FAIRY  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, Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern, And bootless make the breathless housewife churn, And sometime make the drink to bear no barm, Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm? Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck, You do their work, and […]

PUCK  The king doth keep his revels here tonight. Take heed the queen come not within his sight; For Oberon is passing fell and wrath Because that she, as her attendant, hath A lovely boy stolen, from an Indian king: She never had so sweet a changeling. And jealous Oberon would have the child Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild. But she perforce withholds the loved boy, Crowns him with flowers, […]

FAIRY  The cowslips tall her pensioners be. In their gold coats, spots you see: Those be rubies, fairy favours; In those freckles live their savours. I must go seek some dew drops here, And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear. Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I’ll be gone. Our queen and all her elves come here anon.         (2.1.10-17) The magic intensifies, so subtly, so cleverly, picture this, now this, now this: the cowslips tall […]

Enter a FAIRY at one door, and PUCK at another. PUCK  How now, spirit, whither wander you? FAIRY  Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough brier, Over park, over pale, Thorough flood, thorough fire, I do wander everywhere Swifter than the moon’s sphere, And I serve the Fairy Queen To dew her orbs upon the green.     (2.1.1-9) Fairies! Puck! (I’m going with Puck although many current critical editions […]

QUINCE          But masters, here are your parts; and I am to intreat you, request you and desire you to con them by tomorrow night, and meet me in the palace wood a mile without the town by moonlight. There will we rehearse; for if we meet in the city, we shall be dogged with company, […]

QUINCE          You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a sweet-faced man, a proper man as one shall see in a summer’s day, a most lovely gentlemanlike man: therefore you must needs play Pyramus. BOTTOM        Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best to play it in? QUINCE          Why, what you […]

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, […]

QUINCE          Robin Starveling, the tailor? STARVELING  Here, Peter Quince. QUINCE          Robin Starveling, you must play Thisbe’s mother. Tom Snout, the tinker? SNOUT            Here, Peter Quince. QUINCE          You, Pyramus’ father; myself, Thisbe’s father; Snug the joiner, you the Lion’s part; and I hope here is a play fitted. SNUG  Have you the Lion’s part written? Pray […]

QUINCE          Francis Flute, the bellows-mender? FLUTE Here, Peter Quince. QUINCE          Flute, you must take Thisbe on you. FLUTE What is Thisbe? A wandering knight? QUINCE          It is the lady that Pyramus must love. FLUTE Nay, faith, let not me play a woman. I have a beard coming. QUINCE          That’s all one. You shall play it […]

BOTTOM        That will ask some tears in the true performing of it. If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes. I will move storms; I will condole, in some measure. To the rest yet, my chief humour is for a tyrant. I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a […]