From A Midsummer Night’s Dream (by William Shakespeare)
SNUG
Have you the lion’s part written? Pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study.
QUINCE
You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
BOTTOM
Let me play the lion too. I will roar, that I will do any man’s heart good to hear me. I will roar, that I will make the duke say, “Let him roar again. Let him roar again.”
QUINCE
An you should do it too terribly, you would fright the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek. And that were enough to hang us all.
ALL
That would hang us, every mother’s son.
BOTTOM
I grant you, friends, if you should fright the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us. But I will aggravate my voice so that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove. I will roar you an ’twere any nightingale.
SNUG
Have you the lion’s part written? Pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study.
QUINCE
You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
BOTTOM
Let me play the lion too. I will roar, that I will do any man’s heart good to hear me. I will roar, that I will make the duke say, “Let him roar again. Let him roar again.”
QUINCE
An you should do it too terribly, you would fright the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek. And that were enough to hang us all.
ALL
That would hang us, every mother’s son.
BOTTOM
I grant you, friends, if you should fright the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us. But I will aggravate my voice so that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove. I will roar you an ’twere any nightingale.
