A Midsummer Night's Dream - Act 5

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Act five of A Midsummer Night's Dream. This is a
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A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, Act five, Scene one, Athens,

(00:27):
the palace of theseus. Enter theseus, Hippolyta, Phillistrate, lords and attendants.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
To strange my theseus, that these lovers speak of.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
More strange than true. I never may believe these antique fables,
nor these fairy toys. Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
such shaping fantasies, that apprehend more than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination,
and all compact one sees more devils than vast hell

(01:04):
can hold. That is, the madman, the lover, all as
frantic sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt. The
poet's eye and fine frenzy rolling doth glance from heaven
to earth, from Earth to heaven. And as imagination bodies
forth the forms of things unknown, the poet's pen turns

(01:24):
them to shapes and gives to airy nothing, a local
habitation and a name. Such tricks hath strong imagination, that
if it would but apprehend some joy, it comprehends some
bringer of that joy, Or in the night imagining some fear.
How easy is a bush supposed a bear?

Speaker 2 (01:44):
But all the story of the night told over, and
all their minds transfigured, so together more witnesseth than fancy's images,
and grows to something of great constancy. But howsoever strange
and admirable.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Enter Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Joy, gentle friends, Joy and fresh days of love accompany
your hearts.

Speaker 4 (02:13):
More than to us. Wait in your royal walks, your
bored your bed.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
Come now? What masks? What dances? Shall we have to
wear away this long age of three hours between our
after supper and bedtime? Where is our usual manager of mirth?
What revels are in hand? Is there no play to
ease the anguish of a torturing hour? KWill a strait?

Speaker 5 (02:37):
Here?

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Mighty theseus say, what a bridgement have you for this evening?
What mask? What music? How shall we beguile the lazy time?
If not with some delight.

Speaker 5 (02:48):
There is a brief. How many sports are ripe? Make
choice of which your Highness will see first?

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Giving a paper reads the battle with the Centaurs be
sung by an Athenian eunuch to the harp. Will none
of that?

Speaker 6 (03:05):
That?

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Have I told my love and glory of my kinsman Hercules.
The riot of the tipsy bacchanals tearing the Thracian singer
in their rage. That is an old device, and it
was played when I from Thebes came last to conqueror
the thrice three muses borning for the death of learning

(03:27):
late deceased in Beggary. That is some satire, keen and critical,
not sorting with a nuptial ceremony. A tedious brief scene
of young Pyramus and his love. Thisby very tragical mirth,
merry and tragical, tedious and brief. That is hot, ice

(03:48):
and wondrous strange snow? How shall we find the concord
of this discord?

Speaker 5 (03:54):
A play? There is, my lord, sum ten words long,
which is as brief as I have no play. But
by ten words, my Lord, it is too long, which
makes it tedious, for in all the play there is
not one word apt one player fitted and tragical, my lord,
it is for Pyramus therein doth kill himself, which when

(04:17):
I saw rehearsed, I must confess, made mine eyes water,
but more merry tears, the passion of loud laughter never shed.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
What are they that do play it?

Speaker 5 (04:29):
Hard handed? Men that work in Athens here, which never
labored in their minds, still now and now have toiled
their unbreathed memories with this same play against.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Your nuptial and we will hear it.

Speaker 5 (04:44):
No, my noble lord, it is not for you. I
have heard it over and it is nothing nothing in
the world unless you can find sport in their intents,
extremely stretched and conned with cruel pain to do you service.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
I will hear that play, for never anything can be
amiss when simpleness and duty tender it. Go bring them
in and take your places, ladies, exit fill a strait.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
I love not to see wretchedness o'er charged and duty
in his service perishing.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
He says, they can do nothing in this kind.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
The kinder we to give them thanks for nothing. Our
sports shall be to take what they mistake and what
poor duty cannot do. Noble respect takes it in might
not merit. Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
to greet me with premeditated welcomes, where I have seen
them shiver and look pale, make periods in the midst

(05:45):
of sentences, throttle their practiced accent in their fears, and
in conclusion dumbly have broke off, not paying me a welcome.
Trust me sweet out of this silence. Yet I picked
a welcome, and in the modesty of fearful duty, I
read as much as from the rattling tongue of saucy
and audacious eloquence. Love Therefore, and tongue tied simplicity, in

(06:10):
least speak most to my capacity.

Speaker 5 (06:13):
Re enter fillustrate, So please your grace, the prologue is addressed.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Let him approach flourish of trumpets. Enter quints for the prologue.

