itself, the names of the places which continue yet to this present day do witness it, and the graves also of the women which died there. But so it is, that both armies lay a great time one in the face of the other, ere they came to battle. Howbeit at the length Theseus, having first made sacrifice unto Fear the goddess, according to the counsel of a prophecy he had received, he gave them battle in the month of August, on the same day in the which the Athenians do even at this present solemnise the feast which they call Boedromia. . . . Afterwards, at the end of four months, peace was taken between them by means of one of the women called Hippolyta. For this historiographer calleth the Amazon which Theseus married, Hippolyta, and not Antiopa." Halliwell points out certain "anachronisms" in the play : "For instance, Theseus marries Hippolyta on the night of the new moon; but how does this agree with the discourse of the clowns (iii. 1. 45-51) at the rehearsal ? "Again, the period of action is four days, concluding with the night of the new moon. But Hermia and Lysander receive the edict of Theseus four days before the new moon; they fly from Athens to-morrow night;' they become the sport of the fairies, along with Helena and Demetrius, during one night only, for Oberon accomplishes all in one night, before the first cock crows; and the lovers are discovered by Theseus the morning before that which would have rendered this portion of the plot chronologically consistent. For, although Oberon, addressing his queen, says, 'Now thou and I are new in amity; And will, to-morrow midnight, solemnly, yet Theseus, when he discovers the lovers, asks Egeus, ་ and the answer of Egeus, 'It is, my Lord,' coupled with what Theseus says to Hermia, i. 1. 83 fol. 'Take time to pause; and by the next new moon,' etc. proves that the action of the remaining part of the play is not intended to consist of two days. "The preparation and rehearsal of the interlude present similar inconsistencies. In i. 2. 9-55, Quince is the only one who has any knowledge of the most lamentable comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby,' and he selects actors for Thisby's mother, Pyramus's father, and Thisby's father, none of whom appear in the interlude itself. In iii. I. 73-93, we have the commencement of the play in rehearsal, none of which appears in the piece itself. Again, the play could have been but partially rehearsed once; for Bottom only returns in time to advise 'every man look o'er his part;' and immediately before his companions were lamenting the failure of their 'sport.' How then could the 'merry tears' of Philostrate be shed at its rehearsal ?" "And in the wood where often you and I Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lie" (i. 1. 214). ACT I. SCENE I.-The opening lines appear in Fisher's quarto as follows: "Now faire Hippolita, our nuptiall hower Draws on apase: fower happy daies bring in This old Moone waues! She lingers my desires, Long withering out a yong mans reuenewe. Hip. Fower daies will quickly steepe themselues in night: Fower nights will quickly dreame away the time: And then the Moone, like to a siluer bowe, Now bent in heauen, shall beholde the night The. Goe Philostrate, Stirre vp the Athenian youth to merriments, The pale companion is not for our pomp. With pompe, with triumph, and with reueling." In the 1st folio they read thus: "Now faire Hippolita, our nuptiall houre Long withering out a yong mans reuennew. Hip. Foure daies wil quickly steep theselues in nights And then the Moone, like to a siluer bow, The. Go Philostrate, Stirre vp the Athenian youth to merriments, The pale companion is not for our pompe, With pompe, with triumph, and with reuelling." 4. Lingers. For the transitive use cf. Rich. II. ii. 2. 72 : "Who gently would dissolve the bands of life, Which false hope lingers in extremity.' Holinshed has "to linger his businesse." See Gr. 290. 5. Like to a stepdame, etc. Whalley cites Horace (not Ovid, as some eds. give it), Epist. i. 1. 21: Halliwell quotes speare's: "Ut piget annus Pupillis, quos dura premit custodia matrum, Drant's translation (1567), which resembles Shake "Slow seames the yeare unto the warde Which houlden downe must be, In custodie of stepdame straite,- Dowager, as K. remarks, is here used in the original sense of a widow receiving dower out of the revenue which has descended to the heir with this customary charge. Slender (M. W. i. 1. 284) alludes to this custom: "I keep but three men and a boy yet, till my mother be dead." 6. Withering out. Steevens quotes Chapman's Homer: “there the goodly plant lies withering out his grace.” Revenue. Accented by S. either on the penult or antepenult. Cf. line 158 below. See Gr. 490. 