Reading Help A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
shall `
` be call'd 'Bottom's Dream,' because it hath no bottom; and I `
` will `
` sing it in the latter end of a play, before the Duke. `
` Peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it `
` at `
` her death. Exit `
` `
` `
` `
` `
` SCENE II. `
` Athens. QUINCE'S house `
` `
` Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING `
` `
` QUINCE. Have you sent to Bottom's house? Is he come home yet? `
` STARVELING. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is `
` transported. `
` FLUTE. If he come not, then the play is marr'd; it goes not `
` forward, doth it? `
` QUINCE. It is not possible. You have not a man in all Athens `
` able `
` to discharge Pyramus but he. `
` FLUTE. No; he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft man in `
` Athens. `
` QUINCE. Yea, and the best person too; and he is a very paramour `
` for `
` a sweet voice. `
` FLUTE. You must say 'paragon.' A paramour is- God bless us!- A `
` thing of naught. `
` `
` Enter SNUG `
` `
` SNUG. Masters, the Duke is coming from the temple; and there is `
` two `
` or three lords and ladies more married. If our sport had gone `
` `
` forward, we had all been made men. `
` FLUTE. O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a day `
` during his life; he could not have scaped sixpence a day. An `
` the `
` Duke had not given him sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, `
` I'll `
` be hanged. He would have deserved it: sixpence a day in `
` Pyramus, `
` or nothing. `
` `
` Enter BOTTOM `
` `
` BOTTOM. Where are these lads? Where are these hearts? `
` QUINCE. Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour! `
` BOTTOM. Masters, I am to discourse wonders; but ask me not `
` what; `
` for if I tell you, I am not true Athenian. I will tell you `
` everything, right as it fell out. `
` QUINCE. Let us hear, sweet Bottom. `
` BOTTOM. Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that the `
` Duke hath dined. Get your apparel together; good strings to `
` your `
` beards, new ribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the `
` palace; `
` every man look o'er his part; for the short and the long is, `
` our `
` play is preferr'd. In any case, let Thisby have clean linen; `
` and `
` let not him that plays the lion pare his nails, for they `
` shall `
` hang out for the lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no `
` onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I do `
` not `
` doubt but to hear them say it is a sweet comedy. No more `
` words. `
` Away, go, away! Exeunt `
` `
` `
` `
` `
` <<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 V. SCENE I. `
` Athens. The palace of THESEUS `
` `
` Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, LORDS, and ATTENDANTS `
` `
` HIPPOLYTA. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak `
` of. `
` THESEUS. More strange than true. I never may believe `
` These antique fables, nor these fairy toys. `
` Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, `
` Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend `
` More than cool reason ever comprehends. `
` The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, `
` Are of imagination all compact. `
` One sees more devils than vast hell can hold; `
` That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic, `
` Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt. `
` The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, `
` Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; `
` And as imagination bodies forth `
` The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen `
` Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing `
` A local habitation and a name. `
` Such tricks hath strong imagination `
` That, if it would but apprehend some joy, `
` It comprehends some bringer of that joy; `
` Or in the night, imagining some fear, `
` How easy is a bush suppos'd a bear? `
` HIPPOLYTA. But all the story of the night told over, `
` And all their minds transfigur'd so together, `
` More witnesseth than fancy's images, `
` And grows to something of great constancy, `
` But howsoever strange and admirable. `
` `
` Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and HELENA `
` `
` THESEUS. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth. `
` Joy, gentle friends, joy and fresh days of love `
` Accompany your hearts! `
` LYSANDER. More than to us `
` Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed! `
` THESEUS. Come now; what masques, what dances shall we have, `
` To wear away this long age of three hours `
` Between our after-supper and bed-time? `
` Where is our usual manager of mirth? `
` What revels are in hand? Is there no play `
` To ease the anguish of a torturing hour? `
` Call Philostrate. `
` PHILOSTRATE. Here, mighty Theseus. `
` THESEUS. Say, what abridgment have you for this evening? `
` What masque? what music? How shall we beguile `
` The lazy time, if not with some delight? `
` PHILOSTRATE. There is a brief how many sports are ripe; `
` Make choice of which your Highness will see first. `
` [Giving a paper] `
` THESEUS. 'The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung `
