Fetch me that flower; the herb I fhew'd thee once;
The juice of it, on fleeping eye-lids laid,
Will make or man or woman madly doat
Upon the next live creature that it fees.
Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again,
Ere the leviathan can fwim a league.

Puck. I'll put a girdle round about the earth"
In forty minutes.

Ob. Having once this juice,

I'll watch Titania when the is asleep,
And drop the liquor of it in her eyes:

The next thing when the waking looks upon,
(Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
On meddling monkey, or on bufy ape)
She fhall purfue it with the foul of love.
And ere I take this charm off from her fight,
(As I can take it with another herb)
I'll make her render up her page to me.
But who comes here? I am invifible 7;
And I will over-hear their conference.

[Exit.

Enter

It is called in other counties the Three, coloured violet, the Herb of Trinity, Three faces in a hood, Cuddle me to you, &c. STEEVENS. • I'll put a girdle round about the earth &c.] This expreffion occurs in the Bird in a Cage, 1633:

Perhaps, it is proverbial:

And when I have put a girdle 'bout the world, "This purchase will reward me.'

Again, in Buffy D'Ambois, by Chapman, 1613: "To put a girdle round about the world."

Again, in Webster's Dutchefs of Malfy, 1623:

"May fay he has put a girdle round the world,
"And founded all her quickfands."

Again, in Decker's If this be not a good Play, the Devil is in It, 1612:

-about the world

"My travels make a girdle."

Again, in Shirley's Humourous Courtier, 1640, and many other plays. Again, in Maflinger's Maid of Honour:

7

her navies

Putting a girdle round about the world." STEEVENS. I am invifible;] I thought proper here to obferve, that, as Oberon and Puck his attendant, may be frequently obferved to speak, when there is no mention of their entering; they

are

Enter Demetrius, Helena following him.

Dem. I love thee not, therefore pursue me not. Where is Lyfander, and fair Hermia?

The one I'll flay, the other flayeth me 3.
Thou told'ft me, they were stoln unto this wood;
And here am I, and wood within this wood,
Because I cannot meet my Hermia.

Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
Hel. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;
But yet you draw not iron, for my heart

Is true as fteel: Leave you your power to draw,
And I shall have no power to follow you.

are defigned by the poet to be fuppofed on the stage during the greatest part of the remainder of the play; and to mix, as they please, as fpirits, with the other actors; and embroil the plot, by their interpofition, without being feen, or heard, but when to their own purpose. THEOBALD.

The one I'll stay: the other stayeth me.] Thus it has been in all the editions hitherto: but Dr. Thirlby ingeniously faw it must be, as I have corrected in the text. THEOBALD.

9

ing. POPEL

and wode,

-] Wood, or mad, wild, rava

We meet with the word in Chaucer, in the character of the Monke, late edit v. 184:

"What, fhuld he studie, or make himfelven wood ?” Spenfer alfo ufes it, Eglogue III. March:

"The elf was fo wanton, and fo wode."

"The name Woden," fays Verftegan in his Antiquities, "fignifies fierce or furious; and in like fenfe we ftill retain it, faying when one is in a great rage, that he is wood, or taketh on, as if he were wood."

So, Stanyhurft, in his Tranflation of the fecond book of Virgil's Eneid, 1582, fpeaking of Caffandra :

"Lo ye, the wood virgin, with locks unbroided is haled." In the third part of the Countefs of Pembroke's Ivy church, 1591, is the fame quibble on the word:

66

Daphne goes to the woods and vowes herself to Diana; "Phoebus grows ftark wood for love and fancie to Daphne." Again, in the Golden Legend, by Wynkyn de Worde, 1527, P. 293:

"And for to fhewe the more theyr woodnes, they dedyed this temple to the honour of all theyr goddes." STEEVENS.

Dem.'

Dem. Do I entice you? Do I fpeak you fair? Or, rather, do I not in plaineft truth

Tell you-I do not, nor I cannot love you?

Hel. And even for that do I love you the more. I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,

The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
Ufe me but as your spaniel, fpurn me, ftrike me,
Neglect me, lofe me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow

you.

What worfer place can I beg in your love, (And yet a place of high refpect with me) Than to be used as you use your dog?

Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit; For I am fick, when I do look on thee.

Hel. And I am fick, when I look not on you.
Dem. You do impeach your modesty too much,
To leave the city, and commit yourself
Into the hands of one that loves you not;
To truft the opportunity of night,
And the ill counfel of a defert place,
With the rich worth of your virginity.

Hel. Your virtue is my privilege for that'.
It is not night, when I do fee your face,
Therefore I think I am not in the night:
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company';
For you, in my respect, are all the world:

Your virtue is my privilege: For that, &c.] This line feems to be wrong pointed. Iwould read-Your virtue is my privilege for that, i. e. for leaving the city, &c. TYRWHITT.

This pointing is undoubtedly right, and I have followed it.

2

for that

It is not night, when I do fee your face, &c.]

STEEVENS.

This paffage is paraphrafed from two lines of an ancient poet:

66

Tu nocte vel atra

Lumen, et in folis tu mihi turba locis.' JOHNSON.

3 Nor doth the wood lack worlds of company;] The fame thought occurs in the zd Part of K. Hen. VI:

"A wilderness is populous enough,

"So Suffolk had thy heavenly company." MALONE.

Then

Then how can it be said, I am alone,

When all the world is here to look on me?

Dem. I'll run from thee, and hide me in the brakes, And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.

Hel. The wildeft hath not fuch a heart as you.
Run when you will, the story fhall be chang'd:
Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chafe;
The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
Makes speed to catch the tyger: Bootless speed!
When cowardice purfues, and valour flies.

Dem. I will not ftay thy queftions; let me go:
Or, if thou follow me, do not believe
But I fhall do thee mischief in the wood.

Hel. Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field, You do me mifchief. Fie, Demetrius! Your wrongs do fet a scandal on my sex : We cannot fight for love, as men may do; We fhou'd be woo'd, and were not made to woo. I'll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell, To die upon the hand I love fo well.

[Exeunt. Ob. Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this

grove,

Thoù fhalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love.— Haft thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.

Re-enter Puck.

Puck. Ay, there it is.

Ob. I pray thee, give it me.

4

I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows; 5 Quite over-canopy'd with luscious woodbine,

+ Where oxlips] The oxlip is the greater cowflip. So, in Drayton's Polyolbion, Song 15:

With

"To fort thefe flowers of fhowe, with other that were fweet, "The cowflip then they couch, and th' oxlip for her meet." STEEVENS.

3 Quite over-canopy'd with luscious woodbine,] Thus all the old editions.

On