Lys. Less than an ace, man; for he is dead; he is nothing. THE. With the help of a furgeon he might yet recover, and prove an ass. HIP. How chance the Moonshine is gone, before Thisby comes back and finds her lover? Enter Thisby. THE. She will find him by star-light. HIP. Methinks, she should not use a long one for fuch a Pyramus: I hope, she will be brief. DEM. A moth will turn the ballance, which Pyramus, which Thisby is the better. Lys. She hath spied him already with thofe fweet eyes. DEM. And thus fhe moans, videlicet. THIS. Afleep, my love? What dead, my dove? O Pyramus, arise : Speak, fpeak. Quite dumb? Dead, dead? a tomb Must cover thy fweet eyes, Thefe lilly brows, This cherry nose, Thefe yellow cowflip cheeks, Are gone, are gone : Lovers, make moan! His eyes were green as leeks. O fifters three, Come, come to me, With hands as pale as milk; Lave them in gore, Since you have thore With fhears his thread of filk. Tongue, not a word; Come, trufty fword, Come, blade, my breast imbrue: And farewell, friends, Thus Thisby ends; Adieu, adieu, adieu. [Dies. THE. Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead. BOT. No, I affure you, the wall is down that parted their fathers. Will it please you to fee the epilogue, or to hear a bergomask dance, between two of our company? THE. No epilogue I pray you, for your play needs no excuse. Never excufe; for when the players are all dead, there need none to be blam'd. Marry, if he, that writ it, had play'd Pyramus, and hung himself in Thisby's garter, it would have been a fine tragedy and fo it is, truly, and very notably discharg'd. But come, your bergomask; let your epilogue alone. [Here a dance of Clowns. The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve. I fear, we fhall out-fleep the coming morn, SCENE HI Enter Puck. PUCK. Now the hungry lion roars, And the wolf behowls the moon : Whilft the heavy ploughman fnores, All with weary task fore-done. [Exeunt. Now the wafted brands do glow Whilft the screech-owl, fhrieking loud, Puts the wretch, that lies in woe, In remembrance of a fhroud. That the graves, all gaping wide, By the triple Hecat's team, Enter king and queen of Fairies, with their train. OB. Through this house give glimmering light, Every elf, and fairy spright, Hop as light as bird from brier And this ditty after me Sing and dance it trippingly. QUEEN. First rehearse this song by rote, To each word a warbling note. Hand in hand with fairy grace, OB. Now until the break of day, So fhall all the couples three Ever.true in loving be: And the blots of nature's hand Shall upon their children be. And each feveral chamber blefs, Ever fhall it fafely reft, And the owner of it bleft. Trip away, Make no ftay; Meet me all by break of day. Puck. If we fhadows have offended, Now to 'fcape the ferpent's tongue, So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends; [Exeunt omnes. NOTES TE ON THE M PE S T. The Reader, to find the Line referred to, muft reckon the Lines of the Text only, beginning at the Top of the Page, omitting all Lines relating to the Entry of Characters, &c. The NOTES not in Dr. JOHNSON's Edition are marked with an Afierifm [*] thus. TH HE TEMPEST has rather more of the novel in it than THE TAMING OF THE SHREW: but no one has yet pretended to have met with fuch a novel, nor any thing elfe, that can be fuppofed to have furnished Shakefpeare with materials for writing this play; the fable of which muft therefore país for entirely his own production, till the contrary can be made appear by any future difcovery. Dr. Warburton, after obferving, that--the perfons of the drama are all Italians, and the unities all regularly observed in it, (a cuftom likewife of the Italians) concludes his note with the mention of two of their plays,-IL NEGROMANTE, di L. Ariofte, and IL NEGROMANTE PALLIATO di Gio. Angelo Petrucci; one or other of which, he feems to think, may have given rife to THE TEMPEST: but he is mistaken! in both of them; and the last must needs be out of the queftion, being later than Shakespeare's time. CAPELL, These two firft Plays, THE TEMPEST and THE MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, are the nobleft efforts of that fublime and amazing imagination peculiar to Shakefpear, which foars above the bounds of nature without forfaking fenfe; or, more properly, carries nature along with him beyond her established limits, Fletcher feems particu、 . VOL. I. |