duke say 'Let him roar again, let him roar again.'
QUINCE If 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.
ALL That would hang us, every mother's son.
BOTTOM I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the
ladies out of their wits, they would have no more discretion70
but to hang us: but I will aggravate71 my voice so that I will
roar you as gently as any sucking dove. I will roar an 'twere72
any nightingale.
QUINCE You can play no part but Pyramus, for Pyramus is a
sweet-faced man, a proper75 man, as one shall see in a
summer's day; a most lovely gentlemanlike man: therefore
you must needs play Pyramus.
BOTTOM Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best to
play it in?
QUINCE Why, what you will.
BOTTOM I will discharge it in either your81 straw-colour beard,
your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain82 beard, or
your French-crown-coloured83 beard, your perfect yellow.
QUINCE Some of your French crowns84 have no hair at all,
and then you will play bare-faced. But,
Passes out the parts
masters, here are your parts: and I am to entreat you,
request you and desire you, to con87 them by tomorrow night,
and meet me in the palace wood a mile without the town by
moonlight. There will we rehearse, for if we meet in the city
we shall be dogged with company, and our devices90 known. In
the meantime I will draw a bill91 of properties, such as our play
wants. I pray you fail me not.