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DEMETRIUS
No remedy, my lord, when walls are so willful to hear without
warning.
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DEMETRIUS
What can you do? That’s what happens with talking
walls.
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THESEUS
The best in this kind are but shadows, and the worst are no worse
if imagination amend them.
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THESEUS
The best plays are still only illusions, and the worst are just as
good, if you just use your imagination to fill them in.
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HIPPOLYTA
It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.
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HIPPOLYTA
In that case it’s your imagination that’s
interesting, not the play.
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THESEUS
205If we imagine no worse of them than they of themselves,
they may pass for excellent men. Here come two noble
beasts in, a man and a lion.
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THESEUS
If we imagine these guys as they imagine themselves, then
they’re first-class actors. Look, here come two noble
animals, a man and a lion.
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LION
(played by
SNUG)
You, ladies, you whose gentle hearts do fear
210The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,
May now perchance both quake and tremble here,
When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.
Then know that I, as Snug the joiner, am
A lion fell, nor else no lion’s dam.
215For if I should as lion come in strife
Into this place, ’twere pity on my life.
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LION
(played by
SNUG) You, ladies, whose gentle
hearts make you afraid of the smallest monstrous mouse that crawls
around on the floor, might quake and tremble now when the wild lion
roars in his most violent rage. You should know that I, Snug the
carpenter, am not a fierce lion or a lioness, because if I were a
lion and I showed up here to cause trouble, I’d be taking
my life in my hands.
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THESEUS
A very gentle beast, of a good conscience.
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THESEUS
Ah, it’s a sensitive animal, with a good
conscience.
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DEMETRIUS
A very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I
saw.
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DEMETRIUS
He’s the best actor I’ve ever seen play a
lion.
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