Things growing are not ripe until their feafon :
So I, being young, till now ripe not to reafon; s
And touching now the point of human fkill,"
Reafon becomes the marthal to my will,7
And leads me to your eyes; where I o'erlook
Love's ftories, written in love's richest book.

Hel. Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?
When, at your hands, did I deserve this scorn?
Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man,
That I did never, no, nor never can,
Deferve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye,
But you must flout my infufficiency?

Good troth, you do me wrong, good footh, you do,
In fuch difdainful manner me to woo.

But fare you well: perforce I must confefs,
I thought you lord of more true gentleness,"
O, that a lady, of one man refus❜d,

Should, of another, therefore be abus'd!

[Exit.

Lyf. She fees not Hermia :--Hermia, fleep thou there;

And never may'st thou come Lyfander near!

For, as a furfeit of the fweetest things

The deepest loathing to the ftomach brings;
Or, as the herefies, that men do leave,
Are hated most of those they did deceive;
So thou, my furfeit, and my heresy,
Of all be hated; but the most of me!

And all my powers, addrefs your love and might,

To honour Helen, and to be her knight !

[Exit.

Her. [ftarting.] Help me, Lyfander, help me! do thy best,

To pluck this crawling ferpent from my breaft!
Ah me, for pity!-what a dream was here?
Lyfander, look, how I do quake with fear:
Methought, a ferpent eat my heart away,
And you fat smiling at his cruel prey:

Lyfander!

5 i. e. do not ripen to it. Ripe, in the present instance, is a verb.

STEEVENS.

6 i. e. my fenfes being now at the utmost height of perfection.

7. That is, My will now follows reafon. JOHNSON.

8

STEEVENS.

Gentleness is equivalent to what, in modern language, we should call

the fpirit of a gentleman. PERCY.

Lyfander! what, remov'd? Lyfander! lord!
What, out of hearing? gone? no found, no word?
Alack, where are you? speak, an if you hear;
Speak, of all loves; 9 I fwoon almost with fear.
No? then I well perceive you are not nigh:
Either death, or you, I'll find immediately.

The fame. The Queen of Fairies lying afleep.

[Exit.

Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING.

Bot. Are we all met?

Quin. Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place for our rehearfal: This green plot fhall be our ftage, this hawthorn brake our tyring-houfe; and we will do it in action, as we will do it before the duke.

Bot. Peter Quince,

Quin. What fay'ft thou, bully Bottom?

Bot. There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Tibby, hat will never pleafe. First, Pyramus muft draw a fword to kill himself; which the ladies cannot abide. How anfwer you that?

Snout. By'rlakin, a parlous fear.3

Star. I believe, we muft leave the killing out, when all is done.

H 2

Bot

9 Of all loves is an adjuration more than once ufed by our author. So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor, Act II. fc. viii :

to fend her your little page, of all loves." STEEVENS. 2 In the time of Shakspeare there were many companies of players, fometimes five at the fame time, contending for the favour of the publick. Of these some were undoubtedly very unskilful and very poor, and it is probable that the defign of this fcene was to ridicule their ignorance, and the odd expedients to which they might be driven by the want of decoration. Bottom was perhaps the head of a rival houfe, and is therefore honoured with an afs's head. JOHNSON.

proper

3 By our ladykin, or little lady, as ifakins is a corruption of by my faith. Parious is a word corrupted from perilous, i. c. dangerous.

STLEVENS.

Bot. Not a whit; I have a device to make all well. Write me a prologue: and let the prologue feem to fay, we will do no harm with our fwords; and that Pyramus is not killed indeed: and, for the more better affurance, tell them, that I Pyramus am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: This will put them out of fear.

Quin. Well, we will have fuch a prologue; and it shall be written in eight and fix.+

Bot. No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight.

Snout. Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?

Star. I fear it, I promise you.

Bot. Mafters, you ought to confider with yourselves: to bring in, God fhield us! a lion among ladies, is a most dreadful thing for there is not a more fearful wild-fowl than lion, living; and we ought to look to it.

:

your

Snout. Therefore, another prologue muft tell, he is not a lion.

Bot. Nay, you must name his name, and half his face muft be feen through the lion's neck; and he himself must speak through, faying thus, or to the fame defect,-Ladies, or fair ladies, I would with you, or, I would request you, or, I would entreat you, not to fear, not to tremble: my life for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life: No, I am no fuch thing; I am a man as other men are-and there, indeed, let him name his name; and tell them plainly, he is Snug the joiner.'

Quin.

