THE. Thanks, good Egeus: What's the news

with thee?

EGE. Full of vexation come I, with complaint Againft my-child, my daughter Hermia. Stand forth, Demetrius; - My noble lord, This man hath my consent to marry her: Stand forth, Lysander; - and, my gracious duke, This hath bewitch'd' the bosom of my child: Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhimes, And interchang'd love-tokens with my child: Thou hast by moon-light at her window fung, With feigning voice, verses of feigning love; And stol'n the impression of her fantasy With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,

Creon, in the tragedy of Jocasta, translated from Euripides in 1566, is called Duke Creon.

So likewife Skelton:

"Not lyke Duke Hamilcar,

"Nor lyke Duke Afdruball."

Stanyhurst, in his Tranflation of Virgil, calls Eneas, Duke Æneas; and in Heywood's Iron Age, Part II. 1632, Ajax is styled Duke Ajax, Palamedes, Duke Palamedes, and Neftor, Duke Neftor, &c.

Our verfion of the Bible exhibits a fimilar misapplication of a modern title; for in Daniel iii. 2. Nebuchadonozar, King of Babylon, sends out a fummons to the Sheriffs of his provinces.

STEEVENS.

This man hath

7 This hath bewitch'd] The old copies read bewitch'd. The emendation was made for the fake of the metre, by the editor of the second folio. It is very probable that the compofitor caught the word man from the line above. MALONE. gawds,] i. e. baubles, toys, trifles. Our author has

8

the word frequently. See K. John, A& III. Ic. v.

Again, in Appius and Virginia, 1576: "When gain is no grandfier,

" And gandes not fet by," &c.

Again, in Drayton's Mooncalf:

and in her lap

"A fort of paper puppets, gands and toys."

The Rev. Mr. Lambe, in his notes on the ancient metrical hiftory of the Battle of Floddon, obferves that a gawd is a child's toy, and

Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweet-meats; messengers
Of ftrong prevailment in unharden'd youth:
With cunning haft thou filch'd my daughter's heart;
Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,
To ftubborn harshness:-And, my gracious duke,
Be it fo she will not here before your grace
Confent to marry with Demetrius,
I beg the ancient privilege of Athens;
As she is mine, I may dispose of her:
Which shall be either to this gentleman,
Or to her death; according to our law,
Immediately provided in that cafe. 2

THE. What say you, Hermia? be advis'd, fair

maid:

To you your father should be as a god;
One that compos'd your beauties; yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax,
By him imprinted, and within his power,

To leave the figure, or disfigure it. 3

Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.

HER. So is Lyfander.

THE.

In himself he is:

But, in this kind, wanting your father's voice,

The other must be held the worthier.

that the children in the North call their play-things gowdys, and their baby-houfe a gowdy-house. STEEVENS.

9 Or to her death; according to our law, ] 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 suppose the Athenians had it before. - Or perhaps he neither thought nor knew any thing of the matter. WARBURTON.

2 Immediately provided in that cafe.) Shakspeare is grievously suspected of having been placed, while a boy, in an attorney's office. The line before us has an undoubted smack of legal common-place. Poetry disclaims it. STEEVENS,

3 To leave the figure, or disfigure it.) The sense is, you owe to your father a being which he may at pleasure continue or destroy. JOHNSON.

HER. I would, my father look'd but with my eyes. THE. Rather your eyes must with his judgement

look.

HER. I do entreat your grace to pardon me.
I know not by what power I am made bold;
Nor how it may concerii my modefty,
In fuch a prefence here, to plead my thoughts:
But I befeech your grace, that I may know
The worst that may befal me in this cafe,
If I refuse to wed Demetrius.

THE. Either to die the death, or to abjure
For ever the society of men.
Therefore, fair Hermia, question your defires,
Know of your youth, ' examine well your blood,
Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun;

6

For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd,

To live a barren fister all your life,

Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. Thrice bleffed they, that master so their blood, To undergo fuch maiden pilgrimage:

But earthlier happy is the rose diftill'd, "

4

to die the death, So, in the Second part of The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601:

"We will, my liege, else let us die the death."

1

See notes on Measure for Measure, Ad H. fc. iv. STEEVENS. 5 Know of your youth,] Bring your youth to the question. Confider your youth. JOHNSON.

6 For aye) i. c. for ever. So, in K. Edward II. by Marlowe, 1622:

" And fit for aye enthronized in heaven." STEEVENS. "But earthlier happy is the rose dißilld.) Thus all the copies. yet earthlier is so harsh a word, and earthlier happy, for happier earthly, a mode of speech so unusual, that I wonder none of the editors have proposed earlier happy. JOHNSON.

It has fince been observed, that Mr. Pope did propose carlier. We might read - carthly happier.

Than that, which, withering on the virgin thorn, Grows, lives, and dies, in fingle blessedness.

HER. So will I grow, fo live, so die, my lord, Ere I will yield my virgin patent up Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke My foul consents not to give fovereignty.

THE. Take time to paufe: and, by the next new

moon,

(The fealing-day betwixt my love and me,

66

the rofe distill'd,] So, in Lyly's Midas, 1592: - You bee all young and faire, endeavour to bee wife and vertuous; that when, like roses, you shall fall from the stalke, you may be gathered, and put to the ftill."

This image however, must have been generally obvious, as in Shakspeare's time the diftillation of rose 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.

६ whose unwished yoke - ) Thus both the quartos 1600, and the folio 1623. The second folio reads

Dele to, and for unwish'd, r. unwished. - Though I have been in general extremely careful not to admit into my text any of the innovations made by the editor of the second folio, from ignorance of our poet's language or metre, my caution was here over-watched; and I printed the above lines as exhibited by that and all the subsequent editors, of which the reader was apprized in a note. The old copies should have been adhered to, in which they appear thus:

" Ere I will yield my virgin patent up

"Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke

My foul consents not to give sovereignty."

i. e. to give fovereignty to. See various instances of this kind of phraseology in a note on Cymbeline, scene the last. The change was certainly made by the editor of the second folio from his ignorance of Shakspeare's phraseology. MALONE.

I have adopted the present elliptical reading, because it not only renders the line fmoother, but serves to exclude the disfgusting recurrence of the preposition -- to; and yet if the authority of the first folio had not been supported by the quartos, &c. I should have preferred the more regular phraseology of the folio 1632. STEEVENS.

1

For everlafting bond of fellowship,)
Upon that day either prepare to die,

For difobedience to your father's will;
Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would:

Or on Diana's altar to protest,

For aye, austerity and fingle life.

DEM. Relent, sweet Hermia; - And, Lysander,

yield

Thy crazed title to my certain right.

Lys. You have her father's love, Demetrius;

Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him."
EGE. Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love;
And what is mine, my love shall render him;
And she is mine; and all my right of her
I do eftate unto Demetrius.

Lys. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he,
As well poffefs'd; my love is more than his;
My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,
If not with vantage, as Demetrius';

And, which is more than all these boasts can be,
I am belov'd of beauteous Hermia:

Why should not I then profecute my right?
Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,
Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,
And won her foul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,

Upon this spotted and inconftant man.

THE. I must confefs, that I have heard so much, And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof;

9 You have her father's love, Demetrius;

Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him. ] I susped that Shakspeare wrote: "Let me have Hermia; do you marry him."

2

TYRWHITT.

-Spotted - As Spotless is innocent, so spotted is wicked.
JOHNSON.