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Enter Thisby.

This. O wall, full often haft thou heard my moans,
For parting my fair Pyramus and me.
My cherry lips have often kifs'd thy ftones;

Thy ftones with lime and hair knit up in thee.
Pyr. I fee a voice; now will I to the chink;
To fpy, an I can hear my Thisby's face.

Thifby!

Thif. My love! thou art, my love, I think.

Pyr. Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace. And like Limander am I trufty ftill.

Thif. And I like Helen, till the fates me kill.
Pyr. Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.
Thif. As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.

Pyr. O kifs me through the hole of this vile wall.
Thif. I kifs the wall's hole, not your lips at all.
Pyr. Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me ftraightway?
Thif. Tide life, tide death, I come without delay.
Wall. Thus have I Wall my part discharged fo:
And, being done, thus Wall away doth go. [Exit.
Thef. Now is the mural down between the two neigh-
bours.

Dem. No remedy, my Lord, when walls are fo wilful to hear without warning.

Hip. This is the fillieft ftuff that e'er I heard. Thef. The best in this kind are but shadows, and the worst are no worse if imagination amend them.

Hip. It must be your imagination then, and not theirs. Thef. If we imagine no worfe of them than they of themielves, they may pafs for excellent men. Here come two noble beafts in a moon and a lion, (38)

(38) Here come two noble beafts in a man and a lion] I don't think the jet here is either compleat, or right. It is differently pointed in feveral of the old copies, which, I suspect, may lead us to the true reading, viz.

Here come two noble beafts, in a man and a lion. immediately upon Thefeus faying this, enter Lion and Moonshine. It feems very probable therefore, that our Author wrote

- in a moon and a lion.

the one having a crefcent and a lanthorn before him, and representing the man in the moon; the other in a lion's hide.

Enter

Enter Lion and Moonshine.

Lion. You, Ladies, you, whofe gentle hearts do fear The smallest monftrous moufe that creeps on floor, May now, perchance, both quake and tremble here, When lion rough in wildeft rage doth roar. Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am No lion fell, nor elfe no lion's dam: For if I fhould as lion come in ftrife Into this place, 'twere pity of my life.

Thef. A very gentle beaft, and of a good confcience. Dem. The very beft at a beaft, my Lord, that e'er I faw. Ly. This lion is a very fox for his valour. Thef. True; and a goofe for his difcretion. Dem. Not fo, my Lord; for his valour cannot carry his difcretion, and the fox carries the goofe.

Thef. His difcretion, I am fure, cannot carry his valour; for the goofe carries not the fox. It is well: leave it to his difcretion, and let us hearken to the

moon.

Moon. This lanthorn doth the horned moon prefent: Dem. He fhould have worn the horns on his head. Thef. He is no crefcent, and his horns are invisible within the circumference.

Moon. This lanthorn doth the horned moon prefent: Myfelf the man i' th' moon doth feem to be.

Thef. This is the greatest error of all the reft; the man fhould be put into the lanthorn: how is it else the man i' th' moon?

Dem. He dares not come there for the candle; for you fee, it is already in fnuff.

Hip. I am weary of this moon; would he would change.

Thef. It appears by his fmall light of difcretion, that he is in the wane; but yet in courtefy, in all reafon we muft ftay the time.

Lyf. Proceed, Moon.

Moon. All that I have to fay, is to tell you that the anthorn is the moon; I the man in the moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.

Dem

Dem. Why, all these should be in the lanthorn; for they are in the moon. But, filence, here comes Thilly.. Enter Thisby.

Thif. This is old Ninny's tomb; where is my love? Lion. Oh..

[The lion roars, Thiby runs off.

Dem. Well roar'd, Lion.

Thef. Well run, Thisby.

Hip. Well fhone, Moon.

Truly, the Moon fhines with a good grace.

Thef. Well mouz'd, Lion.

Dem. And then came Pyramus.

Lyf. And fo the lion vanish'd.

Enter Pyramus.

