Confent to marry with Demetrius; The. What say you, Hermia? be advis'd, fair maid. By him imprinted; and within his To 'leve the figure, or disfigure it: The. In himself he is; power But in this kind, wanting your father's voice, Her. I would, my father look'd but with my eyes. 3 Or to her death, according to our law,] By a Law of Solon's, Parents had the abfolute power of life and death over their chil dren. So it fuited the poet's purpose well enough to fuppofe the Athenians had it before.Or perhaps he neither thought nor knew any thing of the matter. To you your father should be as a God, One, who compos'd your beauties; yea, and one, By bim imprinted; and within his power To LEAVE the figure or disfigure it.] We should read, i. e. releve, to heighten or add to the beauty of the figure, which is faid to be imprinted by him. 'Tis from the French, relever. Thus they fay, Tapifferies relevées d'or. In the fame sense they ufe enlever, which Maundevile makes English of in this Manner And alle the walles withinne ben covered with gold and fylver, in fyn Plates: and in the Plates ben Stories and Bataylea of Knyghtes ENLEVED. p. 228. Rablais, with a strain of buffoon humour, that equals the fober elegance of this paffage in our Poet, calls the fmall gentry of France, Gentilhommes de bas relief. Her. Her. I do intreat your Grace to pardon me: s I know not, by what pow'r I am made bold Nor how it may concern my modefty, In fuch a prefence here, to plead my thoughts: The. Either to die the death, or to abjure Therefore, fair Hermia, queftion your defires; For aye to be in fhady cloifter mew'd, Chanting faint hymns to the cold, fruitless, moon? Than that, which, withering on the virgin thorn, Her. So will I grow, fo live, fo die, my lord, Unto his lordship, to whofe unwifh'd yoak The. Take time to paufe; and by the next new moon, (The fealing day betwixt my love and me, 5 I know not, by what power I am made bold;] It was the Opinion of the Ancients, that when a perfon did or faid any thing that exceeded his common faculties of performance, that he did it by the Affiftance of fome God. So here the infinuates, that it was Love that enabled her to plead his caufe. Or Or on Diana's altar to proteft, For aye, aufterity and fingle life. Dem. Relent, fweet Hermia; and, Lyfander, yield Thy crazed title to my certain right. Lyf. You have her father's love, Demetrius ; Ege. Scornful Lyfander! true, he hath my Lyf. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he, love; And, which is more than all these boasts can be, Why should not I then profecute my right? Upon this spotted and inconftant man. The. I must confefs, that I have heard fo much, And with Demetrius thought t'have spoke thereof; But, being over-full of felf-affairs, felf My mind did lofe it. But, Demetrius, come; Demetrius, 6 Come, my Hippolita ; what cheer, my love?] Hippolita had not faid one fingle word all this while. Had a modern poet had VOL. I. H the Demetrius, and Egeus, go along; I must employ you in fome bufinefs SCEN E II. Manent Lyfander and Hermia. [Exeunt. Lyf. How now, my love? why is your cheek fo pale? How chance, the rofes there do fade fo faft? Her. Belike, for want of rain; which I could well Beteem them from the tempeft of mine eyes. Lyf. Hermia, for aught that ever I could read, The courfe of true love never did run fmooth; Her. O crofs! low! (a) too high, to be enthrall'd to Lyf. Or elfe mifgraffed, in refpect of years Her. O fpight! too old, to be engag'd to young! Lyf. Or elfe it ftood upon the choice of friends. Her. O hell! to chufe love by another's eye! Lyf. Or if there were a fympathy in choice, War, death, or ficknefs did lay fiege to it; Making it momentary as a found, Swift as a fhadow, fhort as any dream, the teaching of her, we fhould have found her the bufieft amongst them; and, without doubt, the Lovers might have expected a more equitable decifion. But Shakespear knew better what he was about; and obferved decorum. 7 Beteem, or pour down upon them. [(a) --to low, Mr. Theobald, Mr. Pope. Vulg. to love.] "s Brief "Brief as the lightning in the collied night, "That (in a fpleen) unfolds both heav'n and earth; "And ere a man hath power to fay, 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 ftands as an edict in deftiny: Then, let us teach our tryal patience: Because it is a cuftomary cross, As due to love, as thoughts and dreams, and fighs, 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 the hath no child; 8 Brief as the lightning in the collied Night, Steal The jaws of darkness do devour it up.] Tho' the word Spleen be here employed odly enough, yet I believe it right. Shakespear always hurried on by the grandeur and multitude of his Ideas affumes, every now and then, an uncommon licence in the use of his words. Particularly in complex moral modes it is ufual with him to employ one, only to exprefs a very few ideas of that number of which it is compofed. Thus wanting here to express the ideas of a fudden, or in a trice, he uses the word Spleen; which, partially confidered, fignifying a hafty fudden fit is enough for him, and he never troubles himself about the further or fuller fignification of the word. Here, he ufes the word Spleen for a fudden hafty fit; fo juft the contrary, in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, he ufes fudden for spleenatic-fudden quips. And it must be owned this fort of converfion adds a force to the diction. Mr. Pope. If thou lovf me, then H 2 I fwear |