The30MinuteShakespeare

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The formatting is a little funky due to issues cutting and pasting from PDF to Word, but this should work.

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See you Wed Sep 28 at 7 PM EST!

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CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY

The following is a list of the characters that appear in this cutting of Othello.

IAGO: An ensign and a villain

BRABANTIO: A senator; father to Desdemona DUKE: Duke of Venice, a great admirer of Othello MESSENGER

FIRST SENATOR: A senator in the council chamber DESDEMONA: Wife to Othello, daughter to Brabantio CASSIO: An honorable lieutenant

MONTANO: Governor of Cyprus

LODOVICO: A noble Venetian, brother to Brabantio

Emilia: Wife to Iago

Bianca:

A courtesan SOLDIERS

SINGERS 

NARRATOR  

       

SCENE 1. (ACT I, SCENE I)

Venice. A street.

NARRATOR

In the streets of Venice, Roderigo and Iago inform the Senator, Brabantio, of his daughter Desdemona’s secret marriage to Othello. Enraged, Brabantio sets out in search of his daughter.

IAGO

Call up her father,

Rouse him, poison his delight.

RODERIGO

What ho, Brabantio! Signior Brabantio, ho!

IAGO

Awake! Brabantio! Look to your daughter!BRABANTIO

What is the matter there?

IAGO

’Zounds, sir! Even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe. You’ll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse, you’ll have your nephews neigh to you! Your daughter and the Moor are making the beast with two backs.

BRABANTIO

Give me a taper. Call up my people. Light, I say, light!

SCENE 2. (ACT I, SCENE III)

Venice. A council-chamber.

Narrator

       

The Duke, preparing for a Turkish invasion of 

Cyprus, welcomes the arrival of Othello and 

Brabantio. Brabantio announces his dismay at 

Desdemona’s marriage to Othello. Iago begins to 

outline his plot to use Cassio in order to make 

Othello jealous.

Duke

      Now, what’s the business?

Messenger

       A Turkish fleet, of thirty sail: 

        Their purposes toward Cyprus.

First Senator

          Here comes Brabantio and the valiant Moor.

Duke

      Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you 

Against the general enemy Ottoman.)

Brabantio, why, what’s the matter?

Brabantio

       My daughter! O, my daughter!

First Senator

      Dead?

Brabantio

       

Ay, to me;

She is abused, stol’n from me, and corrupted. 

Here is the man, this Moor. 

Duke 

      What, in your own part, can you say to this? 

Othello

       

My very noble and approved good masters, 

Rude am I in my speech,

And little bless’d with the soft phrase of peace; 

And little of this great world can I speak, 

More than pertains to feats of broil and battle; 

   I won his daughter.

Brabantio

     

To fall in love with what she fear’d to look on! 

It is a judgment maim’d and most imperfect.

First Senator

      

But, Othello, speak:

Did you subdue and poison this young maid’s 

   affections?

Othello

    

 Duke, I do beseech you,

Send for the lady to the Sagittary,

And let her speak of me before her father. 

  Fetch Desdemona hither.

Brabantio

      

 Come hither, gentle mistress.

Do you perceive in all this noble company 

Where most you owe obedience?

Desdemona

     

 My noble father,

I do perceive here a divided duty:

I am hitherto your daughter: but here’s my husband; 

That I did love the Moor to live with him 

My downright violence and storm of fortunes 

May trumpet to the world. My heart’s subdued 

Even to the very quality of my Lord. 

    Let me go with him.

Brabantio

     Come hither, Moor:

I here do give thee that with all my heart 

I would keep from thee. For your sake, jewel, 

     I am glad at soul I have no other child.

Duke

      To mourn a mischief that is past and gone

Is the next way to draw new mischief on. 

The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes 

   for Cyprus.

First Senator

     You must away to-night. 

Othello

     With all my heart.

Duke

      Good night to every one 

And, noble signior,

If virtue no delighted beauty lack,

   Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.

Brabantio 

     Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see: 

Othello

      My life upon her faith! 

Honest Iago,

My Desdemona must I leave to thee: 

Come, Desdemona; I have but an hour 

Of love, of worldly matters and direction, 

   To spend with thee.

Iago 

      I hate the Moor;

And it is thought abroad, that ’twixt my sheets 

He has done my office: I know not if ’t be true; 

But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,

Will do as if for surety. 

Cassio’s a proper man: let me see now; 

After some time, to abuse Othello’s ear 

That he is too familiar with his wife: 

I have’t; it is engender’d: hell and night

Must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light.

SCENE 3. (ACT II, SCENE III)

Cyprus. A hall in the castle.

NARRATOR

We are now in Cyprus. Iago persuades Cassio to drink too much, which is part of Iago’s devious plan of action.

OTHELLO 

Good Michael, look you to the guard to-night: Good night.

        CASSIO

     

Welcome, Iago. We must to the watch.

IAGO

Come, lieutenant, I have a stoup of wine; to the health of black Othello

Cassio

Not tonight, good Iago.  I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking

Iago

What, man! ’Tis a night of revels: the gallants desire it.

Cassio

I’ll do’t; but it dislikes me.

Iago 

If I can fasten but one cup upon him, He’ll be as full of quarrel and offense As my young mistress’ dog.

Cassio

To the health of our general!                 

Montano

I am for it, lieutenant; and I’ll do you justice.

Iago

O sweet England!

ALL (singing)

And let me the cannikin clink, clink And let me the cannikin clink.

A soldier’s a man,

O man’s life’s but a span,

Why, then let a soldier drink Why, then let a soldier drink!

Iago

Some wine, ho!

CASSIO [pours more wine for himself)

Why, this is a more exquisite song than the other. Do not think, gentlemen. I am drunk: this is my ancient; this is my right hand, and this is my left:

I am not drunk now; I can stand well enough, and speak well enough.

IAGO

How now, Roderigo!

I pray you, after the lieutenant; go.

RODERIGO

Help! Help!

     

CASSIO

’Zounds, you rogue! You rascal!

A knave teach me my duty! [strikes RODERIGO]

Montano 

                         Nay, good lieutenant; I pray you, sir, hold your hand.       

Cassio

Let me go, sir, or I’ll knock you o’er the mazard.

            Montano

Come, come, you’re drunk.

Cassio

Drunk!

IAGO 

Away, I say, go out; and cry a mutiny!

           

 OTHELLO

What is the matter here?

Are we turn’d Turks? Honest Iago, Speak, who began this?

Iago

I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth Than it should do offense to Michael Cassio; But men are men; the best sometimes forget.

OTHELLO

I know, Iago,

Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter, Making it light to Cassio. Cassio, I love thee; But never more be officer of mine.

CASSIO

Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.

IAGO

As I am an honest man, I’ll tell you what you shall do. Our general’s wife is now the general: confess yourself freely to her; importune her help to put you in your place again.

CASSIO

You advise me well. In the morning I will beseech the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me: Good night, honest Iago.

IAGO 

Whiles this honest fool

Plies Desdemona to repair his fortunes,

And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor, I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear,

That she repeals him for her body’s lust; So will I turn her virtue into pitch; And out of her own goodness make the net That shall enmesh them all.

SCENE 4. (ACT III, SCENE III)

Cyprus. The garden of the castle.

NARRATOR

Desdemona pleads for Cassio’s reinstatement while Iago causes Othello to doubt Desdemona and her friendship with Cassio. Keep an eye out for a very important handkerchief.

                    CASSIO

My general will forget my love and service.

DESDEMONA

If I do vow a friendship, I’ll perform it

To the last article: my lord shall never rest;

I’ll watch him tame, and talk him out of patience.

   Emilia                   

Madam, here comes my lord.

Cassio

      Madame I’ll take my leave.

          

  IAGO

Ha! I like not that.

Othello

Was not that Cassio parted from my wife?

Iago

Cassio, my lord! No, sure, I cannot think it, That he would steal away so guilty-like, Seeing you coming.

DESDEMONA

How now, my lord!

I have been talking with a suitor here,

A man that languishes in your displeasure.

Othello

Who is’t you mean?

DESDEMONA

Why, your lieutenant, Cassio. Good my lord, If I have any grace or power to move you,

I prithee, call him back.

          

OTHELLO

No, not tonight

 DESDEMONA

Why, then, to-morrow night; or Tuesday morn.

         

OTHELLO 

Prithee, no more: let him come when he will; I will deny thee nothing.

DESDEMONA

Whate’er you be, I am obedient.               

OTHELLO

Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul, But I do love thee! And when I love thee not, Chaos is come again.

Iago

For Michael Cassio,

I dare be sworn I think that he is honest.

Othello

I think so too.

           Iago

                      Men should be what they seem.

Othello

Certain, men should be what they seem.

Iago

Why, then, I think Cassio’s an honest man.

Othello

Nay, yet there’s more in this: Give thy worst of thoughts The worst of words.

IAGO

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;

It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mockThe meat it feeds on: that cuckold lives in bliss 

Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger; 

But, O, what damned minutes tells he o’er 

Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves! 

Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio; 

She did deceive her father, marrying you

And when she seem’d to shake and fear your looks, 

She loved them most.

My lord, I take my leave.

OTHELLO 

Why did I marry? This honest creature doubtless Sees and knows more, much more, than he unfolds.

IAGO 

My lord, I would I might entreat your honor Note if your lady strain Cassio’s entertainment With any strong or vehement importunity; Much will be seen in that. In the mean time Let me be thought too busy in my fears.

I once more take my leave.

    OTHELLO

This fellow’s of exceeding honesty, If I do prove her haggard,

Though that her jesses were my dear heartstrings, I’ld whistle her off, and let her down the wind,

To prey at fortune. Haply, for I am black, And have not those soft parts of conversation That chamberers have; or, for I am declined Into the vale of years, yet that’s not much;

She’s gone; I am abused; and my relief Must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage,

That we can call these delicate creatures ours, And not their appetites!

