Flute, the bellows-mender. ter Quince. it take Thisby on you. Thisby? a wandering knight? lady that Pyramus must love. 1, let not me play a woman; I have a beard coming. ll one; you shall play it in a mask 5, and you may speak as small hide my face, let me play Thisby too: I'll speak in a monstrous "Thisne, Thisne,-Ah, Pyramus, my lover dear; thy Thisby ady dear!" you must play Pyramus; and, Flute, you Thisby. ceed. tarveling, the tailor. eter Quince. Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother. -Tom Snout, the Peter Quince. ramus's father; myself, Thisby's father;-Snug, the joiner, you, art:-and, I hope, here is a play fitted. ou the lion's part written? pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am dy. y do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring. play the lion too: I will roar, that I will do any man's heart good ; I will roar, that I will make the duke say, Let him roar again, r again." should do it too terribly, you would fright the duchess and the they would shriek; and that were enough to hang us all. uld hang us, every mother's son. you, friends, if that you should fright the ladies out of their wits, have no more discretion but to hang us; but I will aggravate my hat I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove; I will roar you any nightingale. play no part but Pyramus: for Pyramus is a sweet-faced man; an as one shall see in a summer's day; a most lovely, gentlemantherefore you must needs play Pyramus. will undertake it. What beard were I best to play it in? what you will. scharge it in either your straw-colour beard, your orange-tawny purple-in-grain beard, or your French-crown-coloured beard, your low. of your French crowns have no hair at all, and then you will play -But, masters, here are your parts: and I am to intreat you, u, and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night lace wood, a mile without the town, by moonlight; : and meet me there we will rehearse for if we meet in the city we shall be dogg'd with company, and our devices known. In the mean time I will draw a bill of properties such as our play wants. I pray you fail me not. BOT. We will meet; and there we may rehearse more obscenely and courageous ly. Take pains; be perfect; adieu. QUIN. At the duke's oak we meet. BOT. Enough. Hold, or cut bow-strings a. [Exeunt. Capell says, this is a proverbial expression derived from the days of archery:-" When a party was made at butts, assurance of meeting was given in the words of that phrase." And I serve the fairy queen, To dew her orbs a upon the In those freckles live their savours: Our queen and all her elves come here anon. Because that she, as her attendant, hath Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy: • Orbs. The fairy rings, as they are popularly called; which, however explained by philosophy, will always have a poetical charm connected with the beautiful superstition that the night-tripping fairies have, on these verdant circles, danced their merry roundels. It was the Fairy's office to dew these orbs, which had been parched under the fairy-feet in the moonlight revels. Pensioners. These courtiers, whom Mrs. Quickly put above earls ('Merry Wives of Windsor,' Act II., Scene 2), were Queen Elizabeth's favourite attendants. They were the handsomest men of the first families,-tall, as the cowslip was to the fairy, and shining in their spotted gold coats like that flower under an April sun. e Square-to quarrel. It is difficult to understand how to square, which, in the ordinary sense, is to agree, should mean to disagree. And yet there is no doubt that the word was used in this sense. Holinshed has "Falling at square with her husband." In Much Ado about Nothing, Beatrice says, " Is there no young squarer now, that will make a voyage with him to the devil?" Mr. Richardson, after explaining the usual meaning of this verb, adds, "To square is also, consequently, to broaden; to set out broadly, in a position or attitude of offence or defence-( quarrer)." The word is thus used in the language of pugilism. There is more of our old dialect in flash terms than is generally supposed. Skim milk; and sometimes labour in the querna; Риск. I am that merry Thou speak'st aright; wanderer of the night. And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob, And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe, and swear A merrier hour was never wasted there.— But room, Fairy, here comes Oberon. FAI. And here my mistress :-Would that he were gone! SCENE II.-Enter OBERON, on one side, with his train, and TITANIA, OBE. Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania". When thou hast stolen away from fairy land, • Quern-a handmill; from the Anglo-Saxon, cwyrn. b Barm-yeast. Holland, in his translation of Pliny, speaks of " the froth, or barm, that riseth from these ales or beers." |