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THE REHEARSAL PREPARING.

yourselves, (stand apart,) weaver, true performance, (proper acting of representation,) audience, condole, to the rest, (i. e. go on calling the names of the rest,) shivering, shocks, make and mar, (bless and curse, improve and injure,) knight, beard, coming, (coming out, growing,) mask, monstrous little, (little and unnatural at the same time,) play fitted, (play with the parts fitted to each actor,) extempore, (at the time, without previous study: as it is said, on the spur of the moment,) every mother's son, (i. e. every one of us,) discretion, aggravate, (is this a proper word to express Bottom's meaning? subdue, diminish?) discharge, (does Bottom mean discharge? or perform?) tawny, palace, dogged, (followed by the people, as men are followed by dogs,) devices, fail me not, (fail not to meet me,) obscenely and courageously, (I suppose Bottom means something like beseemly, i. e. suitably, with propriety; and with confidence, i. o not awed, disconcerted by the presence of the rabble.)

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SECT. CI.-THE REHEARSAL PREPARING.

(Enter Quince, Snug, Bottom, Flute, Snout, and Starveling.) Bot. Are we all met?

Quin. Pat; pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage; this 3 hawthorn brake our tyring house; and we will do it in action, as we will do it before the duke.

5 Quin. What sayest thou, bully Bottom?

6 Bot. There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and 7 Thisby, that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies cannot abide. 8 How answer you that?

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Snout. On my word, a perilous fear!

Star. I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.

11 Bot. Not a whit"; I have a device to make all well. Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to say, we 12 will do no harm with our swords; and that Pyramus is not killed; and for the more better assurance, tell them, that I 13 Pyramus am not Pyramus, but Bottom, the weaver. This will put them out of fear.

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15

Quin. Well, we will have such a prologue"; and it shall be written in eight and six.

Bot. No; make it two more: let it be written in eight and eight.

THE REHEARSAL PREPARING.

16 Snout. Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion? 17 Star. I fear it, I promise you.

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Bot. Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves. To 19 bring in a lion among ladies, is a most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful wild-fowl than your lion, living; and we ought to look to it.

20 Snout. Therefore, another prologue must tell, he is not a lion.

Bot. Nay; you must name his name; and half his face 21 must be seen through the lion's neck; and he must speak through; saying thus, or to the same defect: Ladies, or fair ladies, I would wish you, or, I would request you, or, I would entreat you, not to fear; not to tremble'; my life for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life. No, I am no such thing: I am a man as other 24 men are.—And there let him name his name, and tell them plainly, he is Snug, the joiner.

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Quin. Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard things; 26 that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber; for you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moonlight".

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Snug. Doth the moon shine that night we play our play? Bot. An almanac! an almanac! 29 Look in the alma. nac: find out moonshine: find out moonshine.

Quin. Yes, it doth shine that night'.

31 Bot. Why, then you may leave a casement of the great chamber window, where we play, open; and the moon may shine in at the casement.

32 Quin. Ay, or else one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lantern, and say, he comes to disfigure, or to present, the person of moonshine. Then there is another 33 thing: we must have a wall in the great chamber; for Pyrámus and Thisby, says the story, did talk through the chink of a wall.

34

Snug. You never can bring in a wall'.-35 What say you,

Bottom ?

Bot. Some man or other must present wall; and let him 36 have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast, to signify wall; or let him hold his fingers thus; and through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper.

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Quin. If that may be, then all is well. 38 Come, sit down, every mother's son, and rehearse your parts.-Pyra

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THE FIRST STEAMBOAT.

39 mus, you begin; and when you have spoken your speech, enter into that thicket; and so every one, according to his

cue.

DEFINITIONS, & -Define met, (assembled,) pat, pat, i. e. to the time, promptly, punctually,) marvellous convenient, (remarkably convenient,) brake, (thicket,) tyring, (dressing, attiring,) bully, abide, (i. e. to see,) perilous fear, (great fear, i. e good cause for fear,) not a whit, (not in the least,) device, (an expedient,) prologue, more better, (is this correct?) eight and six, (in lines alternately of eight, and six syllables; see our hymnbooks,) afeard, (afraid?) wild-fowl, (to what species of wild-fowl does the lion belong? To any ?) to look to it, (take care of that, e. avoid that,) pity of my life, (pity, i. e. a thing to be pitied, regretted, more than any thing witnessed in the course of my life,) almanac, casement, lantern, disfigure, present, (Quin means to figure or represent,) chink, plaster, loam, rough-cast, (cast on roughly,) signify, cranny, whisper, thicket, cue, (cue is the last word of each one's part, on hearing which, the actor who speaks next, knows that he must come on the stage, or if already on, begin his part.) You now know what is meant by giving any one his cue.

