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