"The raging rocks,
"With shivering shocks,
"Shall break the locks

"Of prifon-gates ;

"And Phibbus' car
" Shall shine from far,
"And make and mar

"The foolish fates."

This was lofty !-Now name the rest of the players.

This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is more con. doling.

Quin. Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.

Flu. Here, Peter Quince.

Quin. You must take Thisby on you.

Flu. What is Thisby ? a wandering knight?

Quin. It is the lady that Pyramus must love.

Flu. Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a

beard coming.

Quin. That's all one; you shall play it in a mask, and you may speak as small as you will.

Bot. An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too: I'll speak in a monstrous little voice; -Thifne, Thisne,Ab, Pyramus, my lover dear; thy Thisby dear! and lady dear! Quin. No, no; you must play Pyramus, and, Flute, you Thisby.

Bot. Well, proceed.

Quin. Robin Starveling, the taylor.

Star. Here, Peter Quince.

Quin. Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother. Tom Snowt, the Tinker.

Snow. Here, Peter Quince.

Quin. You, Pyramus's father; myself, Thisby's father;

in a mask, -as

-as was usual, when men play'd the characters of women. -Snug, -Snug, the joiner, you, the lion's part:-and, I hope, there is a play fitted.

Snug. Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am flow of study.

Quin. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.

Bot. Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I will do any man's heart good to hear me, I will roar, that I will make the duke say, Let him roar again, let him roar again.

Quin. An you should do it too terribly, you would fright the dutchess and the ladies, that they would shriek; and that were enough to hang us all.

All. That would hang us every mother's fon.

Bot. I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more difcretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my voice so, that I will roar you as gently as any fucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any nightingale.

Quin. You can play no part but Pyramus: for Pyramus is a sweet-fac'd man; a proper man, as one shall see in a summer's-day; a most lovely, gentleman-like man; therefore you must needs play Pyramus.

Bot. Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best to play it in ?

Quin. Why, what you will.

Bot. I will discharge it in either your straw-coloured beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, your perfect yellow.

Quin. Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and then you will play bare-fac'd.-But, masters, here are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request you, and defire you, to con them by to-morrow night; and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the town, by moon light; there will we rehearse: for if we meet in the city, we shall be dog'd with company, and our devices known. In the mean time, I will draw a bill of properties, such as our play wants. I pray you, fail me not.

i

Bot. We will meet; and there we may rehearse more obscenely, and courageously. Take pains; be perfect;

adieu.

Quin. At the duke's oak we meet.

Bot. Enough; Hold, or cut bow-strings. [Exeunt.

ACT II.

SCENE I.

A Wood.

Enter a Fairy at one door, and Puck (or Robin-goodfellow)

at another.

Puck. How now, spirit! whither wander you?

Fai. Over hill, over dale,

Thorough bush, thorough briar,

Over park, over pale,

Thorough flood, thorough fire,

I do wander every where,

Swifter than the moones sphere;

obscently, privately, and with less restraint.

* Hold,

my bow-ftrings hold or break; If I fail, cut my bow-strings, and spoil or cut bow-ftrings.] I'll be there most assuredly, whether

me for an archer, or, perhaps, a fidler.

mooues]-the Saxon genitive cafe.

as whales bone."

LOVE'S LABOUR LOST, AC&V, S. 2. Biron.

And

And I ferve the fairy queen,

To dew her orbs upon the green :

The cowflips tall her " pensioners be;

0

• In their gold coats spots you fee;

Those be rubies, fairy favours,

In those freckles live their favours:

I must go feek fome dew-drops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowflip's ear.
Farewel, thou lob of spirits, I'll be gone,
Our queen and all her elves come here anon.

Puck. The king doth keep his revels here to night;

Take heed, the queen come not within his fight.
For Oberon is paffing fell and wrath,
Because that fshe, as her attendant, hath
A lovely boy, stol'n from an Indian king,
She never had so sweet a changeling:
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild:
But fhe, per-force, withholds the loved boy,
Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy:
And now they never meet in grove, or green,
By fountain clear, or spangled star-light'sheen,
But they do square; that all their elves, for fear,
Creep in acorn cups, and hide them there.

orbs]-verdant circles on the ground, where fairies dance. penfioners]-compose her train or retinue; band or guard of pen.

Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quite,

Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite,
Call'd' Robin-goodfellow: Are you not he,
That fright the maidens of the villag'ry;

"And fometimes make the breathless housewife churn
Skim milk; and bootless labour in the " quern;

And fometime make the drink to bear no * barm;
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm ?
Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck :
Are not you he?

Puck. I am, thou speak'st aright;
I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon, and make him smile,
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
And fometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab;
And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob,
And on her wither'd dew-lap pour the ale.
The wifeft aunt, telling the faddeft tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then flip I from her bum, down topples she,
And taylor cries, and falls into a cough :

And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe,

1

Robin-goodfellow:]-or Puck, a mischievous sprite, fond of creating

domeftic confufion; employed by Oberon to detect the intrigues of

Titania.

* Skim milk; and fometimes labour in the quern,

2

And bootless make the breathless bufwife churn;
quern;]-hand-mill.

* barm-yeaft.

aunt, crone, old woman; bawd, trull.

"Are fummer fongs for me and my aunts."

WINTER'S TALE, A& IV, S. 2.

taylor cries, an old exclamation on a

Aut.

person's flipping beside his

thair, who then refembles a taylor squatting on his board-And tail-fore

cries-And rails, or cries.

VOL. II.