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STAR. I believe, we must leave the killing out, when all is done.

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

QUIN. Well, we will have fuch a prologue; and it fhall be written in eight and fix.9

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

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

BOT. Nay, you must name his name, and half his

Again, in Magnificence, an interlude, written by Skelton, and printed by Raftell:

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By our lakin, fyr, not by my will."

Parlous is a word corrupted from perilous, i. e. dangerous. So Phaer and Twyne tranflate the following paffage in the Eneid, Lib. VII. 302:

9

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Quid Syrtes, aut Scylla mihi? quid vafla Charybdis
Profuit?"

"What good did Scylla me? What could prevail Charybdis

wood?

"Or Sirtes parlous fands?" STEEVENS.

fyllables,

in eight and fix. ] i. e. in alternate verses of eight and fix MALONE.

face must be seen through the lion's neck; and he himself muft fpeak through, faying thus, or to the fame defect,-Ladies, or fair ladies, I would wish 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. 2

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 moon-light.

SNUG. Doth the moon fhine, that night we play our play?

Bor. A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanack; find out moon-fhine, find out moon-fhine.

-

2 No, I am no fuch thing; I am a man as other wen are: and there, indeed, let him name his name; and tell them plainly, he is Snug the joiner. There are probably many temporary allufions to particular incidents and characters fcattered through our author's plays, which gave a poignancy 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 Jeafts, MS. Harl. 6395:

"There was a spectacle 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 disguife, and fwears he was none of Arion, not he, but even honeft Harry Goldingham; which blunt discoverie pleased the queene better than if it had gone through in the right way: — yet he could order his voice to an inftrument exceeding well.

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The colle&or of thefe Merry Paffages appears to have been nephew to Sir Roger L'Etrange. MALONE,

QUIN. Yes, it doth fhine 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 casement.

QUIN. Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lanthorn, and fay, he comes to disfigure, or to prefent, the person of moon-shine. Then, there is another thing: we must have a wall in the great chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby, fays the ftory, did talk through the chink of a wall.

SNUG. You never can bring in a wall. What fay you, Bottom?

BOT. Some man or other muft prefent wall: and let him have fome plafter, or some 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 speech, enter into that brake; and fo every one according to his cue.

3

3 that brake;] Brake, in the prefent inftance, fignifies a thicket or furze-bush. So, in the ancient copy of the Notbrowne Mayde, 1521:

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Again, in Milton's Majque at Ludlow Caftle:

"Run to your fhrowds within these brakes and trees.

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STEEVENS.

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

Enter PUCK behind.

PUCK. What hempen home-fpuns have we fwaggering 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.
PYR. Thisby, the flowers of odious favours fweet,-
QUIN. Odours, odours.

PYR. - odours favours Sweet:

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

[Exit.

PUCK. A ftranger Pyramus than e'er play'd here!"

THIS. Muft I speak now?

[afide.-Exit.

4 So doth thy breath,] The old copies concur in reading: "So hath thy breath,

Mr. Pope made the alteration, which seems to be neceffary.

STEEVENS.

fay thou but here a while, ] The verfes fhould be alternately in rhyme: but fweet in the clofe of the firft line, and while in the third, will not do for this purpose. The author, doubtless, gave it:

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i. e. a little while: for fo it fignifies, as alfo any thing of no price or confideration; a trifle: in which fense it is very frequent with our author.

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THEOBALD.

change. I fufped two lines rhymed with favours fweet," The line before appears to me

Nothing, I think, is got by the to have been loft; the firft of which and the other with "here a while." to refer to some thing that has been loft. MALONE.

6 than e'er play'd here!] I fuppofe he means in that theatre where the piece was acting. STEEVENS.

you

muft un

QUIN. Ay, marry, muft for you: derfland, he goes but to fee a noise 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, Moft brifky juvenal," and eke most lovely Jew,

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

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

8

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

THIS. O,-As true as trueft horfe, that yet would never tire.

PYR. If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine: QUIN. O monftrous! Oftrange! we are haunted. Pray, mafters! fly, mafters! help!

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[Exeunt Clowns.

7 juvenal,] i. e. young man. So, Falstaff, "the juvenab thy mafter." STEEVENS.

3

cues and all.] A cue, in ftage cant, is the laft words of the preceding fpeech, and ferves as a hint to him who is to speak next. So Othello:

"Were it my cue to fight, I fhould have known it

"Without a prompter."

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Again, in The Return from Parnaffus :

Kempe was one of Shak

"Indeed, mafter Kempe, you are very famous: but that is as well for works in print, as your part in cue. Speare's fellow comedians.

9 If I were fair, &c.] were, i. c. as true, &c.]

STEEVENS.

Perhaps we ought to point thus: If I fair Thisby, I were only thine.

MALONE.

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