Desdemona comes:

If she be false, O, then heaven mocks itself! I’ll not believe’t. 

DESDEMONA 

How now, my dear Othello! Are you not well?

Othello

I have a pain upon my forehead here.

DESDEMONA

I am very sorry that you are not well.

[DESDEMONA takes out her handkerchief and swabs OTHELLO’S forehead.  DESDEMONA drops the handkerchief by accident as they walk off stage]

EMILIA [spots handkerchief and picks it up]

I

 am glad I have found this napkin:

This was her first remembrance from the Moor: My wayward husband hath a hundred times Woo’d me to steal it; I nothing but to please his fantasy.          

IAGO

How now! What do you here alone?

Emilia

Do not you chide; I have a thing for you.

Why, the handkerchief the Moor first gave to Desdemona;

That which so often you did bid me steal.

Iago

A good wench; give it me  I have use for it. Go, leave me. I will in Cassio’s lodging lose this napkin, And let him find it. Trifles light as air Are to the jealous confirmations strong

As proofs of holy writ: this may do something. The Moor already changes with my poison.

OTHELLO.

Ha! Ha! False to me?

Iago

How now, my lord!

     OTHELLO

What sense had I of her stol’n hours of lust? Farewell the tranquil mind! Farewell content!

Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore, Be sure of it; I’ll have some proof: her name,

that was as fresh

As Dian’s visage, is now begrimed and black As mine own face.

Give me a living reason she’s disloyal.

IAGO

She may be honest yet. Tell me but this,

Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief Spotted with strawberries in your wife’s hand?

Othello

I gave her such a one. ‘Twas my first gift.

Iago

I know not that: but such a handkerchief— I am sure it was your wife’s—did I to-day See Cassio wipe his beard with.

Othello

Now do I see ’tis true. Look here, Iago;

All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven: ’Tis gone. 

Arise, black vengeance, from the hollow hell! Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne To tyrannous hate! O, blood, blood, blood!

IAGO 

Patience, I say; your mind perhaps may change.

OTHELLO 

Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic sea,

My bloody thoughts, with violent pace,

Shall ne’er look back, ne’er ebb to humble love, Till that a capable and wide revenge

Swallow them up. I will withdraw,

To furnish me with some swift means of death For the fair devil. 

Now art thou my lieutenant.

IAGO

I am your own for ever.

SCENE 5 (ACT III, SCENE IV)

Before the castle.

NARRATOR

Othello asks Desdemona for the handkerchief that she has lost, but she tries to talk to him about Cassio. (pauses) Not a good idea.

DESDEMONA

Where should I lose that handkerchief, Emilia?

        Emilia

                  I know not, madam.

[to Othello] How is’t with you, my lord?

Othello

Well, my good lady. (aside)

O, hardness to dissemble!

How do you, Desdemona?

DESDEMONA

Well, my good lord.

I have sent to bid Cassio come speak with you.

Othello

Lend me thy handkerchief.

DESDEMONA [takes out a plain handkerchief]

Here, my lord.

Othello

That which I gave you.

DESDEMONA

I have it not about me.

Othello

That is a fault. That handkerchief

Did an Egyptian to my mother give; she, dying, gave it me;

Fetch’t, let me see’t.

DESDEMONA

Why, so I can, sir, but I will not now.

Othello

Fetch me the handkerchief: my mind misgives.

EMILIA 

Is not this man jealous?

DESDEMONA

I ne’er saw this before.

Something hath puddled his clear spirit Alas the day! I never gave him cause.

Emilia

Jealous souls will not be answer’d so; They are not ever jealous for the cause,

But jealous for they are jealous: ’tis a monster Begot upon itself, born on itself.

DESDEMONA 

Heaven keep that monster from Othello’s mind!

          Emilia 

Lady, amen.            

 BIANCA

Save you, friend Cassio!

Cassio

Sweet Bianca,

[ CASSIO gives DESDEMONA’S handkerchief to BIANCA.]

Take me this work out.

         

BIANCA

Why, whose is it?

Cassio

    I know not, sweet: I found it in my chamber. I like the work well: I’d have it copied:

Take it, and do’t; I’ll see you soon.

BIANCA

’Tis very good; I must be circumstanced.

SCENE 6 (ACT IV, SCENE III)

Cyprus. Another room in the castle.

         NARRATOR

While Desdemona is preparing for bed, she talks to Emilia about unfaithful wives.           

OTHELLO

O, Desdemona.

DESDEMONA

My lord?

Othello

Get you to bed on th’instant; I will be return’d forthwith.

DESDEMONA

I will, my lord.

EMILIA

                     How goes it now? 

DESDEMONA

O, these men, these men!

Dost thou in conscience think,—tell me, Emilia,— That there be women do abuse their husbands

In such gross kind?

EMILIA

There be some such, no question. Let husbands know

Their wives have sense like them: they see, and smell,

And have their palates both for sweet and sour, As husbands have. What is it that they do When they change us for others? Is it sport?

I think it is: and doth affection breed it? I think it doth: is’t frailty that thus errs? It is so too: and have not we affections,

Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have? Then let them use us well: else let them know, The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.

DESDEMONA

Good night, good night: God me such usage send, Not to pick bad from bad, 

but by bad mend!

        SINGERS

The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree Sing all a green willow.

                  Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee Sing         

willow willow willow.

The fresh streams ran by her and murmured her moans,

Sing all a green willow.

Her salt tears fell by her and softened the stones. Sing willow willow willow.

Sing all a green willow must be my garland.

SCENE 7 (ACT V, SCENE II)

Cyprus. Outside of a bedchamber in the castle.

NARRATOR

The scene takes place outside Desdemona’s bedroom. The hard truth is revealed.

OTHELLO 

She must die, else she’ll betray more men. Put out the light, and then put out the light.

[OTHELLO re-enters. He has just smothered

DESDEMONA]   

      

 EMILIA

O, my good lord, foul murders done!

O, who hath done This deed?OTHELLO

She’s, like a liar, gone to burning hell: ’Twas I that kill’d her.

Emilia

O, the more angel she, And you the blacker devil!

Othello

She turn’d to folly, and she was a whore.

Emilia

O, she was heavenly true!

Othello

Cassio did top her; ask thy husband else.

Emilia

That she was false to wedlock? My husband?

Othello

Ay, ’twas he that told me first: An honest man he is.

Emilia

My husband!

Othello

My friend, thy husband, honest, honest Iago

Emilia

If he say so, may his pernicious soul

Rot half a grain a day! He lies to th’heart: Help! Help, ho! Help!

The Moor hath kill’d my mistress! Murder! Murder!             

MONTANO

What is the matter? How now, general!

Emilia

O, are you come, Iago? You have done well, That men must lay their murders on your neck. My mistress here lies murder’d in her bed,

[to Iago]

And your reports have set the murder on.

Othello

Nay, stare not, masters: it is true, indeed.

Montano

O monstrous act!

Othello

O, she was foul!

’Tis pitiful; but yet Iago knows

That she with Cassio hath the act of shame

A thousand times committed; Cassio confess’d it: And she did gratify his amorous works

With that recognizance and pledge of love Which I first gave her; I saw it in his hand: It was a handkerchief, an antique token My father gave my mother.

Emilia

O heaven! O heavenly powers!

Iago

Come, hold your peace.            

  EMILIA

I will not.

O thou dull Moor! That handkerchief thou speak’st of I found by fortune, and did give my husband;

For often, with a solemn earnestness—

More than, indeed, belong’d to such a trifle— He begg’d of me to steal it.

Iago

Filth, thou liest!

Emilia

By heaven, I do not, I do not, gentlemen.

O murderous coxcomb! What should such a fool Do with so good a wife!

Othello

Are there no stones in heaven

But what serve for the thunder? Precious villain!

              [ IAGO stabs EMILIA ]

     EMILIA

Ay, ay: O, lay me by my mistress’ side.

Othello

Who can control his fate? Where should Othello go? O cursed, cursed slave!

O Desdemona! Desdemona! Dead! 

O! O! O!

  LODOVICO

Where is that viper? Bring the villain forth.

Othello

If that thou be’st a devil, I cannot kill thee.

[OTHELLO wounds IAGO.]

          

[Cassio takes Othello’s sword]             

IAGO

I bleed, sir; but not kill’d.

From this time forth I never will speak word.

Othello

How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief That was my wife’s?

Cassio

I found it in my chamber:

And he himself confess’d but even now

That there he dropp’d it for a special purpose.

              OTHELLO

O, Fool! Fool! Fool!

LODOVICO   [to OTHELLO]

You must forsake this room, and go with us: Your power and your command is taken off, And Cassio rules in Cyprus.

Othello

Soft you; a word or two before you go. I pray you, in your letters,

When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Speak of one that loved not wisely, but too well.

[OTHELLO pulls out a dagger he had hidden on his person and stabs himself].

Cassio

He was great of heart. (to IAGO)

O Spartan dog,

Myself will straight aboard, and to the state This heavy act with heavy heart relate.

[All hold hands and take a bow!]

Hey all!

Here is the script for Tuesday August 30th 7 PM- EST "Let's Make a Scene": The Tempest: The 30-Minute Shakespeare:

Here it is in Word

Here it is in Rich Text:

(Here is Zoom link):

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3711348751?pwd=YnJQdVRwOUVZbitPdXFrNy9UeHJ1Zz09

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And here is script text pasted : (You can print any of these out or read em on your iPads etc.

The Tempest: The 30-Minute Shakespeare

Let’s Make a Scene Script

Characters in the play

The following is a list of characters that appear in this cutting of The Tempest: The 30-Minute Shakespeare

For the full breakdown of characters, see Sample Program. 

