactly. 

30. good strings to your beards, to tie the false beards on with. Steevens 
bought these strings were something ornamental, but there appears to be no 
ground for supposing this. 

34. preferred, offered for acceptance ; if Bottom's words have a meaning, 
frhich is not always certain. • Compare Julius Caesar, iii. I. 28 : 

'Let him go. 
And presently prefer his suit to Caesar.' 



136 NOTES. [i 



ACT V. 

Scene 7. 

2, may, can. Compare The Merchant of Venice, i. 3. 7 : ' Maj 
stead me ? ' that is, can you assist me ? 

3* ^s, trifles. Compare Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3. 1 70 : 
'And critic Timon laugh at idle toys.' 

4. suck seething brains, such hot boiling brains, full of wild in 
ations. Compare Winter's Tale, iii. 3. 64 ; * Would any but these 1 
brains of nineteen and two-and-twenty hunt this weather?' Deiius c 
from Macbeth, ii. 1 . 39 : 

• *A false creation. 

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain.' 

5. that apprehend &c., that slightly catch at, as it were, or concen 
idea of more than reason can ever fully grasp or contain. 

8. compact, formed, composed ; Uterally, £istened or knit together, 
pare Venus and Adonis, 149 : * Love is a spirit all compact of fire.' 
Psalm cxzii. 3 : * Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact togethi 

II. a brow of Egypt, a swarthy brow, like a gipsy's. So in Othe 
4. 56, * Egyptian ' is used for gipsy : 

* That handkerchief 

Did an Egyptian to my mother give; 

She was a charmer, and could almost read 

The thoughts of people.* 
14. bodies forth, gives them a bodily existence. 
21. fear, cause or object of fear. 

26. constancy, consistency, reality. 

27. howsoever, nevertheless, in any case. So in Troilus and Cress 

3. 297 : * If tomorrow be a fair day, by eleven o'clock it will go one 
other : howsoever, he shall pay for me ere he has me.' 

lb. admirable, to be wondered at. So * admired ' is used in Macb< 

4. iio : 

•You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting, 
With most admired disorder.' 

30. More (joy) than to us &c. 

31. Wait in, unnecessarily changed to * wait on * by Rowe. See n 
>J. I. 85. 

34. our after supper, or rear-supper ; not the time after supper, : 
Usually explained, but a banquet so called which was taken after the 
So in Richard III, iv. 3. 31 : 

• Come to me, Tyrrel, soon at after supper.* 
otgrave has * Regoubilloner. To make a reare supper, steale ar 



. ij A midsummer-night's dream. 137 

pper; banquet late anights.' And Palsgrave (Lesclaircissement de la 
ague Francoyse) gives * Rere supper — bancquet.* 

38. Philosiraie, the master of the revels. See i. i. li. So the quartos : 
e folios have * Egeus.' Probably the same actor played both parts. 

39. abridgement, an entertainment to make the time pass quickly. Used 
Hamlet, ii. 2. 439, in a double sense, the entry of the players cutting 

ort Hamlet's talk : * For look, where my abridgement comes.* Steevens 
lotes from Gawin Douglases prologue to his translation of the fifth book of 
e Aeneid : 

* Ful mony myrry aba)rtmentis foUowis heir*; 

liere * abaitment ' is clearly the same as the French * esbatement,' which 
jtgrave defines * A sporting, playing, dallying, ieasting, recreation.* 
41. the lazy time, which moves so slowly, and in which we are idle. 

43. a brief, a short statement, containing the programme of the per- 
rmance. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, v. 2. 138 : 

• This is the brief of money, plate, and jewels, 
I am possessed of.' 

otgrave (Fr. Diet.) has : * Bref ... A breefe, note, short writing.' 
lb. ripe^ ready for representation. So the first quarto. The second 
jarto and folios read ' rife,' a mere misprint. 

44. In the folios the reading from the brief is given to Lysander and the 
^mments to Theseus. There is no such distinction in the quartos. 

Ih, The battle with the Centaurs. Told by Nestor in the twelfth book of 
'Wd's Metamorphoses. The version by Theseus was different, for Nestor 
arposely omitted all mention of Hercules. 
48. The death of Orpheus is told by Ovid, Metamorphoses, xi. 
52. The thrice three Muses, &c. Warton suggested 'that Shakespeare 
!re, perhaps, alluded to Spenser's poem, entitled The Tears of the Muses, 
I the neglect and contempt of learning. This piece first appeared in 
larto with others, 1591.' It was supposed by Knight that the death of 
feene may be here referred to, which took place in 1592. 

