Not paying me a welcome. Truft me, fweet,
Out of this filence yet I pick'd a welcome :
And in the modefty of fearful duty

I read as much, as from the rattling tongue
Of fawcy and audacious eloquence.

Love therefore, and tongue-ty'd fimplicity,
In least, speak moft, to my capacity.

Enter Philoftrate.

Phil. So please your Grace, the prologue is addreft. Thef. Let him approach.

Enter Quince, for the prologue.

[Flour. Trum.

Prol. If we offend, it is with our good will.
That you fhould think, we come not to offend,
But with good will. To fhew our fimple skill,
That is the true beginning of our end.
Confider then, we come but in defpight.

We do not come, as minding to content you, (35)
Our true intent is. - all for your delight,

We are not here.-that you fhould here repent you, The actors are at hand;-and by their show, You shall know all, that you are like to know. Thef. This fellow doth not stand upon points. Ly. He hath rid his prologue, like a rough colt; he knows not the ftop. A good moral, my Lord. It is not enough to fpeak, but to speak true.

Hip. Indeed he hath play'd on his prologue, like a child on the recorder; a found, but not in government.

(35) 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; &c.] Thus the late accurate Editor, deviating from all the old copies, has, by a certain peculiar fatality, pointed this paffage. The whole glee and humour of the prologue is in the actor's making falfe refts, and fo turning every member of the fentences into flagrant nonfenfe. And Mr. Pope feems very cruel to our Author, (confidering how many paffages, which fhould have been pointed right, he has pointed wrong;) that here, when he fhould point wrong, with a strange perverfeness, and unusual appetite for fenfe, he will point right.

Thef.

Thef. His fpeech was like a tangled chain; nothing impair'd, but all diforder'd. Who is the next?

Enter Pyramus, and Thifbe, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion, as in dumb fhew.

Prol. Gentles, perchance, you wonder at this show, But wonder on, till truth make all things plain. This man is Pyramus, if you would know;

This beauteous Lady, Thisby is, certain.

This man with lime and rough-caft, doth prefent
Wall, the vile wall, which did thefe lovers funder:
And through wall's chink, poor fouls, they are content
To whisper, at the which let no man wonder.
This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn,
Prefenteth Moon-fhine: For, if you will know,
By moon-fhine did these lovers think no fcorn

To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo.
This grifly beaft, which by name Lion hight, (36)
The trufty Thisby, coming firft by night,
Did fcare away, or rather did affright:
And as fhe fled, her mantle fhe let fall;
Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain.
Anon comes Pyramus, fweet youth and tall,
And finds his trufty Thisby's mantle flain;
Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade
He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breaft.
And Thify, tarrying in the mulberry fhade,
His dagger drew, and died. For all the reft,
Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain,
At large discourse, while here they do remain.

[Exeunt all but Wall. Thef. I wonder, if the Lion be to speak Dem. No wonder, my Lord; one Lion may, when many affes do.

(36) which Lion bight by name.] As all the other parts of this fpeech are in alternate rhyme, excepting that it closes with a conplet; and as no rhyme is left to, name, we must conclude, either a verfe is flipt out, which cannot now be retrieved: or, by a transpofition of the words, as I have placed them, the Poet intended a triplet.

Wall

Wall. In this fame Interlude, it doth befal,
That I, one Snout by name, prefent a wall: (37)
And fuch a wall, as I would have you think,
That had in it a crannied hole Qr chink;
Through which the lovers, Py'rmus and This-by,
Did whisper often very fecretly.

This loam, this rough-caft, and this stone doth fhew,
That I am that fame wall; the truth is fo.

And this the cranny is, right and finifter,
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.
Thef. Would you defire lime and hair to speak better?
Dem. It is the wittiest partition, that ever I heard
difcourfe, my Lord.

Thef. Pyramus draws near the wall: filence!

Enter Pyramus.

Pyr. O grim-look'd night; O night with hue fo black
O night which ever art, when day is not!
O night, Onight, alack, alack, alack.

I fear, my Thisby's promife is forgot.
And thou, O wall, O fweet and lovely wall,

That ftands between her father's ground and mine; Thou wall, wall, O fweet and lovely wall,

Shew me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne. Thanks, courteous wall; Jove fhield thee well for this! But what fee I? no Thisby do I fee,

O wicked wall, through whom I fee no blifs;
Curft be thy ftones for thus deceiving me.

Thef. The wall, methinks, being fenfible, fhould curfe again.

Pyr. No, in truth, Sir, he should not. Deceiving me, is Thisby's cue; fhe is to enter, and I am to spy her through the wall. You fhall fee, it will fall pat as I told you. Yonder fhe comes.

(37) That I, one Flute by name,] Thus Mr. Pope gives it us, either from the old quarto's, or by accident. But accident, or authority, happens to be wrong in it: and we must reftore, Snout, with the old folio's; for it appears in the first act, that Flute was to perform Thifte.

Enter

Enter Thisby..

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 stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.
Pyr. I fee a voice; now will I to the chink;
To fpy, an I can hear my Thisby's face.
Thifby!

Thif.. My love! thou art, my love, I think.
Pyr. 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.
Pyr. Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.
Thif. As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.

Pyr. O kifs me through the hole of this vile wall.
This. I kifs the wall's hole, not your lips at all.
Pyr. 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.

[Exit. Thef. 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 e'er I heard.

Thef. The best in this kind are but shadows, and the worst are no worse if imagination amend them.

Hip. It must be your imagination then, and not theirs. Thef. If we imagine no worse of them than they of themselves, they may pass for excellent men. come two noble beasts in a moon and a lion. (38)

Here

(38) Here come two noble beafts in a man and a lion.] I don't think the jeft here is either compleat, or right. It is differently pointed in feveral of the old copies, which, I suspect, may lead us to the true reading, viz.

Here come two noble beafts, in a man and a lion. 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 crefcent and a lanthorn before him, and representing the man in the moon ; the other in a lion's hide.

Enter

Enter Lion and Moonshine.

Lion. You, Ladies, you, whofe gentle hearts do fear
The smallest monftrous mouse that creeps on floor,
May now, perchance, both quake and tremble here,
When lion rough in wildest rage
doth roar.

Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am
No lion fell, nor elfe no lion's dam:
For if I fhould as lion come in ftrife

Into this place, 'twere pity of my life.

Thef. A very gentle beaft, and of a good confcience.
Dem. The very best at a beaft, my Lord, that e'er I faw.
Lyf. This lion is a very fox for his valour.
Thef. True; and a goofe for his discretion.

Dem. Not fo, my Lord; for his valour cannot carry his difcretion, and the fox carries the goofe.

Thef. 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 hearken to the

moon.

Moon. This lanthorn doth the horned moon prefent: Dem. He fhould have worn the horns on his head. Thef. He is no crefcent, and his horns are invisible within the circumference.

Moon. This lanthorn doth the horned moon present: Myself the man i' th' moon doth feem to be.

Thef. This is the greatest error of all the reft; the man fhould be put into the lanthorn: how is it else the man i' th' moon?

· Dem. He dares not come there for the candle; for you fee, it is already in fnuff.

Hip. I am weary of this moon; would he would change.

Thef. It appears by his fmall light of difcretion, that he is in the wane; but yet in courtefy, in all reafon we must stay the time.

Lyf. Proceed, Moon.

Moon. All that I have to fay, is to tell you that the lanthorn is the moon; I the man in the moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.

3

Dem