which, therefore, may properly enough be called his own and not his own.' (Malone.)
IV. i. 226. at her death. Does Bottom here mean Thisbe's death? But he is speaking, not of the play, but of a play. And why 'more gracious' after Thisbe's death? Theobald was very likely right in reading 'after death.' Were Bottom to rise, after dying a heroic death, and sing his 'ballad,' that would be gracious indeed.
V. i. 19, 20. 'The mere idea of a joy is enough incentive to a strong imagination to conjure up and believe in the actual presence of a something which causes that joy.' (Chambers.)
V. i. 79, 80. intents . . . conn'd. 'Intents' is here used in a double sense. Philostrate speaks of the clowns' endeavors to please as carried to the limit of their ability and of their having learned the play, the result of their endeavor, with painful toil.
V. i. 128 S. d. Tawyer. This reference in the stage direction of the First Folio to one of the actors in the company to which Shakespeare belonged is an interesting evidence that the Folio was printed from a stage-copy.
V. i. 200. Limander. Limander and Helen are blunders for Leander and Hero, just as Shafalus and Procrus are the closest the clowns can come to Cephalus and Procris. The two pairs of lovers thus referred to were typical instances of devotion.
V. i. 210. Now is the mural down. In place of this the First Quarto, which is the most reliable authority for the text of this play, has, Now is the moon used. That this latter version is almost certainly corrupt is shown, however, not only by the difficulty of finding in it a satisfactory meaning, but also by the fact that the First Folio substitutes, Now is the morall downe. Although the reading of the Folio can be interpreted as a pun on the senses 'moral obstacle'
