You are here

All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 1Scene 2
Back to the Play
The Mechanicals
Context and Language Videos
Act 1,
Scene 2
Lines 16-54

An explanation of the roles of the mechanicals in Act 1, Scene 2 of myShakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. 

myShakespeare | A Midsummer Night's Dream 1.2: The Mechanicals

Quince

Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver?

Bottom

Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.

Quince

You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.

Bottom

What is Pyramus? A lover or a tyrant?

Quince

A lover, that kills himself most gallantly for love.

Bottom

That will ask some tears in the true performing 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 humor is for a tyrant. I could play
Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split.
    The raging rocks
    And shivering shocks
    Shall break the locks
    Of prison gates,
    And Phibbus' car
    Shall shine from far
    And make and mar
    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.

Quince

Francis Flute, the bellows-mender?

Flute

Here, Peter Quince.

Quince

Flute, you must take Thisbe on you.

Flute

What is Thisbe? A wandering knight?

Quince

It is the lady that Pyramus must love.

Flute

Nay, faith, let not me play a woman. I have a
beard coming.

Quince

That's all one. You shall play it in a mask, and
you may speak as small as you will.

Bottom

An I may hide my face, let me play Thisbe too. I'll speak
in a monstrous little voice: “Thisne, Thisne!” —
“Ah Pyramus, my lover dear!" – "Thy Thisbe dear and lady dear!”

Quince

No, no, you must play Pyramus; and Flute, you
Thisbe.

Bottom

Well, proceed.

Quince

Robin Starveling, the tailor?

Starveling

Here, Peter Quince.

Quince

Robin Starveling, you must play Thisbe's mother.
Tom Snout, the tinker?
Video Transcript: 

ATHENA: Shakespeare has cleverly given each worker a name that relates to his trade:

RALPH: There’s Quince the carpenter – 

ATHENA: A quince is a wooden wedge used by carpenters.

RALPH: Snug the joiner – 

ATHENA: A joiner is a cabinet-maker who joins the pieces of furniture together tightly, or “snuggly”.

RALPH: Bottom the weaver – 

ATHENA: A bottom is the reel on which a supply of yarn is wound.

RALPH: Flute the bellows-mender – 

ATHENA: He mends, or repairs, bellows, which are mechanical air pumps used to blow air into furnaces. And a flute is the valve which allows the air to flow in only one direction.

RALPH: Snout the tinker – 

ATHENA: A tinker repairs pots and pans, and a snout is the spout of a kettle.

RALPH: And finally, Starveling the tailor – 

ATHENA: for some reason, the stereotype of a tailor was a skinny or ‘starving’ man.