That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And, ere a man hath power to say,—Behold!
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:3
So quick bright things come to confusion.

Her. If then true lovers have been ever cross'd,
It stands as an edíct in destiny:

Then let us teach our trial patience,

Because it is a customary cross;

As due to love, as thoughts, and dreams, and sighs, Wishes, and tears, poor fancy's followers.

Lys. A good persuasion; therefore, hear me, Hermia. I have a widow aunt, a dowager

Of great revenue, and she hath no child:

From Athens is her house remote seven leagues;

And she respects me as her only son.

There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee:
And to that place the sharp Athenian law
Cannot pursue us: If thou lov'st me, then,
Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night;
And, in the wood, a league without the town,
Where I did meet thee once with Helena,
To do observance to a morn of May,
There will I stay for thee.

So, in Ben Jonson's Poetaster:

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Thou hast not collied thy face enough." Steevens.

3 That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, And, ere a man hath power to say,-Behold!

The jaws of darkness do devour it up:] Though the word spleen be here employed oddly enough, yet I believe it right. Shakspeare, always hurried on by the grandeur and multitude of his ideas, assumes, every now and then, an uncommon licence in the use of his words. Particularly in complex moral modes it is usual with him to employ one, only to express a very few ideas of that number of which it is composed. Thus wanting here to express the ideas-of a sudden, or-in a trice, he uses the word spleen; which, partially considered, signifying a hasty sudden fit, is enough for him, and he never troubles himself about the further or fuller signification of the word. Here, he uses the word spleen for a sudden hasty fit; so, just the contrary, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, he uses sudden for splenetic; "sudden quips." And it must be owned, this sort of conversation adds a force to the diction. Warburton.

4—

play:

fancy's followers.] Fancy is love. So, afterwards, in this

"Fair Helena in fancy following me." Steevens.

Her.

My good Lysander!

I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow;
By his best arrow, with the golden head;5
By the simplicity of Venus' doves;

By that which knitteth souls, and prospers loves;
And by that fire, which burn'd the Carthage queen,
When the false Trojan under sail was seen;
By all the vows, that ever men have broke,
In number more than ever women spoke;—
In that same place, thou hast appointed me,
To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.

Lys. Keep promise, love: Look, here comes Helena. Enter HELENA.

Her. God speed fair Helena! Whither away? Hel. Call you me fair? that fair again unsay. Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!

Your eyes are lode-stars:7 and your tongue's sweet air

5

- his best arrow, with the golden head;] So, in Sidney's Arcadia, Book II:

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— arrowes two, and tipt with gold or lead:

"Some hurt, accuse a third with horny head." Steevens. 6 Demetrius loves your fair:] Fair is used again as a substantive in The Comedy of Errors, Act III, sc. iv:

My decayed fair,

"A sunny look of his would soon repair."

Again, in The Death of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601: "But what foul hand hath arm'd Matilda's fair ?” Again, in A Looking-Glass for London and England, 1598: "And fold in me the riches of thy fair."

Again, in The Pinner of Wakefield, 1599:

“Then tell me, love, shall I have all thy fair ?” Again, in Greene's Never too late, 1616: "Though she were false to Menelaus, yet her fair made him brook her follies." Again:

« Flora in tawny hid up all her flowers,

"And would not diaper the meads with fair." Steevens. 7 Your eyes are lode-stars;] This was a compliment not unfrequent among the old poets. The lode-star is the leading or guiding star, that is, the pole-star. The magnet is, for the same reason, called the lode-stone, either because it leads iron, or because it guides the sailor. Milton has the same thought in L'Allegro: "Towers and battlements it sees "Bosom'd high in tufted trees, "Where perhaps some beauty lies, "The cynosure of neighb'ring eyes.”

More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
Sickness is catching; oh, were favour so!
Your's would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;
My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,
My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.
Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
The rest I'll give to be to you translated.1
O, teach me how you look; and with what art
You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.

Her. I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.

Hel. O, that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!

