Her dotage now I do begin to pity. For meeting her of late, behind the wood, [Touching her eyes with an herb. See, as thou wast wont to see: 3 · sweet savours —] Thus Roberts's quarto and the first folio. Fisher's quarto reads-favours, which, taken in the sense of ornaments, such as are worn at weddings, may be right. Steevens. 4 -flourets' eyes,] The eye of a flower is the technical term for its center. Thus Milton, in his Lycidas, v. 139: "Throw hither all your quaint enamel'd eyes." Steevens. 5 That he awaking when the other do,] Such is the reading of the old copies, and such was the phraseology of Shakspeare's age; though the modern editors have departed from it.-So, in King Henry IV, P. I: "— and unbound the rest, and then came in the other." Again, in King Henry IV, P. II: "For the other, Sir John, let me see," &c. So, in the epistle prefixed to Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication to the Devil, by Thomas Nashe, 4to. 1592: "I hope they will give me leave to think there be fooles of that art, as well as of all other." Malone. Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flowers Hath such force and blessed power. Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen. Obe. There lies your love. Tita. How came these things to pass? O, how mine eyes do loath his visage now! Obe. Silence, a while.-Robin, take off this head.— Titania, musick call; and strike more dead Than common sleep, of all these five the sense." Tita. Musick, ho! musick; such as charmeth sleep. Puck. Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own fool's eyes peep. Obe. Sound, musick. [Still musick] Come, my queen, take hands with me, And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be. And will, to-morrow midnight, solemnly, 6 Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower -] The old copies read-or Cupid's. Corrected by Dr. Thirlby. The herb now employed is styled Diana's bud, because it is applied as an antidote to that charm which had constrained Titania to dote on Bottom with "the soul of love." Malone. Dian's bud, is the bud of the Agnus Castus, or Chaste Tree.Thus, in Macer's Herball, practysyd by Doctor Lynacre, translated out of Laten into Englyshe, &c. bí. 1. no date: "The vertue of this herbe is, that he wyll kepe man and woman chaste," &c. Cupid's flower, is the Viola tricolor, or Love in Idleness. Steevens. 7 of all these five the sense.] The old copies read-these fine, but this most certainly is corrupt. My emendation needs no justification. The five, that lay asleep on the stage were Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, Helena, and Bottom.-Dr. Thirlby likewise communicated this very correction. Theobald. 8 Dance in duke Theseus' house triumphantly, And bless it to all fair posterity:] We should read: i. e. to the remotest posterity. Warburton. In the concluding song, where Oberon blesses the nuptial bed, part of his benediction is, that the posterity of Theseus shall be fair: Gg There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be Puck. Fairy king, attend, and mark; Obe. Then, my queen, in silence sad, Tita. Come, my lord; and in our flight, [Exeunt. [Horns sound within. Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train. The. Go, one of you, find out the forester; For now our observation is perform'd:1 "And the blots of nature's hand "Shall not in their issue stand; "Nor mark prodigious, such as are "Shall upon their children be." M. Mason. to all fair prosperity:] I have preferred this, which is the reading of the first and best quarto, printed by Fisher, to that of the other quarto and the folio, (posterity) induced by the following lines in a former scene: 66 your warrior love "To Theseus must be wedded, and you come "To give their bed joy and prosperity." Malone. Then, my queen, in silence sad, Trip we after the night's shade:] Sad signifies only grave, sober; and is opposed to their dances and revels, which were now ended at the singing of the morning lark. So, in The Winter's Tale, Act IV: "My father and the gentlemen are in sad talk.” For grave or serious. Warburton. A statute 3 Henry VII, c. xiv, directs certain offences committed in the king's palace, to be tried by twelve sad men of the king's houshold. Blackstone. 1 — our observation is perform'd:] The honours due to the morning of May. I know not why Shakspeare calls this play A Midsummer Night's Dream, when he so carefully informs us that it happened the night preceding May day. Johnson. The title of this play seems no more intended, to denote the precise time of the action, than that of The Winter's Tale; which we find was at the season of sheep-shearing. Farmer. And since we have the vaward of the day,2 My love shall hear the musick of my hounds.