A Midsummer Night’s Dream Bottom Lines

Act 1 Scene 2After (Quince)Is all our company here? You were best to call them generally, man by man,according to the scrip.
Act 1 Scene 2After (Quince)Here is the scroll of every man’s name, which isthought fit, through all Athens, to play in ourinterlude before the duke and the duchess, on hiswedding-day at night. First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treatson, then read the names of the actors, and so growto a point.
Act 1 Scene 2After (Quince)Marry, our play is, The most lamentable comedy, andmost cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby. A very good piece of work, I assure you, and amerry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth youractors by the scroll. Masters, spread yourselves.
Act 1 Scene 2After (Quince)Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver. Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.
Act 1 Scene 2After (Quince)You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus. What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant?
Act 1 Scene 2After (Quince)A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love. That will ask some tears in the true performing ofit: if I do it, let the audience look to theireyes; I will move storms.
Act 1 Scene 2After (Quince)That’s all one: you shall play it in a mask, andyou may speak as small as you will. An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too.
Act 1 Scene 2After (Quince)No, no; you must play Pyramus: and, Flute, you Thisby. Well, proceed.
Act 1 Scene 2After (Quince)You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring. Let me play the lion too: I will roar,I will make the duke say ‘Let him roar again,let him roar again.’
Act 1 Scene 2After (Quince)An you should do it too terribly, you would frightthe duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek;and that were enough to hang us all. I grant you, friends, if that you should fright theladies out of their wits, they would have no morediscretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate myvoice so that I will roar you as gently as anysucking dove.
Act 1 Scene 2After (Quince)You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is asweet-faced man; a proper man,therefore you must needs play Pyramus. Well, I will undertake it.
Act 1 Scene 2After (Quince)Masters, hereare your parts: and I am to entreat youto con them by to-morrow night;in the palace wood, a mile without thetown, by moonlight; there will we rehearse, for ifwe meet in the city, we shall be dogged withcompany, and our devices known. We will meet; and there we may rehearse mostobscenely and courageously. Take pains; be perfect: adieu.
Act 3 Scene 1First line Are we all met?
Act 3 Scene 1After (Quince)Pat, pat; and here’s a marvellous convenient placefor our rehearsal. Peter Quince,–
Act 3 Scene 1After (Quince)What sayest thou, bully Bottom? There are things in this comedy of Pyramus andThisby that will never please. First, Pyramus mustdraw a sword to kill himself; which the ladiescannot abide. How answer you that?
Act 3 Scene 1After (Starveling)I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done. Not a whit: I have a device to make all well.Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem tosay, we will do no harm with our swords, and thatPyramus is not killed indeed; and, for the morebetter assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am notPyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put themout of fear.
Act 3 Scene 1After (Quince)Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall bewritten in eight and six. No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight.
Act 3 Scene 1After (Starveling)I fear it, I promise you. Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves: tobring in–God shield us!–a lion among ladies, is amost dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearfulwild-fowl than your lion living; and we ought tolook to ‘t.
Act 3 Scene 1After (Snout)Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion. Nay, you must name his name, and half his face mustbe seen through the lion’s neck: and he himselfmust speak through, saying thus, or to the samedefect,–‘Ladies,’–or ‘Fair-ladies–I would wishYou,’–or ‘I would request you,’–or ‘I wouldentreat you,–not to fear, not to tremble: my lifefor yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, itwere pity of my life: no I am no such thing; I am aman as other men are;’ and there indeed let him namehis name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner.
Act 3 Scene 1After (Snout)Doth the moon shine that night we play our play? A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanac; findout moonshine, find out moonshine.
Act 3 Scene 1After (Quince)Yes, it doth shine that night. Why, then may you leave a casement of the greatchamber window, where we play, open, and the moonmay shine in at the casement.
Act 3 Scene 1After (Bottom)You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom? Some man or other must present Wall: and let himhave some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-castabout him, to signify wall; and let him hold hisfingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramusand Thisby whisper.
Act 3 Scene 1After (Quince)Speak, Pyramus. Thisby, stand forth. Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet,–
Act 3 Scene 1After (Quince)Odours, odours. –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)
Act 3 Scene 1After (Flute)O,–As true as truest horse, that yet wouldnever tire. (Re-enter, with ass head)If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine.
Act 3 Scene 1After (Puck)O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted. Pray,masters! fly, masters! Help! (He exits) Why do they run away? this is a knavery of them tomake me afeard.
Act 3 Scene 1After (Snout)O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on thee? What do you see? you see an asshead of your own, doyou?