4 i. e. in alternate verfes of eight and fix fyllables. MALONE. 5 There are probably many temporary allufions to particular incidents and characters fcattered through our author's plays which gave a poign ancy to certain paffages, while the events were recent, and the perfons pointed at, yet living.In the fpeech now before us, I think it not improbable that he meant to allude to a fact which happened in his time, at an entertainment exhibited before queen Elizabeth. It is recorded in a manufcript collection of anecdotes, ftories, &c. entitled, Merry Paffages and Feafts, MS. Harl. 6395: "There was a fpectacle prefented to Queen Elizabeth upon the water, and among others Harry Goldingham was to reprefent Arion upon the dolphin's backe; but finding his voice to be verye hoarfe and unpleasant, when he came to perform it, he tears off his difguife, and fears he was none of Arion, not be, but even boneft Harry Goldingban; which blunt discoverie pleafed the queene better than if it

had

Quin. Well, it shall be fo. But there is two hard things; that is, to bring the moon-light into a chamber: for you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by noon-light.

Snug. Doth the moon fhine, that night we play our play? Bat. A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanack; find out moon-fhine, find out moon-shine.

Quin. Yes, it doth shine that night.

Bot. Why, then you may leave a cafement of the great chamber window, where we play, open; and the moon may fhine in at the cafement.

Quin. Ay; or else one must come in with a bufh of thorns and a lanthorn, and fay, he comes to disfigure, or prefent, the perfon of moon-fhine. Then, there is another thing: we muft have a wall in the great chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby, fays the ftory, did talk through the chink of a waH. Snug. You never can bring in a wall.-What say you, Bottom?

Bot. Some man or other must present wall: and let him have fome plafter, or fome lome, or fome rough-caft about him, to fignify wall; or let him hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny fhall Pyramus and Thisby whisper.

Quin. If that may be, then all is well. Come, fit down, every mother's fon, and rehearse your parts. Pyramus you begin: when you have spoken your fpeech, enter into that brake; and fo every one according to his cue.

Enter PUCK behind.

Puck. What hempen home-fpuns have we swaggering here, So near the cradle of the fairy queen?

What, a play toward? I'll be an auditor;

An actor too, perhaps, if I fee cause.

Quin. Speak, Pyramus:-Thifby, ftand forth.

H 3

Pyr.

had gone through in the right way:-yet he could order his voice to an inftrument exceeding well." The collector of these Merry Palages ap pears to have been nephew to Sir Roger L'Eftrange. MALONE.

6 Brake, in the prefent inftance, fignifies a thicket or furze-bush.

STEEVENS.

Brake in the west of England is ufed to exprefs a large extent of ground overgrown with furze, and appears both here and in the next scene to convey the fame idea. HENLEY.

Pyr. Thisby, the flowers of odious favours fwtet,—
Quin. Odours, odours.

Pyr.

-odours favours fweet:

So doth thy breath, my dearest Thiẞby dear.But, hark, a voice! Atay thou but here a while, And by and by I will to thee appear.

Puck. A ftranger Pyramus than e'er play'd here! 7

This. Muft I fpeak now?

[Exit.

[afide.-Exit.

Quin. Ay, marry, muft you: for you must understand, he goes but to fee a noife that he heard, and is to come again.

This. Moft radiant Pyramus, moft lilly-white of hue,
Of colour like the red rofe on triumphant brier,

8

Moft brifky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew,

As true as trueft horse, that yet would never tire, I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb.

Quin. Ninus' tomb, man: Why you must not fpeak that yet; that you anfwer to Pyramus: you fpeak all your part at once, cues and all.9-Pyramus enter; your cue is past ; it is, never tire.

Re-enter Puck, and BOTTOM with an afs's head.

This. O,-As true as trueft horse, that yet would never tire.
Pyr. If I were fair, Thifoy, I were only thine.
Quin. O monftrous! Oftrange! we are haunted.

Pray, mafters! fly, mafters! help!

[Exeunt Clowns.

Puck. I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round, Through bog, through bufh, through brake, through

brier: 2

Sometime

7 I fuppofe he means in the theatre where the piece was acting.

STEEVENS.

i. e. young man. So, Falstaff, "the juvenal thy mafter."

STEEVENS.

9 A cue, in ftage cant, is that laft words of the preceding speech, and "ferves as a hint to him who is to speak next. MALONE.

2 Here are two fyllables wanting. Perhaps, it was written: "Through bog, through mire,”- JOHNSON.

The alliteration evidently requires fome word beginning with a b. We may therefore read:

"Through