But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy
Lye further off; in human modesty
Such separation, as, may well be faid,
Becomes a virtuous batchelor and a maid :
So far be distant; and good night, sweet friend :
Thy love ne'er alter, till thy sweet life end!

Lyf. Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I;
And then end life, when I end loyalty!
Here is my bed: Sleep give thee all his rest!
Her. With half that wish the wisher's eyes be

press'd!

Enter Puck.

[They Sleep.

Puck. Through the forest have I gone,
But Athenian found I none,
On whose eyes I might approve
This flower's force in stirring Love.
Night and filence! who is here?
Weeds of Athens he doth wear :
This is he, my master said,
Despised the Athenian maid;
And here the maiden, sleeping found,
On the dank and dirty ground.
Pretty foul! she durst not lye
Near this lack-love, kill courtesy 9.
Churl, upon thy eyes I throw
All the power this charm doth owe:

9 Near to this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.] Mr. Theobald and fir T. Hanmer, for the sake of the measure, leave out this lack-love. I have only omitted the words to and this. STEEVENS.

The old copy has not to. Might we not therefore adhere to it, and at the same time preserve the measure, by printing the line thus:

Near this lack-love, this kill-court'sy.
We meet with the fame abbreviation in our author's Venus and
Adonis:

"They all strain court'fy, who shall cope him first."

:

MALONE.

When

When thou wak'st, let love forbid
Sleep his feat on thy eye-lid.
So awake, when I am gone;
For I must now to Oberon.

[Exit.

Enter Demetrius and Helena running.
Hel. Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.
Dem. I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me

thus.
Hel. O, wilt thou darkling leave me? do not fo.
Dem. Stay on thy peril; I alone will go.

[Exit Demetrius.

Hel. O, I am out of breath, in this fond chace!
The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace*.
Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies;
For the hath blessed and attractive eyes.
How came her eyes so bright? Not with falt tears:
If fo, my eyes are oftner wash'd than hers.
No, no, I am as ugly as a bear;
For beasts, that meet me, run away for fear :
Therefore, no marvel though Demetrius
Do, as a monster, fly my prefence thus.
What wicked and diffembling glass of mine
Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne? -
But who is here? Lysander! on the ground!
Dead? or afleep? I see no blood, no wound :-
Lyfander, if you live, good fir, awake.

Lyf. And run through fire I will, for thy sweet
[Waking.

fake.

Transparent Helena! nature here shews art,
That through thy bosom makes me fee thy heart.
Where is Demetrius? Oh, how fit a word
Is that vile name, to perish on my fword!

*rvilt thou darkling leave me?] So, in the Two Angry Women of Abington, 1599: " - we'll run away with the torch, and leave them to fight darkling." The word is likewife used by Milton.

STEEVENS.

my grace.] My acceptableness, the favour that I

can gain. JOHNSON.

Hel

Hel. Do not say so, Lysander; say not fo: What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what

though?

Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content.
Lyf. Content with Hermia? No: I do repent
The tedious minutes I with her have spent.
3 Not Hermia, but Helena I love :
Who will not change a raven for a dove?
The will of man is by his reason sway'd;
And reason says, you are the worthier maid.
Things growing are not ripe until their season :
So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;
And touching now the point of human skill,
Reafon becomes the marshal to my wills,
And leads me to your eyes; where I o'erlook
Love's stories, written in love's richest book.

Hel. Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?
When, at your hands, did I deserve this scorn?
Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man,
That I did never, no, nor never can,
Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye,
But you must flout my insufficiency ?
Good troth, you do me wrong, good footh, you do,
In fuch difdainful manner me to woo.
But fare you well: perforce I must confefs,
I thought you lord of more true gentleness 6.
Oh, that a lady, of one man refus'd,
Should, of another, therefore be abus'd!

3 Not Hermia, but Helena I love.) The first folio has :
-but Helena now I love. MALONE.

[Exit.

4 touching now the point of human skill,] i. e. my senses be ing now at their utmost height of perfection. So, in K. Henry VIII:

" I have touch'd the highest point of all my greatness." STEEVENS.

5 Reafon becomes the marshal to my will,] That is, My will now follows reafon. JOHNSON. So, in Macbeth:

:

"Thou marshal'ft me the way that I was going."

STEEVENS.

Lyf.

Lyf. She fees not Hermia :-Hermia, fleep thou
there;

And never may'st thou come Lysander near!
For, as a furfeit of the sweetest things,
The deepest loathing to the stomach brings;
Or, as the herefies, that men do leave,
Are hated most of those they did deceive7;
So thou, my furfeit, and my heresy,
Of all be hated; but the most, of me!
And all my powers, address your love and might,
To honour Helen, and to be her knight!

[Ext.

Her. [Starting from fleep.] Help me, Lyfander, help

me! do thy best,

To pluck this crawling ferpent from my breast!
Ay me, for pity!-- what a dream was here?
Lysander, look, how I do quake with fear:
Methought, a ferpent eat my heart away,
And you fat smiling at his cruel prey :-
Lysander! what, remov'd? Lysander! lord!
What, out of hearing? gone? no found, no word?
Alack, where are you? speak, an if you hear ;
Speak, of all loves 9; I swoon almost with fear.
No?-then I well perceive you are not nigh:
Or death, or you", I'll find immediately.

[Exit.

6-true gentleness; Gentleness is equivalent to what, in modern language, we should call the spirit of a gentleman. PERCY. those they did deceive;] The folio reads that did deceive. MALONE.

7

8 And you-] Instead of you, the elder folio reads yet. Mr. Pope first gave the right word from the quarto 16c0. STEEVENS. 9 Speak, of all loves;-) (f all loves is an adjuration more than once used by our author. So, Merry Wives, &c. act ii. fc. 8: - to fend her your little page, of all loves.” STEEVENS.

Or death, or you, &c.] The folio 1623, and the quarto 1600, instead of the first or, read either. STEEVENS.

ACT

2

АСТ III. SCENE II.

The Wood.

Enter Quince, Snug, Bottom, Flute, Snout, and Starveling.

The Queen of Fairies lying asleep.

Bot. Are we all met ?

Quin. Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place for our rehearsal: This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn brake our tyring-house; and we will do it in action, as we will do it before the duke.

Bot. Peter Quince,

Quin. What fay'st thou, bully Bottom ?

Bot. There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisby, that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a fsword to kill himself; which the ladies

cannot abide. How answer you that?

Snout. By'rlakin 3, a parlous fear.

Star.

In the time of Shakspeare, there were many companies of players, sometimes five at the fame time, contending for the favour of the publick. Of these some were undoubtedly very unskilful and very poor, and it is probable that the design of this scene was to ridicule their ignorance and the odd expedients to which they might be driven by the want of proper decorations. Bottom was perhaps the head of a rival house, and is therefore honoured with an ass's head. JOHNSON.

Enter Quince, &c.) The two quartos 1600, and the folio, read only, Enter the Clowns. STEEVENS.

3 By'rlakin, a parlous fear.) By our ladykin, or little lady, as ifakins is a corruption of by my faith. The former is used in Preston's Cambyfes:

"The clock hath stricken vive ich think by laken." Again, in Magnificence, an ancient folio interlude, written by Skelton, and printed by Rafstell:

" By our lakin, fyr, not by my will."

Parlous