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VSCENE changes to the Town,mby
Enter Quince, Flute, Snowt, and Starveling.

Quin. HAVE you fent to Bottom's house ? is he come

home yet ollut an bid in b

Star. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt, he is tranfported.st

Flu. If he come not, then the play is marr'd. It goes. not forward, doth it?

Quin. It is not poffible; you have not a man, in all Athens, able to difcharge Pyramus, but he.

Flu. No, he hath fimply the beft wit of any handycraft man in Athens.

Quin. Yea, and the best perfon too; and he is a very paramour for a fweet voice.

Flu. You mult fay, paragon; (22) a paramour is (God bless us!) a thing of naught.

Enter Snug.

Snug Masters, the Duke is coming from the temple, and there is two or three lords and ladies more married; if our sport had gone forward, we had all been made men, 193

bs Flu. Ofweet 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.

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Enter Bottom.

Bot. Where are thefe lads where are thefe hearts?

'ter & which the wife Editors not understanding, concluded, two Words were erroneoufly got together; fo, fplitting them, and clapping in an b, produced the prefent Readingat her,

(22) 4 Paramour is (God bless us!) a thing of Nought. This is a Reading, I am fure, of Nought. My Change of a fingle Letter gives a very important Change to the Humour of the Paffage..

A Thing of naught, means, a naughty Thing, little better than downright Bawdry. Quin

G 3

Quin. Bottom! moft courageous day! O mont happy hour!

O

Bot. Masters, I am to difcourfe 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, sweet Bottom.

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

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Enter Thefeus, Hippolita, Egeus, and his Lords

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IS ftrange, niy Thefeus, what thefe lovers speak of.
The. More ftrange than true. I never may believe

'T'

These antick fables, nor thefe fairy toys;

Lovers and madmen have fuch feething brains,
Such fhaping fantafies, that apprehend
More than cool reafon ever comprehends."

The lunatick, the lover, and the poet, I SULLAIN SAW

Are of imagination all compact's

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One fees more devils than vaft 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 heaven to earth, from earth to heav'n g

And

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 ftrong imagination,
That if he 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 ftory of the night told over,
And all their minds transfigur'd fo together,
More witneffeth than fancy's images,

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

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Enter Lyfander, Demetrius, Hermia and Helena.

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

Ly. More than to us,

Wait on your royal walks, your board, your bed.

The. 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 eafe the anguifh of a torturing hour? Call Philoftrate.

Enter Philoftrates

Philoft. Here, mighty Thefeus.

1

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

?

Philof. There is a brief, how many fports are ripe : Make choice of which your Highness will fee firft. [Giving a Paper. The. reads.] The battle with the Centaurs, to be Jung By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.

We'll

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

The riot of the tipy Bacchanals,

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

The thrice three Mufes mourning for the death. AN
Of learning, late deceas'd in beggary.

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That is fome fatire, keen and critical ;
Not forting with a nuptial ceremony.
A tedious brief Icene of young Pyramus,
And his love Thibe very tragical mirths 199
Merry and tragical tedious and brief. 1918 T
That is hot Ice, and wonderous ftrange Snow. I ardW
How fhall we find the concord of this difcord? 91.M
Philoft. A play there is, my lord, fome ten words long;
Which is as brief, as I have known a play baA
But by ten words, my lord, it is too long;garyse col·
Which makes it tedious: for in all the play to 1.0
There is not one word apt, one player fitted.; ml bak
And tragical, my n noble lord, it is :

For Pyramus therein doth kill himself,

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Which, when I faw rehears'd, I must confefs,

Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears asi ni The paflion of loud laughter never shed.

The. 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,

And now have toil'd their unbreath'd memories

With this fame play against your nuptials.
The. And we will hear it.

Philoft. No, my noble lord,

7.

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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 ftretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain,
To do you fervice.

The. I will hear that play:

-For never any thing can be amifs,

ود

When

When fimplenels and duty tender it. 34.00
Go, bring them in, and take your places, ladies.

[Exit. Phil. Hip. I love not to fee wretchednefs o'ercharg'd, And duty in his fervice perifhing. 951V9

The. Why, gentle fweet, you fhall fee no fuch thing.
Hip. He fays, they can do nothing in this kind.
The. The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.
Our fport fhall be, to take what they mistake;
And what poor (willing) duty cannot do, (23)
Noble refpect takes it in might, not merit.
Where I have come, great clerks have purpofed
To greet me with premeditated welcome;
Where I have feen them fhiver and look pale,
Make periods in the midft of fentences,
Throttle their practis'd accent in their fears,
And, in conclufion, dumbly have broke off,
Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, fweet,
Out of this filence yet I pick'd a welcome:
And in the modelty of fearful duty

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

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

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My Enter Philoftrate.

Philoft. So please your Grace, the prologue is addreft.

[Flour, Trum

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The. Let him approach.

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Enter Quince, for the prologue.

ith our good will.

offend,

That you fhould think, we come not to
But with good will. To fhew our fimple skill,
That is the true beginning of our end.

(22) And what poor duty cannot do, noble Respect

t

Takes it in Might, not Merit.] What Ears have these poetical Editors, to palm this firft Line upon us as a Verfe of Shakespear? 'Tis certain, an Epithet had flips out, and I have ventur'd to tefore fuch a one as the Senfe may difpenfe with; and which makes the two Verfes flowing and perfect.

G S

Confider

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