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A

MIDSUMMER-NIGHT's

DRE A M.

ACT I. SCENE I.

1

The Duke's Palace in Athens.

Enter Thefeus, Hippolita, Philoftrate, with attendants,

THESE US.

OW, fair Hippolita, our nuptial hour

NR

Draws on apace: four happy days bring in Another moon: but, oh, methinks, how flow This old moon wanes! fhe lingers my defires,

'It is probable that the hint for this play was received from Chaucer's Knight's Tale: thence it is, that our author speaks of Thefeus as duke of Athens. The Tale begins thus:

"Whylome as olde ftories tellin us,
"There was a Duke that highte Thefeus,

"Of Athens he was lord and governour, &c."

Lidgate too, the monk of Bury, in his Tranflation of the Trage dies of John Bochas, calls him the fame. chap. xii. 1. 21.

"Duke Thefeus had the victorye."

Creon, in the tragedy of Jocasta, tranflated from Euripides in 1566, is called Duke Creon.

So Skelton,

"Not lyke Duke Hamilcar,

"Nor lyke Duke Afdruball."

And Stanyhurst, in his Translation of Virgil, calls Æneas, Duke Eneas.

The Paftorals of Drayton, quoted in the notes, were printed in

1593.

B2

STEEVENS.

Like

Like to a step-dame, or a dowager,

Long withering out a young man's revenue. *

Hip. Four days will quickly fteep themselves in night;

Four nights will quickly dream away the time;

And then the moon, like to a filver bow,

New bent in heaven, fhall behold the night
Of our folemnities.

The. Go, Philoftrate,

Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments:
Awake the pert and nimble fpirit of mirth;
Turn melancholy forth to funerals,

The pale companion is not for our pomp. [Exit Phi.
Hippolita, I woo'd thee with my fword;
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, Lyfander, and Demetrius. Ege. Happy be Thefeus, our renowned duke! The. 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 confent to marry her.

Stand forth, Lyfander;-and, my gracious duke,
This man hath witch'd the bofom of my child:
Thou, thou, Lyfander, thou haft given her rhimes,
And interchang'd love tokens with my child:

2

Long WITHERING OUT a young man's revenue.] Long withering out is, certainly, not good English. I rather think Shakefpeare wrote, Long WINTERING ON a young man's revenue.

WARBURTON.

That the common reading is not good English, I cannot perceive, and therefore find in myfelf no temptation to change it.

3 The old copies read bewitch'd. JOHNSON.

JOHNSON.

Thou

Thou haft by moon-light at her window fung,
With feigning voice, verfes of feigning love;
And ftol'n the impreffion of her fantasy.

With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds+, conceits,
Knacks, trifles, nofegays, fweet-meats, meffengers
Of ftrong prevailment in unharden'd youth:
With cunning haft thou filch'd my daughter's heart;
Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,
To ftubborn harfhnefs:-And, my gracious duke,
Be it fo, fhe will not here before your Grace
Confent to marry with Demetrius;

I beg the antient privilege of Athens,
As fhe is mine, I may difpofe of her:
Which shall be either to this gentleman,
Or to her death, according to our law,'
Immediately provided in that cafe.

The. What fay you, Hermia? be advis'd, fair maid. Το you your father fhould be as a God,"

One

gards, i. e. baubles, toys, trifles. Our author has the word frequently: See King John, act 3. fc. 5. STEEVENS. Or to her death, according to our law. By a law of Solon's, parents had an abfolute power of life and death over their children. So it fuited the poet's purpofe well enough, to fuppofe the Athenians had it before.-Or perhaps he neither thought nor knew any thing of the matter. WARBURTON.

6 To you your father should be as a God,
One, who compos'd your beauties; yea,
and one,
To whom you are but as a form in wax
By him imprinted; and within his power
TO LEAVE the figure or disfigure :t.]

We should read,

To 'LEVE the figure, &c.

i. e. releve, to heighten or add to the beauty of the figure, which is faid to be imprinted by him. 'Tis from the French, relever. Thus they fay, Tapiries relevées d'or. In the fame fenfe they ufe enkver, which Maundevile makes English of in this manner-And alle the walles withinne ben covered with gold and fylver, in fyn plates: and in the plates ben stories and batayles of Knyghtes ENLEVED.

B 3

p. 228.

One, that compos'd your beauties; yea, and one,
To whom you are but as a form in wax
By him imprinted, and within his power
To leave the figure, or disfigure it.
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
Her. So is Lyfander.

The. In himfelf he is:

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

Her. I would, my father look'd but with my eyes. The. Rather your eyes muft with his judgment look.

Her. I do intreat your Grace to pardon me:
I know not, by what power I am made bold;
Nor how it may concern my modefty,

In fuch a prefence here, to plead my thoughts.
But, I beseech your Grace, that I may know
The worst that may befal me in this cafe,
If I refufe to wed Demetrius.

The. Either to die the death, 7 or to abjure
For ever the fociety of men.

8

Therefore, fair Hermia, queftion your defires;

* Know of your youth, examine well your blood,

p. 228. Rabelais, with a ftrain of buffoon humour, that equals the fober elegance of this paffage in our poet, calls the fmail gentry of France, Gentilhommes de bas relief. WARBURTON.

i know not why fo harfh a word fhould be admitted with fo little need, a word that, fpeken, could not be understood, and of which no example can be shown. The fenfe is plain, you owe to your father a being which he may at pleajure continue or destroy.

JOHNSON.

7 to die the death,-] Shakespeare employs this fcriptural expreffion in King John; and I meet with it again in the iccond part of the Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601.

"We will, ny liege, elfe let us die the death." STEEVENS. Know of your youth,] Bring your youth to the question. Confider your youth. JOHNSON.

Whe

Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun;

For aye to be in fhady cloifter mew'd,
To live a barren fifter all your life,

Chanting faint hymns to the cold, fruitlefs moon?
Thrice bleffed they that mafter fo their blood,
To undergo fuch maiden pilgrimage!
But earthlier happy is the rofe diftill'd,

Than that, which withering on the virgin-thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies, in fingle blefiednefs,*
Her. So will I grow, fo live, fo die my lord,
Ere I will yield my virgin-patent up

I

Unto his lordship, to whofe unwifh'd yoak
My foul confents not to give fovereignty.

The. Take time to paufe: and, by the next new

moon,

(The fealing day betwixt my love and me,
For everlasting bond of fellowship)
Upon that day either prepare to die,
For difobedience to your father's will;

Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would;
Or on Diana's altar to protest,

For aye, aufterity and fingle life.

Dem. Relent, fweet Hermia ;--and, Lyfander, yield

Thy crazed title to my certain right.

Lyf. You have her father's love, Demetrius; Let me have Hermia's; do you marry him. Ege. Scornful Lyfander! true, he hath my love; And what is mine, my love fhall render him ;

9 But earthlier happy is the rose diftill'd.] Thus all the copies, yet earthlier is fo harth a word, and earthlier happy for happier earthly, a mode of fpeech fo unufual, that I wonder none of the editers have propoled earlier happy. JOHNSON.

It has fince been obferved, that Mr. Pope did propose earlier.

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STEVENS.

—to whose unwish'd yoke] Thus the modern editors; the particle to is wanting in the old copies. STEEVENS.

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