Turns them to fhapes, and gives to airy nothing Hip. But all the ftory of the night told over, And grows to fomething of great conftancy; Enter Lyfander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena. The. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.Joy, gentle friends! joy, and fresh days of love, Accompany your hearts! Lyf. More than to us Wait on your royal walks, your board, your bed! The. Come now; what mafks, what dances fhall we have, To wear away this long age of three hours, 6 Conftancy;] Confiftency, ftability, certainty. JOHNSON. 7 Call Philoflrate.] In the folio, 1623, it is, Call Egeus, and all the fpeeches afterwards fpoken by Philoftrate, except that beginning, "No, my noble lord," &c. are there given to that character. But the modern editions, from the quarto 1600, have rightly given them to Philoftrate, who appears in the first scene as mafter of the revels to Thefeus, and is there fent out on a fimiliar kind of errand. In the Knight's Tale of Chaucer, Arcite, under the name of Philofirate, is 'fquire of the chamber to Thefeus STEEVENS. 3 Philoft. Philoft. Here mighty Thefeus. The. Say, what abridginent' have you for this evening? What mask? what mufick? How fhall we beguile The lazy time, if not with fome delight? Phileft. There is a brief, how many fports are ripe"; Make choice of which your highnefs will fee first. [Giving a paper. The. reads] The battle of the Centaurs, to be fung We'll none of that: that I have told my love, The riot of the tipfy Bacchanals, Tearing the Thracian finger in their rage. That Say what abridgment, &c] By abridgment our author means a dramatick performance, which crowds the events of years into a few hours. So, in Hamlet, act ii. fc. 7. he calls the players "abridgments, abftracts, and brief chronicles of the time." Again, in K. Henry V: "Then brook abridgment; and your eyes advance 6 a brief,] i. e. a fhort account or enumeration. So, in Gafcoigne's Dulce Bellum Inexpertis : "She fent a brief unto me by her mayd." STEEVENS. 7 One of the quartos has ripe, the other old editions, rife. JOHNSON. Rife is a word ufed both by Sidney and Spenfer. It means abounding, but it is now almoft obfolete. Again, in Stephen Goffon's School of Abuse, 579: -you fhail find the theaters of the one, the abufes of the other, to be rife among us.” 8 STEEVENS. The. reads] This is printed as Mr. Theobald gave it from both the old quartos. In the first, folio and all the following editions, Lyfander reads the catalogue, and Thefeus makes the remarks. JOHNSON. 9 The thrice three Mufes mourning for the death Of learning, &c.] I do not know whether it has been before observed, that Shak VOL. III. 1 speare That is fome fatire, keen, and critical', fpeare here, perhaps, alluded to Spenfer's poem, entitled The Tears of the Mufes, on the neglect and contempt of learning. This piece first appeared in quarto, with others 1591. The oldeft edition of this play now known is dated 1600. If Spenser's poem behere intended, may we not prefume that there is some earlier edition of this? But however, if the allufion be allowed, at least it feems to bring the play below 1591. WARTON. This pretended title of a dramatic performance might be defigned as a covert stroke of fatire on those who had permitted Spenfer to die through abfolute want of bread in the year 1598: late deceas'd in beggary, feems to refer to this circumftance. STEEVENS. ■ keen and critical ;] Critical here means criticizing, cenfuring. So, in Othello: "O, I am nothing if not critical." See vol. ii. p. 478.j STEEVENS. Merry and tragical,-] Our poet is still harping on Cambyfes. STEEVENS. 3 Merry and tragical? Tedious and brief? Mr. Upton reads, not improbably: WARBURTON. And wondrous frange black fnow. JOHNSON. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads wondrous fcorching fnow. Mr. Pope omits the line entirely. I think the paffage needs no change, on account of the verfification; for wonderous is as ofen used as three, as it is as two fyllables. The meaning of the line is "That is, bot ice and fnow of as firange a quality." There is an ancient pamphlet entitled, Tarlton's Devife upon this unlooked for grete fnowe." And perhaps the paffage before us may contain fome allufion to it. This work is entered on the books of the Stationers' Company; as alfo, "A ballet of a Northerne Man's Report of the avonderful greate fnowe in the Southerne parts, &c." STEEVENS. Which is as brief as I have known a play; Philoft. Hard-handed men, that work in Athens here, Which never labour'd in their minds 'till now; Philoft. No, my noble lord, It is not for you: I have heard it over, The. I will hear that play : For never any thing can be amifs, When fimplenefs and duty tender it. Go unbreath'd memories] That is, unexercised, unprac tifed memories. STEEVENS. 5 Unless you can find sport in their intents] Thus all the copies. But as I know not what it is to ftretch and con an intent, I suspect a line to be loft. JOHNSON. To intend and to attend were anciently fynonymous. Of this use several instances are given in a note on the third scene of the first act of Othello. Intents therefore may be put for the object of their attention. We still fay a perfon is intent on his business. STEEVENS, 6 —never any thing can be amifs Ben Jonfon in Cynthia's Revels has employed this fentiment Go, bring them in ;-and take your places, ladies. [Exit Philoft. Hip. I love not to fee wretchedness o'ercharg'd, And duty in his fervice perifhing. The. Why, gentle fweet, you fhall fee no fuch thing. Hip. He fays, they can do nothing in this kind. The. The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing. Our fports fhall be', to take what they mistake : And what poor duty cannot do3, Noble refpect takes it in might, not merit. "Where I have come, great clerks have purposed To greet me with premeditated welcomes; of humanity on the fame occafion when Cynthia is preparing to fee a mafque: 66 Nothing which duty and defire to please, STEEVENS. 7 Our fport fhall be, &c.] Voltaire fays fomething like this of Louis XIV. who took a pleasure in feeing his courtiers in confusion when they fpoke to him. STEEVENS. And what poor duty cannot do, Noble refpect takes it in might, not merit.] The fenfe of this paffage, as it now ftands, if it has any sense, is this: What the inability of duty cannot perform, regardful generofity receives as an act of ability, though not of merit. The contrary is rather true: What dutifulness tries to perform without ability, regardful generofity receives as having the merit, though not the power, of complete performance. We fhould therefore read: And what poor duty cannot do, Noble refpect takes not in might, but merit. JOHNSON. In might, is perhaps an eliptical expreffion for what might have been. STEEVENS. 9 Where I bave come great clerks, have purpofed, &c.] So, in Pericles: "She fings like one immortal, and she dances It should be obferved, periods in the text is used in the sense of full flops. MALONE. Where |