Prospero: Former Duke of Milan, now a magician on a Mediterranean island 

Sailors
Master of the ship
Boatswain of the ship
Alonso: King of Naples
Sebastian: Alonso’s brother
Antonio: Usurping Duke of Milan, and Prospero’s brother

Ferdinand: Prince of Naples, and Alonso’s son
Gonzalo: Counselor to Alonso, and friend to Prospero 

Miranda: Prospero’s daughter
Ariel: An airy spirit, servant to Prospero
Caliban: A savage inhabitant of the island, servant to Prospero 

Trinculo: Servant to Alonso
Stephano: Alonso’s drunken butler
Strange shapes
Dogs
Narrator 

Scene I [Act 1 Scene 1]
On a ship at sea.

Narrator 

On board a ship carrying King Alonso of Naples and his men, a boatswain directs the crew to fight a great storm, but the ship appears destined to sink! 

Master 

Boatswain! 

Boatswain 

Here, master: What cheer? 

Master 

Good, speak to the mariners: fall to’t, yarely, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir. 

Boatswain 

Heigh, my hearts! Cheerly! Yare, yare! Take in the topsail! 

Alonso 

Good Boatswain, have care

Boatswain 

I pray now, keep below. 

Antonio 

Where is the Master, Boatswain?

Boatswain 

You mar our labor: keep your cabins! 

Gonzalo 

Nay good, be patient.

Boatswain 

When the sea is. Hence! What cares these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: trouble us not. Out of our way, I say. 

Gonzalo 

I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him. 

Boatswain 

Down with the topmast! Yare! Lower, lower! Yet again! What do you here? Have you a mind to sink? 

Sebastian 

A pox o’ your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog! 

Boatswain 

Work you then. 

Antonio 

Hang, cur, hang you whoreson insolent noisemaker!  We are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.

Boatswain 

Lay her a-hold! What, must our mouths be cold? 

Antonio 

We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards: Let’s all sink with the king. 

Gonzalo 

Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground. 

scene II (act 1, Scene 2) The island. Before Prospero’s cell. 

Narrator 

Prospero, the former Duke of Milan, has been stranded on a barren island for twelve years with his daughter, Miranda. He explains to her that he used his magic to raise the recent storm, but no one was harmed. King Alonso’s son, Ferdinand, falls instantly in love with Miranda, to Prospero’s delight. 

Miranda 

If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them A brave vessel, dash’d all to pieces. 

Prospero 

Be collected: There’s no harm done.
I should inform thee farther. Pluck my magic garment from me. Thou must now know farther. Twelve year since, Miranda,
Thy father was the Duke of Milan. 

Miranda 

O the heavens! 

Prospero 

Thy uncle, call’d Antonio, did believe he was indeed the duke; The King of Naples and Antonio prepared a rotten carcass of a boat; There they hoist us, to cry to the sea that roar’d to us. 

Miranda 

How came we ashore?

Prospero 

By Providence divine. 

Miranda 

And now I pray you sir, Your reason for raising this sea storm?

Prospero 

By accident most strange hath mine enemies brought to this shore. Here cease more questions: Thou art inclined to sleep. Come, servant.
Approach, my Ariel, come. 

Ariel 

All hail, great master! I come to answer thy best pleasure; To ride on the curl’d clouds, Ariel and all her quality. 

Prospero 

Hast thou, spirit,
Perform’d to point the tempest that I bade thee? 

Ariel 

To every article.
I boarded the king’s ship; I flamed amazement. The king’s son, Ferdinand, was the first man that leap’d, Not a hair perish’d; In troops I have dispersed them ’bout the isle. The king’s son have I landed by himself. 

Prospero

Ariel, there’s more work. 

Ariel

Is there more toil?
Let me remember thee what thou hast promised, My liberty. 

Prospero 

Do so, and after two days I will discharge thee.
Go make thyself invisible. 

[To Miranda] Awake, dear heart, awake! Thou hast slept well; awake!

Ferdinand 

Where should this music be? I’ the air or the earth? 

Ariel

Full fathom five thy father lies; Those are pearls that were his eyes. 

Ferdinand 

The ditty does remember my drown’d father. 

Miranda 

What is’t? A spirit? It carries a brave form. I might call her a thing divine. 

Prospero  [Aside to Ariel] 

It goes on, I see, As my soul prompts it. 

Ferdinand 

My prime request is, O you wonder! If you be maid or no? 

Miranda

No wonder, sir; but certainly a maid. 

Prospero [aside]

They are both in either’s powers. 

Ferdinand 

My father’s loss, the wreck of all my friends, are but light to me, Might I but through my prison once a day Behold this maid. 

Prospero [aside)]

It works.  Thou hast done well, fine Ariel! Thou shalt be free
As mountain winds: but then exactly do All points of my command. 

Ariel 

To the syllable.

Prospero 

Come, follow. 

Scene III. [Act 2, Scene 2]
Another part of the island.

Narrator 

Having escaped the apparently sinking ship, Trinculo hides under a cloak to weather the storm, where he discovers the island’s ornery monster, Caliban. Drunk Stephano finds them both and shares his bottle with them, which livens things up! 

Caliban 

Lo, now, lo!
Here comes a spirit of his. I’ll fall flat. 

Trinculo 

All the infections that the sun sucks up From bogs on Prosper fall. 

[hides under his cloak] 

Another storm brewing;
I know not where to hide my head:
What have we here? A man or a fish? Dead or alive? 

[lifts up the cloak]

A fish: he smells like a fish.
A strange fish! Legged like a man and his fins like arms! Warm o’ my troth! Alas, the storm is come again! My best way is to creep under his gaberdine. 

Stephano 

I shall no more to sea, to sea,
Here shall I die ashore
This is a scurvy tune too: but here’s my comfort. [drinks]

Caliban 

Do not torment me: oh! 

Stephano 

I have not scaped drowning to be afeard now of your four legs. 

Caliban 

Do not torment me, prithee. 

Stephano 

He’s in his fit now. He shall taste of my bottle: Open your mouth. 

Trinculo 

I should know that voice: it should be—but he is drowned. 

Stephano 

Four legs and two voices: a most delicate monster!
I will pour some in thy other mouth. 

Trinculo 

Stephano! Stephano! I am Trinculo—be not afeard— thy good friend Trinculo. 

Stephano 

I’ll pull thee by the lesser legs. Thou art very Trinculo indeed! How camest thou to be the siege of this moon-calf? Can he vent Trinculos? 

Trinculo

But art thou not drowned, Stephano? 
O Stephano, two Neapolitans ’scaped! 

Stephano 

Prithee, do not turn me about; my stomach is not constant. 

Caliban

That’s a brave god and bears celestial liquor. I will kneel to him. 

Stephano 

How didst thou ’scape? 

Trinculo 

Swum ashore. Man, like a duck. 

Stephano 

Here, kiss the book. 

 Caliban 

I’ll kiss thy foot; I’ll swear myself thy subject. I’ll fish for thee and get thee wood enough. A plague upon the tyrant that I serve!
I’ll follow thee, thou wondrous man. Farewell master; farewell, farewell! 

Trinculo

A howling monster: a drunken monster! 

Caliban

’Ban, ’Ban, Ca-caliban
Has a new master: get a new man. Freedom, hie-day! Hie-day, freedom! 

stephano

O brave monster! Lead the way. 

Scene IV (Act 3, Scene 3)
Before Prospero’s cell.

Narrator 

Ferdinand is visited by Miranda. Prospero observes them, unseen, as they exchange marriage vows. Things are starting to heat up! 

Ferdinand 

This my mean task would be heavy to me, but The mistress which I serve quickens what’s dead And makes my labors pleasures. 

Miranda 

Work not so hard: rest yourself; 
I’ll bear your logs the while. 

Ferdinand 

No, precious creature;
I had rather break my back,
Than you should such dishonor undergo, While I sit lazy by. 

Prospero 

Poor worm, thou art infected! 

Ferdinand 

What is your name? 

Miranda 

Miranda.—O my father,
I have broke your hest to say so! 

Ferdinand 

Admired Miranda!
O you are created of every creature’s best! 

Miranda

How features are abroad,
I am skilless of. I would not wish
Any companion in the world but you

Ferdinand 

The very instant that I saw you, did My heart fly to your service; And for your sake am I this patient log-man. 

Miranda 

Do you love me? 

Ferdinand 

I beyond all limit of what else i’ the world Do love, prize, honor you. 

Miranda 

I am a fool
To weep at what I am glad of. 

Prospero 

Fair encounter
Of two most rare affections! 

Miranda 

I am your wife, if you will marry me. 

Ferdinand 

Ay, with a heart as willing
As bondage e’er of freedom: here’s my hand. 

Miranda

And mine, with my heart in’t; and now farewell.

Ferdinand 

A thousand thousand!

Prospero 

So glad of this as they I cannot be,
Who are surprised withal; but my rejoicing at nothing can be more. I’ll to my book, For yet ere supper-time must I perform Much business appertaining. 

Scene V [act 3 Scene 2]
Another part of the island.. 

Narrator 

Trinculo and Caliban quarrel with the help of the invisible fairy Ariel. Caliban urges Stephano to kill Prospero. What a monstrous thing to do! 

Stephano 

Servant-monster, drink to me. 

Caliban 

Let me lick thy shoe. I thank my noble lord. As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant,
a sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island. 

Ariel [invisible, making trouble]

Thou liest. 

Caliban 

Thou liest, thou jesting monkey, thou! I do not lie. 

Stephano 

Trinculo, if you trouble him any more, I will supplant some of your teeth. 

Trinculo 

I did nothing. 

Stephano 

Didst thou not say he lied?

Ariel [still invisible]

Thou liest. 

Stephano 

Do I so? Take thou that. 

[beats Trinculo with his hat]

 Proceed. 

Caliban

Why, as I told thee, ’tis a custom with Prospero
I’ th’ afternoon to sleep: there thou mayst brain him, With a log or cut his wezand with thy knife. Remember first to possess his books; for without them He’s but a sot, as I am, nor hath not
One spirit to command:
And that most deeply to consider is
The beauty of his daughter;
She will become thy bed,
And bring thee forth brave brood. 

