1bow theories are flDanufacturefc 



WHEN the theatrical company commanded by Peter 

 Quince took a hawthorn brake for their tiring-house, 

 they put it to no unaccustomed use. Under its cover 

 another band of performers, at least equal in merit, 

 had, time out of mind, been wont to assume their 

 liveries, before presenting themselves to the public eye. 

 In the boughs above, or the brushwood and herbage 

 below, the birds of the woodland had exchanged the 

 callow deformity of nestlings for the elaborate costumes 

 appropriated to the parts they were respectively to bear 

 in the great drama of the seasons the Redbreast and 

 the Redpoll, the Black-cap and the White-throat, the 

 Gold-crest and the Fire-tail, 



The Ousel-cock so black of hue, 



With orange tawny bill, 

 The Throstle with his note so true, 



The Wren with little quill, 

 The Finch, the Sparrow, and the Lark, 



The plain-song Cuckoo grey, 



and all the rest of the tuneful choir. Each of these has, 

 not only his special character, but a special dress to 

 distinguish it, and to apprize us what to expect when 

 he enters upon the scene; just as Duke Theseus and 

 his court were to know that a man with plaster about 

 him was going to do the work of a wall, and that an- 

 other with a bush of thorns and a lanthorn was to 

 "disfigure or present" the person of Moonshine. The 

 piece in which these actors perform has had the longest 

 run on record, yet is it ever new and full of novel 

 v. 



