Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Act 1 Scene 2
QUINCE
Is all our company here?
BOTTOM
You were best to call them generally, man by man,
according to the scrip.
QUINCE
Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is
thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our
interlude before the duke and the duchess, on his
wedding-day at night.
BOTTOM
First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats
on, then read the names of the actors, and so grow
to a point.
QUINCE
Marry, our play is, The most lamentable comedy, and
most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby.
BOTTOM
A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a
merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your
actors by the scroll. Masters, spread yourselves.
QUINCE
Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver.
BOTTOM
Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.
QUINCE
You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.
BOTTOM
What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant?
QUINCE
A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love.
BOTTOM
That will ask some tears in the true performing of
it: if I do it, let the audience look to their
eyes; I will move storms, I will condole in some
measure. To the rest: yet my chief humour is for a
tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to
tear a cat in, to make all split.
The raging rocks
And shivering shocks
Shall break the locks
Of prison gates;
And Phibbus' car
Shall shine from far
And make and mar
The foolish Fates.
This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players.
This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is
more condoling.
QUINCE
Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.
FLUTE
Here, Peter Quince.
QUINCE
Flute, you must take Thisby on you.
FLUTE
What is Thisby? a wandering knight?
QUINCE
It is the lady that Pyramus must love.
FLUTE
Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming.
QUINCE
That's all one: you shall play it in a mask, and
you may speak as small as you will.
BOTTOM
An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too, I'll
speak in a monstrous little voice. 'Thisne,
Thisne;' 'Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! thy Thisby dear,
and lady dear!'
QUINCE
No, no; you must play Pyramus: and, Flute, you Thisby.
BOTTOM
Well, proceed.
QUINCE
Robin Starveling, the tailor.
STARVELING
Here, Peter Quince.
QUINCE
Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother.
Tom Snout, the tinker.
SNOUT
Here, Peter Quince.
QUINCE
You, Pyramus' father: myself, Thisby's father:
Snug, the joiner; you, the lion's part: and, I
hope, here is a play fitted.
SNUG
Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if it
be, give it me, for I am slow of study.
QUINCE
You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
BOTTOM
Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I will
do any man's heart good to hear me; I will roar,
that I will make the duke say 'Let him roar again,
let him roar again.'
QUINCE
An you should do it too terribly, you would fright
the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek;
and that were enough to hang us all.
ALL
That would hang us, every mother's son.
BOTTOM
I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the
ladies out of their wits, they would have no more
discretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my
voice so that I will roar you as gently as any
sucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any
nightingale.
QUINCE
You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a
sweet-faced man; a proper man, as one shall see in a
summer's day; a most lovely gentleman-like man:
therefore you must needs play Pyramus.
BOTTOM
Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best
to play it in?
QUINCE
Why, what you will.
BOTTOM
I will discharge it in either your straw-colour
beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain
beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, your
perfect yellow.
QUINCE
Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and
then you will play bare-faced. But, masters, here
are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request
you and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night;
and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the
town, by moonlight; there will we rehearse, for if
we meet in the city, we shall be dogged with
company, and our devices known. In the meantime I
will draw a bill of properties, such as our play
wants. I pray you, fail me not.
BOTTOM
We will meet; and there we may rehearse most
obscenely and courageously. Take pains; be perfect: adieu.
QUINCE
At the duke's oak we meet.
BOTTOM
Enough; hold or cut bow-strings.
Exeunt
Act 5 Scene 1
[Flourish of trumpets.]
Prologue
108 If we offend, it is with our good will.
109 That you should think, we come not to offend,
110 But with good will. To show our simple skill,
111 That is the true beginning of our end.
112 Consider then we come but in despite.
113 We do not come as minding to content you,
114 Our true intent is. All for your delight
115 We are not here. That you should here repent you,
116 The actors are at hand; and by their show,
117 You shall know all that you are like to know.
THESEUS
118 This fellow doth not stand upon points.
LYSANDER
119 He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows
120 not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not
121 enough to speak, but to speak true.