Stephano 

Monster, I will kill this man: his daughter and I will be king and queen—save our graces!—and Trinculo and thyself shall be viceroys. Come on, Trinculo, let us sing. 

[singing]

Flout ’em and scout ’em And scout ’em and flout ’em Thought is free. 

Caliban 

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, That give delight and hurt not. 

Stephano 

This will prove a brave kingdom to me, where I shall have my music for nothing. Lead, monster; we’ll follow. 

Scene VI (Act 3, Scene 3) Another part of the island. 

Narrator 

King Alonso and his party are visited by strange shapes that invite them to a banquet. Ariel appears as a large winged bird called a harpy and accuses three of the men of overthrowing Prospero’s dukedom, threatening them with a fate worse than death. Rule number one: Never mess with a harpy! 

Gonzalo 

I can go no further, sir. My old bones ache. 

Alonso 

Sit down, and rest. Even here I will put off my hope; he is drown’d Whom thus we stray to find. Well, let him go. 

Antonio 

[aside to Sebastian]

 I am right glad that he’s so out of hope. 

Sebastian [aside to Antonio]

The next advantage will we take throughly. 

Antonio 

Let it be tonight.

[Enter several “strange shapes”]

Alonso 

What harmony is this? 

Gonzalo 

Marvelous sweet music! 

Sebastian 

Now I will believe
That there are unicorns. 

Gonzalo

If in Naples
I should report this now, would they believe me? 

Alonso

I will stand to and feed. 

Ariel [disguised as Harpy]

You are three men of sin, whom Destiny,
Hath caused to belch up you; I have made you mad.You fools! Your swords may as well Wound the loud winds, or
Kill the still-closing waters. You three
From Milan did supplant good Prospero; Exposed unto the sea,
Him and his innocent child.

(to Alonso]

Thee of thy son, Alonso,
They have bereft; and do pronounce by me: Lingering perdition. 

Prospero 

Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou Perform’d, my Ariel. My high charms work And these mine enemies now are in my power. 

Alonso 

O, it is monstrous, monstrous. 

Gonzalo 

All three of them are desperate: their great guilt, Like poison now ’gins to bite the spirits. 

Scene VII (Act 4, Scene 1]
Before Prospero’s cell.

Narrator 

Prospero gives his daughter’s hand to Ferdinand and the couple are married. He suddenly remembers
the threat posed by Caliban and company and drives them out with spirits disguised as dogs. Rule number two: Never mess with a magician. 

Prospero 

Take my daughter. 

Ferdinand 

I hope for quiet days, fair issue and long life. 

Prospero 

What, Ariel! My industrious servant, Ariel! 

Ariel 

Here I am. 

Prospero 

I must use you in such another trick. Go bring the rabble, O’er whom I give thee power, here to this place. 

Ariel 

Before you can say ‘come’ and ‘go,’ Each one, tripping on his toe, Will be here with mop and mow. Do you love me, master? No? 

Prospero 

Dearly my delicate Ariel. 

[aside, suddenly very angry]

I had forgot that foul conspiracy Of the beast Caliban and his confederates Against my life: the minute of their plot Is almost come. 

Ferdinand 

This is strange: your father’s in some passion That works him strongly. 

Miranda 

Never till this day
Saw I him touch’d with anger so distemper’d. 

 

 

Prospero 

My brain is troubled. 

Ferdinand 

We wish your peace. 

Prospero 

Ariel: come. 

Ariel 

What’s thy pleasure? 

Prospero 

Spirit,
We must prepare to meet with Caliban. Where didst thou leave these varlets? 

Ariel 

I left them i’ the filthy-mantled pool beyond your cell. 

Prospero 

This was well done, my bird.
Thy shape invisible retain thou still. 

Ariel 

I go, I go. 

Prospero 

I will plague them all, even to roaring. 

Caliban

Pray you, tread softly.

 Trinculo

Monster, I do smell all horse-piss;
at which my nose is in great indignation. 

Stephano 

So is mine. 

Caliban 

Be patient, my king, be quiet.
This is the mouth o’ the cell:
Do that good mischief which may make this island Thine own for ever, and I, thy Caliban,
Thy foot-licker. 

Prospero [gesturing towards dogs]

Hey, Mountain, hey! 

Ariel 

Silver I there it goes, Silver! 

Prospero 

Fury, fury! There, there! Hark! Hark! 

Ariel

Hark, they roar! 

Prospero 

Let them be hunted soundly. At this hour Lie at my mercy all mine enemies: Follow, and do me service. 

Scene  VIII [Act V, Scene 1]
Before Prospero’s cell.

Narrator 

Prospero releases Alonso and his party from their charmed state and renounces the further use of
his magic. Prospero’s dukedom is restored, all is forgiven, and family members are reunited. Almost everyone is well on the way to being free! This must be a Shakespearean comedy! 

Prospero 

Now does my project gather to a head: My charms crack not; my spirits obey. How fares the king and his followers? 

Ariel 

Just as you left them; all prisoners, sir,
Gonzalo’s tears run down his beard, like winter’s drops From eaves of reeds. 

Prospero 

I am struck to the quick, The rarer action is In virtue than in vengeance: Go release them, Ariel:
My charms I’ll break. 

Ariel

I’ll fetch them, sir. 

Prospero 

I have bedimm’d
The noontide sun, call’d forth the mutinous winds, And ’twixt the green sea and the azured vault
Set roaring war: but this rough magic
I here abjure, I’ll break my staff,
I’ll drown my book. There stand,
For you are spell-stopp’d.
Most cruelly didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter:
Thy brother was a furtherer in the act, Would here have kill’d your king; Quickly, spirit; thou shalt ere long be free. 

Ariel  [singing]
Merrily, merrily shall I live now Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. 

Prospero 

My dainty Ariel! To the king’s ship,
There shalt thou find the master and the boatswain. Enforce them to this place, presently. 

Ariel 

I drink the air before me, and return

Prospero [to Alonso]

 Behold, sir king, The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero. 

Alonso 

Thy pulse
Beats as of flesh and blood; and, since I saw thee, The affliction of my mind amends,
Thy dukedom I resign and do entreat
Thou pardon me my wrongs.

Prospero [aside to Sebastian and Antonio]
But you, my brace of lords, were I so minded, I here could justify you traitors. 

Sebastian [aside]
The devil speaks in him. 

Prospero [to Antonio]
No. For you, most wicked sir, I do forgive Thy rankest fault. 

Alonso

I have lost my dear son Ferdinand. 

Prospero 

I have lost my daughter.
I will requite you with as good a thing. 

[Enter Ferdinand and Miranda. Alonso  is astonished and joyful to see his son alive] 

Alonso 

If this prove
A vision of the Island, one dear son Shall I twice lose. 

Sebastian 

A most high miracle! 

Ferdinand [to Alonso]

Though the seas threaten, they are merciful; I have cursed them without cause. 

Miranda 

O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in’t! 

Prospero 

’Tis new to thee. 

Alonso 

Is she the goddess that hath sever’d us, And brought us thus together? 

Ferdinand 

Sir, she is mortal;
But by immortal Providence she’s mine:
She is daughter to this famous Duke of Milan, And second father this lady makes him to me. 

Alonso

I am hers:
I must ask my child forgiveness!
Give me your hands. 

Gonsalo

Be it so! Amen! [to Boatswain] What is the news? 

Boatswain 

We have safely found
Our king and company. Our ship—
Which we gave out split—
Is tight and yare and bravely rigg’d as when We first put out to sea. 

Prospero [aside to Ariel]

My tricksy spirit! Thou shalt be free.
Set Caliban and his companions free; Untie the spell. 

Prospero [to Alonso]
How fares my gracious sir? There are yet missing of your company. 

Sebastian 

Ha, ha!
What things are these, my lord Antonio? Will money buy ’em? 

Antonio 

One of them
Is a plain fish, and, no doubt, marketable. 

Prospero 

This misshapen demi-devil
had plotted with them to take my life. 

Caliban 

I shall be pinch’d to death. 

Alonso 

Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler? And Trinculo is reeling ripe:
How camest thou in this pickle? 

Trinculo 

I have been in such a pickle since I saw you last. 

Sebastian 

How now, Stephano! 

stephano 

I am not Stephano, but a cramp. 

Prospero [to Caliban]

 Go, sirrah, to my cell. 

Caliban 

Ay, that I will; what a thrice-double ass Was I, to take this drunkard for a god And worship this dull fool! 

Prospero 

Your highness; in the morn
I’ll bring you to your ship;
And thence retire me to my Milan, where Every third thought shall be my grave. 

Alonso 

I long
To hear the story of your life, which must Take the ear strangely. 

Prospero 

I’ll deliver all;
And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales. (aside to Ariel) My Ariel, chick,
To the elements be free, and fare thou well! 

Prospero 

Now my charms are all o’erthrown, And what strength I have’s mine own, But release me from my bands With the help of your good hands:
As you from crimes would pardon’d be, Let your indulgence set me free. Our revels now are ended. These our actors, Were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. 

All hold hands and take a bow!

 

Curtain!

Standing ovation!

Hey all!

Here is the script for Let's Make a Scene: The Taming of the Shrew!

I will attach it as a Word doc and a text doc,

and also paste it below.

You can read the script printed out or on a tablet while we do the Zoom reading!

(Here is the Zoom link for the Let's Make a Scene: Thursday July 28 7 PM EST)

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82970638505?pwd=aUpuMmFkcjJiY1ZXMHEwZC9xK25kZz09

Look at the small download links underneath to download Text or Word copy)

*****

By the way, here is your FREE PDF of the full 30-Minute version (with lots of fun and silly stage directions)

Your 

reward! (To download: look below the PDF for the tiny blue-lettered download link)

Hey all!

Here is the Script for Let's Make a Scene

A Midsummer Night's Dream: The 30-Minute Shakespeare.

Our event is on Zoom Thursday June 30th 2022 at 7 PM.

