BOTTOM A calendar, a calendar! Look in the almanac46. Find
out moonshine, find out moonshine.
They consult an almanac
[Robin may] enter
QUINCE Yes, it doth shine that night.
BOTTOM Why, then may you leave a casement49 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 thorns52
and a lantern, and say he comes to disfigure, or to present53, 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 rough-cast60 about him, to signify wall; or let him hold his fingers thus; and
through that cranny shall
Hand gesture suggesting a hole in a wall
Pyramus and Thisbe whisper.
QUINCE If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down, every mother's son, and rehearse65 your parts. Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken your speech, enter into that
brake, and so every one according to his cue.
Robin [may] enter
ROBIN What hempen home-spuns have we swagg'ring68 here, Aside
So near the cradle69 of the fairy queen?
What, a play toward70? I'll be an auditor, An actor too perhaps, if I see cause.
QUINCE Speak, Pyramus.-- Thisbe, stand forth.
PYRAMUS [BOTTOM] Thisbe, the flowers of odious savours sweet--
QUINCE Odours, odours.
PYRAMUS [BOTTOM] --odours savours sweet,
So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisbe dear.
But hark, a voice! Stay thou but here awhile,
And by and by78 I will to thee appear.
Exit