Starveling.
Quin.
Have you sent to Bottom's house? is he come
home yet?
Star.
He cannot be heard of10 note. Out of doubt, he is
transported.
Flu.
If he come not, then the play is marred. It
goes not forward, doth it?
Quin.
It is not possible: you have not a man in all
Athens able to discharge Pyramus, but he.
Flu.
No; he hath simply the best wit of any handy-craft
man in Athens.
Quin.
Yea, and the best person too; and he is a
very paramour for a sweet voice.
Flu.
You must say, paragon: a paramour is, God
bless us! a thing of nought.
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.
Flu.
O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence
a-day during his life; he could not have 'scaped
-- 452 --
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.
Bot.
Where are these lads? where are these hearts?
Quin.
Bottom!—O most courageous day! O most
happy hour!
Bot.
Masters, I am to discourse wonders; but ask
me not what, for, if I tell you, I am no true Athenian.
I will tell you every thing, right as it fell out1 note.
Quin.
Let us hear, sweet Bottom.
Bot.
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
preferred. 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 garlick, 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.
J. Payne Collier [1842–1844], The works of William Shakespeare. The text formed from an entirely new collation of the old editions: with the various readings, notes, a life of the poet, and a history of the Early English stage. By J. Payne Collier, Esq. F.S.A. In eight volumes (Whittaker & Co. [etc.], London) [word count] [S10101].
