" t BOT. You were beft to call them generally, man by man, according to the fcrip. 2 QUIN. Here is the fcroll of every man's name, which is thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our interlude before the duke and duchefs, on his wedding-day at night. BOT. Firft, good Peter Quince, fay what the play treats on; then read the names of the actors; and fo grow to a point. 4 3 QUIN. Marry, our play is-The most lamentable comedy, and moft cruel death of Pyramus and Thilby. 2 the fcrip.] A fcrip, Fr. fcript, now written écrit. So, Chaucer, in Troilus and Creffida, 1. 2. 1130: 66 Scripe nor bil." Again, in Heywood's, If you know not me you know Nobody, 1606, P II: I'll take thy own word without fcrip or fcroll." 3 grow to a point] Dr. Warburton reads - go on; but grow is ufed, in allufion to his name, Quince. JOHNSON. Again, in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584: Our reafons will be infinite, I trow, STEEVENS. And fo grow on to a point.] The sense, in my opinion, hath been hitherto miftaken; and iuftead of a point, a fubftantive, I would read appoint a verb, that is, appoint what part each actor is to perform, which is the real cafe. Quince firft tells them the name of the play, then calls the a&ors by their names, and after that, tells each of them what part is fet down for him to act. Perhaps, however, only the particle a may be inferted by the printer, and Shakspeare wrote to point, i. e. to appoint. The word occurs in that fenfe in a poem by N. B. 1614, called I Would and I Would Not, ftanza iii : 4 "To point the captains every one their fight." WARNER. The mo lamentable comedy, &c.] This is very probably a burlesque on the title page of Cambyfes : A lamentable Tragedie, mixed full of pleasant Mirth, containing, The Life of Cambifes King of Percia, &c. By Thomas Prefton, bl. 1. no date. 5 BOT. A very good piece of work, I affure you, and a merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your actors by the fcroll: Mafters, fpread yourfelves." QUIN. Answer, as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver. BOT. Ready: Name what part I am for, and proceed. QUIN. You, Nick Bottom, are fet down for Pyramus. BOT. What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant? QUIN. A lover, that kills himself moft gallantly for love. Bor. That will afk fome tears in the true performing of it: If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes; I will move ftorms, I will condole in fome measure. To the reft: - Yet my chief On the registers of the Stationers' company, however, appears "the boke of Perymus and Theftye," 1562. Perhaps Shakspeare copied fome part of his interlude from it. STEEVENS. A poem entitled Pyramus and Thisbe, by D. Gale, was published in 4to. in 1597; but this, I believe, was pofterior to The MidJummer-Night's Dream. MALONE. A very good piece of work, and a merry.] This is defigned as a ridicule on the titles of our ancient moralities and interludes. Thus Skelton's Magnificence is called "a goodly interlude and a mery." STEEVENS. 6 fpread yourselves.] i. e. ftand feparately, not in a group, but fo that you may be diftin&tly feen, and called over. STEEVENS. 7 I will condole in fome meafure.] When we ufe this verb at prefent, we put with before the perfon for whofe misfortune we profefs concern. Anciently it feems to have been employed without it. So, in A Pennyworth of good Counfell, an ancient ballad: "Thus to the wall "I may condole." Again, in The Three Merry Coblers, another old fong "Poor weather beaten foles, "Whose cafe the body condoles." STEEVENS, humour is for a tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split. "The raging rocks, With flivering fhocks, "Shall fhine from far,. "And make and mar "The foolish fates.". 8 This was lofty! Now name thereft of the players.— This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is more condoling. QUIN. Francis Flute, the bellows-mender, * 7 I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in,] In the old comedy of The Roaring Girl, 1611, there is a character called Tearcat, who fays I am called, by thofe who have feen my valour, Tear-cat." In an anonymous piece called Hiftriomaftix, or The Player Whipt, 1610, in fix acts, a parcel of foldiers drag a company of players on the ftage, and the captain fays: Sirrah, this is you that would rend and tear a cat upon a ftage," &c. Again, in The Ifle of Gulls, a comedy by J. Day, 1606: I had rather hear two fuch jefts, than a whole play of fuch Tear-cat thunderclaps." STEEVENS. 