Page:Midsummer Night's Dream (1918) Yale.djvu/75

Night's Dream, V. i  Athenian. I will tell you everything, right as it fell out.

Quin. Let us hear, sweet Bottom.

Bot. Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that the duke hath dined. Get your ap- parel together, good strings to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the palace; every man look o'er his part; for the short and the long is, our play is preferred. In any case, let Thisby have clean linen; and let not him that plays the lion pare his nails, for they shall hang out for the lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath, and I do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet comedy. No more words: away! go; away!

Exeunt.

 

Hip. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of.

The. More strange than true. I never may believe These antic fables, nor these fairy toys. Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,  40 preferred: accepted (?), offered for acceptance (by the duke) (?)  3 antic: fantastic toys: trifling tales 5 apprehend: perceive 