168 FLORA DOMESTICA. 



The pretty pansy then I '11 tye, 



Like stones some chain enchasing; 

 The next to them, their near ally, 



The purple violet placing. . 



NYMPHAL 5th. 



" Milton, in his fine way, gives us a picture in a word, 

 " the pansy freak' d with jet. 



" Another of its names is Love-in-idleness, under which it has been 

 again celebrated by Shakspeare, to whom we must always return, for 

 any thing and for every thing ; his fairies make potent use of it in 

 the Midsummer-Nights' Dream. The whole passage is full of such 

 exquisite fancies, mixed with such noble expressions and fine sug- 

 gestions of sentiment, that I will indulge myself, and lay it before the 

 reader at once, that he may not interrupt himself in his chair : 



O.BERON. My gentle Puck, come hither : thou rememberest, 

 Since once J sat upon a promontory, 

 And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back, 

 Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, 

 That the rude sea grew civil at her song, 

 And certain stars shot madly from their spheres 

 To hear the sea-maid's music ? 



PUCK. I remember. 



OBERON. That very time I saw (but thou couldst not,) 

 Flying betwixt the cold earth and the moon, 

 Cupid all arm'd : a certain aim he took 

 At a fair vestal, throned by the west, 

 And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow, 

 As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts : 

 But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft 

 Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon ; 

 And the imperial votaress pass'd on, 

 In maiden meditation, fancy free. 

 Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell : 

 It fell upon a little western flower, 

 Before, milk-white, now purple with love's wound, 

 And maidens call it Love-in-idleness. 

 Fetch me that flower, the herb I show'd thee once : 

 The juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid, 

 Will make or man or woman madly dote 

 Upon the next live creature that it sees. 



