66 Enter PYRAMUS. Pyr. "O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black; "O night, which ever art, when day is not! 'O night, O night, alack, alack, alack, "I fear my Thisby's promise is forgot!"And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall, "That stand'st between her father's ground and mine; "Thou wall, O wall, O sweet, and lovely wall, "Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine [Wall holds up his Fingers. Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for 66 eyne. this! "But what see I? No Thisby do I see. "O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss: "Curst be thy stones for thus deceiving me!" The. The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again. Pyr. No, in truth, sir, he should not. Deceiving me, is Thisby's cue: she is to enter now, and I am to spy her through the wall. You shall see, it will fall pat as I told you:-Yonder she comes. 66 Enter THISBE. This. "O wall, full often hast thou heard my 66 moans, For parting my fair Pyramus and me: My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones: 66 Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee." Pyr. "I see a voice: now will I to the chink, "To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face. "Thisby!" This. "My love! thou art my love, I think." Pyr. "Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace; "And like Limander 16 am I trusty still." This. "And I like Helen, till the fates me kill.” Pyr. "Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true." This. "As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you." Pyr. "O, kiss me through the hole of this vile wall." 66 This. I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all." Pyr. "Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?" 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, PYRAMUS, and THISBE. The. Now is the mural down between the two neighbours. Dem. No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear without warning 17. 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 18 and a lion. 16 Limander and Helen, blunderingly for Leander and Hero, as Shafalus and Procrus for Cephalus and Procris. 17 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. 18 The old copies read, a man, &c. The emendation is by 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 "No lion fell, nor else no lion's dam: "For if I should as lion come in strife 66 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. 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'the'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'the moon? Dem. He dares not come there for the candle; for, you see, it is already in snuff 19. 19 An equivoque. Snuff signifies both the einder of a candle and hasty anger. Hip. I am a weary 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 thorn bush, 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.-THISBE runs off. Dem. Well roared, lion. The. Well run, Thisbe. Hip. Well shone, moon.-Truly, the moon shines with a good grace. 20 lion. The. Well moused 20, [The Lion tears THISBE's Mantle, and exit. Dem. And so comes Pyramus. Lys. And then the moon vanishes. 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. 20 To mouse, according to Malone, signified to mammock, to tear in pieces, as a cat tears a mouse. "Quail, crush, conclude, and quell 23 !" 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, 66 That liv'd, that lov'd, that lik'd, that look'd with cheer 24 Ay, that left рар, "Where heart doth hop: "Thus die I, thus, thus, thus. 21 Dr. Farmer thought this was written in ridicule of a passage in Damon and Pythias, by Richard Edwards, 1582: Ye furies, all at once On me your torments tire. Gripe me, you greedy griefs And present pangues of death; You sisters three, with cruel hands, With speed come stop my breath.' 22 Thrum is the end or extremity of a weaver's warp. It is used for any collection or tuft of short thread. 23 Destroy. 24 Countenance. |