54. critical, censorious; as lago says of himself in Othello, ii. 1. 120: 
?or I am nothing, if not critical.' 

55. not sorting with, or agreeing with, not befittmg. So 3 Henry VI, 
5. 26: 

• His currish riddles sort not with this place.' 

56. See note on i. 2. 11. 

59. Pope settled the difficulty in this line by omitting it altogether. War- 
itton read * a wondrous strange shew.' Many other solutions have been 
oposed, none of them absolutely satisfactory ; as * strange black snow * 
Jpton), * strong snow' (Mason), 'seething snow' (Collier MS.), 'swarthy 
jw ' (Staunton), * staining snow * (Nicholson), * sable snow * (Elze), * wind- 
training snow* (Wetherell), and finaWy Svt W\\\v'twTttv^\va& ^a."^^"^^^ 



138 



NOTES. [ict 



to me * strange, hot snow/ or * strange, jet snow.' From the words as tb 
stand Steevens extracts a certain sense. He says ' The meaning of the ii 
is — " hot ice, and snow of as strange a quality." * But there is no ai 
antithesis between 'strange* and *snow' as between 'hot 'and *ice,'a 
this is what is required. 

69. Made mine eyes waier. We must supply 'it* as the nommath 
that is, the seeing of the play rehearsed. For this ellipsis see As Yoo L 
It, i. I. 3, V. 4. 167, The Merchant of Venice, i. i. 98, and Abbott, § 39( 

74. unbreathedt untrained, unpractised. Hamlet says (v. 2. 181), *" 
the breathing time of day with me ' ; that is, the time for taking exercist 

75. nuptial. With only two exceptions Shakespeare always uses thesingi 
form of this word. See note on The Tempest,, v. i. 308 (Clar. Press ei 

79> their intents seems to be used in connexion with the following £ 
both for the endeavour and the object of the endeavour. Their intent- 
endeavours have been strained to the utmost to learn their parts which t 
have conned or studied with cruel pain. Delius makes 1. 79 parenthetic, 
connects 1. 80 with 78 ; the play being ' extremely stretch'd ' or spaa oai 

80. conn'd is the technical word for studying a part for the stage, 
i. 2. 90. 

83. simpleness, simplicity, innocence. So Much Ado about Nothing, 

I. 701 

' So turns she every man the wrong side out, 
And never gives to truth and virtue that 
Which simpleness and merit purchaseth.' 

90. to take. See ii. 2. 46. 

91, 92. And what poor duty^ &c. Theobald read 

•And what poor willing duty cannot do. 
Noble respect,' &c. 

The defective metre has been amended by reading 'cannot do ari| 
(Seymour), 'cannot do, yet would* (Coleridge). Johnson interprets 
passage thus, ' What the inability of duty cannot perform, regardful g 
rosity receives as an act of ability, though not of merit* ; but he thinks 
contrary is rather true, and would read, * takes not in might, but mc 
There is no need for change ; the sense being, noble respect or considera 
accepts the effort to please without regard to the merit of the perfonna 
Compare Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. 517 : 

'That sport best pleases that doth least know how,' &c. 

Steevens takes 'might' as an elliptical expression for 'what might 1 
been,' but this does not seem likely. 

93, clerks^ scholars, learned men; learning having been at one 
almost confined to the clergy. Compare Pericles v, Prologue 5 : 'I 
clerks she dumbs'; that is, she puts to silence profound scholars. 



C.I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT^ S DREAM. I39 

96. periodSf fuH stops. 

105. to my capacity^ so far as I am able to understand. 

106. addressed, ready, prepared. Compare Julius Caesar, iii. I. 29 : 

' He is addressM : press near and second him.' 
Lnd 2 Henry IV, iv. 4. 5 : 

* Our navy is addressM, our power collected.* 

107. Steevens quotes the following passage from Dekker's Guls Hornbook, 
:. vi. (1609) to show that the prologue was anciently ushered in by trumpets: 
Present not yourselfe on the stage (especially at a new play) until the 
[uaking prologue hath (by rubbing) got cullor in his cheekes, and is ready 
o give the trumpets their cue that hee's upon point to enter.' 

