the formation of a whole. Oberon is desirous of reliev-| Hippolita are, as it were, a splendid frame for the picing the lovers from their perplexities, and greatly adds ture; they take no part in the action, but appear with a to them through the misapprehension of his servant, till stately pomp. The discourse of the hero and his Amahe at last comes to the aid of their fruitless amorous zon, as they course through the forest with their noisy pain, their inconstancy and jealousy, and restores fide-hunting train, works upon the imagination like the fresh lity to its old rights. The extremes of fanciful and vul- breath of morning, before which the shapes of night gar are united when the enchanted Titania awakes and disappear."* falls in love with a coarse mechanic with an ass's head, who represents, or rather disfigures the part of a tragical lover. The droll wonder of the transmutation of Bottom is merely the transmutation of a metaphor in its literal sense; but, in his behaviour during the tender homage of the Fairy Queen, we have a most amusing proof how much the consciousness of such a head-dress heightens the effect of his usual folly. Theseus and This is a production of the youthful and vigourous imagination of the poet. Malone places the date of its composition in 1594. There are two quarto editions, both printed in 1600: one by Thomas Fisher, the other by James Roberts. * Lectures on Dramatic Literature, vol. ii. p. 176, Stand forth, Demetrius ;-My noble lord, This hath bewitch'd3 the bosom of my child: I beg the ancient privilege of Athens; The. What say you, Hermia? be advis'd, sair To you your father should be as a god; The. Her. I would my father look'd but with my eyes. look. 3 The old copies read, 'This man hath bewitched. The alteration was made in the second folio for the sake of the metre ; but a redundant syllable at the commence ment of a verse perpetually occurs in our old dramas.lawyers. Her. I do entreat your grace to pardon me. In such a presence here, to plead my thoughts: The. Either to die the death, or to abjure Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires, Her. So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord, Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke Lys. How now, my love? Why is How chance the roses there do fade so fast? Lys. Ah me! for aught that ever I could read, The course of true love never did run smooth: Her. O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low! So quick bright things come to confusion. The. Take time to pause: and, by the next new Then let us teach our trial patience, moon, (The sealing-day betwixt my love and me, For everlasting bond of fellowship,) For disobedience to your father's will; Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would: Dr on Diana's altar to protest, For aye, austerity and single life. Because it is a customary cross; As due to love, as thoughts, and dreams, and sighs, Lys. A good persuasion; therefore, hear me, I have a widow aunt, a dowager Of great revenue, and she hath no child: From Athens is her house remote seven leagues; Dem. Relent, sweet Hermia ;-And, Lysander, And she respects me as her only son. yield Thy crazed title to my certain right. Lys. You have her father's love, Demetrius; Lys. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he, And, which is more than all these boasts can be, Why should not I then prosecute my right? Upon this spotted and inconstant man. The. I must confess, that I have heard so much, My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come: Come, my Hippolyta: What cheer, my love?— I must employ you in some business There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee; Her. My good Lysander! I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow; By that which knitteth souls, and prospers loves; Enter HELENA. sweet air Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated, 7 Fancy is love. So afterwards in this play: S Shakspeare forgot that Theseus performed his exploits before the Trojan war, and consequently long before the death of Dido. 9 Fair for fairness, beauty. Very common in writers of Shakspeare's age. 10 The lode-star is the leading or guiding star, that is the polar star. The magnet is for the same reason called the lode-stone. 11 Countenance, feature. 12 i. e. changed, transformed O, teach me how you look; and with what art Her. 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. Her. Take comfort; he no more shall see my face; Lysander and myself will fly this place.- O then, what graces in my love do dwell, Lys. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold: [Exit LYSANDER. 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 beguil'd. As waggish boys in game' themselves forswear, So the boy love is perjur'd every where: For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,2 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: But herein mean I to enrich my pain, To have his sight thither and back again. SCENE II. The same. A Room in a Cottage.Enter SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, QUINCE, and STARVELING.3 Quin. Is all our company here? [Exit. Bot. You were best to call them generally, man by man, according to the scrip. 2 Eyes. 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 lamenta ble comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby.4 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 Py ramus. 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. "The raging rocks, With shivering shocks, 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. 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 coming. Quin. That's all one; you shall play it in & mask, and you may speak as small as you will. Bot. An 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. Bot. Well, proceed. Quin. Robin Starveling, the tailor. Quin. Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother. Tom Snout, the tinker. Snout. Here, Peter Quince. 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 man's heart good to hear me; I will exclude his inferiors from all possibility of distinction He is therefore desirous to play Pyramus, Thisbe, and the Lion, at the same time. 4 Probably a burlesque upon the titles of some of our old Dramas. 1 Sport. 