Or on the beached margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou haft difturb'd our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge, have fuck'd up from the sea
Contagious fogs; which falling in the land,
Have every pelting river made fo proud,
That they have over-born their continents.
The ox hath therefore ftretch'd his yoke in vain,
The ploughman loft his fweat; and the green corn
Hath rotted, ere its youth attain'd a beard.
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows art fatted with the murrion flock;
The nine-mens morris is fill'd up with mud,
And the queint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread, are undiftinguishable,
The human mortals want their winter here, (7)

No

(7) want their winter here.] The concluding word is, certainly, a very dragging expletive: and though I have not ventur'd to difplace it, I fcarce believe it genuine. I once fufpected it should be want their winter chear;

i. e. their jollity, ufual merry-makings at that feafon. Mr. Warburton has ingeniously advanced a more refin'd emendation; which I'll fubjoin with his own reafoning, in confirmation.

"Is it an aggravating circumftance of the miferies here recapitulated, that the wretched fufferers want their winter? On the con"trary, in the defcriptions of the happiness of the golden age, it was always counted an addition to it, that they wanted winter. It "feems as plain to me as day, that we ought to read:

want their winters beried;

❝i. e. prais'd, celebrated; an old word: and the line, that follows, "fhews the propriety of it here. The thing is this; The winter is "the feafon for rural rejoicings on feveral accounts; because they "have got their fruits in, and have wherewithal to make merry. " (And therefore, well might she say,

The human mortals want their winters bereid. "when she had described the dearths of the season, and the fruitlefs "toil of the hufhandman.) Then the gloominess of the season, and "the vacancy of it, encourage them to it; and laftly, which is "principally intimated here, (notwithstanding the impropriety of "the fentiment, as it is circumftanc'd) fince Chriftianity, this feafon, "on account of the birth of the author of our faith, is particularly "devoted to feftivity and to this cuftom, be affured, bymn or carol "bleft alludes." I should

No night is now with hymn or carol bleft;
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air;
That rheumatic diseases do abound.
And thorough this diftemperature, we fee
The feafons alter; hoary-headed frofts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rofe;
And on old Hyems' chin, and icy crown,
An od❜rous chaplet of sweet summer-buds
Is, as in mockery, fet. The fpring, the fummer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change.
Their wonted liveries; and th' amazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which;
And this fame progeny of evil comes

From our debate, from our diffenfion;
We are their parents and original.

Ob. Do you amend it then, it lies in you.
Why fhould Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy,
To be my henchman.

Queen. Set your heart at reft,

The fairy-land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votrefs of my order,
And, in the fpiced Indian air by night,
Full often the hath goffip'd by my fide;
And fat with me on Neptune's yellow fands,
Marking th' embarked traders on the flood,
When we have laugh'd to fee the fails conceive,
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind:
Which the, with pretty and with fwimming gate, (8)

Follying

I should undoubtedly have advanced this conjecture into the text, could I have ever traced the word in any of Shakespeare's writings; but I think, he rather feems fond of ballw'd. CHAUCER and SPENCER, I know, both ufe berie, very frequently: from the latter I'll produce a paffage, where in one couplet it is joined with bymn and carol, as here in our Author;

Tho' wouldeft thou learn to carol of love,
And bery with hymns thy laffes glove.

Vid. Shepherd's Kalendar, for the month of February.
(8) Which the with pretty and with swimming gate,
Following her womb then-rich with my young íquire)

Would

Follying (her womb then rich with my young squire)
Would imitate; and fail upon the land,
To fetch me trifles, and return again,
As from a voyage rich with merchandize.
But the, being mortal, of that boy did die ;
And, for her fake, I do rear up her boy;
And, for her fake, I will not part with him.
Ob. How long within this wood intend you stay?
Queen. Perchance, 'till after Thefeus' wedding day.
If you will patiently dance in our round,
And fee our moon-light revels, go with us;
If not, fhun me, and I will spare your haunts.
Ob. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.
Queen. Not for thy fairy kingdom. Elves, away:
We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.

[Exeunt Queen and her train. Ob. Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove, 'Till I torment thee for this injury.

My gentle Puck, come hither; thou remember'st
Since once I fat upon a promontory,

And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back,
Uttering fuch dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude fea grew civil at her fong;
And certain ftars fhot madly from their spheres,
To hear the fea-maid's mufic.

