⌜With Titania still asleep onstage,⌝ enter the Clowns,
⌜Bottom, Quince, Snout, Starveling, Snug, and Flute.⌝BOTTOM Are we all met?QUINCE Pat, pat. And here’s a marvels convenient place for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn brake our tiring-house,5 and we will do it in action as we will do it before the Duke.BOTTOM Peter Quince?QUINCE What sayest thou, bully Bottom?BOTTOM There are things in this comedy of Pyramus10 and Thisbe that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill himself, which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that?SNOUT By ’r lakin, a parlous fear.STARVELING I believe we must leave the killing out,15 when all is done.BOTTOM Not a whit! I have a device to make all well. Write me a prologue, and let the prologue seem to say we will do no harm with our swords and that Pyramus is not killed indeed. And, for the more20 better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver. This will put them out of fear.
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QUINCE Well, we will have such a prologue, and it shall be written in eight and six.BOTTOM 25No, make it two more. Let it be written in eight and eight.SNOUT Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?STARVELING I fear it, I promise you.BOTTOM Masters, you ought to consider with yourself,30 to bring in (God shield us!) a lion among ladies is a most dreadful thing. For there is not a more fearful wildfowl than your lion living, and we ought to look to ’t.SNOUT Therefore another prologue must tell he is not35 a lion.BOTTOM Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must be seen through the lion’s neck, and he himself must speak through, saying thus, or to the same defect: “Ladies,” or “Fair ladies, I would40 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 men are.” And there indeed let him name his45 name and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner.QUINCE Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard things: that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber, for you know Pyramus and Thisbe meet by moonlight.SNOUT 50Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?BOTTOM A calendar, a calendar! Look in the almanac. Find out moonshine, find out moonshine.⌜Quince takes out a book.⌝QUINCE Yes, it doth shine that night.⌜BOTTOM⌝ 55Why, then, may you leave a casement of the great chamber window, where we play, open, and the moon may shine in at the casement.
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QUINCE Ay, or else one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lantern and say he comes to disfigure60 or to present the person of Moonshine. Then there is another thing: we must have a wall in the great chamber, for Pyramus and Thisbe, says the story, did talk through the chink of a wall.SNOUT You can never bring in a wall. What say you,65 Bottom?BOTTOM Some man or other must present Wall. And let him have some plaster, or some loam, or some roughcast about him to signify wall, or let him hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall70 Pyramus and Thisbe whisper.QUINCE If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down, every mother’s son, and rehearse your parts. Pyramus, you begin. When you have spoken your speech, enter into that brake, and so everyone75 according to his cue.Enter Robin ⌜invisible to those onstage.⌝ROBIN, ⌜aside⌝ What hempen homespuns have we swagg’ring here So near the cradle of the Fairy Queen? What, a play toward? I’ll be an auditor— An actor too perhaps, if I see cause.QUINCE 80Speak, Pyramus.—Thisbe, stand forth.BOTTOM, as Pyramus Thisbe, the flowers of odious savors sweet—QUINCE Odors, ⌜odors!⌝BOTTOM, as Pyramus …odors savors sweet.
So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisbe dear.—
85 But hark, a voice! Stay thou but here awhile,
And by and by I will to thee appear.He exits.⌜ROBIN, aside⌝ A stranger Pyramus than e’er played here.⌜He exits.⌝
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FLUTE Must I speak now?QUINCE Ay, marry, must you, for you must understand90 he goes but to see a noise that he heard and is to come again.FLUTE, as Thisbe Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue,
