Is true as steel: Leave you your power to draw,
And I shall have no power to follow you.

Dem. Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair?
Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth

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

Hel. And even for that do I love you the more.
I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,

The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.

What worser place can I beg in your love,
(And yet a place of high respect with me)
Than to be used as you use your dog?

Dem. Tempt not so much the hatred of my spirit;
For 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,
To leave the city, and commit yourself
Into the hands of one that loves you not;
To trust the opportunity of night,
And the ill counsel of a desert place,
With the rich worth of your virginity.

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 company;
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'll run from thee, and hide me in the brakes,

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 chang'd;
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.

[5] This passage is paraphrased from two lines of an ancient poet (Tibullus) -Tu nocte vel atra

"Lumen, et in solis tu mihi turba locis." JOHNSON.

As the works of King David might be more familiar to Shakespeare than Roman poetry, perhaps, on the present occasion, the 11th verse of the 139th Psalm was in his thoughts: Yea, the darkness is no darkness with thee, but the night is as clear as the day."

STEEVENS.

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. Fye, Demetrius !
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:

We cannot fight for love, as many men do; may
We should be woo'd, and were not made to woo.
I'll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell,

To die upon the hand I love so well.

[Exeunt DEM. and HEL. Ob. Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this

grove,

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.

Ob. I pray thee, give it me.

I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,
Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows;
Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania, some time of the night,
Lull'd 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'll 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

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.

[5] The oxlip is the greater cowslip. STEEVENS.

[Exeunt

[6]-the man-had ou.] I desire no surer evidence to prove that the broad Scotch pronunciation once prevailed in England, than such a rhyme as the first of these words affords to the second. STEEVENS.

SCENE III.

Another part of the wood. Enter TITANIA, with her Train.
Tita. Come, now a roundel," and a fairy song;
Then, for the third part of a minute, hence ;8
Some, to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds ;
Some, war with rear-mice for their leathern wings,?
To make my small elves coats; and some, keep back
The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, and wonders
At our quaint spirits: Sing me now asleep.
Then to your offices, and let me rest.

SONG.
I.

1 Fai. You spotted snakes, with double tongue,'
Thorny hedge-hogs, be not seen;

Newts, and blind-worms, do no wrong;
Come not near our fairy queen:

Chorus. Philomel, with melody,

Sing in our sweet lullaby;

Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby :
Never harm, nor spell nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;

So, good night, with lullaby.

II.

2 Fai. Weaving spiders, come not here;

Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence:
Beetles black, approach not near;

Worm, nor snail, do no offence.

Chorus. Philomel, with melody, &c.

A roundel is a dance in a ring. GRAY.

Dr. Warburton reads for the third part of the night. But the persons employed are fairies, to whom the third part of a minute might not be a very short time to do such work in. l'he critic might as well have objected to the epithet tall, which the fairy bestows on the cowslip. But Shakespeare, through the play, has preserved the proportion of other things in respect of these tiny beings, compared with whose size, a cowslip might be tall, and to whose powers of execution, a minute might be equivalent to an age. STEEVENS

[9] A rere-mouse is a bat, a mouse that raises itself from the ground by the aid of wings. STEEVENS.

[1] By both these ter ns, I suppose, our author means--forked; as the tongues of snakes are sometimes represented in ancient tapestry and paintings, and, it may be added, are so in nature. STEEVENS.

[2] The newt is the eft, the blind-worm is the Cacilia or slon-worm. They are both ingredients in the cauldron of Macbeth. See Macbeth Act IV. sc. i. STEEVENS

1 Fai. Hence, away; now all is well:

One, aloof, stand centinel.

[Exeunt Fairies. TITANIA sleeps

Enter OBERON.

Obe. What thou seest, when thou dost awake,

[Squeezes the flower on TITANIA's eye-lids.

Do it for thy true love take;

Love, and languish for his sake:
Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
In thy eye that shall appear
When thou wak'st, it is thy dear;
Wake, when some vile thing is near.

Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA.

[Exit.

Lys. Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood; And to speak troth, I have forgot our way; We'll 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.

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.

T

mean, that my heart unto yours is knit;

So that but one heart can we make of it:
Two bosoms interchained with an oath;
So then, two bosoms, and a single troth.
Then, by your side no bed-room me deny :
For, lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.

Her. Lysander riddles very prettily:-
Now much beshrew my manners, and my pride,
If Hermia meant to say, Lysander lied.

JOHNSON.

[2] The ounce is a small tiger, or tiger cat. [3] The idea is exactly similar to that of St. Paul: "Love thinketh no evil." HENLEY

[4] This word, of which the etymology is not exactly known, implies a siniste wish, and means the same as if she had said "now ill befall my manners," &c. STEEVENS

See Minsheu's etymology of it, which seems to be an imprecation or wish of such evil to one, as the venomous biting of the shrew-mouse. TOLLET

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:
Thy love ne'er alter, till thy sweet life end!
Lys. 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.

Puck. Through the forest have I gone,
But Athenian found I none,

On whose eyes I might approve
This flower's force in stirring love.
Night and silence! who is here?
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, kill-courtesy.
Churl, upon thy eyes I throw

All the power this charm doth owe:
When thou wak'st, let love forbid
Sleep his seat on thy eye-lid.
So wake, when I am gone;

For I must now to Oberon.

Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running.

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

[Exit

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.

Hel. O, I am out of breath in this fond chace!
The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.
Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies;
For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.

How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears:
If so, iny eyes are oft'ner wash'd than hers.
No, no, I am as ugly as a bear;

For beasts, that meet me, run away for fear:
VOL. II.

10

{Exit.