wild-fowl than your lion living; and we ought to look
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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
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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 ‘l 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.
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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
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know, Pyramus and Thisbe 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!
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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
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thorns and a lantern, 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 Thisbe, says the story, did
talk through the chink of a wall.
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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
roughcast about him, to signify wall; and let him hold
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his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall
Pyramus and Thisbe 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
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into that brake; and so every one according to his cue.
Enter PUCK behind.
PUCK
What hempen homespuns 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.
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QUINCE Speak, Pyramus; Thisbe, stand forth.
BOTTOM Thisbe, the flowers of odious savours sweet –
QUINCE ‘Odorous’! ‘odorous’!
BOTTOM Odorous savours sweet;
So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisbe dear.
But hark, a voice! Stay thou but here awhile,
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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
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again.
FLUTE Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue,
Of colour like the red rose on triumphant briar,
Most brisky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew,
As true as truest horse that yet would never tire;
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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’.
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FLUTE
O – As true as truest horse that yet would never tire.
Enter PUCK, and BOTTOM with the ass-head on.
BOTTOM If I were fair, Thisbe, 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!
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Through bog, through bush, through brake, through briar;
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.
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BOTTOM Why do they run away? This is a knavery of
them to make me afeard.
Enter SNOUT.
SNOUT O Bottom, thou art changed! What do I see on
thee?
BOTTOM What do you see? You see an ass-head of your
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own, do you? Exit Snout.
Enter QUINCE.
QUINCE Bless thee, Bottom, bless thee! Thou art trans lated. 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
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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,
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The throstle, with his note so true,
The wren with little quill –
[The singing awakens Titania.]
TITANIA What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?
BOTTOM [Sings.]
The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,
The plain-song cuckoo gray,
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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?
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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.
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BOTTOM Methinks, mistress, you should have little
reason for that. And yet, to say the truth, reason and
love keep little company together nowadays. The more
the pity that some honest neighbours will not make
them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.
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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.
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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,
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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 four fairies: PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB,
MOTH and MUSTARDSEED.
PEASEBLOS
SOM Ready.
COBWEB And I.
MOTH And I.
MUSTARDSEED And I.
ALL Where shall we go?
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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,
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And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs,
And light them at the fiery glow-worms’ 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.
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Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.
PEASEBLOSSOM Hail, mortal!
COBWEB Hail!
MOTH Hail!
MUSTARDSEED Hail!
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BOTTOM I cry your worships 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
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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
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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
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promise you, your kindred hath made my eyes water
ere now. I desire you of more acquaintance, good
Master Mustardseed.
TITANIA Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower.
The moon, methinks, looks with a watery eye,
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And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,
Lamenting some enforced chastity.
Tie up my love’s tongue, bring him silently. Exeunt.
3.2 Enter OBERON, King of Fairies.
OBERON I wonder if Titania be awak’d;
Then, what it was that next came in her eye,
Which she must dote on in extremity.
Enter PUCK.
Here comes my messenger. How now, mad spirit?
What night-rule now about this haunted grove?
5
PUCK My mistress with a monster is in love.
Near to her close and consecrated bower,
While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,
A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,
That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,
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Were met together to rehearse a play
Intended for great Theseus’ nuptial day.
The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort,
Who Pyramus presented in their sport,
Forsook his scene, and enter’d in a brake,
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When I did him at this advantage take:
An ass’s nole I fixed on his head.
Anon, his Thisbe must be answered,
And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy –
As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,
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Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort,
Rising and cawing at the gun’s report,
Sever themselves, and madly sweep the sky
So, at his sight, away his fellows fly;
And at our stamp, here o’er and o’er one falls;
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He murder cries, and help from Athens calls.
Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears thus
strong,
Made senseless things begin to do them wrong:
For briars and thorns at their apparel snatch;
Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all things
catch.
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I led them on in this distracted fear,
And left sweet Pyramus translated there;
When in that moment, so it came to pass,
Titania wak’d, and straightway lov’d an ass.
OBERON This falls out better than I could devise.
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But hast thou yet latch’d the Athenian’s eyes
With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?
PUCK I took him sleeping – that is finish’d too –
And the Athenian woman by his side,
That when he wak’d, of force she must be ey’d.
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Enter DEMETRIUS and HERMIA.
OBERON Stand close: this is the same Athenian.
PUCK This is the woman, but not this the man.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 393