8 to make all split.] This is to be conne&ed with the previous part of the fpeech; not with the fubfequent rhymes. It was the defcription of a bully. In the fecond ad of The Scornful Lady, we meet with "two roaring boys of Rome, that made all split." FARMER. I meet with the fame expreffion in The Widow's Tears, by Chapman, 1612 "Her wit I muft employ upon this business to prepare my next encounter, but in such a fashion as fhall make all Split." MALONE. 9 With Shivering fhocks,] The old copy reads "And fhivering," &c. The emendation is Dr. Farmer's. STEEVENS. 2 I the bellows.mender.] In Ben Jonfon's Mafque of Pan's Anniversary, &c, a mau of the fame profeffion is introduced. have been told that a bellows-mender was one who had the care of organs, regals, &c. STEEVENS. FLU. Here, Peter Quince. QUIN. You must take Thisby on you. FLU. What is Thisby? a wandering knight? QUIN. It is the lady that Pyramus muft love. FLU. Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming. QUIN. That's all one; you fhall play it in a mafk, and you may speak as small as you will. BOT. An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too: I'll speak in a monftrous little voice; Thifne, Thifne, -Ah, Pyramus, my lover dear; thy Thify dear! and lady dear!. QUIN. No, no; you must play Pyramus, and, Flute, you Thilby. 3 BOT. Well, proceed. QUIN Robin Starveling, the tailor. -as Small, &c.] This paffage fhows how the want of wo. men on the old ftage was fupplied. If they had not a young man who could perform the 'part with a face that might pafs for feminine, the chara&er was acted in a mafk, which was at that time a part of a lady's drefs fo much in ufe that it did not give any unufual appearance to the fcene: and he that could modulate his voice in a female tone, might play the woman very fuccefsfully. It is obferved in Downes's Rofcius Anglicanus, that Kynaflon, one of thefe counterfeit heroines moved the paffions more ftrougly than the women that have fince been brought upon the ftage. Some of the catastrophes of the old comedies, which make lovers marry the wrong women, are, by recollection of the common ufe of masks, brought nearer to probability. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson here seems to have quoted from memory. Downes does not speak of Kynaston's performance in such unqualified terms. His words are "it has fince been difputable among the judicious, whether any woman that fucceeded him, (Kynafton,) fo fenfibly touched the audience as he." REED., Prynne, in his Hiftriomaftix, exclaims with great vehemence through feveral pages, because a woman a&ed a part in a play at Blackfryars in the year 1628. STELVENS. STAR. Here, Peter Quince. QUIN. Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother. Tom Snout, the tinker. SNOUT. Here, Peter Quince. QUIN. You, Pyramus's father; myself, Thisby's father; Snug, the joiner, you, the lion's part:and, I hope, here is a play fitted. pray SNUG. Have you the lion's part written? you, if it be, give it me, for I am flow of study. QUIN. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring. Bot. Let me play the lion to: I will roar, that I will do any man's heart good to hear me; I will roar, that I will make the duke fay, Let him roar again, let him roar again. QUIN. An you fhould do it too terribly, you would fright the duchefs and the ladies, that they would fhriek; and that were enough to hang us all. ALL. That would hang us every mother's fon. BOT. I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us : but I will -you must play Thifuy's mother,] There feems a double forgetfulness of our poet, in relation to the characters of this interlude. The father and mother of Thisby, and the father of Pyramus, are here mentioned, who do not appear at all in the interlude; but Wall and Moonshine are both employed in it, of whom there is not the leaft notice taken here. THEOBALD. Theobald is wrong as to this laft particular. The introduction of Wall and Moonfhine was an after-thought. See A& III. fc. i. It may be obferved, however, that no part of what is rehearsed is afterwards repeated, when the piece is aced before Thefeus. STEEVENS. 5 -flow of ftudy.] Study is ftill the cant term used in a theatre for getting any nonfenfe by rote. Hamlet afks the player if Audy" a fpeech. STEEVENS. he can |