118. doth not stand upon points^ is not very particular, with a reference to 
lis not minding his stops. Compare 3 Henry VI, iv. 7. 58 : 

* Why, brother, wherefore stand you on nice points ? ' 
?or a similar joke compare Roister Doister's letter to Mistress Custance 
[^Roister Doister, iii. 3). 

120. the stop, a term in horsemanship; used here in a punning sense. 
Compare A Lover's Complaint, 109 : 

'What rounds, what bounds, what course, what stop he makes 1' 

122. a recorder f a kind of flageolet, or flute with a mouthpiece. See note 
3n Hamlet, iii. 2. 262 (Clar. Press ed.). 

123. m government. So Hamlet in giving directions for playing on the 
recorder (iii. 2. 372) says, • Govern these ventages with your fingers and 
thumb.' 

125. The folios have here the stage direction * Tawyer with a Trumpet 
before them,* where * Tawyer * looks like a misprint for * Players,' unless it 
w the name of the actor who played the part of prologue. 

129. certain, A most convenient word for filling up a line and at the 
same time conveying no meaning. Instances of its occurrence are common, 
*nd to those given by Steevens may be added from Sir Generydes (Early 
Eng. Text Soc), 4693 : 

'Sir Amelok hath a doughter certayn.' 

130. present. See iii. i. 60. 

136. think no scorn, not disdain. See 2 Henry VI, iv. 2. 13 : * The nobility 
*hink scorn to go in leather aprons.' And Love's Labour *s Lost, i. 2. 66 : 
'1 think scorn to sigh.' 

137. Ninu^ tomb. See Golding's Ovid, iv. fol. 44 a: 

* They did agree at Ninus Tombe to meet without the towne.' 

138. hightf was called ; here used as an intentional archaism, as in Love's 
/ibour's Lost, i. 1. 171 : 

' This child of fancy that Armado hight.* 
viras in common use in old writers, and is equivalent to the Germ, heissen; 
, S. hdJan ; Goth, haiian. 



140 NOTES. [actt. 

139. Malone supposes a line to be lost, as there is no rhyme to *name.' 

141. /a//, let foil. Compare The Tempest, ii. I. 296 : 

* And when I rear my hand, do you the like. 
To fall it on Gonzalo.' 

145, 146. Shakespeare ridicules the alliteration which the poetasters of 
his day affected. It was an exaggeration of the principle upon which An§^ 
Saxon verse was constructed, and comes again under his lash in Lore's 
Labour's Lost, iv. 2. 57-59* where Holofernes composes an *extemponl 
epitaph ' on the death of the deer, which is intentionally alliterative : * I wiH 
something affect the letter, for it argues facility. 

The preyful princess pierced and prick'd a pretty pleasing pricket; 
Some say a sore; but not a sore, till now made sore with shooting' 

151. be to speak. See iv. 2. 26. 

155. Snout. So the folios. The quartos have * Flute,' but he played the 
part of Thisbe. 

157. Compare Golding*s Ovid, iv. fol. 43 6 : 
* The wall that parted house from house had riuen therein a cranic 

160. loam. See iii. I. 61. Reed substitutes * lime,* as in 1. 130. 

162. sinister, left; used by Snout for two reasons; first, because it is » 
long word, and then because it gives a sort of rhyme to * whisper.* 

165. partition. Farmer says, * I believe the passage should be read: 
This is the wittiest partition, that ever I heard in discourse. Alluding to 
the many stupid partitions in the argumentative writings of the time.' 

175. eyne. See i. I. 242 &c. 

176. Jove shield thee. See iii. I. 31. 

183. cue. See iii. i, 67. 

184. pat. See iii. i. 2. 

190. I see a voice. See iii. I. 82. 

195. Limander. Johnson has pointed out that Limander and Helen art 
blunders for Leander and Hero, as Shafalus and Procrus are for Cephalus aa4 
Procris. Capell takes Limander to be for Lisander, and this for Alisandtft 
Alexander or Paris. 

201. ^Tide life, *tide death, whether life or death betide. . 

