BOTTOM.
A calendar, a calendar! Look in the almanack; find out moonshine, find out moonshine.
QUINCE.
Yes, it doth shine that night.
BOTTOM.
Why, then may you leave a casement of the great chamber window, where we play, open; and the moon may shine in at the casement.
QUINCE.
Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lantern, and say he comes to disfigure or to present the person of Moonshine. Then there is another thing: we must have a wall in the great chamber; for Pyramus and Thisbe, says the story, did talk through the chink of a wall.
SNOUT
You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom?
BOTTOM.
Some man or other must present Wall. And let him have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast about him, to signify wall; and let him hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisbe whisper.
QUINCE.
If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down, every mother’s son, and rehearse your parts. Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken your speech, enter into that brake; and so everyone according to his cue.
Enter Puck behind.
PUCK.
What hempen homespuns have we swaggering here,
So near the cradle of the Fairy Queen?
What, a play toward? I’ll be an auditor;
An actor too perhaps, if I see cause.
QUINCE.
Speak, Pyramus.—Thisbe, stand forth.