— Of hounds and echo in conjunction. Hip. I was with Hercules, and Cadmus, once, When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear3 The same phrase has been used in a former scene: "To do observance to a morn of May." I imagine that the title of this play was suggested by the time it was first introduced on the stage, which was probably at Midsummer. "A Dream for the entertainment of a Midsummer night." Twelfth Night and The Winter's Tale had probably their titles from a similar circumstance. Malone. In Twelfth Night, Act III, sc. iv, Olivia observes of Malvolio's seeming phrenzy, that it “is a very Midsummer madness.” That time of the year, we may therefore suppose, was anciently thought productive of mental vagaries resembling the scheme of Shakspeare's play. To this circumstance it might have owed its title. Steevens. 2 the vaward of the day,] Vaward is compounded of van and ward, the forepart. In Knolles's History of the Turks, the word vayvod is used in the same sense. Edinburgh Magazine, for Nov. 1786. Steevens. 3 they bay'd the bear -] Thus all the old copies. And thus in Chaucer's Knightes Tale, v. 2020, Tyrwhitt's edit: "The hunte ystrangled with the wild beres." Bearbaiting was likewise once a diversion esteemed proper for royal personages, even of the softer sex. While the princess Elizabeth remained at Hatfield House, under the custody of Sir Thomas Pope, she was visited by Queen Mary. The next morning they were entertained with a grand exhibition of bearbaiting, with which their highnesses were right well content. Life of Sir Thomas Pope, cited by Warton in his History of English Poetry, Vol. II, p. 391. Steevens. See In The Winter's Tale, Antigonus is destroyed by a bear, who is chaced by hunters. See also our poet's Venus and Adonis: "For now she hears it is no gentle chace, "But the blunt boar, rough bear, or lion proud." Malone. Holinshed, with whose histories our poet was well acquainted, says, "the beare is a beast commonlie hunted in the East countrie." See Vol. I, p. 206; and in p. 226, he says, "Alexander, at vacant time, hunted the tiger, the pard, the bore, and the beare." Pliny, Plutarch, &c. mention bear-hunting. Turberville, in his Book of Hunting, has two chapters on hunting the bear. 4 5 With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, So flew'd, so sanded; and their heads are hung As the persons mentioned by the poet are foreigners of the heroic strain, he might perhaps think it nobler sport for them to hunt the bear than the boar. Shakspeare must have read the Knight's Tale in Chaucer, wherein are mentioned Theseus's "white alandes [grey-hounds] to huntin at the lyon, or the wild bere." Tollet. 4 such gallant chiding;] Chiding in this instance means only sound. So, in King Henry VIII: "As doth a rock against the chiding flood." Again, in Humour out of Breath, a comedy, by John Day, 1608: I take great pride 66 "To hear soft musick, and thy shrill voice chide." Again, in the 22d chapter of Drayton's Polyolbion: 66 drums and trumpets chide.-" This use of the word was not obsolete in the age of Milton, who says, in his Smectymnuus: "I may one day hope to have ye again in a still time, when there shall be no chiding. Not in these noises." See edit. 1753, p. 118. Steevens. 5 The skies, the fountains,] Instead of fountains, Mr. Heath would read-mountains. The change had been proposed to Mr. Theobald, who has well supported the old reading, by observing that Virgil and other poets have made rivers, lakes, &c. responsive to sound: "Tum vero exoritur clamor, ripæque lacusque Seem'd all one mutual cry:] ing-seem, but, as Hippolyta is adopted Mr. Rowe's correction. Malone. The old copies concur in readspeaking of time past, I have Steevens. 7 My hounds are bred, &c.] This passage has been imitated by Lee, in his Theodosius: "Then through the woods we chac'd the foaming boar, "With hounds that opened like Thessalian bulls; "Like Tigers flew'd, and sanded as the shore, "With ears and chests that dash'd the morning dew." Malone. So flew'd,] Sir T. Hanmer justly remarks, that flews are the large chaps of a deep-mouth'd hound. Arthur Golding uses this word in his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, finished 1567, a book with which Shakspeare appears to have been well acquaint |