204. Now is the mural down. This is Pope*s emendation of the reading 
of the folios, * Now is the morall downe.' The quartos have * Now is th* 
Moon vsed.* Mr. Grant White thinks the wall is called a * moral * becan* 
it acted as a restraint upon the lovers. The folio reading is evidently 
corrupt, and Pope's emendation so far as I am aware has no evidence in its 
favour. Perhaps the quarto reading * Now is the Moon vsed * is » 
corruption of a stage direction, and the reading of the folios may hate 
arisen from an attempt to correct in manuscript the words in a copy of the 
quarto by turning * Moon ' into * Wall,' the result being a compound havin| 
tAe beginning of one word and the end oi \Yi^ otVi^t, If there were an] 



. I.] A midsummer-night's dream. 141 

Idence for the existence of such a word as ' mural ' used as a substantive, 

would be but pedantic and affected and so unsuited to Theseus. Having 

jard therefore to the double occurrence of the word * wall ' in the previous 

«ch and its repetition by Demetrius, I cannot but think that Theseus said 

ow is the wall down between the two neighbours,' just as Bottom says 

er on, * The wall is down that parted their fathers.' 

205. So wilful to hear. See Abbott § 281 for examples of the omission 

•as.* 

a 1 2, 213. Here come two noble beasts, in a man and a lion. This is the 

ictuation of the quartos and folios which has been altered in modern 

tions by putting the comma after 'in,' bnt as I think unnecessarily. 

1' here signifies * in the character of: see iv. 2. 22. Theobald with 

»t plausibility reads * in a moon and a lion ' ; as Theseus says a few lines 

rer down ' let us listen to the moon.* 

219. A lion fell J nor else no lion^s dam. Johnson explains this by 

pposing * neither ' to be omitted before ' a lion fell.' Compare Sonnet 

CKvi. 9; 

'He nor that aifable familiar ghost.' 

;ain Sonnet cxli. 9 : 

* But my five wits nor my five senses can 

Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee.' 
id Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 15. 52 : 

' The miserable change now at my end 

Lament nor sorrow at.' 
>we read *No lion fell,' and another emendation is *A lion-fell' or *A lion's 
I,' that is, a lion's skin. 

221. 'twere pity on my life. See note on iii. i. 39. 

224,225. * Valour' and 'discretion' are associated as in the proverb 
Henry IV, v. 4. 121) : ♦ The better part of valour is discretion.' 
259. the greatest error of all the rest. Compare the often -quoted lines of 
ilton, Paradise Lost, iv. 323, 4 : 

' Adam the goodliest man of men since bom 

His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve.' 
id Bacon's Essay Of Envy (ed. Wright, p. 35) : * Of all other Affections, it 
the most importune, and continuall.' See Abbott § 409, where it is 
rta as an instance of the confusion of two constructions. 
243. it is already in snuff. Demetrius as a professed joker quibbles upon 
i word * snuff.' 'To take in snuff' is to take offence; and 'to be in 
iff' is to be offended. See Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. 22, where there is 
> same pun: 

•You'll mar the light by taking i\ in snuff.' 
144. aweary, weary. Compare The Meichanl oi Nemct, V ^» •j^\'''^\ 



14^ NOTES. [Acrr,] 

my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this great world/ Tennyson 
has made the word familiar to modem ears in his song of Mariana : 

* She said, I am aweary, aweary, 

I would that I were dead.' 

258. moused^ torn in pieces; as a cat tears a mouse. 

259, 260. These lines are arranged according to Mr. Spedding's sugge 
tion. In the old copies they stand thus : 

*Dem. And then came Pyramus. 
Lys. And so the lion vanished.* 
Both Demetrius and Lysander speak in the past tense, as if they were telling^ 
the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. Farmer proposed, and his emendatioi 
was adopted by Steevens : 

^ Dem, And so comes Pyramus. 
Lys, And then the moon vanishes.' 

263. gleams. The quartos and first folio have * beames,* which must be 1 
misprint. This was amended in the later folios to 'streams*; but the 
alliteration shews that ' gleams ' is the true reading, which was suggested by 
Knight. 

264. The folios read here ' I trust to taste of truest Thisbies sight,' whidf 
is quite in keeping with * I see a voice * &c. in I. 190. 

275. thrum is the loose end of a weaver's warp, and is used of any coane 
yam. Warner says, * the maids now call a mop of 3rarn a thram-mof).' 
The * thmmmed hat ' of the fat woman of Brentford (Merry Wives of 
Windsor, iv. 2. 80) was made of coarse tufts. * Thread and thrum' was 
used as an expression for everything in general. So Herrick (Hesperides, i, 

100): 

* Thou who wilt not love, do this ; 

Learne of me what Woman is. 
Something made of thred and thrumme ; 
A meere Botch of all and some.' 