3 In this scene Shakspeare takes advantage of his knowledge of the theatre, to ridicule the prejudices and 5 This passage shows how the want of women on the competitions of the players. Bottom, who is generally old stage was supplied. If they had not a young man acknowledged the principal actor, declares his inclina- who could perform the part with a face that might pass tion to be for a tyrant, for a part of fury, tumult, and for feminine, the character was acted in a mask, which noise, such as every young man pants to perform when was at that time a part of a lady's dress, and so much he first appears upon the stage. The same Bottom, in use that it did not give any unusual appearance to the who seems bred in a tiring-room, has another histrioni-scene; and he that could modulate his voice to a female cal passion. He is for engrossing every part, and would tone might play the woman very successfully 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 beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, your perfect yellow.2 Quin. Some of your French crowns have no hair at 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 our devices known. In the mean time I will draw a bill of properties, such as our play wants. I pray you, fail me not. Bot. We will meet; and there we may rehearse more obscenely, and courageously. Take pains; be perfect, adieu. Quin. At the duke's oak we meet. ACT II. [Exeunt. SCENE I. A Wood near Athens. Enter a Fairy at one door; and Puck at another. Puck. How now, spirit! whither wander you? Thorough bush, thorough briar, Thorough flood, thorough fire. Swifter than the moones sphere; To dew her orbs' upon the green: 1 As if. 2 It seems to have been a custom to stain or dye the beard. 3 This allusion to the Corona Veneris, or baldness attendant upon a particular stage of, what was then termed, the French disease, is too frequent in 3hakspeare, and is here explained once for all. 4 Articles required in performing a play. 5 To meet whether bowstrings hold or are cut is to meet in all events. But the origin of the phrase has not been satisfactorily explained. So Drayton, in his Nymphidia, or Court of Fairy: 7 The orbs here mentioned are those circles in ne herbage commonly called fairy-rings, ne cause of which is not yet certainly known. In their gold coats spots you see; Take heed the queen come not within his sight. 12 Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quite, 14 Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite, Puck. I am that merry wanderer of the night." Fai. And here my mistress:-'Would that he were gone! 14 A quern was a handmill. 15 And if that the bowle of curds and creame were Sisse the dairy-maid, why then either the pottage was not duly set out for Robin Goodfellow, the frier, and burnt next day in the pot, or the cheeses would not curdle, or the butter would not come, or the ale in the fat never would have good head. But if a Peeterpenny, or an housle-egg were behind, or a patch of tythe unpaid,--then ware of bull-beggars, spirits,' &c. 16 Milton refers to these traditions in L'Allegro. 17 Wild apple. 18 Dr. Johnson thought he remembered to have heard this ludicrous exclamation upon a person's seat slipping 8 The allusion is to Elizabeth's band of gentlemen from under him. He that slips from his chair falls as a pensioners, who were chosen from among the hand-tailor squats upon his board. Hanmer thought the pas somest and tallest young men of family and fortune; sage corrupt, and proposed to read rails or cries.' they were dressed in habits richly garnished with gold lace. 9 In the old comedy of Doctor Dodypoll, 1600, an euchanter says, 'Twas I that led you through the painted meads Where the light fairies danc'd upon the flowers, Hanging on every leaf an orient pearl 10 Lubber or clown. Lob, lobcock, looby, and lubber, all denote inactivity of body and dulness of mind. 19 The old copy reads: And waren in their mirth, &c. Though a gliminering of sense may be extracted from this passage as it stands in the old copy, it seems most probable that we should read, as Dr. Farmer proposed, yeren. To yer is to hiccup, and is so explained in all the old dictionaries. The meaning of the passage will then be, that the objects of Puck's waggery laughed till their laughter ended in a yer or hiccup. Puck is speaking with an affectation of ancient phraseology. SCENE II. Enter OBERON, at one door, with his | And on old Hyems' chin, and icy crown," An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds Obe. How, canst thou thus, for shame, Titania, Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night From Perigenia, whom he ravished? And make him with fair Ægle break his faith, Tita. These are the forgeries of jealousy: 1 The shepherd boys of Chaucer's time had Many a floite and litling horne And pipes made of grene corne, 2 See the Life of Theseus in North's Translation of Plutarch. Egle, Ariadne, and Antiopa were all at different times mistresses to Theseus. The name of Pe. rigune is translated by North Perigouna. 3 Spring seems to be here used for beginning. The spring of day is used for the dawn of day in K. Henry IV. Part II. 4 A very common epithet with our old writers, to sig. nify paltry; palting appears to have been its original orthography. 5 i. e. borne down the banks which contain them. 6 A rural game, played by making holes in the ground In the angles and sides of a square, and placing stones or other things upon them, according to certain rules. These figures are called nine men's morris, or merrils, because each party playing has nine men; they were generally cut upon turf, and were consequently choked up with mud in rainy seasons. 7 Human mortals is a mere pleonasm; and is neither put in opposition to fairy mortals nor to human immortals, according to Steevens and Ritson. It is simply the language of a fairy speaking of men. See Mr. Douce's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 185. 8 Theobald proposed to read their winter cheer.' 9 This singular image was probably suggested to the poet by Golding's translation of Ovid, B. ii.: And lastly quaking for the colde, stoode Winter all forlorne, With rugged head as white as dove, and garments all to-torne, Obe. Do you amend it then; it lies in you: Tita. Set your heart at rest, The fairy land buys not the child of me. And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands, Would imitate; and sail upon the land, Obe. How long within this wood intend you stay? Obe. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee. [Exeunt TITANIA and her Train. Obe. Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this 10 Autumn producing flowers unseasonably upon those of Summer. 11 The confusion of seasons here described is no more than a poetical account of the weather which happened in England about the time when the Midsummer-Night's Dream was written. The date of the piece may be de termined by Churchyard's description of the same kind of weather in his Charitie,' 1595. Shakspeare fanci fully ascribes this distemperature of seasons to a quarrel between the playful rulers of the fairy world; Churchyard, broken down by age and misfortunes, is seriously disposed to represent it as a judginent from the Almighty on the offences of mankind. 12 Produce. So in Shakspeare's 97th Sonnet; 14 It is well known that a compliment to Queen Ellzabeth was intended in this very beautiful passage. Warburton has attempted to show, that by the mermaid in the preceding lines, Mary Queen of Scots was intended. It is argued with his usual fanciful ingenuity, but will not bear the test of examination, and has been satisfactorily controverted. It appears to have been no uncommon practice to introduce a compliment to Eli. Izabeth in the body of a play. |
