And thence, from Athens, turn away our eyes, the rhimes, as I make no doubt but the poet first gave them. Sweet was eafily corrupted into fwell'd, because that made an antithefis to emptying: and strange companions our editors thought was plain English; but tranger companies, a little quaint and unintelligible. Our author very often uses the substantive, stranger adjectively; and companies to fignify companions: as in Richard II. Act I: "To tread the stranger paths of banishment." And in Henry V : " His companies unletter'd, rude and shallow." THEOBALD. Dr. Warburton retains the old reading, and perhaps juftifiably; for a bosom fwell'd with fecrets does not appear as an expreffion unlikely to have been used by our author, who speaks of a stuff'd bosom in Macbeth. In Lyly's Midas, 1592, is a somewhat similar expression: "I am one of those whose tongues are swell'd with filence." Again, in our author's K. Richard II : the unseen grief "That swells in filence in the tortur'd foul." "Of counsels swell'd" may mean-fwell'd with counsels. Of and with, in other ancient writers have the same signification. See alfo, Macbeth Note on Of Kernes and Gallow-glasses was supplied." i. e. with them. In the scenes of K. Richard II. there is likewise a mixture of rhime and blank verse. Mr. Tyrwhitt, however, concurs with Theobald. Though I have thus far defended the old reading, in deference to the opinion of other criticks I have given Theobald's conjectures a place in the text. STEEVENS. I think, Sweet, the reading proposed by Theobald, is right. The latter of Mr. Theobald's emendations is likewife fupported by Stowe's Annales, p. 991, edit. 1615: "The prince himself was faine to get upon the high altar, to girt his aforesaid companies with the order of knighthood." Mr. Heath observes, that our author feems to have had the following passage in the 55th Pfalm, (v. 14, 15,) in his thoughts: "But it was even thou, my companion, my guide, and mine own familiar friend. We took fweet counsel together, and walked in the house of God as friends." MALONE. Keep word, Lyfander: we must starve our fight [Exit HERM. Lrs. I will, my Hermia.-Helena, adieu: As you on him, Demetrius dote on you! [Exit Lys. 5 HEL. How happy some, o'er other fome, can be ! Through Athens I am thought as fair as she. But what of that? Demetrius thinks not fo; He will not know what all but he do know. And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes, So I, admiring of his qualities. Things base and vile, holding no quantity, Love can transpose to form and dignity. Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind : Nor hath love's mind of any judgment taste; Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste: And therefore is love faid to be a child, Because in choice he is so oft beguil'd. As waggish boys in game themselves forswear, So the boy love is perjur'd every where : For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne, He hail'd down oaths, that he was only mine; 4 when Phæbe doth behold, &c. --deep midnight.] Shakspeare has a little forgotten himself. It appears from p. 5. that to-morrow night would be within three nights of the new moon, when there is no moonshine at all, much less at deep midnight. The same oversight occurs in Act III. fc. i. BLACKSTONE. 5 -holding no quantity, Quality seems a word more fuitable to the sense than quantity, but either may serve. JOHNSON, Quantity is our author's word. So, in Hamlet, Act III. fc. ii: " And women's fear and love hold quantity." STEEVENS. in game - Game here fignifies not contentious play, but Sport, jest. So Spenser: 6 7 "twixt earnest, and 'twixt game." JOHNSON. - Hermia's eyne,] This plural is common both in Chaucer And when this hail & fome heat from Hermia felt, SCENE II. The fame. A Room in a Cottage. Enter SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, QUINCE, and STARVELING." QUIN. Is all our company here? and Spenser. So, in Chaucer's Character of the Prioreffe, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 152: hir eyen grey as glass." Again, in Spenser's Faery Queen, B. I. c. 4. ft. 9: 8 " While flashing beams do dare his feeble eyen." STEEVENS. this bail] Thus all the editions, except the quarto, 1600, printed by Roberts, which reads instead of this hail, his hail. STEEVENS. 9 - it is a dear expence :] i. e. it will cost him much, (be a fevere constraint on his feelings,) to make even so slight a return for my communication. STEEVENS. * 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 fame Bottom, who seems bred in a tiring-room, has another hiftrionical passion. He is for engroffing every part, and would exclude his inferiors from all poffibility of distinction. He is therefore defirous to play Pyramus, Thisbe, and the Lion, at the same time. JOHNSON. Bor. You were best to call them generally, man by man, according to the scrip.* 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. Bor. First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats on; then read the names of the actors ; and fo grow to a point. QUIN. Marry, our play is-The most lamentable comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby. 2the scrip.] A fcrip, Fr. efcript, now written ecrit. So. Chaucer, in Troilus and Creffida, 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 fcrip or scroll." Holinshed likewise uses the word. STEEVENS. 5 -grow to a point.] Dr. Warburton reads go on; but groo is used, in allusion to his name, Quince. JOHNSON. To grotu to a point, I believe, has no reference to the name of Quince. I meet with the fame kind of expreffion in Wily Beguiled: "As yet we are grown to no conclufion," Again, in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584: "Unless unto fome other point we grow." STEEVENS, And fo grow on to a point.] The sense, in my opinion, hath been hitherto mistaken; and instead of a point, a fubstantive, I would read appoint a verb, that is, appoint what part each actor is to perform, which is the real cafe. 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 fet down for him to act. Perhaps, however, only the particle a may be inferted by the printer, and Shakfpeare wrote to point, i. e. to appoint. The word occurs in that fenfe 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 Cambyfes: "A lamentable Tragedie, mixed full of pleasant Mirth, containing, The Life of Cambises King of Percia," &c. By Thomas Preston, bl. 1. no date. Bor. A very good piece of work, I afssure you, and a merry.'-Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your actors by the scroll: Masters, spread your felves.6 QUIN. Answer, as I call you.-Nick Bottom, the weaver. Bor. Ready: Name what part I am for, and pro ceed. QUIN. You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Py ramus. Bor. What is Pyramus ? a lover, or a tyrant? for love. Bor. That will ask some tears in the true performing of it: If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes; I will move storms, I will condole in fome measure. To the rest:-Yet my chief hu 7 On the registers of the Stationers' company, however, appears "the boke of Perymus and Thesbye," 1562. Perhaps Shakspeare copied fome 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 MidJummer-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 - spread yourselves.] i. e. stand separately, not in a group, but so that you may be distinctly feen, and called over. STEEVENS. 1 - I will condole in fome measure.] When we use this verb at present, we put with before the person for whose misfortune we profess concern. Anciently it feems to have been employed without it. So, in A Pennyworth of good Counfell, an ancient ballad : "Thus to the wall "I may condole." Again, in The Three Merry Coblers, another old fong "Poor weather beaten foles, "Whose cafe the body condoles." STEEVEN |