Act 3 Scene 1After (Quince)Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou arttranslated.(He exits) I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me;to fright me, if they could. But I will not stirfrom this place, do what they can: I will walk upand down here, and I will sing, that they shall hearI 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,–
Act 3 Scene 1After (Titania)[Awaking] What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?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 meOn the first view to say, to swear, I love thee. Methinks, mistress, you should have little reasonfor that: and yet, to say the truth, reason andlove keep little company together now-a-days; themore the pity that some honest neighbours will notmake them friends.
Act 3 Scene 1After (Titania)Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful. Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get outof this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.
Act 4 Scene 1After (Titania)Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.What, wilt thou hear some music,my sweet love? I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let’s havethe tongs and the bones.
Act 4 Scene 1After (Titania)Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottleof hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me: Ihave an exposition of sleep come upon me.
Act 4 Scene 1After (Demetrius)Why, then, we are awake: let’s follow himAnd by the way let us recount our dreams.(He exits) [Awaking] When my cue comes, call me, and I willanswer: my next is, ‘Most fair Pyramus.’ Heigh-ho!Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout,the tinker! Starveling! God’s my life, stolenhence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rarevision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man tosay what dream it was: man is but an ass, if he goabout to expound this dream. Methought I was–thereis no man can tell what. Methought I was,–andmethought I had,–but man is but a patched fool, ifhe will offer to say what methought I had. The eyeof man hath not heard, the ear of man hath notseen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongueto conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dreamwas. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad ofthis dream: it shall be called Bottom’s Dream,because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in thelatter end of a play, before the duke:peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shallsing it at her death.(He exit)
Act 4 Scene 2After (Flute)…an the duke had not given himsixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I’ll be hanged;he would have deserved it: sixpence a day inPyramus, or nothing. (Enter)Where are these lads? where are these hearts?
Act 4 Scene 2After (Quince)Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour! Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask me notwhat; for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. Iwill tell you every thing, right as it fell out.
Act 4 Scene 2After (Quince)Let us hear, sweet Bottom. Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, thatthe duke hath dined. Get your apparel together,good strings to your beards, new ribbons to yourpumps; meet presently at the palace; every man looko’er his part; for the short and the long is, ourplay is preferred. In any case, let Thisby haveclean linen; and let not him that plays the lionpair his nails, for they shall hang out for thelion’s claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onionsnor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and Ido not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet comedy. No more words: away! go, away! (Exit)
Act 5 Scene 1After (Theseus)Pyramus draws near the wall: silence! O grim-look’d night! O night with hue so black!O night, which ever art when day is not!O night, O night! alack, alack, alack,I fear my Thisbe’s promise is forgot!And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,That stand’st between her father’s ground and mine!Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne!(Wall holds up his fingers.)Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this! But what see I? No Thisbe do I see.O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss!Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me!
Act 5 Scene 1After (Theseus)The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again. (out of character)No, in truth, sir, he should not. ‘Deceiving me’is Thisbe’s cue: she is to enter now, and I am tospy her through the wall. You shall see, it willfall pat as I told you. Yonder she comes.
Act 5 Scene 1After (Flute as Thisby)O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans,For parting my fair Pyramus and me!My cherry lips have often kiss’d thy stones,Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee. I see a voice: now will I to the chink,To spy an I can hear my Thisby’s face. Thisby!
Act 5 Scene 1After (Flute as Thisby)My love thou art, my love I think. Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover’s grace;And, like Limander, am I trusty still.
Act 5 Scene 1After (Flute as Thisby)And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill. Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.
Act 5 Scene 1After (Flute as Thisby)As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you. O kiss me through the hole of this vile wall!
Act 5 Scene 1After (Flute as Thisby)I kiss the wall’s hole, not your lips at all. Wilt thou at Ninny’s tomb meet me straightway?
Act 5 Scene 1After (Demtrius)And then came Pyramus. (Enter)Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams;I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright;For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams,I trust to take of truest Thisbe sight.But stay, O spite!But mark, poor knight,What dreadful dole is here!Eyes, do you see?How can it be?O dainty duck! O dear!Thy mantle good, What, stain’d with blood!
Act 5 Scene 1After (Hippolyta)Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man. O wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame?Since lion vile hath here deflower’d my dear:Which is–no, no–which was the fairest dameThat lived, that loved, that liked, that look’dwith cheer.Come, tears, confound;Out, sword, and woundThe pap of Pyramus;Ay, that left pap,Where heart doth hop:(Stabs himself.)Thus die I, thus, thus, thus.Now am I dead,Now am I fled;My soul is in the sky:Tongue, lose thy light;Moon take thy flight:(Exit Moonshine.)Now die, die, die, die, die.(Dies.)
Act 5 Scene 1After (Demetrius)Ay, and Wall too. (out of character)No assure you; the wall is down thatparted their fathers. Will it please you to see theepilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between twoof our company?
August 8, 2019