PYR. No, in truth, fir, he should not. Deceiving me, is Thifby's cue; fhe is to enter now, and I am to fpy her through the wall. You fhall fee, it will fall pat as I told you :-Yonder fhe comes. Enter THISBE. THIS. "O wall, full often haft thou heard my moans, "For parting my fair Pyramus and me: My cherry lips have often kifs'd thy ftones; Thy ftones with lime and hair knit up in thee." PYR. "I fee a voice: now will I to the chink, "To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face. "Thisby!" THIS." My love! thou art my love, I think." PrR. "Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace; "And like Limander am I trusty still."" THIS." And I like Helen, till the fates me kill." THIS." I kifs the wall's hole, not your lips at all." 3 knit up in thee.] Thus the folio. The quartos read-kuit now again. STEEVENS. And like Limander, &c.] Limander and Helen, are spoken by the blundering player, for Leander and Hero. Shafalus and Procrus, for Cephalus and Procris. JOHNSON. 3 I kifs the wall's hole, not your lips at all.] So Golding's Ovid: "When night drew nere, they bade adew, and eche gave kifles fweete Unto the parget on their fide, the which did never meete." RITSON. " PrR." Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me ftraightway?" THIS. "Tide life, tide death, I come without delay." WALL." Thus have I,wall, my part discharged fo; And, being done, thus wall away doth go. [Exeunt Wall, PYRAMUS, and THISBE. THE. Now is the mural down between the two neighbours. DEM. No remedy, my lord, when walls are fo wilful to hear without warning.' HIP. This is the fillieft ftuff that ever I heard. THE. The best in this kind are but fhadows: and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them. HIP. It must be your imagination then, and not theirs. THE. If we imagine no worse of them, than they of themselves, they may pafs for excellent men. Here come two noble beafts in, a moon and a lion." 4 Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me ftraightway?] So Golding's Ovid: They did agree at Ninus tomb to meete without the towne." s Dem. No remedy, my lord, when walls are fo wilful to hear without warning.] This alludes to the proverb, "Walls have ears." A wall between almoft any two neighbours would foon be down, were it to exercife this faculty without previous warning. FARMER. The old copies read—moral, instead of mural. Mr. Theobald made the correction. MALONE. 6 Here come two noble beasts in, a moon and a lion.] The old copies read—a man, &c. STEEVENS. I don't think the jeft here is either complete, or right. It is differently pointed in feveral of the old copies, which, I fufpect, may lead us to the true reading, viz. "Here come two noble beasts—in a man and a lion.” Enter Lion and Moonshine. LION. "You, ladies, you, whofe gentle hearts do fear "The fmalleft monftrous moufe that creeps on floor, "May now, perchance, both quake and tremble here, "When lion rough in wildeft rage doth roar. "Then know, that I, one Snug the joiner, am "A lion fell, nor elfe no lion's dam: " immediately upon Thefeus faying this, Enter Lion and Moonshine. It feems very probable therefore, that our author wrote, " -in a moon and a lion." the one having a crescent and a lanthorn before him, and reprefenting the man in the moon; the other in a lion's hide. THEOBALD. Mr. Theobald reads-a moon and a lion, and the emendation was adopted by the fubfequent editors; but, I think, without neceffity. The conceit is furnished by the perfon who reprefents the lion, and enters covered with the hide of that beaft; and Thefeus only means to fay, that the man who reprefented the moon, and came in at the fame time, with a lantern in his hand, and a bufh of thorns at his back, was as much a beast as he who performed the part of the lion. MALONE. Here come tavo noble beafts in, a moon, and a lion. I cannot help fuppofing that we should have it, a moon-calf. The old copies read a man: poffibly man was the marginal interpretation of moon-calf; and being more intelligible, got into the text. The man in the moon was no new character on the ftage, and is here introduced in ridicule of fuch exhibitions. Ben Jonfon in one of his mafques, call'd News from the New World in the Moon, makes his Factor doubt of the perfon who brings the intelligence. "I must fee his dog at his girdle, and the bush of thorns at his back, ere I believe it."-" Thofe, replies one of the heralds, are fale enfigns o' the ftage." FARMER. 5 Then know, that I, one Snug the joiner, am A lion fell, nor elfe no lian's dam:] That is, that I am Snug the joiner; and neither a lion, nor a lion's dam. Dr. Johnfon has justly obferved in a note on All's well that ends well, that nor is the phrafeology of our author's time often related to two members "For if I fhould as lion come in ftrife THE. A very gentle beast, and of a good confcience. DEM. The very best at a beaft, my lord, that c'er I faw. Lrs. This lion is a very fox for his valour. THE. True; and a goofe for his difcretion. DEM. Not fo, my lord: for his valour cannot carry his discretion; and the fox carries the goose. THE. His difcretion, I am fure, cannot carry his valour; for the goofe carries not the fox. It is well: leave it to his difcretion, and let us liften to the moon. MOON. "This lantern doth the horned moon. prefent:" DEM. He fhould have worn the horns on his head. THE. He is no crescent, and his horns are invifible within the circumference. MOON. "This lantern doth the horned moon Myfelf the man i'th'moon do feem to be." THE. This is the greatest error of all the rest : the man fhould be put into the lantern: How is it elfe the man i'the moon? DEM. He dares not come there for the candle: for, you see, it is already in fnuff." of a fentence, though only expreffed in the latter. So in the play juft mentioned. -contempt nor bitterness "Were in his pride or fharpnefs." The reading of the text is that of the folio. The quartos readthat I as Snug the joiner, &c. MALONE. 6 in fnuff.] An equivocation. Snuff fignifies both the cin der of a candle, and hafty anger. JOHNSON. HIP. I am aweary of this moon: Would, he would change! THE. It appears, by his fmall light of difcretion, that he is in the wane: but yet, in courtesy, in all reason, we must stay the time. Lrs. Proceed, moon. MOON. All that I have to fay, is, to tell you, that the lantern is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this thorn-bufh, my thorn-bufh; and this dog, my dog. DEM. Why, all these should be in the lantern; for they are in the moon. But, filence; here comes Thisbe. Enter THISBE. THIS. "This is old Ninny's tomb: Where is my love?" LION. "Oh-." [The Lion roars. DEM. Well roar'd, lion. THE. Well run, Thisbe. THISBE runs off. HIP. Well fhone, moon.-Truly, the moon fhines with a good grace. THE. Well mous'd, lion." [The Lion tears THISBE's mantle, and exit. So, in Love's Labour's Loft: "You'll mar the light, by taking it in fnuff." STEEVENS. Well mous'd, lion.] So in an ancient bl. 1. ballad on this story, intitled, The Confiancy of true Love, &c. "And having mufled thus the fame, "Thither he went whence first he came.” |