Have you sent to Bottom’s house? Is he come home yet?
Did anyone go to Bottom's house to check on him? Has he come home yet?
Did anybody check on Bottom? Is he back yet?
where's bottom has he come home
He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is transported.
[They wait nervously]
[Worried]
worried
If he come not, then the play is marred. It goes not forward, doth it?
If he doesn't come, the play is ruined. We can't do it without him.
If he doesn't show up, we're screwed. The play's over.
no bottom no play we're done
It is not possible. You have not a man in all Athens able to discharge
Pyramus but he.
[The men worry]
[Talking]
talking
No, he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft man in Athens.
No, Bottom is simply the most clever of all the craftsmen in Athens. He's the best actor.
No, he's the smartest guy we got. Best actor in the whole city.
he's smart best actor
Yea, and the best person too, and he is a very paramour for a sweet
voice.
[They all agree]
[Yes]
yes
You must say paragon. A paramour is, God bless us, a thing of naught.
You must say 'paragon.' A paramour is, God help us, a low and vulgar thing.
You gotta say 'paragon.' A paramour is, like, a bad word.
it's paragon not paramour paramour is bad
Scene 4-2 is the shortest scene in the play, and its brevity is meaningful. Bottom has just had the most extraordinary experience in the entire play — more extraordinary, in some ways, than anything the young lovers experienced, because he was fully conscious during his transformation and his encounter with Titania. The lovers were asleep when they were enchanted; Bottom was awake. He talked with fairies, was waited on by supernatural attendants, slept in a fairy queen's arms. And he cannot explain it. His response to the inexplicable is the most human thing in the play: he moves on to the next practical task. The scene gives him five lines of mystery and then forty lines of production management. This is Shakespeare's tribute to Bottom's character — the inexpressible experience doesn't paralyze him or elevate him; it becomes, for him, something he'd like to put in a ballad eventually, and in the meantime there are ribbons to be attached to shoes.
O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a day during his life;
he could not have ’scaped sixpence a day. An the Duke had not given him
sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I’ll be hanged. He would have
deserved it: sixpence a day in Pyramus, or nothing.
Oh, sweet Bottom! This is terrible. He's lost the sixpence a day he earned from us. But more than that, he's lost his life!
Oh man, Bottom! He was making six pennies a day from us. But worse than that, we think he's dead!
bottom's gone lost his pay maybe dead
Where are these lads? Where are these hearts?
Where are you, my friends? Where are these brave hearts? I'm so glad to see you!
Where are you guys? Come on! I'm so happy to see you!
guys where are you happy to see you
Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour!
Bottom! This is the happiest day! We thought we'd lost you!
Bottom! You're alive! We thought you were gone!
you're alive we thought you died happiest day
Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask me not what; for if I tell
you, I am not true Athenian. I will tell you everything, right as it
fell out.
My friends, I have extraordinary things to tell you. But don't ask me what they are, because if I tell you everything...
You guys, I got stuff to tell you. But don't ask me too many questions, because...
i have things to tell don't ask it's complicated
Let us hear, sweet Bottom.
Please, tell us, sweet Bottom. We're listening.
Come on, tell us! We wanna know!
tell us please
Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that the Duke hath
dined. Get your apparel 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 Thisbe 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 garlick, 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!
Not a word out of me. All I'll tell you is that the Duke is pleased with us, and we can perform our play!
I can't explain it. Just know this: the Duke likes us, and we're doing the play!
can't explain duke likes us we're doing it
The Reckoning
A brief scene — barely a hundred lines — but it does something important: it restores the mechanicals' world to the same registers as the lovers' world. Everyone has lost something; everyone is being returned to it. The mechanicals' grief at Bottom's absence is genuine — they truly cannot perform without him, and their faith in his abilities is touching. Bottom's return is characteristically Bottom: he arrives with maximum dramatic impact, refuses to explain himself, and immediately redirects everyone toward the job at hand. The scene's brevity is itself a joke — Bottom's adventure in the enchanted bower, which we have watched in detail, is compressed into a passing mention and a mysterious hint.
If this happened today…
The night before the show and your star has been missing since the rehearsal. Everyone assumes it's cancelled. He walks in at the last minute, mysterious and changed, says 'don't ask,' and then says 'actually we're performing tonight for the mayor.' Everyone grabs their costumes.