A Midsummer Night’s Dream - страница 10
Find out moonshine, find out moonshine.
Quince takes out a book.
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 Thisbe, 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
roughcast about him to signify wall, or let him
hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall
Pyramus and Thisbe 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 everyone
according to his cue.
Enter Robin invisible to those onstage.
ROBIN, aside
What hempen homespuns have we swagg’ring 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.—Thisbe, stand forth.
BOTTOM, as Pyramus
Thisbe, the flowers of odious savors sweet—
QUINCE Odors, odors!
BOTTOM, as Pyramus
…odors savors sweet.
So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisbe dear.—
But hark, a voice! Stay thou but here awhile,
And by and by I will to thee appear. He exits.
ROBIN, aside
A stranger Pyramus than e’er played here. He exits.
FLUTE Must I speak now?
QUINCE Ay, marry, must you, for you must understand
he goes but to see a noise that he heard and is to
come again.
FLUTE, as Thisbe
Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue,
Of color like the red rose on triumphant brier,
Most brisky juvenal and eke most lovely Jew,
As true as truest horse, that yet would never tire.
I’ll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny’s tomb.
QUINCE “Ninus’ tomb,” man! Why, you must not
speak that yet. That you answer to Pyramus. You
speak all your part at once, cues and all.—Pyramus,
enter. Your cue is past. It is “never tire.”
FLUTE O!
As Thisbe. As true as truest horse, that yet would never
tire.
Enter Robin, and Bottom as Pyramus with the
ass-head.
BOTTOM, as Pyramus
If I were fair, fair Thisbe, I were only thine.
QUINCE O monstrous! O strange! We are haunted. Pray,
masters, fly, masters! Help!
Quince, Flute, Snout, Snug, and Starveling exit.
ROBIN
I’ll follow you. I’ll lead you about a round,
Through bog, through bush, through brake,
through brier.
Sometime a horse I’ll be, sometime a hound,
A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire,
And neigh and bark and grunt and roar and burn,
Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.
He exits.
BOTTOM Why do they run away? This is a knavery of
them to make me afeard.
Enter Snout.
SNOUT O Bottom, thou art changed! What do I see on
thee?
BOTTOM What do you see? You see an ass-head of your
own, do you? Snout exits.
Enter Quince.
QUINCE Bless thee, Bottom, bless thee! Thou art
translated! He exits.
BOTTOM I see their knavery. This is to make an ass of
me, to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir
from this place, do what they can. I will walk up
and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear
I am not afraid.
He sings. The ouzel cock, so black of hue,
With orange-tawny bill,
The throstle with his note so true,
The wren with little quill—
TITANIA, waking up
What angel wakes me from my flow’ry bed?
BOTTOM sings
The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,
The plainsong cuckoo gray,
Whose note full many a man doth mark
And dares not answer “nay”—
for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a
bird? Who would give a bird the lie though he cry
“cuckoo” never so?
TITANIA
I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again.
Mine ear is much enamored of thy note,
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape,
And thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move me
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.
BOTTOM Methinks, mistress, you should have little