  Act i. sc. 1.— “Her. O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low— Lys. Or else misgrafted in respect of years; Her. O spite! too old to be engaged to young— Lys. Or else it stood upon the choice of friends; Her. O hell! to chuse love by another's eye!” There is no authority for any alteration;—but I never can help feeling how great an improvement it would be, if the two former of Hermia's exclamations were omitted;—the third and only appropriate one would then become a beauty, and most natural. Ib. Helena's speech:— “I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight,” &c. I am convinced that Shakespeare availed himself of the title of this play in his own mind, and worked upon it as a dream throughout, but especially, and perhaps unpleasingly, in this broad determination of ungrateful treachery in Helena, so undisguisedly avowed to herself, and this, too, after the witty cool philosophising that precedes. The act itself is natural, and the resolve so to act is, I fear, likewise too true a picture of the lax hold which principles have on a woman's heart, when opposed to, or even separated from, passion and inclination. For women are less hypocrites to their own minds than men are, because in general they feel less proportionate abhorrence of moral evil in and for itself, and more of its outward [pg 102] Act ii. sc. 1. Theobald's edition— “Through bush, through briar— Through flood, through fire—” What a noble pair of ears this worthy Theobald must have had! The eight amphimacers or cretics,— “Over hill, over dale, Thoro' bush, thoro' briar, Over park, over pale, Throro' flood, thoro' fire”— have a delightful effect on the ear in their sweet transition to the trochaic,— “I do wander ev'ry where Swifter than the moones sphere,” &c. The last words, as sustaining the rhyme, must be considered, as in fact they are, trochees in time. It may be worth while to give some correct examples in English of the principle metrical feet:— Pyrrhic or Dibrach, u u = body, spirit. Tribrach, u u u = nobody, hastily pronounced. Iambus, u - = delight. Trochee, - u = lightl?. Spondee, - - = God spake. The paucity of spondees in single words in English, and indeed in the modern languages in general, [pg 103] Dactyl, - u u = merril?. AnapÆst, u u - = a propos, or the first three syllables of ceremony. Amphibrachys, u - u = delightful. Amphimacer, - u - = over hill. Antibacchius, u - = the Lord God. Bacchius, - - u = Helvell?n. Molossus, - - - = John James Jones. These simple feet may suffice for understanding the metres of Shakespeare, for the greater part at least;—but Milton cannot be made harmoniously intelligible without the composite feet, the Ionics, PÆons, and Epitrites. Ib. sc. 2. Titania's speech (Theobald, adopting Warburton's reading):— “Which she, with pretty and with swimming gate Follying (her womb then rich with my young squire) Would imitate,” &c. Oh! oh! Heaven have mercy on poor Shakespeare, and also on Mr. Warburton's mind's eye! Act v. sc. 1. Theseus' speech (Theobald):— “And what poor [willing] duty cannot do, Noble respect takes it in might, not merit.” To my ears it would read far more Shakespearian thus:— “And what poor duty cannot do, yet would, Noble respect,” &c. Ib. sc. 2.— “Puck. Now the hungry lion roars, And the wolf behowls the moon; Whilst the heavy ploughman snores All with weary task foredone,” &c. Very Anacreon in perfectness, proportion, grace, and spontaneity! So far it is Greek;—but then add, O! what wealth, what wild ranging, and yet what compression and condensation of, English fancy! In truth, there is nothing in Anacreon more perfect than these thirty lines, or half so rich and imaginative. They form a speckless diamond. |
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