No Fear Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Get this No Fear to go!
Act 1, Scene 2, Page 4
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SNUG
Have you the lion’s part written? Pray you, if it be,
give it me, for I am slow of study.
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SNUG
Do you have the lion’s part written down? If you do,
please give it to me, because I need to start learning the lines. It
takes me a long time to learn things.
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QUINCE
You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
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QUINCE
You can improvise the whole thing. It’s just
roaring.
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BOTTOM
Let me play the lion too. I will roar, that I will do any
man’s heart good to hear me. I will roar, that I will
make the duke say, “Let him roar again. Let him roar
again.”
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BOTTOM
Let me play the lion too. I’ll roar so well that
it’ll be an inspiration to anyone who hears me.
I’ll roar so well that the duke will say, “Let
him roar again. Let him roar again.”
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QUINCE
An you should do it too terribly, you would fright the duchess and
the ladies, that they would shriek. And that were enough to hang us
all.
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QUINCE
If you roar too ferociously, you’ll scare the duchess
and the other ladies and make them scream. And that would get us all
executed.
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ALL
That would hang us, every mother’s son.
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ALL
Yeah, that would get every single one of us executed.
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BOTTOM
I grant you, friends, if you should fright the ladies out of their
wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us. But I will
aggravate my voice so that I will roar you as gently as any sucking
dove. I will roar you an ’twere any nightingale.
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BOTTOM
Well, my friends, you’ve got to admit that if you scare
the living daylights out of the ladies, they’d have no
choice but to execute us. But I’ll soften my
voice—you know, aggravate it, so to speak—so that I’ll roar as
gently as a baby dove. I’ll roar like a sweet, peaceful
nightingale.
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QUINCE
You can play no part but Pyramus. For Pyramus is a sweet-faced
man, a proper man as one shall see in a summer’s day, a
most lovely, gentlemanlike man. Therefore you must needs play
Pyramus.
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QUINCE
You can’t play any part except Pyramus. Because Pyramus
is a good-looking man, the most handsome man that you could find on
a summer’s day, a lovely gentlemanly man. So
you’re the only one who could play Pyramus.
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BOTTOM
Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best to play it
in?
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BOTTOM
Well then, I’ll do it. What kind of beard should I wear
for the part?
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QUINCE
Why, what you will.
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QUINCE
Whatever kind you want, I guess.
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