Pyr. Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy funny beams; I thank thee, Moon, for fhining now fo bright; For by thy gracious, golden, glittering streams, I truft to tafte of trueft Thisby's fight.

But ftay: O fpight!

But mark, poor Knight,

What dreadful dole is here?

Eyes, do you fee!

How can it be !

O dainty duck! O deer!

Thy mantle good;
What, ftain'd with blood!
Approach, you furies fell:

O fates! come, come:

Cut thread and thrum,

Quail, crufh, conclude, and quell.

Thef. This paffion, and the death of a dear friend Would

go near to make a man look fad.

Hip. Befhew my heart, but I pity the man.

Pyr. O wherefore, nature, didft thou lions frame?
Since lion vile hath here deflour'd my dear:
Which is-

-no, no-w which was the fairest dame,
That liv'd, that lov'd, that lik'd, that look'd with cheer
Come tears, confound: out fword, and wound
The pap of Pyramus.

Ay,,

Ay, that left pap, where heart doth hop:

Thus die I, thus, thus, thus.

Now am I dead, now am I fled, my foul is in the sky; Tongue, lofe thy light: moon, take thy flight; Now die, die, die, die, die.

Dem. No die, but an ace for him; for he is but one. Lyf. Lefs than an ace, man; for he is dead; he is nothing.

Thef. With the help of a furgeon he might yet recover, and prove an afs.

Hip. How chance the Moonshine is gone, before Thiby comes back and finds her lover?

Enter Thisby.

Thef. She will find him by star-light. Here he comes; and her paffion ends the play. Hip. Methinks, fhe fhould not use a long one for fuch a Pyramus: I hope, fhe will be brief.

Dem. A moth will turn the ballance, which Pyramus, which Thiby is the better.

Ly. She hath fpied him already with those sweet eyes,
Dem. And thus the moans, videlicet.
Thif. Afleep, my love?

What dead, my dove?

Pyramys, arife:

Speak, fpeak. Quite dumb?

Dead, dead? a tomb

Muft cover thy sweet eyes.
Thefe lilly brows, (40)
This cherry nofe,

(39) And thus fhe meansthink without any meaning. laments over her dead Pyramus. paffion ends the play.

-(39)

-] Thus all the editions have it, t It fhould be, thus the moans; i. c. It is faid a little above, And bur

(40) These lilly lips, this cherry nose.] All Thifty's lamentation, till now, runs in regular rhyme and metre. But both, by fome accident, are in this single instance interrupted. I suspect, the Poet

wrote:

Thefe lilly brows,

This cherry nofe,

Now black brows being a beauty, lilly brows are as ridiculous as a oberry nose, green eyes, or cowflip cheeks.

Thefe

[blocks in formation]

O fifters three,

Come, come to me,

With hands as pale as milk;

Lave them in gore,

Since you have thore

With theers his thread of filk.

Tongue, not a word :

Come, trufty fword;

Come, blade, my breast imbrue :

And farewel, friends,

Thus Thiby ends;

Adieu, adieu, adieu.

Thef. Moon-fhine and Lion are left to bury the dead. Dem. Ay, and Wall too.

Bot. No, I affure you, the wall is down that parted their fathers. Will it please you to fee the epilogue, or to hear a bergomak dance, between two of our company

?

Thef. No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excufe. Never excufe; for when the players are all dead, there need none to be blam'd. Marry, if he, that writ it, had play'd Pyramus, and hung himself in Thify's garter, it would have been a fine tragedy: and fo it is, truly, and very notably difcharg'd. But come, your bergomafk; let your epilogue alone.

[Here a dance of clowns. The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve. Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.

I fear, we shall out-fleep the coming morn,
As much as we this night have over-watch'd.
This palpable grofs play hath well beguil'd

The heavy gaite of night. Sweet friends, to bed,
A fortnight hold we this folemnity,

In nightly revel and new jollity.

[Exeunt.

VOL. I.

H.

Exter

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