(Here is the Zoom link):

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83988197043?pwd=Y9k8bk1-hReV-sLQShcljQXq8ziPnf.1

And here is the script, which you can print or read on a tablet or whatever!

Here it is as Text format:

***

And here it is pasted:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The 30-Minute Shakespeare

 Let’s Make a Scene!  Thursday June 30^th, 2022 7 PM Easetern

Characters in the Play 

The following is a list of characters that appear in this cutting. For the full breakdown of characters, see Sample Program. 

Theseus: Duke of Athens, father to Hermia

Hippolyta: Queen of the Amazons
Egeus: Father to Hermia
Philostrate: Master of the Revels to Theseus 

Lysander:/ Demetrius/Hermia/Helena: Four lovers

Oberon: King of the Fairies
Titania: Queen of the Fairies
Robin Goodfellow (Puck): A hobgoblin in Oberon’s service

 Peasblossom/Cobweb/Mustardseed: Fairies attending upon Titania                     
Nick Bottom The weaver/Pyramus
Peter Quince The carpenter/Prologue 

Tom Snout The Tinker/Wall
Snug The Joiner/Lion
Robin Starveling The Tailor/Moon

SCENE 1 (ACT III, SCENE II).

NARRATOR  

In the woods outside of Athens, Oberon, the king of the fairies, and Puck, a hobgoblin in Oberon’s service are wreaking havoc on the love lives of our characters by anointing their eyes with love juice, sometimes with unexpected consequences!

OBERON
I wonder if Titania be awaked;
Then, what it was that next came in her eye,
Which she must dote on in extremity.-
Here comes my messenger.
            [Enter PUCK] 
How now, mad spirit!
What night-rule now about this haunted grove?

 

PUCK

My mistress with a monster is in love. 
A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,
Were met together to rehearse a play,
The shallowest thickskin of that barren sort,
An ass’s nole I fixed on his head:
So, at his sight, away his fellows fly;
When in that moment,—so it came to pass,—
Titania waked, and straightway loved an ass.

 

OBERON

This falls out better than I could devise.
But hast thou yet latch’d the Athenian’s eyes
With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?

 

PUCK
I took him sleeping,—that is finish’d too,—
And the Athenian woman by his side;
That, when he waked, of force she must be eyed.

 

OBERON

Stand close: this is the same Athenian. 

.

PUCK

This is the woman, but not this the man.

 

DEMETRIUS
O, why rebuke you him that loves you so?

 

HERMIA
For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse.
If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,
See me no more, whether he be dead or no.

 

DEMETRIUS
There is no following her in this fierce vein:
Here therefore for a while I will remain.
            

OBERON
What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite,
And laid the love-juice on some true-love’s sight:
About the wood go swifter than the wind,
And Helena of Athens look thou find:
By some illusion see thou bring her here:
I’ll charm his eyes against she do appear.

 

PUCK
I go, I go; look how I go,
Swifter than arrow from the Tartar’s bow.

 

OBERON Flower of this purple dye,
Hit with Cupid’s archery,

            Sink in apple of his eye!
When his love he doth espy,
Let her shine as gloriously
As the Venus of the sky. 

 

PUCK 
Captain of our fairy band,
Helena is here at hand;
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover’s fee.
Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!

 

LYSANDER
Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?
Scorn and derision never come in tears:
Look, when I vow, I weep.

 

HELENA 
You do advance your cunning more and more.
When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray!
These vows are Hermia’s: will you give her o’er?

 

LYSANDER
I had no judgment when to her I swore.
Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.

 

DEMETRIUS 
O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!
Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!
O, let me kiss
This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss! 
            

HELENA

O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent
To set against me for your merriment:
You both are rivals, and love Hermia;
And now both rivals, to mock Helena. 
            

LYSANDER
You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so;
For you love Hermia;- this you know I know:

 

DEMETRIUS
Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none:
If e’er I lov’d her, all that love is gone.

 

DEMETRIUS (to Lysander)
Look, where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear.

 

Enter HERMIA

 

HERMIA
Lysander, found; 
Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound.
But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?

 

LYSANDER 
Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go?

 

HERMIA 
What love could press Lysander from my side?

 

LYSANDER 
Lysander’s love, that would not let him bide,- 
Fair Helena; who more engilds the night
Than all yon fiery O’s and eyes of light.
(to Hermia) Why seek’st thou me? could not this make thee know,
The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so?

 

HERMIA 
You speak not as you think: it cannot be.

 

HELENA, 
Lo, she is one of this confederacy!
Now I perceive they have conjoin’d all three
To fashion this false sport in spite of me.
Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid!
Have you conspired, have you with these contrived
To bait me with this foul derision?

 

HERMIA 

I am amazed at your passionate words.
I scorn you not: it seems that you scorn me.

 

HELENA
Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn,
To follow me, and praise my eyes and face?
And made your other love, Demetrius—
Who even but now did spurn me with his foot—
To call me goddess, nymph, divine, and rare.

 

LYSANDER
Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse:
My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena!

 

HELENA
O excellent!

 

HERMIA 
Sweet, do not scorn her so.

 

LYSANDER 
Helen, I love thee; by my life, I do. 

 

DEMETRIUS 
I say I love thee more than he can do.

 

LYSANDER 
If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.   

.

DEMETRIUS
Quick, come!

 

HERMIA
Lysander, whereto tends all this? 

 

LYSANDER (to Hermia)
Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! vile thing, let loose,
Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent! 

 

HERMIA
Am not I Hermia? are not you Lysander?
I am as fair now as I was erewhile.
Since night you loved me; yet since night you left me:

 

LYSANDER
Ay, by my life;
And never did desire to see thee more.
Be certain, nothing truer; ‘tis no jest
That I do hate thee, and love Helena.

 

HERMIA [to Helena]
O me!— you juggler! you canker-blossom!
You thief of love! what, have you come by night
And stol’n my love’s heart from him?

 

HELENA 
Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet, you!

 

HERMIA
Puppet! why, so; ay, that way goes the game.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures; she hath urged her height;
And are you grown so high in his esteem,
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? Speak;
How low am I? I am not yet so low
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes. 

 

HELENA I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen,
Let her not hurt me: 
You perhaps may think,
Because she is something lower than myself,
That I can match her.

 

HERMIA
Lower! hark, again.

 

HELENA
O, when she’s angry, she is keen and shrewd!
And though she be but little, she is fierce.

HERMIA

Little again! Let me come to her. 
            

LYSANDER

Get you gone, you dwarf;
You minimus, of hind’ring knot-grass made;
You bead, you acorn.

 

LYSANDER [to Demetrius]
Now follow, if thou darest, to try whose right,
Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.

 

DEMETRIUS
Follow! nay, I’ll go with thee, cheek by jowl

 

HELENA
Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray;
My legs are longer though, to run away. 

 

Exit HELENA

 

HERMIA
I am amazed, and know not what to say.

 

OBERON
This is thy negligence. 

 

PUCK
Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.

 

OBERON
Thou see’st these lovers seek a place to fight:
Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night;
Then crush this herb into Lysander’s eye;
And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.
When they next wake, all this derision
Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision.

.

PUCK 
Up and down, up and down,
I will lead them up and down:
Here comes one.

LYSANDER
Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now.

 

PUCK [imitating Demetrius]
Here, villain; drawn and ready. 
Follow me, then,
To plainer ground.

 

LYSANDER 
When I come where he calls,
then he is gone.Here will I rest me. 

DEMETRIUS  [not seeing Lysander]
Lysander! speak again:
Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?

 

PUCK
Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why comest thou not? 
            

DEMETRIUS
Thou runn’st before me, shifting every place.
Faintness constraineth me
To measure out my length on this cold bed. 
            .

HELENA
O weary night, O long and tedious night,
Sleep, that sometime shuts up sorrow’s eye,
Steal me awhile from mine own company. 
            

PUCK
Yet but three? Come one more;
Two of both kinds makes up four.
Here she comes, curst and sad:-
Cupid is a knavish lad,
Thus to make poor females mad.

 

HERMIA
Never so weary, never so in woe;
I can no further crawl, no further go;
Here will I rest me till the break of day.
            

PUCK
On the ground
Sleep sound:
I’ll apply
To your eye,
Gentle lover, remedy

When thou wakest,
Thou takest
True delight
In the sight
Of thy former lady’s eye

 

SCENE 2 (ACT IV, SCENE I)

 

NARRATOR 
Through magical fairie mischief, Bottom the Weaver has been transformed into an ass, and Titania, Queen of the fairies has fallen in love with him. We are still in the woods . . .

 

TITANIA
Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed, 
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,
And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.

 

BOTTOM
Where’s Peas-blossom?

 

PEAS-BLOSSOM
Ready.

 

BOTTOM
Scratch my head, Peas-blossom.
Where’s Monsieur Cobweb?

 

COBWEB
Ready.

 

BOTTOM
Monsieur Cobweb, good monsieur, get your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipp’d humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good monsieur, bring me the honey-bag.

Where’s Monsieur Mustard-Seed?

 

MUSTARD-SEED
What’s your will?

 

BOTTOM
Nothing, good monsieur, but to help Cavalery Peas-blossom to scratch.

I must to the barber’s, monsieur; for methinks I am
marvelous hairy about the face; and I am such a
tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch.

 

TITANIA
What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love?

 

BOTTOM
I have a reasonable good ear in music: let’s have the tongs and bones. 

 I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.

 

TITANIA
Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.-
Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.
O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee! 

 

OBERON

Welcome, good Robin. See’st thou this sweet sight?
Her dotage now I do begin to pity: I will undo
This hateful imperfection of her eyes:
And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp
From off the head of this Athenian swain;
That he, awaking when the other do,
May all to Athens back again repair,
And think no more of this night’s accidents,
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
But first I will release the fairy queen.
Be as thou wast wont to be

See as thou wast wont to see:
Now, my Titania: wake you, my sweet queen.

 

TITANIA 
My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamour’d of an ass.

