eyes; I will move ftorms; I will condole in fome mea fure. To the reft;-yet, my chief humour is for a tyrant; I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in: To make all split-(3) "the raging rocks, "and fhivering fhocks fhall break the locks of prison

gates-and Phibbus carr fhall fhine from far, and "make and mar the foolish fates"-This was lofty. Now name the rest of the players. This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is more condoling.

Quin. Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.
Flu. Here, Peter Quince.

Quin. You must take Thify on you.

Flu. What is Thisby, a wand'ring Knight?
Quin. It is the Lady, that Pyramus must love.

Flu. Nay, faith, let not me play a woman; I have a beard coming.

Quin. That's all one, you fhall play it in a mask; and you may speak as fmall, as you will.

Bot. An I may hide my face, let me play Thiby too; I'll speak in a monitrous little voice, Thifne, Thifne; ah, Pyramus, my lover dear, thy Thisby dear, and Lady dear.

Quin. No, no, you must play Pyramus; and Flute, you, Thiby.

Bot. Well, proceed.

Quin. Robin Starveling, the taylor..

Star. Here, Peter Quince.

Quin. Robin Starveling, you must play Thifty's mother. (4)

Tom Snowt, the tinker.

(3) The raging rocks

And fhivering fhocks, &c.] I prefume this to be either a quotation from fome fuftian old play, which I have not been able to trace ; or if not a direct quotation, a ridicule on some bombast rants, very near resembling it.

(4) you must play Thilby's mother.] There feems a double forgetfulness of our Poet, in relation to the characters of this Inter. lude. The father and mother of Thisbe, and the father of Pyramus, are here mentioned, who do not appear at all in the Interlude: but Wall and Moonshine are both employ'd in it, of whom there is not the leaft notice taken here.

Snowt.

Snowt. Here, Peter Quince.

Quin. You, Pyramus's father; myfelf, Thisby's father; Snug, the joiner; you, the lion's part; I hope, there is a play fitted.

Snag. Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am flow of study.

Quin. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.

Bot. Let me play the lion too; I will roar, that I will do any man's heart good to hear me. I will roar, that I will make the Duke fay, let him roar again, let him roar again.

Quin. If you should do it too terribly, you would fright the Dutchefs and the Ladies, that they would fhriek, and that were enough to hang us all.

All. That would hang us every mother's fon.

Bot. I grant you, friends, if you fhould fright the Ladies out of their wits, they would have no more difcretion but to hang us; but I will aggravate my voice fo, that I will roar you as gently as any fucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any nightingale.

Quin. You can play no part but Pyramus, for Pyramus is a fweet-fac'd man; a proper man, as one fhall fee in a fummer's day; a moft lovely gentleman-like man: therefore you muft needs play Pyramus.

Bot. Well, I will undertake it. best to play it in?

Quin. Why, what you will.

What beard were I

Bot. I will difcharge it in either your straw-colour beard, your orange-tawny-beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your French crown-colour'd beard; your perfect yellow.

Quin. (5) Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and then you will play bare-fac'd. But, mafters, here are your parts; and I am to intreat you, request you, and defire you, to con them by to-morrow-night; and meet me in the palace-wood, a mile without the

(5) Some of your French crowns have no bair at all.] See the third note on Measure for Measure, which explains this dark paffage..

town

town, by moon-light, there we will rehearse; for if we meet in the city, we fhall be dog'd with company, and our devices known. In the mean time I will draw a bill of properties, fuch as our play wants. I pray you, fail me not.

Bot. We will meet, and there we may rehearse more obscenely and courageously. Take pains, be perfect, adieu.

Quin. At the Duke's oak we meet.

Bot. Enough; hold, or cut bow-ftrings. [Exeunt.

******

****X*X*X*X*X}

II.

ACT

SCENE, A Wood.

Enter a Fairy at one door, and Puck (or Robin-good

How

fellow) at another.

PUCK.

