Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 2
Athens. QUINCE’S house.
Quince : Have you sent to Bottom's house? is he come home yet?
Starveling : He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is
[p]transported.
Flute : If he come not, then the play is marred: it goes
[p]not forward, doth
it?
Quince : It is not possible: you have not a man in all
[p]Athens able to
discharge Pyramus but he.
Flute : No, he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft
[p]man in Athens.
Quince : Yea and the best person too; and he is a very
[p]paramour for a sweet
voice.
Flute : You must say 'paragon:' a paramour is, God bless us,
[p]a thing of
naught.
Snug : Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and
[p]there is two or
three lords and ladies more married:
[p]if our sport had gone forward,
we had all been made
[p]men.
Flute : O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a
[p]day during his
life; he could not have 'scaped
[p]sixpence a day: an the duke had not
given him
[p]sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged;
[p]he
would have deserved it: sixpence a day in
[p]Pyramus, or nothing.
Bottom : Where are these lads? where are these hearts?
Quince : Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour!
Bottom : Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask me not
[p]what; for if I
tell you, I am no true Athenian. I
[p]will tell you every thing, right
as it fell out.
Quince : Let us hear, sweet Bottom.
Bottom : Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that
[p]the duke hath
dined. Get your apparel together,
[p]good strings to your beards, new
ribbons to your
[p]pumps; meet presently at the palace; every man
look
[p]o'er his part; for the short and the long is, our
[p]play is
preferred. In any case, let Thisby have
[p]clean linen; and let not
him that plays the lion
[p]pair his nails, for they shall hang out for
the
[p]lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onions
[p]nor
garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I
[p]do not doubt but to
hear them say, it is a sweet
[p]comedy. No more words: away! go,
away!
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Next: Act 5 - Scene 1