HIPPOLYTA
122 Indeed he hath played on his prologue like a child
123 on a recorder— a sound, but not in
124 government.
THESEUS
125 His speech, was like a tangled chain; nothing
126 impair'd, but all disordered. Who is next?
Prologue
127 Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show;
128 But wonder on, till truth make all things plain.
129 This man is Pyramus, if you would know;
130 This beauteous lady Thisby is certain.
131 This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present
132 Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder;
133 And through Wall's chink, poor souls, they are content
134 To whisper. At the which let no man wonder.
135 This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn,
136 Presenteth Moonshine; for, if you will know,
137 By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn
138 To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo.
139 This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name,
140 The trusty Thisby, coming first by night,
141 Did scare away, or rather did affright;
142 And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall,
143 Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain.
144 Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall,
145 And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain:
146 Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,
147 He bravely broach'd is boiling bloody breast;
148 And Thisby, tarrying in mulberry shade,
149 His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,
150 Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain
151 At large discourse, while here they do remain.
THESEUS
152 I wonder if the lion be to speak.
DEMETRIUS
153 No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when many
154 asses do.
Wall
155 In this same interlude it doth befall
156 That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;
157 And such a wall, as I would have you think,
158 That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
159 Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,
160 Did whisper often very secretly.
161 This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show
162 That I am that same wall; the truth is so:
163 And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
164 Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.
THESEUS
165 Would you desire lime and hair to speak
166 better?
DEMETRIUS
167 It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard
168 discourse, my lord.
THESEUS
169 Pyramus draws near the wall: silence!
Pyramus
170 O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black!
171 O night, which ever art when day is not!
172 O night, O night! alack, alack, alack,
173 I fear my Thisby's promise is forgot!
174 And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,
175 That stand'st between her father's ground and mine!
176 Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,
177 Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne!
THESEUS
182 The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse
183 again.
Pyramus
184 No, in truth, sir, he should not. 'Deceiving me'
185 is Thisby's cue: she is to enter now, and I am to
186 spy her through the wall. You shall see, it will
187 fall pat as I told you. Yonder she comes.
THISBY
188 O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans,
189 For parting my fair Pyramus and me!
190 My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones,
191 Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.
Pyramus
192 I see a voice: now will I to the chink,
193 To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face.
194 Thisby!
THISBY
194 My love thou art, my love I think.
Pyramus
195 Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace;
196 And, like Limander, am I trusty still.
THISBY
197 And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill.
Pyramus
198 Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.
THISBY
199 As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.
Pyramus
200 O kiss me through the hole of this vild wall!
THISBY
201 I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all.
Pyramus
202 Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?
THISBY
203 'Tide life, 'tide death, I come without delay.
Wall
204 Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so;
205 And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.
[Exit.]
THESEUS
206 Now is the moon used between the two
207 neighbours.
DEMETRIUS
208 No remedy, my lord, when walls are so
209 willful to hear without warning.
HIPPOLYTA
210 This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.
THESEUS
211 The best in this kind are but shadows; and the
212 worst are no worse, if imagination amend them.
HIPPOLYTA
213 It must be your imagination then, and not
214 theirs.
THESEUS
215 If we imagine no worse of them than they of
216 themselves, they may pass for excellent men.
217 Here come two noble beasts in, a man and a
218 lion.
Lion
219 You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear
220 The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,
221 May now perchance both quake and tremble here,
222 When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.
223 Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am
224 A lion fell, nor else no lion's dam;
225 For, if I should as lion come in strife
226 Into this place, 'twere pity on my life.
THESEUS
227 A very gentle beast, of a good con-
228 science.
DEMETRIUS
229 The very best at a beast, my lord, that
230 e'er I saw.
LYSANDER
231 This lion is a very fox for his valour.
THESEUS
232 True; and a goose for his discretion.
DEMETRIUS
233 Not so, my lord; for his valour cannot carry
234 his discretion; and the fox carries the goose.
