That (in a spleen) unfolds both heav'n and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say, Behold!
The jaws of darkness do devour it up ;
So quick bright things come to confufion.-

Her. If then true lovers have been ever croft,
It stands as an edict in destiny:
Then, let us teach our tryal patience:
Because it is a customary cross,
As due to love, as thoughts and dreams and sighs,
Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers!

Lyf. A good perfuafion-therefore hear me, Hermia. I have a widow-aunt, a dowager

Of great revenue, and she hath no child;
From Athens is her house remov'd seven leagues, (7)
And the respects me as her only fon.
There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;
And to that place the sharp Athenian law
Cannot purfue us. If thou lov'st me then,
Steal forth thy father's house to morrow night;
And in the wood, a league without the town,
Where I did meet thee once with Helena
To do observance to the morn of May,
There will I stay for thee.

in a

it is usual with him to employ one, only to express a very few ideas of that number of which it is composed. Thus wanting here to exprefs the ideas of a fudden, or trice, he uses the word Spleen; which, partially confidered, fignifying a hafty sudden fit, is enough for him, and he never troubles himself about the further or fuller signification of the word. Here, he uses the word Spleen for a juddem hafty fit; fo just the contrary, in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, he uses fudden for spleenatic-fudden quips. And it must be owned this fort of conversation adds a force to the diction. WARBURTON.

(7) I have a widow aunt, &c.] These lines perhaps might more properly be regulated thus :

I have a Widow Aunt a Dowager

Of great revenue, and she hath no child,

And she respects me as
house from Athens

Her

her only fon;
remov'd seven leagues;

is

There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee,
And to that place

Her. My good Lyfander,

I fwear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow, (8)
By his best arrow with the golden head,
By the Simplicity of Venus' doves,

By that, which knitteth souls, and prospers loves ;
And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage Queen,
When the false Trojan under fail was seen ;
By all the vows that ever men have broke,
In number more than ever women spoke;
In that same place thou hast appointed me,
To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.

Lys. Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.

(8) Lyf.

if thou lov'st me, then

Steal forth thy father's house, &c.

Her. My good Lysander,

I swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow,
By, &c. &c.

In that same place thou haft appointed me

To morrow truly will I meet with thee.]

Lyfander does but just propose her running away from her Father at midnight, and straight she is at her oaths that she will meet him at the place of Rendezvous. Not one doubt or hefitation, not one condition of afsurance for Lyfander's constancy. Either she was nauseously coming; or she had before jilted him; and he could not believe her without a thousand Oaths. But Shakespeare observed nature at another rate. - The speeches are divided wrong, and must be thus rectified; when Lyfander had proposed her running away with him, the replies,

Her. My good Lysander

and is going on, to ask security for his fidelity. This he perceives, and interrupts her with the grant of what she demands. Lyf. I swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow, &c. By all the vows that ever men have broke,

In number more than ever woman spoke

Here she interrupts him in her turn; declares herself satisfied, and consents to meet him, in the following words,

Her. In that same place thou hast appointed me,
To morrow truly will I meet with thee.

This division of the lines, besides preferving the character, gives the dialogue infinitely more force and spirit.

SCENE III.

Enter Helena.

Her. God speed, fair Helena! whither away?
Hel. Call you me fair? that fair again unsay;

Demetrius loves * you, fair; O happy fair!
Your eyes are (9) lode stars, and your tongue's sweet

air

More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,
When wheat is green, when haw-thorn buds appear.
Sickness is catching: O! were favour so !
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go; (1)
My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye ;
My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody,
Were the world mine, Demetrius being 'bated,
The rest I'll give to be to you translated.
O teach me, how you look; and with what art
You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.

Her. I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.
Hel. Oh, that your frowns would teach my smiles

fuch skill!

Her. I give him curses, yet he gives me love.

Hel. Oh! that my pray'rs could fuch affection

move !

Her. The more I hate, the more he follows me.
Hel. The more I love, the more he hateth me.