276. quell f destroy; A. S. cwellan. In Macbeth, i. 7. 72, it is used as » 
substantive for * murder.' In the WiclifEte versions of Acts xxviii. 4, 'man- 
quellere ' is equivalent to * manslayer.* 

277. This passion, and the death of a dear friend. The annotator of the 
Perkins Folio, with singular want of humour, changed this to * this passion 
on the death of a dear friend.* For * passion* in the sense of violent 
expression of sorrow, see 1. 303 and Hamlet, ii. 2. 587 : 

*What would he do 
Had he the motive and the cue for passion 
That I have?' 
279. Beshrew my heart. See ii. 2. 54. 

283. cheer. See iii. 2. 96. Here it signifies 'cheerfulness.' Compaie 
Hamlet, Hi, 2, 1^4 : 



A midsummeR'Nioht's dream. 143 

' But woe is me, you are so sick of late, 
So far from cheer and from your former state.' 
confound, destroy, ruin. In this sense it is used in the Authorised 
3f the Bible. See Jerei^iah i. 17, where the marginal note to * con- 
s ' break to pieces,* and the rendering in the Geneva and Bishops' 
'destroy.* '^ 

ipare Macbeth, ii. a. 12 : 

*The attempt and not the deed 
Confounds us.' 
288. Steevens again calls attention to the broad pronunciation which 
re been given to the * a ' in Shakespeare's time to make * pap ' and 
passable rh3mie. See note on ii. i. 263. 
die. There is the same play upon words in Timon of Athens, v. 4. 

'And by the hazard of the spotted die 
Let die the spotted.' 
How chance. See i. i. 29. 
passion. See 1. 277* 

A mote. Spelt *moth' in the quartos and folios. The same 
occurs in three of the early quartos of Hamlet, i, 1. 112; and Love's 
's Lost, iv. 3. 161, stands in the first folio thus : 

'You found his Moth, the King your Moth did see: 
But I a Beame doe finde in each of three.' 
e also Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 3. 56-59 : 
alth. Note this before my notes ; 

There 's not a note of mine that 's worth the noting, 
. Pedro. Why, these are very crotchets that he speaks ; 

Note, notes, forsooth, and nothing* 
Id reads * noting.' On the other hand, in More's Utopia, p. 59 (ed. 
we find * moth-eaten * spelt * moughteaten.* 

8. he for a man . . . bless us. Omitted in the folios, probably in 
ence of the Act of 3 James I for restraining the abuses of players, 
imposed a fine of ten pounds on any who should 'jestingly or 
lely speak, or use the holy name of God.* 

God warrant us. The quartos have * wamd,' which may stand for 

or * warrant,' for both expressions are used. See As You Like It, 
7 : * And for lovers lacking — God warn us ! — matter, the cleanliest 

to kiss.' And in the same play, iii. 3.5:* Your features I Lord 

us ! what features ? ' 

And thus she means. Theobald altered * means ' to ' moans,' which 
•t fit in well with 'videlicet.* Ritson maintained that 'means' is 
:d in the sense of * complains,' like the old word * mene ' which is of 
1 occurrence; and so it occurs in a igiViiai%ft -wVxOcv ^k.^q\^\v^v^ 



144 NOTES. [actt. 

Mr. Pinkerton is employed in petitions to the Lords of Session in Scotland, 
which runs, ' To the lords of council and session humbly means and shom 
your petitioner/ 

317. 318. These lily lips &c. To mend the rhjrme Theobald read 'Hy 
brows.* Mr. Collier adopts the correction of the Perkins Folio, * This % 
lip, This cherry tip.* Farmer conjectured • These lips lily. This nose cheny.' 
Steevens quotes from Peele's Old Wives Tale (1595) a parallel to thb 
nonsense : * Her corall lippes, her crimson chinne. — Thou art a floutiog 
knave — Her corall lippes her crimson chinne ! * 

327. shorey for * shorn.* The rhyme is too much for Thisbe's grammar. 

* Shore * is used elsewhere in Shakespeare for the preterite of * Shear.' 

