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THESEUS
200Now is the mural down between the two neighbors.
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THESEUS The lovers should’ve waited around a little
longer—the wall between them is down now.
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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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HIPPOLYTA This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.
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HIPPOLYTA This is the silliest thing I’ve ever seen.
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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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Enter LION and
MOONSHINE
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LION and MOONSHINE
enter.
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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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