With hands as pale as milk; Since you have shore With shears his thread of silk. Tongue, not a word: Come, trusty sword: 330 Come, blade, my breast imbrue: [Stabs herself. And, farewell, friends; Thus Thisby ends: Adieu, adieu, adieu. The. Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead. Dem. Ay, and Wall too. [Dies. Bot. [Starting up.] No, I assure you; the wall is down that parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two of our company? The. No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse. Never excuse; for when the players are all dead, there need none to be blamed. Marry, if he that writ it had played Pyramus and hanged himself in Thisbe's garter, it would have been a fine tragedy: and so it is, truly; and very notably discharged. But, come, your Bergomask: let your epilogue alone. The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve: In nightly revels and new jollity. Enter PUCK. Puck. Now the hungry lion roars, And the wolf behowls the moon; All with weary task fordone. Now the wasted brands do glow, Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud, [A dance. 350 [Exeunt. 366 Puts the wretch that lies in woe That the graves all gaping wide, By the triple Hecate's team, To sweep the dust behind the door. Enter OBERON and TITANIA with their train. Obe. Through the house give glimmering light, Every elf and fairy sprite Hop as light as bird from brier; Sing, and dance it trippingly. Tita. First, rehearse your song by rote, Obe. Hand in hand, with fairy grace, 370 380 Will we sing, and bless this place. [Song ana dance., Through this house each fairy stray. To the best bride-bed will we, Which by us shall blessed be; So shall all the couples three And the blots of Nature's hand 390 Despised in nativity, Shall upon their children be. With this field-dew consecrate, And each several chamber bless, Through this palace, with sweet peace; And the owner of it blest Ever shall in safety rest. Trip away; make no stay; Meet me all by break of day. 400 [Exeunt Oberon, Titania and train. Puck. If we shadows have offended, Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue, Else the Puck a liar call: So, good night unto you all. 410 420 Give me your hands, if we be friends, [Exit. NOTES. ACT I. Scene I. 1. The names of Theseus and Hippolyta queen of the Amazons may have been borrowed by Shakespeare from Chaucer's Knight's Tale, although there is nothing else in the play for which he can have been indebted to the same source. But he was no doubt acquainted with the story of Theseus in North's translation of Plutarch's Lives, and hence also he may have taken the Greek names which he uses, Egeus, Lysander, Demetrius, and Philostrate, which all occur in that work. Philostrate however is also the name assumed by Arcite in the Knight's Tale, 1. 1428. 4. She lingers my desires, protracts, delays the accomplishment of my desires. For 'linger' in this transitive sense see Richard II, ii. 2. 72: Who gently would dissolve the bands of life, Which false hope lingers in extremity.' And Othello, iv. 2. 231: Unless his abode be lingered here by some accident.' 5. a step-dame, or a dowager, who has a life interest in the property which falls to the heir at her death. Whalley quotes Horace [Epist. i. I. 21, 22]: 'ut piger annus Pupillis quos dura premit custodia matrum.' 6. withering out, causing the revenue to dwindle as she herself withers away. For the phrase Steevens quotes from Chapman's Homer, Iliad iv. [528]: And there the goodly plant lies withering out his grace.' 10. New-bent. Rowe's reading; the quartos and folios have Now bent.' II. solemnities, applied to the festivities on the solemnization of marriage, as in King John, ii. 1. 555, of the marriage of Blanch and the Dauphin : 'Call the Lady Constance: Some speedy messenger bid her repair To our solemnity.' 13. pert, lively; used in a good sense, and not as now as equivalent to something a little less than impudent, saucy. Compare Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. 272: 6 This fert Biron was out of countenance quite.' F Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.) has, 'Godinet: m. ette: f. Prettie, dapper, feat, peart, indifferently handsome. Godinette; f. A prettie peart lasse; a louing, or louelie girle.' So Milton, Comus, 118: 'And on the tawny sands and shelves Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves.' It is probably connected with the Fr. appert (whence malapert), for which Cotgrave gives the equivalents 'Expert, readie, dexter, prompt, actiue, nimble; feat, handsome, in that he does.' Mr. Wedgwood however connects it with 'perk,' 'to perk up the head, to prick up the head, or appear lively.' In this sense 'pert' is used as a verb in Beaumont and Fletcher, Knight of the Burning Pestle, i. I: 'Sirrah, didst thou ever see a prettier child? how it behaves itself, I warrant ye! and speaks and looks, and perts up the head.' 15. companion, fellow. These two words have completely exchanged their meanings in later usage. Companion' is not now used contemptuously as it once was, and as ' fellow' frequently is. Compare 2 Henry IV, ii. 4. 132: 'I scorn you, scurvy companion.' Ib. pomp. See below, note on 1. 19. 19. With pomp, with triumph. A triumph was a public exhibition or show, such as was originally used to celebrate a victory. The title of Bacon's 37th Essay is 'Of Masques and Triumphs,' and the two words appear to have been synonymous, for the Essay treats of masques alone. In the same way Milton uses the word. See L'Allegro, 120: 'Where throngs of knights and barons bold, In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold.' And Samson Agonistes, 1312: This day to Dagon is a solemn feast, With sacrifices, triumph, pomp, and games.' In his note on the latter passage Warton suggests that Milton applied pomp in the appropriated sense which it bore to the Grecian festivals, where the поμη, a principal part of the ceremony, was the spectacular procession.' Shakespeare also, in King John, iii. 1. 304, has the word with a trace of its original meaning: 'Shall braying trumpets and loud churlish drums, Clamours of hell, be measures to our pomp?' 20. duke, a title which Shakespeare might have found attached to Theseus in Chaucer. See the Knight's Tale (Cant. Tales, 1. 860): Whilom as olde stories tellen us, There was a duk that highte Theseus.' 21. Egeus. Shakespeare for his own purposes makes three syllables of this name. Ib. what's the news with thee? What has happened to thee? Compare iii. 2. 272. |