Dem. So fhould the murder'd look; and fo fhould I.

Pierc'd through the heart with your ftern cruelty Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear, As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere.

Her. What's this to my Lyfander? "where is he? Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me? Dem. I had rather give his carcafe to my hounds. Her. Out, dog! out, cur! thou driv❜st me past the bounds

Of maiden's patience. Haft thou flain him then?
Henceforth be never number'd among men!
O! once tell true, tell true, even for my fake ;
Durft thou have look'd upon him, being awake,
And haft thou kill'd him fleeping? O brave touch!
Could not a worm, an adder, do fo much?
An adder did it; for with doubler tongue
Than thine, thou ferpent, never adder ftung.
Dem. You spend your paffion on a mifpris'd
mood:

I am not guilty of Lyfander's blood;
Nor is he dead, for ought that I can tell.
Her. I pray thee, tell me then that he is well.
Dem. An if I could, what fhould i

get therefore? Her. A privilege, never to fee him more.→ 9 And from thy hated prefence part I fo: See me no more, whether he be dead or no. [Exit.

7-O brave touch!] Touch in Shakspeare's time was the fame with our exploit, or rather froke. A brave touch, a noble stroke, un grand coup. "Mafon was very merry, pleasantly playing both the forewd touches of many curft boys, and the fmall difcretion of many lewd fchoolmaflers." Afcham. JOHNSON.

A touch anciently fignified a trick. In the old black letter ftory of Howleglas, it is always ufed in that fenfe."—for at all times he did fome mad touch." STEEVENS.

-mifpriz'd-] Miftaken; fo below mifprifion is mistake,

JOHNSON.

9 And from thy hated presence part I fo.] So has been supplied fome of the modern editors. MALONE.

ནོ

Dem.

· Dem. There is no following her in this fierce vein :

Here, therefore, for a while I will remain.
So forrow's heavinefs doth heavier grow,

1. For debt that bankrupt fleep doth forrow owe;
Which now in fome flight meafure it will pay,
If for his tender here I make fome ftay. [Lies down.
Ob. What haft thou done? thou haft mistaken.

quite,

And laid the love-juice on fome true-love's fight: Of thy mifprifion muft perforce enfue

Some true love turn'd, and not a falfe turn'd true", Puck. Then fate o'er-rules; that, one man hold ing troth,

A million fail, confounding oath on oath.

Ob. About the wood go fwifter than the wind, And Helena of Athens look thou find :

All fancy-fick fhe is, and pale of cheer

With fighs of love, that coft the fresh blood dear
By fome illufion fee thou bring her here;
I'll charm his eyes, again ft fhe do appear.
Puck. I go, I go; look, how I go;

Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow.
Ob. Flower of this purple dye,
Hit with Cupid's archery',

For debt that bankrupt fleep read-flip. The fame error has, for Meafure:

[Fixit.

-] The first and fecond folio perhaps, happened in Mcafure

Which for thefe nineteen years we have let flip."
MALONE.

* Some true love turn'd, and not a false turn'd true:] Sir T. H, reads the line thus:

Some true love turn'd false, not a falfe, turn'd true.

STEEVENS.

Hit with Cupid's archery,] This alludes to what was faid before:

the bolt of Cupid fell,

It fell upon a little avefiern flower

Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound.

STEEVENS.

Sink in apple of his eye!
When his love he doth efpy,
Let her fhine as gloriously
As the Venus of the fky.-
When thou wak'st, if she be by,
Beg of her for remedy.

Re-enter Puck.

Puck. Captain of our fairy band,
Helena is here at hand;

And the youth, miftook by me,
Pleading for a lover's fee;

Shall we their fond pageant fee?
Lord, what fools thefe mortals be!

Ob. Stand afide: the noife they make,

Will caufe Demetrius to awake.

Puck. Then will two, at once, woo one; That muft needs be fport alone :

And thofe things do beft pleafe me,

That befal prepoft'roufly.

Enter Lyfander, and Helena.

Lys. Why fhould you think, that I fhould woo in fcorn?

Scorn and derifion never come in tears:
Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows fo born,
In their nativity all truth appears.

How can these things in me feem fcorn to you,
Bearing the badge of faith to prove them true?

