Such tricks hath strong imagination; Hip. But all the story of the night told over, And grows to something of great constancy;" Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and HELENA. The. Here come the lovers full of joy and mirth. Joy, gentle friends! joy, and fresh days of love, Lys. More than to us Wait on your royal walks, your board, your bed! The. Come now; what masks, what dances shall we have, To wear away this long age of three hours, Philost. Here, mighty Theseus. The. Say, what abridgment? have you for this evening? What mask? what music? How shall we beguile The lazy time, if not with some delight? 8 Philost. There is a brief, how many sports are ripe; Make choice of which your highness will see first. 6 Stability. [Giving a paper. The. [reads.] The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung, By an Athenian eunuch to the harp. We'll none of that: that have I told my love, The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals, Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage. A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus, Which is as brief as I have known a play; Philost. Hard-handed men, that work in Athens here. Which never labour'd in their minds till now; With this same play, against your nuptial. Philost. No, my noble lord, It is not for you: I have heard it over, And it is nothing, nothing in the world: The. Go, bring them in;-and take your places, ladies. The. Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing. Hip. He says, they can do nothing in this kind. Our sports shall be, to take what they mistake: Noble respect takes it in might, not merit. I read as much as from the rattling tongue Enter PHILOSTRATE. Philost. So please your grace the prologue is addrest.1 The. Let him approach. [Flourish of trumpets. Enter Prologue. Prol. If we offend, it is with our good will, That you should think, we come not to offend, But with good-will. To show our simple skill, That is the true beginning of our end. Consider then, we come but in despite. We do not come as minding to content you, Our true intent is. All for your delight, We are not here. That you should here repent you, The actors are at hand; and, by their show, You shall know, all that you are like to know. The. This fellow doth not stand upon points. Lys. He hath rid his prologue, like a rough colt, he knows not the stop. A good moral, my lord: It is not enough to speak, but to speak true. Hip. Indeed he hath played on this prologue, like a child on a recorder; a sound, but not in government. The. His speech - was like a tangled chain; nothing impaired, but all disordered. Who is next? Enter PYRAMUS and THISBE, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion, as in dumb show. Prol. 66 Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show; "But wonder on, till truth make all things plain. "This man is Pyramus, if you would know; "This beauteous lady Thisby is, certáin. 1 Ready. 2 A musical instrument. "This man, with lime and roughcast, doth pre sent "Wall, that vile wall which did these lovers sunder: "And through wall's chink, poor souls, they are content "To whisper; at the which let no man wonder. "This man with lantern, dog, and bush of thorn, "Presenteth moon-shine; for, if you will know, "By moon-shine did these lovers think no scorn "To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo. "This grisly beast, which by name lion hight,3 "The trusty Thisby, coming first by night, "Did scare away, or rather did affright: "And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall; "Which lion vile with bloody mouth did stain: "Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth, and tall, "And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain: "Whereat with blade, with bloody blameful blade, "He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breast; And, Thisby tarrying in mulberry shade, 66 "His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest, "Let lion, moon-shine, wall, and lovers twain, "At large discourse, while here they do remain.' [Exeunt Prol. THISBE, Lion, and Moonshine. The. I wonder, if the lion be to speak. Dem. No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when many asses do. Wall. "In this same interlude, it doth befall, "That I, one Snout by name, present a wall: "And such a wall, as I would have you think, “That had in it a cranny'd hole, or chink, 66 Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby, "Did whisper often very secretly. $ Called. |