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. revelry-
Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS.
Ege. Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!4

The. Thanks, good Egeus: What's the news with thee?

3 With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling.] By triumph, as Mr. Warton has observed in his late edition of Milton's Poems, p. 56, we are to understand shows, such as masks, revels, &c. So again, in King Henry VI, P. III:

"And now what rests, but that we spend the time
"With stately triumphs, mirthful comick shows,
"Such as befit the pleasures of the court?”

Again, in the preface to Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, 1624: " Now come tidings of weddings, maskings, mummeries, entertainments, trophies, triumphs, revels, sports, playes." Jonson, as the same gentleman observes, in the title of his masque called Love's Triumph through Callipolis, by triumph seems to have meant a grand procession; and, in one of the stage-directions, it is said, "the triumph is seen far off." Malone.

Thus also, (and more satisfactorily) in the Duke of Anjou's Entertainment at Antwerp, 1581: "yet notwithstanding, their triumphes [those of the Romans] have so borne the bell above all the rest, that the word triumphing, which commeth thereof, hath beene applied to all high, great, and statelie dooings." Steevens.

Ege. Full of vexation come I, with complaintern
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 hath bewitch'ds the bosom of my child:
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast giv'n her rhymes,
And interchang'd love-tokens with my child;
Thou hast, by moon-light, 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, dr
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweet-meats; 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, hardness.
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,

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 befal 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,1 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,

8 To leave the figure, or disfigure it.] The sense is, you owe to your father a being, which he may at pleasure continue or destroy. Johnson.

9

to die the death,] So, in the second part of The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601:

"We will, my liege, else let us die the death." See notes on Measure for Measure, Act II, sc. iv. Steevens.

1 Know of your youth,] Bring your youth to the question. Consider your youth. Johnson.

2 For aye-] i, e. for ever. So, in K. Edward II, by Marlowe, 1622:

And sit for que enthronized in heaven "