Question

In this excerpt from William Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, three foolish men are planning to perform a play based on a well-known myth about two young lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe. Because of their own confusion, the men are afraid the audence will not understand the difference between reality and the fantasy of the play. They are discussing how a lion should be introduced during the performance.

Answer 1

BOTTOM Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must be seen through the lion’s neck, and he himself must speak … saying … ‘Ladies,’ or ‘fair ladies, I would wish you’ or ‘I would entreat you, not to fear, not to tremble.… If you think I come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life. No, I am no such thing; I am a man as other men are’; And there indeed let him name his name.…

QUINCE Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard things: that is to bring moonlight into the chamber; for you know, Pyramus and Thisbe met by moonlight.

SNOUT Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?

BOTTOM A calendar! A calendar! Look in the almanac. … [They consult an almanac.]

QUINCE Yes it does shine that night.

BOTTOM Why then may you leave a … window … open, and the moon may shine in. …

QUINCE … Then there is another thing. We must have a wall … for Pyramus and Thisbe, says the story, did talk through the chink of a wall.

SNOUT You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom?

BOTTOM Some man or other must present Wall. And let him have some plaster, or some loam … to signify wall; or let him hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisbe whisper.

QUINCE If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down … and rehearse your parts. Pyramus, you begin. …

Enter Robin Goodfellow (Puck)

PUCK [aside] What [rough people] have we swaggering here? … What, a play [about to begin]? I’ll be a listener; An actor, too, perhaps, if I see cause.

Which of the characters appears to be the leader of the group?
a.
Bottom
c.
Snout
b.
Quince
d.
Puck