DEM. An if I could,' what fhould I get therefore?

HER. A privilege, never to fee me inore.And from thy hated prefence part I so:

3

See me no more, whether he be dead or no, [Exit. DEм. There is no following her in this fierce vein:

Here, therefore, for a while I will remain.
So forrow's heavinefs doth heavier grow
For debt that bankrupt fleep doth forrow owe;
Which now in fome flight measure it will pay,
If for his tender here I make some stay. [Lies down.
OBE. What haft thou done? thou haft mistaken

quite,

And laid the love-juice on fome true-love's fight: Of thy mifprifion muft perforce enfue

Some true love turn'd, and not a falfe turn'd true. PUCK. Then fate o'er-rules; that, one man holding troth,

A million fail, confounding oath on oath.

OBE. About the wood go fwifter than the wind, And Helena of Athens look thou find:

All fancy-fick fhe is, and pale of cheer

With fighs of love, that coft the fresh blood dear: '

* An if I could, &c.] This phrafeology was common in Shakfpeare's time. Thus in Romeo and Juliet, A&t V. fc i;

"An if a man did need a poifon now."

Again, in Lodge's Illuftrations, Vol. I. p. 85: "—— meanys was made unto me to see an yff I wold appoynt," &c. REED.

3 - part I fo:] So, which is not in the old copy, was inferted for the fake of both metre and rhime, by Mr. Pope. MALONE. 4 - pale of cheer -] Cheer, from the Italian cara, is frequently ufed by old English writers for countenance. Even Dryden fays"Pale at the fudden fight, she chang'd her cheer."

Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786. STEEVENS. fighs of love, that coft the fresh blood dear:] So, in King Henry IV. we have "blood-drinking,

blood-consuming,"

By fome illufion fee thou bring her here;
I'll charm his eyes, against fhe do appear.
PUCK. I go, I go; look, how I go;
Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow.' [Exit.
OBE. Flower of this purple dye,
Hit with Cupid's archery,

Sink in apple of his eye!
When his love he doth espy,
Let her fhine as gloriously
As the Venus of the fky.-
When thou wak'ft, if fhe be by.
Beg of her for remedy.

Re-enter PUCK.

PUCK. Captain of our fairy band,
'Helena is here at hand;

And the youth, miftook by me,
Pleading for a lover's fee;
Shall we their fond pageant fee?

Lord, what fools thefe mortals be! ́

1

and "blood-fucking fighs." All alluding to the ancient fuppofi tion that every figh was indulged at the expence of a drop of blood. STEEVENS.

Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow.] So, in the 10th Book of Ovid's Metamorphofis: tranflated by Golding, 1567:

66

and though that the

Did fly as fwift as arrow from a Turkye bowe."

DOUCE

"A Tartar's painted bow of lath" is mentioned in Romeo and Juliet. STEEVENS.

6 Hit with Cupid's archery,] This alludes to what was faid before:

the bolt of Cupid fell:

"It fell upon a little western flower,

Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound."

STEEVENS.

OBE. Stand afide: the noife they make,
Will caufe Demetrius to awake.

PUCK. Then will two, at once, woo one;
That muft needs be fport alone:

And thofe things do beft please me,

That befal prepofterously.

Enter LYSANDER and HELENA.

Lys. Why fhould you think, that I fhould woo in fcorn?

Scorn and derifion never come in tears: Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows fo born, In their nativity all truth appears.

How can these things in me feem fcorn to you, Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true?? HEL. You do advance your cunning more and

more.

When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray! These vows are Hermia's: Will you give her o'er? Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing

weigh:

Your vows, to her and me, put in two scales,
Will even weigh; and both as light as tales.

Lys. I had no judgement, when to her I swore. HEL. Nor none, in my mind, now you give her 'o'er.

LYS. Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.

7 Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true?] This is faid in allufion to the badges (i. e. family crefts) anciently worn on the leeves of fervants and retainers. So, in The Tempest: "Mark the badges of these men, and then say if they be true.”

VOL. VII.

H

STEEVENS.

DEM. [awaking.] O Helen, goddefs, nymph, perfect, divine!

To what, my love, fhall I compare thine eyne? Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in fhow

8

Thy lips, those kiffing cherries, tempting grow!
That pure congealed white, high Taurus' fnow,7
Faun'd with the eaftern wind, turns to a crow,
When thou hold'ft up thy hand: O let me kiss
This princefs of pure white, this feal of blifs!
HEL. O fpite! O hell! I fee you all are bent
To fet against me, for your merriment.
If you were civil, and knew courtesy,
You would not do me thus much injury.
Can you not hate me, as I know you do,
But you muft join, in fouls, to mock me too?

7

2

Taurus' now,] Taurus is the name of a range of moun. tains in Afia. JOHNSON.

8 This princefs of pure white.] Thus all the editions as low as Sir Thomas Haumer's. He reads:

"This pureness of pure white;”

and Dr. Warburton follows him. The old reading may be jufti fied from a paflage in fir Walter Raleigh's Difcovery of Guiana, where the pine-apple is called The princess of fruits. Again, in Wyat's Poems, "Of beauty princeffe chief." STEEVENS.

In The Winter's Tale we meet with a fimilar expreffion:

9

image:

good footh, fhe is

"The queen of curds and cream." MALONE.

-feal of bliss! He has in Meafure for Meafure, the fame

But my kiffes bring again,

Seals of love, but feal'd in vain." JOHNSON.

More appofitely, in Antony and Cleopatra:

My play-fellow, your hand; this kingly feal,

"And plighter of high hearts." STEEVENS.

-join, in fouls,] i. e. join heartily, unite in the fame miud. Shakspeare in K. Henry V. ufes an expreffion not unlike this: For we will hear, note, and believe in heart;"

i. e. heartily believe: aud in Meafure for Meafure, he talks of electing with special foul. In Troilus and Creffida, Ulyffes, relating the chara&er of He&or as given him by Eneas, fays:

If you were men, as men you are in fhow,
You would not ufe a gentle lady fo;

To vow, and fwear, and fuperpraise my parts,
When, I am fure, you hate me with your hearts.
You both are rivals, and love Hermia;
And now both rivals, to mock Helena:

with private foul

"Did in great Ilion thus tranflate him to me." And, in All Fools, by Chapman, 1605, is the fame expreffion as that for which I contend:

Happy, in foul, only by winning her."

Again, in a mafque called Luminalia, or the Festival of Light 1637:

"You that are chief in fouls, as in your blood." Again, in Pierce Pennylefs his Supplication to the Devil, 1595: whofe fubverfion in foul they have vow'd." Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602. B. XII. ch. lxxv: Could all, in foul, of very God fay as an Ethnick faid "To one that preached Hercules?".

Again, in our author's Twelfth Night:

"And all thofe fwearings keep as true in foul."

Sir T. Hanmer would read-in flouts; Dr. Warburton, infolents.

I rather believe the line fhould be read thus:

STEEVENS.

“But you must join, ill souls, to mock me too?" Ill is often used for bad, wicked. So, in The Sea Voyage of Beaumont and Fletcher, A& IV. fc. i:

which I cite the rather, because ill had there also been changed into in, by an error of the prefs, which Mr. Sympfon has corrected from the edition 1647. TYRWHITT.

This is a very reasonable conje&ure, though I think it hardly right. JOHNSON.

We meet with this phrafe in an old poem by Robert Dabourne : Men fhift their fafhions--

แ

They are in fouls the fame." FARMER.

A fimilar phrafeology is found in Meafure for Meafure:
"Is't not enough thou haft fuborn'd thefe women
"To accuse this worthy man, but in foul mouth
"To call him villain!" MALONE.