SCENE I. The wood. TITANIA lying asleep.
Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING
QUINCE
Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place
QUINCE
for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our
QUINCE
stage, this hawthorn-brake our tiring-house; and we
QUINCE
will do it in action as we will do it before the duke.
QUINCE
What sayest thou, bully Bottom?
BOTTOM
There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and
BOTTOM
Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must
BOTTOM
draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies
BOTTOM
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.
BOTTOM
Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to
BOTTOM
say, we will do no harm with our swords, and that
BOTTOM
Pyramus is not killed indeed; and, for the more
BOTTOM
better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not
BOTTOM
Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put them
QUINCE
Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall be
QUINCE
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
BOTTOM
bring in--God shield us!--a lion among ladies, is a
BOTTOM
most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful
BOTTOM
wild-fowl than your lion living; and we ought to
SNOUT
Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion.
BOTTOM
Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must
BOTTOM
be seen through the lion's neck: and he himself
BOTTOM
must speak through, saying thus, or to the same
BOTTOM
defect,--'Ladies,'--or 'Fair-ladies--I would wish
BOTTOM
You,'--or 'I would request you,'--or 'I would
BOTTOM
entreat you,--not to fear, not to tremble: my life
BOTTOM
for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it
BOTTOM
were pity of my life: no I am no such thing; I am a
BOTTOM
man as other men are;' and there indeed let him name
BOTTOM
his name, and tell them plainly he is SNUG the joiner.
QUINCE
Well it shall be so. But there is two hard things;
QUINCE
that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber; for,
QUINCE
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
BOTTOM
out moonshine, find out moonshine.
QUINCE
Yes, it doth shine that night.
BOTTOM
Why, then may you leave a casement of the great
BOTTOM
chamber window, where we play, open, and the moon
BOTTOM
may shine in at the casement.
QUINCE
Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns
QUINCE
and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure, or to
QUINCE
present, the person of Moonshine. Then, there is
QUINCE
another thing: we must have a wall in the great
QUINCE
chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby says the story, did
QUINCE
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 [Person 24]: and let him
Wall
[PERSON 9]: Some man or other must present and let him
BOTTOM
have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast
BOTTOM
about him, to signify wall; and let him hold his
BOTTOM
fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus
BOTTOM
and Thisby whisper.
QUINCE
If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down,
QUINCE
every mother's son, and rehearse your parts.
QUINCE
Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken your
QUINCE
speech, enter into that brake: and so every one
QUINCE
according to his cue.
