Dem. And so comes Pyramus. Lys. And then the moon vanishes.5 Enter PYRAMUS. Pyr. "Sweet moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams; "I thank thee, moon, for shining now so bright: "For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering streams,* "I trust to taste of truest Thisby's sight. "But stay;-O spite! "But mark;-Poor knight, "How can it be? "O dainty duck! O dear! "O fates! come, come; "Quail, crush, conclude, and quell!”9 A Well moused, lion.] So, in an ancient bl. 1. ballad on this story, entitled The Constancy of true Love: &c. “And having musled thus the same, "Thither he went whence first he came." Theseus means that the lion has well tumbled and bloodied the veil of Thisbe. Steevens. I believe this should be “Well mouthed lion,” alluding either to his roaring, or to his tearing with his mouth, the mantle of Thisbe: "Which lion vile with bloody mouth did stain." M. Mason. Well moused lion!] To mouse signified to mammock, to tear in pieces, as a cat tears a mouse. Malone. 5 Dem. And so comes Pyramus. Lys. And then the moon vanishes.] The old copies read: "Dem. And then came Pyramus. Lys. And so the lion vanished." It were needless to say any thing in defence of Dr. Farmer's emendation. The reader, indeed, may ask why this glaring corruption was suffered to remain so long in the text. Steevens. 6 glittering streams,] The old copies read-beams. The emendation was made by the editor of the second folio. Steevens. Malone. 7 Approach, ye furies fell!] Somewhat like this our poet might possibly have recollected in " A lytell Treatyse cleped La Conusaunce d'Amours. Printed by Richard Pynson," no date: The. This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad. Hip. Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man. Pyr. "O, wherefore, nature, didst thou lions frame? "Since lion vile hath here deflour'd my dear: "Which is no, no-which was the fairest dame, "That liv'd, that lov'd, that lik'd, that look'd with cheer.1 "O ye moost cruell and rabbyshe lions fell, "Come and gnawe my wretched body dolorous! "He loked ofte, and it right swetely kist." Steevens. O fates! come, come, &c.] The poet here, and in the following lines spoken by Thisbe "O sisters three, "Come, come to me, "With hands as pale as milk. probably intended to ridicule a passage in Damon and Pythias, by Richard Edwards, 1582: Gripe me, you greedy greefs, "With speed come stop my breath!" Malone. 8 -cut thread and thrum ;] Thrum is the end or extremity of a weaver's warp; it is popularly used for very coarse yarn. The maids now call a mop of yarn a thrum mop. Warner. So, in Hannibal and Scipio, 1637: -no rough pelt of thrums, "To fight with weather." Again, in Chapman's translation of the 16th Iliad: “And tapestries all golden fring'd, and curl'd with thrumbs . behind." So, in Howell's Letter to Sir Paul Neale, Knt. "Translations are like the wrong side of a Turkey carpet, which useth to be full of thrums and knots, and nothing so even as the right side." The thought is borrowed from Don Quixote. Steevens. 9 ·and quell!] To quell is to murder, to destroy. So, in the 12th pageant of the Lusus Coventriæ, commonly called the Corpus Christi Play. MS. Cott. Vesp. D. viii: "That he the lawe may here do, "With stonys her to quell." Steevens. "Come, tears, confound;2 "Out, sword, and wound "The pap of Pyramus: "Ay, that left pap, "Where heart doth hop:3— "Now am I fled; "My soul is in the sky: "Tongue, lose thy light! "Now die, die, die, die, die. [Dies-Exit Moon. Dem. No die, but an ace, for him; for he is but one. Lys. Less than an ace, man; for he is dead; he is nothing. The. With the help of a surgeon, he might yet recover, and prove an ass." 4 Hip. How chance moonshine is gone, before Thisbe comes back and finds her lover? 1 cheer.] i. e. countenance. So, in Chaucer's Clerke's Tale, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 8117: 66 passing any wight "Of so yong age, as wel in chere as dede." Steevens. 2 Come, tears, confound;] Thus, in Golding's Ovid: · one night (he sayd) shall louers two confounde." 