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P. 124. 1. 4. Taurus' fnow.) Taurus is the name of a range of mountains in Afia.

JOHNSON. L. 7.-feal of bliss.) He has elsewhere the fame image, But my kiffes bring again

Seals of love, but seal'd in vain.

L. 13. Čan you not bate me, as I know you do,

JOHNSON.

But you must join in fouls to mock me too?) This is fpoken to Demetrius. The last line is nonfenfe. They fhould be read thus,

Can you not hate me, as I know you do,

But muft join infolents to mock me too?

meaning Lyfander, who, as fhe thought, mocked her when

he declared his paffion for her.

Ibid.) The text is furely wrong.

fcorns, or join in fcoffs.

Ibid.] For in fouls, read ill fouls.

WARBURTON.

*

We may read, join in

JOHNSON. OBS. & CONJ.*

L. 20. A trim exploit, a manly enterprize.) This reproach, in the form of it, feems extremely to have the caft of that, in the 1ft. Æneid;

Egregiam vero laudem, & fpolia ampla refertis :
Una dolo, Divum, &c.

THEOB.*
L. 24. Extort a poor foul's patience.) Harras, torment. JOHN.
P. 125.
3. My heart to her.) We fhould read,

My heart with her, but as gueftwife, fojourn'd.

So Prior. No matter what beauties I faw in my way, They were but my vifits, but then not my home. JoHN. yon fiery O's.) I would willingly believe that the poet wrote fiery Orbs. JOHN. O's.

L. 21.

all

CAPELL. L. 27. -in fpite of me.) I read, in spite to me. JOHN. P. 126. 1. 19. Two of the firft Life, coats in Heraldry, Due but to One, and crowned with one Creft.) The true Correction of this Paffage I owe to the Friendship and Communication of the ingenious Martin Folks, Efq;- -Two of the firft, fecond, &c. are Terms peculiar in Heraldry to diftinguish the different quarterings of Coats. THEOBALD.

P. 127. l. 17. — fuch an argument.) Such a subject of light merriment.

JOHN. L. 26. Thy threats have no more ftrength than her weak praise.) This line is certainly but an enlargement upon, or rather a variation in terms of the fenfe of the preceding line. But,

in that, there is a defign'd Antithefis between compel and intreat this contraft of terms is wanting, in threats and praife, wherefore we need make no difficulty of fubftituting prayers. Indeed, my fufpicion is, the Poet might have coin'd a subftantive plural, (from the verb, to pray) prays; i. e. praying, entreaties, befeechings; and the indentity of found might give birth to the corruption of it into praife. But I have chofen the known and familiar word.

Ibid.] Weak prays.

THEOB.* CAPELL.*

P. 130. 1. 20. You Minimus.-) Shakespeare might have

given it,

You Minim, you,‐ -i. e. You Diminutive of the Creation, you Reptile, as in Milton. THEOBALD.

P. 131.1.6. My legs are longer, though, to run away.) After this line Mr. Pope hath added the following one from the firft edition. I am amazed, and know not what to say. For what reafon Mr. Warburton and Dr. Johnson hath rejected it, I cannot comprehend. REVISAL.* L. 14.

fo fort.] So happen in the issue.

P. 132. 1. 1.

JOHN.

virtuous property.] Salutiferous. So he calls, in the Tempeft, poisonous decu, wicked dew. L. 25. Ev'n till the eastern gate, all fiery red,

Opening on Neptune with fair bleffed beams,

Joнn.

Turns into yellow gold kis falt-green ftreams.] The epithets fair bleffed are an infipid unmeaning expletive. Shakespeare, without doubt, wrote,

Far-bleffing beams;

i. e. whofe genial rays have the most extensive influence. A corruption of the fame kind we meet with in Timon, Thou bleffed-breeding fun.

which fhould be read,

Thou bleffing-breeding fun,

i. e. who giveth bleffings wherever it fhines.

WARB.*

P. 134. 6. buy this dear.] i. e. thou should pay dearly for this. Though this is sense, and may well enough stand, yet the poet perhaps wrote thou shalt 'by it dear. So in another place, thou shalt aby it. So Milton,

How dearly I abide that boast so vain. P. 135. 1. 17. Naught fhall go ill.] We fhould read, nought.

JOHNSON.

REVISAL.*

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Ibid. At IV.] I fee no good reason why the 4th act should begin here when there feems no interruption of the action. In the old quartos of 1600 there is no divifion of acts, which feems to have been afterwards arbitrarily made in the first folio, and may therefore be altered at pleafure. JOHNSON. L. 20. do coy.] To coy is to footh. JOHN. P. 136. 1. 14.] Neife. (Yorkshire) for fift. POPE.

L. 18. Nothing good, monfieur, but to help Cavalero Cobweb to feratch.] Without doubt it fhould be Cavalero Peafeblossom : as for Cavalero Cobweb, he had just been dispatched upon a perilous adventure. Anon. GRAY.

P. 137. 1. 7. —and be all ways arvay.] In the former editions, and be always away. What! was the giving her attendants an everlafting difmiffion? No fuch thing; they were to be still on duty. I am convinced, the Poet meant, and be all ways away.

i. e. difperfe yourfelves, and fcout out feverally, in your watch, that danger approach us from no quarter. THEOB. Ibid.] Mr. Upton reads,

And be away-away.

