Chapter: SCENE II.
Athens. QUINCE'S house

Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING

  QUINCE. Have you sent to Bottom's house? Is he come home yet?
  STARVELING. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is
transported.
  FLUTE. If he come not, then the play is marr'd; it goes not
    forward, doth it?
  QUINCE. It is not possible. You have not a man in all Athens
able
    to discharge Pyramus but he.
  FLUTE. No; he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft man in
    Athens.
  QUINCE. Yea, and the best person too; and he is a very paramour
for
    a sweet voice.
  FLUTE. You must say 'paragon.' A paramour is- God bless us!- A
    thing of naught.

                           Enter SNUG

  SNUG. Masters, the Duke is coming from the temple; and there is
two
    or three lords and ladies more married. If our sport had gone

    forward, we had all been made men.
  FLUTE. 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.

                           Enter BOTTOM

  BOTTOM. Where are these lads? Where are these hearts?
  QUINCE. Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour!
  BOTTOM. 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.
  QUINCE. Let us hear, sweet Bottom.
  BOTTOM. 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 preferr'd. In any case, let Thisby 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 garlic, 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!                                       Exeunt

 Peter Quince and the other "actors" have gathered. They are worried about the missing Bottom; Starveling feels certain that he has been "transported." They all wonder what their play will be like without him, for no one else is suited to play the role of Pyramus. They wail about the fact that Bottom has missed the chance of his life to prove his skills to the Duke and earn a handsome reward. Snug rushes in and informs the group that the Duke has left the temple, and with him there are two ladies and two lords who have been married along with the Duke. Next Bottom enters. Although there is no time at the present to do so, he explains to his friends he has wonders to tell them about. When they receive word that the Duke has already dined, they all rush to the court, wasting no more words or time.