THESEUS
235 His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his
236 valour; for the goose carries not the fox. It
237 is well: leave it to his discretion, and let us
238 listen to the Moon.
Moonshine
239 This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;—
DEMETRIUS
240 He should have worn the horns on his
241 head.
THESEUS
242 He is no crescent, and his horns are
243 invisible within the circumference.
Moonshine
244 This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;
245 Myself the man i' the moon do seem to be.
THESEUS
246 This is the greatest error of all the rest: the man
247 should be put into the lanthorn. How is it else the
248 man i' the moon?
DEMETRIUS
249 He dares not come there for the candle; for, you
250 see, it is already in snuff.
HIPPOLYTA
251 I am aweary of this moon: would he would
252 change!
THESEUS
253 It appears, by his small light of discretion, that
254 he is in the wane; but yet, in courtesy, in all
255 reason, we must stay the time.
LYSANDER
256 Proceed, Moon.
Moonshine
257 All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the
258 lanthorn is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this
259 thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.
DEMETRIUS
260 Why, all these should be in the lanthorn; for all
261 these are in the moon. But, silence! here comes
262 Thisby.
THISBY
263 This is old Ninny's tomb. Where is my love?
Lion [Roaring.]
264 O!
DEMETRIUS
265 Well roared, Lion.
THESEUS
266 Well run, Thisby.
HIPPOLYTA
267 Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines with a
268 good grace.
DEMETRIUS
270 And then came Pyramus.
LYSANDER
271 And so the lion vanished.
Pyramus
272 Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams;
273 I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright;
274 For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams,
275 I trust to take of truest Thisby sight.
276 But stay, O spite!
277 But mark, poor knight,
278 What dreadful dole is here!
279 Eyes, do you see?
280 How can it be?
281 O dainty duck! O dear!
282 Thy mantle good,
283 What, stain'd with blood!
284 Approach, ye Furies fell!
285 O Fates, come, come,
286 Cut thread and thrum;
287 Quail, crush, conclude, and quell!
THESEUS
288 This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would
289 go near to make a man look sad.
HIPPOLYTA
290 Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man.
Pyramus
291 O wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame?
292 Since lion vile hath here deflower'd my dear:
293 Which is—no, no—which was the fairest dame
294 That lived, that loved, that liked, that look'd with cheer.
295 Come, tears, confound;
296 Out, sword, and wound
297 The pap of Pyramus;
298 Ay, that left pap,
299 Where heart doth hop:
[Dies.]
DEMETRIUS
307 No die, but an ace, for him; for he is but one.
LYSANDER
308 Less than an ace, man; for he is dead; he is
309 nothing.
THESEUS
310 With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover,
311 and prove an ass.
HIPPOLYTA
312 How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisby comes
313 back and finds her lover?
THESEUS
314 She will find him by starlight. Here she comes; and
315 her passion ends the play.
HIPPOLYTA
316 Methinks she should not use a long one for
317 such a Pyramus: I hope she will be brief.
DEMETRIUS
318 A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus,
319 which Thisby, is the better; he for a man, God
320 warrant us; she for a woman, God bless us.
LYSANDER
321 She hath spied him already with those sweet
322 eyes.
DEMETRIUS
323 And thus she means, videlicet—
THISBY
324 Asleep, my love?
325 What, dead, my dove?
326 O Pyramus, arise!
327 Speak, speak. Quite dumb?
328 Dead, dead? A tomb
329 Must cover thy sweet eyes.
330 These My lips,
331 This cherry nose,
332 These yellow cowslip cheeks,
333 Are gone, are gone:
334 Lovers, make moan:
335 His eyes were green as leeks.
336 O Sisters Three,
337 Come, come to me,
338 With hands as pale as milk;
339 Lay them in gore,
340 Since you have shore
341 With shears his thread of silk.
342 Tongue, not a word:
343 Come, trusty sword;
344 Come, blade, my breast imbrue:
[Dies.]