And, as I'm an honest Puck, Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue, So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, [Exit. NOTES ON A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. p. 21. ་་ ACT FIRST. SCENE I. "New bent in heaven :- Folio and quartos have "Now bent." An o for an e was the easiest of all misprints; and it is plain that Hippolyta speaks of the moon as it will be, not as it is. Rowe made the correction. "Go, Philostrate": - - At the end of Theseus' address to Philostrate, it has been the practice in modern editions to mark his exit. But such literalism is almost puerile. Theseus surely did not mean that Philostrate should then rush out incontinent, and begin on the moment to "awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth" in the Athenian youth. 66 p. 22. with triumph": - - This word, as we learn from many contemporary allusions, and especially from an account of The Duke of Anjou's Entertainment, 1581, first pointed out by Steevens, was "applied to all high, great, and statelie dooings." Falstaff tells Bardolph, Henry IV. Part I. Act III. Sc. 3, that his face is "a perpetual triumph, an everlasting bonfire-light." p. 23. "" our renowned Duke" : — -Duke' means leader, and so, any chief or ruler. Dante calls Theseus "Duca d'Atene," Inf. C. XII. 17; and Chaucer has "a duk highte Theseus," in his Knightes Tale. See also 1 Chronicles, v. 51-54. "Stand forth, Demetrius": - Folio and quartos exhibit this and the corresponding address to Lysander as stage directions, accidentally, as the context and the fact that each completes an otherwise imperfect line, plainly show. "But earthlier happy":- In almost all modern editions this, the text of the folio and both quartos, is altered, on Capell's suggestion, to "earthly happier;" a change. - which substitutes a comparison of degree for one of kind, which impairs the rhythm of the line, which gives a weak thought for a strong one, which is based on a limitation of the flexibility of the language even in the hands of Shakespeare, and which, in short, is little less than barbarous. There is no better adjective than earthly,' and none which can be better made comparative or superlative. Even the poor support for the change which has been sought in the orthography of the folio, "earthlier happie," (which, it is urged, might have led to the misplacing of the r,) does not exist; for Roberts' quarto, from which the folio was printed, has "earthlier happy." "Beterm them": - This word seems to mean afford, 'yield,' 'allow;' though the sense in which it was used cannot be very exactly defined. 66 [Hermia,] for aught," &c. :- - The folio has no word in the place of Hermia,' where the quartos have "Eigh [ay] me," for which Hermia' is substituted in the second folio. The exclamation is unsuited to Lysander and to his speech; and I believe that it was an error of the press, or of the transcribers, for the proper name, and that its absence in the folio is the result of its erasure in the quarto stage copy, the interlineation of the correct word having been omitted by accident. 66 to be enthralled to low":- - Folio and quartos have "to loue." Theobald corrected the error, which is of the easiest. 66— the choice of merit : Thus the folio: the quartos have "friends," for which no accident could have substituted merit,' and which, as it gives a clear meaning, we must accept as an alteration in the copy furnished to the printers by Heminge and Condell. The sense of the line is also made subtler and less common place by the introduction of the new word, while its relation to the next is not changed; for "the choice of merit" is, plainly enough, not the spontaneous, and at first unconscious, preference of the lover. 66— remov'd seven leagues": -The quartos, and all modern editions hitherto, have "remote." 66 a observance for a morn": — The quartos, which have thus far been universally followed, have "to a morn;" and so also has Chaucer in his Knightes Tale, in which Shakespeare probably found the expression, reason why he would not have repeated it letter for letter. "Demetrius loves you, fair": So the folio and Fisher's quarto: Roberts' quarto, which has been hitherto followed, has "your fair," a reading which is not at variance with a certain phraseology of the time, by which 'fair' was used for fairness,' but which the line taken together shows to be incorrect: "Demetrius loves you, fair: O, happy fair!" "Yours would I catch": - Folio and quartos have, "Your words I catch," which the context, "O, were favour [i. e., personal appearance] so," shows to be a misprint for the text, which we owe to Hanmer. 