JOHNSON. Ibid.] I fhould imagine Shakespeare might have written, Fairies, begone, and be always i' th' away.

That is, be ftill ready at a call. I am the rather inclined to think this may be the true reading, as the fairies here spoken to are evidently those very fairies whom the Queen had above, appointed to attend peculiarly on her paramour. REVIS.*

L. S. So doth the woodbine the fweet boney-fuckle,

Gently entwift; the female ivy fo

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.] What does the woodbine entwifi? The honey-fuckle. But the woodbine and honey-fuckle were, till now, but two names for one and the fame plant. Florio, in his Italian Dictionary, interprets Madre Selva by woodbine or bonnie-fuckle. We must therefore find a fupport for the woodbine as well as for the ivy. Which is done by reading the line thus:

So doth the woodbine, the fweet honey-fuckle,
Gently entwift the maple; Ivy fo

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.

The corruption might happen by the firft blunderer dropping the p in writing the word maple, which word thence became VOL. I.

C

male. A following transcriber, for the fake of a little fenfe and measure, thought fit to change this male into female and then attached it as an epithet to Ivy. WARB.

Mr. Upton reads,

So doth the woodbine the fweet honey-fuckle,

for bark of the wood. Shakespeare perhaps only meant fo the leaves involve the flowrr, ufing woodbine for the plant and honey-fuckle for the flower; or perhaps Shakespeare made a blunder. JOHNSON.

Ibid.] A very fmall alteration merely in the pointing, to wit, a comma only after entwift, and another after enrings, will render any further change unneceffary. For then the conftruction will be thus, So the woodbine, the fweet honey-fuckle, doth gently entwist the barky fingers of the elm, fo the female ivy enrings the fame fingers.' Where the different manner in which the honey-fuckle and the ivy avail themselves of the support of the elm branches is very aptly and naturally expreffed by the two different verbs, entwift, and enring, the former gently and loosely twisting round them, the latter adhering to them with a ftricter embrace. REVISAL.

P. 138. L. 9.] Dian's bud, or Cupid's flow'r.] Thus all the editions. The ingenious Dr. Thirlby gave me the correction, o'er Cupid's flower.

L. 18. These five the fenfe.

THEOB.

THEOB.

VULG. fine the fenfe,

L. 28. Dance in Duke Thefeus' boufe triumphantly, And blefs it to all fair pofterity.] We should read, to all far pofterity.

i. e. to the remoteft pofterity.

WARE.

P. 139. 1. 3. Then, my Queen, in filence fad.] Why, fad? Fairies, according to the received notion, are pleased to follow night. For that reafon, and for bettering the rhyme, I think it very probable that our author wrote-in filence fade; i. e. vanish, retreat. In which fenfe our author has elfewhere employed this word. As in Hamlet, speaking of the ghoft's disappearing,

It faded at the crowing of the cock.

THEOB.

Ibid.] Mr. Theobald fays, why fad? Fairies are pleafed to follow night. He will have it fade; and fo, to mend the rhime, fpoils both the fenfe and grammar. But he mif

takes the meaning of fad; it fignifies only grave, sober; and is opposed to their dances and revels, which were now ended at the finging of the morning lark.- -So Winter's Tale, A& 4. "My father and the gentleman are in fad talk. For grave or ferious. WARB.

P. 139. 1. 12. Our obfervation is performed.] Meaning the obfervance of the time prefcribed for their nuptials. HAN. Ibid.] The honours due to the morning of May. I know not why Shakespeare calls this play a Midfummer-Night's Dream, when he fo carefully informs us that it had happened on the preceding May day. JOHNSON.

L. 24. The fkies, the fountains, ev'ry region near,

Seem'd all one mutual cry.] It has been propofed to me, that the author probably wrote mountains, from whence an echo rather proceeds than from fountains: but as we have the authority of the ancients for lakes, rivers, and fountains returning a found, I have been diffident to disturb the text.

THEOB.

Ibid.] I believe the true reading is mountains. WARB. L. 28.] So fanded. So marked with fmall ipots. JOHN. P. 141. 1. 14. Fair Helena in fancy following me.] Fancy is here taken for love or affection, and is opposed to fury, as before.

Sighs and tears poor Fancy's followers. Some now call that which a man takes particular delight in his fancy. Flower fancier, for a florist, and Bird fancier, for a lover and feeder of birds, are colloquial words. JOHNS. P. 142. 1. 11. And I have found Demetrius like a jewel.

me

Mine own and not mine own.] Hermia had obferved that things appeared double to her. Helena, replies, fo thinks; and then fubjoins, that Demetrius was like a jewel, her own and not her own. He is here, then, compared to fome thing which had the property of appearing to be one thing when it was another. Not the property fure of a jervel: or, if you will, of none but a falfe one. We should read, And I have found Demetrius like a gemell, Mine own, and not mine own.

From Gemellus a Twin. For Demetrius had that night acted two fuch different parts, that she could hardly think them both played by one and the fame Demetrius: but that

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