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Approach, ye furies fell!*

O fates! come, come; "Cut thread and thrum ;3

Quail, crush, conclude, and quell !*

Approach, ye furies fell!] Somewhat like this our poet might poffibly have recollected in "a lytell treatyfe cleped La Conujaunce d'amours. Printed by Richard Pynfon.

no date:

"O ve mooft cruell and tabbyfhe lions fell,
"Come nowe and teare the corps of Pyramus!
"Ye fauage beeftes that in thefe rockes dwell,

If blode to you be fo delicious,

"Come and gnawe my wretched body dolorous!

"And on the kerchef with face pale and tryft,

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"He loked, ofte, and it right fwetely kift. STEEVENS.

Approach, je faries Fell!

O fates! come, come, &c.] The poet here, and in the following lines fpoken by Thiibe,

O fifters three,

"Coine, come to me,

"With hands as pale as milk —”

probably intended to ridicule a paffage in Damon and Pythias, by Richard Edward, 1582:

"Ye furies, all at once

"On me your torments trie:

Gripe me, you greedy greefs,

And prefent pangues of death,

Youfflers three, with cruel handes

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cut thread and thrum;] Thrum is the end or extremity of

a weaver's warp; it is popularly used for very coarse yarn. maids now call a mop of yarn a thrum mop.

So, in Hannibal and Scipio, 1637:

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no rough pelt of thrums,

"To fight with weather."

WARNER.

Again, in Chapman's tranflation of the 16th Illiad:

The

"And tapestries all golden fring'd, and curl'd with thrumbs

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behind.

So, in Howell's letter to Sir Paul Neale, knt.

"Tranflations.

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are like the wrong fide of a Turkey carpet, which ufeth to be full of thrums and knots, and nothing fo even as the right fide. The thought is borrowed from Don Quixote, STEEVENS.

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and quell! To quell is to murther, to deftroy. So, in the 12th pageant of the Lufus Coventria, commonly called the Corpus Chrifti Play. MS. Cott. Vesp. D. viii:

THE. This paffion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look fad.

HIP. Befhrew my heart, but I pity the man.

PYR. "O,wherefore,nature,didft thou lions frame? "Since lion vile hath here deflour'd my dear: "Which is-no, no-which was the fairest dame, That liv'd, that lov'd, that lik'd, that look'd, with cheer.

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"That he the lawe may here do,

"With ftonys her to quell." STEEVENS.

cheer.] i. e. countenance. So, in Chaucer's Clerke's Tale, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 8117:

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paffing any wight

"Of fo yong age, as wel in chere as dede." STRIVENS.

6 Come, tears, confound;] Thus in Golding's Ovid : -one night (he fayd) fhall louers two confounde." RITSON. Ay, that left pap,

Where heart doth hop:] Left our author fhould feem chargeable with an inefficient rhime, it ought to be remembered that the broad pronunciation, now almoft peculiar to the Scotch, was an⚫ciently current in England. Throughout the old copies of Shakfpeare's Plays, tattered" is always fpelt tottered" Pap therefore was founded, Pop. The context reminds us of a paffage in the feventh Satire of Juvenal

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lava in parte mamilla
STEEVENS.

" Nil falit"

VOL. VII.

M

DEM. No die, but an ace, for him; for he is but

one.

Lys. Lefs than an acẹ, man; for he is dead; he is nothing.

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THE. With the help of a furgeon, he might yet recover and prove an ass."

HIP. How chance moonfhine is gone, before Thifbe comes back and finds her lover?

THE. She will find him by ftar-light.-Here she comes; and her paffion ends the play.

Enter THISBE.

HIP. Methinks, fhe fhould not use a long one, for fuch a Pyramus: I hope, fhe will be brief. DEM. A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which Thisbe, is the better. 8.

Lys. She hath fpied him already, with thofe fweet eyes.

DEM. And thus fhe moans, videlicet.

and prove an ass,] The character of Thefeus throughout this play is more exalted in its humanity, than its greatness. Though fome fenfible obfervations on life, and animated defcriptions fall from him, as it is faid of lago, you shall tafle him more as a foldier than as a wit, which is a diftin&tion he is here ftriving to deferve, though with little fuccefs, as in fupport of his pretenfions he never rifes higher than a pun, and frequently finks as low as a quibble. STEEVENS.

7 A mote will turn the balance,] The old copies have moth; but Mr. Malone very juftly obferves that moth was merely the ancient mode of fpelling mote. So, in King Henry V: "Wash every moth (i. e. mote) out of his confcience. STEEVENS.

The first quarto makes this fpeech a little longer, but not better. JOHNSON.

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"He for a man, God warn'd us; fhe STEEVENS.

The paffage omitted is, for a woman, God bless us. 9 And thus fhe moans,] The old copies concur in reading means, which Mr. Theobald changed into "moans; and the next speech of Thisbe appears to countenance his alteration. Lovers, make moan. STEEVENS.

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THIS. " Afleep, my love?

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What, dead, my dove?

"O Pyramus, arife,

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Speak, fpeak. Quite dumb?
"Dead, dead? A tomb

"Muft cover thy fweet eyes.
"Thefe lily brows,

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This cherry nose,2

Mr. Theobald alters means to moans: but means had anciently the fame fignification. Mr. Pinkerton (under the name of Robert Heron, Efq.) obferves that it is a common term in the Scotch law, fignifying to tell, to relate, to declare; and that petitions to the lords of feflion in Scotland, run, "To the lords of council and fellion humbly means and fhows your petitioner." Here, however, it evidently fignifies complains. Bills in Chancery begin in a fimilar Humbly complaining theweth unto your lordfhip," &c. The word occurs in an ancient manufcript in my own poffeffion: "This ender day wen me was wo,

manner. "6

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"Under a bugh ther I lay,

Naght gale to mene me to.'

So again, in a very ancient Scottish fong:

"I hard ane may fair mwrne and meyne." RITSON.

Thefe lily brows,

This cherry nofe,) The old copy reads.

Thefe lily lips," &c. STEEVENS.

All Thibe's lamentation, till now, runs in regular rhime and
But both, by fome accident, are in this fingle inftance in-

metre.

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Now black brows being a beauty, lily brows are as ridiculous as a cherry nose, green eyes, or cowflip cheeks. THEOBALD.

Theobald's emendation is fupported by the following paffage in As you like it:

"'Tis not your inky brows, your black filk hair —. ' And by another, in The Winter's Tale:

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not for because

"Your brows are blacker, yet black brows they fay
"Become fome women beft." RITSON.

Lily lips are changed to lily brows for the fake of the rhyme,

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THE. Moonshine and lion are left to bury the

dead.

DEM. Ay, and wall too.

BOT. No, I affure you; the wall is down that

parted their fathers.

Will it please you to see the

but this cannot be right: Thisbe has before celebrated her Pyfamus, as

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Lilly-white of hue."

It should be:

Thefe lips lilly,

This nofe cherry."

This mode of pofition adds not a little to the burlesque of the paffage. FARMER.

We meet with fomewhat like this paffage in George Peele's Old Wives Tale, 1595.

"Her corall lippes, her crimson chinne. Thou art a flouting knave. Her corall lippes, her crimson chinne!" STEEVENS.

3 His eyes were green as leeks.]

and Juliet, fpeaking of Paris, fays,

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an eagle, madam,

Thus alfo the Nurfe in Rome

"Hath not fo green, fo quick, fo fair an eye." See note on this paffage. STEEVENS.

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