A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Act 1 Scene 2
Athens. QUINCE'S house.
Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING
QUINCE
Is all our company here?
Bottom tries to impress with his vocabulary, but frequently misuses or mangles the big words. Quince has similar problems, as indicated by mixed-up phrases like "lamentable comedy."
"Interlude" is an older term, common before Shakespeare's time, and may indicate the outdated style of the mechanicals' play.
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.
Bottom gives orders throughout the scene. The others may obey him, or oppose him, or ignore him, and each choice presents the audience with a different sense of Bottom and of the group.
QUINCE
Marry, our play is, The most lamentable comedy, and
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, spread yourselves.
Although Quince is the leader and organizer of the interlude, Bottom has definite ideas about how things should be run, which may be taken as assistance, or may result in an ongoing battle of wills.
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 has (or feels that he has) experience in performing. His recitation here may establish his expertise, or may make him look like a fool.
The style of Bottom's speech here is archaic, referencing older forms of both plays and poetry. Presumably, his voice and performance here are loud and exaggerated, displaying the "tyrant's vein."
Bottom seems to have trouble leaving the spotlight — on several occasions, he urges Quince to move on, but then keeps talking.
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 is often portrayed as the youngest and most effeminate of the group, justifying his casting. The joke works equally well (though differently), if he's stout, manly, and deep-voiced.
FLUTE
Here, Peter Quince.
QUINCE
Flute, you must take Thisbe on you.
FLUTE
What is Thisbe? A wandering knight?
QUINCE
It is the lady that Pyramus must love.
It was conventional at the time for young men to play the women's parts; Flute's objections, and Quince's response, may call the audience's attention to Helena, Hermia, etc., and to the boys playing them.
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 again displays his theatrical skill, entering into dialogue with himself. Presumably, he plays Thisbe in his "monstrous little voice," alternating with the "condoling" voice for Pyramus.
BOTTOM
An I may hide my face, let me play Thisbe too, I'll
speak in a monstrous little voice. 'Thisne,
Thisne;' 'Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! thy Thisbe dear,
and lady dear!'
QUINCE
No, no; you must play Pyramus, and, Flute, you Thisbe. 50
BOTTOM
Well, proceed.
Quince seems to be hurrying through the roll-call now, perhaps in order to prevent more interruptions from Bottom.
QUINCE
Robin Starveling, the tailor.
STARVELING
Here, Peter Quince.
QUINCE
Robin Starveling, you must play Thisbe's mother.
Tom Snout, the tinker.
SNOUT
Here, Peter Quince.
QUINCE
You, Pyramus' father. Myself, Thisbe's father.
Snug, the joiner, you, the lion's part. And, I
hope, here is a play fitted.
Snug is typically the largest and slowest of the group, setting up the joke of his asking for the script in order to spend more time memorizing the lion's "lines"
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.
Not surprisingly, Bottom claims the lion's role as well. Traditionally, he will incorporate his best roar into the end of the speech, to demonstrate his skill.
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's point begins a confusion between theatre and reality, and a concern that the court audience will take the mechanicals' performance for truth. The bumbling nature of this discussion prepares the audience for the eventual performance in 5.1
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 has been fairly calm throughout, but his patience seems to be eroding, and he may be losing his temper now, though he is still solicitous and complimentary toward Bottom.
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 again demonstrates an absurd knowledge of stage practice in his discussion of beards, even moreso if he tries on samples as he speaks.
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's joke here is a reference to syphilis, known in England as "the French plague," and associated with baldness.
Drawing up a list of props was the task of the book-keeper, the stage-manager of Shakespeare's day, a role Quince takes on for this company.
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 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 dogged wit
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, of course, insists on having the last word.
BOTTOM
Enough. Hold or cut bow-strings.
Exeunt