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And when this hail fome heat from Hermia felt,
So he diffolv'd, and showers of oaths did melt.
I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:
Then to the wood will he, to-morrow night,
Pursue her; and for this intelligence

If I have thanks, it is a dear expence :9
But herein mean I to enrich my pain,

To have his fight thither, and back again. [Exit.

SCENE II.

The fame. A Room in a Cottage.

Enter SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, QUINCE, and STARVELING."

QUIN. Is all our company here?

and Spenfer. So, in Chaucer's Character of the Prioreffe, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 152:

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hir eyen grey as glafs.”

Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. I. c. 4. ft. 9:
"While flashing beams do dare his feeble eyen."

8

STEEVENS.

this bail—] Thus all the editions, except the quarto, 1600, printed by Roberts, which reads inftead of this hail, his hail. STEEVENS.

9 it is a dear expence :] i. e. it will coft him much, (be a fevere constraint on his feelings,) to make even fo flight a return for my communication. STEEVENS.

2 In this fcene Shakspeare takes advantage of his knowledge of the theatre, to ridicule the prejudices and competitions of the players. Bottom, who is generally acknowledged the principal actor, declares his inclination to be for a tyrant, for a part of fury, tumult, and noise, fuch as every young man pants to perform when he first steps upon the ftage. The fame Bottom, who seems bred in a tiring-room, has another hiftrionical paffion. He is for engroffing every part, and would exclude his inferiors from all poffibility of diftinction. He is therefore defirous to play Pyramus, Thisbe, and the Lion, at the fame time. JOHNSON.

Bor. You were beft to call them generally, man by man, according to the fcrip.'

QUIN. Here is the fcroll of every man's name, which is thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our interlude before the duke and duchefs, on his wedding-day at night.

Bor. First, good Peter Quince, fay what the play treats on; then read the names of the actors; and fo grow to a point.3

QUIN. Marry, our play is-The most lamentable comedy, and moft cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby.

2 — the fcrip.] A scrip, Fr. efcript, now written ecrit. So. Chaucer, in Troilus and Creffida, 1. 2. 1130:

"Scripe nor bil."

Again, in Heywood's, If you know not me you know Nobody, 1606, P. II:

"I'll take thy own word without fcrip or fcroll." Holinfhed likewife ufes the word. STEEVENS.

3 -grow to a point.] Dr. Warburton reads-go on ; but grow is ufed, in allufion to his name, Quince. JoHNSON.

Το gronu to a point, I believe, has no reference to the name of Quince. I meet with the fame kind of expreffion in Wily Beguiled: "As yet we are grown to no conclufion." Again, in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584:

"Our reafons will be infinite, I trow,

"Unlefs unto fome other point we grow." STEEVENS, And fo grow on to a point.] The fenfe, in my opinion, hath been hitherto mistaken; and inftead of a point, a fubftantive, I would read appoint a verb, that is, appoint what part each actor is to perform, which is the real cafe. Quince firit tells them the name of the play, then calls the actors by their names, and after that, tells each of them what part is fet down for him to act.

Perhaps, however, only the particle a may be inferted by the printer, and Shakspeare wrote to point, i. e. to appoint. The word occurs in that fenfe in a poem by N. B. 1614, called I Would and I Would Not, ftanza iii:

"To point the captains every one their fight." WARNER. 4 The most lamentable comedy, &c.] This is very probably a burlefque on the title page of Cambyfes: "A lamentable Tragedie, mixed full of pleafant Mirth, containing, The Life of Cambifes King of Percia," &c. By Thomas Prefton, bl. 1. no date.

Bor. A very good piece of work, I affure you, and a merry.-Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your actors by the scroll: Masters, spread yourfelves."

QUIN. Anfwer, as I call you.-Nick Bottom, the

weaver.

Bor. Ready: Name what part I am for, and pro

ceed.

QUIN. You, Nick Bottom, are fet down for Py

ramus.

Bor. What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant? QUIN. A lover, that kills himself most gallantly for love.

Bor. That will afk fome tears in the true performing of it: If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes; I will move ftorms, I will condole in fome measure. To the reft:-Yet my chief hu

On the registers of the Stationers' company, however, appears "the boke of Perymus and Thefbye," 1562. Perhaps Shakspeare copied fome part of his interlude from it. STEEVENS.