 

OBERON 
There lies your love.

 

TITANIA 
How came these things to pass?)
O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now! 
            

OBERON
Silence awhile.—Robin, take off this head.—
Titania, music call; and strike more dead
Than common sleep of all these five the sense.

 

TITANIA
Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep. 

 

PUCK
Now, when thou wakest, with thine own fool’s eyes peep. 
            

TITANIA
Come, my lord; and in our flight,
Tell me how it came this night
That I sleeping here was found
With these mortals on the ground.

 

THESEUS
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain’s top,
But, soft! what nymphs are these? 
            

EGEUS
My lord, this is my daughter here asleep
And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is;
This Helena, I wonder of their being here together.

 

THESEUS 
Wake them.

 

LYSANDER
Pardon, my lord. 
            

THESEUS
I pray you all, stand up.
I know you two are rival enemies: 
How comes this gentle concord in the world,
That hatred is so far from jealousy,
To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?

 

LYSANDER
My lord, 
I cannot truly say how I came here;
I came with Hermia hither 

EGEUS
I beg the law, the law, upon his head.

 

DEMETRIUS
But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,—
But by some power it is,—my love to Hermia,
Melted as the snow,
And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,
The object, and the pleasure of mine eye,
Is only Helena. 
            

THESEUS
Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
Egeus, I will overbear your will;
For in the temple, by and by, with us
These couples shall eternally be knit:
Away with us to Athens! three and three,
We’ll hold a feast in great solemnity.
Come, Hippolyta.

 

DEMETRIUS

Are you sure
That we are awake? It seems to me
That yet we sleep, we dream.- 
Let’s follow him;
And, by the way, let us recount our dreams.

 

BOTTOM [awaking]
I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream,—past the wit of man to say what dream it was: man is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was (and methought I had) but man is but a patch’d fool, if he will offer to say what methought I had. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream: it shall be called Bottom’s Dream, because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the latter end of a play before the duke:

 

SCENE 3 (ACT V, SCENE I)

.

NARRATOR 
To complete our festive comedy, Bottom and the
“rude mechanicals” perform the merry and tragical play of Pyramus and Thisbe for Theseus and Hippolyta and our newly married lovers. The fairies bless the three marriages and all is well. But still we wonder, has this all been a dream?

 

THESEUS
Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.
Come now; what masks, what dances shall we have,
What revels are in hand? Call Philostrate.

 

PHILOSTRATE 
Here, mighty Theseus.

 

THESEUS
Say, what abridgement have you for this evening?
What mask? what music?

 

PHILOSTRATE
Make choice of which your highness will see first.
            

THESEUS [reading]
“The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung
By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.”
We’ll none of that: 
[reading]“The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,”
That is an old device; 
[reading]“A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.”
Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!
That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.
How shall we find the concord of this discord?

 

PHILOSTRATE
A play there is, my lord, some ten words long,
But by ten words, my lord, it is too long,
There is not one word apt, one player fitted:

 

THESEUS
What are they that do play it?

 

PHILOSTRATE
Hard-handed men, that work in Athens here,
Which never labour’d in their minds till now;

 

THESEUS
And we will hear it.

 

PHILOSTRATE
No, my noble lord;
It is not for you: I have heard it over,
And it is nothing, nothing in the world;

 

THESEUS
I will hear that play;
For never any thing can be amiss,
When simpleness and duty tender it.
Go, bring them in:-and take your places, ladies.

 

PHILOSTRATE
So please your grace, the Prologue is address’d.

 

THESEUS
Let him approach. 

.

PROLOGUE
If we offend, it is with our good will.
That is the true beginning of our end.
The actors are at hand; and, by their show,
You shall know all that you are like to know.
            

THESEUS
This fellow doth not stand upon points.

 

LYSANDER
He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt;

 

HIPPOLYTA
Indeed he hath play’d on his prologue like a child 
on a recorder.

 

THESEUS
Who is next?

 

PROLOGUE
Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show;
But wonder on, till truth make all things plain.

 

WALL 
In 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 Thisbe,
Did whisper often very secretly.

 

THESEUS
Pyramus draws near the wall: silence!

 

PYRAMUS
O grim-look’d night! O night with hue so black!
O night, which ever art when day is not!
I fear my Thisbe’s promise is forgot!—
And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,
That stand’st between her father’s ground and mine!
Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne!.
Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this!
But what see I? No Thisbe do I see.
O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss!
            

THISBE
O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans,
My cherry lips have often kiss’d thy stones. 

 

PYRAMUS
I see a voice: now will I to the chink,
To spy an I can hear my Thisbe’s face.—
Thisbe!

 

THISBE
My love! thou art my love, I think.

 

PYRAMUS
O, kiss me through the hole of this vile wall!

 

THISBE
I kiss the wall’s hole, not your lips at all. 

 

PYRAMUS
Wilt thou at Ninny’s tomb meet me straightway?

 

QUINCE, Ninus’ Tomb!

 

THISBE
‘Tide life, ‘tide death, I come without delay.

 

WALL
Thus have I, wall, my part discharged so;
And, being done, thus wall away doth go.

 

HIPPOLYTA
This is the silliest stuff that e’er I heard.

 

THESEUS
Here come two noble beasts in, a moon and a lion.

.

LION
You, ladies may now perchance both quake 
and tremble here,
When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.
Then know that I one 
Snug the joiner am,

 

THESEUS
A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience.
Let us listen to the moon.

 

MOONSHINE 
This lantern doth the horned moon present;
Myself the man-i’-th’-moon do seem to be.

 

HIPPOLYTA 
I am aweary of this moon. Would he would change.

 

LYSANDER
Proceed, moon.

 

MOONSHINE
All that I have to say is, to tell you that the lantern 
is the moon; I, the man-i’-th’-moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.

 

DEMETRIUS
Here comes Thisbe.

 

THISBE
This is old Ninny’s tomb. 

 

QUINCE, 
Ninus’ tomb, man!

 

THISBE
This is old Ninnies’ tomb!. Where is my love?

 

QUINCE [cries out], “Aarrrgh!” [from backstage]

 

DEMETRIUS
Well roar’d, lion.

 

THESEUS
Well run, Thisbe.

 

HIPPOLYTA
Well shone, moon.

 

THESEUS
Well moused, lion.

 

DEMETRIUS
And then came Pyramus.

 

PYRAMUS
Sweet moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams;
But mark, poor knight,
What dreadful dole is here!
Eyes, do you see?
How can it be?
O dainty duck! O dear!
Thy mantle good,
What, stain’d with blood?
Come, tears, confound;
Out, sword, and wound
The pap of Pyramus,—
Ay, that left pap,
Where heart doth hop: [stabs himself]
Thus die I, thus, thus.

Now am I dead,
Now am I fled;
My soul is in the sky:
Tongue, lose thy light;
Moon, take thy flight:.
Now die, die, die, die, die. (dies)

 

THESEUS
With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover, 
and yet prove an ass.

 

THISBE

Asleep, my love?
What, dead my dove?
O Pyramus, arise!
Speak, speak. Quite dumb?
Dead, dead? A tomb
Must cover thy sweet eyes.
His eyes were green as leeks.
Come, trusty sword;
Come, blade, my breast imbrue [stabs herself]
And, farewell, friends,—
Thus Thisbe ends,-
Adieu, adieu, adieu. [dies]

 

BOTTOM 
Will it please you to see the epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two of our company?

 

THESEUS
No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse.       

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:
Lovers, to bed; ’tis almost fairy-time. 

 

OBERON
Now, until the break of day,
Through this house each fairy stray.
So shall all the couples three
Ever true in loving be; 

PUCK

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,-
That you have but slumber’d here,
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,

PUCK
And Robin shall restore amends!

 

ALL REPEAT

And Robin shall restore amends!

 

[All raise arms holding hands, and bow.]

Hi all!

Here is the script for Let's Make a Scene: Henry IV Part I

for Thursday May 26th, 2022 at 7 PM.

One is in Word, and the other is in Text:

I will paste the script here too:

You can read it on a tablet or print it out, whatever works!

See you then!

Nick

****

Characters in the Play

 

The following is a list of the characters that appear in this cutting of Henry IV, Part 1.

 

Falstaff: Sir John Falstaff, a debauched and witty aristocrat 

Prince Henry: Also called Harry or Hal; oldest son to King Henry IV

Poins: Companion to Falstaff; gentleman-in-waiting to Prince

Gadshill: Companion to Falstaff

Bardolph: Companion to Falstaff

Peto: Companion to Falstaff

Traveler one 

Traveler two 

Hostess: Mistress Quickly, hostess of the Boar’s Head Tavern in Eastcheap Mortimer: Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March; brother to Lady Percy, husband to Lady Mortimer 

Glendower: Owen Glendower, a Welsh rebel; father to Lady Mortimer Hotspur: Henry Percy, nicknamed Hotspur; son to Earl of Northumberland Lady Mortimer: Daughter to Glendower, wife to Mortimer 

Lady Percy: Wife to Hotspur, sister to Mortimer 

King Henry IV: Father to Prince Henry; formerly Henry of Bollingbroke Earl of Douglas: Archibald, Earl of Douglas; a Scottish noble 

Lancaster: Prince John of Lancaster, also called the Duke ofLancaster; third son to King Henry IV

 

From King Henry IV, Part 2 (final scene in this cutting):

Pistol: An irregular humorist; Falstaff’s henchman 

Shallow: Robert Shallow, a country justice of the peace 

King Henry V: Formerly Prince Henry; newly crowned king 

Lord Chief-Justice: Attendant to King Henry V; nemesis of Falstaff

Attendant

Narrator 

 

Act I Scene II

 

Eastcheap. The Boar’s-Head Tavern.

 

Narrator

 

Young Prince Henry—called “Harry” or “Hal” by his friends—carouses in the tavern in Eastcheap with the fat knight Jack Falstaff and other friends, including Poins, Hal’s gentleman-in-waiting. Hal and Poins devise a plan to rob Falstaff and company of their stolen money, just for fun and mockery.

