A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
Page: 19

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 Thisbe 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.

[Enter PUCK behind.]

PUCK
What hempen homespuns 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.

QUINCE
Speak, Pyramus.--Thisby, stand forth.

PYRAMUS
'Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet,'

QUINCE
Odours, odours.

PYRAMUS
'--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
A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here!

[Aside.--Exit.]

THISBE
Must I speak now?

QUINCE
Ay, marry, must you: for you must understand he goes