SECT. CII.-THE FIRST STEAMBOAT:

Extract from a Speech of the Dean of Ripon at Leeds. GENTLEMEN, it is now more than forty years, since, in my 1 travels in America, I came to New York, and called upon the famous General Moreau, with whom I had the pleasure to be acquainted.

He said to me, "Well, here is a strange thing! here is a 2 ship to go by hot water! and to-morrow the trial is to be made: I and my friends are invited to be of the party. 3 Will you go with me?"

I accompanied General Moreau in the first steam-vessel 4 that ever sailed upon the Hudson, in America, urder the auspices of Mr. Fulton, the inventor: a man who, from being a painter of portraits, arrived at length at the extraordinary eminence and success of making the first practical, efficient steam-vessel.

5

Gentlemen, I remember, with pleasure, standing upon the deck with Robert Fulton, and dwelling with him on the 6 subject. "Do you think it will ever be of any good?" said I. I recollect his countenance lighting up almost with in7 dignation at the idea that any invention of his could fail of 8 being useful. I remember too, very well, just as we ap

THE FIRST STEAMBOAT.

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proached the mouth of the Hudson, where it abuts on the Atlantic sea, that I said to him, "What will become of us, 9 if we drift out to sea? How can a vessel of this sort stand the waves of the ocean?"

Well, gentlemen, when I compare that day with the fact 10 that steamers now cross the Atlantic in eleven or twelve days, with a regularity almost marvellous,-why, how is it possible not to see and to be persuaded, that the man lives not, who has not opportunities of being distinguished by giving his talent, industry and energy to whatever subject the finger of Providence may point out to him?

Again, gentlemen, there was a young man who was the 11 youngest of thirteen children; and his father was a poor man; and the best his father could do for him was to apprentice him to a barber. In that humble class, that re12 spected individual demeaned himself honorably as long as he chose to remain in it. He then bestowed his care and 13 enterprise upon preparing the beautiful hair of our heads:

improving it to that degree that it should be fit to make a 14 wig of. In that he excelled also. Then, gentlemen, he be15 took himself to the improvement of a weed which I have

seen, and which is little more than like a weed,-(I mean 16 the cotton plant of Carolina,)—he betook himself to improve the manufacture of cloth made out of that weed. He gained great success; adding merely to the acquirements he pos17 sessed, (which, you may suppose, were very slender,) such knowledge as he could pick up by associating with his fellowmen: he gained that success which enabled him to decide the wars of the linen and the cotton. That barber's apprentice, gentlemen, that honorable improver of our hair for the 18 purpose of a wig, was Sir Richard Arkwright; afterwards high sheriff of his county; and who left his family a half a million of money.

DEFINITIONS, &c.-Define travels, famous, General Moreau, (pronounced Moro. He was a French general, a very great man, and rival of Bonaparte,) pleasure, trial, strange, ship, invited, party, accompanied, auspices, (superintendence,) inventor, painter, portrait, extraordinary, eminence, success, practical, efficient, countenance, &c., &c.

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BABYLON.--THE LAMENTATION OF JOB

SECT. CIII.-BABYLON.

1 A TRAVELLER, contemplating the ruins of Babylon, stood with folded arms, and, amid the surrounding stillness, thus expressed the thoughts which the scene inspired: "Where, oh where, is Babylon the great, with her vast walls and gates of brass, her frowning towers, and her hanging gardens? where are her luxurious palaces and her crowded 2 thoroughfares? The stillness of death has succeeded to the active bustle and joyous hilarity of her multitudinous population; scarcely a trace of her former magnificence remains; and her hundreds of thousands of inhabitants have long been sleeping the sleep of death, in unknown and unmarked 3 graves. Here thou hast been busy, O Time, thou mighty destroyer!"

DEFINITIONS, &c.-Define contemplating, ruins, Babylon, folded arms, stillness, expressed, scene, inspired, frowning, towers, hanging gardens, luxurious, palaces, crowded, thoroughfares, bustle, hilarity, multitudinous, scarcely, trace, former, magnificence, unmarked, busy, time, mighty.

SECT. CIV.-THE LAMENTATION OF JOB.

1 JOB answered and said, Oh! that my grief were thoroughly weighed and my calamity laid in balances to2 gether! For now, it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up.

The arrows of the Almighty are within me: the poison 3 whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.

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6

Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? or loweth 5 the ox over his fodder? Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg ? The things that my soul refused to touch, are as my sorrowful meat. Oh! that I might have my request! and 7 that God would grant me the thing that I long for: even that it would please him to destroy me: that he would let loose his hand and cut me off! Then should I yet have 8 comfort: yea I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare'; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.

9

What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is