 

Falstaff

 

Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?

 

Prince Henry 

 

Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know. What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the day; unless hours were cups of sack and minutes capons?

 

Falstaff

 

Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us that are squires of the night’s body be called thieves of the day’s beauty: let us be Diana’s foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon.

 

Prince Henry 

 

Thou sayest well, and it holds well too; for the fortune of us that are the moon’s men doth ebb and flow like the sea, being governed, as the sea is, by the moon.

 

Falstaff 

 

Thou hast the most unsavory similes and art indeed the most comparative, rascalliest, sweet young prince, and art indeed able to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon me, Hal; God forgive thee for it!

 

Prince Henry

 

Where shall we take a purse tomorrow, Jack?

 

Falstaff

 

’Zounds, where thou wilt, lad. Poins! 

 

Prince Henry

 

Good morrow, Ned!

 

Poins

 

Good morrow, sweet Hal. What says Monsieur Remorse?

What says Sir John Sack and Sugar?

My lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by four o’clock, early at Gadshill! There are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat purses: If you will go, I will stuff your purses full of crowns; if you will not, tarry at home and be hanged. [to Falstaff] Sir John, I prithee, leave the prince and me alone: I will lay him down such reasons for this adventure that he shall go.

 

Falstaff 

 

Farewell; you shall find me in Eastcheap.

 

Prince Henry

 

Farewell, thou latter spring! Farewell, All-hallown summer!

 

Poins

 

Now, my good sweet honey lord, ride with us tomorrow: I have a jest to execute that I cannot manage alone. Falstaff, Bardolph, Peto, and Gadshill shall rob those men that we have already waylaid: yourself and I will not be there; and when they have the booty, if you and I do not rob them, cut this  head off from my shoulders. I know them to be as true-bred cowards as ever turned back; the virtue of this jest will be, the incomprehensible lies that this same fat rogue will tell us when we meet at supper: how thirty, at least, he fought with; and in the reproof of this lies the jest.

 

Prince Henry

 

Well, I’ll go with thee.

 

Poins

 

Farewell, my lord.

 

Prince Henry

 

Herein will I imitate the sun, Who doth permit the base contagious clouds To smother up his beauty from the world, That, when he please again to be himself, Being wanted, he may be more wonder’d at, So, when this loose behavior I throw off 

And pay the debt I never promised, By how much better than my word I am, By so much shall I falsify men’s hopes; And like bright metal on a sullen ground, My reformation, glittering o’er my fault, Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes Than that which hath no foil to set it off.

I’ll so offend, to make offense a skill; Redeeming time when men think least I will.

 

Act II, Scene II

 

The highway, near Gadshill.

 

Narrator

 

Falstaff and his band of rogues rob the travelers, but their plan backfires.

 

Poins

 

Come, shelter, shelter: I have removed Falstaff’s horse, and he frets like a gummed velvet.

 

Prince Henry

 

Stand close.

 

Falstaff

 

Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!

 

Prince Henry 

 

Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal! What a brawling dost thou keep! 

 

Falstaff

 

Where’s Poins, Hal? The rascal hath removed my horse, and tied him I know not where. A plague upon it when thieves cannot be true one to another! Give me my horse, you rogues.

 

Gadshill

 

Stand.

 

Falstaff

 

So I do, against my will.

 

Bardolph

 

There’s money of the king’s coming down the hill.

 

Prince Henry

 

Sirs, you four shall front them in the narrow lane; Ned Poins and I will walk lower: if they ’scape from your encounter, then they light on us.

 

Peto

 

How many be there of them?

 

Gadshill

 

Some eight or ten

 

Falstaff

 

’Zounds, will they not rob us?

 

Prince Henry

 

What, a coward, Sir John Paunch?

 

Falstaff

 

Indeed, I am not John of Gaunt, your grandfather; but yet no coward, Hal.

 

Prince Henry [whispering to Poins]

 

Ned, where are our disguises?

 

Poins

 

Here, hard by: stand close.

 

Falstaff

 

Now, every man to his business.

 

Traveler one

 

Come, neighbor: the boy shall lead our horses down the hill; we’ll walk afoot awhile, and ease our legs.

 

Falstaff

 

Stand!

 

Traveler two

 

Jesus bless us!

 

Falstaff

 

Strike; down with them; bacon-fed knaves! Fleece them. 

 

Traveler two

 

O, we are undone, both we and ours for ever!

 

Falstaff

 

Ye fat chuffs: on, bacons, on!

 

Prince Henry

 

The thieves have bound the true men. Now could thou and I rob the thieves and go merrily to London, it would be argument for a week, laughter for a month and a good jest for ever.

 

Poins

 

Stand close; I hear them coming.

Falstaff

 

Come, my masters, let us share.

 

Prince Henry

 

Your money!

 

Poins

 

Villains! 

 

Prince Henry

 

Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse: Falstaff lards the lean earth as he walks along: Were’t not for laughing, I should pity him.

 

Poins

 

How the rogue roar’d!

 

 Act II, Scene IV

 

Eastcheap. The Boar’s-Head Tavern.

 

Narrator

 

Prince Henry

 

Falstaff and the rest of the thieves are at the door: shall we be merry?

 

Poins

 

As merry as crickets, my lad.

 

Falstaff

 

A plague of all cowards! There be four of us here have ta’en a thousand pound this day morning.

 

Prince Henry

 

Where is it, Jack? Where is it? 

 

Falstaff

 

Where is it! Taken from us it is: a hundred upon poor four of us. I have ’scaped by miracle.

I am eight times thrust through the doublet, four through the hose; my sword hacked like a handsaw—ecce signum! A plague of all cowards!

 

Prince Henry

 

Why, thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool. We two saw you four set on four and bound them, and were masters of their wealth. Then did we two set on you four; and, with a word, out-faced you from your prize, and have it; and, Falstaff, you carried your guts away with quick dexterity, and roared for mercy. What device canst thou now find out to hide thee from this shame? 

 

Poins

 

Come, let’s hear, Jack; what trick hast thou now?

 

Falstaff 

 

Why, hear you, my masters: was it for me to kill the true prince? I am as valiant as Hercules, but beware instinct. I was now a coward on instinct. I am glad you have the money.

 

Prince Henry [to Falstaff]

 

You fought fair; so did you, Peto; so did you, Bardolph:

You are lions too, you ran away upon instinct, you will not touch the true prince.

 

Bardolph

 

’Faith, I ran when I saw others run. [burps]

 

Falstaff

 

Tell me, Hal, art thou not horribly afraid?

 

Prince Henry

 

Not a whit, i’ faith; I lack some of thy instinct.

 

Falstaff

 

Well, thou wert be horribly chid tomorrow when thou comest to thy father: if thou love me, practice an answer.

 

Prince Henry 

 

Do thou stand for my father, and

examine me upon the particulars of my life. 

 

Falstaff

 

Shall I? Content: this chair shall be my state, this dagger my scepter, and this cushion my crown. Here is my speech. Stand aside, nobility.

 

Hostess

 

O Jesu, this is excellent sport, i’ faith! O, the father, how he holds his countenance! He doth it as like one of these harlotry players as ever I see!

 

Falstaff 

 

Peace, good pint-pot; peace, good tickle-brain.

Harry, I do not only marvel where thou spendest thy time, but also the company thou keepest:

and yet there is a virtuous man whom I have often noted in thy company, but I know not his name.

 

Prince Henry

 

What manner of man, your majesty?

 

Falstaff 

 

A goodly portly man, i’ faith, and of a cheerful look, and, as I think, his age some fifty, or, by’r lady, inclining to three score; His name is Falstaff: Harry, I see virtue in his looks. Falstaff: him keep with, the rest banish.

prince Henry

 

Do thou stand for me, and I’ll play my father.

 

Falstaff

 

Depose me?

 

Prince Henry

 

Well, here I am set.

 

Falstaff

 

And here I stand: judge, my masters.

 

Prince Henry

 

Now, Harry, whence come you?

 

Falstaff (

 

My noble lord, from Eastcheap.

 

Prince Henry

 

The complaints I hear of thee are grievous.

 

Falstaff

 

’Sblood, my lord, they are false.

 

Prince Henry

 

Swearest thou, ungracious boy? Thou art violently carried away from grace: there is a devil haunts thee in the likeness of an old fat man.

Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humors, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that stuffed cloakbag of guts, with the pudding in his belly. Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and drink it? Wherein villanous, but in all things?Wherein worthy, but in nothing?

 

Falstaff

 

Whom means your grace?

 

Prince Henry

 

That villanous abominable misleader of youth, Falstaff, that old white-bearded Satan.

 

Falstaff 

 

My lord, the man I know.

 

Prince Henry

 

I know thou dost.

 

Falstaff

 

If to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is damned: No, my good lord; banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins: but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff, banish not Henry him thy Harry’s company, banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.

 

Prince Henry

 

I do, I will.

 

Act III, Scene I

 

The Archdeacon’s house.

 

Narrator

 

Hot-headed Harry Percy—known as Hotspurtangles with the Welsh Lord Glendower as they plan to divide up the kingdom they intend to conquer.

 

Mortimer

 

These promises are fair, the parties sure, And our induction full of prosperous hope.

 

Hotspur

 

Lord Mortimer, and cousin Glendower, Will you sit down?

A plague upon it! I have forgot the map.

 

Glendower

 

No, here it is. Sit, cousin Percy; sit, good cousin Hotspur, At my birth the frame and huge foundation of the earth Shaked like a coward. 

 

Hotspur

 

O, then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire, And not in fear of your nativity.

 

Mortimer

 

Peace, cousin Percy; you will make him mad.

 

Glendower

 

Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head Against my power; thrice have I sent him Bootless home and weather-beaten back.

 

Hotspur

 

Home without boots, and in foul weather too!