WOW now, fpirit, whither wander you;
Fai. Over hill, over dale,

Through bush, through briar,

Over park, over pale,

Through flood, through fire,
I do wander every where,
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I ferve the Fairy Queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green ;
The couflips tall her penfioners be,
In their gold coats fpots you fee,
Those be rubies, fairy-favours:
In those freckles live their favours:
I must go feek fome dew-drops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowflip's ear.
Farewel, thou lob of fpirits, I'll be gone,
Our Queen and all her elves come here anon.
Puck. The King doth keep his revels here to-night,
Take heed, the Queen come not within his fight.
For Oberon is paffing fell and wrath,

Because that she, as her attendant, hath

A lovely

A lovely boy, ftol'n from an Indian king:
She never had fo fweet a changeling;
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;
But he per-force with-holds the loved boy,

Crowns him with flow'rs, and makes him all her joy.
And now they never meet in grove, or green,
By fountain clear, or fpangled ftar-light fheen,
But they do fquare, that all their elves for fear
Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there.

Fai. Or I mistake your fhape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd, and knavish sprite,
Call'd Robin-goodfellow. Are you not he,
That fright the maidens of the villageree,
Skim milk, and fometimes labour in the quern,
And bootlefs make the breathless hufwife chern;
And fometime make the drink to bear no barm,
Mif-lead night-wand'rers, laughing at their harm?
Thofe that Hobgoblin call you, and fweet Puck,
You do their work, and they fhall have good luck.
Are not you he?

Puck. Thou fpeak'st aright;

I am that merry wand'rer of the night :
I jeft to Oberon, and make him fmile,
When I a fat and bean-fed horfe beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly-foal;
And fometimes lurk I in a goffip's bowl,
very likeness of a roafted crab,

In

And when the drinks, against her lips I bob,
And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale,
The wifeft aunt, telling the faddeft tale,
Sometime for three-foot ftool mistaketh me;
Then flip I from her bum, down topples she,
And taylor cries, and falls into a cough;
And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe,
And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear,
A merrier hour was never wafted there.

But make room, fairy, here comes Oberon.

Fai. And here my mistress: would, that he were gone!

Enter

Enter Oberon King of Fairies at one door with his train, and the Queen at another with hers.

Ob. Ill met by moon-light, proud Titania. Queen. What, jealous Oberon ? fairies, skip hence, I have forfworn his bed and company.

Ob. Tarry, rafh wanton; am not I thy Lord?
Queen, Then I must be thy Lady; but I know,
When thou ha'ft ftoll'n away from fairy land,
And in the shape of Corin fat all day,

Playing on pipes of corn, and verfing love
To am'rous Phillida. Why art thou here,
Come from the fartheft fteep of India!
But that, forfooth, the bouncing Amazon,
Your bufkin'd mistress and your warrior love,
To Thefeus must be wedded; and you come
To give their bed joy and profperity.

Ob. How can't thou thus for fhame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolita;

Knowing, I know thy love to Thefeus?

Didft thou not lead him through the glimmering night
From Perigune, whom he ravifhed; (6)

And make him with fair Ægle break his faith,
With Ariadne, and Antiopa?

Queen. These are the forgeries of jealousy:
And never fince the middle fummer's fpring
Met we on hill, in dale, foreft, or mead,
By paved fountain, or by rufhy brook,

(6) From Perigenia, whom he ravish'd:] Thus all the editors, either not knowing, or not attending to, the hiftory of this Lady, have falfely call'd her but our Author, who diligently perus'd Plu tarch, and glean'd from him, where his fubject would admit, knew, from the life of Thefeus, that her name was Perigyne (or Perigune) by whom Thefeus had his fon Melanippus. She was the daughter of Sinnis a cruel robber, and tormenter of paffengers in the Ifthmus Plutarch and Athenæus are both exprefs in the circumftance of Thefeus ravishing her and the former of them adds (as Diod. Siculus, Apollodorus and Paufanias, likewife tell us ;) that he killed her father into the bargain. I corrected this mistake of the name in my SHAK ESPEARE reflor'd; and Mr. Pope has vouchfafed to correct from me in his last edition.