A Midsummer Night's Dream — Act 4, Scene 2

original text and modern English, side by side

Athens. A Room in Quince’s House · Quince, Starveling, Flute, Bottom

Back in Athens, Quince, Flute, Snout, Starveling and Snug despair: Bottom has vanished, and without him "Pyramus and Thisbe" cannot be performed for the Duke — costing them all the pension they had hoped for. Then Bottom bursts in, restored and exuberant, refusing to say a word about what happened to him. He tells them their play has been selected and hurries the company off to the palace with last-minute notes about clean linen, uncut nails and no garlic.

Enter Quince, Flute, Snout and Starveling.

Quince

Have you sent to Bottom’s house?

Have you sent someone to Bottom's house?

Is he come home yet?

Is he home yet?

Starveling

He cannot be heard of.

There's no news of him at all.

Out of doubt he is transported.

There's no doubt about it — he's been transported.

Flute

If he come not, then the play is marred.

If he doesn't come, the play is ruined.

It goes not forward, doth it?

It can't go ahead, can it?

Quince

It is not possible.

It's impossible.

You have not a man in all Athens able to discharge

Pyramus but he.

There isn't a man in all of Athens capable of carrying off Pyramus except him.

Flute

No, he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft man in Athens.

No — he simply has the best brain of any working man in Athens.

Quince

Yea, and the best person too, and he is a very paramour for a sweet

voice.

Yes, and the best figure too, and for a sweet voice he's an absolute paramour.

Flute

You must say paragon.

You mean paragon.

A paramour is, God bless us, a thing of naught.

A paramour is — God help us — a shameful thing.

Enter Snug.

Flute

SNUG

Masters, the Duke is coming from the temple, and there is two or three

lords and ladies more married.

SNUG: Gentlemen, the Duke is on his way back from the temple, and two or three more lords and ladies have been married as well.

If our sport had gone forward, we had

all been made men.

If our entertainment had gone ahead, we'd all have been made men.

Flute

O sweet bully Bottom!

Oh, sweet dear Bottom!

Thus hath he lost sixpence a day during his life;

He's lost himself sixpence a day for the rest of his life.

he could not have ’scaped sixpence a day.

He couldn't have missed out on sixpence a day.

An the Duke had not given him

sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I’ll be hanged.

If the Duke hadn't given him sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged.

He would have

deserved it: sixpence a day in Pyramus, or nothing.

And he'd have deserved it: sixpence a day for Pyramus, or nothing at all.

Enter Bottom.

Bottom

Where are these lads?

Where are you, lads?

Where are these hearts?

Where are you, my hearties?

Quince

Bottom!

O most courageous day!

What a magnificent day!

O most happy hour!

What a happy hour!

Bottom

Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask me not what; for if I tell

you, I am not true Athenian.

Gentlemen, I have wonders to tell you — but don't ask me what they are, because if I tell you I'm no true Athenian.

I will tell you everything, right as it

fell out.

I'll tell you everything, exactly as it happened.

Quince

Let us hear, sweet Bottom.

Let's hear it, sweet Bottom.

Bottom

Not a word of me.

Not a word out of me.

All that I will tell you is, that the Duke hath

dined.

All I'll tell you is this: the Duke has finished his dinner.

Get your apparel together, good strings to your beards, new

ribbons to your pumps;

Get your costumes together, make sure your beards have good strings, and put new ribbons on your shoes.

meet presently at the palace;

Meet at the palace immediately.

every man look

o’er his part.

Every man look over his part

For the short and the long is, our play is preferred.

— because the long and the short of it is, our play has been chosen.

any case, let Thisbe have clean linen;

Whatever happens, make sure Thisbe has clean linen,

and let not him that plays the

lion pare his nails, for they shall hang out for the lion’s claws.

and tell whoever plays the lion not to trim his nails, because they have to hang out as the lion's claws.

And

most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlick, for we are to utter sweet

breath;

And, my dear actors, don't eat onions or garlic, because we need to breathe sweetly

and I do not doubt but to hear them say it is a sweet comedy.

— and I've no doubt they'll say it's a sweet comedy.

No more words.

Not another word.

Away! Go, away!

Off we go, off we go!

Exeunt.

A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 4, Scene 2 summary

Who appears in this scene

Quince, Starveling, Flute, Bottom — Athens. A Room in Quince’s House.

Famous lines in A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 4, Scene 2, explained

“He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is transported.” (line 2): Starveling means to say Bottom has been carried off or killed, but "transported" lands as an unwitting joke — Bottom really has been transported, into an ass and back again. It is the same word Quince used in the wood when he cried that Bottom was "translated," and the mechanicals keep stumbling onto accurate descriptions of what they cannot understand. The line is a small masterclass in how Shakespeare gets comedy out of characters who are more right than they know.
“let not him that plays the / lion pare his nails, for they shall hang out for the lion’s claws.” (line 28): Bottom's parting instructions are gloriously practical about the wrong things: the lion's claws will be an actor's fingernails, and the actors must skip garlic so their breath is sweet. The joke is that these men treat a shambolic amateur production with the seriousness of a professional company. It also sets up Act 5, where the audience will laugh at exactly the effects the mechanicals worked hardest on.

Keep reading

About this translation: the original text follows the public-domain Project Gutenberg Globe edition; the modern English translation was written in-house for Polytranslator and is reviewed on an ongoing basis (last revised August 2026). Free to print and photocopy for classroom use. Cite as: “A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 4, Scene 2. Polytranslator side-by-side translation, polytranslator.com/shakespeare/midsummer-nights-dream/act-4-scene-2.”

Studying the language itself? Our Shakespearean English course teaches thou/thee, the verbs, and the meter — free through Unit 2. Or try the Shakespearean English translator.