'Ros'. Oft have I heard of you, my lord Biron, Before I saw you, and the world's large tongue Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks; Full of comparisons, and wounding flouts, Which you on all estates will execute That lie within the mercy of your wit: To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain, And therewithal, to win me, if you please, (Without the which I am not to be won,) You shall this twelvemonth term from day to day Visit the speechless sick, and still converse With groaning wretches; and your talk shall be, With all the fierce endeavour of your wit, To enforce the pained impotent to smile. 'Biron'. To move wild laughter in the throat of death? It cannot be; it is impossible; Mirth cannot move a soul in agony. 'Ros'. Why, that's the way to choke a gibing spirit, Whose influence is begot of that loose grace, Which shallow laughing hearers give to fools: A jest's prosperity lies in the ear Of him that hears it, never in the tongue Of him that makes it: then, if sickly ears, Deaf'd with the clamors of their own dear groans, Will hear your idle scorns, continue then, And I will have you, and that fault withal; But, if they will not, throw away that spirit, And I shall find you empty of that fault, Right joyful of your reformation. Act v. sc. 2. In Biron's speech to the Princess: --and, therefore, like the eye, Full of _straying_ shapes, of habits, and of forms. Either read _stray_, which I prefer; or throw _full_ back to the preceding lines,-- like the eye, full Of straying shapes, &c. In the same scene: 'Biron'. And what to me, my love? and what to me? 'Ros'. You must be purged too, your sins are rank; You are attaint with fault and perjury: Therefore, if you my favour mean to get, A twelvemonth shall you spend, and never rest, But seek the weary beds of people sick. There can be no doubt, indeed, about the propriety of expunging this speech of Rosaline's; it soils the very page that retains it. But I do not agree with Warburton and others in striking out the preceding line also. It is quite in Biron's character; and Rosaline not answering it immediately, Dumain takes up the question for him, and, after he and Longaville are answered, Biron, with evident propriety, says;-- _Studies_ my mistress? &c. MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Act i. sc. 1. 'Her'. O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low-- 'Lys'. Or else misgraffed, in respect of years; 'Her'. O spite! too old to be engag'd to young-- 'Lys'. Or else it stood upon the choice of friends; 'Her'. O hell! to chuse love by another's eye! There is no authority for any alteration;--but I never can help feeling how great an improvement it would be, if the two former of Hermia's exclamations were omitted;--the third and only appropriate one would then become a beauty, and most natural. 'Ib.' Helena's speech:--