pleget die dollen Lüden tho setten, Die wil ick her trecken, Vnd ick wil vor henin krupen, Vnd als hei mey volgen wilt, soude ick thomaken.

Adrian. Das ist gut, Gehe nur fluchs hin, vnd bring jhn her. Dann er stehet auff Rollen, Du kanst jhn leichtlich herziehen, Ich wil dieweile bey jhme bleiben. (Adrian tantzet vnd springet dieweil, das thut jhm Gallichoræa alles nach. Iohan kömpt entlich mit dem Kasten, vnd sagt zu Gallichoræa). Iohan Bouset. Siet ick sal au ein schon kortwil wisen, Folget mey na. (Iohan kreucht dreymal durch den Kasten hindurch, vnd Gallichorea hinter jhme her, vnd als er zum drittenmal hindurch wil, machen sie den Kasten zu, vnd bleibet darin sitzen, Er aber schreiet vnd brüllet heszlich, vnd wil den Kasten zubrechen.)

Adrian. Iohan, Kom, Ich wil dir helffen, vnd jhn in sein Haus trecken. (Trecken jhn hinweg, vnnd er rüfft greszlich, Inmittelst kompt sein Fraw, wie er dieselbe sihet, schreyet er:)

Gallichoraa. Due lose Hur, Du Hur, Du Hur Hur.

The comic aspect is so apparent that no comment is necessary. I would merely emphasize the fact that these scenes, of which there is no hint in the source," were published in 1594 under the direct influence of the English players and the Elizabethan drama.

The second point is concerned with the acting tradition of the suicide of the worthy Bottom as Pyramus in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The text itself contains no stage directions:

I, that left pap, where heart doth hop;

Thus dye I, thus, thus, thus.

Now am I dead, now am I fled, my soule is in the sky,
Tongue lose thy light, Moone take thy flight,

Now dye, dye, dye, dye, dye.10

As an indication, however, that this interlude of the clowns was conducted "in the extreme of burlesque" Halliwell 11 cites Sharpham's The Fleire (1607):"Kni. And how lives he with 'am? Fle. Faith, like Thisbe in the play, 'a has almost kil'd himselfe with the scabberd'; a notice which is also valuable as recording a fragment belonging to the original performance of Shakespeare's comedy, the interlude of the clowns, it may be concluded, having been conducted in the extreme of burlesque, and the actor who represented 9 Michael Lindner's Rastbüchlein: Von einem Goldschmied und armen Studenten.

10 MND, V, i, 303 ff.

11 Memoranda on the Midsummer Night's Dream, 1879, p. 35. Also quoted by Furness in the note to V, 1, 338.

Thisbe, when he pretends to kill himself, falling upon the scabbard instead of upon the sword."

That this, or something very similar, was also the Elizabethan tradition for the death of Pyramus would seem established from two continental versions, the one Dutch, the other German, both, however, derived from Shakespeare's play: Gramsbergen's Kluchtige Tragoedie, acted on the Amsterdam stage in 1650 and published in 1657, and Gryphius' Peter Squentz, written probably between 1648 and 1650, but published by strange coincidence also in 1657.12

In the Kluchtige Tragoedie Piramus, after he has "raged" over Thisbe's supposed death, turns to Mr Spillebien, de Boekhouwer, with the question:

Is dat zoo niet spiels genoch?

Spilleb. Neen / trek nou je Wammis uyt. [Piramus does more than this, accompanying his actions with words, and closing with the line: Daar leit mijn Kampier. . . ]

Spilleb. Smijt het niet eweg / want je moet' er jou noch eerst mee dood

steeken.

Piram. Eerst dood steecken / wel zie daar. A. a. a.

Spilleb. Adie dan - Piram. Adie dan al men vrienden kleyn en groot. Maar de punt is zoo scharp. Spilleb. Steeckje dan mit het gevest dood. Piram. Puik. Och / och! ick sterf! ick sterf! men geest is al op een klein beetje besweeken.

In the Peter Squentz Piramus cannot at first find his sword; he fears that he has left it at home. Finally, however, he falls over it and then continues:13

Nun gesegne dich Gott, trincken und essen,

Ihr Byrnen und ihr Aepffel! ich musz euer vergessen!

Ade, Ade all alt und jung!

Der Todt thut nach mir einen Sprung.

Gesegn' euch Gott, klein und gross.

Der Tod gibt mir itzt einen Stosz.

Er ziehlet eine weile mit dem Degen, hernach wendet er sich zu den Zuhörern und spricht:

12 On the relation of these two to Shakespeare, as also of a second, even earlier, German version, preserved only in the form of a detailed report, cf. Burg, Zeitschrift für Deutsches Alterthum, Bd. 25 (1881), pp. 130 ff. This important contribution unfortunately escaped the attention of Mr. Furness, and as a consequence the statements to be found in the Variorum (especially p. 336) are on this point entirely inaccurate.

