DRE A M. ACT. I. SCENE I. Athens. A Room in the Palace of Thefeus. Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Attendants. THE. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour Draws on apace; four happy days bring in Another moon: but, oh, methinks, how flow This old moon wanes! fhe lingers my defires, Like to a step-dame, or a dowager, Long withering out a young man's revenue." Four nights will quickly dream away the time; 2 2 Like to a fep-dame, or a dowager, Long withering out a young man's revenue.] The authenticity of this reading having been queftioned by Dr. Warburton, I shall exemplify it from Chapman's Tranflation of the 4th Book of Homer. there the goodly plant lies withering out his grace." Ut piget annus Pupillis, quos dura premit cuftodia matrum, "Sic mihi tarda fluunt ingrataque tempora." HOR. 76 STEEVENS. MALONE. fteep themselves in nights; ] So, in Cymbeline, A& V. sc. iv. neither deferve, "And yet are fleep'd in favours." STEEVENS. New bent in heaven, 'fhall behold the night Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments; With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling. Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS. EGE. Happy be Thefeus, our renowned duke!" • New bent by Mr. Rowe. The old copies read - Now bent. Corre&ed MALONE. With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling. By triumph, as Mr. Warton has obferved in his late edition of Milton's Poems, p. 56, we are to understand hows, fuch as masks, revels, &c. So, again in King Henry VI. P. III: "And now what refts, but that we fpend the time Again, in the preface to Burton's Anatomie of Melancholy, 1624: "Now come tidings of weddings, mafkings, mummeries, entertainments, trophies, triumphs, revels, fports, playes." Jonfon, as the fame gentleman obferves, in the title of his mafque called Love's Triumph through Callipolis, by triumph feems to have meant a grand proceflion; and in one of the ftage-directions, it is faid, "the triumph is feen far off." MALONE. 6 our renowned duke!]. Thus in Chaucer's Knight's Tale : "Whilom as olde ftories tellen us, "There was a Duk that highte Thefeus, "Of Athenes he was lord and governour," &c. Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 861. Lidgate too, the monk of Bury, in his tranflation of the Tragedies of John Bochas, calls him by the fame title, chap. xii. 1. 21: "Duke Thefeus had the victorye." 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 confent to marry her: Stand forth, Lyfander; and, my gracious duke, 8 conceits, Creon, in the tragedy of Jocasta, tranflated from Euripides in 1566, is called Duke Creon. So likewife Skelton: "Not lyke Duke Hamilcar, "Nor lyke Duke Afdruball." Stany burft, in his Tranflation of Virgil, calls Eneas, Duke Eneas; and in Heywood's Iron Age, Part II. 1632, Ajax is ftyled Duke Ajax, Palamedes, Duke Palamedes, and Neftor, Duke Neftor, &c. Our verfion of the Bible exhibits a fimilar mifapplication of a modern title; for in Daniel iii. 2. Nebuchadonozar, King of Babylon, sends out a fummons to the Sheriffs of his provinces. STEEVENS. This man hath 7 This hath bewitch'd-] The old copies read bewitch'd. The emendation was made for the fake of the me tre, by the editor of the fecond folio. It is very probable that the compofitor caught the word man from the line above. 8 gawds, i. c. baubles, toys, trifles. the word frequently. See K. John, A& III. fc. v. Again, in Appius and Virginia, 1576: "When gain is no grandfier, And gaudes not fet by," &c. Again, in Drayton's Mooncalf: "A fort of paper puppets, gauds and toys." MALONE. Our author has The Rev. Mr. Lambe, in his notes on the ancient metrical hiftory of the Battle of Floddon, obferves that a gawd is a child's toy, and Knacks, trifles, nofegays, fweet-meats; meffengers I beg the ancient privilege of Athens; THE. What fay you, Hermia? be advis'd, fair To you your father fhould be as a god; THE. In himself he is: But, in this kind, wanting your father's voice, that the children in the North call their play-things gowdys, and their baby-house a gowdy-house. STEEVENS. Y Or to her death; according to our law, ] By a law of Solon's, parents had an abfolute power of life and death over their children. So it fuited the poet's purpofe well enough, to suppose the Athenians had it before. Or perhaps he neither thought nor knew any thing of the matter. WARBURTON.' 2 Immediately provided in that cafe.] Shakspeare is grievously fufpe&ted of having been placed, while a boy, in an attorney's office. The line before us has an undoubted fmack of legal common-place. Poetry difclaims it. STEEVENS. 3 To leave the figure, or disfigure it.] The fense is, you owe to your father a being which he may at pleasure continue or destroy. JOHNSON. HER. I would, my father look'd but with my eyes. THE. Rather your eyes muft with his judgement look. HER. I do entreat your grace to pardon me. In fuch a prefence here, to plead my thoughts: may know THE. Either to die the death, or to abjure Therefore, fair Hermia, queftion your defires, For 6 aye to be in fhady cloifter mew'd, To live a barren fifter all your life, Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitlefs moon. But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd, 7 4 befall avise to die the death, ] So, in the Second part of The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon,, 1601: "We will, my liege, elfe let us die the death." See notes on Measure for Measure, Ad II. fc. iv. STEEVENS. 5 Know of your youth,] Bring your youth to the question. fider your youth. JOHNSON. 6 For aye lowe, 1622: Con ] i. e. for ever. So, in K. Edward II. by Mar "And fit for aye enthronized in heaven." STEEVENS. "But earthlier happy is the rofe difill'd,] Thus all the copies. yet earthlier is fo harfh a word, and earthlier happy, for happier earthly, a mode of fpeech fo unufual, that I wonder none of the editors have propofed earlier happy. JOHNSON. It has fince been obferved, that Mr. Pope did propofe earlier. We might read earthly happier. |