"as the wakeful bird Sings darkling," etc. See also Johnson, Vanity of Human Wishes, 346: and again, in one shine," etc. Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate?" of his hymns: "On darkling man in pure effulgence 87. I alone, etc. I will go alone. Gr. 420, 421. 89. The lesser is my grace. S. often uses lesser both as adjective and as adverb. For an example of the latter, see Macb. v. 2. 13. Grace here either=favour, as Johnson explains it (the less favour I gain), or good Fortune, happiness (Schmidt), as in M. for M. i. 4. 69: "Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer To soften Angelo," etc. 99. Compare. Think myself equal (Schmidt); attempt rivalry (J. H.). Cf. T. N. i. 3. 126: "I will not compare with an old man ;" 2 Hen. IV. i. 4. 180: “Shall pack-horses... Compare with Cæsars,” etc. Sphery=starlike, heavenly. For eyne, see on i. I. 242. 104. Nature shows art. The quarto reading. The 1st folio has “Nature her shewes ;" and the later folios, "Nature here shews." Halliwell and some other editors follow Malone's "Nature shows her art." Steewens, who retains "here," explains the passage thus: "On this occasion, says Lysander, the work of nature resembles that of art, namely (as our author expresses it in L. C. 286) an object 'glaz'd with crystal.'' 108, 109. Lines like these, and 125, 126 below, certainly give support to the theory that parts at least of this play were written even earlier han 1594. As W. suggests, "this Dream may have been one of the very first conceptions of the young poet," and was perhaps partly written before he went to London, where, after being laid aside for some years, It was resumed and finished in its present form. 113. Helena I love. So in 1st quarto; the other early eds. have "Helena now I love." 118. Ripe not. "Not ripe;" which Rowe substituted. For transpositions of not in S., see Gr. 305, 420. Schmidt strangely makes ripe here a verb. "Reason is now the director 119. Touching now the point, etc. Cf. Hen. VIII. iii. 2. 223: "I have touch'd the highest point of all my greatness." 120. Reason becomes the marshal, etc. of my will" (Halliwell). Cf. Macb. ii. 1. 42: "Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going." 121. O'erlook. Look over, peruse. Cf. T. G. of V. i. 2. 50: "And yet I would I had o'erlooked the letter;" Lear, v. I. 50: “I will o'erlook thy paper," etc. 122. Love's stories. Walker suggested "love-stories." 129. Good troth. Cf. Hen. VIII. ii. 3. 33 : “Nay, good troth," etc. It is a contraction of in good troth (T. and C. iii. 1. 124). The commonest form of the asseveration is by my troth (M. W. i. 1. 199, etc.). In good eath and coath 29 132. True gentleness. "What, in modern language, we should call the spirit of a gentleman" (Percy). 133. Of By; as in Macb. iii. 6. 27: "Received of the most pious Edward," etc. So in 134, 140, and 142 just below. Gr. 170. Cf. Acts, xxiii. 10, 27. 147. Ay me. See on i. I. 132. 149. Eat. Ate; which is substituted by many editors, though never found in the early eds. For the participle S. uses both eat and eaten. See Macb. p. 204. 150. You. The folios have "yet." 153. An if. See Gr. 105. 154. Of all loves. For all the love between us; for love's sake. Cf. M. W. ii. 2. 119: "Mistress Page would desire you to send her your little page, of all loves." In Oth. iii. 1. 13, the quarto of 1622 has "of all loves;" the folio, "for love's sake." Halliwell remarks that the literal signification of the phrase is perhaps seen in the words addressed by Queen Katherine on her trial to Henry VIII.: "Sir, I beseech you for all the loves that hath been between us, and for the love of God, let me have justice and right" (Cavendish's Life of Wolsey). Cf. also A Woman Killed with Kindness (1617): “Of all the loves betwixt thee and me, tell me what thou thinkest of this?" The phrase occurs in Gammer Gurton's Needle in the form, "for al the loves on earth." For of in adjurations, see Gr. 169. I swoon almost. I almost swoon. one. See Gr. 29. The transposition is a common 156. Either. Metrically a monosyllable, as in ii. 1. 32, etc. Gr. 466. A SEA-NYMPH (ii. 1. 147). SCENE I.-2. Pat, pat. Exactly. Cf. v. 1. 183 below; also Hen. VIII. ii. 3. 84, Lear, i. 2. 146, etc. 4. Tiring-house. Dressing-room. See quotation in note on i. 2. 91. S. uses the word only here. 7. Bully Bottom. Cf. M. W. i. 3. 6: "bully Hercules;" Id. ii. 3. 18: "bully doctor;" Id. iv. 5. 17: "Bully knight! Bully Sir John!" etc. 12. By 'r lakin. A colloquial contraction of By our ladykin, referring to the Virgin Mary. S. uses it only here and in Temp. iii. 3. I. By 'r lady occurs frequently; as in M. W. i. 1. 28, etc. Parlous. A popular corruption of perilous. It came to be used as a mere intensive excessive, or sometimes wonderful (Halliwell). Cf. A. Y. L. iii. 2. 45: "a parlous state;" Rich. III. ii. 4. 