Where I have seen them fhiver, and look pale, I read as much, as from the rattling tongue Enter Philoftrate. Philoft. So pleafe your grace, the prologue is ad dreft'. The. Let him approach. Enter the Prologue. [Flour. Trum". Prol. If we offend, it is with our good will. That you should think, we come not to offend, But with good-will. To fhew our fimple skill, That is the true beginning of our end. Confider then, we come but in defpite. We do not come, as minding to content you, We are not here. That you should here repent you, addreft.] That is, ready. So, in K. Hen. V. [Flourish of trumpets.] It appears from the Gulls Hornbook, by Deckar, 1609, that the prologue was anciently ufher'd in by trumpets : "Prefent not yourfelfe on the ftage (efpecially at a new play) untill the quaking prologue hath (by rubbing) got cullor into his cheekes, and is ready to give the trumpets their cue that hees upon point to enter." STEEVENS. The. This fellow doth not ftand upon points. Lys. He hath rid his prologue, like a rough colt; he knows not the ftop. A good moral, my lord: It is not enough to speak, but to speak true. Hip. Indeed he hath play'd on this prologue, like a child on a recorder 3; a found, but not in govern ment 4. The. His fpeech was like a tangled chain; nothing impair'd, but all difordered. Who is next? Enter Pyramus, and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion, as in dumb fhow. Prol. "Gentles, perchance, you wonder at this "fhow; "But wonder on, till truth make all things plain. "This man is Pyramus, if you would know; "This beauteous lady Thisby is, certain. "This man, with lime and rough-caft, doth prefent "Wall, that vile wall which did these lovers "funder: "And through wall's chink, poor fouls, they are "" content "To whisper; at the which let no man wonder. 3 — on a recorder ;] Lord Bacon in his natural history, cent. iii. fect. 221, fpeaks of recorders and flutes at the fame instant, and fays, that the recorder hath a lefs bore, and a greater, above and below; and elsewhere, cent. ii. fect. 187, he fpeeaks of it as having fix holes, in which respect it answers to the Tibia minor or Flajolet of Merfennus. From all which particulars it should feem that the flute and the recorder were different inftruments, and that the latter in propriety of speech was no other than the Aagolet. Hawkins' Hiftory of Mufick, vol. iv. p. 479. EDITORS Shakspeare introduces it in Hamlet; and Milton fays: "To the found of foft recorders."" This inftrument is mentioned in many of the old plays. STEEVENS. 4but not in government.] That is, not regularly, according to the tune. STEEVENS. 5 In this place the folio, 1623, exhibits the following promp ter's direction. Tawyer with a trumpet before them. STEEVENS. "This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bufh of thorn, "Prefenteth moon-fhine: for, if you will know, 66 By moon-fhine did these lovers think no fcorn "To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo. "This grifly beaft, which by name lion hight', "The trufty Thifby, coming first by night, "Did fcare away, or rather did affright: "And, as the fled, her mantle the did fall ; "Which lion vile with bloody mouth did ftain : "Anon comes Pyramus, fweet youth, and tall, "And finds his trufty Thisby's mantle flain: "Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade ', "He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breaft; "And (Thisby tarrying in mulberry shade,) His 6 To meet at Ninus' tomb, &c.] So, in Chaucer's Legend of Thibe of Babylon: Again: 7 "Thei fettin markes ther metingis should be, "And as she ran her wimple the let fall," &c. STEEVENS. which Lion height by name,] As all the other parts of this fpeech are in alternate rhyme, excepting that it closes with a couplet; and as no rhime is left to name, we must conclude, either a verfe is flipt out, which cannot now be retriev'd; or, by a tranfpofition of the words, as I have placed them, the poet in-, tended a triplet. THEOBALD.. 8 •her mantle he did fall;] The modern editions read:- "The let fall in this inftance is a verb active. To Thus all the old copies. STEEVENS. 9 And finds his trufty Thibe's mantle flain.] The first folio reads: "And finds his Thisby's mantle flaine." The second has : "And finds his gentle Thisby's mantle flain." The prefent reading is that of the quarto. MALONE. Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,] Mr. Upton rightly obferves, that Shakspeare in this line ridicules the affec I 4 tatica "His dagger drew, and died. For all the reft, "Let lion, moon-fhine, wall, and lovers twain, "At large difcourfe, while here they do remain." [Exeunt all but Wall. The. I wonder if the lion be to speak. Dem. No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when many affes do. Wall." In this fame interlude, it doth befall, "That I, one Snout by name, prefent a wall: "And fuch a wall, as I would have you think, "That had in it a cranny'd hole, or chink, "Through which the lovers, Pyranius and Thisby, "Did whisper often very fecretly. "This lome, this rough-caft, and this stone, doth "fhew "That I am that fame wall; the truth is fo: tation of beginning many words with the fame letter. He might have remarked the fame of The raging rocks And fhivering fhocks. Gafcoigne, contemporary with our poet, remarks and blames the fame affectation. JOHNSON. This alliteration feems to have reached the height of its fashion in the reign of Hen. VIII. The following stanza is quoted from a poem On the Fall and evil Success of Rebellion, written in 1537, by Wilfride Holme. "Loe, leprous lurdeins, lubricke in loquacitie, Vah, vaporous villeins, with venim vulnerate, "Proh, prating parenticides, plexious to pinnofitie, "Fie, frantike, fabulators, furibund, and fatuate, "Out, oblatrant, oblict, obftacle, and obfecate. "Ah addict algoes, in acerbitie acclamant, "Magnall, in mifchief, malicious to mugilate, "Repriving your Roy fo renowned and radiant." In Tuffer's Husbandry, p. 104, there is a poem of which every word begins with a T; and the old play entitled, The Hiftorie of the Two valiant Knights, Syr Clyomon Knight of the Golden Sheeld, Sonne to the King of Denmark; and Clamydes the White Knight, Son to the King of Suavia, 1599, is another remarkable inftance of alliteration : "Bringing my barke to Denmarke here, to bide the bitter "And "And this the cranny is, right and finister, Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper." The. Would you defire lime and hair to speak better? Dem. It is the wittieft partition that ever I heard difcourfe, my lord. The. Pyramus draws near the wall: filence? Enter Pyramus. Pyr. "O grim-look'd night! Onight with hue fo "black! "Onight, which ever art, when day is not! "O night, O night, alack, alack, alack, "I fear my Thisby's promife is forgot!" And thou, O wall, Ó fweet, O lovely wall, "That ftand'ft between her father's ground and "mine; "Thou wall, O wall, O fweet and lovely wall, "Shew me thy chink to blink through with mine 66 eyne. "Thanks, courteous wall: Jove fhield thee well "" for this! "But what fee I? No Thisby do I fee. "O wicked wall, through whom I fee no blifs; "Curft be thy ftones for thus deceiving me!" 7 It is the wittieft partition, that ever I heard difcourfe, my lord.] Demetrius is represented as a punster: I believe the paf fage fhould be read: This is the wittiest partition, that ever I heard IN difcourfe. Alluding to the many ftupid partitions in the argumentative writings of the time. Shakspeare himself, as well as his contemporaries, ufes difcourfe for reafoning: and he here avails himself of the double sense; as he had done before in the word, partition. FARMER. ] The first fol. reads: 8 And thou, Q, wall, O fweet, --And thou, O wall, thou sweet. MALONE. O wicked wall, &c.] So, in Chaucer's Legend of Thibe: "Thus would thei faine, alas! thou wicked wal, &c." STEEVENS. The. |