I. Your fair.

(9) Your eyes are lode stars,] This was a compliment not unfrequent among the old poets. The lode star is the leading or guiding star, that is, the pole star. The magnet is for the same reason called the lode-stone, either because it leads iron, or because it guides the Sailor. Milton has the fame thought in L'Allegro.

Tow'rs and Battlements it fees
Bosom'd high in tufted trees,

Where perhaps fomo beauty lies,

The Cynosure of neighb'ring eyes.

(1) This emendation is taken from the Oxford Edition. The

common reading is, Your words I'd catch.

F5

Her.

Her. * His Folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.
Hel. None, but your beauty; would that fault

were mine!

Her. Take comfort; he no more shall see my face;
Lyfander and myself will fly this place.
Before the time I did Lyfander see (2)
Seem'd Athens like a Paradise to me.
O then, what graces in my love do dwell,
That he hath turn'd a heaven into hell?

Lyf. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold:
To-morrow night, when Phæbe doth behold
Her filver visage in the wat'ry glass;
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grafs;
(A time, that lovers flights doth still conceal)
Through Athens' gate have we devis'd to steal.

Her. And in the wood, where often you and I
Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lye,
Emptying our bofoms of their counsels sweet; (3)
There, my Lysander, and myself shall meet;

* I. II. III. IV. His folly. Helena, is none of mine.

(2) Perhaps every reader may not discover the propriety of these lines. Hermia is willing to comfort Helena, and to avoid all appearance of triumph over her. She therefore bids her not to confider the power of pleasing, as an advantage to be much envied or much defired, since Hermia, whom she confiders as possessing it in the fupreme degree, has found no other effect of it than the loss of happiness.

(3) Emptying our Bofoms of their Counsels swell'd;
There my Lyfander and myself shall meet;
And thence to Athens turn away our eyes,

To feek new Friends, and strange Companions..

This whole Scene is strictly in Rhyme; and that it deviates in these two Couplets, I am perfuaded, is owing to the Ignorance of the first, and the Inaccuracy of the later Editors: I have therefore ventur'd to restore the Rhymes, as I make no doubt but the Poet first gave them. Sweet was easily corrupted into fwell'd, because that made an Antithesis to Emptying: and Strange Companions our Editors thought was plain English; but Stranger Companies, a little quaint and unintelligible. Our Author very often uses the Substantive Stranger adjectively; and Companies, to fignify Companions: As Rich. II. ACI To tread the stranger paths of Banishment.

And Hen. V.

His Companies unletter'd, rude and hallow..

THEOBALD..
And

And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,
To feek new Friends and stranger Companies.
Farewel, sweet play-fellow; pray thou for us,
And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius !
Keep word, Lyfanderwe must starve our fight
From Lover's food, till morrow deep midnight.

[Exit Hermia. [Exit Lyf.

Lys. I will, my Hermia-Helena, adieu; As you on him, Demetrius doat on you! Hel. How happy some, o'er other fome, can be ! Through Athens I am thought as fair as she. But what of that? Demetrius thinks not fo: He will not know; what all, but he, do know. And as he errs, doating on Hermia's eyes, So I, admiring of his qualities. Things base and vile, holding no quantity, Love can transpose to form and dignity : Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind. Nor hath love's mind of any judgment taste; Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste; And therefore is Love said to be a child, Because in choice he is so oft beguil'd. As waggish boys themselves in (4) game forfwear, So the boy Love is perjur'd every where. For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne, He hail'd down oaths, that he was only mine; And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt, So he diffolv'd, and showers of oaths did melt. I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight : Then to the wood will he, to-morrow night, Pursue her; and for this intelligence If I have thanks, it is a dear expence. But herein mean I to enrich my pain, To have his fight thither, and back again.

[Exit.

Game here signifies not contentious play,

Sport, jest.

So Spenser,

Twixt earnest and 'twixt game.

SCENE