And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight.
Then with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes," etc.
In the second line I have transposed 'oxlip' and 'violet'; for the former 'nods' and the latter does not, "With cowslips wan, that hang the pensive head" (Lycidas, v. 14). In the third I give o'er for 'over.' The transposition which follows is imperatively demanded by the sequence of ideas, and we have other instances in this play. The fifth and sixth lines may have been an addition made by the poet or transcriber in the margin, and taken in in the wrong place by the printer. (See on i. 1.) If 'And' be the right word in the last line, something must have been lost, ex. gr. "Upon her will I steal there as she lies;" but the poet's word may have been what I have given, Then, strongly emphaticized, and written Than, the two first letters of which having been effaced, the printer made it 'And.' The very same thing seems to have taken place in L. L. L. v. 2. It may also have been that yn, then, was taken for &, and.
Sc. 2.
"Pard or boar with bristled hair."
The rime demands the old form hear. (See on Com. of Err. iii. 2.)