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Still Mufick.

Puck. When thou awak'ft, with thine own fool's eyes peep.

Ob. Sound, mufick; come, my Queen, take hand with me,

And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.
Now thou and I are new in amity;

And will to morrow midnight folemnly
Dance in Duke Thefeus' houfe triumphantly,
And blefs it to all fair pofterity:

There fhall these pairs of faithful lovers be
Wedded, with Thefeus, all in jollity.

Puck. Fairy King, attend and mark;
I do hear the morning lark..

Ob. Then, my Queen, in filence fade; (19),
Trip we after the night's fhade;

We the globe can compass foon,
Swifter than the wand'ring moon.

Queen. Come, my Lord, and in our flight

Tell me how it came this night,
That I fleeping here was found,

With thefe mortals on the ground.

[Sleepers lie fill. [Exeunt.

[Wind horns within.

Enter Thefeus, Egeus, Hippolita, and all his Train.

The. Go one of you, find out the forefter,

For now our obfervation is perform'd,
And fince we have the vaward of the day,
My love shall hear the mufick of my hounds.
Uncouple in the western valley, go,-
Difpatch, I fay, and find the forefter.

We will, fair Queen, up to the mountain's top,

(19) Then my Queen in filence fad,] Why, fad? Fairies, according to the received Notion, are pleafed to follow Night. For that Reason, and for bettering the Rhyme, I think it very probable that our Author wrote; in filence fade; i. e. vanish, retreat. In which Senfe our Author has elsewhere employed this Word.

And

And mark the mufical confufion

Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

Hip. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear
With hounds of Sparta; never did I hear
Such gallant chiding. For befides the groves,
The kies, the fountains, ev'ry region near
Seem'd all one mutual cry. I never heard
So mufical a difcord, fuch fweet thunder.

The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flew'd, fo fanded, and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook-knee'd, and dew-lap'd, like Theffalian bulls;
Slow in purfuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tuneable

Was never hallo'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,

In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Theflaly :

Judge, when you hear. But foft, what nymphs are thefe ?

Ege. My lord, this is my daughter here afleep, And this Lyfander, this Demetrius is,

This Helena, old Nedar's Helena;

I wonder at their being here together.

The. No doubt, they rofe up early to obferve

The rite of May; and, hearing.our intent,
Came here in grace of our folemnity.

But fpeak, Egeus, is not this the day,

That Hermia hould give anfwer of her choice?
Ege. It is, my lord,

The. Go bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns. Horns, and Shout within; Demetrius, Lyfander, Hermia, and Helena, wake and ftart up.

The. Good-morrow, friends; Saint Valentine is past : Begin these wood-birds but to couple now ?

Lys. Pardon, my lord.

The. I pray you all, ftand up:

I know, you two are rival enemies.

How comes this gentle concord in the world,
That hatred is fo far from jealousy,
To fleep by hate, and fear no enmity ?
VOL. L.

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Ly My lord, I fhall reply amazedly,

Half fleep, half waking. But aedly,

yet, I fwear, I cannot truly fay how I came here : on

But as I think, (for truly would I fpeak,)dik mar
And now I do bethink me, fo it is a govs red
I came with Hermia hither. Our intent

Was to be gone from Athens, where we might be
Without the peril of th' Athenian law.

Ege. Enough, enough; my lord, you have enough; I beg the law, the law upon his head:

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They would have ftoll'n away, they would, Demetrius,
Thereby to have defeated you and me;
You, of your wife; and me, of my confent;
Of my confent, that the fhould be your wife.
Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
Of this their purpofe hither to this wood
And I in fury hither follow'd them;
Fair Helena in fancy following me,

But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,
But by fome power it is, my love to Hermia
Is melted as the fnow; feems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gaude,
Which in my childhood I did doat upon:
And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,
The object and the pleasure of mine eye,
Is only Helena. To her, my lord,
Was I betrothed ere I Hermia faw;
But like a ficknefs did I loath this food;
But, as in health, come to my natural tafte,
Now do I wish it, love it, long for it ;
And will for ever more be true to it.

