1 Guard. This is an aspick's trail; and there fig

leaves

Have flime upon them, fuch as the afpick leaves
Upon the caves of Nile.

Caf. Moft probable,

That fo fhe dy'd; for her phyfician tells me,
She hath purfu'd conclufions infinite

Of eafy ways to die.-Take up her bed;
And bear her women from the monument :-
She fhall be buried by her Antony:
No grave upon the earth fhall clip in it
A pair fo famous. High events as thefe
Strike those that make them: and their story is
No lefs in pity, than his glory, which

Brought them to be lamented. Our army fhall,
In folemn fhew, attend this funeral;

And then to Rome.-Come, Dolabella, fee
High order in this great folemnity.

[Exeunt omnes.

THE END.

OBSERVATIONS

ON THE FABLE AND COMPOSITION OF THE

MIDSUMMER-NIGHT's DREAM.

THIS play was entered at Stationers' Hall, Oct. 8. 1600, by Thomas Fisher. ́ It is probable that the hint for it was received from Chaucer's Knight's Tale. Thence it is, that our author speaks of Thefeus as duke of Athens. The tale begins thus:

"Whilom as olde ftories tellen us,

"There was a Duk that highte Thefeus,

"Of Athenes he was lord and governour, &c."

Late edit. v. 86r. Lidgate too, the monk of Bury, in his tranflation of the Tragedies of John Bochas, calls him by the fame title, chap. xii. 1. 21.

"Duke Thefeus had the victorye."

Creon, in the tragedy of Focafa, tranflated from Euripides in 1566, is called Duke Greon: So likewife Skelton:

"Not lyke Duke Hamilcar,

"Nor lyke Duke Afdruball."

Stanyhurst, in his tranflation of Virgil, calls Æneas, Duke Eneas; and in Heywood's Iron Age, 2d Part, 1632, Ajax is ftyled Duke Ajax, Palamedes, Duke Palamedes, and Neftor, Duke Neftor, &c. STEEVENS. Wild and fantastical as this play is, all the parts in their various modes are well written, and give the kind of pleasure which the author defigned. Fairies in his time were much in fashion; common tradition had made them familiar, and Spenfer's poem had made them great. JOHNSON.

OVE's LABOUR's LOST.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

MEN.

FERDINAND, King of Navarre.

BIRON,

LONGAVILLE,

DUMAIN,

}

Three Lords, attending upon the Fin in his Retirement.

BOYET,

MERCADE,

Lords, attending upon the Princess of
France.

DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO, a fantaflical Spaniard.

NATHANIEL, a Curate.

DULL, a Conflable.

HOLOFERNES, a Schoolmafler.

COSTARD, a Clown.

CATHARINE,

Ladies, attending on the Princess.

JAQUENETTA, a Country Wench.

Officers, and others, Attendants upon the King and Princefs.

SCENE, the King of Navarre's Palace, and the Country near it.