Quote 1
QUINCE
Here is the scroll of every man's name which
is thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our
interlude before the Duke and the Duchess on his
wedding-day at night. (1.2.4-7)
Here, we learn that the Mechanicals (craftsmen) want to perform a play to help celebrate Duke Theseus's marriage to Hippolyta. When Shakespeare wrote <em>A Midsummer Night's Dream</em>, craftsmen didn't usually run around putting on plays like this. Back in early medieval England, though, guilds of craftsmen got together each year and put on plays for the Corpus Christi festival. Shakespeare's "Mechanicals" are a shout-out to the medieval craftsmen who moonlighted as amateur actors each year.
Quote 2
QUINCE
Marry, our play is, "The most lamentable comedy, and
most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe."
BOTTOM
A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a
merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your
actors by the scroll. Masters, spread yourselves. (1.2.11-16)
Quince announces that the Mechanicals want to perform Pyramus and Thisbe, the classic story of two young lovers who meet a tragic end after trying to elope. It's obvious that Quince and Bottom don't know anything about the difference between the genres of comedy and tragedy. They imagine performing Pyramus and Thisbe as a "lamentable comedy" and Bottom even suggests the play will be "merry." As it turns out, their performance in Act 5, Scene 1 is pretty hilarious, but only because the Mechanicals are terrible actors and know nothing about staging plays.
We also want to point out that the basic story line of Pyramus and Thisbe echoes what happens to Hermia and Lysander in Act 1, Scene 1 when they're forbidden to marry. (Yes, Shakespeare also had Pyramus and Thisbe in mind when he wrote Romeo and Juliet.) Shakespeare likely read the story of Pyramus and Thisbe in Book 4 of Ovid's Metamorphoses, which was translated from Latin into to English in 1565 by a guy named Arthur Golding. You can check out our summary of Book 4 of the Metamorphoses here.
Quote 3
QUINCE [PROLOGUE]
If we offend, it is with our goodwill.
That you should think, we come not to offend,
But with goodwill. To show our simple skill,
That is the true beginning of our end.
Consider then, we come but in despite.
We do not come, as minding to content you,
Our true intent is. All for your delight
We are not here. That you should here repent
you,
The actors are at hand, and, by their show,
You shall know all that you are like to know, (5.1.108-117)
Quince butchers the prologue with bad punctuation, lousy rhymes, obvious statements, and by telling the entire story before it happens. Typically, this kind of information was reserved for the epilogue at the end of the play. In fact, the Epilogue (speech at the end) of A Midsummer Night's Dream has a lot in common with the Mechanicals' prologue. What's up with that?