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The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
Of this difcourfe we shall hear more anon.
Egeus, I will over-bear your will;
For in the temple, by and by with us,
Thefe couples fhall eternally be knit

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And, for the morning now is fomething worn, w
Our purpos'd hunting fhall be fet afide.
Away, with us to Athens; three and three,
We'll hold a feaft in great folemnity.

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Come,

Come, Hippolita [Exe. Duke, Hippol. and Train. Dem. These things feem fmall and undistinguishable Like far-off mountains, turned into clouds.

Her. Methinks I fee thefe things with parted eye; When every thing feems double.

Hel. So, methinks;

And I have found Demetrius like a Gemell, (20)
Mine own, and not mine own.

འ བ མ ་ ང་ བ་

(20) And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,

Mine orun, and not mine oron.] Hermia had faid, Things appeared double to her, Helena fays, So, methinks and then fubjoins, Demetrius was like a Jewel, her own and not her own. According to common Senfe and Conftruction, Demetrius is here compared to fomething that has the Property of appearing the fame, and yet not being the fame: and this was a Thought natural enough, upon her declaring her Approbation of what Hermia had faid, that every thing feems double. But now, how has a Jewel, or any precious Thing, the Property, rather than a more worthless one of appearing to be the fame and yet not the fame? This, I believe, won't be easily found out. `I make no doubt therefore, but the true Reading is ;

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And I bave found Demetrius like a Gemell, 199
Mine own, and not mine own.

from Gemellus, a Twin. For Demetrius acted that Night two fuch different Parts, that she could hardly think him one and the same Demetrius: but that there were two Twin-Demetrius's to the acting this Farce, like the two Socia's. This makes good and pertinent Senfe of the Whole; and the Corruption from Gemel to Jervel was fo eafy from the fimilar Trace of the Letters, and the Difficulty of the Transcribers understanding the true Word, that, I think it is not to be questioned. Mr. Warburton.

If fome over-nice Spirits fhould object to Gemell wanting its Authorities as an English Word, I think fit to obferve, in Aid of my Friend's fine Conjecture, that it is no new Thing with Shakespeare to coin and enfranchize Words fairly derived; and fome fuch as have by the Grammarians been called drag syouera, or Words used but once. Again, tho' Gemell be not adopted either by Chaucer, or Spenfer; nor acknowledged by the Dictionaries; yet both Blount in his Gloffegraphy, and Philips in his World of Words have Geminels, which they interpret Twins. And lastly, in two or three other Paffages, Shakespeare ufes the fame Manner of Thought.

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Dem. It seems to me,

That yet we fleep, we dream. Do not you think,
The Duke was here, and bid us follow him?

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Her. Yea, and my father.

Hel. And Hippolita.

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Ly. And he did bid us follow to the temple. Dem. Why then, we are awake; let's follow him; And, by the way, let us recount our dreams.

Exeunt.

As they go out, Bottom quakes. Dwioł tor Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer. My next is, Moft fair Pyramushey, ho,Peter Quince, Flute the bellows-mender! Snout the tinker! Starveling god's my life! ftoll'n hence, and Teft me more foll'n hence, and afleep? I have had a moft rare vifion. I had a dream, paft the wit of man to fay what dream it was: man is but an afs, if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was, there is no man can tell what. Methought I was, and methought I had-But man is but a patch'd fool, if he will offer to fay what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not feen; man's hand is not able to tafte, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream; it fhall be called Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom; and Dwill fing it in the latter end of a play before the Duke (21) peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I fhalb fing it after Death. vrolet svad [Exit. SCENE

(21) Peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall fing it at her Death, At her Death? At whofe? In all Bottom's Speech there is not the leaft mention of any She-Creature, to whom this Relative can be coupled, I make not the leaft Scruple, but Bottom, for the fake of a Jeft, and to render his Voluntary, as we may call it, the more gracious and extraordinary, faid—I fball fing it after Death. He, as Pyramus, is killed upon the Scene; and To might promife to rife again at the Conclufion of the Interlude, and give the Duke his Dream by way of Song The Source of the Corruption of the Text is very obvious. The fin after being funk by the vulgar Pronunciation, the Copyist might write it from the Sound,

-a'ter:

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