A poem entitled Pyramus and Thibe, by D. Gale, was published in 4to. in 1597; but this, I believe, was pofterior to The MidJummer-Night's Dream. MALONE.

5 A very good piece of work, and a merry.] This is defigned as a ridicule on the titles of our ancient moralities and interludes. Thus Skelton's Magnificence is called "a goodly interlude and a mery." STEEVENS.

6 fpread yourfelves.] i. e. ftand feparately, not in a group, but fo that you may be distinctly seen, and called over. STEEVENS.

7 - I will condole in some measure.] When we use this verb at prefent, we put with before the perfon for whose misfortune we profefs concern. Anciently it feems to have been employed without it. So, in A Pennyworth of good Counfell, an ancient ballad: "Thus to the wall

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I may condole."

Again, in The Three Merry Coblers, another old fong

"Poor weather beaten foles,

"Whose case the body condoles." STEEVEN

mour is for a tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely,
or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split."
"The raging rocks,
"With shivering fhocks,"
"Shall break the locks
"Of prifon-gates:

"And Phibbus' car

"Shall fhine from far,

"And make and mar

"The foolish fates."

This was lofty!-Now name the reft of the players.This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is more condoling.

QUIN. Francis Flute, the bellows-mender."

7 I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in,] In the old comedy of The Roaring Girl, 1611, there is a character called Tearcat, who fays: "I am called, by those who have seen my valour, Tear-cat." In an anonymous piece called Hiftriomaftix, or The Player Whipt, 1610, in fix acts, a parcel of foldiers drag a company of players on the stage, and the captain fays: "Sirrah, this is you that would rend and tear a cat upon a stage," &c. Again, in The Ile of Gulls, a comedy by J. Day, 1606: "I had rather hear two fuch jefts, than a whole play of fuch Tear-cat thunderclaps.”

STEEVENS.

8-10 make all fplit.] This is to be connected with the previous part of the fpeech; not with the fubfequent rhymes. It was the defcription of a bully. In the fecond act of The Scornful Lady, we meet with "two roaring boys of Rome, that made all split."

FARMER.

I meet with the fame expreffion in The Widows Tears, by Chapman, 1612: "Her wit I mult employ upon this bufinefs to prepare my next encounter, but in fuch a fashion as shall make all split.” MALONE.

9 With Shivering frocks,] The old copy reads-" And shivering," &c. The emendation is Dr. Farmer's. STEEVENS.

2 the bellows-mender.] In Ben Jonfon's Mafque of Pan's Anniversary, &c. a man of the fame profeffion is introduced. I

have been told that a bellows-mender was one who had the care of organs, regals, &c. STEEVENS.

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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 fmall as you will.3

Bor. An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too: I'll speak in a monftrous little voice;-Thifne, Thifne, Ab, Pyramus, my lover dear; thy Thisby dear! and lady dear!

QUIN. No, no; you must play Pyramus, and, Flute, you Thisby.

3

Bor. Well, proceed.

QUIN. Robin Starveling, the tailor.

-as fmall, &c.] This paffage fhows how the want of women on the old ftage was fupplied. If they had not a young man who could perform the part with a face that might pafs for feminine, the character was acted in a mask, which was at that time a part of a lady's dress so much in ufe that it did not give any unufual appearance to the scene: and he that could modulate his voice in a female tone, might play the woman very fuccessfully. It is obferved in Downes's Rofcius Anglicanus, that Kynaston, one of these counterfeit heroines moved the paffions more ftrongly than the women that have fince been brought upon the stage. Some of the catastrophes of the old comedies, which make lovers marry the wrong women, are, by recollection of the common use of masks, brought nearer to probability. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnfon here feems to have quoted from memory. Downes does not fpeak of Kynafton's performance in fuch unqualified terms. His words are" it has fince been difputable among the judicious, whether any woman that fucceeded him, (Kynafton,) fo fenfibly touched the audience as he." REED.

Prynne, in his Hiftriomaftix, exclaims with great vehemence through feveral pages, because a woman acted a part in a play at Blackfryars in the year 1628. STEEVENS.

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