hear; What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word? [Exit. ACT III. SCENE I. The wood. TITANIA lying asleep. Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING. Bot. Are we all met? Quin. 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. Quin. Wat say'st thou, bully Bottom? Bot. 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. 153. an if. See Abbott, § 105. 12 154. of for the sake of. See Twelfth Night, V. i. 221; Merchant of Venice, II. viii. 42. 4. tiring-house dressing-room. = 8. bully a term of endearment and familiarity. See the New Eng. Dict. 13. lakin = little lady. The word was used as a means of swearing by the Virgin Mary. 13. parlous perilous, a phonetic spelling of the word as it was commonly pronounced in Shakespeare's day. - White. + Star. I believe we must have the killing out, when all is done. Bot. 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. 22 Quin. Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall be written in eight and six. Bot. No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight. Snout. Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion? Bot. 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. 33 Snout. Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion. Bot. 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 or I would request you, · or I would en wish you, treat you, -not to fear, not to tremble: my life for 17. prologue. See V. i. Are these prologues given when the play is presented before Theseus? 19. more better. See Abbott, § 11. 24. eight and six=the common ballad metre of alternate eight and six syllable lines. yours. pity of If you think I come hither as a lion, it were life: no, my 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. 45 Quin. 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? 51 Bot. A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanac ; find out moonshine, find out moonshine. Quin. Yes, it doth shine that night. Bot. 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. Quin. Ay; or else one must come in with a bush 42. it were pity of my life = it would be a sad thing for For this use of of, see Abbott, § 174. me. 43-45. This possibly alludes to something which happened at an entertainment given to Queen Elizabeth: "There was a spectacle presented to Q. Elizabeth upon the water and amongst others Harr. Golding: was to represent Arion upon the Dolphin's backe, but finding his voice to be very hoarse and unpleasant when he came to perform it, he teares off his Disguise, and swears he was none of Arion not he, but eene honest Har. Goldingham; which blunt discoverie pleasd the Queene better, then if it had gone thorough in the right way.” — Quoted by Furness. 46. See Abbott, § 335. 52. In a calendar or almanac of 1575 is the following titlepage: "A prognostication everlastinge of right good effect, fruictfully augmented by the auctour, contayning plain, briefe, pleasaunte, chosen rules to judge the Weather by the Sunne, Moone, Starres, Comets, Rainbow, Thunder, Cloudes . . . with a briefe judgement for ever of Plenty, Lucke, Sickenes, Death, Warres, etc.". Quoted by Knight. 58. See V. i. 256. 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. 63 Snout. You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom? Bot. 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. 70 Quin. 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. 80 Quin. Speak, Pyramus. Thisby, stand forth. Quin. Odours, odours. Bot. "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." 74. brake. See line 4. [Exit. 75. cue="the stage term for the ending of a speech, as the catchword given to the actor who is to speak next." — Rolfe. 77. See II. ii. 8. Puck. A stranger Pyramus than e'er play'd here. Flu. Must I speak now? [Exit. Quin. Ay, marry, must you; for you must understand he goes but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again. 91 Flu. "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." Quin. "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.” 100 Flu. O, "As true as truest horse, that yet would never tire." Re-enter PUCK, and BOTTOм with an ass's head. Bot. "If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine." Quin. 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, 110 Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn. [Exit. 94. juvenal. Used only by Shakespeare in a jest. See Love's Labour's Lost, I. ii. 8; III. i. 56. 94. Jew seemingly only for the jingle. |