Hel. You do advance your cunning more and more. When truth kills truth, O devilifh-holy fray! These vows are Hermia's; Will you give her o'er? Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing

weigh;

Your vows, to her and me, put in two scales,
Will even weigh; and both as light as tales.

Lyj

Lyf. I had no judgment, when to her I fwore.
Hel. Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er.
Lyf. Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.
Dem. [awaking.]O Helen, goddess, nymph, per-
fact, divine!

To what, my love, fhall I compare thine eyne?
Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show

Thy lips, thofe kiffing cherries, tempting grow!
That pure congealed white, high Taurus Inow",
Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow,
When thou hold'ft up thy hand: O, let me kifs
This princefs of pure white, this feal of blifs*!
Hel. O fpight! O hell! I fee, you all are bent
To fet against me, for your merriment.
If you were civil, and knew courtesy,
You would not do me thus much injury.
Can you not hate me, as I know you do,
But you must join, in fouls', to mock me too?

If

2 - Taurus' fnow,] Taurus is the name of a range of mountains in Afia. JOHNSON.

3 This princess of pure white-] Thus all the editions to fir T. H's. He reads:

This pureness of pure white;

and Dr. Warburton follows him. The old reading may be juftified from a paffage in fir Walter Raleigh's Difcovery of Guiana, where the pine-apple is called The princess of Fruits. Again, in Wyatt's Poems, Of beauty princeffe chief." STEEVENS. In the Winter's Tale we meet with a fimilar expreffion :

image:

66

good footh, fhe is

"The Queen of curds and cream." MALONE.

-feal of bliss!] He has in Measure for Measure, the fame

"But my kiffes bring again,

"Seals of love, but feal'd in vain." JOHNSON. s-join in fouls,] i. e. join heartily, unite in the fame mind. Shakspeare in Henry V. ufes an expreffion not unlike this: "For we will hear, note, and believe in heart;" i. e. heartily believe: and in Meafure for Measure, he talks of electing with special foul. In Troilus and Creffida, Ulyffes, re lating the character of Hector as given him by Eneas, fays:

66

with private foul

"Did in great Ilion thus tranflate him to me."

And

If

you were men, as men you are in fhow, You would not use a gentle lady so;

To vow, and fwear, and fuperpraise my parts, When, I am fure, you hate me with your hearts. You both are rivals, and love Hermia;

And now both rivals to mock Helena:

And, in All Fools, by Chapman, 1605, is the fame expreffion as that for which I contend:

66

Happy, in foul, only by winning her." Again, in a Mafque called Luminalia, or the Festival of Light, 1637:

"You that are chief in fouls, as in your blood." Again, in Pierce Pennylefs his Supplication to the Devil, 1595: -whofe fubverfion in foul they have vow'd.' Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602. B. xii. ch. 75. "Could all, in soul, of very God say as an Ethnick faid "To one that preached Hercules ?".

Sir, T. Hanmer would read-in flouts; Dr. Warburton, infolents. STEEVENS.

I rather believe the line fhould be read thus:

But you must join, ILL fouls, to mock me too?

Ill is often used for bad, wicked. So, in the Sea Voyage of Beau mont and Fletcher, act iv. fc. 1:

"They did begin to quarrel like ill men ;

which I cite the rather, because ill had there alfo been changed into in, by an error of the prefs, which Mr. Sympion has cor rected from the edition 1647. TYRWHITT.

This is a very reasonable conjecture, though I think it hardly right, JOHNSON.

We meet with this phrafe in an old poem by Robert Dabourne: Men fhift their fashions

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FARMER.

"They are in fouls the fame." The phrafe, in fouls, has been fo well fupported, that there remains nothing to be faid relative to it.

I fufpect, however, that the words were tranfpofed at the prefs, and would read:

"Can you not hate me, as I know you do

"In fouls, but you must join to mock me to?” So, a little lower:

"You hate me with your hearts." MALONE. Poffibly by adding a fingle letter, the fenfe may be lefs embarraffed:

But you must join in feouls to work me too. Scouts I believe is fometimes nfed as fynonymous with coffs.

BLACKSTONE.

VOL. III.

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