I wilt go tell him of fair Hermia's flight, &c. I am convinced that Shakspeare availed himself of the title of this play in his own mind, and worked upon it as a dream throughout, but especially, and, perhaps, unpleasingly, in this broad determination of ungrateful treachery in Helena, so undisguisedly avowed to herself, and this, too, after the witty cool philosophizing that precedes. The act itself is natural, and the resolve so to act is, I fear, likewise too true a picture of the lax hold which principles have on a woman's heart, when opposed to, or even separated from, passion and inclination. For women are less hypocrites to their own minds than men are, because in general they feel less proportionate abhorrence of moral evil in and for itself, and more of its outward consequences, as detection, and loss of character than men,--their natures being almost wholly extroitive. Still, however just in itself, the representation of this is not poetical; we shrink from it, and cannot harmonize it with the ideal. Act ii. sc. 1. Theobald's edition. _Through_ bush, _through_ briar--... _Through_ flood, _through_ fire-- What a noble pair of ears this worthy Theobald must have had! The eight amphimacers or cretics,-- Ovër hîll, ôvër dâle, Thôrö' bûsh, thôrö' brîar, Ovër pârk, ôvër pâle, Thôrö' flôôd, thôrö' fîre-- have a delightful effect on the ear in their sweet transition to the trochaic,-- Î dô wândër êv'ry whêrë Swîftër thân thë môônës sphêrë, &c.-- The last words as sustaining the rhyme, must be considered, as in fact they are, trochees in time. It may be worth while to give some correct examples in English of the principal metrical feet:-- Pyrrhic or Dibrach, u u =_body, spirit_. Tribrach, u u u =_nobody_, (hastily pronounced). Iambus u ' =_deli'ght_. Trochee, ' u =_li'ghtly_. Spondee, ' ' =_Go'd spa'ke_. The paucity of spondees in single words in English and, indeed, in the modern languages in general, makes, perhaps, the greatest distinction, metrically considered, between them and the Greek and Latin. Dactyl, ' u u = _me'rrily._ Anapæst, u u ' = _a propo's,_ or the first three syllables of _ceremo'ny_. Amphibrachys, u ' u = _deli'ghtful_. Amphimacer, ' u ' = _o'ver hi'll_. Antibacchius, u ' ' = _the Lo'rd Go'd_. Bacchius, ' ' u = _He'lve'llyn_. Molossus, ' ' ' = _Jo'hn Ja'mes Jo'nes._ These simple feet may suffice for understanding the metres of Shakspeare, for the greater part at least;--but Milton cannot be made harmoniously intelligible without the composite feet, the Ionics, Pæons, and Epitrites. 'Ib.' sc. 2. Titania's speech:--(Theobald adopting Warburton's reading.) Which she, with pretty and with swimming gate _Follying_ (her womb then rich with my young squire) Would imitate, &c.