Speaker 6 (06:27):
If we offend, it is with our good will that
you should think. We come not to offend, but with
good will to show our simple skill. That is the
true beginning of our end. Consider, then we came, but
in despite we do not come as minding too content

(06:48):
you our true intent is or for your delight. We
are not here that you should here repent you. The
actors are at hand, and by their show you shall
know all that you are like to know.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
This fellow doth not stand upon points.

Speaker 4 (07:07):
He hath Riddy's prolog like a rough colt. He knows
not the stop a good moral. My lord. It is
not enough to speak, but to speak true.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
Indeed, he hath played on his prolog like a child
on a recorder, a sound, but not in government.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
His speech was like a tangled chain, nothing impaired, but
all disordered. Who is next?

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Enter Piramus and thisby wall, moonshine and lion gentles.

Speaker 6 (07:39):
Perchance you wonder at this show, but wander on till
truth makes all things plain. This man is Pyramus. If
you would know this beauteous lady, thisby is certain. This man,
with lime and rough cast doth present wall that firewall
which did these lovers thunder? And through war's chink, poor souls,

(08:02):
they are content to whisper at the witch. Let no
man wonder this man with land, torn dog and bush
of thorn present at moonshine. For if you will know,
by moonshine, did these lovers think no scorn to meet
at Ninna's tomb? There there to woo this grisly beast,

(08:22):
which lion hight by name the trusted. Thisbee, coming first
by night, did scare away, or rather did affright, And
as she fled her mantle she did fall, which lin vile,
with bloody mouth did stain. Anon comes Pyramous, sweet, youth
and tall, and finds his trusty thisbee's mantle. Slain whereat

(08:45):
with blade, with bloody, blameful blade, he bravely broth his boiling,
bloody breast, and this be tearing in a mulberry shade.
His dagger drew and died. For all the rest let lion, moonshine, wall,
and lovers twain at large discourse, Why they here do remain.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Egiant prologue, thisbee, lion and moonshine.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
I wonder if the lion be to speak.

Speaker 7 (09:13):
No wonder, my lord, one lion may when many asses
do in.

Speaker 8 (09:18):
This same interlude, It doth befall that I, one snout
by name, present a wall, and such a wall as
I would have you think, that had in it a
crannied hole or chink, through which the lovers Pyramus and
thisby did whisper, often very secretly, this loam, this rough cast,

(09:40):
and this stone doth show that I am that same wall.
The truth is so, and this the cranny is right
and sinister, through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
Would you desire lyme and hair to speak better?

Speaker 7 (09:57):
It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard discourse
my lord.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
Enter Piramus, pyramus, jaws near the wall, silence.

Speaker 9 (10:07):
Oh grim, look knight, oh night with you so black?

Speaker 1 (10:12):
O night?

Speaker 9 (10:12):
Which ever art? When day is not? Oh night, oh night?
A lack a lack a lack I fear my Thissby's
promises for God, and thou o wall o, sweet o
lovely wall that stands between her father's ground and mine.

(10:34):
Thou wall O, wall o, sweet and lovely wall, show
me thy chink to blink through with mine eye.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Wall holds up his fingers.

Speaker 9 (10:49):
Thanks courteous wall, Jove shield thee well for this. But
what see I no this?

Speaker 3 (10:58):
Bee?

Speaker 9 (10:58):
Do I see o wicked war through whom I see
no bless curse, said be thy stones, for thus deceiving me.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
The wall methinks, being sensible, should curse again.

Speaker 9 (11:12):
No, in truth, sir, he should not deceive in me?
Is Thisby's cue? She is to enter now, and I'm
to spire through the wall. You shall see it will
fall past as I told you, yonder she comes.

Speaker 10 (11:25):
Ander, thisb oh wall full often as thou heard my
moans for parting, my fair Pitramus in me, my cherry
lips have often kissed thy stones, thy stones with lyment
here knitop in thee.

Speaker 9 (11:40):
I see a voice. Now will I to the chink
to spy, and I can hear my thisby's face. There'sbe
my love.

Speaker 10 (11:53):
Thou art my love?

Speaker 9 (11:55):
I think, think what thou wilt. I am thy lover's grace,
and like Lemander and my trusty stealth, and.

Speaker 10 (12:03):
I like Helen till the fights me kill.

Speaker 9 (12:06):
Not Schaffle as to procress was so true.

Speaker 10 (12:10):
As Schaffle as to procress, I to yo.

Speaker 9 (12:13):
Oh, kiss me through the whole of this vile wall.

