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must draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that?

SNOUT. By'rlakin, a parlous fear 7.

STAR. I believe, we must leave the killing out, when all is done.

Bor. Not a whit; I have a device to make all well. Write me a prologue: and let the prologue seem to say, we will do no harm with our swords; and that Pyramus is not killed indeed: and, for the more better assurance, tell them, that I Pyramus am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: This will put them out of fear.

QUIN. Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall be written in eight and six ".

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Bor. No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight.

SNOUT. Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion ? STAR. I fear it, I promise you.

Bor. Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves to bring in, God shield us! a lion among ladies, is a most dreadful thing; for there is not a

7 BY'RLAKIN, & PARLOUS fear.] By our as ifakins is a corruption of by my faith. Preston's Cambyses:

ladykin, or little lady, The former is used in

"The clock hath stricken vive, ich think, by laken.” Again, in Magnificence, an interlude, written by Skelton, and printed by Rastell:

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By our lakin, syr, not by my will."

Parlous is a word corrupted from perilous, i. e. dangerous. So, Phaer and Twyne translate the following passage in the Eneid, lib. vii. 302:

"Quid Syrtes, aut Scylla mihi? quid vasta Charybdis

"Profuit?

"What good did Scylla me? What could prevail Charybdis

wood?

"Or Sirtes parlous sands?" STEEVENS.

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in eight and six.] i. e. in alternate verses of eight and six syllables. MALONE.

9 -God shield us! a lion among ladies, is a most dreadful thing.] There is an odd coincidence between what our author has here

more fearful wild-fowl than your lion, living; and we ought to look to it.

SNOUT. Therefore another prologue must tell, he is not a lion.

Bor. Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must be seen through the lion's neck; and he himself must speak through, saying thus, or to the same defect,-Ladies, or fair ladies, I would wish you, or, I would request you, or, I would entreat you, not to fear, not to tremble: my life for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life: No, I am no such 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 1.

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This

written for Bottom, and a real occurrence at the Scottish court in the year 1594. Prince Henry the eldest son of James the First was christened in August in that year. While the king and queen, &c. were at dinner, a triumphal chariot (the frame of which, we are told, was ten feet long and seven broad) with several allegorical personages on it, was drawn in by a black-moore. chariot should have been drawne in by a lyon, but because his presence might have brought some feare to the nearest, or that the sight of the lighted torches might have commoved his tameness, it was thought meete that the Moore should supply that room.' A true account of the most triumphal and royal accomplishment of the baptism of the most excellent, right high, and mighty prince, Henry Frederick, &c. as it was solemnized the 30th day of August, 1594. 8vo. 1603. MALONE.

No, I am no such 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 allusions to particular incidents and characters scattered through our author's plays, which gave a poignancy to certain passages, while the events were recent, and the persons 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 manuscript collection of anecdotes, stories, &c. entitled, Merry Passages and Jeasts, MS. Harl. 6395:

"There was a spectacle presented to Queen Elizabeth upon the water, and among others Harry Goldingham was to repre

But there is two hard

QUIN. Well, it shall be so. 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 shine, that night we play our play?

Bor. A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanack; find out moon-shine, find out moon-shine. 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 shine in at the casement.

QUIN. Aye; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lanthorn, and say, he comes to disfigure, or to present, the person of moon-shine. Then, there is another thing: we must have a wall in the great chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby, says the story, did talk through the chink of a wall.

SNUG. You never can bring in a wall.-What say you, Bottom?

BOT. Some man or other must present wall: and let him have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast about him, to signify wall; or let him hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper.

QUIN. If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down, every mother's son, and rehearse your parts. Pyramus, you begin : when you have spoken

sent Arion upon the dolphin's backe; but finding his voice to be verye hoarse and unpleasant, when he came to perform it, he tears off his disguise, and swears he was none of Arion, not he, but even honest Harry Goldingham; which blunt discoverie pleased the queene better than if it had gone through in the right way-yet he could order his voice to an instrument exceeding well."

The collector of these Merry Passages appears to have been nephew to Sir Roger L'Estrange. MALONE.

your speech, enter into that brake 2; and so every one according to his cue.

Enter Puck behind.

PUCK. What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here,

So near the cradle of the fairy queen ?
What, a play toward? I'll be an auditor;
An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause.

QUIN. Speak, Pyramus:-Thisby, stand forth.
PYR. Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet,—
QUIN. Odours, odours.

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So hath thy breath3, my dearest Thisby dear.But, hark, a voice! stay thou but here a while*, And by and by I will to thee appear.

[Exit.

2- that BRAKE;] Brake, in the present instance, signifies a thicket or furze-bush. So, in the ancient copy of the Notbrowne Mayde, 1521:

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for, dry or wete

"Ye must lodge on the playne:

"And us abofe none other rofe

"But a brake bush, or twayne."

Again, in Milton's Masque at Ludlow Castle:

"Run to your shrowds within these brakes and trees."

STEVENS.

Brake in the west of England is used to express a large extent of ground overgrown with furze, and appears both here and in the next scene to convey the same idea. HENLEY.

3 SO HATH thy breath,] The old copies concur in reading : "So hath thy breath,"

Mr. Pope made the alteration of hath into doth, which seems to be necessary. STEEVENS.

4

stay thou but here a WHILE,] The verses should be alternately in rhyme but sweet in the close of the first line, and while in the third, will not do for this purpose. The author, doubtless, gave it :

i. e. a little while

stay thou but here a whit," for so it signifies, as also any thing of no price or consideration; a trifle: in which sense it is very frequent with our author. THEOBALD.

Nothing, I think, is got by either change. I suspect two lines

PUCK. A stranger Pyramus than e'er play'd here! [Aside.-Exit.

THIS. Must I speak now?

QUIN. Ay, marry, must you: for you must understand, he goes but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again.

THIS. Most radiant Pyramus, most lilly-white of hue,

Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier, Most brisky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew, As true as truest horse, 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 past; it is, never tire.

Re-enter Puck, and BOTTOм with an ass's head. THIS. O,-As true as truest horse, that yet would never tire.

PYR. If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine :QUIN. O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted. Pray, masters! fly, masters! help! [Exeunt Clowns.

to have been lost; the first of which rhymed with ": savours sweet," and the other with "here a while." The line before appears to me to refer to something that has been lost. MALOne. 5

than e'er play'd HERE!] I suppose he means in that theatre where the piece was acting. STEEVENS.

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6-juvenal,] i. e. young man. So, Falstaff: the juvenal thy master." STEEVENS.

7- CUES and all.] A cue, in stage 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 should have known it

"Without a prompter."

Again, in The Return from Parnassus :

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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.

8 If I were fair, &c.] Perhaps we ought to point thus: If I were, [i. e. as true, &c.] fair Thisby, I were only thine. MALONE.

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