35: "a parlous boy." See Gr. 461. 18. More better. See Gr. II. 22. Eight and six. That is, in alternate verses of eight and six syllables. 25. Afeard. Not a vulgarism, but used by S. interchangeably with afraid. Cf. Macb. i. 7. 39: "Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valour As thou art in desire?" and see note in our ed., p. 163. 30. Your lion. A common colloquial use of your. See Gr. 221. Howell, in his Instructions for Forraine Travel (1642), says: "There is an odd kind of Anglicism, wherein some do frequently express themselves, as to say-Your Boores of Holland, sir; Your Jesuits of Spain, sir; Your Courtesans of Venice, sir; whereunto one answered (not impertinently) My Courtesans, sir? Pox on them all for me! they are none of my Courtesans." 39. Pity of my life. For the of, see Gr. 174. 41. Tell them plainly, etc. As Malone remarks, it is not improbable that this was suggested by an incident related in a collection of jests in MS. Harl. 6395: "There was a spectacle presented to Queen Elizabeth on the water, and among others Harry Goldingham was to represent Arion upon the dolphin's backe; but finding his voice to be very hoarse and unpleasant, when he came to performe it, he teares off his disguise, and sweares he was none of Arion, not he, but eene honest Harry Goldingham; which blunt discoverie pleas'd the Queene better than if it had gone through in the right way; yet he could order his voice to an instrument exceeding well.' Scott has made good use of the incident in Kenilworth. 42. There is two, etc. See Gr. 335. 48. It doth shine. On the anachronism, see above, p. 122. 50. The great chamber. "The state-room" (Halliwell). 52. A bush of thorns. An old superstition identified the man in the moon with the man that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day (Numb. xv. 32). Cf. The Testament of Creseide: And on her brest a chorle painted ful even Bering a bushe of thornis on his bake, Which for his theft might clime no ner the heven." 54. Present. Represent; not a vulgarism. "when I presented Ceres ;" Hen. VIII. prol. 5: Cf. Temp. iv. I. 167: 'Such noble scenes as draw the eye to flow Milton, Il Pens. 99: "Presenting Thebes, or Pelops' line," etc. 67. Cue. Still used as a stage term for the ending of a speech, as the catch-word given to the actor who is to speak next. Cf. M. W. iii. 3. "What might be toward?" Lear, iii. 3. 21: “There is some strange thing toward," etc. Halliwell cites many instances from other writers of the time. 16 73. Savours. Abbott (Gr. 333) makes this a verb, Schmidt a noun. The Coll. MS. changes of to "have." In the next line Pope substituted 'doth" for hath; but, as Halliwell remarks, "it is scarcely requisite to correct the sense of a speech which is probably intended to be ignorantly formed." 77. A while. Theo. suggested "a whit," for the sake of the rhyme. 79. A stranger Pyramus, etc. The quartos assign this speech to Quince; the folios, to Puck, to whom it evidently belongs. Here, as Steevens suggests, probably means in the theatre where the play is being acted. 85. Brisky is of course burlesque for brisk. Juvenal (youth) is used only here, and by Armado (L. L. L. i. 2. 8, iii. I. 67) and Falstaff in jestng (2 Hen. IV. i. 2. 22). Eke, then obsolescent, S. puts into the mouth of no other character except Pistol and the Host (M. W. i. 3. 105, ii. 3. 77). 92. Bottom with an ass's head. Scot, in his Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, gives the following recipe for such a transformation: "Cut off the head of a horsse or an ass (before they be dead), otherwise the vertue or strength thereof will be the lesse effectuall, and make an earthen vessell of fit capacitie to conteine the same, and let it be filled with the oile and fat thereof; cover it close, and dawbe it over with lome: let it boile over a soft fier three daies continuallie, that the flesh boiled may run nto oile, so as the bare bones may be seen: beate the haire into powler, and mingle the same with the oile; and annoint the heads of the standers by, and they shall seeme to have horsses or asses heads." 93. If I were fair, etc. "Perhaps we ought to point thus: If I were, that is, as true, etc.] fair Thisby, I were only thine" (Malone). 97. Through bog, etc. As two syllables are wanting, Johnson suggested "Through bog, through mire ;" and Ritson (to preserve the alliteraion) "Through bog, through burn," etc. 98. Sometime a horse, etc. Cf. Ben Jonson's ballad, quoted above (on i. I. 3): "Sometimes I meete them like a man, Sometimes an ox, sometimes an hound; And trip and trot them round and round," etc. See also the ballad of The Merry Pranks of Robin Good-fellow: "Sometimes a neighing horse was he, Sometimes a bird, sometimes a crow, Sometimes a cripple he would seeme, brave pastimes would he have. |