Speaker 10 (12:17):
I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all.

Speaker 9 (12:22):
Wilt thou Minnie's tomb meet me straight away.

Speaker 10 (12:26):
Tide life, tide death. I come without.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
Denay, exiant Pyramus.

Speaker 8 (12:32):
And thisby thus have I wall my part discharged so
and being done thus wall away doth go exit.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
Now is the mural down between the two neighbors.

Speaker 7 (12:47):
No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to
hear without warning, this.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
Is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
The best in this kind are but shadows, and the
worst are no worse. If imagine nation amend them, it must.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Be your imagination, then, and not theirs.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
If we imagine no worse of them than they of themselves,
they may pass for excellent men. Here comes to noble
beasts sin a man and a lion.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
Enter, lion and Moonshine.

Speaker 11 (13:19):
You ladies, youse, gentle arts, do fear the smallest monstrous
mouse that creeps on floor may now perchance both quake
and tremble ear. When lion rough and wildest rage doth roar.

(13:41):
Then no, then I one snug the joiner am a
lion fell, Nor else no lions down. For if I should,
as lion come and strife into this place, twere pity
on my life.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
A very gentle beast of a good conscience.

Speaker 7 (13:57):
The very best at a beast, my lord, ere I saw.

Speaker 4 (14:01):
This lion is a very fox for his.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
Valor true, and a goose for his discretion.

Speaker 7 (14:07):
Not so, my lord, for his valor cannot carry his discretion.
And the fox carries the goose.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
His discretion, I am sure cannot carry his valor. For
the goose carries not the fox. It is well leave
it to his discretion, and let us listen to the moon.

Speaker 12 (14:23):
This lanthorn doth the horned moon present?

Speaker 7 (14:26):
He should have worn the horns on his head.

Speaker 3 (14:29):
He is no crescent, and his horns are invisible within
the circumference.

Speaker 12 (14:35):
This lanthorn doth the horned moon present? Myself the man
in the moon, do seem to be.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
This is the greatest error of all the rest. The
man should be put into the lanthorn. How is it else?
The man in the moon, he.

Speaker 7 (14:50):
Dares not come there for the candle, For you see
it is already in snuff.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
I am awary of this moon. Would he would change it?

Speaker 3 (15:00):
Peers by his small light of discretion that he is
in the wane. But yet in courtesy, in all reason,
we must stay the time proceed moon.

Speaker 12 (15:11):
All that I have to say is to tell you
that the lanthon is the moon. I the man in
the moon. This thorn bush, my thorn bush, and this dog,
my dog?

Speaker 7 (15:21):
Why all these should be in the lanthorn? For all
these are in the moon. But silence here comes.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
Thisby enter thisby this is old nitties too?

Speaker 10 (15:34):
Where is my love?

Speaker 1 (15:44):
Fsbee runs off.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
Well roared lion, Well run thisbee.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
Well shone moon truly the moon shines with a good grace.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
The lion shakes thisbey's mantle and exit.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
Well molsed lion.

Speaker 7 (16:01):
And so the lion vanished, and then came pyramus.

Speaker 9 (16:05):
Enter piramus, sweet moon, I thank THEE for thy sunny beams.
I thank THEE Moon for shining now so bright, for
by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams. I trust to take
of truest this beside, But stay, oh spite, but mark,

(16:25):
poor knight, What dreadful doll is here?

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Ice?

Speaker 9 (16:30):
Do you see? How can it be? Oh dainty duck,
Oh dear thy mantle good? What stained with blood? Approachy
furies fell? Oh fights come, come, cut thread and thrum quail, crush, conclude.

Speaker 6 (16:53):
And cor.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
This passion and the death of a dear friend would
go near to make a man look sad.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
But shrew my heart. But I pity the man.

Speaker 9 (17:07):
Oh, wherefore nature didst thou lion's frame? Since lion viile
hath heredy flowered my dear which is no no which
was the fairest dame that lived, that love, that light,
that looked with cheer, come tears, confound out sword and

(17:33):
wound the pap of Pyramus. Aye that left pap where
art doth.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
Hop stabs himself.

Speaker 9 (17:46):
Thus die I Thus thus thus now am I dead?
Now am I fled my soul in the sky tungue,
lose thy light, moon, take thy.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
Flight, Exit Moonshine, Now.

Speaker 13 (18:16):
Die, die, die, die dies.

Speaker 7 (18:34):
No die but an ace for him, for he is
but one.