` By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.' `
` We'll none of that: that have I told my love, `
` In glory of my kinsman Hercules. `
` 'The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals, `
` Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.' `
` That is an old device, and it was play'd `
` When I from Thebes came last a conqueror. `
` `
` 'The thrice three Muses mourning for the death `
` Of Learning, late deceas'd in beggary.' `
` That is some satire, keen and critical, `
` Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony. `
` 'A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus `
` And his love Thisby; very tragical mirth.' `
` Merry and tragical! tedious and brief! `
` That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow. `
` How shall we find the concord of this discord? `
` PHILOSTRATE. A play there is, my lord, some ten words long, `
` Which is as brief as I have known a play; `
` But by ten words, my lord, it is too long, `
` Which makes it tedious; for in all the play `
` There is not one word apt, one player fitted. `
` And tragical, my noble lord, it is; `
` For Pyramus therein doth kill himself. `
` Which when I saw rehears'd, I must confess, `
` Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears `
` The passion of loud laughter never shed. `
` THESEUS. What are they that do play it? `
` PHILOSTRATE. Hard-handed men that work in Athens here, `
` Which never labour'd in their minds till now; `
` And now have toil'd their unbreathed memories `
` With this same play against your nuptial. `
` THESEUS. And we will hear it. `
` PHILOSTRATE. No, my noble lord, `
` It is not for you. I have heard it over, `
` And it is nothing, nothing in the world; `
` Unless you can find sport in their intents, `
` Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain, `
` To do you service. `
` THESEUS. I will hear that play; `
` For never anything can be amiss `
` When simpleness and duty tender it. `
` Go, bring them in; and take your places, ladies. `
` Exit PHILOSTRATE `
` HIPPOLYTA. I love not to see wretchedness o'er-charged, `
` And duty in his service perishing. `
` THESEUS. Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing. `
` HIPPOLYTA. He says they can do nothing in this kind. `
` THESEUS. The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing. `
` Our sport shall be to take what they mistake; `
` And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect `
` Takes it in might, not merit. `
` Where I have come, great clerks have purposed `
` To greet me with premeditated welcomes; `
` Where I have seen them shiver and look pale, `
` Make periods in the midst of sentences, `
`
` be call'd 'Bottom's Dream,' because it hath no bottom; and I `
` will `
` sing it in the latter end of a play, before the Duke. `
` Peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it `
` at `
` her death. Exit `
` `
` `
` `
` `
` SCENE II. `
` Athens. QUINCE'S house `
` `
` Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING `
` `
` QUINCE. Have you sent to Bottom's house? Is he come home yet? `
` STARVELING. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is `
` transported. `
` FLUTE. If he come not, then the play is marr'd; it goes not `
` forward, doth it? `
` QUINCE. It is not possible. You have not a man in all Athens `
` able `
` to discharge Pyramus but he. `
` FLUTE. No; he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft man in `
` Athens. `
` QUINCE. Yea, and the best person too; and he is a very paramour `
` for `
` a sweet voice. `
` FLUTE. You must say 'paragon.' A paramour is- God bless us!- A `
` thing of naught. `
` `
` Enter SNUG `
` `
` SNUG. Masters, the Duke is coming from the temple; and there is `
` two `
` or three lords and ladies more married. If our sport had gone `
` `
` forward, we had all been made men. `
` FLUTE. O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a day `
` during his life; he could not have scaped sixpence a day. An `
` the `
` Duke had not given him sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, `
` I'll `
` be hanged. He would have deserved it: sixpence a day in `
` Pyramus, `
` or nothing. `
` `
` Enter BOTTOM `
` `
` BOTTOM. Where are these lads? Where are these hearts? `
` QUINCE. Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour! `
` BOTTOM. Masters, I am to discourse wonders; but ask me not `
` what; `
` for if I tell you, I am not true Athenian. I will tell you `
` everything, right as it fell out. `
` QUINCE. Let us hear, sweet Bottom. `
` BOTTOM. Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that the `
` Duke hath dined. Get your apparel together; good strings to `
` your `
` beards, new ribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the `
` palace; `
` every man look o'er his part; for the short and the long is, `
` our `
` play is preferr'd. In any case, let Thisby have clean linen; `
` and `
` let not him that plays the lion pare his nails, for they `
` shall `
` hang out for the lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no `
` onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I do `
` not `
` doubt but to hear them say it is a sweet comedy. No more `
` words. `
` Away, go, away! Exeunt `
` `
` `
` `
` `