Gramsbergen I quote from the copy of the British Museum; Gryphius from the edition of Palm: Kürschners Deutsche National-Litteratur.

13 Palm, p. 231, 11. 15 ff.

Ey, Lieber! fürchtet doch euch nicht so; es hat nichts zu bedeuten. Seht, ich wil mich nur mit dem Knopffe erstechen.

Hernach macht er das Wambst auff, setzet den Knopff an die Brust, die Spitze an die Bühne, fällt nieder, stehet hernach wieder auff, laufft um das ganze Theatrum herum und fanget an:

Nun hab ich mich gethan vom Brod.

Seht, Lieber, seht! ich bin stein tod.

These same continental versions also agree as to the manner of the fair Thisbe's death. In all three versions the sword of Pyramus is the weapon used. When in the Kluchtige Tragoedie Thisbe laments the sharpness of the Ponjert, Spillebien bids her: "Steekze maar / om de leus / van ondren deur je Rokken"; while Gryphius14 gives the stage direction: "Sie sticht sich mit dem Degen unter den Rock." Is this also Elizabethan?

14 Palm, p. 233, 1. 21.

VARIETY AND MONOTONY IN PLAUTINE PLOTS: ADDENDUM 1

By ROLAND G. KENT

University of Pennsylvania

1

In championing the reading of Plautus, especially, and also of Terence and of Menander, one is perhaps under obligations to speak of the moral tendencies or otherwise of the plays. Fairly rough and unrestrained they may be, but they represent at least the best morality of their time. The only license condoned is that of a young man's keeping a mistress while he is still unmarried. A double household is not permissible; an old man is expected to comport himself in seemly fashion; no man takes to wife a woman who has been promiscuous, but every one is shown to be ready to repair his own misdoings by marriage, if the injured girl is of free birth and therefore can be legally married. In most cases she must be of free Attic birth, since Athenian law recognized no legal marriage with a foreigner, and most of the plays are laid in Attica, usually in Athens itself.

1 Editors' Note: The final paragraph of Professor Kent's article on Variety and Monotony in Plautine Plots, in the July, 1923, number of the Philological Quarterly, was printed in a somewhat mutilated form. It is here produced entire.

2 Cf. Lamarre, Histoire de la littérature latine, Vol. II, pp. 473-488.

BOOK REVIEWS

Norröne Gude og Heltesagn, ordnet og fremstillet av P. A. Munch. Tredje utgave, efter A. Kjær's bearbeidelse, ved Magnus Olsen. Steensballes Bokhandel, Kristiania, 1922.

The new revised edition of Munch's popular survey of Northern myth and legend will be welcome both to the scholar and to the general reader. Professor Olsen rightly remarks in his introduction: "P. A. Munch's excellently composed 'mythology,' characterized by his sense of what in ancient times has formed a principal element of our ancestors' spiritual life, has been a favorite for two generations. We are not ready to discard this book. It should be able to live a century in an essentially unchanged form.''

...

The arrangement and the general nature of the book are such that a revision can easily be made without the destruction of the spirit of the original. The principal purpose was, and still is, to give in a vivid form the actual myths and legends, undefiled by theorizing and tedious personal hypotheses. After each section, unusually full notes give the sources of each version of the story, the principal modern interpretations, and a good critical bibliography.

In the main body, few changes have been made, except for the modernization of the language and spelling. Three sections have been materially expanded to give place to certain results of recent investigations. Thus section 56 gives a brief summary of the distinction between "mythology," on the one hand, and "religion, faith, and worship,'' on the other. Section 57, which serves as an introduction to Part II, Heroic Legend, warms against the earlier view of the legend as something of mythic and heroic origin. According to modern views "the heroic legend exists only in and with heroic poetry, and we must, therefore, approach the heroic legend by means of a special literary-historical method, different from that used in mythological investigations.' Finally, section 84, dealing with the pagan temples and sacrifices, has been materially changed on the basis of results gained from Icelandic excavations.

The notes have been subject to far greater revision. Of special interest to the scholar are the copious references to modern investigations. The editor has given not only the bibliographical references but usually at least one sentence showing the general tendency or theory of the work referred to. Professor Olsen has wisely refrained from making these characterizations controversial.

And finally we have a supplement which, though a revision of a supplement furnished by Professor O. Rygh to the second edition, is in reality the result of very far reaching investigations by Professor Olsen himself. It deals with the evidence of cult and worship found in Norwegian place names.