And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me, On the first view, to say, to swear, I love thee. Bot. Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that: And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays: The more the pity, that some honest neighbours will not make them friends. Nay, I can gleek 10 occasion. upon Tita. Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful. Bot. Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn. Tita. Out of this wood do not desire to go; Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no. I am a spirit of no common rate; The summer still doth tend upon my state, And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep: Peas-blossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustard-seed! All. Where shall we go? Tita. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman; Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes; Feed him with apricocks and dewberries 11, 10 i. e. jest or scoff, from glig, Saxon. 11 11 The fruit of a bramble called Rubus cæsius: sometimes called also the blue-berry. With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries; And pluck the wings from painted butterflies, 2 Fai. Hail! 3 Fai. Hail! 4 Fai. Hail! Bot. I cry your worship's mercy, heartily.—I beseech, your worship's name? Cob. Cobweb. 12 Bot. I shall desire you of more acquaintance 1o, good master Cobweb: If I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you.-Your name, honest gentle man? Peas. Peas-blossom. Bot. I pray you, commend me to mistress Squash 13, your mother, and to master Peascod, your father. Good master Peas-blossom, I shall desire you of more acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you, sir? Mus. Mustard-seed. Bot. Good master Mustard-seed, I know your 12 I shall desire you of more acquaintance.' This kind of phraseology was not uncommon. In Lusty Juventus, a morality, we have: 'I shall desire you of better acquaintance.' And in A Humorous Day's Mirth, 1599: 'I do desire you of more acquaintance.' So in Spenser's Faerie Queene, b. xi. c. 9: 'If it be I, of pardon I you pray.' 13 A squash is an immature peascod. So in Twelfth Night, Act i. Sc. 5: As a squash is before 'tis a peascod.' patience 14 well: that same cowardly, giant-like oxbeef hath devoured many a gentleman of your house: I promise you, your kindred hath made my eyes water ere now. I desire you more acquaintance, good master Mustard-seed. Tita. Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower. The moon, methinks, looks with a watery eye; And when she weeps, weeps every little flower, Lamenting some enforced chastity. Tie up my lover's tongue, bring him silently. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Another part of the Wood. Enter OBERON. Obe. I wonder, if Titania be awak'd ; Enter PUCK. Here comes my messenger.-How now, mad spirit? 14 Mason proposes to read 'passing well,' which is plausible if change be necessary. The words are spoken ironically, as it was the prevailing opinion in Shakspeare's time, that mustard excited choler. 1 Revelry. 2 A patch sometimes means a fool, or simpleton; but it was a common contemptuous term, and may be either a corruption of the Italian pazzo, or derived from the patch'd clothes sometimes worn by persons of low condition. Tooke gives a different origin from the Saxon verb pæcan, to deceive by false appear ances. Were met together to rehearse a play, And forth my mimick5 comes: When they him spy, As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye, And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls; Their sense, thus weak, lost with their fears, thus strong, Made senseless things begin to do them wrong: I led them on in this distracted fear, And left sweet Pyramus translated there: 3 Barren is dull, unpregnant. Sort is company. 4 A head. The metamorphosis of Bottom might have been suggested by a similar trick played by Dr. Faustus. See his History, c. xliii. The receipt for the process occurs in Albertus Magnus de Secretis: Si vis quod caput hominis assimiletur capiti asini, sume de segimine aselli, et unge hominem in capite, et sic apparebit.' The book was translated in Shakspeare's time. 5 Actor. 6 The chough is a bird of the daw kind. 7 Sort is company, as above. Obe. This falls out better than I could devise. But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do? Puck. I took him sleeping,—that is finish'd too,— And the Athenian woman by his side; That, when he wak'd, of force she must be ey'd. Enter DEMETRIUS and HERMIA. Obe. Stand close; this is the same Athenian. Puck. This is the woman, but not this the man. Dem. O, why rebuke you him that loves you so? Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe. Her. Now I but chide, but I should use thee worse; For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse. If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep, Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep, And kill me too. The sun was not so true unto the day, As he to me: Would he have stolen away Her. What's this to my Lysander? Where is he? Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me? Dem. I had rather give his carcass to my hounds. Her. Out, dog! out, cur! thou driv'st me past the bounds 8 Latch'd or letch'd, licked or smeared over. Lecher, Fr. Steevens says that, in the North, it signifies to infect. |