A Midsommer Nights Dreame Volume 10 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 edition. Excerpt: ...of sort, ' says Skeat (Diet. s. v.), ' are ultimately due to Lat. sortem, ace. otsors, lot, destiny, chance, condition, state.'--Ed. 374. As I am not sure that in a modern text there should not be a semicolon after 'sort' in the previous line, to indicate that this 'As' does not follow the 'so' in that line (unlike the 'so' and 'As' in lines 379, 380), but means because, since.--Ed. 378. Acheron W. A. Wright: The river of hell in classical mythology, supposed by Shakespeare to be a pit or lake. Compare Macb. III, v, 15: 'And at the pit of Acheron Meet me, ' &c.; Tit. And. IV, iii, 44: ' I'll dive into the burning lake below And pull her out of Acheron by the heels, '--R. G. White (ed. ii): A river in Hades, which Shakespeare mistook to be a pit. That Shakespeare in Macbeth may have supposed Acheron to be a pit is quite likely, but he made no mistake in the present passage. The rivers of hell were black, and it is with this blackness alone that comparison is here made. In Shakespeare's contemporary, Sylvester, there is the same simile: 'In Groon-land field is found a dungeon, A thousandfold more dark than Acheron.'--The Vocation, line 532, ed. Grosart. And if it be urged that Sylvester has here fallen into the same error, and overlooked the fact that Acheron is a river, so be it. Shakespeare has a good companion, then, to bear half the disgrace of his oversight in Macbeth.--Ed. And lead thefe teftie Riuals fo aftray, As one come not within anothers way. 380 Like to Lyfander, fometime frame thy tongue, Then ftirre Demetrius vp with bitter wrong; And fometime raile thou like Demetrius; And from each other looke thou leade them thus, Till ore their browes, death-counterfeiting, fleepe 385 With leaden legs, and Battie-wings doth c reepe; Then crufh...