Again, in Spenser's Faery Queen, B. I. c. 4. st. 9. "While flashing beams do dare his feeble eyen." STEEVENS.

247. this hail-] Thus all the editions, except the quarto, 1600, printed by Roberts, which reads instead of this hail, his hail. STEEVENS.

255. -the bellows-mender,] In Ben Jonson's masque of Pan's Anniversary, &c. a man of the same profession is introduced. I have been told that a bellows-mender was one who had the care of organs, regals, &c. STEEVENS.

255. In this scene Shakspere takes advantage of his knowledge of the theatre, to ridicule the prejudices and competitions of the players. Bottom, who is generally acknowledged the principal actor, declares his intention to be for a tyrant, for a part of fury, tumult, and noise, such as every young mañ pants to perform when he first steps upon the stage. The same Bottom, who seems bred in a tiring-room, has another histrionical passion. He is for engrossing every part, and would exclude his inferiors from all possibility of distinction. He is therefore desirous to play Pyramus, Thisbe, and the Lyon at the same time. JOHNSON. -the scrip.] A scrip, Fr. escript, now writ

257.

ten écrit.

So, Chaucer, in Troilus and Cressida, L. II. 1130.

"Scripe nor bil.”

Again, in Heywood's, If you know not me, you know,

Nobody, 1633, Part II.

"I'll take thy own word without scrip or scroll,” Holinshed likewise uses the word. STEEVENS.

264.

-grow to a point.] I meet with the same

kind of expression in Wily Beguiled :

"As yet we are grown to no conclusion.' Again, in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584:

19

"Our reasons will be infinite, I trow,
"Unless unto some other point we grow.'
-and so grow to a point.] The first folio reads:

and so grow on to a point. MALONE. 265. —The most lamentable comedy, &c.] This is very probably a burlesque on the title-page of Cambyses: "A lamentable Tragedie, mixed full of pleasant Mirth, containing, The Life of Cambises King of Percia," &c. By Tho. Preston, bl. let. no date. On the registers of the Stationers-Company however appears, "the boke of Perymus and Thesbye," 1562. Perhaps Shakspere copied some part of his interlude from it. STEEVENS.

268. A very good piece of work-and a merry.] This is designed as a ridicule on the titles of our ancient moralities and interludes. Thus Skelton's Magnificence is called "a goodly interlude and a mery.” STEEVENS.

283. -I will condole in some measure.] When we use this verb at present we put with before the person for whose misfortune we profess concern. Anciently it seems to have been employed without it. So, in A Pennyworth of good Counsell, an ancient ballad:

"Thus

"Thus to the wall

"I may condole."

Again, in the Three Merry Coblers, another old song: "Poore weather beaten soles,

"Whose case the body condoles."

STEEVENS.

285. -I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a CAT in, -] In the old comedy of the Roaring Girl, 1611, there is a character called Tear-cat, who says: "I am called, by those who have seen my valour, Tear-cat." In an anonymous piece called Histriomastix, or The Player Whipt, 1610, in six acts, a parcel of soldiers drag a company of players on the stage, and the captain says: "Sirrah, this is you that would rend and tear a cat upon a stage," &c. Again, in The Isle of Gulls, a comedy by J. Day, 1606: "I had rather hear two such jests, than a whole play of such Tear-cat thunder-claps." STEEVENS.

286. -to make all split.] This is to be connected with the previous part of the speech; not with the subsequent rhymes. It was the description of a bully. In the second act of the Scornful Lady, we meet with "two roaring boys of Rome, that made all split.” FARMER.

I meet with the same expression in the Widow's Tears, by Chapman, 1612: "Her wit I must employ upon this business to prepare my next encounter, but in such a fashion as shall make all split.” MALONE. 288. and shivering shocks,] Dr. Farmer rightly wished to read with. STEEVENS.

ვი6.

306. -as small, &c.] This passage shews how the want of women on the old stage was supplied. If they had not a young man who could perform the part with a face that might pass for feminine, the character was acted in a mask, which was at that time a part of a lady's dress so much in use that it did not give any unusual appearance to the scene: and he that could modulate his voice in a female tone might play the woman very successfully. It is observed in Downes's Roscius Anglicanus, that Kynaston, one of these counterfeit heroines, moved the passions more strongly than the women that have since been brought upon the stage. Some of the catastrophes of the old comedies, which make lovers marry the wrong women, are by recollection of the common use of masks, brought nearer to probability. JOHNSON.

Prynne, in his Histriomastix, exclaims with great vehemence through several pages, because a woman acted a part in a play at Black-Friars in the year 1628. STEEVENS.

316. -you must play Thisby's mother.] There seems a double forgetfulness of our poet, in relation to the characters of this interlude. The father and mother of Thisby, and the father of Pyramus, are here mentioned, who do not appear at all in the interlude; but Wall and Moonshine are both employed in it, of whom there is not the least notice taken here. THEOBALD.

Theobald is wrong as to this last particular. The introduction of Wall and Moonshine was an after

thought.

0s thought. See act iii. sc. 1. It may be observed, however, that no part of what is rehearsed is afterthwards repeated, when the piece is acted before The

seus.

321. read here.

STEEVENS.

-there is a play fitted.] Both the quartos

STEEVENS.

323. slow of study.] Study is still the cant term used in a theatre for getting any nonsense by rote. Hamlet asks the player if he can "study" a speech. STEEVENS. 337. you] Omitted in the first folio. MALONE. 351. --your perfect yellow.] Here Bottom again discovers a true genius for the stage by his solicitude for propriety of dress, and his deliberation which beard to choose among many beards, all unnatural. JOHNSON.

This custom of wearing coloured beards, the reader will find more amply explained in Measure for Measure, act iv. line 267. STEEVENS.

-French crowns, &c.] See Measure for
STEEVENS.

Measure, act i. line 140.

360. -properties, -] Properties are whatever little articles are wanted in a play for the actors, according to their respective parts, dresses and scenes excepted. The person who delivers them out is, to this day, called the property-man.

So, in Albumazar, 1610:

"Furbo, our peards,

"Black patches for our eyes, and other pro

perties."