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And I like Helen, till the fates me kill.'
Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.'

This. As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.'

Pyr. O, kiss me through the hole of this vile wall.' This. I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all.'

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Pyr. Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway ?'

This. Tide life, tide death, I come without delay.' Wall. Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so; 'And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.'

[Exeunt WALL, PYRAMUS, and THISBE. The. Now is the mural down between the two neighbours.

Dem. No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear without warning.

Hip. This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.

The. 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. The. If we imagine no worse of them, than they of themselves, they may pass for excellent men. come two noble beasts in, a moon and a lion.

Enter LION and MOONSHINE.

Here

Lion. You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear 'The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor, May now, perchance, both quake and tremble here, When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar. Then know, that I, one Snug the joiner, am A lion fell, nor else no lion's dam :9 For if I should as lion come in strife

Into this place, 'twere pity of my life.'

The. A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience. Dem. The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I saw. Lys. This lion is a very fox for his valour.

The. True; and a goose for his discretion.

Dem. Not so, my lord: for his valour cannot carry his arscretion; and the fox carries the goose.

The. His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his val

[9] That is, that I am Snug the joiner; and neither a lion, nor a lion's dam. Dr. Johnson has justly observed in a note on All's well that ends well, that nor in the phraseology of our author's time often related to two members of a sentence, though only expressed in the latter. So in the play just mentioned:

"-contempt nor bitterness

"Were in his pride or sharpness." MALONE.
13

VOL. II

our; for the goose carries not the fox. It is well: leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to the moon.

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Moon. This lantern doth the horned moon present:'Dem. He should have worn the horns on his head. The. He is no crescent, and his horns are invisible within the circumference.

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Moon. This lantern doth the horned moon present; Myset the man i' th' moon do seem to be.'

The This is the greatest error of all the rest: the man should be put into the lantern: How is it else the man ' th' moon?

Dem. He dares not come there for the candle; for, you see, it is already in snuff.'

Hip. I am a-weary of this moon: Would, he would change!

The. It appears, by his small light of discretion, that he is in the wane: but yet, in courtesy, in all reason, we must stay the time.

Lys. Proceed, moon.

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

Dem. Why, all these should be in the lantern; for they are in the moon. But, silence; here comes Thisbe.. Enter THISBE.

This. This is old Ninny's tomb: Where is my love?' Lion. 'Oh-.'” [The Laon roars.—THISBE runs off. Dem. Well roared, lion.

The. Well run, Thisbe.

Hip. Well shone, moon.-Truly, the moon shines with a good grace.

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The. Well moused, lion.

2

[The Lion tears THISBE's mantle, and exit.

Dem. And so comes Pyramus.

Lys. And then the moon vanishes.

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Enter PYRAMUS.

Pyr. Sweet moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams;

'I thank thee, moon, for shining now so bright:

For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering streams,

'I trust to taste of truest Thisby's sight.

[1] An equivocation. Snuff signifies both the cinder of a candle, and hasty anger. JOHNSON.

[2] To mouse signified to mammock, to tear in pieces, as a cat tears a mouse. MALONE

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'What, stain'd with blood?
Approach, ye furies fell!"

O fates! come, come;

'Cut thread and thrum ;*

'Quail, crush, conclude, and quell !"

The. This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad.

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

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

Which is no, no-which was the fairest dame, 'That liv'd, that lov'd, that lik'd, that look'd with cheer. 'Come, tears, confound;

'Out, sword, and wound • The pap of Pyramus:

'Ay, that left

pap,

6

'Where heart doth hop :

6 Thus die I, thus, thus, thus.
'Now am I dead,

'Now am I fled;

'My soul is in the sky:

Tongue, lose thy light! 'Moon, take thy flight.

'Now die, die, die, die, die.'

[Dies. Ex. MOONSH.

[3] The poet here, and in the following lines spoken by Thisbe

"O sisters three,

"Come, come to me,

"With hands as pale as milk-"

probably intended to ridicule a passage in Damon and Pythias, by Richard Edwards, 1582. MALONE.

[4] Thrum is the end or extremity of a weaver's warp; it is popularly used for very coarse yarn. The maids now call a mop of yarn a thrum mop.

[5] To quell is to murder, to destroy. STEEVENS

WARNER

[6] Lest our author should seem chargeable with an inefficient rhyme, it ought to be remembered that the broad pronunciation, now almost peculiar to the Scotch, was anciently current in England. Throughout the old copies of Shakespeare's plays, "tattered" is always spelt "tottered," Pap therefore was sounded Pop. The context reminds us of a passage in the seventh Satire of Juvenal :

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

The. With the help of a surgeon, he might yet recover, and prove an ass."

Hip. How chance moonshine is gone, before Thisbe comes back and finds her lover?

The. She will find him by star-light.-Here she comes, and her passion ends the play.

Enter THISbe.

Hip. Methinks, she should not use a long one, for such a Pyramus: I hope, she will be brief.

Ďem. A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which Thisbe, is the better.

Lys. She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes. Dem. And thus she moans,' videlicet.

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This. Asleep, my love?

'What, dead, my love?

'O Pyramus, arise,

'Speak, speak.

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Quite dumb?

Dead, dead? A tomb

'Must cover thy sweet eyes.

These lily brows,

This cherry nose,

These yellow cowslip cheeks,

'Are gone, are gone:
'Lovers, make moan!

'His eyes were green as leeks.

[7] The character of Theseus throughout this play is more exalted in its humanity, than its greatness. Though some sensible observations on life, and animated descriptions fall from him, as it is said of lago, you shall taste him more as a soldier than as a wit, which is a distinction he is here striving to deserve, though with little success; as in support of his pretensions he never rises higher than a pun, and frequently sinks as low as a quibble. STEEVENS.

[8] The old copies concur in reading-means. STEEVENS.

Mr. Theobald altered means to moans: but means had anciently the same signification. Mr. Pinkerton (under the name of Robert Heron, Esq.) observes that it is a common term in the Scotch law, signifying to tell, to relate, to declare; and the petitions to the lords of session in Scotland, run: "To the lords of council and session humbly means and shows your petitioner." Here, however, it evidently signifies complains. Bills in chancery begin in a similar manner: "Humbly complaining sheweth unto your lordship," &c. The word occurs in an ancient manuscript in my own possession:

"This ender day wen me was wo,
"Under a bugh ther I lay,

"Naght gale to mene me to."

So again, in a very ancient Scottish song:

"I hard ane may sair mwrne and meyne." RITSON.

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The. Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead.
Dem. Ay, and Wall too.

Bot. No, I assure you; the wall is down that parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance, between two of our company ?9

The. No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse. Never excuse; for when the players are all dead, there need none to be blamed. Marry, if he that writ it, had play'd Pyramus, and hanged himself in Thisbe's garter, it would have been a fine tragedy: and so it is, truly; and very notably discharged. But come, your Bergomask: 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-sleep the coming morn,
As much as we this night have overwatch'd.
This palpable-gross play hath well beguil'd
The heavy gait of night.-Sweet friends, to bed.
A fortnight hold we this solemnity,
In nightly revels, and new jollity.

SCENE II.

Enter PUCK.

Puck. Now the hungry lion roars,'

And the wolf behowls the moon;

[Exeunt.

[9] A Burgomask dance (as Sir T. Hanmer observes in his Glossary) is a dance after the manner of the peasants of Bergomasco, a country in Italy, belonging to the Venetians. All the buffoons in Italy affect to imitate the ridiculous jargon of that people, as well as their manner of dancing. STEEVENS.

[1] It has been justly observed by an anonymous writer, that among this assemblage of familiar circumstances attending midnight, either in England

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