Because I cannot meet my Hermia. 3 Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more. Dem. Do I entice you? Do I fpeak you fair? Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you? Hel. And even for that do I love you the more; The more you beat me, I will fawn on you: What worfer place can I beg in your love, Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my fpirit; For I am fick, when I do look on thee. Hel. And I am fick, when I look not on you. Hel. Your virtue is my privilege. For that So Star hurt, in his Tranflation of the Second Book of Virgil's Eneid, 1582, fpeaking of Caffandra, "Lo ye, the wood virgin, with locks unbroided is haled.” It is not night, when I do fee your face, &c.] STEEVENS. This paffage is paraphrafed from two lines of an ancient poet, -Tu node vel atra Lumen, et in folis tu mihi turba locis. JOHNSON. There Therefore, I think, I am not in the night: 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 beafts. Hel. The wildeft hath not fuch a heart as you. Run when you will, the ftory fhall be chang'd: Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chafe ; The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind Makes speed to catch the tyger :-Bootless speed! When cowardice purfues, and valour flies. Dem. I will not stay thy questions; let me go; Or, if thou follow me, do not believe, But I fhall do thee mischief in the wood. Hel. Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field, [Exeunt. Ob. Fare thee well, nymph: ere he doth leave this grove, Thou shalt fly him, and he fhall feek thy love.Haft thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer. Re-enter Puck. Puck. Ay, there it is. Ob. I pray thee, give it me. I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, There 5 O'er-canopy'd with luscious woodbine,] All the old editions have, D4 Quite There fleeps Titania, fome time of the night, And with the juice of this I'll ftreak her eyes, Take thou fome of it, and feek though this grove; A fweet Athenian lady is in love With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes; And, look, thou meet me ere the first cock crow. Puck. Fear not, my lord, your fervant fhall do fo. [Exeunt, .> SCENE II. Another part of the wood. Enter Queen of Fairies, with her train. Queen. Come, now a roundel, and a fairy fong; part of a minute, hence: Then, for the third Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine. 7 Some, On the margin of one of my folio's an unknown hand has written lub woodbine, which, I think, is right. This hand I have fince difcovered to be Theobald's. JOHNSON. Shakespeare uses the word lub in The Tempest, A& II. 6 "How lub and lufty the grafs looks how green ??? STEEVENS. -a roundel, and a fairy fong ;] A roundel is a dance in a ring. GRAY. A roundel, rondill, or roundelay, is used to fignify a fong begin. ning or ending with the fame fentence, redit in orbem. Puttenham, in his Art of Portry, 1580, has a chapter On the roundel, or ph re; and produces what he calls A general resemblance of the roundel to God, the world, and the queen. STEEVENS. 7 Then for the third part of a minute bence.] So the old copies, But the queen fets them work, that is to keep them employed for the Some, to kill cankers in the mufk-rose buds ; Fairies fing. You spotted Snakes with double tongue, Sing in your Sweet lullaby; Lulla, lulla, lullaby : Nor fpell, nor charm, the remainder of the night; the poet, undoubtedly, intended her to fay, Dance your round, and fing your fong, and then inftantly (before the third part of a minute) begone to your respective duties. THEOBALD. Dr. Warburton reads, -for the third part of the midnight, The perfons employed are fairies, to whom the third part of a minute might not be fo fhort a time to do fuch work in. The criticks might as well have objected to the epithet tall, which the fairy gives to the cowflip. But Shakespeare, throughout the play, has preferved the proportions of other things in refpect of thefe tiny beings; compared with whofe fize a cowflip might be tall, and to whose powers of execution, a minute might be equivalent to an age. STEEVENS. -quaint Spirits.] For this Dr. Warburton reads against all authority, quaint fports. But Profpero, in The Tempeft, applies quaint to Ariel. JOHNSON. 2 Fairy. 2 Fairy. Weaving Spiders, come not bere; 1 Fairy. Hence, away; now all is well :* [Exeunt Fairies. The Queen fleeps.. Enter Oberon. Ob. What thou feeft, when thou doft wake, Do it for thy true love take; Love, and languish for his fake: 2 Be it ounce, or cat, or bear, Enter Lyfander and Hermia. } [Exit Oberon. Lyf. Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood; And, to speak troth, I have forgot our way: We'll reft us Hermia, if thou think it good, Her. Be't fo, Lyfander: find you out a bed, * Hence away, &c.] This according to all the editions is made part of the fong; but I think without fufficient reason, as it appears to be spoken after the fong is over. In the quarto 1600, it is given to the 2d Fairy, but the other divifion is better. STEEV. 2 Be it ounce,] The ounce is a small tiger, or tiger-cat. JOHNSON. Lyf |