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These lily lips, this cherry nose,

These yellow cowslip cheeks,

Are gone, are gone: Lovers, make moan!
His eyes were green as leeks.
O! sisters three, come, come, to me,
With hands as pale as milk;

Lay them in gore, since you have shore

With shears his thread of silk.

Tongue, not a word:- - come, trusty sword;
Come, blade, my breast imbrue :

And farewell, friends;
Adieu, adieu, adieu.”

thus Thisby ends:

[Dies.

The. Moonshine and lion are left to bury the dead. Dem. Ay, and wall too.

Bot. No, I assure you; the wall is down that parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance,19 between two of our company?

The. No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse. Never excuse; for when the players are all dead, there need none to be blamed. Marry, if he that writ it had play'd Pyramus, and hang'd himself in Thisbe's garter, it would have been a fine tragedy and so it is, truly; and very notably discharg'd. But come, your Bergomask : let your epilogue alone. [Here a dance of Clowns. The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve::Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.

I fear we shall outsleep the coming morn,
As much as we this night have overwatch'd.
This palpable-gross play hath well beguil'd

19 A rustic dance framed in imitation of the people of Bergamasco, (a province in the state of Venice,) who are ridiculed as being more clownish in their manners and dialect than any other people of Italy. The lingua rustica of the buffoons, in the old Italian comedies, is an imitation of their jargon.

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The heavy gait of night.— Sweet friends, to bed.— A fortnight hold, we this solemnity

In nightly revels, and new jollity.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

Enter PUCK.

1

Puck. Now the hungry lion roars,'
And the wolf behowls the moon;
Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,
All with weary task fordone.
Now the wasted brands do glow,
Whilst the scritch-owl, scritching loud,
Puts the wretch, that lies in woe,
In remembrance of a shroud.
Now it is the time of night,
That the graves all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite,
In the church-way paths to glide:
And we fairies, that do run
By the triple Hecate's team,
From the presence of the sun,
Following darkness like a dream,
Now are frolic; not a mouse
Shall disturb this hallow'd house:
I am sent with broom before,

:

Το sweep the dust behind the door.2

1 Upon this passage Coleridge thus remarks in his Literary Remains "Very Anacreon in perfectness, proportion, grace, and spontaneity! So far it is Greek ; — but then add, O! what wealth, what wild ranging, and yet what compression and condensation, of English fancy! In truth, there is nothing in Anacreon more perfect than these thirty [twenty ?] lines, or half so rich and imaginative. They form a speckless diamond."

H.

2 That is," to sweep the dust from behind the door." Mr. Collier informs us that on the title-page of the tract, "Robin Goodfellow, his Mad Pranks and Merry Jests," Puck is represented in

Enter OBERON and TITANIA, with their Train.

Obe. Through this house give glimmering light,
By the dead and drowsy fire:
Every elf, and fairy sprite,

Hop as light as bird from brier;
And this ditty after me

Sing, and dance it trippingly.
Tita. First, rehearse your song by rote,
To each word a warbling note:
Hand in hand with fairy grace
Will we sing, and bless this place.

[They sing and dance.

Obe. Now, until the break of day,

Through this house each fairy stray.
To the best bride-bed will we,

Which by us shall blessed be;1

a wood-cut with a broom over his shoulder. The whole fairy nation, for which he served as prime minister, were great sticklers for cleanliness. For some notices of their doings on this score, see The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act v. sc. 5, note 8.

H.

3 The stage-direction here is usually printed as if what follows were the fairies' song; which is clearly wrong, the following lines being spoken by Oberon, after the song and dance are ended. As for the fairies' song on this occasion, it has never, so far as we know, been heard of since; and however we may regret the loss, it is hardly fair to put Oberon's speech in the place of it. The mistake was first made in the folio of 1623; the editors probably knowing of nothing else that they could print as the song. H.

4 This ceremony was in old times used at all marriages. Mr. Douce has given the formula from the Manual for the use of Salisbury. In the French romance of Melusine, the Bishop who marries her to Raymondin blesses the nuptial bed. The ceremony is there represented in a very ancient cut. The good prelate is sprinkling the parties with holy water. Sometimes, during the benediction, the married couple only sat on the bed; but they generally received a portion of the consecrated bread and wine. It was ordained, in the year 1577, that the ceremony of blessing the nuptial bed should be performed in the daytime, and in the presence of the bride and bridegroom, and of their nearest relations, only.

And the issue, there create,
Ever shall be fortunate.

So shall all the couples three
Ever true in loving be;

And the blots of nature's hand
Shall not in their issue stand:
Never mole, hare-lip, nor scar,
Nor mark prodigious, such as are
Despised in nativity,

Shall upon their children be.

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With this field-dew consecrate,
Every fairy take his gait,

And each several chamber bless,5
Through this palace with sweet peace;
Ever shall in safety rest,

And the owner of it blest.
Trip away; make no stay;

Meet me all by break of day.

[Exeunt OBERON, TITANIA, and Train.

Puck. If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here,
While these visions did appear;
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
If you pardon, we will mend.

Of this ancient rite Chaucer gives an example in The Milleres Tale:

"Ther with the nightspel said he anon rightes,

On foure halves of the hous aboute,

And on the threswold of the dore withoute.

Jesu Crist, and Seint Benedight,

Blisse this hous from every wicked wight,
Fro the nightes mare."

H.

And, as I'm an honest Puck,

If we have unearned luck

Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,"
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call:

So, good night unto you all.

8

Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

[Exit.

6 Puck, it seems, was a suspicious name, which makes that this merry, mischievous gentleman does well to assert his honesty. As for the name itself, it was no better than fiend or devil. In Pierce Ploughman's Vision, some personage is called helle Pouke. the name thus occurs in Spenser's Epithalamion :

"Ne let the pouke, nor other evill sprights,

Ne let mischievous witches with theyr charmes,
Ne let hobgoblins, names whose sence we see not,
Fray us with things that be not."

7 That is, hisses.

Clap your hands, give us your applause.
30*

23

And

H.

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