face must be seen through the lion's neck; and he himself must speak through, faying thus, or to the fame defect, Ladies, or fair ladies, I would with you, or, I would requeft you, or, I would entreat you, not to fear, not to tremble: my life for yours. If think I come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life: No, I am no fuch thing; I am a man as other men are:-and there, indeed, let him name his name; and tell them plainly, he is Snug the joiner.❜ you QUIN. Well, it fhall be fo. But there is two hard things; that is, to bring the moon-light into a chamber for you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moon-light. SNUG. Doth the moon fhine, that night we play our play? Bor. A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanack; find out moon-fhine, find out moon-fhine. No, I am no fuch thing; I am a man as other men are:-and there, indeed, let him name his name; and tell them plainly, he is Snug the joiner.] There are probably many temporary allufions to particular incidents and characters scattered through our author's plays, which gave a poignancy to certain paffages, while the events were recent, and the perfons pointed at, yet living.-In the speech now before us, I think it not improbable that he meant to allude to a fact which happened in his time, at an entertainment exhibited before queen Elizabeth. It is recorded in a manufcript collection of anecdotes, ftories, &c. entitled, Merry Paffages and Jeafts, MS. Harl. 6395: "There was a spectacle prefented to Queen Elizabeth upon the water, and among others Harry Goldingham was to reprefent Arion upon the dolphin's backe; but finding his voice to be verye hoarfe and unpleasant, when he came to perform it, he tears off his difguife, and fears he was none of Arion, not he, but even honeft Harry Goldingham; which blunt difcoverie pleafed the queene better than if it had gone through in the right way :-yet he could order his voice to an inftrument exceeding well." The collector of thefe Merry Paffages appears to have been nephew to Sir Roger L'Etrange. MALONE. QUIN. Yes, it doth shine that night. Bor. Why, then you may leave a casement of the great chamber window, where we play, open; and the moon may fhine in at the casement. QUIN. Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lanthorn, and fay, he comes to disfigure, or to prefent, the perfon of moon-fhine. Then, there is another thing: we must have a wall in the great chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby, fays the ftory, did talk through the chink of a wall. SNUG. You never can bring in a wall. What fay you, Bottom? Bor. Some man or other must present wall: and let him have some plafter, or some lome, or fome rough-caft about him, to fignify wall; or let him hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny fhall Pyramus and Thisby whisper. QUIN. If that may be, then all is well. Come, fit down, every mother's fon, and rehearse your parts. Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken your speech, enter into that brake; and fo every one according to his cue. 3 that brake;] Brake, in the prefent inftance, fignifies a thicket or furze-bush. So, in the ancient copy of the Notbrowne Mayde, 1521: for, dry or wete "Ye muft lodge on the playne; "And us abofe none other rofe "But a brake bush, or twayne." Again, in Milton's Mafque at Ludlow Caftle: "Run to your fhrowds within these brakes and trees.” STEEVENS. Brake in the weft of England is used to exprefs a large extent of ground overgrown with furze, and appears both here and in the next scene to convey the fame idea. HENLEY. Enter Puck behind. Puck. What hempen home-fpuns have we fwaggering here, So near the cradle of the fairy queen? QUIN. Speak, Pyramus:-Thisby, stand forth. PYR. odours favours fweet: So doth thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear.— But, bark, a voice! ftay thou but here a while,' And by and by I will to thee appear. [Exit. [afide.-Exit. Puck. Aftranger Pyramus than e'er play'd here!" THIS. Muft I fpeak now? 4 So doth thy breath,] The old copies concur in reading: "So hath thy breath,". Mr. Pope made the alteration, which feems to be neceffary. STEEVENS. -ftay thou but here a while,] The verfes fhould be alternately in rhime: but feet in the clofe of the first line, and while in the third, will not do for this purpose. The author, doubtlefs, gave it: -ftay thou but here a whit," i. e. a little while: for fo it fignifies, as alfo any thing of no price or confideration; a trifle: in which fenfe it is very frequent with our author. THEOBALD. Nothing, I think, is got by the change. I fufpect two lines to have been loft; the firft of which rhymed with " favours fweet," and the other with "here a while." The line before appears to me to refer to fome thing that has been loft. MALONE. 6 — than e'er play'd here!] I fuppofe he means in that theatre where the piece was acting. STEEVENS. QUIN. Ay, marry, muft you: for you muft underftand, he goes but to fee a noife that he heard, and is to come again. THIS. Moft radiant Pyramus, moft lilly-white of bue, Of colour like the red rofe on triumphant brier, Moft brifky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew, As true as trueft horfe, that yet would never tire, I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb. QUIN. Ninus' tomb, man: Why you must not speak that yet; that you answer to Pyramus: you speak all your part at once, cues and all."-Pyramus enter; your cue is paft; it is, never tire. Re-enter Puck, and ВоттOм with an afs's head. THIS. O,-As true as trueft horfe, that yet would never tire. PrR. If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine :QUIN. O monstrous! O ftrange! we are haunted. Pray, mafters! fly, mafters! help! [Exeunt Clowns. juvenal,] i. e. young man. So, Falftaff, "-the juvenal thy mafter." STEEVENS. 8 cues and all.] A cue, in ftage cant, is the last words of the preceding speech, and serves as a hint to him who is to speak next. So Othello: "Were it my cue to fight, I fhould have known it Again, in The Return from Parnassus : Indeed, master Kempe, you are very famous: but that is as well for works in print, as your part in cue. Kempe was one of ShakSpeare's fellow comedians. STEEVENS. 9 If I were fair, &c.] Perhaps we ought to point thus: If I were, [i. c. as true, &c.] fair Thisby, I were only thine. MALONE. PUCK. I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round, Sometime a horfe I'll be, fometime a hound, Re-enter SNOUT. SNOUT. O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I fee on thee? + Bor. What do you fee? you fee an afs' head of your own; Do you ? Re-enter QUINCE. QUIN. Blefs thee, Bottom! blefs thee! thou art tranflated. [Exit. Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier;] Here are two fyllables wanting. Perhaps, it was written: "Through bog, through mire," So, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. VI. c. viii. We 3 JOHNSON. Through hills, through dales, through bushes and through Long thus fhe bled," &c. MALONE. The alliteration evidently requires fome word beginning with a b. Through bog, through burn, through bush, through brake, to make me afeard.] Afear is from to fear, by the old form of the language, as an bungered, from to hunger. So adry, for thirty. JOHNSON. 4 O Bottom, thou art chang'd! what do I fee on thee?] It is plain by Bottom's anfwer, that Snout mentioned an afs's head. Therefore we should read: Snout. O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I fee on thee? An afs's head? JOHNSON. 1 |