Chapter XXVI: Act II

SC. 1. "But _make_ room, fairy; here comes Oberon."

The decasyllabic form _must_ be preserved. Pope read as I do.

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"What, jealous Oberon! Fairies skip hence."

In the 4tos and folio 'Fairy.' (See Introd. p. 52.)

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"When thou wast stolen away from Fairyland,
And in the shape of Corin sat all day."

This is the reading of the folio; the 4tos, which all the editors follow, have _hast_. I prefer the former; for Shakespeare invariably employs the verb substantive with 'stolen away,' except in the case of a doubly-compound tense.

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"The human mortals want their winter here."

Theobald proposed and then rejected 'winter-_cheer_.' I should prefer _summer_ for 'winter' (see Introd. p. 66); for in Dr. Forman's Diary of the year 1594--which year Shakespeare had certainly in view--we read, "This monethes of June and July were very wet and wonderfull cold, like winter, that the 10 dae of Julii many did syt by the fyer, yt was so cold; and soe was it in Maye and June; and scarse too fair dais together all that tyme, but it rayned every day more or lesse. Yf it did not raine then was it cold and cloudye.... There were many gret fludes this sommer."

"The seasons change their manners, as the year
Had found some months asleep and leaped them over."
2 Hen. IV. iv. 4.

It is possible, however, that the error may lie in 'want,' for which we might read _have_, or some other word.

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"And on old Hiems' chin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet."

For 'chin' Grey read _chill_; Tyrwhitt, whom some follow, _thin_. But it is probably one of those inadvertencies so frequent in our poet.

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"The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me."

Thirlby's just correction of _stay_ and _stayeth_.

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"Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.--
Ay, there it is.--I pray thee give it me."

For 'there' in the second line, Mr. Dyce reads--and perhaps rightly--_here_.

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"I know a bank," etc.

I read and arrange the whole passage thus:

"I know a bank whëre the wild thyme blows,
Where violets and the nodding oxlip grows,
Quite o'er-canopied with lusciöus woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine,
And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight.
Then with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes," etc.

In the second line I have transposed 'oxlip' and 'violet'; for the former 'nods' and the latter does not, "With cowslips wan, that hang the pensive head" (Lycidas, _v._ 14). In the third I give _o'er_ for 'over.' The transposition which follows is imperatively demanded by the sequence of ideas, and we have other instances in this play. The fifth and sixth lines may have been an addition made by the poet or transcriber in the margin, and taken in in the wrong place by the printer. (See on i. 1.) If 'And' be the right word in the last line, something must have been lost, _ex. gr._ "Upon her will I steal there as she lies;" but the poet's word may have been what I have given, _Then_, strongly emphaticized, and written _Than_, the two first letters of which having been effaced, the printer made it 'And.' The very same thing seems to have taken place in L. L. L. v. 2. It may also have been that _y_^{n}, then, was taken for &, and.

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SC. 2. "Pard or boar with bristled hair."

The rime demands the old form _hear_. (See on Com. of Err. iii. 2.)

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"Transparent Helena, Nature shows her art."

The transposition 'her shows' of the folio is merely one of those of which we have so many examples in these plays. The usual reading is that of the 2nd folio, '_here_ shows.'

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"So I being young, till now ripe not to reason."

It would seem better to read 'not ripe'; or 'ripe' may be a verb.