Bot. That will ask some tears in the true per-
forming 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 cat in, to make all
split.33
'The raging rocks
And shivering shocks
Shall break the locks36
Of prison gates:
And Phibbus' car
Shall shine from far
And make and mar40
The foolish Fates.'
This was lofty! Now name the rest of the
players. This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a
lover is more condoling.44
Quin. Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.
Flu. Here, Peter Quince.
Quin. You must take Thisby on you.
Flu. What is Thisby? a wandering knight?
Quin. It is the lady that Pyramus must love.
Flu. Nay, faith, let not me play a woman; I
have a beard coming.51
Quin. That's all one: you shall play it in a
mask, and you may speak as small as you will.
Bot. An I may hide my face, let me play
Thisby too. I'll speak in a monstrous little
voice, 'Thisne, Thisne!' 'Ah, Pyramus, my lover
dear; thy Thisby dear, and lady dear!'57
31 Ercles: Hercules
32 tear a cat: rant
38 Phibbus': Phœbus', the sun-god's
54 An: if
56 Thisne; cf. n.
