Страница 14 из 15
THESEUS Would you desire lime and hair to speak
better?
DEMETRIUS It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard
discourse, my lord.
THESEUS Pyramus draws near the wall. Silence.
BOTTOM, as Pyramus
O grim-looked night! O night with hue so black!
O night, which ever art when day is not!
O night! O night! Alack, alack, alack!
I fear my Thisbe’s promise is forgot.
And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,
That stand’st between her father’s ground and
mine,
Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,
Show me thy chink to blink through with mine
eyne.
Thanks, courteous wall. Jove shield thee well for
this.
But what see I? No Thisbe do I see.
O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss,
Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me!
THESEUS The wall, methinks, being sensible, should
curse again.
BOTTOM No, in truth, sir, he should not. “Deceiving
me” is Thisbe’s cue. She is to enter now, and I am
to spy her through the wall. You shall see it will fall
pat as I told you. Yonder she comes.
Enter Thisbe (Flute).
FLUTE, as Thisbe
O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans
For parting my fair Pyramus and me.
My cherry lips have often kissed thy stones,
Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.
BOTTOM, as Pyramus
I see a voice! Now will I to the chink
To spy an I can hear my Thisbe’s face.
Thisbe?
FLUTE, as Thisbe
My love! Thou art my love, I think.
BOTTOM, as Pyramus
Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover’s grace,
And, like Limander, am I trusty still.
FLUTE, as Thisbe
And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill.
BOTTOM, as Pyramus
Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.
FLUTE, as Thisbe
As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.
BOTTOM, as Pyramus
O kiss me through the hole of this vile wall.
FLUTE, as Thisbe
I kiss the wall’s hole, not your lips at all.
BOTTOM, as Pyramus
Wilt thou at Ni
FLUTE, as Thisbe
’Tide life, ’tide death, I come without delay.
Bottom and Flute exit.
SNOUT, as Wall
Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so,
And, being done, thus Wall away doth go. He exits.
THESEUS Now is the wall down between the two
neighbors.
DEMETRIUS No remedy, my lord, when walls are so
willful to hear without warning.
HIPPOLYTA This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.
THESEUS The best in this kind are but shadows, and
the worst are no worse, if imagination amend
them.
HIPPOLYTA It must be your imagination, then, and not
theirs.
THESEUS If we imagine no worse of them than they of
themselves, they may pass for excellent men. Here
come two noble beasts in, a man and a lion.
Enter Lion (Snug) and Moonshine (Starveling).
SNUG, as Lion
You ladies, you whose gentle hearts do fear
The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on
floor,
May now perchance both quake and tremble here,
When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.
Then know that I, as Snug the joiner, am
A lion fell, nor else no lion’s dam;
For if I should as lion come in strife
Into this place, ’twere pity on my life.
THESEUS A very gentle beast, and of a good
conscience.
DEMETRIUS The very best at a beast, my lord, that e’er I
saw.
LYSANDER This lion is a very fox for his valor.
THESEUS True, and a goose for his discretion.
DEMETRIUS Not so, my lord, for his valor ca
his discretion, and the fox carries the goose.
THESEUS His discretion, I am sure, ca
valor, for the goose carries not the fox. It is well.
Leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to the
Moon.
STARVELING, as Moonshine
This lanthorn doth the horned moon present.
DEMETRIUS He should have worn the horns on his
head.
THESEUS He is no crescent, and his horns are invisible
within the circumference.
STARVELING, as Moonshine
This lanthorn doth the horned moon present.
Myself the man i’ th’ moon do seem to be.
THESEUS This is the greatest error of all the rest; the
man should be put into the lanthorn. How is it else
“the man i’ th’ moon”?
DEMETRIUS He dares not come there for the candle,
for you see, it is already in snuff.
HIPPOLYTA I am aweary of this moon. Would he would
change.
THESEUS It appears by his small light of discretion that
he is in the wane; but yet, in courtesy, in all reason,
we must stay the time.
LYSANDER Proceed, Moon.
STARVELING, as Moonshine All that I have to say is to tell
you that the lanthorn is the moon, I the man i’ th’
moon, this thornbush my thornbush, and this dog
my dog.
DEMETRIUS Why, all these should be in the lanthorn,
for all these are in the moon. But silence. Here
comes Thisbe.
Enter Thisbe (Flute).
FLUTE, as Thisbe
This is old Ni
SNUG, as Lion O!
The Lion roars. Thisbe runs off,
dropping her mantle.
DEMETRIUS Well roared, Lion.
THESEUS Well run, Thisbe.
HIPPOLYTA Well shone, Moon. Truly, the Moon shines
with a good grace.
Lion worries the mantle.
THESEUS Well moused, Lion.
Enter Pyramus (Bottom).
DEMETRIUS And then came Pyramus.
Lion exits.
LYSANDER And so the lion vanished.
BOTTOM, as Pyramus
Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy su
I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright,
For by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams,
I trust to take of truest Thisbe sight.—
But stay! O spite!
But mark, poor knight,
What dreadful dole is here!
Eyes, do you see!
How can it be!
O dainty duck! O dear!
Thy mantle good—
What, stained with blood?
Approach, ye Furies fell!
O Fates, come, come,
Cut thread and thrum,
Quail, crush, conclude, and quell!
THESEUS This passion, and the death of a dear friend,
would go near to make a man look sad.
HIPPOLYTA Beshrew my heart but I pity the man.
BOTTOM, as Pyramus
O, wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame,
Since lion vile hath here deflowered my dear,
Which is—no, no—which was the fairest dame
That lived, that loved, that liked, that looked with
cheer?
Come, tears, confound!
Out, sword, and wound
The pap of Pyramus;
Ay, that left pap,
Where heart doth hop. Pyramus stabs himself.
Thus die I, thus, thus, thus.
Now am I dead;
Now am I fled;
My soul is in the sky.
Tongue, lose thy light!
Moon, take thy flight! Moonshine exits.
Now die, die, die, die, die. Pyramus falls.
DEMETRIUS No die, but an ace for him, for he is but
one.
LYSANDER Less than an ace, man, for he is dead, he is
nothing.
THESEUS With the help of a surgeon he might yet
recover and yet prove an ass.
HIPPOLYTA How chance Moonshine is gone before
Thisbe comes back and finds her lover?
THESEUS She will find him by starlight.