The visages of bridegrooms we'll put on,

And smile with Palamon; for whom an hour,
But one hour since, I was as dearly sorry

As glad of Arcite, and am now as glad

As for him sorry. O you heavenly charmers, 10
What things you make of us! For what we lack
We laugh, for what we have are sorry; still

Are children in some kind. Let us be thankful
For that which is, and with you leave dispute
That are above our question.

And bear us like the time.11

Let's go off,

[Flourish. Exeunt.

*EPILOGUE.

*I would now ask ye how ye like the play;
*But, as it is with schoolboys, cannot say
*I'm cruel-fearful. Pray, yet stay awhile,
*And let me look upon ye. No man smile?
*Then it goes hard, I see.

He that has

*Loved a young handsome wench, then, show his face, *'Tis strange if none be here;

and, if he will

*Against his conscience, let him hiss, and kill

*Our market. 'Tis in vain, I see, to stay ye:

*Have at the worst can come, then! Now what say ye? *And yet mistake me not; I am not bold;

*We have no such cause. If the tale we've told

*For 'tis no other

any way content ye,

*For to that honest purpose it was meant ye,

10 Charmers here means magicians or enchanters. The usage was comSee vol. xvii. page 248, note 4.

mon.

11 That is, behave in a manner suited to the time. The death of Arcite has made it a time of sadness and mourning. See vol. xvii. page 31, note 13.

*We have our end; and ye shall have ere long, *I dare say, many a better, to prolong

We and all our might

*Your old loves to us.
*Rest at your service: gentlemen, good night.

[Flourish.

CRITICAL NOTES.

ACT I., SCENE 1.

Page 137. Then HIPPOLYTA, the bride, led by PIRITHOUS.

old copies have Theseus instead of Pirithous.

P. 137. With harebells dim. — The old copies read "With her bells dim." Surely both sense and metre require harebells.

P. 137. Marigolds on death-beds blowing,

And larks-heels trim. -The old copies omit And. Compare

the other stanzas.

P. 137. Not an angel of the air,

Bird melodious or bird fair,

Be absent hence.

--

-The old copies have "Is absent."

P. 137. The boding raven, nor chough hoar, &c. — The original has "nor Clough hee." Corrected by Seward.

P. 138.

Who endure

The beaks of ravens, talons of the kites,

And pecks of crows, in the foul field of Thebes.- The old copies have endured and fields. The latter corrected by Seward; the other, by Dyce.

P. 139. Not Juno's mantle fairer than your tresses,

Nor in more bounty spread; your wheaten wreath, &c. — The old copies read "Nor in more bounty spread her"; to the damage alike of rhythm and sense.

P. 139. He tumbled down upon his Nemean hide. - The old copies

have Nenuan.

P. 140. And his love too, who is a servant to

instead of to and thy. Seward's correction.

The tenor of thy speech. - The old copies have for and the

P. 142. You cannot read it there; there, through my tears,
Like wrinkled pebbles in a glassy stream,

You may behold it. -The original has glasse and 'em instead

of glassy and it.

P. 142.

See foot-note 14.

O, this celebration

Will longer last, and be more costly, than
Your suppliants' war.—'
- The old copies have long.

P. 143. And that work now presents itself to th' doing;
Now 'twill take form; &c.

P. 144.

- The old copies lack the first now.

Now he's secure,

Nor dreams we stand before your puissance,

Rinsing our holy begging in our eyes, &c. - In the second of these lines, the old copies have Not instead of Nor, and, in the third, Wrinching. See note on "That swallow'd so much treasure," &c., vol. xii. page 293.

P. 144. This is a service, whereto I am going,

Greater than any war.

was instead of war.

P. 145.

So Theobald. The old copies have

Though much I like

You should be thus transported, as much sorry

I should be such a suitor; yet I think, &c. - Instead of I like, the old copies have unlike; out of which I do not see how it is possible to extort any sense.

P. 146. And at the banks of Ilisse meet us with

The forces you can raise, &c.- The old copies read "at the banckes of Anly." Aulis is Theobald's correction, which has been generally adopted. Heath, however, in his manuscript notes on this play, observes in regard to Aulis as follows: "Besides that this is a sea-port, not a river, it is as far beyond Thebes to the north as Athens itself is to the south of Thebes. I have no doubt but the poets wrote Ilisse for the river Ilissus." On the other hand, Dyce remarks that "Anly is more likely to be a blunder for Aulis than for Ilisse"; and that "our old poets were not nice geographers." Still I think Heath's conjecture ought to be adopted; for surely the authors of this play could not have been so ignorant or so inexact in geography as to put Aulis for a river.