Lys. You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so;
For you love Hermia; this, you know, I know:
And here, with all good will, with all my heart,
In Hermia's love I yield you up my part;
And yours of Helena to me bequeath,

Whom I do love, and will do to my death.

Hel. Never did mockers waste more idle breath.
Dem. Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none:
If e'er I lov'd her, all that love is gone.

My heart with her but, as guest-wise, sojourn'd;
And now to Helen it is home return'd,

There to remain.

Lys.

Helen, it is not so.

Dem. Disparage not the faith thou dost not know,
Lest, to thy peril, thou aby it dear.-

Look, where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear.
Enter HERMIA.

Her. Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,
The ear more quick of apprehension makes;
Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense,
It pays the hearing double recompense:-
Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found;
Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound.
But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?

Lys. Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go? Her. What love could press Lysander from my side? Lys. Lysander's love, that would not let him bide, Fair Helena; who more engilds the night Than all yon fiery oes5 and eyes of light.

A My heart with her but, as guest-wise, sojourn'd;

And now to Helen it is home return'd,] The ancient copies read" to her." Dr. Johnson made the correction, and exemplified the sentiment by the following passage from Prior:

"No matter what beauties I saw in my way:

66

They were but my visits; but thou art my home." Steevens. So, in our author's 109th Sonnet:

5

"This is my home of love; if I have rang'd,

"Like him that travels, I return again." Malone.

all yon fiery oes-] Shakspeare uses O for a circle. So, in the prologue to King Henry V :

can we crowd

"Within this little O, the very casques
"That did affright the air at Agincourt?"

Why seek'st thou me? could not this make thee know,
The hate I bare thee made me leave thee so?

Her. You speak not as you think; it cannot be.
Hel. Lo, she is one of this confederacy!
Now I perceive they have conjoin'd, all three,
To fashion this false sport in spite of me.
Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid!
Have you conspir'd, have you with these contriv'd
To bait me with this foul derision?

Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd,
The sister's vows, the hours that we have spent,
When we have chid the hasty-footed time
For parting us,-O, and is all forgot??

All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence?
We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,

Again, in The Partheneia Sacra, 1633:

661

8

the purple canopy of the earth, powder'd over and beset with silver oes, or rather an azure vault," &c.

Again, in John Davies of Hereford's Microcosmos, 1605, p. 233: "Which silver oes and spangles over-ran.' Steevens. D'Ewes's Journal of Queen Elizabeth's Parliaments, p. 650, mentions a patent to make spangles and oes of gold; and I think haberdashers call small curtain rings, O's, as being circular.

Tollet.

6 The sister's vows,] We might read, more elegantly—The sister vows, and a few lines lower,-All school-day friendship. The latter emendation was made by Mr. Pope; but changes, merely for the sake of elegance, ought to be admitted with great caution.

Malone.

Mr.

7 For parting us,-0, and is all forgot?] The first folio omits the word-and. I have received it from the folio, 1632. Malone reads-now. Steevens.

The editor of the second folio, to complete the metre, introduced the word and;-" O, and is all forgot?" It stands so aukwardly, that I am persuaded it was not our author's v. ord.

Malone.

O, and is all forgot?] Mr. Gibbon observes, that in a poem of Gregory Nazianzen on his own life, are some beautiful lines, which burst from the heart, and speak the pangs of injured and lost friendship, resembling these. He adds, "Shakspeare had never read the poems of Gregory Nazianzen: he was ignorant of the Greek language; but his mother tongue, the language of nature, is the same in Cappadocia and in Britain."

8

Gibbon's Hist. Vol. III, p. 15. Reed. artificial gods,] Artificial is ingenious, artful. Steevens.

Have with our neelds created both one flower,
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
Both warbling of one song, both in one key;
As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds,
Had been incorporate. So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted;
But yet a union in partition;

Two lovely berries moulded on one stem:
So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart;
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,
Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.1

1

9 Have with our neelds, &c.] Most of our modern editors, with the old copies, have-needles; but the word was probably written by Shakspeare neelds, (a common contraction in the inland counties at this day,) otherwise the verse would be inharmonious. See Gammer Gurton's Needle.

Again, in Sir Arthur Gorges' translation of Lucan, 1614: "Thus Cato spake, whose feeling words

"Like pricking neelds, or points of swords," &c.

Again, in Stanyhurst's Virgil, 1582:

66 on neeld-wrought carpets."

The same ideas occur in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609:

she

"Would ever with Marina be:

"Be 't when they weav'd the sleeded silk,
"With fingers long, small, white as milk,
"Or when she would with sharp neeld wound
"The cambrick," &c.

