married; if our fport had gone forward, we had all been made men.

Flu. O fweet bully Bottom! thus hath he loft fixpence a-day during his life; he could not have 'fcap'd fix-pence a-day; an the Duke had not given him fixpence a-day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hang'd: he would have deferv'd it. Six-pence a-day, in Pyramus, or nothing.

Enter Bottom.

Bot. Where are these lads? where are these hearts? Quin. Bottom!- -O most courageous day! O most happy hour!

Bot. Mafters, I am to discourse wonders, but ask me not what; for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I will tell you every thing as it fell out.

Quin. Let us hear, fweet Bottom.

Bot. Not a word of me; all I will tell you is, that the Duke hath dined. Get your apparel together, good ftrings to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the palace, every man look o'er his part; for the fhort and the long is, our play is preferr'd in any case, let Thisby have clean linnen; and let not him, that plays the lion, pare his nails, for they fhall hang out for the lion's claws; and, moft dear actors! eat no onions, nor garlick, for we are to utter fweet breath; and I do not doubt to hear them say, it -is a moft sweet comedy. No more words; away; go away.

[Exeunt.

ACT

ACT V.

V. SCENE I

The PALACE.

Enter Thefeus, Hippolita, Egeus, and bis Lords.

'T1

HIPPOLITA.

IS ftrange, my Thefeus, what these lovers speak of.
Thef. More ftrange than true. I never may
believe

Thefe antick fables, nor these fairy toys;
Lovers and madmen have fuch feething brains,
Such fhaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reafon ever comprehends.
"The lunatick, the lover, and the poet,
"Are of imagination all compact:

"One fees more devils than vast hell can hold;
"The madman. While the lover, all as frantick,

"Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt.

"The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rowling,

"Doth glance from heav'n to earth, from earth to heav'n;

"And, as imagination bodies forth

"The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen "Turns them to fhape, and gives to aiery nothing "A local habitation and a name.

"Such tricks hath strong imagination,

That if it would but apprehend fome joy,
"It comprehends fome bringer of that joy;
Or in the night imagining fome fear,
How eafy is a bufh fuppos'd a bear?

Hip. But all the story of the night told over,

1 That if HE would but apprehend-] The Quarto of 1600 reads, That if Ti. e. the imagination; and this is right.

And

And all their minds transfigur'd fo together,
More witneffeth than fancy's images,

And grows to fomething of great conftancy;
But, howfoever, ftrange and admirable.

Enter Lyfander, Demetrius, Hermia and Helena.

Thef. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth. Joy, gentle friends; joy and fresh days of love Accompany your hearts.

Lyf. More than to us,

Wait on your royal walks, your board, your bed. Thef. Come now, what masks, what dances fhall we have,

To wear away this long age of three hours,
Between our after-fupper and bed-time?
Where is our ufual manager of mirth?
What revels are in hand? is there no play,
To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
Call Philoftrate.

Enter Philoftrate.

Philoft. Here, mighty Thefeus.

[ing?

Thef. Say, what abridgment have you for this evenWhat mafque? what mufick? how fhall we beguile The lazy time, if not with fome delight?

Philoft. There is a brief, how many fports are ripe: Make choice of which your Highness will fee first. [Giving a Paper.

Thef. [reads.] The battle with the Centaurs, to be fung By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.

We'll none of that. That I have told my love,
In glory of my kinfman Hercules.

The riot of the tipfie Bacchanals,

Tearing the Thracian finger in their rage.
That is an old device; and it was plaid,
When I from Thebes came laft a conqueror.

The

2 The thrice three Mufes mourning for the death
Of learning, late deceas'd in beggary.
That is fome fatyr, keen and critical;
Not forting with a nuptial ceremony.
A tedious brief fcene of young Pyramus,
And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.
3 Merry and tragical? tedious and brief?
That is hot Ice, a wondrous ftrange Shew.
How fhall we find the concord of this difcord?
Philoft. A play there is, my lord, fome ten words
long;

Which is as brief, as I have known a play;
But by ten words, my lord, it is too long;
Which makes it tedious: for in all the play
There is not one word apt, one player fitted.
And tragical, my noble lord, it is:
For Pyramus therein doth kill himself.

Which, when I faw rehears'd, I must confefs,
Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears
The paffion of loud laughter never shed.
Thef. What are they, that do play it?

Philoft. Hard-handed men, that work in Athens here, Which never labour'd in their minds 'till now;

2 The thrice three Mufes, &c.] This feems to be intended as a compliment to Spencer, who wrote a poem called The tears of the Mufes. He feems to have paid his friend another, in the fecond Act, where he makes the queen of fairies fay to the king, But I know

intimating that the paftorals,

of that poet were fo fweet, that it was a fuperior being under

the difguife of a mortal who compofed them.

3 Merry and tragical? tedious and brief?

That is bot Ice, AND wondrous ftrange SNOW.] The non

fenfe of the last line fhould be corrected thus,

That is, hot Ice, a wondrous firange SH&W!

And

And now have toil'd their unbreath'd memories
With this fame play against your nuptials.
Thef. And we will hear it.

Philoft. No, my noble lord,

It is not for you. I have heard it over,
And it is nothing, nothing in the world;
Unless you can find fport in their intents,
Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain,
To do you fervice.

Thef. I will hear that play:

"For never any thing can be amifs, "When fimplenefs and duty tender it.

Go, bring them in, and take your places, ladies.

[Exit Phil. Hip. I love not to fee wretchedness o'ercharg'd, And duty in his fervice perifhing.

Thef. Why, gentle fweet, you shall fee no fuch thing. Hip. He fays, they can do nothing in this kind. Thef. The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.

Our sport shall be, to take what they mistake;
And what poor (willing) duty cannot do,
Noble refpect takes it in might, not merit.
"Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
"To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
"Where I have seen them fhiver and look pale,
"Make periods in the midst of sentences,
"Throttle their practis'd accent in their fears,
"And, in conclufion, dumbly have broke off,
"Not paying me a welcome. Truft me, fweet,
"Out of this filence yet I pick'd a welcome:
"And in the modesty 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 most, to my capacity.

Enter