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PHILOST. A play there is, my lord, fome ten words

long;

Which is as brief as I have known a play;
But by ten words, my lord, it is too long;
Which makes it tedious: for in all the play
There is not one word apt, one player fitted.
And tragical, my noble lord, it is;
For Pyramus therein doth kill himself.
Which, when I saw rehears'd, I must confefs,
Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears
The paffion of loud laughter never shed.
THE. What are they, that do play it?

PHILOST. Hard-handed men, that work in Athens

here,

Which never labour'd in their minds till now;
And now have toil'd their unbreath'd memories
With this fame play, against your nuptial.
THE. And we will hear it.

PHILOST.

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 sport in their intents,'

In support of Mr. Mason's conje&ure it may be observed that the words ftrong and frange are often confounded in our old plys. Mr. Upton's emendation alfo may derive fome fupport from a paffage in Macbeth:

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when they fhall be opened, black Macbeth "Shall feem as pure as fnow." MALONE.

unbreath'd memories

memories. STEEVENS.

That is, unexercised, unpra&tifed

6 Unless you can find fport in their intents,] Thus all the copies. But as I know not what it is to flretch and "con an intent, I suspe& a line to be loft. JOHNSON.

To intend and to attend were anciently fynonymous. Of this use feveral inftances are given in a note on the third scene of the firft L

VOL. VII.

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 fimplenefs and duty tender it."

Go, bring them in ;—and take your places, ladies. [Exit PHILOSTRATE. HIP. I love not to fee wretchednefs o'ercharg'd, And duty in his fervice perishing.

THE. Why, gentle fweet, you shall fee no fuch

thing.

HIP. He fays, they can do nothing in this kind. THE. The kinder we, to give them thanks for

nothing.

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Our fport fhall be, to take what they mistake:
And what poor duty cannot do,"

ad of Othello. attention.

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Intents therefore may be put for the object of their We ftill fay a perfon is intent on his bufinefs.

never any thing can be amifs,

STEEVENS.

When fimpleness and duty tender it.] Ben Jonfon in Cynthia's Revels has employed this fentiment of humanity on the fame occafion, when Cynthia is preparing to fee a masque:

Nothing which duty and defire to please,

"Bears written on the forehead, comes amifs."

STEEVENS.

8 Our Sport shall be, &c.] Voltaire fays fomething like this of Louis XIV. who took a pleasure in feeing his courtiers in confufion when they spoke to him.

I am told, however, by a writer in the Edinburgh Magazine, for Nov. 1786, that I have affigned a malignant instead of a humanę fentiment to Thefeus, and that he really means We will accept

with pleasure even their blundering attempt. STEEVENS.

And what poor duty cannot do,] The defeative metre of this line fhews that fome word was inadvertently omitted by the transcriber or compofitor. Mr. Theobald fupplied the defeat by reading “ And what poor willing duty," &c. MALONE.

Noble refpect takes it in might, not merit."
Where I have come, great clerks have purpofed3
To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
Where I have feen them fhiver, and look pale,
Make periods in the midft 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;

2 And what poor duty cannot do,

Noble refpe& takes it in might, not merit.] The fenfe of this paffage, as it now ftands, if it has any fenfe, is this: What the inability of duty cannot perform, regardful generofily receives as an act of ability, though not of merit. The contrary is rather true: What dutifulness tries to perform without ability, regardful generofity receives as having the merit, though not the power, of complete performance. We fhould therefore read:

And what poor duty cannot 20,

Noble refpe&t takes not in might, but merit. JOHNSON.

In might, is perhaps an elliptical expreffion for what might have been. STEEVENS.

If this paffage is to ftand as it is, the meaning appears to be this and what poor duty would do, but cannot accomplish, noble respect confiders as it might have been, not as it is."

M. MASON.

And what dutifulnefs tries to perform without ability, regardful generofity receives with complacency, eftimating it not by the a&ual merit of the performance, but by what it might have been, were the abilities of the performers equal to their zeal.-Such, I think, is the true interpretation of this paffage; for which the reader is indebted partly to Dr. Johnson, and partly to Mr. Steevens.

MALONE.

3 Where I have come, great clerks, have purpofed, &c.]. So, in Pericles:

"She fings like one immortal, and fhe dances
"As goddefs like to her admired lays;

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Deep clerks fhe dumbs."

It should be observed, that periods in the text is used in the fenfe of full points.

MALONE.

And in the modefly of fearful duty

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

Enter PHILOSTRATE.

PHILOST. So please your grace, the prologue is addreft.*

THE. Let him approach. [Flourish of Trumpets

Enter PROLOGUE.

PROL. If we offend, it is with our good will. That you should think, we come not to offend, But with good-will. To fhow our fimple Jkill, That is the true beginning of our end. Confider then, we come but in defpile.

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

We are not here. That you should here repent you, The actors are at hand; and, by their fhow, You fall know all, that you are like to know. THE. This fellow doth not ftand upon points. Lys. He hath rid his prologue, like a rough colt;

addreft.] That is, ready. So, in K. Henry V: "To-morrow for our march we are addrejt."

STEEVENS.

Flourish of trumpets.] It appears from The Guls Hornbook, by Decker, 1609, that the prologue was anciently usher'd in by trumpets. "Prefent not yourfelfe on the ftage (efpecially at a new play) until the quaking prologue hath (by rubbing) got cullor in his cheekes, and is ready to give the trumpets their cue that hee's upon point to enter. STEEVENS.

"

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 this prologue, like a child on a recorder; a found, but not in government."

THE. His fpeech was like a tangled chain; nothing impaired, but all difordered. Who is next?

Enter PYRAMUS, and THISBE, Wall, Moonfhine, and Lion, as in dumb fhow.

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,"

6 ▬▬▬▬ on a recorder; ] Lord Bacon in his natural history, cent. iii. fect. 221, fpeaks of recorders and flutes at the fame inflant, and fays, that the recorder hath a lefs bore, and a greater, above and below; and elsewhere, cent. ii. fect. 187, he speaks of it as having fix holes, in which refpect it anfwers to the Tibia minor or Flajolet of Merfennus. From all which particulars it fhould feem that the flute and the recorder were different inftruments, and that the latter in propriety of fpeech was no other than the flagelet. Hawkins's Hiftory of Mufick, Vol. IV. p. 479. REED.

Shakspeare introduces the fame inftrument in Hamlet; and Milton fays:

"To the found of foft recorders."

The recorder is mentioned in many of the old plays. STEEVENS, but not in government.] That is, not regularly, according

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to the tune. STEEVENS.

Hamlet, fpeaking of a recorder, fays, "Govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb; give it breath with your mouth; and it will difcourfe moft eloquent mulic."-This explains the meaning of government in this paffage, M. MASON.

In this place the folio, 1623, exhibits the following prompter's direction. Tawyer with a trumpet before them. STEEVENS.

9 This beauteous lady Thisby is, certain. ] A burlefque was here

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