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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 5Scene 1
Back to the Play
Epilogue
Humor
Act 5,
Scene 1
Lines 345-353

An explanation of the reference to an epilogue in Act 5, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

Bottom

their fathers. Will it please you to see the epilogue, or to
hear a bergamask dance between two of our company?
[Bottom and Flute stand up]

Theseus

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. Marry, if he that writ it
had played Pyramus and hanged himself in Thisbe's
garter, it would have been a fine tragedy; and so it is,
truly and very notably discharged. But come, your
bergamask. Let your epilogue alone.

It was the custom for a play’s epilogue to contain a modest request for the actors to be forgiven for any weakness in the performance. Theseus's statement humorously has two possible interpretations:

1) Your performance was so good it needs no excusing (his meaning intended for the actors).

2) There's no excuse for such a horrible performance (his real meaning).