One nickname for her purblind son and heir, Ben. An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him. To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle Of some strange nature, letting it there stand That were some spite. My invocation Is fair and honest, and in his mistress' name, I conjure only but to raise up him. Ben. Come, he hath hid himself among those trees, To be consorted with the humorous 3 night. 3 Blind is his love, and best befits the dark. Mer. If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark. Now will he sit under a medlar tree, And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit, As maids call medlars, when they laugh alone.*- Come, shall we go? Ben. Go, then; for 'tis in vain To seek him here, that means not to be found. [Exeunt. 1 All the old copies read, Abraham Cupid. The alteration was proposed by Mr. Upton. It evidently alludes to the famous archer Adam Bell. The ballad alluded to is King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid, or, as it is called in some copies, "The Song of a Beggar and a King." It may be seen in the first volume of Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry. 2 This phrase, in Shakspeare's time, was used as an expression of tenderness, like poor fool, &c. 3 i. e. the humid, the moist, dewy night. Chapman uses the word in this sense in his translation of Homer. 4 After this line in the old copies are two lines of ribaldry. |