331. imbrue J make bloody, stain with blood. The word is evidently used 
for purposes of alliteration and not in its strict sense ; but an almost paralld 
instance occurs in Titus Andronicus, ii. 3. 222 : 

* Lord Bassianus lies embrewed here.' 

339. a Bergomask dance. Hanmer explains this ' as a dance after the 
manner of the peasants of Bergomasco, a country of Italy, belonging to 
the Venetians. All the buffoons in Italy affect to imitate 'the ridicdooi 
jargon of that people, and from thence it became a custom to mimick ako 
their manner of dancing.* If we substitute Bergamo for Bergomasco his I 
explanation is correct. Alberti (Dizionario Universale) says that in Italian 

* Bergamasca ' is a kind of dance, so called from Bergamo or from a song 
which was formerly sung in Florence. The Italian Zanni (our * zany *) is a 
contraction for Giovanni in the dialect of Bergamo, and is the nickname for 
a peasant of that place. 

340. No epilogue J which was generally an apology for the play. Sec 
The Tempest, As You Like It, All's Well that Ends Well, 2 Henry IV, 
Henry V, Henry VIII. 

342. tvrit. The common form of the preterite in Shakespeare, who 
seldom uses * wrote.' See As You Like It, v. 2. 84 : 

•To show the letter that I writ to you.' 
344. discharged, performed. See i. 2. 84. 

351. palpable-gross, the grossness or roughness of which is palpable. 

352. The heavy gait, or slow progress. *Gait* is now* used of the 
manner of walking. Compare Venus and Adonis, 529 : 

* Look, the world's comforter, with weary gait. 
His day's hot task hath ended in the west.' 
And Richard II, iii. 2. 15 : ' heavy-gaited toads.' 

353. Solemnity, See i. i. 11. 
356. behowls. So Theobald. The quartos and folios have * beholds.' 

Compare As You Like It, v. 2. 119 : ' 'Tis like the hewling of Irish wolves I 
against the moon.' 
SS^' fordone, exhausted. The first quarto Vias * fot^doouc' ; Ac second 



8c. I.] A midsummer-night's dream. 145 

and ^e folios ' for&<IoDe.' * For ' in composition is like the German ver-, 
and has sometimes a negative and sometimes an intensive sense. See note 
on Hamlet, iu i. 103. 

360. ihe screech-owl. Compare Macbeth, ii. a. 3, 4 : 

*It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, 
Which gives the stem'st good-night.' 
And see the note on that passage. Theobald pointed out that Marston in 
his Antonio and Mellida (Second Part, iii. 3) has imitated this speech : 
'Now barkes the wolfe against the fiiUe cheekt moon; 
Now lyons half-clamd entrals roare for food; 
Now croakes the toad, and night crowes screech aloud, 
Fluttering 'bout casements of departed soules; 
Now gapes the graves, and through their yawnes let loose 
Imprison*d spirits to revisit earth.' 
And Maione quotes from Spenser's Fairy Queen, i. 5. 30, a passage which 
may possibly have been in Shakespeare's memory and is certainly parallel to 
this. The poet is describing Night. 

* And, all the while she stood upon the ground. 
The wakefull dogs did never cease to bay; 
As giving warning of th' unwonted sound, 
With which her yron wheeles did them affray, 
And her darke griesly looke them much dismay : 
The messenger of death, the ghastly owle, 
With drery skriekes did also her bewray ; 
And hungry wolves continually did howle 
At her abhorred fzct, so filthy and so fowle.' 
363. Now it is the time of night &c. Steerens quotes from Hamlet, iii. 
2. 406: 

• 'Tis now the very witching time of night, 
When churchyards yawn.* 
36S. the triple Hecate's team. So in Golding's Ovid, vii. fol. 79 6 (ed. 
1603): 

•By triple Hecate holy Rites.' 