Puck. I remember.

Ob. That very time I faw, but thou could'st not,
Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
Cupid alarm'd: a certain aim he took (9)

At

Would imitate;] Following what? She did not follow the fhip whofe motion the imitated; for that failed on the water, fhe on the land. And if by following, we are to understand, copying; it is a mere pleonasm, that meaning being included in the word imitate. From circumftances in the context, there is great reafon to think our Author wrote, follying, i, e. wantoning, in fport and gaiety; fo the old writers ufed follity for foolishness; and both words are from, and in the fenfe of folatrer, to play the wanton. And this admirably agrees with the action, for which he is here commended, and with the context; bave laugh'd to fee, &c. -full often bas foe goffip'd by my fide, and, When we Mr. Warburton, (9) Cupid all arm'd;] Surely, this prefents us with a very unclafcal image. Where do we read or fee, in ancient books, or monu

ments,

At a fair veftal, throned by the weft,

And loos'd his love-fhaft fmartly from his bow, As it fhould pierce a hundred thousand hearts; But I might fee young Cupid's fiery shaft Quench'd in the chafte beams of the wat'ry moon, And the imperial votrefs paffed on,

In maiden meditation, fancy free.

Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell,
It fell upon a little western flower:

Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound;
And maidens call it Love in idleness.

Fetch me that flow'r; (the herb I fhew'd thee once)
The juice of it on fleeping eye-lids laid,
Will make or man, or woman, madly doat
Upon the next live creature that it fees.
Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again,
Ere the Leviathan can fwim a league.

Puck. I'll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes.

Ob. Having once this juice,

I'll watch Titania when he is afleep,
And drop the liquor of it in her eyes;

The next thing which fhe waking looks upon,
(Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
On medling monkey, or on busy ape)
She hall purfue it with the foul of love:
And ere I take this charm from off her fight,
(As I can take it with another herb)

[Exit.

ments, Cupid arm'd more than with his bows and arrows? and with there we for ever fee him arm'd. And thefe are all the arms he had occafion for in this prefent action; a more illuftrious one, than any, his friends, the clafficks, ever brought him upon.-The change I make is fo fmall, but the beauty of the thought fo great, which this alteration carries with it, that, I think, we are not to hesitate upon it. For what an addition is this to the compliment made upon this Virgin Queen's celibacy, that it alarm'd the power of love? as if his empire was in danger, when this Imperial Votrefs had declared herself for a fingle life: fo powerful would her great example be in the world.-Queen Elizabeth could not but be pleafed with our Author's addrefs upon this head, Mr. Warburton.

I'll make her render up her page to me,

But who comes here? I am invifible, (10)
And I will over-hear their conference.

Enter Demetrius, Helena following him.

Dem. I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
Where is Lyfander, and fair Hermia?

The one I'll flay; the other dayeth me. (11)
Thou told't me, they were ftol'n into this wood;
And here am I, and wood within this wood;
Because I cannot meet my Hermia.

Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
Hel. You draw me, you hard-heatred adamant,
But yet you draw not iron; for my heart
Is true as fteel. Leave you your pow'r to draw,
And I fhall have no pow'r to follow you.

Dem. Do I entice you? do I fpeak you fair?
Or rather do I not in plainest truth

Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot, love you?

Hel. And ev'n for that do I love thee the more;
I am your fpaniel; and, Demetrius,

The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
Ufe me but as your fpaniel, fpurn me, ftrike me,
Neglect me, lofe me; only give me leave,
Uhworthy as I am, to follow you.
What worfer place can I beg in your love,
(And yet a place of high respect with me)
Than to be ufed, as you use your dog?

Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my fpirit; For I am fick, when I do look on thee.

Hel. And I am fick, when I look not on you.

(10) I am invifible,] I thought proper here to obferve, that, as Cheron, and Puck his attendant, may be frequently obferved to speak, when there is no mention of their entering; they are defigned by the Poet to be fuppofed on the fage during the greatest part of the remainder of the play; and to mix, as they pleafe, as fpirits, with the other actors; and embroil the plot, by their interpofition, without being feen, or heard, but when to their own purpote

(11) The one I'll stay, the other stayeth me.] Thus it has been in all the editions hitherto: but Dr. Thirlby ingeniously faw, it must be, as I have corrected in the text.

VOL. I.

F

Dem.