QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
BOTTOM
No, I assure you. The wall is down
that parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the
epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two of
our company?
THESEUS
No epilogue, I pray you, for your play needs no excuse.
Never excuse—for when the players are all dead, there
needs none to be blamed. Marry, if he that writ it had
played Pyramus and hanged himself in Thisbe’s garter, it
would have been a fine tragedy. And so it is, truly,
and very notably discharged. But come, your Bergomask.
Let your epilogue alone.
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve.
Lovers, to bed. ‘Tis almost fairy time.
I fear we shall outsleep the coming morn
As much as we this night have overwatched.
This palpable-gross play hath well beguiled
The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed. A
fortnight hold we this solemnity,
In nightly revels and new jollity.

DUTCH:
Geen epiloog, verzoek ik u, want uw stuk heeft geen
verontschuldiging noodig

MORE:
Bergomask dance=Dance named after Bergamo, Italy
Told=Struck, tolled
Overwatched=Stayed awake too late
Palpable-gross=Crude
Foredone=Exhausted
Compleat:
Told=Geteld
Palpable=Tastelyk, tastbaar
Gross=Grof, plomp, onbehouwen
Fore-do=Benaadeelen

Burgersdijk notes:
Zelf bedachten dans, Met een dans eindigden de tusschenspelen vaak. In het oorspronkelijke staat Bergomaskerdans, naar Bergamo zoo genoemd. De landlieden uit den omtrek dier stad waren bekend om hunne lompe manieren en speelden bij grof boertige vertooningen nog al eens een rol; in de geschiedenis van den Italiaanschen Arlequino is Bergamo van belang. Een Bergomasker-dans is dus een Hansworstendans.

Topics: justification, honesty, time