suppress. Lastly, in the whole rhythmical structure of the versification, the poet has put forth all his strength. We venture to offer an opinion that, if any single composition were required to exhibit the power of the English language for purposes of poetry, that composition would be the Midsummer-Night's Dream.' This wonderful model, which, at the time it appeared, must have been the commencement of a great poetical revolution,—and which has never ceased to influence our higher poetry from Fletcher to Shelley,-was, according to Malone, the work of "the genius of Shakspere, even in its minority." "This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard," says Hippolyta, when Wall has "discharged "his part. The answer of Theseus is full of instruction:-" The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst are no worse if imagination amend them." It was in this humble spirit that the great poet judged of his own matchless performances. He felt the utter inadequacy of his art, and indeed of any art, to produce its due effect upon the mind, unless the imagination, to which it addressed itself, was ready to convert the shadows which it presented into living forms of truth and beauty. "I am convinced," says Coleridge," that Shakspere availed himself of the title of this play in his own mind, and worked upon it as a dream throughout." The poet says so, in express words :- "If we shadows have offended, Think but this (and all is mended), That But to understand this dream-to have all its gay, and soft, and harmonious colours impressed upon the vision -to hear all the golden cadences of its poesy-to feel the perfect congruity of all its parts, and thus to receive it as a truth-we must not suppose that it will enter the mind amidst the lethargic slumbers of the imagination. We must receive it "As youthful poets dream On summer eves by haunted stream." To offer an analysis of this subtle and ethereal drama would, we believe, be as unsatisfactory as the attempt to associate it with the realities of the stage. With scarcely an exception, the proper understanding of the other plays of Shakspere may be assisted by connecting the apparently separate parts of the action, and by developing and reconciling what seems obscure and anomalous in the features of the characters. But to follow out the caprices and illusions of the loves of Demetrius and Lysander, of Helena and Hermia ;—to reduce to prosaic description the consequence of the jealousies of Oberon and Titania ;-to trace the Fairy Queen under the most fantastic of deceptions, where grace and vulgarity blend together like the Cupids and Chimeras of Raphael's Arabesques ;—and, finally, to go along with the scene till the illusions disappear-till the lovers are happy, and "sweet bully Bottom" is reduced to an ass of human dimensions ;-such an attempt as this would be worse even than unreverential criticism. No,-the 'Midsummer-Night's Dream must be left to its own influences PERSONS REPRESENTED. THESEUS, Duke of Athens. EGEUS, father to Hermia. Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 1. LYSANDER, in love with Hermia. Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 1. Act V. sc. 1. Act III. sc. 2. DEMETRIUS, in love with Hermia. Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 2; sc. 3. Act III. sc. 2. PHILOSTRATE, master of the revels to Theseus. QUINCE, the carpenter. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 2. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 2. BOTTOM, the weaver. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 2. FLUTE, the bellows-mender. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 2. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 2. STARVELING, the tailor. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 2. HIPPOLYTA, Queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 1. Act V. sc. 1. HERMIA, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander. Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 3. Act III. sc. 2. Act IV. sc. . Act V. sc. 1. HELENA, in love with Demetrius. Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 2; sc. 3. Act III. sc. 2. Act IV. sc. 1. Act V. sc. 1. OBERON, king of the fairies. Appears, Act II. sc. 2; sc. 3. Act III. sc. 2. Act IV. sc. 1. Act V. sc. 2. TITANIA, queen of the fairies. Appears, Act II. sc. 2; sc. 3 Act III. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 1. Act V. sc. 2. PUCK, or Robin Goodfellow, a fairy. Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act IV. sc. 1. Act V. sc. 2. PEAS-BLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARD-SEED, fairies. Appear, Act III. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 1. Pyramus, Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, Lion, characters in the Interlude performed by the Clowns. Appear, Act V. sc. 1. Other Fairies attending their King and Queen. Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta. SCENE ATHENS, AND A WOOD NEAR. A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. ACT I. SCENE I.-Athens. A Room in the Palace of Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and The. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour Draws on apace; four happy days bring in Another moon: but, oh, methinks, how slow This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires, Like to a step-dame, or a dowager, Long withering out a young man's revenue. Hip. Four days will quickly steep themselves in nights; Four nights will quickly dream away the time; And then the moon, like to a silver bow New bent in heaven, shall behold the night Of our solemnities. Stir The. Go, Philostrate, up the Athenian youth to merriments; Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth; Turn melancholy forth to funerals, The pale companion is not for our pomp. [Exit PHIL. Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword, And won thy love, doing thee injuries; But I will wed thee in another key, With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling |