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 load-stars ;' and your tongue's sweet air
More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
Sickness is catching ; 0, were favour so !8
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 bateu,
The rest I'll give to be to you translated.
0, 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.
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 :
O then, what graces in my love do dwell,
That he hath turn'd a heaven unto hell !

Lys. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold :
To-morrow-night, when Phæbe doth behold
Her silver visage in the watry glass,

[7] This was a compliment not unfrequent among the old poets. The lode-star is the leading or guiding star, that is, the pole-star. The magnet is, for the same reason, called the lode-stone, either because it leads iron, or because it leads the sailor. Davies calls Queen Elizabeth:

" Lode-stone to hearts, and lode-stone to all eyes." JOHNSON. [8] Favour is feature, countenance. STEEVENS. (9) To translate, here signifies to change, to transform. STEEVENS.

(1) Perhaps every reader may not discover the propriety of these lines. Hermia is willing to comfort Helena, and to avoid all appearance of triumph over her She therefore bid; her not to consider the power of pleasing, as an advantage to be much envied or much desired, since Hermia, whom she considers as possessing it in the supreme degree, has found no other effect of it than the loss of happiness.

JOHNSON

all appreasing ders as appinesSON

Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,
(A time that lovers' Rights doth still conceal,).
Through Athens' gates have we devis'd to steal.

Her. And in the wood, where often you and I
Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,
Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet ::
There my Lysander and myself shall meet:
And thence, from Athens, turn away our eyes,
To seek new friends and stranger companies.
Farewell, sweet playfellow ; pray thou for us,
And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius !
-Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight
From lovers' food, till morrow deep midnight. (Eart.

Lys. I will, my Hermia.-Helena, adieu : As 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. 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, 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 winged Cupid painted blind. Nor hath love's mind of any judgment taste; Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste : And therefore is love said to be a child, Because in choice he is so oft beguild. As waggish boys in game themselves fcrswear, So the boy love is perjur'd every where : For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne," He hail'd down oaths, that he was only mine ; And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt, So he dissolv'd, 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 :

[2] Mr. Heath observes, that our author seems to have had the following passage in the 55th Psalm, (v. 14, 15,) in his thoughts : * But it was even thou, my comyanion, my guide, and mine own familiar friend. We took sweet counsel together, and walked in the house of God as friends." MALONE.

(3) Eyne- This plural is coinmon both in Chaucer and Spenser. STEEVENS

But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
To have his sight thither, and back again. [Exit.

SCENE II.
The same. A Room in a Cottage. Enter Snug, BOTTOM,

FLUTE, SNOUT, Quince, and STARVELING." Quin is all your company here?

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

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 duchess, on his wedding-day at night.

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

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

Bot. 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.
Bot. Ready: Name what part I am for, and proceed.
Quin. You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.
Bot. What is Pyramus ? a lover, or a tyrant ?
Quin. A lover, that kills himself most gallantly for love.

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 humour is for a tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split.

141 In this scene Shakespeare takes advantage of his knowledge of the theatre, to ridicule the prejudices and competitions of the players. Bottom, who is generally acknowledged the principal actor, declares his inclination to be for a tyrant, for a part of fury, tumult, and noise, such as every young man pants to perform when he first steps upon the stage. The same Bottom, who seems bred in the tiringroom, has another histrionical passion. He is for engrossing every part, and would exclude his inferiors from all possibility of distinction. He is therefore desirous to play Pyramus, Thisby, and the Lion, at the same time. JOHNSON.

[5] A scrip, Fr. escript, now written ecrit. STEEVENS.

“ The raging rocks,
“ With shivering slocks,
“ Shall break the locks

“ Of prison-gates :
66 And Phibbus' car
“ 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. You must take Thisby on you.
Flu. What is Thisby? a wandering knight?
Quin. It is the lady that Pyramus must love.

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

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 aide my face, let me play Thisby too: I'll speak in a monstrous little voice ;--Thisne, Thišne, Ah, Pyramus, my lover dear; thy Thisby dear! and ludy dear!

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

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.

(8] This passage shows how the want of women on the old stage was supplied. If they had not a young man who could perform the part with a face that might pass for feminine, the character was acted in a mask, wbich was at that time a part of a lady's dress so much in use, that it did not give any unusual appearance to the scene : and he that could modulate his voice in a female tone, might play the woman very successfully. It is observed in Downes's Roscius Anglicanus, that KyDaston, one of tneae counterfeit heroines, moved the passions more strongly than the women that nave since been brought upon the stage. Some of the catastrophes of the old comedies, which make lovers marry the wrong women, are, by recol. lection of the common use of masks, brought nearer to probability. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson here seems to have quoted from memory. Downes does not speak of Kybaston's performance in such unqualified terms. His words are : "It has since been disputable, whether any women that succeeded hia, (Kynastoa,) so seastUly touched the audience as he." REED.

Quin. You, Pyramus's 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.

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 inan'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.

All. 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 summer's day; a most lovely, gentleman-like man; therefore you must needs play Pyramus.

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

Quin. Why, what you will.

Bot. I will discharge it in either your straw-coloured heard, 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 af all, and then you will play bare-faced.-But, masters here are your parts : and I am to entreat you, request you, and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night; and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the town, by moon-light; there will we rehearse : for if we meet in the city, we shall be dogg’d with company, and