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whole piece, the more exalted characters are ſubſenrvient to the intereſts of thoſe beneath them. We laugh with Bottom and his fellows, but is a ſingle paſſion agitated by the faint and childiſh ſollicitudes of Hermia and Demetrius, of Helena and Lyſander, thoſe ſhadows of each other?—That a drama, of which the principal perſonages are thus inſignificant, and the fable thus meagre and unintereſting, was one of our author’s earlieſt compoſitions, does not, therefore, ſeem a very improbable conjecture; nor are the beauties with which it is embelliſhed, inconſiſtent with this ſuppoſition; for the genius of Shakſpeare, even in its minority, could embroider the coarſeſt materials with the brighteſt and moſt laſting colours.
A Midſummer Night’s Dream was not entered at Stationers’ hall till Oct. 8, 1600, in which year it was printed; but is mentioned by Meres in 1598.
From the comedy of Dr. Dodipoll Mr. Steevens has quoted a line, which the author ſeems to have borrowed from Shakſpeare:
“ ’Twas I that led you through the painted meads,
“ Where the light fairies danc’d upon the flowers,
“ Hanging in ev’ry leaf an orient pear.”
So, in A Midſummer Night’s Dream,
“ And hang a pearl in ev’ry cowflip’s ear.”
Again,
“ And that ſame dew, which ſometimes on the buds
“ Was wont to ſwell, like round and orient pearls,
“ Stood now within the pretty flouret’s eyes,
“ Like tears,” &c.—
There is no earlier edition of the anonymous play in which the foregoing lines are found, than that in 1600; but Dr. Dodipowle is mentioned by Naſhe, in his preface to Gabriel Harvey’s Hunt is up, printed in 1596. This, therefore, is another circumſtance, that in ſome meaſure authoriſes the date here aſſigned to A Midſummer Night’s Dream.
The paſſage in the fifth act, which, with ſome probabili-
converſation, determine to liſten to a tragedy, which is acted before them, and to which they make a kind of chorus, by moralizing at the end of each act.
