Table of Contents
ACT 1 SCENE 2 Setting: Athens. QUINCE'S house.
Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING
| QUINCE | Is all our company here? | |
| BOTTOM | You were best to call them generally, man by man, | |
| according to the scrip. | ||
| QUINCE | Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is | |
| thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our | ||
| interlude before the duke and the duchess, on his | ||
| wedding–day at night. | ||
| BOTTOM | First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats | |
| on, then read the names of the actors, and so grow | ||
| to a point. | 10 | |
| QUINCE | Marry, our play is, The most lamentable comedy, and | |
| most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby. | ||
| BOTTOM | A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a | |
| merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your | ||
| actors by the scroll. Masters, spread yourselves. | ||
| QUINCE | Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver. | |
| BOTTOM | Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed. | |
| QUINCE | You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus. | |
| BOTTOM | What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant? | |
| QUINCE | A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love. | 20 |
| BOTTOM | That will ask some tears in the true performing of | |
| it: if I do it, let the audience look to their | ||
| eyes; I will move storms, I will condole in some | ||
| measure. To the rest: yet my chief humour is for a | ||
| tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to | ||
| tear a cat in, to make all split. | ||
| The raging rocks | ||
| And shivering shocks | ||
| Shall break the locks | ||
| Of prison gates; | ||
| And Phibbus' car | 30 | |
| Shall shine from far | ||
| And make and mar | ||
| The foolish Fates. | ||
| This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players. | ||
| This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is | ||
| more condoling. | ||
| QUINCE | Francis Flute, the bellows–mender. | |
| FLUTE | Here, Peter Quince. | |
| QUINCE | Flute, you must take Thisby on you. | |
| FLUTE | What is Thisby? a wandering knight? | |
| QUINCE | It is the lady that Pyramus must love. | 40 |
| FLUTE | Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming. | |
| QUINCE | That's all one: you shall play it in a mask, and | |
| you may speak as small as you will. | ||
| BOTTOM | An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too, I'll | |
| speak in a monstrous little voice. 'Thisne, | ||
| Thisne;' 'Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! thy Thisby dear, | ||
| and lady dear!' | ||
| QUINCE | No, no; you must play Pyramus: and, Flute, you Thisby. | |
| BOTTOM | Well, proceed. | 50 |
| QUINCE | Robin Starveling, the tailor. | |
| STARVELING | Here, Peter Quince. | |
| QUINCE | Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother. | |
| Tom Snout, the tinker. | ||
| SNOUT | Here, Peter Quince. | |
| QUINCE | You, Pyramus' father: myself, Thisby's father: | |
| Snug, the joiner; you, the lion's part: and, I | ||
| hope, here is a play fitted. | ||
| SNUG | Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if it | |
| be, give it me, for I am slow of study. | ||
| QUINCE | You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring. | 59 |
| BOTTOM | Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I will | |
| do any man's heart good to hear me; I will roar, | ||
| that I will make the duke say 'Let him roar again, | ||
| let him roar again.' | ||
| QUINCE | An you should do it too terribly, you would fright | |
| the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek; | ||
| and that were enough to hang us all. | ||
| ALL | That would hang us, every mother's son. | 69 |
| BOTTOM | I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the | |
| ladies out of their wits, they would have no more | ||
| discretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my | ||
| voice so that I will roar you as gently as any | ||
| sucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any | ||
| nightingale. | ||
| QUINCE | You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a | |
| sweet–faced man; a proper man, as one shall see in a | ||
| summer's day; a most lovely gentleman–like man: | ||
| therefore you must needs play Pyramus. | ||
| BOTTOM | Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best | |
| to play it in? | 80 | |
| QUINCE | Why, what you will. | |
| BOTTOM | I will discharge it in either your straw–colour | |
| beard, your orange–tawny beard, your purple–in–grain | ||
| beard, or your French–crown–colour beard, your | ||
| perfect yellow. | ||
| QUINCE | Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and | |
| then you will play bare–faced. But, masters, here | ||
| are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request | ||
| you and desire you, to con them by to–morrow night; | ||
| and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the | ||
| town, by moonlight; there will we rehearse, for if | ||
| we meet in the city, we shall be dogged with | ||
| company, and our devices known. In the meantime I | ||
| will draw a bill of properties, such as our play | ||
| wants. I pray you, fail me not. | 93 | |
| BOTTOM | We will meet; and there we may rehearse most | |
| obscenely and courageously. Take pains; be perfect: adieu. | ||
| QUINCE | At the duke's oak we meet. | |
| BOTTOM | Enough; hold or cut bow–strings. | |
| Exeunt |