[Before the time I did Lysander see,
Seem'd Athens like a paradise to me]
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.
I.i.232 (15,8) [Things base and vile, holding no quantity] _quality_
seems a word more suitable to the sense than quantity, but either
may serve. (1773)
I.i.240 (15,9) [in game] _Game_ here signifies not contentious play,
but _sport, jest_. So Spenser,
_'Twixt earnest and 'twixt_ game.
I.ii (16,2) [_Enter Quince the carpenter, Snug the joiner. Bottom the
weaver. Flute the bellows-mender. Snout the tinker, and Starveling
the taylor_] In this scene Shakespeare takes advantage of his
knowledge of the theatre, to ridicule the prejudices and competitions
of the players. Bottom, who is generally acknowledged the
principal actor, declares his inclination to be for a tyrant, for
a part of fury, tumult, and noise, such as every young man pants
to perform when he first steps upon the stage. The same Bottom,
who seems bred in a tiring-room, has another histrionical passion.
He is for engrossing every part, and would exclude his inferiors
from all possibility of distinction. He is therefore desirous to
play Pyramus, Thisbe, and the Lyon at the same time.
I.ii.10 (17,4) [grow on to a point] Dr. Warburton read _go on_; but
_grow_ is used, in allusion to his name, Quince. (see 1765, I,100,8)