Thefeus, Duke of Athens. } in love with Hermia. Philoftrate, Mafters of the Revels to Thefeus. Quince, the Carpenter. Snug, the Joiner. Bottom, the Weaver. Starveling, the Tailor. Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, bethrothed to Thefeus. Other Fairies attending their King and Queen. SCENE, Athens, and a Wood not far from it. The enumeration of perfons was firft made by Mr. Rowe. STILVENS Athens. A Room in the Palace of Thefeus. Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Attendants. The. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour Draws on apace; four happy days bring in Another moon: but, oh, methinks, how flow This old moon wanes! fhe lingers my defires, Like to a step-dame, or a dowager, Long withering out a young man's revenue.2 Hip. Four days will quickly fteep themselves in nights; Four nights will quickly dream away the time; And then the moon, like to a filver bow New bent in heaven, shall behold the night Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments; [Exit PHILOSTRATE. Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my fword, But I will wed thee in another key, With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling.3 F 6: Enter 2 The authenticity of this reading having been questioned by Dr. Warburton, I fhall exemplify it from Chapman's Tranflation of the 4th Book of Homer: "there the goodly plant lies withering out his grace." STEEVENS. 3 By triumph, as Mr. Warton has obferved in his late edition of Milton's Poems, p. 56, we are to understand shows, such as masks, revels, c. MALONE. Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS, Ege. Happy be Thefeus, our renowned duke! With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits, I beg the ancient privilege of Athens; The. What fay you, Hermia? be advis'd, fair maid: To 4.e. baubles, toys, trifies. Our author has the word frequently. The Rev. Mr. Lambe, in his notes on the ancient metrical history of the Battle of Flodden, obferves that a gawd is a child's toy, and that the children in the North call their play-things gowdys, and their baby-house agowdy-boufe. STEEVENS. 5 By a law of Solon's, parents had an abfolute power of life and death over their children. So it fuited the poet's purpose well enough, to fuppofe the Athenians had it before. Or perhaps he neither thought nor knew any thing of the matter. WARBURTON. Shakspeare is grievously fufpected of having been placed, while a boy, in an attorney's office. The line before us has an undoubted Imack of legal common-place. Poetry difclaims it. STEVENS. To you your father should be as a god; 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. I know not by what power I am made bold; In fuch a prefence here, to plead my thoughts: The. Either to die the death," or to abjure Therefore, fair Hermia, queftion your defires, For aye2 to be in fhady cloifter mew'd, Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. Than 7 The fenfe is, you owe to your father a being which he may at pleasure continue or destroy. JOHNSON. 8 to die the death,] So, in the Second part of The downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingden, 1601: "We will, my liege, elfe let us die the death." STEEVENS. 9 Bring your youth to the question. Confider your youth. JOHNSON. 3 Thus all the copies: yet eartblier is fo harsh a word, and eartblier happy, for bappier eartbly, a mode of fpeech fo unufual, that I wonder none of the editors have proposed earlier happy. JoHNSON. Than that, which, withering on the virgin thorn, Her. So will I grow, fo live, fo die, my lord, Unto his lordship, whofe unwifhed yoke My foul confents not to give fovereignty. The. Take time to paufe: and, by the next new moon, (The fealing-day betwixt my love and me. For everlasting bond of fellowship,) For aye, aufterity and fingle life. Dem. Relent, fweet Hermia;-And, Lyfander, yield Lyf. You have her father's love, Demetrius ; Lys. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he, And, which is more than all these boasts can be, Why It has fince been observed, that Mr. Pope did propose earlier. We might read-earthly bappier. STEEVENS. So, in Lyly's Midas, 1592: "You bee all young and faire, endeavour to bee wife and vertuous; that when, like rofes, you fhall fall from the ftalke, you may be gathered, and put to the fill." This image however, must have been generally obvious, as in Shakspeare's time the distillation of rofe water was a common procefs in all families. STEEVENS. This is a thought in which Shakspeare feems to have much delighted. We meet with it more than once in his Sonnets. See 5th, 6th, and 54th Sonnet. MALONE. 5 I fufpect that Shakspeare wrote: Let me have Hermia; do you marry him.” 6 TYRWHITT. |