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."

THESEUS.

This fellow doth not stand upon points.

LYSANDER. 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.

HIPPOLYTA. Indeed, he hath play'd on his prologue like a child on a recorder; a sound, but not in government.

THESEUS.

His speech was like a tangled chain,

Nothing impair'd, but all disordered.

Who is next?

Enter, with a Trumpet and the Presenter before them, PYRAMUS and THISBE, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion, as in dumb show.

PRESENTER.

"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, certain.

This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present
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 lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn,
Presenteth Moonshine; for, if you will know,
By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn

To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo.
This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name,
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,

His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,

GGIDD

Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain,

At large discourse, while here they do remain."

[Exeunt Prologue, Presenter, PYRAMUS, THISBE, Lion, and Moonshine.

THESEUS. I wonder if the lion be to speak.

DEMETRIUS.

asses do.

No wonder, my lord: One lion may, when many

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 cranni'd hole, or chink,

Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,

Did whisper often very secretly.

This lime, this rough-cast, and this stone, doth show
That I am that same wall: the truth is so ;

And this the cranny is, right and sinister,

Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper."

THESEUS. Would you desire lime and hair to speak better?

DEMETRIUS. It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard dis

course, my lord.

THESEUS. Pyramus draws near the wall: silence!

Enter PYRAMUS.

PYRAMUS.

"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! thou sweet and 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 eyne.
[Wall holds up his fingers.

Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for 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!"

THESEUS. The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again.

PYRAMUS. 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.

Enter THISBE.

THISBE.

"O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans,
For parting my fair Pyramus and me:

My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones;

Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee."

PYRAMUS.

"I see a voice: now will I to the chink,

To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face.
Thisby !"

THISBE.

"My love! thou art my love, I think."

PYRAMUS.

"Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace;
And like Limander am I trusty still."

THISBE.

"And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill.”

PYRAMUS.

"Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true."

THISBE.

"As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you."

PYRAMUS.

"O! kiss me through the hole of this vile wall."

THISBE.

"I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all."

PYRAMUS.

"Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?"

THISBE.

""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.

THESEUS. Now is the moral down between the two neighbors. DEMETRIUS. No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear without warning.

HIPPOLYTA. This is the silliest stuff that e'er I heard.

THESEUS. The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them.

HIPPOLYTA. It must be your imagination then, and not theirs. THESEUS. If we imagine no worse of them than they of themselves, they may pass for excellent men. Here come two noble beasts in, a man and a lion.

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 Sung the joiner, am
A lion-fell, nor else no lion's dam :

For, if I should as lion come in strife

Into this place, 't were pity of my life."

THESEUS.
DEMETRIUS.

A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience. The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I saw. LYSANDER. This lion is a very fox for his valor.

THESEUS. True; and a goose for his discretion.

DEMETRIUS. Not so, my lord; for his valor cannot carry his discretion, and the fox carries the goose.

THESEUS. His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valor, for the goose carries not the fox. It is well: leave it to his discretion, and let us hearken to the moon.

MOONSHINE.

"This lanthorn doth the horned moon present."

DEMETRIUS. He should have worn the horns on his head.
He is no crescent, and his horns are invisible within

THESEUS.

the circumference.

MOON.

"This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;

Myself the Man-i'-th'-moon doth seem to be."

The man

THESEUS. This is the greatest error of all the rest. should be put into the lanthorn: how is it else the Man-i' th'-moon? DEMETRIUS. He dares not come there for the candle; for, you see, it is already in snuff.

HIPPOLYTA. I am aweary of this moon: would he would change! THESEUS. 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.

LYSANDER. Proceed, moon.