Speaker 4 (18:39):
Less than an ace man. For he is dead, he
is nothing.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
With the help of a surgeon, he might yet recover
and prove an ass.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
How chance, Moonshine is gone before Thisby comes back and
finds her lover.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
She will find him by starlight. Here she comes, and
her passion ends the play.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
Re enter Thisby thinks.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
She should not use a long one for such a pyramids.

Speaker 12 (19:03):
I hope she.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
Will be brief.

Speaker 7 (19:05):
A mote will turn the balance. Which pyramids which thisbe
is the better? He for a man, God warrant us,
she for a woman. God bless us.

Speaker 4 (19:14):
She has spied him already with those threet eyes.

Speaker 7 (19:17):
And thus she means the delicit.

Speaker 10 (19:20):
Asleep My love what dead, my dove, Oh pyramids arise
speak speak quite dull, dead dead. A tomb must cover
thy sweet eyes, these lily lips, this cherry nose, these

(19:42):
yellow cowslip cheeks, hot gone ho gone lovers make moan.
His eyes were green as leaks. Oh sisters three, come,
come to me with hands as tailer's milk. Lay them
in gore, since you have sure with shears his thread

(20:04):
of silk tongue. Not a word. Come, trusty, sword, come
blade my breast in blue. She stabs herself and farewell friends.
Thus Thissbee ends Adieu, Adieu, Adieu.

Speaker 3 (20:29):
She dies. Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead, ay,
and the wall too.

Speaker 9 (20:38):
No, I assure you the wall is down, that part
of their fathers. Will it please you to see the
epilog or to hear a burgamask dance between two of
our company.

Speaker 3 (20:49):
No epilogue. I pray you, for your play needs no excuse,
never excuse, for when the players are all dead, there
needs none to be blamed. Mary. If he that rid
it had played pyramids and hanged himself in thisby's garter,
it would have been a fine tragedy. And so it
is truly and very notably discharged. But come your burgamasque,

(21:12):
let your epilog alone.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
Hey dance.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
The iron tongue of midnight. Hath told twelve lovers to bed,
tis almost fairy time. I fear we shall outsleep the
coming morn. As much as we this night have overwatched
this palpable gross play, hath well beguiled the heavy gait
of night, sweet friends, to bed a fortnight. Hold we

(21:37):
this solemnity in nightly revels and new jollity.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
Exiant, enter puck.

Speaker 14 (21:46):
Now the hungry lion roars, and the wolf behowls the moon,
whilst the heavy plowman snores, all with weary task foredone.
Now the wasted brands do glow, whilst a screech owl
screeching loud puts the wretch that lies in woe in
remembrance of a shroud. Now it is the time of
night that the graves all gaping wide. Every one lets

(22:10):
forth his sprite in the churchway paths to glide, and
we fairies that do run by the triple hegate's team
from the presence of the sun, following darkness like a dream.
Now our frolic, not a mouse shall disturb this hallowed house.
I am sent with broom before to sweep the dust
behind the door.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Enter Oberon and Titania with their train.

Speaker 15 (22:36):
Through the house. Give gathering light by the dread and
drowsy fire. Every elf and fairy sprite hop as light
as bird from brier, and this ditty after me, sing
and dance it trippingly.

Speaker 16 (22:50):
First, rehearse your song by rote, to each word a
warbling note, hand in hand with fairy grace. Will we
sing and bless this place.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
Song and dance.

Speaker 15 (23:06):
Now until the break of day, through this house each
fairy stray to the best bride bed. Will we which
by us shall blessed be, and the issue there create
ever shall be fortunate. So shall all the couple's three
ever true in loving be, And the blots of nature's
hands shall not in their issue stand never mole, hare lip,

(23:28):
nor scar nor mark prodigious such as are despised in nativity,
shall upon their children be with this field. Do consecrate
every fairy, take his gait, and each several chamber bless
through this place with sweet peace, and the owner of
it blest shall ever in safety, rest trip away, make

(23:50):
no stay meet me all by break of.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
Day exeant Oberon, Titania and train.

Speaker 14 (23:58):
If we shadows have offended, think but this and all
is mended, that you have but slumbered here while these
visions did appear, and this weak and idle theme no
more yielding but a dream. Gentles, do not reprehend. If
you pardon, we will mend. And as I am an
honest puck, if we have unearned luck now to escape

(24:19):
the serpent's tongue, we will make amends ere long else
the puck a liar call, So good night unto you
all give me your hands if we be friends, and
Robin shall restore amends.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
End of Act five and of A Midsummer Night's Dream
by William Shakespeare