A Midsummer Night's Dream Annotated - New

act 1 • scene 2
scene 2
Athens. Quince’s house

enter Quince, Snug, Bottom, Flute,
Snout, and Starveling
Quince Is all our company1 here?

Bottom You were best to call them generally,2 man by man,
according to the scrip.3
Quince Here is the scroll4 of every man’s name, which is thought
5 fit, through all Athens, to play in our interlude5 before the
Duke and the Duchess, on his wedding day at night.
Bottom First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats on,6
then read the names of the actors, and so grow to a point.7
Quince Marry,8 our play is,“The most lamentable9 comedy, and
10 most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe.”
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,10 spread yourselves.11
1 fellowship, companionship*
2 individually (Bottom mangles the word “severally”)
3 piece of paper
4 list, roll
5 (once descriptive of a between-acts humorous playlet – or mime
performance – by Shakespeare’s time the word was used for popular
comedies, and at some point for stage drama generally)*
6 treats on ⫽ deals with
7 grow to a point ⫽ come to a conclusion? a definite position? (the workmen-
actors do not invariably speak with verbal precision)
8 an exclamation (originally an oath employing the Virgin Mary’s name)*
9 (1) mournful, (2) deplorable, pitiable, wretchedly bad
10 workmen qualified to be in business for themselves
11 make yourselves known
20
act 1 • scene 2
Quince Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver.

Bottom Ready. Name what part I am for,12 and proceed. 15
Quince You, Nick Bottom, are set down13 for Pyramus.
Bottom What is14 Pyramus? A lover, or a tyrant?
Quince A lover, that kills himself most gallant15 for love.
Bottom That will ask16 some tears in the true performing of it. If
I do it, let the audience look to17 their eyes. I will move18 20
storms, I will condole19 in some measure.20 To21 the rest –
yet my chief humor22 is for a tyrant. I could play Ercles23
rarely,24 or a part to tear a cat25 in, to make all split.26
(he declaims)
The raging27 rocks 25
And shivering shocks28
Shall break the locks
Of prison gates,
12 representing
13 set down ⫽ put/written down (“scheduled,” on the list from which Quince
is reading)
14 what is ⫽ what is the nature/condition of
15 splendid, grand, courtier-like
16 call for
17 look to ⫽ attend to, take care/be careful of
18 start, bring, stir up, excite
19 lament, grieve
20 in some measure ⫽ somewhat, to an extent, in some degree
21 for, as for
22 disposition, temperament, style, liking
23 Hercules (mangled – though not Cockney-fashion, since “the correct use of
h had not yet become a shibboleth of gentility”; Kökeritz, Shakespeare’s
Pronunciation, 308)
24 unusually well, splendidly
25 tear a cat ⫽ swagger, rant
26 all split ⫽ the whole audience go to pieces (see OED, tear, 1d, illustration)
27 violent
28 sudden violent collisions/blows
21
act 1 • scene 2
And Phibbus’ car29

30 Shall shine from far
And make and mar30
The foolish Fates.
This was lofty.31 Now name the rest of the players. This is
Ercles’ vein,32 a tyrant’s vein. A lover is more condoling.33
35 Quince Francis Flute, the bellows mender.
Flute Here, Peter Quince.
Quince Flute, you must take Thisbe on you.34
Flute What is Thisbe? A wandering knight?35
Quince It is the lady that Pyramus must36 love.
40 Flute Nay, faith, let me not play a woman. I have a beard
coming.37
Quince That’s all one.38 You shall play it in a mask, and you may
speak as small39 as you will.
Bottom An40 I may hide my face, let me play Thisbe, too. I’ll
45 speak in a monstrous little voice:
“Thisne,Thisne.”41
29 Phibbus’ car ⫽ the chariot of Phoebus Apollo, the sun god

30 make and mar ⫽ create/cause total success or total failure (“make or break”)
31 exalted, sublime
32 strain, style
33 comforting, sympathetic
34 take . . . on ⫽ perform, undertake, tackle
35 wandering knight ⫽ knight errant (errant ⫽ roaming, traveling)
36 is supposed/needs/ought/is fated to
37 (since Flute is a master workman, he cannot be a budding adolescent and
must, accordingly, be for some reason testosterone-deficient)
38 all one ⫽ one and the same (“irrelevant”)
39 gently, soft
40 if*
41 (misprint for Thisbe? pet name of Thisbe?)
22
act 1 • scene 2
“Ah, Pyramus, my lover dear! Thy Thisbe dear, and lady

dear!”
Quince No, no. You must play Pyramus, and Flute, you Thisbe.
Bottom Well, proceed. 50
Quince Robin Starveling, the tailor.
Starveling Here, Peter Quince.
Quince Robin Starveling, you must play Thisbe’s mother.42
Tom Snout, the tinker.
Snout Here, Peter Quince. 55
Quince You, Pyramus’ father.43 Myself, Thisbe’s father. Snug,
the joiner, you the lion’s part. And I hope here is a play
fitted.44
Snug Have you the lion’s part written? Pray you, if it be,
give it me, for I am slow of study.45 60
Quince You may do it extempore,46 for it is nothing but
roaring.
Bottom Let me play the lion, too. I will roar, that47 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.” 65
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.48
42 (the mother does not have any part in the play)

