LYS. O, take the fenfe, fweet, of my innocence; HER. Lyfander riddles very prettily; - my pride, 90, take the fenfe, Sweet, of my innocence: ] Lyfander in the language of love profeffes, that as they have one heart, they fhall have one bed; this Hermia thinks rather too much, and intreats him to lye further off. Lyfander answers: "O, take the fenfe, Sweet, of my innocence;' Underftand the meaning of my innocence, or my innocent meaning. Let no fufpicion of ill enter thy mind. JOHNSON. 2 Love takes the meaning, in love's conference.] In the converfation of those who are affured of each other's kindnefs, not fufpicion but. love takes the meaning. No malevolent interpretation is to be made, but all is to be received in the fense which love can find, and which love can dictate. JOHNSON. The latter line is certainly intelligible as Dr. Johnson has explained it; but, I think, it requires a flight alteration to make it connect well with the former. I would read: "Love take the meaning in love's conference." That is, Let love take the meaning. TYRWHITT. There is no occafion for alteration. The idea is exactly fimilar to that of St. Paul: Love thinketh no evil." HENLEY. 3 interchained ] Thus the quartos; the folio interchanged. STEEVENS. 4 Now much befhrew, &c.] This word, of which the etymology is not exactly known, implies a finister wish, and means the fame as if he had faid "now ill befall my manners, &c. It is ufed by Heywood in his Iron Age, 1632: Befhrew your amorous rhetorick," But, gentle friend; for love and courtesy Lys. Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, fay I; And then end life, when I end loyalty! "Here is my bed: Sleep give thee all his reft! HER. With half that with the wifher's eyes be [They fleep! prefs'd! Enter PUCK. PUCK. Through the foreft have I gone, Near this lack-love, kill-courtesy. * See Minfheu's etymology of it, which feems to be an imprecation or wish of such evil to one, as the venomous biting of the fhrewmouse. TOLLET. 3 But Athenian found I none, Thus the quarto, 1600, printed by Fisher. That by Roberts, and the folio, 1623, read: “ STEEVENS. I none. + Near this lack-love, kill-courtesy.] The old copies read Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy. " - find Mr. Theobald and Sir T. Hanmer, for the fake of the measure, leave out this lack-love. I have only omitted—this. STEEVENS. Chur, upon thy eyes I throw 6 [Exit. Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running. HEL. Stay, though, thou kill me, fweet Demetrius. DEM. I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus. HEL. O, wilt thou darkling leave me?" do not fo. DEM. Stay, on thy peril; I alone will go. [Exit DEMETRIUS. Might we not adhere to the old copy, and at the fame time preferve the meafure, by printing the line thus: We meet with the fame abbreviation in our author's Venus and Adonis: 66 They all ftrain court'fy, who fhall cope him firft. "' MALONE. Court'fy can never be admitted at the end of a verfe, the penult being always fhort. STEEVENS. All the power this charm doth owe:] i. e. all the power it poffes. So, in Othello: Shall never medicine thee to that fweet deep "Which thou ow'd yesterday." STEEVENS. 7 STEEVENS. wilt thou darkling leave me? i. e. in the dark. So, in The Two Angry Women of Abington, 1599: with the torch, and leave them to fight darkling. likewife ufed by Milton. STEEVENS. we'll run away The word is HEL. O, I am out of breath, in this fond chace! The more my prayer, the leffer is my grace. Happy is Hermia, wherefoe'er fhe lies; For the hath bleffed, and attractive eyes. How came her eyes fo bright? Not with falt tears: If so, my eyes are oftner wafh'd than hers. No, no, I am as ugly as a bear; For beafts that meet me, run away for fear: fake. 9 Lys. And run through fire I will, for thy fweet Is that vile name, to perifh on my fword! Again, in King Lear: "And fo the candle went out, and we were left darkling, RITSON. 8 my grace.] My acceptableness, the favour that I can gain, JOHNSON. The folio prefs for—. Nature [here] fhews art,] Thus the quartos. reads--Nature her fhews art,-perhaps an error of the Nature fhews her art. The editor of the fecond folio changed her to here. MALONE. I admit the word here, as a judicious correction of the fecond folio. Here, means—in the prefent inftance. On this occafion, says Lyfauder, the work of nature refembles that of art, viz. (as our author expreffes it in his Lover's Complaint,) an obje&" glaz'd with cryftal. STEEVENS, Yet Hermia ftill loves you: then be content. Who will not change a raven for a dove? 2 2 till now ripe not to reafon; ] i. e. do not ripen to it. Ripe, in the present inftance, is a verb. So, in As you like it: And fo, from hour to hour, we ripe, and ripe 3 STEEVENS. touching now the point of human skill,] i. e. my senses being now at the utmoft height of perfection. So, in King Henry VIII: "I have touch'd the highest point of all my greatness. STEEVENS. 4 Reafon becomes the marshal to my will,] That is, My will now follows reafon. JOHNSON. So, in Macbeth: "Thou marshal' ft me the way that I was going." STEEVENS. A modern writer [Letters of Literature, Svo. 1785,] contends that Dr. Johnson's explanation is inaccurate. The meaning, fays he, is; my will now obeys the command of my reason, not my will follows my reason. Marshal is a dire&or of an army, of a turney, of a feaft. Sydney has used marshal for herald or pourfuivant, but improperly. Of fuch flimzy materials are many of the hyper-criticisms compofed, to which the labours of the editors and commentators on Shakspeare have given rife. Who does not at once perceive, that Dr. Johnfon, when he speaks of the will following realon, ufes the word not literally, but metaphorically? My will follows or obeys the dictates of reafon." Or that, if this were not the cafe, he would yet be juflified by the context, (And leads me) and by the paffage quoted from Macbeth? The heralds, diftinguished by the names of " pourfuivants at arms, were likewife called marshals. See Minfheu's DICT. 1617, ia'v. MALONE. |