More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear, Your's would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go; Her. I frown upon him, yet he loves me still. Her. I give him curses, yet he gives me love. Davies calls Queen Elizabeth: "Lode-stone to hearts, and lode-stone to all eyes." Johnson. So, in The Spanish Tragedy: "Led by the loadstar of her heavenly looks." Again, in The battle of Alcazar, 1594: "The loadstar and the honour of our line." Steevens. 8 O, were favour so!] Favour is feature, countenance. in Twelfth Night, Act II, sc. iv: 66 thine eye So, "Hath stay'd upon some favour that it loves." Steevens. 9 Yours would I catch,] This emendation is taken from the Oxford edition. The old reading is-Your words I catch. Johnson. I have deserted the old copies, only because I am unable to discover how Helena, by catching the words of Hermia, could also catch her favour, i. e. her beauty. Steevens. 1 to be to you translated.] To translate in our author, sometimes signifies to change, to transform. So, in Timon: to present slaves and servants 66 2 His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.] The folio, and the quarto, printed by Roberts, read: His folly, Helena, is none of mine. Johnson. 3 None, but your beauty; 'would that fault were mine!] I would point this line thus: 26. Fisher's 4to has it as in the kpt. The Ms. 1632 reads " His fault, fair Helena, is none of mine. " Her. Take comfort; he no more shall see my face; O, then, what graces in my love do dwell, Lys. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold: Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass, [Exit HER. None. But your beauty;-'would that fault were mine! 4 Take comfort; he no more shall see my face; Before the time I did Lysander see,] Perhaps every reader may not discover the propriety of these lines. Hermia is willing to comfort Helena, and to avoid all appearance of triumph over her. She therefore bids her not to consider the power of pleasing as an advantage to be much envied or much desired, since Hermia, whom she considers as possessing it in the supreme degree, has found no other effect of it than the loss of happiness. Johnson. Things base and vile, holding no quantity,5 Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; As waggish boys in games themselves forswear, 5 " dear recompense [Exit. holding no quantity,] Quality seems a word more suitable to the sense than quantity, but either may serve. Johnson. Quantity is our author's word. So, in Hamlet, Act III, sc. ii: "And women's fear and love hold quantity." Steevens. 6 in game-] Game here signifies, not contentious play, but sport, jest. So Spenser: 66 'twixt earnest, and 'twixt game." Johnson. 7 Hermia's eyne,] This plural is common both in Chaucer and Spenser. So, in Chaucer's Character of the Prioresse, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 152: 66 hir eyen grey as glass." Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. I, c. iv, st. 9: "While flashing beams do dare his feeble eyen.” Steevens. 8 this hail-] Thus all the editions, except the 4to. 1600, printed by Roberts, which reads instead of this hail, his hail. Steevens. 9- it is a dear expense:] i. e. it will cost him much, (be a severe constraint on his feelings) to make even so slight a return for my communication, Steevens. The Ms. corp. makes this note to be spared. SCENE II. The same. A Room in a Cottage. Enter SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, QUINCE, and STARVELING.1 Quin. Is all our company here? Bot. You were best to call them generally, man by man, according to the scrip.2 Quin. Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our interlude before the duke and duchess, on his wedding-day at night. Bot. First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats on; then read the names of the actors; and so grow to a point.3 1 In this scene, Shakspeare takes advantage of his knowledge of the theatre, to ridicule the prejudices and competitions of the players. Bottom, who is generally acknowledged the principal actor, declares his inclination to be for a tyrant, for a part of fury, tumult, and noise, such as every young man pants to perform, when he first steps upon the stage. The same Bottom, who seems bred in a tiring-room, has another histrionical passion. He is for engrossing every part, and would exclude his inferiors from all possibility of distinction. He is, therefore, desirous to play Pyramus, Thisbe, and the Lion, at the same time. Johnson. 2 the scrip.] A scrip, Fr. escript, now written écrit. So, Chaucer, in Troilus and Cressida, 1. 2. 1130: "Scripe nor bil." Again, in Heywood's If you know not me you know Nobody, 1606, P. II: "I'll take thy own word without scrip or scroll." Holinshed likewise uses the word. Steevens. but grou 3 grow to a point.] Dr. Warburton reads-go on ; is used, in allusion to his name, Quince. Johnson. To grow to a point, I believe, has no reference to the name of Quince. I meet with the same kind of expression in Wily Beguiled: "As yet we are grown to no conclusion." Again, in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584: "Our reasons will be infinite, I trow, "Unless unto some other point we grow." Steevens. And so grow to a point.] The sense, in my opinion, hath been hitherto mistaken; and instead of a point, a substantive, I would read appoint, a verb; that is, appoint what part each actor is to perform, which is the real case. Quince first tells them the name of the play, then calls the actors by their names, and after that, tells each of them what part is set down for him to act. This is arfar as it goes justified by the Ms. of 1632 10. nads and so go on to appoint." ce 4 Quin. Marry, our play is-The most lamentable comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby. Bot. A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry.5-Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your actors by the scroll: Masters, spread yourselves." Quin. Answer, as I call you.-Nick Bottom, the weaver. Quin. A lover, that kills himself most gallantly for love. Bot. That will ask some tears in the true performing of it: If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes: I stones will move storms, I will condole in some measure. To the rest-Yet my chief humour is for a tyrant: I could Perhaps, however, only the particle a may be inserted by the printer, and Shakspeare wrote to point, i. e. to appoint. The word occurs in that sense, in a poem, by N. B. 1614, called I would and I would not, stanza iii: 4 "To point the captains every one their fight." Warner. The most lamentable comedy, &c.] This is very probably a burlesque on the title page of Cambyses: " A lamentable Tragedie, mixed full of pleasant Mirth, containing, The Life of Cambises King of Percia," &c. By Thomas Preston, bl. I. no date. On the registers of the Stationers' company, however, appears "the boke of Pyramus and Thisbye," 1562. Perhaps Shakspeare copied some part of his interlude from it." Steevens. A poem, entitled Pyramus and Thisbe, by D. Gale, was published in 4to. in 1597; but this, I believe, was posterior to the Midsummer Night's Dream. Malone. 5 A very good piece of work, and a merry.] This is designed as a ridicule on the titles of our ancient moralities and interludes. Thus Skelton's Magnificence is called "a goodly interlude and a mery." Steevens. 6 7 spread yourselves.] i. e. stand separately, not in a group, but so that you may be distinctly seen, and called over. Steevens. I will condole in some measure,] When we use this verb at present, we put with before the person for whose misfortune we profess concern. Anciently, it seems to have been employed without it. So, in A Pennyworth of good Counsell, an ancient ballad: "Thus to the wall "I may condole." Again, in Three Merry Coblers, another old song: "Whose case the body condoles." Steevens. |