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Page 11
<<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY
WITH PERMISSION. ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
COMMERCIALLY. PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
ACT III. 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 kill'd 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 yourself 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 almanack; 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
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 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.
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