Nay, go not back.

66

Hel. I will not trust you, I, Nor longer stay in your curst company. Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray; My legs are longer though, to run away. [Exit. Her. I am amaz'd, and know not what to say.

[Exit. Obe. This is thy negligence: still thou mistak'st,

Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully.

Puck. Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook. Did not you tell me I should know the man By the Athenian garments he had on ? And so far blameless proves my enterprise, That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes; And so far am I glad it so did sort,"

As this their jangling I esteem a sport.

Obe. Thou see'st these lovers seek a place to fight:

Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night;
The starry welkin 68 cover thou anon
With drooping fog, as black as Acheron;69
And lead these testy rivals so astray
As one come not within another's way.
Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,
Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong;
And sometime rail thou like Demetrius;
And from each other look thou lead them thus,
Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep
With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep:
Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye;
Whose liquor hath this virtuous property,

68. Welkin. Sky. See Note 11, Act i., "The Tempest." 69. Acheron. One of the rivers of the infernal regions. 70. Wend, An old form of 'go.' See Note 61, Act iv., "Measure for Measure."

71. Night's swift dragons. The car of Night was fabled to be drawn by dragons or winged serpents; which, sleeping with their eyes open, give the idea of being ever watchful.

72. In cross-ways and floods have burial. The ghosts of those who were buried in cross-roads, and of those who were drowned without the rites of sepulture having been bestowed on their bodies, were supposed to be condemned to wander for a hundred years; and all wandering ghosts were believed to return to their " wormy beds" at the approach of dawn.

73. The Morning's love. Cephalus, a prince of Thessaly, and a famous huntsman. He was married to Procris; but the

To take from thence all error with his might,
And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.
When they next wake, all this derision
Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision;
And back to Athens shall the lovers wend,"
With league, whose date till death shall never end.
Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,

I'll to my queen and beg her Indian boy;
And then I will her charmèd eye release
From monster's view, and all things shall be peace.
Puck. My fairy lord, this must be done with

haste,

For night's swift dragons" cut the clouds full fast,
And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger;
At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and
there,

Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all,
That in cross-ways and floods have burial,”
Already to their wormy beds are gone;
For fear lest day should look their shames upon,
They wilfully themselves exile from light,
And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night.
Obe. But we are spirits of another sort:

I with the Morning's love have oft made sport;
And, like a forester, the groves may tread,
Even till the eastern gate," all fiery-red,
Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,
Turns into yellow gold his salt-green streams.
But, notwithstanding, haste; make no delay :
We may effect this business yet ere day.
Puck. Up and down, up and down,

I will lead them up and down:

I am fear'd in field and town:
Goblin, lead them up and down.75

Here comes one.

Re-enter LYSANDER.

[Exit.

Lys. Where art thou, proud Demetrius ? speak thou now.

goddess Aurora cast an eye of favour upon him, and strove to make him false to his marriage-vows. For a most tasteful version of this beautiful classic story see Leigh Hunt's “Indicator," No. 27, 12th April, 1820.

74. Even till the eastern gate, &c. In this exquisite passage Oberon has to state that he and his fairy people are privileged beings, uncompelled to retire with the night, and able to range in the broad, blessed light of day but with what poetic gusto is it told; with what grace of allusion to the sylvan loveliness of Grecian mythological beliefs; with what gorgeous colouring of natural description, flooding the lines with blended rosy, golden, and sea-green hues !

75. Goblin, lead them up and down. It has been sug gested that these four lines are possibly a quotation from some lost ballad respecting Puck and his pranks,' since he would hardly address himself as "Goblin."' But the "I" in the lines shows them to be spoken by Puck himself; and, moreover, we find "Goblin" to be a name that he approves, from what the fairy says to him (Act ii, SC. 1):

"Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,

You do their work, and they shall have good luck.”

Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?

To measure out my length on this cold bed.
By day's approach look to be visited.

[Lies down and sleeps.

Re-enter HELENA.

Hel. Oh, weary night! oh, long and tedious night,
Abate thy hours! Shine comforts from the east,
That I may back to Athens by daylight,
From these that my poor company detest:

Steal me awhile from mine own company.

[Lies down and sleeps. Puck. Yet but three? Come one more ; Two of both kinds make up four. Here she comes, curst 80 and sad :Cupid is a knavish lad,

Thus to make poor females mad.

78. Wot. Know. See Note 40, Act ii., "Merry Wives of Windsor."

79. 'By. Aby. See Note 51, Act iii. 80. Curst. Here used for vexed.

81. Jack shall have Fill. An old proverbial expression, signifying that each couple of lovers shall pair off suitably. Biron alludes to it, where he says-"Jack hath not Jill." "Love's Labour's Lost," Act v., sc. 2.

1. Coy. To fondle, caress, smooth, pat, stroke. The word is used in this sense by other writers besides Shakespeare, and seems to be derived from 'decoy,' to allure, to treat with blandishment.

2. Neif. A North-country word for 'fist.'

3. Leave your courtesy. 'Cease bowing.' These reminders to persons bent on over-long salutation seem to have been frequent in old times of ceremony and deference. See Note 35, Act v., "Love's Labour's Lost."

4 Cavalery Cobweb. Bottom not only corrupts 'cavalero' into "cavalery," but, in his conceited way of trying to prove himself equal to any part he is suddenly called upon to fill, confunds one fairy's name with the other; speaking of "Cobweb instead of "Peas-blossom," whom he has just before ordered to scratch his head.

5. The tongs and the bones. There is a stage direction here in the Folio, "Musiche Tongs, Rurall Musicke;" showing that it was a known instrument, thus used, and pleased other country ears besides Bottom's long ones. "The bones" were bits of bone clacked between the fingers; and bones were subsequently used in the marrow-bones and cleavers' sometimes played at butchers' weddings. The complacency with which the human Ass plumes himself upon his musical ear is delightfuly characteristic.

Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in music: let us have the tongs and the bones.

Tita. Or say, sweet love, what thou desir'st to eat. Bot. Truly, a peck of provender: I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.

Tita. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.

Bot. I had rather have a handful or two of dried

peas. But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me: I have an exposition of sleep' come upon me.

Tita. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.-Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.—

6. Bottle of hay. 'Bundle of hay;' from French, botte. 7. An exposition of sleep. Bottom's grandeur for 'a disposition to sleep.'

8. Be all ways away. 'Depart in every direction upon your several offices;' upon those she described in the lists beginning "Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds," Act ii., sc. 3; and "The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees," Act iii., sc. 1. 9. So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle gently entwist. Not only from a previous passage in this play (see Note 51, Act ii.) does Shakespeare apparently use "woodbine" for one and the same plant as "honeysuckle," but in "Much Ado about Nothing" Beatrice's place of concealment is described as "the pleached bower, where honeysuckles forbid the sun to enter," and afterwards it is called "the woodbine coverture." Therefore, it should seem as if in the present passage he meant to say the woodbine entwists the honeysuckle (as one vine may entwine its neighbour vine); or, in other words, entwists its other self. If, however, a comma be placed after "woodbine " and after "honeysuckle" (as in the Folio), the one will be, parenthetically, a repetition of the other; and both will make the line read on as a following up of "I will wind thee in my arms," while the verb "entwist" is used as complete in itself.

10. Seeking sweet savours. Fisher's quarto has 'favours,' which some editors give instead of " savours," the Folio word.