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By the simplicity of Venus' doves. The next number is a trio and chorus for the {94} Clowns, beginning
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Most noble Duke. Quince, Snout, and Bottom all have little solos, but I can't trace the words--I think they were by some contemporary of Bishop's; the tune is by Arne and Bishop, but is not very valuable. The next song is for the first fairy and by Dr Cooke. The words do not occur in the play or in any other work of Shakespeare's; they are just the conventional fairy-song words about fairy rings, lightly trip it o'er the green, but the musical setting is charming. The fairy march by Bishop is the same as in his _As You Like It_, beginning _pianissimo_ and finishing with about fifty bars of such vulgar _fortissimo_ noise as would have frightened away any number of fairies. Demetrius has the next song: it is by Bishop, but the words are not Shakespeare's. The words,
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But ne'er recall my love, are repeated thirteen times, and the tune is insignificant. The next number is a
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for Oberon and the fairies; again the words are not by Shakespeare, but are of the
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and
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school; the music is by Bishop and Dr Cooke, and Cooke's part is the better. Demetrius (tenor) sings Helena's beautiful words,
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O happy fair, your eyes are lodestars, to a graceful melody of Bishop's: this number is still heard occasionally. The duet that follows between Demetrius and Hermia is by Bishop, and the words are by Anon.; it is a maudlin piece of work, words and music admirably fitted. Oberon's beautiful speech,
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Flower of the purple dye, is set to music by our old friend Smith, with ineffective additions by Bishop, as a song for Oberon. The second act ends with a recitative for the fourth fairy, a dance and a chorus welcoming the little Indian boy. In the third act is a quartet for the four solo fairies by Bishop, words anonymous and very bad, which takes the curtain up. Oberon sings his speech,
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Be as thou wast wont to be, to music by Battishill and Bishop, a very graceful melody; and this is followed by a hunting chorus about Spartan hounds, music by Bishop, poet unnamed. An anonymous character sings Handel's
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Hush, ye pretty warbling choir, from _Acis and Galatea_. The effect should {95} be amazing in this wilderness of bad music. Demetrius now has a song by Bishop, to
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called
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Sweet cheerful hope, but as it is of no particular value we will pass on to a real piece of Shakespeare from this very play, a setting by Bishop for Oberon and chorus of the words
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To the best bride bed will we, finishing with the chorus
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In Theseus' house give glimmering light, or, as Shakespeare more happily phrases it,
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Through the house,