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