 

Glendower

 

Come, here’s the map: shall we divide our right According to our threefold order ta’en?

 

Mortimer

 

The archdeacon hath divided it Into three limits very equally:

 

Hotspur 

 

Methinks my moiety, north from Burton here, In quantity equals not one of yours:

 

See how this river cuts me from the best of all my land.

 

It shall not wind with such a deep indent, To rob me of so rich a bottom here. 

 

Glendower

 

Not wind? It shall, it must; you see it doth.

 

Hotspur 

 

Who shall say me nay?

 

Glendower

 

Why, that will I.

Come, you shall have Trent turn’d.

 

Hotspur.

 

Are the indentures drawn? Shall we be gone?

 

Glendower

 

The moon shines fair; you may away by night.

 

Mortimer

 

Fie, cousin Percy! How you cross my father!

 

Hotspur

 

I cannot choose: sometime he angers me. O, he is as tedious as a railing wife.

 

Mortimer

 

In faith, my lord, you are too wilful-blame.

 

Hotspur

 

Well, I am school’d: Here come our wives, and let us take our leave.

Hotspur

 

Come, Kate, thou art perfect in lying down:

come, quick, quick, that I may lay my head in thy lap.

 

Lady percy

 

Go, ye giddy goose.

 

Hotspur

 

Now I perceive the devil is a good musician.

 

Lady Percy

 

Then should you be nothing but musical for you are altogether governed by humors. Lie still, ye thief, Now God help thee!

 

Hotspur

 

To the Welsh lady’s bed.

 

Lady Percy

 

What’s that? 

 

Hotspur

 

Peace. Come, Kate, I’ll have your song too.

 

Lady Percy

 

Not mine, in good sooth.

 

Glendower

 

Come, come, Lord Mortimer; you are as slow As hot Lord Percy is on fire to go.

 

Act III, Scene II

 

London. The palace.

Narrator

 

Prince Hal reconciles with his father, King Henry IV, by swearing to fight the rebels and to defeat Hotspur.

 

King Henry IV

 

I know not whether God will have it so, For some displeasing service I have done, But thou dost in thy passages of life Make me believe that thou art only mark’d For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven To punish my mistreadings. Tell me else, Could such inordinate and low desires, Such barren pleasures, rude society, As thou art match’d withal and grafted to, Accompany the greatness of thy blood And hold their level with thy princely heart?

 

Prince Henry

 

So please your majesty Find pardon on my true submission. [kneels]

 

King Henry IV

 

God pardon thee! Yet let me wonder, Harry, At thy affections, which do hold a wing Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.

The hope and expectation of thy time Is ruin’d. Harry, thou has lost thy princely privilege With vile participation: not an eye But is a-weary of thy common sight, Save mine, which hath desired to see thee more.

 

Prince Henry 

 

I shall hereafter be more myself.

 

King Henry IV

 

For all the world Percy now leads ancient lords and reverend bishops on To bloody battles and to bruising arms.

Thrice hath this Hotspur, Mars in swathling clothes, Discomfited great Douglas, ta’en him once, And what say you to this? Percy, Northumberland, The Archbishop’s grace of York, Douglas, Mortimer, Capitulate against us and are up.

 

Prince Henry 

 

I will redeem all this on Percy’s head And in the closing of some glorious day Be bold to tell you that I am your son; For the time will come, That I shall make this northern youth exchange His glorious deeds for my indignities. This, in the name of God, I promise here:

And I will die a hundred thousand deaths Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow. 

 

King Henry IV

 

A hundred thousand rebels die in this:

Thou shalt have charge and sovereign trust herein.

 

Act V, Scene IV

 

A field between the camps.

 

Enter Narrator from stage right, coming downstage center.

 

Narrator

 

We are on the battlefield. True colors are revealed, with Hal showing bravery and loyalty, and Falstaff showing that he is, well, still a coward and a liar. (But, somehow, a loveable one!)

 

Eaerl of Douglas

 

Another king! They grow like Hydra’s heads:

I am the Douglas, fatal to all those That wear those colors on them: what art thou, That counterfeit’st the person of a king?

 

King Henry IV

 

The king himself; I will assay thee: so, defend thyself.

 

Earl of Douglas

 

I fear thou art another counterfeit; And yet, in faith, thou bear’st thee like a king: But mine I am sure thou art, whoe’er thou be, And thus I win thee. 

 

Prince Henry

 

Hold up thy head, vile Scot, it is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee. [Earl of Douglas escapes]

Cheerly, my lord how fares your grace?

 

King Henry IV

 

Stay, and breathe awhile:

 

Thou hast redeem’d thy lost opinion, And show’d thou makest some tender of my life, In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me.

 

Prince Henry

 

O God! They did me too much injury That ever said I hearken’d for your death.

 

Hotspur

 

If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth. My name is Harry Percy. 

 

Prince Henry

 

I am the Prince of Wales.

 

Hotspur

 

The hour is come To end the one of us; I can no longer brook thy vanities.

 

Falstaff

 

Well said, Hal! To it Hal! Nay, you shall find no boy’s play here, I can tell you. [Falstaff falls down, pretends he is dead]

 

Hotspur

 

O, Harry, thou hast robb’d me of my youth! Percy, thou art dust And food for—

 

[Hotspur dies]. 

Prince Henry

 

For worms, brave Percy: fare thee well, great heart!

 

Prince Henry [sees Falstaff on the ground, pretending to be dead.]

 

What, old acquaintance! Could not all this flesh Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell! 

 

[Exit Prince Henry]

 

[Falstaff continues to appear dead; after a few moments, he rises up suddenly.]

 

Falstaff

 

The better part of valor is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life. ’Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead: how, if he should counterfeit too and rise? Therefore, sirrah,

with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me.

 

Lancaster

 

But, soft! Whom have we here?

 

Did you not tell me this fat man was dead?

 

Prince Henry

 

I did; I saw him dead. Art thou alive?

 

Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight?

 

Falstaff

 

No, that’s certain; I am not a double man: but if I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There is Percy. If your father will do me any honor, so; if not, let him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you.

 

Prince Henry

 

Why, Percy I killed myself and saw thee dead.

 

Falstaff

 

Didst thou? Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying! I grant you I was down and out of breath; and so was he: but we rose both at an instant and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. I gave him this wound in the thigh: if the man were alive and would deny it, ’zounds, I would make him eat a piece of my sword.

 

Lancaster

 

This is the strangest tale that ever I heard.

 

Prince Henry

 

This is the strangest fellow, brother John.

 

Falstaff

 

If I do grow great, I’ll grow less; for I’ll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly as a nobleman should do.

 

Act V, Scene i. additional material from Henry IV, Part 2: Act V, Scene V

 

Narrator

 

Time has passed, and Hal is now King Henry V. He rejects Falstaff as part of the former life that he now renounces.

 

Falstaff

 

Stand here by me, Master Robert Shallow; I will make the king do you grace: I will leer upon him as a’ comes by; and do but mark the countenance that he will give me.

 

Pistol

 

God bless thy lungs, good knight.

 

Falstaff

 

Come here, Pistol; stand behind me. This doth show my earnestness of affection. 

 

 

Shallow

 

It doth so.

 

Falstaff

 

My devotion,—

 

Shallow

 

It doth, it doth, it doth.

 

Falstaff

 

As it were, to ride day and night; and not to deliberate, but to stand stained with travel, and sweating with desire to see him; as if there were nothing else to be done but to see him.

 

Pistol

 

There roar’d the sea, and trumpet-clangor sounds.

 

Falstaff

 

God save thy grace, King Hal! My royal Hal!

 

Pistol

 

The heavens thee guard and keep, most royal imp of fame! 

 

Falstaff

 

God save thee, my sweet boy!

 

King Henry V

 

My lord chief-justice, speak to that vain man.

Lord Chief-Justice have you your wits? Know you what ’tis to speak?

 

Falstaff

 

My king! My Jove! I speak to thee, my heart!

 

King Henry V

 

I know thee not, old man: fall to thy prayers.

How ill white hairs become a fool and jester!

I have long dream’d of such a kind of man, So surfeit-swell’d, so old and so profane; But, being awaked, I do despise my dream. Reply not to me with a fool-born jest:

Presume not that I am the thing I was; For God doth know, so shall the world perceive, That I have turn’d away my former self; So will I those that kept me company.

When thou dost hear I am as I have been, Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou wast, The tutor and the feeder of my riots:

Till then, I banish thee, on pain of death, 

Not to come near our person by ten mile. Set on.

 

Falstaff [to Shallow]

 

Master Shallow, do not you grieve at this; I shall be sent for in private to him: look you, he must seem thus to the world: this that you heard was but a color.

 

Shallow

 

A color that I fear you will die in, Sir John.

 

Falstaff

 

Fear no colors: go with me to dinner: come, Lieutenant Pistol; come, Bardolph: I shall be sent for soon at night.

 

Falstaff

 

I would ’twere bed-time, Hal, and all well.

 

[Prince Henry’s voice rings out from offstage, an echo from the past].

 

Why, thou owest God a death.

 

Falstaff

 

’Tis not due yet; I would be loath to pay him before his day. What need I be so forward with him that calls not on me? Well, ’tis no matter; honor pricks me on. Yea, but how if honor prick me off when I come on? How then? Can honor set to a leg?

 

All

 

No.

 

Falstaff

 

Or an arm?

 

All

 

No.

 

Falstaff

 

Or take away the grief of a wound?

 

All

 

No.

 

Falstaff

 

What is honor? A word. What is in that word honor?

 

All

 

Air.

 

Falstaff

 

Who hath it? He that died o’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it?

 

All

 

No.

 

Falstaff

 

’Tis insensible, then. Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living?

 

All

 

No

 

Falstaff

 

Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I’ll none of it.

 

A

 

Honor is a mere scutcheon.

 

Falstaff

 

And so ends my catechism.

 

all hold hands and bow! Standing ovation!