The. And we will hear it.

Philoft. No, my noble lord,

It is not for you.

I have heard it over,

And it is nothing, nothing in the world;
Unless you can find fport in their intents, 2
Extremely ftretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain,
To do you fervice.

The. I will hear that play:

For never any thing can be amifs,

When fimpleness and duty tender it.

Go, bring them in, and take your places, ladies.

[Exit Phil Hip. I love not to fee wretchedness o'ercharg'd, And duty in his fervice perishing.

The. Why, gentle fweet, you fhall fee no fuch
thing.

Hip. He fays, they can do nothing in this kind.
The. The kinder we to give them thanks for no-

thing.

Our sport shall be, to take what they mistake;
And what poor duty cannot do, 3

Noble refpect takes it in might, not merit.
Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
Make periods in the midst of fentences,

Throttle their practis'd accent in their fears,
And, in conclufion, dumbly have broke off,
Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,
Out of this filence yet I pick'd a welcome:
And in the modesty of fearful duty

I read as much, as from the rattling tongue
Of lawcy and audacious eloquence.
Love therefore, and tongue-ty'd fimplicity,
In leaft fpeak moft, to my capacity.

Enter Philoftrate.

Philoft. So please your Grace, the prologue is ad

dreft.

The. Let him approach.

SCENE II.

Enter Quince, for the prologue.

[Flour. Trum.

Prol. If we offend, it is with our good will.
That you should think, we come not to offend,
But with good will. To fhew our fimple fkill,
That is the true beginning of our end.
Confider then we come but in defpite

We do not come, as minding to content you
Our true intent is.-all for your delight,

We are not here.-that you fhould here repent you, The actors are at hand;--and by their show, You fhall know all, that you are like to know. The. This fellow doth not stand upon points. Lyf. He hath rid his prologue, like a rough colt; he knows not the ftop. A good moral, my lord. It is not enough to fpeak, but to fpeak true.

Hip. Indeed he hath play'd on his prologue, like a child on the recorder; a found, but not in government. The. His ípeech was like a tangled chain; nothing impair'd, but all diforder'd. Who is the next?

Enter

Enter Pyramus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion, as in dumb fhew.

Prol. Gentles, perchance, you wonder at this fhow, But wonder on, till truth make all things plain. This man is Pyramus, if you would know;

This beauteous lady Thisby is, certain.

This man, with lime and rough-caft, doth prefent Wall, the vile wall, which did thefe lovers funder: And through wall's chink, poor fouls, they are can

tent

To whisper, at the which let no man wonder. This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bufh of thorn, Prefenteth Moon-fhine: For, if you will know, By moon fhine did thefe lovers think no fcorn

To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo. This grifly beaft, which by name Lion hight, + The trufty Thisby, coming first by night, Did fcare away, or rather did affright: And as fhe fled, her mantle fhe let fall; Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain. Anon comes Pyramus, fweet youth and tall, And finds his trufty Thisby's mantle flain; Whereat, with Blade, with bloody blameful blade s He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breaft. And Thisby tarrying in the mulberry thade, His dagger drew, and died. For all the reft,

which Lion hight by name.] As all the other Parts of this Speech are in alternate Rhyme, excepting that it clofes with a Couplet; and as no Rhyme is left to, name; we must conclude, either a Verfe is flipt out, which cannot now be retriev'd: or, by a Tranfpofition of the Words, as I have placed them, the Poet intended a Triplet.

THEOBALD.

5 Mr. Uston rightly obferves that Shakespear in this line ridicules ... affectation of beginning many words with the faine letter. He might have remarked the fame of

The raging Rocks And fhivering Shocks. Gafcoigne, contemporary with our poet, remarks and blames the fame affe&tation."

Let Lion, Moon-fhine, Wall, and lovers twain, At large difcourfe, while here they do remain. [Exeunt all but Wall, The. I wonder, if the Lion be to speak. Dem. No wonder, my lord; one Lion may, when many affes do.

Wall. In this fame Interlude, it doth befall, That I, one Snout by name, prefent a Wall: And fuch a wall, as I would have you think, That had in it a crannied hole or chink; Through which the lovers, Pyr'mus and Thisby, Did whitper often very fecretly.

This loam, this rough-caft, and this ftone doth fhew,
That I am that fame wall; the truth is so.

And this the cranny is, right and finifter,
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.
The. Would you defire lime and hair to speak better?
Dem. It is the wittieft partition, that ever I heard
difcourfe, my lord.

The. Pyramus diaws near the wall: filence!

Enter Pyramus.

Pyr. O grim-look'd night! O night with hue fo
black!

O night which ever art, when day is not!
O night, O night, alack, alack, alack,
I fear, my Thisby's promife is forgot.
And thou, O wall, Ofweet and lovely wall,

That ftands between her father's ground and mine; Thou wall, O wall, O fweet and lovely wall,

Shew me thy chink, to blink through with mine

eyne.

Thanks, courteous wall; Jove fhield thee well for this!
But what fee I? no Thisby do I see.

O wicked wall, through whom I fee no blifs;
Curft be thy ftones for thus deceiving me!

The

The. The wall, methinks, being fenfible, fhould curfe again.

Pyr. No, in truth, Sir, he fhould not. Deceiving me, is Thisby's cue; fhe is to enter, and I am to spy her through the wall, You 'fhall fee, it will fall pat as I told you. Yonder fhe comes.

Enter Thifbe.

Thif. O wall, full often haft thou heard my moans,
For parting my fair Pyramus and me.

My cherry lips have often kifs'd thy stones;
Thy frones with lime and hair knit up in thee.
Pyr. I fee a voice; now will I to the chink;
To fpy, an I can hear my Thisby's face.
Thisby !

Thif. My love! thou art, my love, I think,

Pyr. Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace, And like Limander am I trusty still. 6

Thif. And I like Helen, till the fates me kill.
Pyr. Not Shafalus to Procrus was fo true.
Thif. As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.

Pyr. O kifs me through the hole of this vile wall.
Thif. Ikifs the wall's hole, not your lips at all.

Pyr. Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me ftraightway?

Thif. Tide life, tide death, I come without delay. Wall. Thus have I Wall my part discharged fo: And, being done, thus Well away doth go. [Exit. The. Now is the Mural down between the two neighbours.

Dem. No remedy, my lord, when walls are fo wilful, to hear without warning. 7

6 Limander and Helen, are spoken by the blundering player, for Leander and Hero. Shafalus and Procrus, for Cephalus and Procris.

Hip.

Thef. Now is the Mural dorun between the two neighbours.

Dem. No remedy, my lord, when walls are fo wilful to HEAR without warning.] Shakespear

M 4

could