*A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM.] This play was entered at Stationers' Hall, Q&. 8, 1600, by Thomas Fisher. It is probable that the hint for it was received from Chaucer's Knight's Tale. There is an old black letter pamphlet by W. Bettie, called Titana and Thefeus, entered at Stationers' Hall, in 1608; but Shakspeare has taken no hints from it. Titania is alfo the name of the Queen of the Fairies in Decker's Whore of Babylon, 1607. STEEVENS. The Midfummer-Night's Dream I fuppofe to have been written in 1592. See An attempt to ascertain the order of Shakspeare's Plays, Vol. II. MALONE. と B. Thefeus, Duke of Athens. Lyfander, Demetrius, } in love with Hermia. Philoftrate, Mafer of the Revels to Thefeus. Quince, the Carpenter. Snug, the Joiner. Bottom, the Weaver. Starveling, the Tailor. Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Thefeus. Hermia, Daughter to Egeus, in love with Lyfander. Helena, in love with Demetrius. Oberon, King of the Fairies. Titania, Queen of the Fairies. L Puck, or Robin-goodfellow, a Fairy. Peafebloffom, Other Fairies attending their King and Queen. Attendants on Thefeus and Hippolyta. SCENE, Athens, and a Wood not far from it. The enumeration of perfons was firft made by Mr. Rowe. STEEVENS. MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DRE A M. ACT I SCENE I. Athens. A Room in the Palace of Thefeus. Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Attendants. THE. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour Draws on apace; four happy days bring in Another moon: but, oh, methinks, how flow This old moon wanes! fhe lingers my defires, Like to a step-dame, or a dowager, Long withering out a young man's revenue. * HIP. Four days will quickly fteep themselves in nights; 3 2 Four nights will quickly dream away the time; 2 Like to a fep-dame, or a dowager, Long withering out a young man's revenue.] The authenticity of this reading having been queftioned by Dr. Warburton, I shall exemplify it from Chapman's Tranflation of the 4th Book of Homer. there the goodly plant lies withering out his grace." 66 STEEVENS. MALONE. fteep themfelves in nights; ] So, in Cymbeline, A& V. fc. iv. neither deferve, 4 New bent in heaven, fhall behold the night Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments; With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling. Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS. EGE. Happy be Thefeus, our renowned duke!" 4 New bent by Mr. Rowe. The old copies read - Now bent. Corre&ed MALONE. 5 With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling. By triumph, as Mr. Warton has obferved in his late edition of Milton's Poems, p. 56, we are to understand hows, fuch as masks, revels, &c. So, again in King Henry VI. P. III: "And now what refts, but that we spend the time With ftately triumphs, mirthful comick fhows, "Such as befit the pleasures of the court?" Again, in the preface to Burton's Anatomie of Melancholy, 1624: Now come tidings of weddings, mafkings, mummeries, entertainments, trophies, triumphs, revels, fports, playes." Jonfon, as the fame gentleman obferves, in the title of his mafque called Love's Triumph through Callipolis, by triumph feems to have meant a grand proceffion; and in one of the ftage-directions, it is said, 66 the triumph is feen far off." MALONE. 6 — our renowned duke!] Thus in Chaucer's Knight's Tale : "Whilom as olde ftories tellen us, "There was a Duk that highte Thefeus, "Of Athenes he was lord and governour," &c. Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 861. Lidgate too, the monk of Bury, in his tranflation of the Tragedies of John Bochas, calls him by the fame title, chap. xii. 1. 21; Duke Thefeus had the victorye." |