PERSONS REPRESENTED.

SCENE, ATHENS, AND A WOOD NEAR.

*** The old editions have no List of Characters.

SCENE I.-Athens. A Room in the Palace of Theseus.

THE. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour

Draws on apace; four happy days bring in
Another moon: but, oh, methinks, how slow
This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,
Like to a step-dame, or a dowager,

Long withering out a young man's revenue.

HIP. Four days will quickly steep themselves in nights;
Four nights will quickly dream away the time;

And then the moon, like to a silver bow

New bent in heaven, shall behold the night
Of our solemnities.

THE.

Go, Philostrate,

Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;
Turn melancholy forth to funerals,
The pale companion is not for our pomp.
Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword',
And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
But I will wed thee in another key,

With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling".

[Exit PHILOSTRate.

Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DemetRIUS.

EGE. Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!

THE. Thanks, good Egeus: What's the news with thee?
EGE. Full of vexation come I, with complaint
Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
Stand forth, Demetrius: My noble lord,
This man hath my consent to marry her.—

Stand forth, Lysander:-and, my gracious duke,
This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child:

New bent. The two quartos of 1600, and the folio of 1623, read "now bent." New was supplied by Rowe. We believe that now was the original word, but used in the sense of new, both the words having an etymological affinity. In the same manner, we have, in All's Well that Ends Well,' Act II., Scene 3

This, in many editions, has been changed to "new-born brief;" certainly without necessity. In the present case the corrected reading must, we apprehend, be received; for now could not be restored without producing an ambiguity. Now, we believe, cannot refer to the state of the moon when Theseus is speaking. The new moon will be bent like the "silver bow;" the " old moon" is surely not of the form to which the new moon gives the name-crescent.

b SeeTwo Gentlemen of Verona,' Illustrations of Act V.

• Our renowned duke. In a note upon the first chapter of the first book of Chronicles, where we find a list of " the dukes of Edom," the editor of the Pictorial Bible' says, "Duke is rather an awkward title to assign to the chiefs of Edom. The original word is aluph, which would perhaps be best rendered by the general and indefinite title 'prince."" At the time of the translation of the Bible, duke was used in this general and indefinite sense. The word, as pointed out by Gibbon, was a corruption of the Latin dux, which was indiscriminately applied to any military chief. Chaucer has duke Theseus,-Gower, duke Spartacus,-Stanyhurst, duke Æneas. The awkward title " was a word in general use; and therefore Steevens is not justified in calling it a misapplication of a modern title."

66

This man. So the old copies. In modern editions man is omitted; and the emphatic repetition of Egeus is in consequence destroyed.

Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
And interchang'd love-tokens with my child:

Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,
With feigning voice, verses of feigning love;
And stol'n the impression of her fantasy
With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats; messengers
Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth:
With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart;
Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,

To stubborn harshness :-And, my gracious duke,
Be it so she will not here before your grace
Consent to marry with Demetrius,

I beg the ancient privilege of Athens;
As she is mine, I may dispose of her:
Which shall be either to this gentleman,
Or to her death; according to our law,
Immediately provided in that case.

THE. What say you, Hermia? Be advis'd, fair maid:
To you your father should be as a god;

One that compos'd your beauties; yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax,
By him imprinted, and within his power
To leave the figure, or disfigure it.
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
HER. So is Lysander.

But, in this kind, wanting your father's voice,
The other must be held the worthier.

HER. I would my father look'd but with my eyes.

THE. Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.
HER. I do entreat your grace to pardon me.

I know not by what power I am made bold,
Nor how it may concern my modesty,
In such a presence here, to plead my thoughts:
But I beseech your grace that I may know
The worst that may befall me in this case,
If I refuse to wed Demetrius.

THE. Either to die the death, or to abjure
For ever the society of men.

Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires,
Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun;

For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd,

To live a barren sister all your life,

Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
Thrice blessed they that master so their blood,
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage:

But earthly happiera is the rose distill'd,
Than that, which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.
HER. So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
Ere I will yield my virgin patent up

Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke
My soul consents not to give sovereignty c.
THE. Take time to pause; and, by the next new moon,
(The sealing-day betwixt my love and me,
For everlasting bond of fellowship,)
Upon that day either prepare to die,
For disobedience to your father's will;

Or else, to wed Demetrius, as he would;
Or on Diana's altar to protest,

For aye, austerity and single life.

DEM. Relent, sweet Hermia:-And, Lysander, yield
Thy crazed title to my certain right.

Lys. You have her father's love, Demetrius;

Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him.
EGE. Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love;
And what is mine my love shall render him;
And she is mine; and all my right of her
I do estate unto Demetrius.

Lys. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he,

As well possess'd; my love is more than his;

* Earthly happier-more happy in an earthly sense. The reading of all the old copies is earthlier happy, and this has been generally followed, although Pope and Johnson proposed earlier happy, and Steevens earthly happy. We have no doubt that Capell's reading, which we have adopted, is the true one; and that the old reading arose out of one of the commonest of typographical errors. The orthography of the folio is earthlier happie;—if the comparative had not been used, it would have been earthlie happie; and it is easy to see, therefore, that the r has been transposed.

Lordship-authority. The word dominion in our present translation of the Bible (Romans, ch. vi.) is lordship in Wickliffe's translation.

This is one of those elliptical expressions which frequently occur in our poet. The editor of the second folio, who was not scrupulous in adapting Shakspere's language to the changes of a quarter of a century, printed the lines

"Unto his lordship, to whose unwish'd yoke," &c.

The to must be understood after sovereignty. In the same manner, the particle on must be understood in a passage in Cymbeline:'

"Whom heavens, in justice, (both on her and hers,)

Have laid most heavy hand." (on.)

The same elliptical construction occurs in Othello's speech to the Senate:"What conjurations and what mighty magic

I won his daughter." (with.)