1751This. If he come not, then the play is mar'd. It goes

1752not forward, doth it?

1753Quin. It is not possible: you haue not a man in all

1754Athens, able to discharge Piramus but he.

1755This. No, hee hath simply the best wit of any handy-

1756craft man in Athens.

1757Quin. Yea, and the best person too, and hee is a very

1758Paramour, for a sweet voyce.

1759This. You must say, Paragon. A Paramour is (God

1760blesse vs) a thing of nought.

1762Snug. Masters, the Duke is comming from the Tem-

1763ple, and there is two or three Lords & Ladies more mar-

1764ried. If our sport had gone forward, we had all bin made

1765men.

1766This. O sweet bully Bottome: thus hath he lost sixe-

1767pence a day, during his life; he could not haue scaped six-

1768pence a day. And the Duke had not giuen him sixpence

1769a day for playing Piramus, Ile be hang'd. He would haue

1770deserued it. Sixpence a day in Piramus, or nothing.

1772Bot. Where are these Lads? Where are these hearts?

1773Quin. Bottome, ô most couragious day! O most hap-

1774pie houre!

1775Bot. Masters, I am to discourse wonders; but ask me

1776not what. For if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I

1777will tell you euery thing as it fell out.

1778Qu. Let vs heare, sweet Bottome.

1779Bot. Not a word of me: all that I will tell you, is, that

1780the Duke hath dined. Get your apparell together, good

1781strings to your beards, new ribbands to your pumps,

1782meete presently at the Palace, euery man looke ore his

1783part: for the short and the long is, our play is preferred:

1784In any case let Thisby haue cleane linnen: and let not him

1785that playes the Lion, paire his nailes, for they shall hang

1786out for the Lions clawes. And most deare Actors, eate

1787no Onions, nor Garlicke; for wee are to vtter sweete

1788breath, and I doe not doubt but to heare them say, it is a

1789sweet Comedy. No more words: away, go away.

1793Hip. 'Tis strange my Theseus, y^t these louers speake of.

1794The. More strange then true. I neuer may beleeue

1795These anticke fables, nor these Fairy toyes,

1796Louers and mad men haue such seething braines,

1797Such shaping phantasies, that apprehend more

1798Then coole reason euer comprehends.

1799The Lunaticke, the Louer, and the Poet,

1800Are of imagination all compact.

1801One sees more diuels then vaste hell can hold;

1802That is the mad man. The Louer, all as franticke,

1803Sees Helens beauty in a brow of Egipt.

1804The Poets eye in a fine frenzy rolling, doth glance

1805From heauen to earth, from earth to heauen.

1806And as imagination bodies forth the forms of things

1807Vnknowne; the Poets pen turnes them to shapes,

1808And giues to aire nothing, a locall habitation,

1809And a name. Such tricks hath strong imagination,

1810That if it would but apprehend some ioy,

1811It comprehends some bringer of that ioy.

1812Or in the night, imagining some feare,

1813Howe easie is a bush suppos'd a Beare?

1814Hip. But all the storie of the night told ouer,

1815And all their minds transfigur'd so together,

1816More witnesseth than fancies images,

1817And growes to something of great constancie;

1818But howsoeuer, strange, and admirable.

1821The. Heere come the louers, full of ioy and mirth:

1822Ioy, gentle friends, ioy and fresh dayes

1823Of loue accompany your hearts.

1824Lys. More then to vs, waite in your royall walkes,

1825your boord, your bed.

1826The. Come now, what maskes, what dances shall

1827we haue,

1828To weare away this long age of three houres,

1829Between our after supper, and bed-time?

1830Where is our vsuall manager of mirth?

1831What Reuels are in hand? Is there no play,

1832To ease the anguish of a torturing houre?

1833Call Egeus.

1834Ege. Heere mighty Theseus.

1835The. Say, what abridgement haue you for this eue-

1836ning?

1837What maske? What musicke? How shall we beguile

1838The lazie time, if not with some delight?

1839Ege. There is a breefe how many sports are rife:

1840Make choise of which your Highnesse will see first.

1841Lis. The battell with the Centaurs to be sung

1842By an Athenian Eunuch, to the Harpe.

1843The. Wee'l none of that. That haue I told my Loue

1844In glory of my kinsman Hercules.

1845Lis. The riot of the tipsie Bachanals,

1846Tearing the Thracian singer, in their rage?

1847The. That is an old deuice, and it was plaid

1848When I from Thebes came last a Conqueror.

1849Lis. The thrice three Muses, mourning for the death

1850of learning, late deceast in beggerie.

1851The. That is some Satire keene and criticall,

1852Not sorting with a nuptiall ceremonie.

1853Lis. A tedious breefe Scene of yong Piramus,

1854And his loue Thisby; very tragicall mirth.

1855The. Merry and tragicall? Tedious, and briefe? That

1856is, hot ice, and wondrous strange snow. How shall wee

1857finde the concord of this discord?

1858Ege. A play there is, my Lord, some ten words long,

1859Which is as breefe, as I haue knowne a play;

1860But by ten words, my Lord, it is too long;

1861Which makes it tedious. For in all the play,

1862There is not one word apt, one Player fitted.

1863And tragicall my noble Lord it is: for Piramus

1864Therein doth kill himselfe. Which when I saw

1865Rehearst, I must confesse, made mine eyes water:

1866But more merrie teares, the passion of loud laughter

1867Neuer shed.

1868Thes. What are they that do play it?

1869Ege. Hard handed men, that worke in Athens heere,

1870Which neuer labour'd in their mindes till now;

1871And now haue toyled their vnbreathed memories

1872With this same play, against your nuptiall.

1873The. And we will heare it.

O2 Phil.