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Confider then, we come but in despight.

We do not come, as minding to content you, (34) Our true intent is. - all for your delight,

We are not here. - that you should here repent you, The actors are at hand; - and by their show, You shall know all, that you are like to know. Thes. This fellow doth not stand upon points. Lys. He hath rid his prologue, like a rough colt; he knows not the stop. A good moral, my lord. It is not enough to speak, but to speak true.

Hip. Indeed he hath play'd on his prologue, like a child on the recorder; a sound, but not in govern

ment.

Thes. His speech was like a tangled chain; nothing impair'd, but all disorder'd. Who is the next?

Enter Pyramus, and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion, as in dumb show.

Pro. Gentles, perchance, you wonder at this show, But wonder on, till truth make all things plain. This man is Pyramus, if you would know; This beauteous lady, Thisby is, certain. This man, with lime and rough-caft, doth present Wall, the vile wall, which did these lovers sunder: And through wall's chink, poor fouls; they are content To whisper, at the which let no man wonder. This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn, Presenteth Moon-shine: For, if you will know, By moon-shine did these lovers think no scorn

To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo.

(34) We do not come as minding to content you,
Our true Intent is all for your Delight,
We are not here that you should bere repent you,

The Actors are at hand; &c.] Thus the late accurate Editor, deviating from all the Old Copies, has, by a certain peculiar Fatality, pointed this Paffage. The whole Glee and Humour of the Prologue is in the Actor's making falfe Rests, and so turning every Member of the Sentences into flagrant Nonsense. And Mr. Pope seems very cruel to our Author, (considering, how many Passages, which should have been pointed right, he has pointed wrong;) that here, when he should point wrong, with a strange Perverseness, and unusual Appetite for Senfe, he will point right.

This grifly beast, which by name Lion hight, (35)
The trusty Thisbe, coming first by night,
Did scare away, or rather did affright:
And as the fled, her mantle she let fall;

Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain.
Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall,
And finds his trusty Thisbe's mantle flain;
Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade
He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breaft.
And Thisby, tarrying in the mulberry shade,

His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,
Let Lion, Moon-shine, Wall, and lovers twain,
At large discourse, while here they do remain.

}

[Exeunt all but Wall.

Thes. I wonder, if the Lion be to speak. Dem. No wonder, my lord; one Lion may, when many affes do.

Wall. In this same Interlude, it doth befal,
That I, one Snout by name, present a Wall: (36)
And such a wall, as I would have you think,
That had in it a crannied hole or chink;
Through which the lovers, Pyr'mus and This-be,
Did whisper often very fecretly.

This loam, this rough-cast, and this ftone doth shew,
That I am that same wall; the truth is so.
And this the cranny is, right and finifter,
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.

Thes. Would you defire lime and hair to speak better? Dem. It is the wittiest partition, that ever I heard difcourse, my lord.

Thes. Pyramus draws near the wall: filence!

(35) which Lion hight by name,] As all the other Parts of this Speech are in alternate Rhyme, excepting that it closes with a Couplet; and as no Rhyme is left to, name; we must conclude, either a Verse is flipt out, which cannot now be retriev'd: or, by a Transposition of the Words, as I have placed them, the Poet intended a Triplet.

(36) That I, one Flute by name,] Thus Mr. Pope gives it us, either from the old Quarto's, or by Accident. But Accident, or Authority, happens to be wrong in it: and we must restore, Snout, with the old Folio's; for it appears in the first Act, that Flute was to perform Thisbe.

Enter

Enter Pyramus.

Pyr. O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black!
O night which ever art, when day is not!

O night, O night, alack, alack, alack,
I fear, my Thisbe's promise is forgot.
And thou, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,
That stands between her father's ground and mine;
Thou wall, O Wall, O sweet and lovely wall,

Shew me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne. Thanks, courteous wall; Jove shield thee well for this! But what fee I? no Thisbe do I fee.

O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss;
Curst be thy stones for thus deceiving me.

Thes. The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again.

Pyr. No, in truth, Sir, he should not. Deceiving me, is Thisbe's cue; she is to enter, and I am to spy her through the wall. You shall fee, it will fall pat as I told you. Yonder she comes.

Enter Thisbe.

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

Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.
Pyr. I see a voice; now will I to the chink;
To spy, an I can hear my Thisbe's face.

Thisbe!

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

Pyr. Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace.

And like Limander am I trusty still.

This. And I like Helen, till the fates me kill.
Pyr. 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.
Pyr. Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?
This. Tide life, tide death, I come without delay.

Wall.

Wall. Thus have I Wall my part discharged so: And, being done, thus Wall away doth go. [Exit. Thes. 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 filliest stuff that e'er I heard.
Thes. 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. Thes. If we imagine no worse of them than they of

themselves, they may pass for excellent men. come two noble beafts in a moon and a lion. (37)

plue

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.y blon Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am No Lion fell, nor else no Lion's dam: For if I should as Lion come in strife

Into this place, 'twere pity of my life.

Thes. A very gentle beast, and of a good confcience. Dem. The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I faw.

Lys. This Lion is a very fox for his valour. Thes. True; and a goose for his difcretion. Dem. Not so, my lord; for his valour cannot carry his difcretion, and the fox carries the goose.

(37) Here come two noble Beasts in a Man and a Lion.] I don't think the Jest here is either compleat, or right. It is differently pointed in several of the Old Copies, which, I suspect, may lead us to the true Reading, viz.

Here come two noble Beasts, in a Man and a Lion. immediately upon Theseus faying this, enter Lion and Moonshine. It seems very probable therefore, that our Author wrote

in a Moon and a Lion.

the one having a Crescent and a Lanthorn before him, and representing the Man in the Moon; the other in a Lion's hide.

Thes.

Thes. His discretion, I am fure, cannot carry his valour; for the goose 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 present: Dem. He should have worn the horns on his head. Thes. He is no crescent, and his horns are invisible within the circumference.

Moon. This lanthorn doth the horned Moon present: My self the man i'th' moon doth seem to be.

Thes. This is the greatest error of all the rest; the man should 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 see, it is already in snuff.

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

Thef. It appears by his small light of difcretion, that he is in the wane; but yet in courtefie, in all reason we must stay the time.

Lys. Proceed, Moon.

Moon All that I have to say, is to tell you that the lanthorn is the moon oon; I the man in the moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog. Dem. Why, all these should be in the lanthorn; for they are in the moon. But, filence; here comes Thisby.

Enter Thisbe.

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

Dem. Well roar'd, Lion.

[The Lion roars, Thisbe runs off.

Thef. Well run, Thisbe.

Hip. Well shone, Moon.

Truly, the Moon shines with a good grace.

Thes. Well mouz'd, Lion.

Dem. And then came Pyramus.

Lyf. And so the Lion vanish'd.

Enter

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