66 is no fault of mine' : The folio fails here to correct an error of Roberts' quarto, which has, "is none of mine." The text is that of Fisher's quarto. 66 66— like a paradise":- Fisher's quarto has "as a paradise." Just below it has "a Heaven unto a Hell," 'unto' being plainly a misprint for into,' which is found in the folio, where, however, the second article is accidentally omitted, the text there being "a Heaven into Hell." of their counsel sweet" :-Folio and quartos have "sweld," an easy misprint. Just below, the same copies have "strange companions" for "stranger companies." Both corrections, made by Theobald, and found in Mr. Collier's folio of 1632, are justified by sense and rhyme. what all but he doth know : So the original, in conformity with the usage of the time, as could be shown by many instances of unquestionable authority. Here and in similar constructions elsewhere, modern editions have hitherto changed doth' to 'do.' 66 66 Things base and vile":- The original has " vild," which some editors have retained. But the orthography 'vile was in use in Shakespeare's day, and had been for hundreds of years. It is found in this very instance, in Fisher's quarto, published twenty-three years before the folio. 66 he often is beguiled": The folio has "he is often beguil'd." This is plainly an accidental transposition, made in correcting the text of the quartos - - 66 he is so oft beguiled" - by putting the caret for often' after is, instead of before it. The change appears to have been made to avoid, for the sake of euphony, the juxtaposition of is' and 'so,' oft' and 'beguiled; ' yet the quarto text has hitherto been followed. 66 SCENE II. the Duke and the Duchess": So the folio and both quartos; and yet all modern editions hitherto, except Capell's, omit the last article. p. 29. p. 30. 66 and so grow on to a point :- The quartos omiton.' Warner suggested, "and so go on to appoint," which plausible reading was also found in Mr. Collier's folio of 1632. But the speech as it stands is good colloquial Bottom-ese. "The most lamentable Comedy":- Both title and piece are burlesques of some of the dramatic productions of the age preceding Shakespeare's; such, for instance, as the following, pointed out by Steevens: A Lamentable Tragedie mixed full of plesaunt Mirth, containing The Life of Cambises, King of Percia. B. L. (no date). Some of these lingered probably upon the stage, and certainly in the memories of the majority of his audience, in Shakespeare's earlier days. 66 most gallantly for love": - The quartos have "most gallant," which some editors have adopted, because it makes the expression "more characteristic." But on the contrary it makes the speech quite unsuited to good Peter Quince, who always speaks correctly; for "the Duke and the Duchess on his wedding day," just above, is in conformity to the usage of educated persons in Shakespeare's day. Indeed, it should be observed that purely grammatical blunders are rarely or never put into the mouths of Shakespeare's characters; probably because grammatical forms, in minute points, at least, were not so fixed and so universally observed in his day as to make violations of them very ridiculous to a general audience. He depends for burlesque effect upon errors more radically nonsensical and ludicrous. 66- to tear a cat in : --- Steevens first quoted from The Roaring Girl, 1611, the speech of a character called Tear-Cat, "I am called by those who have seen my valour, Tear-Cat: also one from Histriomastix, in which a soldier says to a player, "Sirrah, this is you that would rend and tear a cat upon the stage ;" and again from The Isle of Gulls, 1606, "I had rather hear two such jests, than a whole play of such Tear-cat thunderclaps." The expression is so strange that it needs all this support. Its origin has never been remarked upon. May it not be a whimsical stage corruption of tear-coat'? We still call a blustering, roaring fellow, who makes all split (including his garments) a tear-coat.' "The raging rocks :- These lines appear as prose in folio and quartos. It has been conjectured that they are a quotation; but does not Bottom's expression, "This was lofty," make it certain that they are? "Francis Flute, the bellows-mender" :- Flute did not |