Gently entwift, the female Ivy fo

Enrings the barky fingers of the Elm.

O, how I love thee! how I doat on thee!

Enter Puck.

Ob. Welcome, good Robin; feeft thou this sweet fight?

Her dotage now I do begin to pity;

For, meeting her of late behind the wood,
Seeking fweet* favours for this hateful fool,
I did upbraid her, and fall out with her :
For the his hairy temples then had rounded
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
And that fame dew, which fometime on the buds
Was wont to fwell, like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flouret's eyes,
Like tears that did their own difgrace bewail.
When I had at my pleasure taunted her,
And the in mild terms begg'd my patience,
I then did ask of her her changeling child,
Which ftrait the gave me, and her fairy fent
To bear him to my bower in Fairy-land.
And now I have the boy, I will undo
This hateful imperfection of her eye:
And, gentle Puck, take this transformed fcalp
From off the head of the Athenian (wain;
That he, awaking, when the others do,
May all to Athens back again repair;
And think no more of this night's accidents,
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
But firft, I will release the Fairy Queen.

The corruption might happen by the firft blunderer dropping the pin writing the word maple, which word thence became male. A following tranfcriber, for the fake of a little fenfe and meafure, thought fit to change this male into female; and then tacked it as an epithet to ivy. WARBURTON.

Mr. Upton reads,

So doth the woodrine the fweet honey-fuckle,

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

* I. Favours.

Be,

Be, as thou waft wont to be;
See, as thou waft wont to fee:
Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flow'r

Hath fuch force and blessed power. (6)

Now, my Titania, wake you, my fweet Queen.
Queen. My Oberon! what vifions have I seen!
Methought, I was enamour'd of an ass.
Ob. There lies your love.

Queen. How came these things to pass? Oh, how mine eyes do loath this visage now! Ob. Silence, a while-Robin, take off his head; Titania, musick call; and strike more dead Than common fleep of all these five the fenfe. (7) Queen. Mufick, ho! mufick: fuch as charmeth fleep.

Still Mufick.

Puck. When thou awak'st, with thine own fool's eyes peep.

Ob. Sound, mufic; come, my Queen, take hand

with me,

And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.
Now thou and I are new in amity;

And will to-morrow midnight folemnly
Dance in Duke Thefeus' houfe triumphantly,
And bless it to all fair * pofterity; (8)
There fhall these pairs of faithful lovers be
Wedded, with Thefeus, all in jollity.

(6) Dian's Bud, or Cupid's flow'r-] Thus all the editions. The ingenious Dr. Thirlby gave me the correction, which I have inferted in the text.

(7) Titania, mufick call, and strike more dead

THEOBALD.

Than common fleep. Of all thefe fine the fenfe.] This, moft certainly, is both corrupt in the text, and pointing. My emendation needs no juftification. The five, that lay afleep on the ftage, were, Demetrius, Lyfander, Hermia, Helena and Bottom. -Dr. Thirlby likewife communicated this very correction. THEOBALD.

* 1. Profperity.

(8) Dance in Duke Thefeus' boufe triumphantly,

And bless it to all FAIR pofterity;] We should read,
-to all FAR pofterity.

i. e. to the remotest posterity.

WARBURTON.

Puck.

Puck. Fairy King, attend and mark;
I do hear the morning lark.

Ob. Then, my Queen, in filence fad, (9)
Trip we after the night's fhade;
We the globe can compass foon,
Swifter than the wand'ring moon.

Queen. Come, my lord, and in our flight
Tell me how it came this night,
That Ifleeping here was found,

With these mortals on the ground.

[Sleepers lie ftill. [Exeunt.

[Wind borns within.

Enter Thefeus, Egeus, Hippolita, and all his Train.

The. Go one of you, find out the forefter,
For now our obfervation is perform'd, (1)
And fince we have the vaward of the day,
My love shall hear the music of my hounds.
Uncouple in the western valley, go-
Difpatch, I fay, and find the forefter.

We will, fair Queen, up to the mountain's top,
And mark the mufical confufion

Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

Hip. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear
With hounds of Sparta; never did I hear
Such gallant chiding. For, befides the groves,
The fkies, the fountains, ev'ry region near
Seem'd all one mutual cry. I never heard
So musical a difcord, fuch sweet thunder.

(9) Then, my Queen, in filence fad,

Trip we after the night's bade;] Mr. Theobald fays, by fad? Fairies are pleased to follow night. He will have it fade; and fo, to mend the rhime, fpoils both the fenfe and grammar. But he mistakes the meaning of fad; it fignifies only grave, fober; and is oppofed 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 SAD talk For grave or ferious. WARBURTON,

(1) Our obfervation is perform'd] The honours due to the morning of May. I know not why Shakespeare calls this play a Midsummer-Night's Dream, when he fo carefully informs us that it happened on the night preceding May day.

The.

The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So* flew'd, fo + fanded, and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd, like Theffalian bulls;
Slow in purfuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tuneable

Was never halloo'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Theffaly:

Judge when you hear. But foft, what nymphs are these?

Ege. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep, And this Lyfander, this Demetrius is,

This Helena, old Nedar's Helena ;

I wonder at their being here together.

The. No doubt they rofe up early to observe

The rite of May; and, hearing our intent,
Came here in grace of our folemnity.
But fpeak, Egeus, is not this the day,

That Hermia fhould give answer of her choice?

Ege. It is, my lord.

The. Go bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.

Horns, and Shout within: Demetrius, Lyfander, Hermia and Helena, wake and start up.

The. Good morrow, friends; Saint Valentine is paft;

Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
Lyf. Pardon, my lord.

The. I pray you all, stand up:

I know, you two are rival enemies.

How comes this gentle concord in the world,
That hatred is fo far from jealousy,

To fleep by hate, and fear no enmity?

Lyf. My lord, I fhall reply amazedly,

Half fleep, half waking. But as yet, I fwear,
I cannot truly fay how I came here:

*So flewed. That is fo mouthed. Flews are the large chaps of a deep-mouthed hound.

So fanded. So marked with small spots,

HANMER.

But

But as I think, for truly would I fpeak,
And now I do bethink me, so it is;

I came with Hermia hither. Our intent
Was to be gone from Athens, where we might be
Without the peril of th' Athenian law.

Ege. Enough, enough; my lord, you have enough; I beg the law, the law upon his head:

They would have ftol'n away, they would, Demetrius, Thereby to have defeated you and me; your wife; and me, of my confent;

You, of

Of my confent, that she should be your wife.

Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth, Of this their purpose hither to this wood

And I in fury hither follow'd them;
Fair Helena in fancy following me. (2)
But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,.
But by fome power it is, my love to Hermia
Is melted as the fnow; feems to me now.
As the remembrance of an idle gaude,
Which in childhood I did doat upon,
my

And all the faith, the virtue of my
heart,
The object and the pleasure of mine eye,
Is only Helena. To her, my lord,
Was I betrothed ere I Hermia faw;
But like a ficknefs did I loath this food;
But as in health, come to my natural tafte,
Now do I with it, love it, long for it;
And will for evermore be true to it.

The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met;
Of this difcourfe we fhall hear more anon.
Egeus, I will over-bear your will,
For in the temple, by and by with us,
Thefe couples fhall eternally be knit;

And, for the morning now is fomething worn,

Our purpos'd hunting shall be set aside.

(2) 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 florift, and Bird fancier, for a lover and feeder of birds, are colloquial words.

Away,