` <<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 V. SCENE I. `
` Athens. The palace of THESEUS `
` `
` Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, LORDS, and ATTENDANTS `
` `
` HIPPOLYTA. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak `
` of. `
` THESEUS. More strange than true. I never may believe `
` These antique fables, nor these fairy toys. `
` Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, `
` Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend `
` More than cool reason ever comprehends. `
` The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, `
` Are of imagination all compact. `
` One sees more devils than vast hell can hold; `
` That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic, `
` Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt. `
` The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, `
` Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; `
` And as imagination bodies forth `
` The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen `
` Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing `
` A local habitation and a name. `
` Such tricks hath strong imagination `
` That, if it would but apprehend some joy, `
` It comprehends some bringer of that joy; `
` Or in the night, imagining some fear, `
` How easy is a bush suppos'd a bear? `
` HIPPOLYTA. But all the story of the night told over, `
` And all their minds transfigur'd so together, `
` More witnesseth than fancy's images, `
` And grows to something of great constancy, `
` But howsoever strange and admirable. `
` `
` Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and HELENA `
` `
` THESEUS. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth. `
` Joy, gentle friends, joy and fresh days of love `
` Accompany your hearts! `
` LYSANDER. More than to us `
` Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed! `
` THESEUS. Come now; what masques, what dances shall we have, `
` To wear away this long age of three hours `
` Between our after-supper and bed-time? `
` Where is our usual manager of mirth? `
` What revels are in hand? Is there no play `
` To ease the anguish of a torturing hour? `
` Call Philostrate. `
` PHILOSTRATE. Here, mighty Theseus. `
` THESEUS. Say, what abridgment have you for this evening? `
` What masque? what music? How shall we beguile `
` The lazy time, if not with some delight? `
` PHILOSTRATE. There is a brief how many sports are ripe; `
` Make choice of which your Highness will see first. `
` [Giving a paper] `
` THESEUS. 'The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung `
` By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.' `
` We'll none of that: that have I told my love, `
` In glory of my kinsman Hercules. `
` 'The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals, `
` Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.' `
` That is an old device, and it was play'd `
` When I from Thebes came last a conqueror. `
` `
` 'The thrice three Muses mourning for the death `
` Of Learning, late deceas'd in beggary.' `
` That is some satire, keen and critical, `
` Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony. `
` 'A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus `
` And his love Thisby; very tragical mirth.' `
` Merry and tragical! tedious and brief! `
` That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow. `
` How shall we find the concord of this discord? `
` PHILOSTRATE. A play there is, my lord, some ten words long, `
` Which is as brief as I have known a play; `
` But by ten words, my lord, it is too long, `
` Which makes it tedious; for in all the play `
` There is not one word apt, one player fitted. `
` And tragical, my noble lord, it is; `
` For Pyramus therein doth kill himself. `
` Which when I saw rehears'd, I must confess, `
` Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears `
` The passion of loud laughter never shed. `
` THESEUS. What are they that do play it? `
` PHILOSTRATE. Hard-handed men that work in Athens here, `
` Which never labour'd in their minds till now; `
` And now have toil'd their unbreathed memories `
` With this same play against your nuptial. `
` THESEUS. And we will hear it. `
` PHILOSTRATE. No, my noble lord, `
` It is not for you. I have heard it over, `
` And it is nothing, nothing in the world; `
` Unless you can find sport in their intents, `
` Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain, `
` To do you service. `
` THESEUS. I will hear that play; `
` For never anything can be amiss `
` When simpleness and duty tender it. `
` Go, bring them in; and take your places, ladies. `
` Exit PHILOSTRATE `
` HIPPOLYTA. I love not to see wretchedness o'er-charged, `
` And duty in his service perishing. `
` THESEUS. Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing. `
` HIPPOLYTA. He says they can do nothing in this kind. `
` THESEUS. The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing. `
` Our sport shall be to take what they mistake; `
` And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect `
` Takes it in might, not merit. `
` Where I have come, great clerks have purposed `
` To greet me with premeditated welcomes; `
` Where I have seen them shiver and look pale, `
` Make periods in the midst of sentences, `
`