TPTT A Midsummer Night's Dream: ACT III
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
SCENE I. The wood. TITANIA lying asleep.
SCENE II. Another part of the wood.
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
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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
5     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
10    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.
15    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
20    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
25    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
30    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
35    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
40    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
45    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
50    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
55    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
60    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,
65    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,
70    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
75    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
80    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,
85    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
90    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
95    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:
100   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
105   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
110   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
115   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
120   (Awaking) What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?
BOTTOM
      The finch, the sparrow and the lark,
      The plain-song cuckoo gray,
      Whose note full many a man doth mark,
125   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:
130   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
135   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
140   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;
145   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;
150   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
155   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;
160   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,
165   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
170   Hail!
MOTH
      Hail!
MUSTARDSEED
      Hail!
BOTTOM
      I cry your worship's mercy, heartily: I beseech your
      worship's name.
COBWEB
175   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
180   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
185   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
190   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.
195   Tie up my love's tongue bring him silently.
Exeunt
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