Again, ibid:

66

Deep clerks she dumbs, and with her neele composes "Nature's own shape."

In the age of Shakspeare many contractions were used. Ben Jonson has wher for whether, in the prologue to his Sad Shepherds and in the Earl of Sterline's Darius, is sport for support, and twards for towards.

Of the evisceration and extension of words, however, T. Churchyard affords the most numerous and glaring instances; for he has not scrupled even to give us rune instead of ruin, and miest instead of mist, when he wants rhymes to soon, and criest. Steevens.

In the old editions of these plays many words of two syllables are printed at length, though intended to be pronounced as one. Thus spirit is almost always so written, though often used as a monosyllable; and whether, though intended often to be contracted, is always (I think, improperly) written at length. Malone. 1 Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,

Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.] The old copies read-life coats, &c. Steevens.

And will you rent our ancient love asunder,
To join with men in scorning your poor friend?
It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly:

Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it;
Though I alone do feel the injury.

Her. I am amazed at your passionate words:
I scorn you not; it seems that you scorn me.
Hel. Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn,
To follow me, and praise my eyes and face?
And made your other love, Demetrius,
(Who even but now did spurn me with his foot)
To call me goddess, nymph, divine, and rare,
Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this
To her he hates? and wherefore doth Lysander
Deny your love, so rich within his soul,
And tender me, forsooth, affection,
But by your setting on, by your consent?
What though I be not so in grace as you,
So hung upon with love, so fortunate,
But miserable most, to love unlov'd?
This you should pity, rather than despise.
Her. I understand not what you mean by this.
Hel. Ay, do, perséver,2 counterfeit sad looks,

The true correction of the passage I owe to the friendship and communication of the ingenious Martin Folkes, Esq.-Two of the first, second, &c. are terms peculiar in heraldry, to distinguish the different quarterings of coats. Theobald.

These are, as Theobald observes, terms peculiar to heraldry; but that observation does not help to explain them-Every branch of a family is called a house; and none but the first of the first house can bear the arms of the family, without some distinction. Two of the first, therefore, means two coats of the first house, which are properly due but to one. M. Mason.

According to the rules of heraldry, the first house only (e. g. a father who has a son living, or an elder brother as distinguished from a younger) has a right to bear the family coat. The son's coat is distinguished from the father's by a label; the younger brother's from the elder's by a mullet. The same crest is common to both. Helena, therefore, means to say, that she and her friend were as closely united, as much one person, as if they were both of the first house; as if they both had the privilege due but to one person, (viz. to him of the first house) the right of bearing the family coat without any distinguishing mark. Malone. 2 Ay, do, perséver,] Persever is the reading of all the old copies. The word was formerly so pronounced.

Make mows upon me when I turn my back;
Wink at each other; hold the sweet jest up:
This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.
If you have any pity, grace, or manners,

You would not make me such an argument. 3
But, fare ye well: 'tis partly mine own fault;
Which death, or absence, soon shall remedy.
Lys. Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse;
My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena!

Hel. O excellent!

Her.

Sweet, do not scorn her so.

Dem. If she cannot entreat, I can compel.

Lys. Thou canst compel no more than she entreat; Thy threats have no more strength, than her weak prayers.

Helen, I love thee; by my life, I do;

I

swear, by that which I will lose for thee,

To prove him false, that says I love thee not.

Dem. I say, I love thee more than he can do.
Lys. If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.
Dem. Quick, come,—

Her.

Lysander, whereto tends all this? Lys. Away, you Ethiop!

Dem.

No, no, sir:-he will

Thus our author, in All's well that ends well, Act IV, sc. ii: say thou art mine, and ever

66

My love, as it begins, so shall perséver.”

Again, in Glapthorne's Argalus and Parthenia, 1639:

"May they in love and union still perséver." Steevens.

3 such an argument.] Such a subject of light merriment.

So, in the first part of King Henry IV, Act II, sc. ii:

Johnson.

it would be argument for a week," &c. Steevens.

4 No, no, sir:-he will, &c.] This passage, like almost all those in these plays in which there is a sudden transition, or the sense is hastily broken off, is much corrupted in the old copies. My text [No, no, he'll—sir,] is formed from the quarto printed by Fisher, and the first folio. The words "he 'll" are not in the folio, and Sir is not in the quarto. Demetrius, I suppose, would say, No, no; he'll not have the resolution to disengage himself from Hermia. But, turning abruptly to Lysander, he addresses him ironically:-"Sir, seem to break loose;" &c. Malone.