Of color like the red rose on triumphant brier,
Most brisky juvenal and eke most lovely Jew,
95 As true as truest horse, that yet would never tire.
I’ll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny’s tomb.QUINCE “Ninus’ tomb,” man! Why, you must not speak that yet. That you answer to Pyramus. You speak all your part at once, cues and all.—Pyramus,100 enter. Your cue is past. It is “never tire.”FLUTE O! ⌜As Thisbe.⌝ As true as truest horse, that yet would never
tire.⌜Enter Robin, and Bottom as Pyramus with the
ass-head.⌝BOTTOM, as Pyramus If I were fair, ⌜fair⌝ Thisbe, I were only thine.QUINCE 105O monstrous! O strange! We are haunted. Pray, masters, fly, masters! Help!⌜Quince, Flute, Snout, Snug, and Starveling exit.⌝ROBIN I’ll follow you. I’ll lead you about a round, Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier.110 Sometime a horse I’ll be, sometime a hound, A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire, And neigh and bark and grunt and roar and burn, Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.He exits.BOTTOM Why do they run away? This is a knavery of115 them to make me afeard.
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Enter Snout.SNOUT O Bottom, thou art changed! What do I see on thee?BOTTOM What do you see? You see an ass-head of your own, do you?⌜Snout exits.⌝Enter Quince.QUINCE 120Bless thee, Bottom, bless thee! Thou art translated!He exits.BOTTOM I see their knavery. This is to make an ass of me, to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir from this place, do what they can. I will walk up125 and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear I am not afraid.⌜He sings.⌝ The ouzel cock, so black of hue,
With orange-tawny bill,
The throstle with his note so true,
130 The wren with little quill—TITANIA, ⌜waking up⌝ What angel wakes me from my flow’ry bed?BOTTOM ⌜sings⌝ The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,
The plainsong cuckoo gray,
Whose note full many a man doth mark
135 And dares not answer “nay”— for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a bird? Who would give a bird the lie though he cry “cuckoo” never so?TITANIA I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again.140 Mine ear is much enamored of thy note, So is mine eye enthrallèd to thy shape, And thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move me On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.BOTTOM Methinks, mistress, you should have little
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145 reason for that. And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays. The more the pity that some honest neighbors will not make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.TITANIA 150 Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.BOTTOM Not so neither; but if I had wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.TITANIA Out of this wood do not desire to go.155 Thou shalt remain here whether thou wilt or no. I am a spirit of no common rate. The summer still doth tend upon my state, And I do love thee. Therefore go with me. I’ll give thee fairies to attend on thee,160 And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep And sing while thou on pressèd flowers dost sleep. And I will purge thy mortal grossness so That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.— Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseed!Enter four Fairies: ⌜Peaseblossom, Cobweb,
Mote, and Mustardseed.⌝⌜PEASEBLOSSOM⌝ 165Ready.⌜COBWEB⌝ And I.⌜MOTE⌝ And I.⌜MUSTARDSEED⌝ And I.⌜ALL⌝ Where shall we go?TITANIA 170 Be kind and courteous to this gentleman. Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes; Feed him with apricocks and dewberries, With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries; The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees,
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175 And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs And light them at the fiery glowworms’ eyes To have my love to bed and to arise; And pluck the wings from painted butterflies To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes.180 Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.⌜PEASEBLOSSOM⌝ Hail, mortal!⌜COBWEB⌝ Hail!⌜MOTE⌝ Hail!⌜MUSTARDSEED⌝ Hail!BOTTOM 185I cry your Worships mercy, heartily.—I beseech your Worship’s name.COBWEB Cobweb.BOTTOM I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master Cobweb. If I cut my finger, I shall make190 bold with you.—Your name, honest gentleman?PEASEBLOSSOM Peaseblossom.BOTTOM I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. Good Master Peaseblossom, I shall desire you of195 more acquaintance too.—Your name, I beseech you, sir?MUSTARDSEED Mustardseed.BOTTOM Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience well. That same cowardly, giantlike ox-beef200 hath devoured many a gentleman of your house. I promise you, your kindred hath made my eyes water ere now. I desire you ⌜of⌝ more acquaintance, good Master Mustardseed.TITANIA Come, wait upon him. Lead him to my bower.205 The moon, methinks, looks with a wat’ry eye, And when she weeps, weeps every little flower, Lamenting some enforcèd chastity. Tie up my lover’s tongue. Bring him silently.⌜They⌝ exit.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
