Pyr. "O, kiss me through the hole of this vile wall." This. "I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all.” Pyr. "Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?"8 This. "Tide life, tide death, I come without delay." Wall. "Thus have I, wall, my part discharged so; "And, being done, thus wall away doth go." [Exeunt Wall, PYR. and THIS. The. Now is the mural down between the two neighbours. Dem. No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear without warning.' Hip. This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard. The. 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. The. If we imagine no worse of them, than they of themselves, they may pass for excellent men. Here come two noble beasts in, a moon and a lion.1 7 I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all.] So, Golding's Ovid: When night drew nere, they bade adew, and eche gave kisses sweete "Unto the parget on their side, the which did never mete." Ritson. 8 Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?] So, Golding's Ovid: "They did agree at Ninus tomb to meete without the towne." Ritson. 9 Dem. No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear without warning.] This alludes to the proverb, "Walls have ears." A wall between almost any two neighbours would soon be down, were it to exercise this faculty without previous warning. Farmer. The old copies read-moral, instead of mural. Mr. Theobald made the correction. Malone. 1 Here come two noble beasts in, a moon and a lion.] The old copies read-a man, &c. Steevens. I don't think the jest here is either complete or right. It is differently pointed in several of the old copies, which, I suspect, may lead us to the true reading, viz: Here come two noble beasts-in a man and a lion. immediately upon Theseus saying this, enter Lion and Moon, shine. Is seems very probable, therefore, that our author wrote: in a moon and a lion, the one having a crescent and a lanthorn before him, and representing the man in the moon, the other in a lion's hide, Theobald, Enter Lion and Moonshine. Lion. "You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear "The smallest monstrous 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 "A lion fell, nor else no lion's dam:2 "For if I should as lion come in strife "Into this place, 'twere pity on my life." The. A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience. Dem. The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I saw. Lys. This lion is a very fox for his valour. The. True; and a goose for his discretion. Dem. Not so, my lord: for his valour cannot carry his discretion; and the fox carries the goose. Mr. Theobald reads-a moon and a lion, and the emendation was adopted by the subsequent editors; but, I think, without necessity. The conceit is furnished by the person who represents the lion, and enters covered with the hide of that beast; and Theseus only means to say, that the man who represented the moon, and came in at the same time, with a lantern in his hand, and a bush of thorns at his back, was as much a beast as he who performed the part of the lion. Malone. Here come two noble beasts in, a moon and a lion. I cannot help supposing that we should have it, a moon-calf. The old copies read-a man; possibly man was the marginal interpretation of moon-calf; and, being more intelligible, got into the text. The man in the moon was no new character on the stage, and is here introduced in ridicule of such exhibitions. Ben Jonson in one of his masques, called News from the New World in the Moon, makes his Factor doubt of the person who brings the intelligence: "I must see his dog at his girdle, and the bush of thorns at his back, ere I believe it."-"Those (replies one of the heralds) are stale ensigns o' the stage." Farmer. 2 Then know, that I, one Snug the joiner, am A lion fell, nor else no lion's dam:] That is, that I am Snug the joiner; and neither a lion, nor a lion's dam. Dr. Johnson has justly observed in a note on All's well that ends well, that nor in the phraseology of our author's time often related to two members of a sentence, though only expressed in the latter, the play just mentioned: 66 contempt nor bitterness "Were in his pride or sharpness." So, in The reading of the text is that of the folio. The quartos read that I as Snug the joiner, &c. Malone. The. His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valour; for the goose carries not the fox. It is well: leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to the moon. Moon. "This lantern doth the horned moon present:" Dem. He should have worn the horns on his head. The. He is no crescent, and his horns are invisible within the circumference. Moon. "This lantern doth the horned moon present; "Myself the man i' th' moon do seem to be." The. This is the greatest error of all the rest: the man should be put into the lantern: How is it else the man i' th' moon? Dem. He dares not come there for the candle: for, you see, it is already in snuff. 3 Hip. I am aweary of this moon: Would he would change! The. It appears, by his small light of discretion, that he is in the wane: but yet, in courtesy, in all reason, we must stay the time. Lys. Proceed, moon. Moon. All that I have to say, is, to tell you, that the lantern is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this thornbush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog. Dem. Why, all these should be in the lantern; for they are in the moon. But, silence; here comes Thisbe. Enter THISBE. This. "This is old Ninny's tomb: Where is my love?" Lion. "Oh-." [The Lion roars.-THIS. runs off. Dem. Well roared, lion. The. Well run, Thisbe. Hip. Well shone, moon.-Truly, the moon shines with a good grace. The. Well moused, lion.4 [The Lion tears THISBE's mantle, and exit. 3 in snuff.] An equivocation. Snuff signifies both the cinder of a candle and hasty anger. Johnson. So, in Love's Labour Lost: "You 'll mar the light, by taking it in snuff.” Steevens. Again, in The Atheist's Tragedy, 1611: "Do you take that in snuff, sir?” See also, note on Love's Labour Lost, Act V, sc. ii, and First Part of King Henry IV, Act I, sc. iii. Reed. 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! “Thy mantle good, "What, stain'd with blood? Approach, ye furies fell!" "O fates! come, come; "Cut thread and thrum;8 "Quail, crush, conclude, and quell!" 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 à mouse. Malone. 5 Dem. And so comes Pyramus. Lys. And then the moon vanishes.] The old copies read: "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. Steevens. The emendation was made by the editor of the second folio. 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. Approach, ye furies fell! 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 99 probably intended to ridicule a passage in Damon and Pythias, by Richard Edwards, 1582: 8 "Ye furies, all at once "On me your torments trie:- "You sisters three, with cruel handes "With speed come stop my breath!" Malone. 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: 66 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 Coventria, commonly called the Corpus Christi Play. MS. Cott. Vesp. D. viii: "That he the lawe may here do, "With stonys her to quell." Steevens. |