Her. I give him curses, yet he gives me love.
Hel. O, that my pray'rs could such affection move!
Her. The more I hate, the more he follows me.
Hel. The more I love, the more he hateth me.
Her. His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.2

Hel. None, but your beauty; 'would that fault were mine !3

Davies calls Queen Elizabeth:

"Lode-stone to hearts, and lode-stone to all eyes." Johnson. So, in The Spanish Tragedy:

"Led by the loadstar of her heavenly looks."

Again, in The battle of Alcazar, 1594:

"The loadstar and the honour of our line."

Steevens.

8 O, were favour so!] Favour is feature, countenance. in Twelfth Night, Act II, sc. iv:

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thine eye

So,

"Hath stay'd upon some favour that it loves." Steevens. 9 Yours would I catch,] This emendation is taken from the Oxford edition. The old reading is-Your words I catch. Johnson. I have deserted the old copies, only because I am unable to discover how Helena, by catching the words of Hermia, could also catch her favour, i. e. her beauty. Steevens.

1—

to be to you translated.]

To translate in our author, sometimes signifies to change, to transform. So, in Timon:

to present slaves and servants

"Translates his rivals." Steevens.

2 His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.] The folio, and the quarto, printed by Roberts, read:

His folly, Helena, is none of mine. Johnson.

3 None, but your beauty; 'would that fault were mine!] I would point this line thus:

Her. Take comfort; he no more shall see my face;
Lysander and myself will fly this place.-
Before the time I did Lysander see,"
Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me:

O, then, what graces in my love do dwell,
That he hath turn'd a heaven unto hell!

Lys. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold:
To-morrow night, when Phœbe doth behold
Her silver visage in the watʼry glass,
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,
(A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal)
Through Athens' gates have we devis'd to steal.
Her. And in the wood, where often you and I
Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,
Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,
There my Lysander and myself shall meet:
And thence, from Athens, turn away our eyes,
To seek new friends and stranger companies.
Farewel, sweet playfellow! pray thou for us;
And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!-
Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight
From lovers' food, till morrow deep midnight.

[Exit HER.
Lys. I will, my Hermia.-Helena, adieu:
As you on him, Demetrius dote on you! [Exit Lys.
Hel. How happy some o'er other some can be!
Through Athens, I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
He will not know what all but he do know.
And, as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,
So I, admiring of his qualities.

None.-But your beauty;—would that fault were mine!

▲ Take comfort; he no more shall see my face; Lysander and myself will fly this place.—

Henderson.

Before the time I did Lysander see,] Perhaps every reader may not discover the propriety of these lines. Hermia is willing to comfort Helena, and to avoid all appearance of triumph over her. She therefore bids her not to consider the power of pleasing as an advantage to be much envied or much desired, since Hermia, whom she considers as possessing it in the supreme degree, has found no other effect of it than the loss of happiness. Johnson.

Things base and vile, holding no quantity,5
Love can transpose to form and dignity.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And, therefore, is wing'd Cupid painted blind:
Nor hath love's mind of any judgment taste;
Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste:
And, therefore, is love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguil'd.

As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
So the boy Love is perjur'd every where:
For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,7
He hail'd down oaths, that he was only mine;
And when this hails some heat from Hermia felt,
So he dissolv'd, and showers of oaths did melt.
I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:
Then to the wood will he, to-morrow night,
Pursue her; and for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:9
But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
To have his sight thither, and back again.

5

[Exit.

holding no quantity,] Quality seems a word more suitable to the sense than quantity, but either may serve. Johnson. Quantity is our author's word. So, in Hamlet, Act III, sc. ii: "And women's fear and love hold quantity." Steevens.

6

in game-] Game here signifies, not contentious play, but sport, jest. So Spenser:

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71

'twixt earnest, and 'twixt game." Johnson. Hermia's eyne,] This plural is common both in Chaucer and Spenser. So, in Chaucer's Character of the Prioresse, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 152:

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hir eyen grey as glass."

Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. I, c. iv, st. 9:

"While flashing beams do dare his feeble eyen." Steevens. this hail-] Thus all the editions, except the 4to. 1600, printed by Roberts, which reads instead of this hail, his hail. Steevens.

9

it is a dear expense:] i. e. it will cost him much, (be a severe constraint on his feelings) to make even so slight a return for my communication.

Steevens.