Bot.  No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight.

Snout.  Will not the Ladies be afraid of the Lion?

Starv.  I fear it, I promise you.

Bot.  Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves; to bring in, heaven shield us! a Lion among Ladies, is a most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful wildfowl than your Lion, living; and we ought to look to it.

Snout.  Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a Lion.

Bot.  Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must be seen through the lion’s neck; and he himself must speak through, saying thus, or to the same defect:  Ladies, or fair Ladies, I would wish you, or I would request you, or I would intreat you, not to fear, not to tremble; my life for yours; if you think I come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life; no, I am no such thing; I am a man as other men are; and there indeed let him name his name, and tell them plainly, He is Snug the Joiner.

Quin.  Well, it shall be so; but there is two hard things, that is, to bring the moon-light into a chamber; for you know Pyramus and Thisby met by moon-light.

Snug.  Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?

Bot.  A kalendar, a kalendar! look into the almanack; find out moon-shine, find out moon-shine.

Quin.  Yes, it doth shine that night.

Bot.  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.

Quin.  Ay, or else one must come in with a bush of throns and a lanthern; and say he comes to disfigure or to present the person of moon-shine.  Then there is another thing; we must have a wall in the great chamber, for Pyramus and Thisby (says the story) did talk through the chink of a wall.

Snug.  You can never bring in a wall.  What say you, Bottom?

Bot.  Some man or other must present wall; and let him have some plaster, or some loome, or some rough-cast, about him, to signify wall:  Or let him hold his fingers thus, and through the cranny shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper.

Quin.  If that may be, then all is well.  Come, sit down every mother’s son, and rehearse your parts.  Pyramus, you begin; and when you have spoken your speech, enter into that brake, and so every one according to his cue.

Enter Puck.

Puck.  What hempen homespuns have we swaggering
here, so near the cradle of the Fairy Queen? 
What, a play tow’rd; I’ll be an auditor;
An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause.

Quin.  Speak, Pyramus.  Thisby, stand forth.

Pyr.  Thisby, the flower of odious savours sweet.

Quin.  Odours, odours.

Pyr.  Odours savours sweet;
So doth thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear: 
But hark, a voice!  Stay thou but here a while,
And by-and-by I will to thee appear,

Puck.  A stranger Pyramus than e’er play’d here!
                    [Aside. 
Now for a storm to drive these patches hence.
       [He waves his wand.] Thunder and Lightning.