DEM. And fo comes Pyramus. Lrs. And then the moon vanishes." Enter PYRAMUS. PrR. "Sweet moon, I thank thee for thy funny beams; "I thank thee, moon, for fhining now fo bright: "For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering ftreams,' "I truft to tafte of trueft Thisby's fight. "But ftay ;-0 spite! "But mark;-Poor knight, "What dreadful dole is here? Thefeus means that the lion has well tumbled and bloody'd the veil of Thisbe. STEEVENS. I believe this should be "Well mouth'd lion," alluding either to his roaring, or to his tearing with his mouth the mantle of Thisbe: "Which lion vile with bloody mouth did stain.” M. MASON. Well mous'd, lion!] To moufe fignified to mammock, to tear in pieces, as a cat tears a mouse. MALONE. 8 Dem. And fo comes Pyramus. Lyf. And then the moon vanishes.] The old copies read- Lyf. And fo the lion vanished." It were needless to say any thing in defence of Dr. Farmer's emendation. The reader indeed may ask why this glaring corruption was fuffered to remain fo long in the text. STEEVENS. glittering ftreams,] The old copies read-beams. 9 STEEVENS. The emendation was made by the editor of the second folio. Approach, ye furies fell!" Quail, crush, conclude, and quell!"4 2 Approach, ye furies fell!] Somewhat like this our poet might poffibly have recollected in "a ly tell treaty fe cleped La Conufaunce d'amours. Printed by Richard Pynfon." no date: O ye mooft cruell and rabbyfhe lions fell, "Come and gnawe my wretched body dolorous! "He loked ofte, and it right fwetely kift." STEEVENS. Approach, ye furies fell! O fates! come, come, &c.] The poet here, and in the following lines fpoken by Thisbe, Ófifters three, "Come, come to me, "With hands as pale as milk-” probably intended to ridicule a paffage in Damon and Pythias, by Richard Edwards, 1582: "Ye furies, all at once "On me your torments trie: 66 Gripe me, you greedy greefs, "And prefent pangues of death, "You fifters three, with cruel handes MALONE. 3 -cut thread and thrum;] Thrum is the end or extremity of a weaver's warp; it is popularly used for very coarfe yarn. maids now call a mop of yarn a thrum mop. WARNER. So, in Hannibal and Scipio, 1637: no rough pelt of thrums, "To fight with weather." Again, in Chapman's tranflation of the 16th Iliad: The And tapestries all golden fring'd, and curl'd with thrumbs behind." So, in Howell's letter to Sir Paul Neale, knt. "Translations are like the wrong fide of a Turkey carpet, which ufeth to be full of thrums and knots, and nothing fo even as the right fide." The thought is borrowed from Don Quixote. STEEVENS. 4 and quell!] To quell is to murther, to deftroy. So, in the 12th pageant of the Lufus Coventria, commonly called the Corpus Chrifti Play. MS. Cott. Vefp. D. viii: THE. This paffion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look fad. HIP. Befhrew my heart, but I pity the man. PrR. " O, wherefore, nature, didft thou lions frame? "Since lion vile hath here deflour'd my dear: "Which is no, no-which was the fairest dame, "That liv'd, that lov'd, that lik'd, that look'd, with cheer." "Come, tears, confound; "Out, fword, and wound "The pap of Pyramus : "Ay, that left pap, 6 "Where heart doth hop:' "Thus die I, thus, thus, thus. "Now am I dead, "Now am I fled; "My foul is in the sky: Tongue, lofe thy light! "Moon, take thy flight! "Now die, die, die, die, die. [Dies. Exit Moonshine. "That he the lawe may here do, "With ftonys her to quell." STEEVENS. -cheer.] i. e. countenance. So, in Chaucer's Clerke's Tale, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 8117: 66 66 paffing any wight "Of fo yong age, as wel in chere as dede." STEEVENS. 6 Come, tears, confound;] Thus in Golding's Ovid: — one night (he fayd) fhall louers two confounde." RITSON. Ay, that left pap,, Where heart doth hop:] Left our author should seem chargeable with an inefficient rhyme, it ought to be remembered that the broad pronunciation, now almoft peculiar to the Scotch, was anciently current in England. Throughout the old copies of Shakfpeare's Plays, " tattered" is always fpelt" tottered" Pap therefore was founded, Pop. The context reminds us of a paffage in the feventh Satire of Juvenal leva in parte mamille "Nil falit". DEM. No die, but an ace, for him; for he is but one. Lrs. Lefs than an ace, man; for he is dead; he is nothing. THE. With the help of a furgeon, he might yet recover, and prove an afs." HIP. How chance moonshine is gone, before Thisbe comes back and finds her lover? THE. She will find him by ftar-light.-Here fhe comes; and her paffion ends the play. Enter THISBE. HIP. Methinks, the fhould not use a long one, for fuch a Pyramus: I hope, fhe will be brief. DEM. A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which Thisbe, is the better." Lrs. She hath spied him already, with those fweet eyes. DEM. And thus fhe moans, videlicet. 6 and prove an afs.] The character of Thefeus throughout this play is more exalted in its humanity, than its greatnefs. Though fome fenfible obfervations on life, and animated defcriptions fall from him, as it is faid of Iago, you shall tafte him more as a foldier than as a wit, which is a diftinction he is here ftriving to deferve, though with little fuccefs; as in fupport of his pretenfions he never rifes higher than a pun, and frequently finks as low as a quibble. STEEVENS. A mote will turn the balance,] The old copies have-moth; but Mr. Malone very juftly obferves that moth was merely the ancient mode of fpelling mote. So, in King Henry V: "Wath every moth (i. e. mote) out of his confcience.' STEEVENS. " The first quarto makes this fpeech a little longer, but not better. JOHNSON. The paffage omitted is," He for a man, God warn'd us; the for a woman, God blefs us." STEEVENS. 9 And thus fhe moans,] The old copies concur in readingmeans, which Mr. Theobald changed into-" moans;" and "the next fpeech of Thisbe appears to countenance his alteration: "Lovers, make moan." STEEVENS. Mr. Theobald alters means to moans: but means had anciently the fame fignification. Mr. Pinkerton (under the name of Robert Heron, Efq.) observes that it is a common term in the Scotch law, fignifying to tell, to relate, to declare; and that petitions to the lords of feffion in Scotland, run, " To the lords of council and feffion humbly means and fhows your petitioner." Here, however, it evidently fignifies complains. Bills in Chancery begin in a fimilar Humbly complaining theweth unto your lordship," &c. The word occurs in an ancient manufcript in my own poffeffion : "This ender day wen me was wo, manner. 66 "Under a bugh ther I lay, Naght gale to mene me to.' So again, in a very ancient Scottish song: I hard ane may fair mwrne and meyne." RITSON. Thefe lily brows, This cherry nofe,] The old copy reads "Thefe lily lips," &c. STEEVENS. All Thibe's lamentation, till now, runs in regular rhime and But both, by fome accident, are in this fingle instance interrupted. I fufpect the poet wrote: metre. Thefe lily brows, "This cherry nose." Now black brows being a beauty, lily brows are as ridiculous as a cherry nofe, green eyes, or cowflip cheeks. THEOBALD. Theobald's emendation is fupported by the following paffage in like it: As you "'Tis not your inky brows, your black filk hair.” And by another, in The Winter's Tale : 66 not for because "Your brows are blacker, yet black brows they say Lily lips are changed to lily brows for the fake of the rhyme, |