Compare As You Like It, iiu a. 3 : * thrice crowned queen of night' ; as 
mling in heaven, on earth, and in the underworld. See also Drayton, The 
Man in the Moon, 476-478 : 

' So the great three most powerfull of the rest, 
Phoebe, Diana, Hecate, do tell. 
Her domination in heauen, in earth and hell.* 
Hecate is alwajrs a disyllabic in Shakespeare, except in i Henry VI, iii. 2. 
64* See note on King Lear, i. i. loi (Clar. Press edition). 
370. See vw, I. g$^ 
S7i'Jrolic, meny. Compare Cotgrave QPi, 'D\c\.'^-. *\o^c«i«^ *• ^* «<»»'» ^* 



146 NOTES. [act VI 

loyfull, ioyous, glad, merrie, iocond, blithe, buxoOie, frolicke, iollie, chee»'j 
full, pleasant, gamesome.* And *Gaudir. To be frolicke, liuelie, ioffie^j 
pleasant, merrie; gybe, ieast ; play the good fellow, make good cheere/ 

374. To sweep the dust behind the door, where it would be likely tij 
escape notice. Robin Goodfellow was believed to help good housemaids i 
their work, and to punish those who were sluttish. Compare He 
(Hesperides, vol. i. p. 270) : 

* Sweep your house : Who doth not so, 
Mab will pinch her by the toe.* 

375. Johnson suggests that Milton may have had this picture m hitj 
thought when he wrote (II Penseroso, 79), 

* Where glowing embers through ^e room 
Teach light to counterfeit a gloom.' 

378. as bird from brier, A frequent comparison in the old poetic 
Steevens quotes from Minot (ed. Ritson), P> 31 • 

* That are was blith als brid on brcre.* 

380. dance it. For * it * used indefinitely as the object of a verb, witiunt 
any antecedent, see Abbott, § 226. Compare 'daub it' in King Lear, i?. I. 
54, and 'outface it,' As You Like It, i. 3. 124. 

385. Oberon's speech, which is assigned to him in the quarto editions, it 
called in the folios * The Song,' and printed in italics. Johnson, who re- 
stored it to Oberon, supposes that two songs are lost, one led by Oberon, the 
other by Titania. 

387, 388. The blessing of the bridal bed was one of the ancient ceremonia 
of marriage. Steevens quotes from Chaucer, The Marchantes Tale (ed. 
Tyrwhitt), 1. 9693 ; 

* And whan the bed was with the preest y blessed.* 
Compare also The Romans of Partenay, or Melusine (ed. Skeat), 11. 1009-11: 

* Forsoth A Bisshop which that tyme ther was 
Signed and blissid the bedde holyly ; 

" In nomine dei " so said in that place.' 

389. create. See note on 1. 399 below. 

393. the blots of Nature* s hand, like the 'vicious mole of nature (Ham- 
let, i. 4. 24), were attributed to malignant fairies. 

396. prodigious, monstrous, portentous. Compare King John, iii. 1.46: 
' Full of unpleasing blots and sightless stains. 
Lame, foolish, crooked, swart, prodigious, 
Patch'd with foul moles and eye-oflfending marks.* 
399. consecrate, consecrated, sacred. This form of participle in words 
derived from the Latin is of frequent occurrence. Compare Sonnet 
Ixxiv. 6; 



ic. I-] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT^ S DREAM. I47 

•When thou revicwest this, thou dost review 
The very part was consecrate to thee/ 
Similarly'we find * create/ * dedicate/ * excommunicate,' * incorporate/ 

400. taJte his gait, take his way or course. Compare King Lear, iv. 6. 
•a^a : • Go your gait*; though this is intentionally rustic language. Steevens 
qQOtes from Lawrence Minot, p. 50 : 

* Take thi gate unto Gines, 
And grete tham wele thare/ 
The phrase is familiar in the dialect of the northern counties. 

40S> 4^4* T^^^^ lilacs ^'c arranged as by Staunton. In the quartos and 
'. folios they stand thus : 

*Ever shall in safety rest, 
And the owner of it blest/ 
Delius supposes the relative pronoun * which,* referring to the palace, to be 
omitted before * Ever/ Rowe reads * Ever shall it safely rest' ; and Malone, 
* E'er shall it in safety rest.* 

413. reprehendt censure, blame. Compare Venus and Adonis, 1065 : 

* And then she reprehends her mangling eye.* 
4.i6. unearned luck, good fortune which we have not deserved. 
419. If we *seape the serpents tongue, that is, without being hissed. Stee- 
vens quotes from Markham's English Arcadia (1607) : * But the nymph, 
after tiie custom of distrest tragedians, whose first act is entertained with a 
snaky salutation,* &c. 

421. Give me your hands, that is, applaud by clapping. Compare AlKs 
Well that Ends Well, v. 3. 340 : 

* Your gentle hands lend us, and take our hearts.' 



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