SCENE I. The wood. TITANIA lying asleep. A Midsummer Night's Dream  Shakespeare homepage  |  Midsummer Night's Dream  | Act 3, Scene 1 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE I. The wood. TITANIA lying asleep. 

 Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING  BOTTOM  Are we all met? 

 QUINCE  Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place 

 for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our 

 stage, this hawthorn-brake our tiring-house; 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 Pyramus and 

 Thisby 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, 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 more 

 better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not 

 Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put them 

 out of fear. 

 QUINCE  Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall be 

 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 

 bring in--God shield us!--a lion among ladies, is a 

 most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful 

 wild-fowl than your lion living; and we ought to 

 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 

 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 would 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 

 his 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 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 

 out moonshine, find out moonshine. 

 QUINCE  Yes, it doth shine that night. 

 BOTTOM  Why, then may you leave a casement of the great 

 chamber window, where we play, open, and the moon 

 may shine in at the casement. 

 QUINCE  Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns 

 and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure, or to 

 present, the person of Moonshine. Then, there is 

 another thing: we must have a wall in the great 

 chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby says the story, did 

 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 

 have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast 

 about him, to signify wall; and let him hold his 

 fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus 

 and Thisby 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 every one 

 according to his cue. 



 Enter PUCK behind  PUCK  What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering 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  Speak, Pyramus. Thisby, stand forth. 

 BOTTOM  Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet,-- 

 QUINCE  Odours, odours. 

 BOTTOM  --odours savours sweet: 

 So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear. 

 But hark, a voice! stay thou but here awhile, 

 And by and by I will to thee appear. 



 Exit  PUCK  A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here. 



 Exit  FLUTE  Must I speak now? 

 QUINCE  Ay, marry, must you; for you must understand he goes 

 but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again. 

 FLUTE  Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue, 

 Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier, 

 Most brisky juvenal and eke most lovely Jew, 

 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 enter: your cue 

 is past; it is, 'never tire.' 

 FLUTE  O,--As true as truest horse, that yet would 

 never tire. 



 Re-enter PUCK, and BOTTOM with an ass's head  BOTTOM  If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine. 

 QUINCE  O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted. Pray, 

 masters! fly, masters! Help! 



 Exeunt QUINCE, SNUG, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING  PUCK  I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round, 

 Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier: 

 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. 



 Exit  BOTTOM  Why do they run away? this is a knavery of them to 

 make me afeard. 



 Re-enter SNOUT  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 

 you? 



 Exit SNOUT 

 Re-enter QUINCE  QUINCE  Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art 

 translated. 



 Exit  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 up 

 and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear 

 I am not afraid. 



 Sings  The ousel cock so black of hue, 

 With orange-tawny bill, 

 The throstle with his note so true, 

 The wren with little quill,-- 

 TITANIA  [Awaking]  What angel wakes me from my flowery bed? 

 BOTTOM  [Sings] 

 The finch, the sparrow and the lark, 

 The plain-song cuckoo gray, 

 Whose note full many a man doth mark, 

 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: 

 Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note; 

 So is mine eye enthralled 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 reason 

 for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and 

 love keep little company together now-a-days; the 

 more the pity that some honest neighbours will not 

 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 

 of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn. 

 TITANIA  Out of this wood do not desire to go: 

 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, 

 And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep, 

 And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep; 

 And I will purge thy mortal grossness so 

 That thou shalt like an airy spirit go. 

 Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed! 



 Enter 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; 

 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, 

 And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs 

 And light them at the fiery glow-worm's 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: 

 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 

 worship's name. 

 COBWEB  Cobweb. 

 BOTTOM  I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master 

 Cobweb: if I cut my finger, I shall make 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 of more 

 acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you, sir? 

 MUSTARDSEED  Mustardseed. 

 BOTTOM  Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience well: 

 that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath 

 devoured many a gentleman of your house: I promise 

 you your kindred had made my eyes water ere now. I 

 desire your more acquaintance, good Master 

 Mustardseed. 

 TITANIA  Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower. 

 The moon methinks looks with a watery eye; 

 And when she weeps, weeps every little flower, 

 Lamenting some enforced chastity. 

 Tie up my love's tongue bring him silently. 



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