Snug the Joiner is
the moral man of the piece, who proceeds by measurement and
discretion in all things. You see him with his rule and compasses in
his hand. 'Have you the lion's part written? Pray you, if it be,
give it me, for I am slow of study.'--'You may do it extempore,'
says Quince, 'for it is nothing but roaring.' Starveling the Tailor
keeps the peace, and objects to the lion and the drawn sword. 'I
believe we must leave the killing out when all's done.' Starveling,
however, does not start the objections himself, but seconds them
when made by others, as if he had not spirit to express his fears
without encouragement. It is too much to suppose all this
intentional; but it very luckily falls out so. Nature includes all
that is implied in the most subtle analytical distinctions; and the
same distinctions will be found in Shakespeare. Bottom, who is not
only chief actor, but stage-manager for the occasion, has a device
to obviate the danger of frightening the ladies: 'Write me a
prologue, and let the prologue seem to say, we will do no harm with
our swords, and that Pyramus is not killed indeed; and for better
assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not Pyramus, but Bottom the
Weaver; this will put them out of fear.' Bottom seems to have
understood the subject of dramatic illusion at least as well as any
modern essayist.
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