66 3 Ay, that left pap, Ritson. Where heart doth hop:] Lest our author should seem chargeable with an inefficient rhyme, it ought to be remembered that the broad pronunciation, now almost peculiar to the Scotch, was anciently current in England. Throughout the old copies of Shakspeare's plays, "tattered" is always spelt "tottered;” Pap therefore was sounded, Pop. The context reminds us of a passage in the Seventh Satire of Juvenal : - leva in parte mamille "Nil salit - """ Steevens. and prove an ass.] The character of Theseus throughout this play is more exalted in its humanity, than its greatness. Though some sensible observations on life, and animated descriptions fall from him, as it is said of Iago, you shall taste him more as a soldier than as a wit, which is a distinction he is here striving to deserve, though with little success; as in support of his pretensions he never rises higher than a pun, and frequently sinks as low as a quibble. Steevens. The. She will find him by star-light.-Here she comes; and her passion ends the play. Enter THISBE. Hip. Methinks, she should not use a long one, for such a Pyramus: I hope she will be brief. Dem. A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which Thisbe, is the better." Lys. She hath spied him alreadywith those sweet eyes. Dem. And thus she moans," videlicet This. "Asleep, my love? "What, dead, my dove? "O Pyramus, arise, "Speak, speak. Quite dumb! "Must cover thy sweet eyes. 5 A mote will turn the balance,] The old copies have—moth; but Mr. Malone very justly observes that moth was merely the ancient mode of spelling mote. So, in King Henry V: "Wash every moth (i. e. mote) out of his conscience." Steevens. 6 The first quarto makes this speech a little longer, but not better. Johnson. The passage omitted is,-" He for a man, God warned us; she for a woman, God bless us." Steevens. 7 And thus she moans,] The old copies concur in reading—means, which Mr. Theobald changed into-moans; and the next speech of Thisbe appears to countenance his alteration: Mr. Theobald alters means to moans: but means had anciently the same signification. Mr. Pinkerton (under the name of Robert Heron, Esq.) observes that it is a common term in the Scotch law, signifying to tell, to relate, to declare; and the petitions to the lords of session in Scotland, run: "To the lords of council and session humbly means and shows your petitioner." Here, however, it evidently signifies complains. Bills in Chancery being in a similar manner: "Humbly complaining sheweth unto your lordship," &c. The word occurs in an ancient manuscript in my own possession: "This ender day wen me was wo, Naght gale to mene me to." So again, in a very ancient Scottish song: "I hard ane may sair mwrne and meyne." Ritson. Thus also, in the Cronykil of A. Wyntown, B. VIII, ch. xxxvi, v. 87: "Bot playnt; ná duie, ná yhit mening Mycht helpe noucht-;" See also, v. 110. Steevens. "These lily brows, "Are gone, are gone: "Lovers, make moan! "His eyes were green as leeks." "Come, come to me, "Since you have shore "With shears his thread of silk. These lily brows, This cherry nose,] the old copy reads: "These lily lips," &c. Steevens. All Thisbe's lamentation, till now, runs in regular rhyme and But both, by some accident, are in this single instance interrupted. I suspect the poet wrote: metre. These lily brows, This cherry nose. Now black brows being a beauty, lily brows are as ridiculous as a cherry nose, green eyes, or cowslip cheeks. Theobald. Theobald's emendation is supported by the following passage in As you like it: ""Tis not your inky brows, your black silk hair.” And by another, in The Winter's Tale: not for because "Your brows are blacker, yet black brows they say Lily lips are changed to lily brows for the sake of the rhyme, but this cannot be right: Thisbe has before celebrated her Pyramus, as "Lilly-white of hue." It should be: These lips lilly, This nose cherry. This mode of position adds not a little to the burlesque of the passage. Farmer. We meet with somewhat like this passage in George Peele's Old Wives Tale, 1595: "Her corall lippes, her crimson chinne.-Thou art a flouting knave. Her corall lippes her crimson chinne!" Steevens. 9 His eyes were green as leeks.] Thus also the nurse in Romeo and Juliet, speaking of Paris, says: - an eagle, madam, "Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye." See note on this passage. |
