Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
Act 3 - Scene 1
The wood. TITANIA lying asleep.
Bottom : Are we all met?
Quince : Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place
[p]for our
rehearsal. This green plot shall be our
[p]stage, this hawthorn-brake
our tiring-house; and we
[p]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 Pyramus and
[p]Thisby that will
never please. First, Pyramus must
[p]draw a sword to kill himself;
which the ladies
[p]cannot abide. How answer you that?
Snout : By'r lakin, a parlous fear.
Starveling : I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.
Bottom : Not a whit: I have a device to make all well.
[p]Write me a prologue;
and let the prologue seem to
[p]say, we will do no harm with our
swords, and that
[p]Pyramus is not killed indeed; and, for the
more
[p]better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am
not
[p]Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put them
[p]out of
fear.
Quince : Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall be
[p]written in
eight and six.
Bottom : No, 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 yourselves: to
[p]bring in--God
shield us!--a lion among ladies, is a
[p]most dreadful thing; for
there is not a more fearful
[p]wild-fowl than your lion living; and we
ought to
[p]look to 't.
Snout : Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion.
Bottom : Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must
[p]be seen through
the lion's neck: and he himself
[p]must speak through, saying thus, or
to the same
[p]defect,--'Ladies,'--or 'Fair-ladies--I would
wish
[p]You,'--or 'I would request you,'--or 'I would
[p]entreat
you,--not to fear, not to tremble: my life
[p]for yours. If you think
I come hither as a lion, it
[p]were pity of my life: no I am no such
thing; I am a
[p]man as other men are;' and there indeed let him
name
[p]his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner.
Quince : Well it shall be so. But there is two hard things;
[p]that is, to
bring the moonlight into a chamber; for,
[p]you know, Pyramus and
Thisby meet by moonlight.
Snout : Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?
Bottom : A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanac; find
[p]out moonshine,
find out moonshine.
Quince : Yes, it doth shine that night.
Bottom : Why, then may you leave a casement of the great
[p]chamber window,
where we play, open, and the moon
[p]may shine in at the casement.
Quince : Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns
[p]and a lanthorn,
and say he comes to disfigure, or to
[p]present, the person of
Moonshine. Then, there is
[p]another thing: we must have a wall in the
great
[p]chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby says the story, did
[p]talk
through the chink of a wall.
Snout : You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom?
Bottom : Some man or other must present Wall: and let him
[p]have some plaster,
or some loam, or some rough-cast
[p]about him, to signify wall; and
let him hold his
[p]fingers thus, and through that cranny shall
Pyramus
[p]and Thisby whisper.
Quince : If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down,
[p]every mother's
son, and rehearse your parts.
[p]Pyramus, you begin: when you have
spoken your
[p]speech, enter into that brake: and so every
one
[p]according to his cue.
Puck : What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here,
[p]So near the cradle
of the fairy queen?
[p]What, a play toward! I'll be an auditor;
[p]An
actor too, perhaps, if I see cause.
Quince : Speak, Pyramus. Thisby, stand forth.
Bottom : Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet,--
Quince : Odours, odours.
Bottom : --odours savours sweet:
[p]So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby
dear.
[p]But hark, a voice! stay thou but here awhile,
[p]And by and
by I will to thee appear.
Puck : A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here.
Flute : Must I speak now?
Quince : Ay, marry, must you; for you must understand he goes
[p]but to see a
noise that he heard, and is to come again.
Flute : Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue,
[p]Of colour like the
red rose on triumphant brier,
[p]Most brisky juvenal and eke most
lovely Jew,
[p]As true as truest horse that yet would never
tire,
[p]I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb.
Quince : 'Ninus' tomb,' man: why, you must not speak that
[p]yet; that you
answer to Pyramus: you speak all your
[p]part at once, cues and all
Pyramus enter: your cue
[p]is past; it is, 'never tire.'
Flute : O,--As true as truest horse, that yet would
[p]never tire.
Bottom : If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine.
Quince : O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted. Pray,
[p]masters! fly,
masters! Help!
Puck : I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round,
[p]Through bog, through
bush, through brake, through brier:
[p]Sometime a horse I'll be,
sometime a hound,
[p]A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire;
[p]And
neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,
[p]Like horse, hound,
hog, bear, fire, at every turn.
Bottom : Why do they run away? this is a knavery of them to
[p]make me afeard.
Snout : O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on thee?
Bottom : What do you see? you see an asshead of your own, do
[p]you?
Quince : Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art
[p]translated.
Bottom : I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me;
[p]to fright me, if
they could. But I will not stir
[p]from this place, do what they can:
I will walk up
[p]and down here, and I will sing, that they shall
hear
[p]I am not afraid.
[p][Sings]
[p]The ousel cock so black of
hue,
[p]With orange-tawny bill,
[p]The throstle with his note so
true,
[p]The wren with little quill,--
Titania : [Awaking] What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?
Bottom : [Sings]
[p]The finch, the sparrow and the lark,
[p]The plain-song
cuckoo gray,
[p]Whose note full many a man doth mark,
[p]And dares not
answer nay;--
[p]for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish
[p]a
bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry
[p]'cuckoo' never
so?
Titania : I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:
[p]Mine ear is much enamour'd
of thy note;
[p]So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
[p]And thy
fair virtue's force perforce doth move me
[p]On the first view to say,
to swear, I love thee.
Bottom : Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason
[p]for that: and
yet, to say the truth, reason and
[p]love keep little company together
now-a-days; the
[p]more the pity that some honest neighbours will
not
[p]make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.
Titania : Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.
Bottom : Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get out
[p]of this wood, I
have enough to serve mine own turn.
Titania : Out of this wood do not desire to go:
[p]Thou shalt remain here,
whether thou wilt or no.
[p]I am a spirit of no common rate;
[p]The
summer still doth tend upon my state;
[p]And I do love thee:
therefore, go with me;
[p]I'll give thee fairies to attend on
thee,
[p]And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
[p]And sing
while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep;
[p]And I will purge thy
mortal grossness so
[p]That thou shalt like an airy spirit
go.
[p]Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed!
Peaseblossom : Ready.
Cobweb : And I.
Moth : And I.
Mustardseed : And I.
All : Where shall we go?
Titania : Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
[p]Hop in his walks and
gambol in his eyes;
[p]Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
[p]With
purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;
[p]The honey-bags steal
from the humble-bees,
[p]And for night-tapers crop their waxen
thighs
[p]And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,
[p]To have my
love to bed and to arise;
[p]And pluck the wings from Painted
butterflies
[p]To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:
[p]Nod to
him, elves, and do him courtesies.
Peaseblossom : Hail, mortal!
Cobweb : Hail!
Moth : Hail!
Mustardseed : Hail!
Bottom : I cry your worship's mercy, heartily: I beseech your
[p]worship's
name.
Cobweb : Cobweb.
Bottom : I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master
[p]Cobweb: if I
cut my finger, I shall make bold with
[p]you. Your name, honest
gentleman?
Peaseblossom : Peaseblossom.
Bottom : I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your
[p]mother, and to
Master Peascod, your father. Good
[p]Master Peaseblossom, I shall
desire you of more
[p]acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you,
sir?
Mustardseed : Mustardseed.
Bottom : Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience well:
[p]that same
cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath
[p]devoured many a gentleman of your
house: I promise
[p]you your kindred had made my eyes water ere now.
I
[p]desire your more acquaintance, good Master
[p]Mustardseed.
Titania : Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower.
[p]The moon methinks looks
with a watery eye;
[p]And when she weeps, weeps every little
flower,
[p]Lamenting some enforced chastity.
[p]Tie up my love's
tongue bring him silently.
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