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. [Exeunt. [Wind horns within.

Enter Thefeus, Egeus, Hippolita, and train. The. Go, one of you, find out the forefter;For now our obfervation is perform'd 9: And fince we have the vaward of the day, My love shall hear the mufick of my hounds.— 'Uncouple in the western valley; go:Dispatch, I fay, and find the forefter.

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

9 Our obfervation is perform'd:] The honours due to the morning of May. I know not why Shakspeare calls this play a Midfummer Night's Dream, when he fo carefully informs us that it happened on the night preceding May day. JOHNSON.

The title of this play feems no more intended to denote the precife time of the action, than that of the Winter's Tale; which we find, was at the feafon of fheep-fhearing. FARMER.

Uncouple in the veftern valley-go.] The folio reads:
Uncouple in the western valley let them go.

Shakspeare might have written:

Uncoupled in the western valley let them go.

MALONE.

-they bay'd the bear] Thus all the old copies. And thus in Chaucer's Knightes Tale, v, 2020. late edit:

"The hunte yftrangled with the wild beres."

Bearbaiting was likewife once a diverfion efteemed proper for royal perfonages, even of the fofter fex. While the princefs Elizabeth remained at Hatfield Houfe, under the cuftody of fir Thomas Pope, she was vifited by queen Mary. The next morning they were entertained with a grand exhibition of bearbaiting, with which their highnesses were right well content. See Life of fir Thomas Pope, cited by Warton in his Hiftory of English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 391. STEEVENS.

Holinfhed

With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear
Such gallant chiding; for, befides the groves,
The fkies, the fountains, every 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

Holinfhed, with whofe hiftories our poet was well acquainted> fays "the beare is a beast commonlie hunted in the East countries. See vol. i. p. 206; and in p. 225, he says, "Alexander at vacant times hunted the tiger, the pard, the bore, and the beare." Pliny, Plutarch, &c. mention bear-hunting. Turberville, in his Book of Hunting, has two chapters on hunting the bear. As the perfons mentioned by the poet are foreigners of the heroic ftrain, he might perhaps think it nobler fport for them to hunt the bear than the boar. Shakspeare must have read the Knight's Tale in Chaucer, where are mentioned Thefeus's "white alandes [grey-hounds] to huntin at the lyon, or the wild bere. TOLLET.

3-fuch gallant chiding;] Chiding in this instance means only found. So, in Hen. VIII:

"As doth a rock against the chiding flood.”

Again, in Humour out of Breath, Com. by John Day, 1608:
I take great pride

"To hear foft mufic, and thy fhrill voice chide." Again, in the 22d chapter of Drayton's Polyolbion:

66

- drums and trumpets chide."-STEEVENS. 4 My bounds are bred &c.] This paffage has been imitated by Lee in his Theodofius:

"Then through the woods we chac'd the foaming boar,
"With hounds that open'd like Theffalian bulls,
"Like tygers flew'd, and fanded as the shore,
"With ears and chests that dash'd the morning dew."
MALONE.

So few'd] Sir T. Hanmer juftly remarks, that flews are the large chaps of a deep-mouth'd hound. Arthur Golding uses this word in his tranflation of Ovid's Metamorphofes, finished 1567, a book with which Shakspeare appears to have been well acquainted. The poet is defcribing Acteon's hounds, b. iii. p. 33. b. 1603. Two of them, like our author's, were of Spartan kind: bred from a Spartan bitch and a Cretan dog:

64 with other twaine, that had a fire of Crete,
"And dam of Spart: th' one of them called Jollyboy,

a grete
"And large-fier'd hound."

Shakspeare

With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook-knce'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 halloo'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Theffaly:

Judge, when you hear.-But, foft; what nymphs are these?

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 observe 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 should give answer of her choice? Ege. It is, my lord.

The. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.

Horns, and fhout within; Demetrius, Lyfander, Hermia, and Helena, wake and start up.

The. Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is paft7;

Begin thefe wood-birds but to couple now?

Shakspeare mentions Cretan hounds (with Spartan) afterwards in this fpeech of Thefeus. And Ovid's tranflator, Golding, in the fame defcription, has them both in one verfe, ibid. p. 33. a. "This latter was a hound of Crete, the other was of Spart." WARTON.

So, in Heywood's Brazen Age, 1613:

the fierce Theffalian hounds

"With their flag ears, ready to fweep the dew
"From their moist breafts." STEEVENS.

So fanded,] So marked with fmail fpots. JOHNSON. Sandy'd means of a fandy colour, which is one of the true de notements of a blood-hound. STEEVENS.

7 Saint Valentine is paft;] Alluding to the old faying, that birds begin to couple on St. Valentine's day. STEEVENS.

Lyf.

[They all kneel to Thefeus.

Ly. 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 jealoufy,
To fleep by hate, and fear no enmity?

Ly. My lord, I fhall reply amazedly,
Half 'fleep, half waking: But as yet I fwear,
I cannot truly fay how I came here:
But, as I think, (for truly would I fpeak,-
And now I do bethink me, fo it is;)

I came with Hermia hither: our intent
Was, to be gone from Athens, where we might be
Without the peril of the Athenian law.

Ege. Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough;
I beg the law, the law, upon his head.-
They would have ftol'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 purpose 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,
Melted as is the fnow, feems to me now

Fair Helena in fancy following me.] Fancy is here taken for love or affection, and is opposed to fury as before:

Sighs and tears poor Fancy's followers.

his

Some now call that which a man takes particular delight in, fancy. Flower-fancier, for a florist, and bird-fancier, for a lover See vol. ii. p. 323. and feeder of birds, are colloquial words.

JOHNSON,

So, in Hymen's Triumph, a Masque by Daniel, 1628:
"With all perfuafions fought to win her mind
"To fancy him."

Again :

"Do not enforce me to accept a man
"I cannot fancy." STEEVENS.

9 is] Omitted in the early edition. MALONE.

As

As the remembrance of an idle gawd',
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 betroth'd ere I faw Hermia:
But, like a fickness, did I loath this food:
But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
Now do I with it, love it, long for it,
And will for evermore be true to it.

The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
Of this difcourfe we fhall hear more anon.-
Egcus, I will overbear your will;

For in the temple, by and by with us,
Thefe couples fhall eternally be knit.
And, for the morning now is fomething worn,
Our purpos'd hunting fhall be fet afide.-
Away, with us, to Athens: Three and three,
We'll hold a feaft in great folemnity.-

Come Hippolita. [Exe. Thefeus, Hippolita, and train. Dem. Thefe 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 jewel",
Mine own, and not mine own.

7

word, p. 5.

Dem.

an idle gawd,] See a note by Mr. Lamb on this

STEEVENS.

And I have found Demetrius like a JEWEL,

Mine oven, and not mine ozyn.]

Herm'a had obferved that things appeared double to her. Helena
replies, fo methinks; and then fubjoins, that Demetrius was like
He is here, then, compared
a jervel, her own and not her own.
to fomething which had the property of appearing to be one thing
when it was another. Not the property fure of a jewel: or, if
We should read:
you will, of none but a falfe one.

And I have found Demetrius like a GEMELL,
Mine own, and not mine own.

From