A Midsummer Night's Dream Page #2

or a part to tear a cat in,

to make all split.

Francis Flute--

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.

Ha ha ha.

This was lofty. Ha ha.

Uh, ahem, Pyramus.

Uh, Francis Flute

the bellows-mender.

Here, Peter Quince.

Francis Flute,

you must take Thisby on you.

What is Thisby?

A wandering knight?

He's the lady

that Pyramus mustlove.

[ Laughing ]

Nay, faith,

let not me play a woman.

I have a beard coming.

And I may hide my face,

let me play Thisby, too.

Ohh--

I'll speak in

a monstrous little voice:

"Thisne, Thisne!"

Ah, Pyramus, my lover dear,

thy Thisby dear, and lady dear!"

Ohh!

No, no,

you must play Pyramus.

Snout...

and Flute, you Thisby.

[ Applause ]

Robin Starveling the tailor.

Here, Peter Quince.

Ah, well...

Snug the joiner,

you the lion's part.

Ahh.

And I hope we have

a play well fitted.

Have you

the lion's part written?

Pray you, if it be,

give it me,

for I am slow of study.

No, you may do it extempore,

for it is nothing but roaring.

Roar!

Roar!

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!"

But you should do it

too terribly,

that you would fright

the duchess and the ladies,

and they would shriek.

And that were enough

to hang us all.

I grant you, friends,

if I 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.

[ Quietly Roaring ]

[ Laughing ]

[ Dog Barking ]

Aah--

[ Laughing ]

You can play no part

but Pyramus.

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.

Well...

I will undertake it.

Masters,

you have all your parts,

and I am to entreat you

to con them by tomorrow night

and to meet in the palace wood,

a mile without the town.

There will we rehearse.

If we meet in the city,

we will be dogged by company

and our devices known.

Pray you fail me not.

We will meet

and there we may rehearse

most obscenely

and courageously.

Take pains.

Be perfect.

Adieu.

[ Italian Operatic Singing ]

[ Sighs ]

[ Thunder ]

[ Thunder ]

Ere Demetrius looked

on Hermia's eyne,

he hailed down oaths

that he was only mine.

And when this hail

some heat from Hermia felt,

so he dissolved,

and showers of oaths did melt.

I will go tell him

of fair Hermia's flight.

Then to the wood this very night

will he pursue her.

[ Thunder ]

[ Pipes Playing ]

Get off!.

Get off there!

Ah, fie!

Oh, sweet beauty!

How now, spirit?

Whither wander you?

Over hill, over dale,

through bush,

through a briar,

over park, over pale,

through flood, through a fire,

I do wander everywhere.

Swifter than the moon's sphere.

And I serve the fairy queen,

to dew her orbs upon the green.

Either I mistake your shape

and making quite,

or else you are that shrewd

and knavish sprite

called Robin Goodfellow.

Are not you he

that frights the maidens

of the villagery--

Psst!

Skims milk, and sometimes

labors in the quern

and bootless makes

the breathless housewife churn?

Are not you he?

Thou speak'st aright.

I am that merry wanderer

of the night.

I jest to Oberon

and make him smile

when I a fatand

bean-fed horse beguile,

neighing in likeness

of a filly foal.

And sometimes...

Ugh!

Farewell,thou lob of spirits.

I'll be gone.

The queen and all her elves

come here anon.

The king doth keep

his revels here tonight.

Take heed the queen come

not within his sight.

For Oberon

is passing fell

and wrath.

[ Urinating ]

- Hey!

-Go on.

Ill met by moonlight,

proud Titania.

What, jealous Oberon!

Fairies, skip hence.

I have forsworn

his bed and company.

Tarry!

Rash wanton,

am not I thy lord?

Then I must be thy lady.

Why art thou here,

come from

the farthest steppe of India,

but that, forsooth,

the bouncing Amazon,

your buskin'd mistress

and your warrior love,

to Theseus must be wedded,

and you come to give their bed

joy and prosperity.

How canst thou thus

for shame, Titania,

glance at my credit

with Hippolyta,

knowing I know

thy love to Theseus?

These are the forgeries

of jealousy.

And never, since

the middle summer's spring,

met we on hill,

in dale, forest, or mead,

by paved fountain

or by rushy brook,

but with thy brawls

thou hast disturbed our sport.

Therefore, the winds,

piping to us in vain,

as in revenge,

have sucked up from the sea

contagious fogs,

which, falling in the land,

hath every pelting river

made so proud

that they have overborne

their continents.

And this same progeny

of evils comes

from our debate,

from our dissension.

We are their parents

and original.

Do you amend it then?

It lies in you.

Why should Titania

cross her Oberon?

I do but beg

a little changeling boy

to be my henchman.

Set your heart at rest.

The fairy land buys

not the child of me.

His mother was

a votaress of my order,

and in the spiced Indian air,

bynight, full often

hath she gossiped by my side

and sat with me

on Neptune's yellow sands,

marking the embarked traders

on the flood

when we have laughed

to see the sails conceive

and grow big-bellied

with the wanton wind.

But she, being mortal,

of that boy did die,

and for her sake

do I rear up her boy.

And for her sake

I will not part with him.

How long within this wood

intend you stay?

Perchance till after

Theseus' wedding day.

If you will patiently

dance in our round...

and see our moon light revels,

go with us.

Give me that boy,

and I will go with thee.

Not for thy fairy kingdom!

Fairies, away!

We shall chide downright

if I longer stay.

Well, go thy way.

Thou shalt not from this grove

till I torment thee

for this injury.

My gentle Puck, come hither.

Thou rememberest,

since once I sat

upon a promontory

and heard a mermaid

on a dolphin's back

uttering such dulcet

and harmonious breath

that the rude sea

grew civil at her song.

That very time, I saw,

but thou couldst not,

flying between the cold

moon and the Earth,

Cupid all armed.

A certain aim he took

and loosed his love shaft smartly

from his bow.

Yet, marked I where

the bolt of Cupid fell.

It fell upon

a little western flower,

before milk-white,

now purple with love's wound.

Fetch me that flower.

The juice of it,

on sleeping eyelids laid,

will make all man, all woman

madly dote

upon the next live creature

that it sees.

Fetch me this herb

and be thou here again

ere the leviathan

can swim a league.

I'll put a girdle

round about the Earth

in 40 minutes.

Having once this juice,

I'll watch Titania

when she's asleep

and drop the liquor of it

in her eyes.

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