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OBSERVATIONS.

THIS play was entered at Stationers' Hall, Oct. 8, 1600, by Thomas Fisher. It is probable that the hint for it was received from Chaucer's Knight's Tale.

There is an old black letter pamphlet by W. Bettie, called Titana and Theseus, entered at Stationers' Hall, in 1608; but Shakspeare has taken no hints from it. Titania is also the name of the Queen of the Fairies in Decker's Whore of Babylon, 1607. STEEVENS.

Wild and fantastical as this play is, all the parts in their various modes are well written, and give the kind of pleasure which the author designed. Fairies in his time were much in fashion; common tradition had made them familiar, and Spen. ser's poem had made them great. JOHNSON.

Johnson's concluding observation on this play, is not conceived with his usual judgment. There is no analogy or resemblance whatever between the Fairies of Spenser, and those of Shakspeare. The Fairies of Spenser, as appears from his description of them in the second book of the Fairy Queen, canto x. were a race of mortals created by Prometheus, of the human size, shape, and affections, and subject to death. But those of Shakspeare, and of common tradition, as Johnson calls them, were a diminutive race of sportful beings, endowed with immortality and supernatural power, totally different from those of Spenser. M. MASON.

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HIPPOLYTA, queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus.

HERMIA, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander. HELENA, in love with Demetrius.

OBERON, king of the fairies.
TITANIA, queen of the fairies.

PUCK, or ROBIN-GOODFELLOW, a fairy.

PEAS-BLOSSOM,

COBWEB,

MUSTARD-SEED,

Мотн,

PYRAMUS,

THISBE,

WALL,

LION,

} Fairies.

·Characters in the interlude, performed

MOONSHINE, by the Clowns.

Other Fairies, attending their king and queen. Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta.

SCENE, Athens, and a Wood not far from it.

MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM.

ACT I.

SCENE 1.-Athens. A Room in the Palace of THESEUS. Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Attendants.

Theseus.

Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
Draws on apace; four happy days bring in
Another moon: but, oh, methinks, how slow
This old moon wanes ! she lingers my desires,
Like to a step-dame, or a dowager,

Long withering out a young man's revenue.

Hip. Four days will quickly steep themselves in nights; Four nights will quickly dream away the time;

And then the moon, like to a silver bow

New bent in heaven, shall behold the night
Of our solemnities.

The. Go, Philostrate,

Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;
Turn melancholy forth to funerals,

The pale companion is not for our pomp.
-Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,.
And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
But I will wed thee in another key,

[Ex PHIL.

With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling.

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

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 consent to marry her:

-Stand forth, Lysander ;-and, my gracious duke,
This hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child:

-Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given 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,
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,
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,
Immediately provided in that case. 1

and one

The. What say you, Hermia ? be advis'd, fair maid : To you your father should be as a god; One that compos'd your beauties; yea, To whom you are but as a form in wax, By him imprinted, and within his power To leave the figure, or disfigure it. Demetrius is a worthy gentleman. Her. So is Lysander.

The. In himself he is :

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.

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,2 or to abjure

[1] By a law of Solon, parents had an absolute power of life and death over their children. So it suited the poet's purpose well enough to suppose the Athenians had it before. Or perhaps he neither thought nor knew any thing of the matter. WARBURTON.

[2]Shakspeare employs this scriptural'expression in King John; and I meet with it again in the 2d part of the Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon.

STEEVENS.

For ever the society of men.

Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires,
Know of your youth, 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,
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage:
But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,
Than that, which, with'ring on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.
Her. So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
Ere I will yield my virgin patent up

Unto his lordship, to whose unwished yoke

My soul consents not to give sovereignty.

The. Take time to pause: and, by the next new moon,

(The sealing-day betwixt my love and me,

For everlasting bond of fellowship)

Upon that day either prepare to die,
For disobedience to your father's will;

Or else, to wed Demetrius, as he would;

Or on Diana's altar to protest,

For aye, austerity, and single life.

Dem. Relent, sweet Hermia ;-And, Lysander, yield Thy crazed title to my certain right.

Lys. You have her father's love, Demetrius ;

Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him.

Ege. Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love;
And what is mine my love shall render him;
And she is mine; and all my right of her

I do estate unto Demetrius.

Lys. I am, my lord, as well deriv d as he, As well possess'd; my love is more than his ; My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,

If not with vantage, as Demetrius';

And, which is more than all these boasts can be,
I am belov'd of beauteous Hermia :

Why should not I then prosecute my right?
Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,

Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,
And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,

17 VOL. II.

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