[22] Act iv. sc. 2. Athens.—Quince's House.—Enter Quince, Flute, Snout, and Starveling.
"Qui. Have you sent to Bottom's house yet, &c.?
Flu. He hath simply the best wit of any man in Athens.
Qui. Yea, and the best person too; and he is a very paramour for a sweet voice.
Flu. You must say paragon; a paramour is, God bless us! a thing of naught."
I propose that the second admirer's speech be given to Snout, who else has not anything to say, and is introduced on the stage to no purpose. The few words he says elsewhere in the play are all ridiculous; and the mistake of "paramour" for "paragon" is more appropriate to him than to Quince, who corrects the cacology of Bottom himself. [Act iii. sc. 1.
"Pyr. Thisby, the flower of odious savours sweet.
Qui. Odours—odours."
And, besides, Quince, the playwright, manager, and ballad-monger,
["I'll get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream," says Bottom,]
is of too much importance in the company to be rebuked by so inferior a personage as Flute. In the original draft of their play Snout was to perform Pyramus's father, and Quince, Thisbe's father, but those parts are omitted; Snout is the representative of Wall, and Quince has no part assigned him. Perhaps this was intentional, as another proof of bungling.