SCENE II. Athens. QUINCE'S house. A Midsummer Night's Dream  Shakespeare homepage  |  Midsummer Night's Dream  | Act 1, Scene 2 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE II. Athens. QUINCE'S house. 

 Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING  QUINCE  Is all our company here? 

 BOTTOM  You were best to call them generally, man by man, 

 according to the scrip. 

 QUINCE  Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is 

 thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our 

 interlude before the duke and the duchess, on his 

 wedding-day at night. 

 BOTTOM  First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats 

 on, then read the names of the actors, and so grow 

 to a point. 

 QUINCE  Marry, our play is, The most lamentable comedy, and 

 most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby. 

 BOTTOM  A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a 

 merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your 

 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 

 it: if I do it, let the audience look to their 

 eyes; I will move storms, I will condole in some 

 measure. To the rest: yet my chief humour is for a 

 tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to 

 tear a cat in, to make all split. 

 The raging rocks 

 And shivering shocks 

 Shall break the locks 

 Of prison gates; 

 And Phibbus' car 

 Shall shine from far 

 And make and mar 

 The foolish Fates. 

 This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players. 

 This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is 

 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 

 you may speak as small as you will. 

 BOTTOM  An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too, I'll 

 speak in a monstrous little voice. 'Thisne, 

 Thisne;' 'Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! thy Thisby dear, 

 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. 

 Tom Snout, the tinker. 

 SNOUT  Here, Peter Quince. 

 QUINCE  You, Pyramus' father: myself, Thisby's father: 

 Snug, the joiner; you, the lion's part: and, I 

 hope, here is a play fitted. 

 SNUG  Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if it 

 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 

 do any man's heart good to hear me; I will roar, 

 that I will make the duke say 'Let him roar again, 

 let him roar again.' 

 QUINCE  An you should do it too terribly, you would fright 

 the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek; 

 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 

 ladies out of their wits, they would have no more 

 discretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my 

 voice so that I will roar you as gently as any 

 sucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any 

 nightingale. 

 QUINCE  You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a 

 sweet-faced man; a proper man, as one shall see in a 

 summer's day; a most lovely gentleman-like man: 

 therefore you must needs play Pyramus. 

 BOTTOM  Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best 

 to play it in? 

 QUINCE  Why, what you will. 

 BOTTOM  I will discharge it in either your straw-colour 

 beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain 

 beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, your 

 perfect yellow. 

 QUINCE  Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and 

 then you will play bare-faced. But, masters, here 

 are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request 

 you and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night; 

 and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the 

 town, by moonlight; there will we rehearse, for if 

 we meet in the city, we shall be dogged with 

 company, and our devices known. In the meantime I 

 will draw a bill of properties, such as our play 

 wants. I pray you, fail me not. 

 BOTTOM  We will meet; and there we may rehearse most 

 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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