7. Steep. "A similar use of the verb steep occurs in Cymb., Oth., and in several other plays" (Halliwell). See Cymb. v. 4. 131; Oth. iv. 2. 50; T. N. iv. 1. 66; A. and C. ii. 7. 113, etc. 8. Four nights. The 2d quarto has "daies." 10. New-bent. Rowe's emendation for the "Now bent" of the early eds. 13. Pert. Lively. Used by S. only here and in L. L. L. v. 2. 272. Cf. pertly promptly, in Temp. iv. 1. 58: “appear, and pertly." 15. Companion. Often used contemptuously, as fellow is now. Cf. M. W. iii. 1. 123: "this same scall, scurvy, cogging companion;" J. C. iv. 3. 138: "Companion, hence !" 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4. 132: "scurvy companion," etc. Smollett uses it in the same sense in Roderick Random (1748): Scurvy companion! saucy tarpaulin! Rude, impertinent fellow!" 66 Dr. Grey (quoted by Halliwell without comment) says that S. calls the moon "the pale companion of the night" in T. G. of V. He was probably thinking of T. G. of V. iv. 2. 100: "by this pale queen of night.” 16. I woo'd thee with my sword. See extracts from Chaucer and Plutarch above. 19. Triumph. A public festivity or exhibition of any kind, particularly a tournament" (Schmidt). Cf. T. G. of V. iv. 4. 161: "With triumphs, mirth, and rare solemnity;" Rich. II. v. 2. 52: “justs and triumphs" (see note in our ed. p. 212); 3 Hen. VI. v. 7. 43: "With stately triumphs, mirthful comic shows," etc. Steevens quotes The Duke of Anjou's Entertainement 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 cometh thereof, hath been applied to all high, great, and statelie dooings." 20. Duke. S. found the word in Chaucer and in North's Plutarch; and it is also used in the A. V. (1 Chron. i. 51) in the same sense of leader (Latin dux) or ruler. Steevens cites Lydgate's Fall of Princes, xii. 21: "Duke Theseus had the victorye;" and Skelton: "Not like Duke Hamilcar, Not like Duke Hasdrubal." Stanyhurst, in his trans. of Virgil, calls Æneas "Duke Æneas." So in 21. Egeus. S. took the name from Plutarch, who gives it as that of the father of Theseus. 24. Stand forth, Demetrius. These words, like "Stand forth, Lysander," two lines below, are given as a stage-direction in all the early eds. The measure shows that they belong in the text, to which Rowe restored them. 27. This man hath bewitch'd. The reading of the quartos and Ist folio. The later folios omit "man." 66 31. Feigning love. Walker suggests "feigned love." 32. Stolen, etc. Stealthily obtained influence over her fancy" (J. H.). Schmidt explains the impression of her fantasy as "the form, the image dwelling in her imagination." 33. Gawds. Baubles, toys. Cf. iv. 1. 164 below. ii. 1. 3, and T. and C. iii. 3. 176. See also T. of S. 66 34. Knacks. Knick-knacks. Cf. T. of S. iv. 3. 167: A knack, a toy, a trick, a baby's cap;" W. T. iv. 4. 360: "To load my she with knacks,' etc. 35. Unharden'd. Susceptible, impressible. Used nowhere else by S. 39. Be it so. See Gr. 133. 44. Our law. By a law of Solon's, parents had power of life and death over their children. The poet anticipates that statute here, though he may have known nothing about it. 45. Immediately. Expressly, specially. 46. Be advis'd. Take heed, be considerate. Often used by S. in this sense. Cf. V. and A. 615; L. L. L. iv. 3. 368; M. of V. ii. 1. 42; Hen. VIII. i. 1. 139, 145, etc. 50, 51. "The sense is, you owe to your father a being which he may at pleasure continue or destroy" (Johnson). 54. In this kind. Cf. v. 1. 88 and 208 below. See also T. G. of V. iii. 2. 56; M. W. iii. 3. 232, etc. 65. To die the death. Cf. M. for M. ii. 4. 165; A. and C. iv. 14. 26; Cymb. iv. 2. 96, etc. See also Matt. xv. 4. 68. Know of your youth. 'Bring your youth to the question; consider your youth" (Johnson). For know of ask, cf. T. N. iii. 4. 278; Lear, v. 1. 1; Oth. v. 1. 117, etc. 69. Whether. Metrically a monosyllable. Gr. 466. 70. Nun. 66 For the anachronism, cf. V. and A. 752: Love-lacking vestals and self-loving nuns." 71. Mew'd. Shut up. Cf. Rich. III. i. 1. 132: "More pity that the eagle should be mew'd, Mew up is more common; as in T. of S. i. 1. 87, 188; K. John, iv. 2. 57; Rich. III. i. 1. 38, i. 3. 139, etc. Emmew occurs in M. for M. iii. 1. 91. Mew seems originally to have meant to moult, or shed the feathers; and as a noun, 66 the place, whether it be abroad or in the house, in which the hawk is put during the time she casts, or doth change her feathers" (R. Holmes's Academy of Armory, etc.). Spenser has both verb and noun; as in F. Q. i. 5. 20: Id. ii. 3. 34: "forth comming from her darksome mew, Where she all day did hide her hated hew;" "Unto the bush her eye did suddein glaunce, Milton uses the verb in the magnificent description of Liberty in Of |