This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present "Wall, that vile wall which did thefe lovers funder; And through wall's chink, poor fouls, they are content To whifper; at the which let no man wonder. intended on the frequent recurrence of "certain" as a bungling rhime in poetry more ancient than the age of Shakspeare. Thus in a short poem entitled A lytell treatyfe called the dyfputacyon or the complaynte of the herte through perced with the lokynge of -the eye. Inprynted at London in Fleteftrete at ye fygne of the fonne by Wynkyn de Worde." "And houndes fyxefcore and mo certayne "To whome my thought gan to frayne certayne - "In all honoure he hath no pere certayne — "To loke upon a fayre Lady certayne "As moch as is in me I am contente certayne. "Towards Venus when they fholde go certayne—," &c. STEEVENS. 2 To meet at Ninus' tomb, &c.] So, in Chaucer's Legend of Thibe of Babylon: Again: "Thei fettin markes ther metingis fhould be, "And as the ran her wimple the let fall," &c. Again, Golding in his version of Ovid's Metamorphofs, B. IV. has a fimilar line: 3 "And as he fled away for hafte, fhe let her mantle fall." STEEVENS. which by name Lion hight,] As all the other parts of this fpeech are in alternate rhyme, excepting that it clofes with a cou And, as fhe fled, her mantle fhe did fall;* "Which lion vile with bloody mouth did ftain : Anon comes Pyramus, fweet youth, and tall, And finds his trufty Thisby's mantle flain: "Whereat,with blade, with bloody blameful blade," He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breast; And, Thifby tarrying in mulberry fhade, His dagger drew, and died. For all the reft, plet; and as no rhime is left to name, we muft conclude, either a verfe is flipt out, which cannot now be retriev'd; or, by a tranf pofition of the words, as I have placed them, the poet intended a triplet. THEOBALD. Hight, in old English fignifies-is called. I think it more probable that a line, following the words by night, has been loft. 4 MALONE. her mantle fhe did fall; ] Thus all the old copies. The modern editions read -"the let fall," unneceffarily. To fall in this inftance is a verb active. So, in The Tempest, A& II. fc. i: "And when I rear my hand, do you the like, STEEVENS. 5 Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,] Mr. Upton rightly obferves, that Shakspeare in this line ridicules the affe&ation of beginning many words with the fame letter. have remarked the fame of "The raging rocks "And Shivering fhocks." He might Gascoigne, contemporary with our poet, remarks and blames the fame affe&tation. JOHNSON. It is alfo ridiculed by Sidney in his Aftrophel and Stella. 15: "You that do Dicionaries' method bring "Into your rimes, running in rattling rowes." But this alliteration feems to have reached the height of its fashion in the reign of Henry VIII. The following ftanza is quoted from a poem On the Fall and evil Succefs of Rebelliou, written in 1537, by Wilfride Holme. "Loe, leprous lurdeins, lubricke in loquacitie, 66 "Let lion, moon-fhine, wall, and lovers twain, "At large difcourfe, while here they do remain." [Exeunt Prol. THISBE, Lion. and Moonfhine. THE. I wonder, if the lion be to speak. DEM. No wonder, my lord: one lion many affes do. may, when WALL. In this fame interlude, it doth befall, "That I, one Snout by name, present a wall: And fuch a wall, as i would have you think, "That had in it a cranny'd hole, or chink, Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby, "Did whifper often very fecretly. This loam, this rough-caft, and this stone, doth fhow "That I am that fame wall; the truth is fo: 46 And this the cranny is,' right and finifter, Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper." "Fie, franticke fabulators, furibund, and fatuate, 66 Magnall in mischief, malicious to mugilate, Repriving your Roy fo renowned and radiant." In Tuffer's Husbandry, p. 104, there is a poem of which every word begins with a T; and in the old play entitled, The Hiftorie of the Two valiant Knights, Syr Clyomon Knight of the Golden Sheeld, Sonne to the King of Denmark; and Clamydes the White Knight, Son to the King of Suavia, 1599, is another remarkable inftance of alliteration: Bringing my bark to Denmark here, to bide the bitter broyle "And beating blowes of billows high," &c. STEEVENS. And this the cranny is,] So, in Golding's Ovid, 1567; "The wall that parted house from house had riuen therein a crany "Which fhronke at making of the wall. This fault not markt of any "Of many hundred yeares before (what doth not loue efpie) Thefe louers firft of all found out, and made a way thereby To talk to gither fecretly, and through the fame did goe "Their louing whisperings verie light and fafely to and fro." THE. Would you defire lime and hair to speak better? DEM. It is the wittieft partition that ever I heard difcourfe, my lord. “ THE. Pyramus draws near the wall: filence! Enter PYRAMUS. PYR."O grim-look'd night! O night with hue fo black! "O night, which ever art, when day is not! "O night, O night, alack, alack, alack, "I fear my Thisby's promife is forgot!"And thou, O wall, O fweet, O lovely wall, stand'st between her father's ground and 66 mine; "Tou wall, O wall, O fweet and lovely wall, eyne. for this! "But what fee I? No Thisby do I fee. "Owicked wall, through whom I fee no bliss Curft be thy ftones for thus deceiving me! THE. The wall, methinks, being fenfible, should curfe again. 6 It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard difcourfe, my lord.] Demetrius is reprefented as a punfter: I believe the paffage fhould be read: This is the wittieft partition, that ever I heard in difcourfe. Alluding to the many ftupid partitions in the argumentative writings of the time. Shakspeare himself, as well as his contemporaries, ufes difcourfe for reafoning: and he here avails himself of the double fenfe; as he had done before in the word, partition. FARMER. 70 wicked wall, &c. So, in Chaucer's Legend of Thibe: Thus would thei faine, alas! thou wicked wal, &c. STEEVENS. 1 PYR. No, in truth, fir, he should not. Deceiving me, is Thisby's cue; fhe is to enter now, and I am to spy her through the wall. You fhall 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 kifs'd thy stones; 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!" 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 trufty ftill." THIS." And I like Helen, till the fates me kill." 66 wall." THIS. "I kifs the wall's hole, not your lips at all."3 knit up in thee. ], Thus the folio. The quartos read— knit now again. STEEVENS. 2 And like Limander, &c.] Limander and Helen, are spoken by the blundering player, for Leander and Hero. Shafalus and Procrus, for Cephalus and Procris. JOHNSON. 3 I kifs the wall's hole, not your lips at all.] So Golding's Ovid: "When night drew nere, they bade adew, and eche gave kiffes sweete Unto the parget on their fide, the which did never meete. RITSON. |