Preparations for a play.
The actors get their parts
Peter Quince looked at the list he was holding.
'Answer when I call your name out,' he said. 'First, Nick Bottom, the Weaver.'
'I'm here,' said Bottom. 'What is my part in the play?'
'You, Nick Bottom, are to play Pyramus,' said Peter Quince.
'What is Pyramus?' asked Bottom. 'Is he a lover, or a king?'
'He is a lover, and he kills himself very beautifully, for love,' said Peter Quince.
'Then there will be plenty of tears,' said Bottom. 'If I play Pyramus, the audience will have to take care of their eyes, I can tell you. I shall make great storms of tears come. But I would rather play a king. I am very good at acting a king. Let me show you . . . '
'Not now, thank you very much,' said Peter Quince. He looked at his list again. 'Francis Flute,' he called out.
'Here, Peter Quince,' Francis Flute answered.
'Flute, you must take the part of Thisby,' said Peter Quince.
'What is Thisby?' asked Flute. 'Is Thisby a soldier?'
'No,' said Peter Quince. 'Thisby is the lady that Pyramus loves.'
'Oh, no! Not me!', said Francis Flute. 'I cannot play the part of a woman. Look at my face. My beard has just started to grow.'
'Your beard is not important,' said Peter Quince. 'You can have a mask in front of your face, so no-one will see your beard. And you can speak with a small, soft voice.'
Bottom jumped up.
'I can do that,' said Bottom. 'If Flute does not want to do it, let me play the part of Thisby, too. I can cover my face and I can speak with an enormously small voice. Listen!' He started to show the others what he could do.
'Not you, Bottom,' said Peter Quince. 'You must play Pyramus,
and Flute must play Thisby.'
The lion's part
Peter Quince turned to the list once more, and called out a few more names. Robin Starveling the Tailor, a very thin young man, would play Thisby's mother. Tom Snout would play Pyramus's father. Peter Quince himself would have the part of Thisby's father. Lastly, he called out the name of Snug the Carpenter.
Snug was sitting at the back of the room. He was small, timid and very shy. He had hoped Peter Quince would not call his name out.
'Here, Peter Quince,' called Snug, after Francis Flute and Starveling had both pinched him very hard to make him answer.
'Snug, you are to play the lion,' said Peter Quince.
'The lion?' said Snug, looking worried. 'Do you have the lion's words written down,' he asked. 'My memory is not good, so I need to have my part in writing.'
'You do not need it written down, Snug,' said Peter Quince. 'The lion's part is just making a great roaring noise, like a lion.'
Bottom jumped up again.
'Why don't you let me play the lion's part, too,' he said. 'I can roar very loudly, just like a lion. I will roar so loudly that the Duke will say, "That man is roaring very well. Let me hear him roar again!"'
'If you do it too well you will frighten the Duchess. You will make all the ladies scream. The Duke will hang us all if that happens!'
'I will roar very quietly, then,' said Bottom. 'I will roar as
quietly as a little bird.'
'No, no, you won't,' said Peter Quince. 'You will play Pyramus and do nothing else. Pyramus has a sweet face. He is a wonderfully well-behaved man, a very lovely, quiet, gentlemanly man. So you must play Pyramus.'
Bottom sat down, looking rather disappointed.
'And that is everything,' added Peter Quince. 'You must all go home, now, and learn your parts. Tomorrow night we will practice.'
'Where shall we practice?' asked Bottom.
'Well,' said Peter Quince thoughtfully, 'we cannot practice here. This place is not big enough. And we cannot practice in the street. If we do, everyone will know about our play before it is ready. So, let us meet in the wood outside the city, at the Duke's Oak.'
They all agreed.
And what was 'the Duke's Oak' do you think? That was their name for a big old tree which stood by a large open space in the centre of the dark wood, just outside Athens.