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Was, to be gone from Athens, where we might be 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 ftol'n away, they would, Demetrius,
Thereby to have defeated you and me:

You, of your wife; and me, of my confent;
Of my confent, that she should be your wife.
Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
Of this their purpose hither, to this wood;
And I in fury hither follow'd them;
Fair Helena in fancy following me.

But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,
(But by fome power it is) my love to Hermia,
Melted as is the fnow, feems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gawd,
Which in my childhood I did doat 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,
Was I betrothed ere I did fee Hermia:
But, like a fickness, did I loath this food;
But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
Now do I wish it, love it, long for it,
And will for evermore be true to it.

The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
Of this difcourfe we fhall hear more anon.-
Egeus, I will over-bear your will;
For in the temple, by and by with us,
Thefe couples fhall eternally be knit.

And, for the morning now is fomething worn,

Fair Helena in fancy following me.] Fancy is here taken for

love or affection, and is oppofed to fury, as before,

Sighs and tears poor Fancy's followers.

Some now call that which a man takes particular delight in his Fancy. Flower-fancier, for a florift, and bird-fancier, for a lover and feeder of birds, are colloquial words. JOHNSON.

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Our purpos'd hunting fhall be fet afide.-
Away, with us to Athens: three and three,
We'll hold a feaft in great folemnity.-
Come Hippolita.

[Exe. Duke, Hippolita, and train. Dem. These things feem fmall and undiftinguishable, Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.

Her. Methinks I fee these things with parted eye; When every thing feems double.

Hel. So, methinks:

And I have found Demetrius like a jewel, "
Mine own, and not mine own.

Dem. Are you fure?

That we are awake?-it seems to me

That yet we fleep, we dream.-Do not you think, The Duke was here, and bid us follow him?

6 And I have found Demetrius like a JEWEL,

Mine own, and not mine own.]

Hermia had obferved that things appeared double to her. Helena replies, fo methinks; and then fubjoins, that Demetrius was like a jewel, her own and not her own. He is here, then, compared to fomething which had the property of appearing to be one thing when it was another. Not the property fure of a jewel: or, if you will, of none but a falfe one. We should read,

And I bave found Demetrius like a GEMELL,

Mine own, and not mine own.

From Gemellus, a twin. For Demetrius had that night acted two fuch different parts, that she could hardly think them both played by one and the fame Demetrius; but that there were twin Demetrius's like the two Sofia's in the Farce.-From Gemellus comes the French, Gemeau, or Jumeau, and in the feminine, Gemelle or Fumelle: So in Maçon's Translation of the Decameron of Boccace-Il avoit trois filles plus age'es que les males, des quelles les deux qui eftoient, JUMELLES avoient quinze ans. Quatrieme Jour. Nov. 3. WARBURTON.

This emendation is ingenious enough to deferve to be true.

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STEEVENS.

JOHNSON.

This paffage, hitherto omitted, I have restored from the quarto's

1600.

Her.

Her. Yea; and my father.

Hel. And Hippolita.

Lyf. 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. [Exeunt. As they go out, Bottom awakes.

Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will anfwer:-My next is, Moft fair Pyramus-Hey, ho!-Peter Quince! Flute the bellows-mender! Snout the tinker! Starveling! God's my life! ftol'n hence, and left me asleep! I have had a moft rare vifion. I had a dream, paft the wit of man to fay what dream it was: man is but an afs 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 patch'd fool, if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not feen; man's hand is not able to tafte, 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 fhall be call'd Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom; and I will fing it in the latter end of a play, before the Duke: 9 Peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I fhall fing it at her death. '

7

[Exit, SCENE

-man is but a patch'd fool.] The quarto, 1600, gives the paffage thus; But man is but patch'd a fool, &c."

STEEVENS.

Patch'd fool,] That is, a fool in a particolour'd coat.

JOHNSON.

9 I will fing, &c.] In former editions: Peradventure to mak it the more gracious, I fhall fing it at her death. At whofe death? In Bottom's fpeech there is no mention of any fhe-creature, to whom this relative can be coupled. I make not the leaft fcruple but Bottom, for the fake of a jeft, and to render his voluntary, as we may call it, the more gracious and extraordinary faid;-I shall fing it ofter death. He, as Pyramus, is kill'd upon the fcene; and fo might promife

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Athens. Quince's house.

Enter Quince, Flute, Snout, and Starveling.

Quin. Have you fent to Bottom's house? is he come home yet?

Star. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt, he is tranfported.

Flu. If he come not, then the play is marr❜d. It goes not forward, doth it?

Quin. It is not poffible; you have not a man in all Athens, able to discharge Pyramus, but he.

Flu. No; he hath fimply the best wit of any handycraft man in Athens.

Quin. Yea, and the best perfon too: and he is a very paramour, for a sweet voice.

Flu. You must fay, paragon: a paramour is (God bless us!) a thing of nought.

2

Enter Snug.

Snug. Mafters, 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.

to rife again at the conclufion of the interlude, and give the duke his dream by way of fong The fource of the corruption of the text is very obvious. The fin after being funk by the vulgar pronunciation, the copyit might write it from the found, a'ter which the wife editors not understanding, concluded, two words were erroneously got together; fo, fplitting them, and clapping in an b, produced the prefent reading-at her.

1

THEOBALD.

-at her death.] He means the death of Thift, which is what his head is at prefent full of. STEEVENS.

2 A thing of nought,] which Mr. Theobald changes with great pomp to a thing of naught, is, a good for nothing thing.

JOHNSON.

3 made men.] In the fame fenfe as in the Tempeft, any monster in England nakes a man. JOHNSON.

Flu.

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Flu. O fweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he loft fixpence a day during his life: he could not have 'scaped fix-pence a-day: an the duke had not given him fixpence a-day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hang'd: he would have deferv'd it. Six-pence a-day, in Pyramus, or nothing.

Enter Bottom.

Bot. Where are thefe lads? where are these hearts? Quin. Bottom!-O moft courageous day! O most happy hour!

Bot. Masters, I am to difcourfe 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, fweet Bottom.

Bot. Not a word of me. All I will tell you is, that the duke hath dined. Get your apparel together; good ftrings to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps; meet prefently at the palace; every man look o'er his part; for, the short and the long is, our play is preferr'd. In any cafe, let Thisby have clean linen, and let not him, that plays the lion, pare his nails, for they fhall hang out for the lion's claws. And, moft dear actors! eat no onions, nor garlick, for we are to utter fweet breath; and I do not doubt, but to hear them fay, it is a moft fweet comedy. No more words; away; go, away.

[Exeunt.

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