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 And 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 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 and ’twere any nightingale. (1.2.66-78)
It’s inevitable: let me play the Lion too, begs Bottom. Of course he wants to play the Lion, of course he could do it better than anyone else. I will roar that I will do any man’s heart good to hear me: inspirational roaring! I will roar that I will make the duke say, ‘Let him roar again, let him roar again’. TOP ROARING! My roaring would be THE BEST ROARING! And Bottom may demonstrate, repeatedly. Quince has prepared for this scenario, in order to be able to talk Bottom down, no, no, and you should do it too terribly—if you were too scary, and of course you would be SO SCARY with your ROARING, you would fright the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek—they wouldn’t be able to help themselves! you know what the ladies are like! And that were enough to hang us all. Yes. Death for too-scary roaring. It could happen. That’s enough to put the frighteners on the rest (especially Snug, who is after all meant to be playing the lion): that would hang us, every mother’s son. Noooo! Don’t go there! Bottom thinks he has the answer, although he concedes that Quince has a point: I grant you, friends, if you should fright the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us. Absolutely, indeed, and that’d be only fair. But, but, I have a plan! I will aggravate my voice so—he means moderate, or modulate—that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove; I will roar you and ’twere any nightingale. It won’t be so much a roar as a coo, a chirp, beautiful music! Yes? (And of course Bottom demonstrates his entirely unscary roaring too, sounding like—a weird little cat? a deluded pigeon?)