43 you, Pyramus’ father ⫽ and you must play Pyramus’ father
44 proper, appropriate
45 of study ⫽ (1) reading, learning, (2) memorizing
46 without preparation, offhand
47 so that
48 (hang us all: to offend lordly persons could be sufficient cause for execution)
23
act 1 • scene 2
All That would hang us, every mother’s son.49

70 Bottom I grant you, friends, if you should fright the ladies out of
their wits,50 they would have no more discretion51 but to
hang us. But I will aggravate52 my voice so that I will roar
you53 as gently as any sucking54 dove. I will roar you an
’twere55 any nightingale.
75 Quince You can play no part but Pyramus. For Pyramus is a
sweet-faced man, a proper man as56 one shall see in a
summer’s day, a most lovely57 gentleman-like man. Therefore
you must needs58 play Pyramus.
Bottom Well, I will undertake it. What beard59 were I best to
80 play it in?
Quince Why, what you will.
Bottom I will discharge60 it in either your61 straw color beard,
your orange tawny62 beard, your purple in grain63 beard, or
your French crown color64 beard, your perfect65 yellow.
49 every mother’s son ⫽ each and all

50 causing the ladies to faint (the five wits ⫽ the five senses)
51 freedom of decision
52 (aggravate ⫽ magnify, worsen; Bottom uses aggravate instead of moderate or
mitigate)
53 (“you” is syntactically meaningless in modern English, as here used)
54 fledgling, baby
55 an ’twere ⫽ as if it were
56 a proper man as ⫽ as proper (excellent, fine, admirable) a man as
57 loving, affectionate
58 of necessity
59 (false/artificial beard, held in place by string)
60 perform, speak
61 (your, repeated four times, is in modern English syntactically meaningless)
62 brown
63 in grain ⫽ dyed in grain/fast color dye
64 crown color ⫽ the color of a king’s golden crown
65 full, deep
24
act 1 • scene 2
Quince Some of your French crowns66 have no hair67 at all, and 85

then you will play barefaced.68 But69 masters, here are your
parts, and I am to70 entreat you, request you and desire you,
to con71 them by tomorrow 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 dogged72 with 90
company,73 and our devices74 known. In the meantime, I will
draw75 a bill of properties,76 such as our play wants.77 I pray
you, fail me not.
Bottom We will meet, and there we may rehearse most
obscenely78 and courageously.79 Take pains,80 be perfect.81 95
Adieu.
66 a gold coin (but see note 68 on a possibly different meaning intended, here,
for “crown”)
67 color? (that is, they are not in fact gold, and thus not yellow, as Bottom has
just said they were?)
68 (literally, with a bare face, but the word also means shameless, audacious,
impudent, which would be consistent with the anti-French sentiment
of “French crowns [that] have no hair”; it is also possible, and has been
suggested, that Quince means “crown” as heads, referring to the English-
alleged prevalence of syphilitic baldness among Frenchmen: syphilis was
called the French pox, in England, and in France was known as the English
pox)
69 in any case (that is, aside from any discussion of colors)
70 I am to ⫽ it is my task to
71 know/learn
72 followed, pursued, haunted, hounded
73 an assemblage/collection/multitude of people
74 purposes, intentions, plans*
75 compile, write
76 bill of properties ⫽ memorandum of needed things (costumes, furniture,
etc.)
77 requires, needs
78 (Bottom-mangling of something like seemly: properly, decorously, suitably)
79 fearlessly, boldly
80 take pains ⫽ work hard, take the trouble
81 be perfect ⫽ know your part perfectly
25
act 1 • scene 2
Quince At the Duke’s oak we meet.

Bottom Enough. Hold or cut bowstrings.82
exeunt
82 hold or cut bowstrings ⫽ stick to/stay with/continue it (“hold fast”) or else

give it up (“fish or cut bait”)
26

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act 1 • scene 2

Athens. Quince’s house

Quince Is all our company1 here?

Quince Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver.

And Phibbus’ car29

29 Phibbus’ car ⫽ the chariot of Phoebus Apollo, the sun god

“Ah, Pyramus, my lover dear! Thy Thisbe dear, and lady

42 (the mother does not have any part in the play)

All That would hang us, every mother’s son.49

49 every mother’s son ⫽ each and all

Quince Some of your French crowns66 have no hair67 at all, and 85

Quince At the Duke’s oak we meet.

82 hold or cut bowstrings ⫽ stick to/stay with/continue it (“hold fast”) or else

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