Act 4, Scene 2

Athens. A Room in QUINCE'S House.

[Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING.]
Quince
1650 Have you sent to Bottom's house? is he come home yet?
Starveling
1651 He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt, he is transported.
Flute
1652 If he come not, then the play is marred; it goes not
1653 forward, doth it?
Quince
1654 It is not possible: you have not a man in all Athens
1655 able to discharge Pyramus but he.
Flute
1656 No; he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft man in
1657 Athens.
Quince
1658 Yea, and the best person too: and he is a very paramour
1659 for a sweet voice.
Flute
1660 You must say paragon: a paramour is, God bless us, a thing of
1661 naught.
[Enter SNUG.]
Snug
1662 Masters, the duke is coming from the temple; and there is
1663 two or three lords and ladies more married: if our sport had gone
1664 forward, we had all been made men.
Flute
1665 O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a day
1666 during his life; he could not have 'scaped sixpence a-day; an
1667 the duke had not given him sixpence a-day for playing Pyramus,
1668 I'll be hanged; he would have deserved it: sixpence a-day in
1669 Pyramus, or nothing.
[Enter BOTTOM.]
Bottom
1670 Where are these lads? where are these hearts?
Quince
1671 Bottom!—O most courageous day! O most happy hour!
Bottom
1672 Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask me not
1673 what; for if I tell you, I am not true Athenian. I will tell you
1674 everything, right as it fell out.
Quince
1675 Let us hear, sweet Bottom.
Bottom
1676 Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that the
1677 duke hath dined. Get your apparel together; good strings to
1678 your beards, new ribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the
1679 palace; every man look over his part; for the short and the long
1680 is, our play is preferred. In any case, let Thisby have clean
1681 linen; and let not him that plays the lion pare his nails, for
1682 they shall hang out for the lion's claws. And, most dear actors,
1683 eat no onions nor garlick, for we are to utter sweet breath; and
1684 I do not doubt but to hear them say it is a sweet comedy. No more
1685 words: away! go; away!
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1651cultural context
“transported”
'Transported' here carries the folkloric meaning of being carried off by fairies — spirited away against one's will. Starveling voices the genuine Elizabethan fear that fairies could abduct a person and leave a changeling in their place. The word's everyday sense (moved from one place to another) is deliberate: it sounds matter-of-fact while pointing to something supernatural.
TLN 1655archaic vocab
“discharge”
'Discharge' means to perform or carry out (a role), not to fire or release as in modern usage. The theatrical idiom 'discharge a part' was standard in Elizabethan English; Quince means no one else can play Pyramus.
TLN 1656archaic vocab
“simply”
'Simply' here means absolutely or without qualification — not 'foolishly' as it most often does today. Flute is saying Bottom has the best wit of any craftsman, full stop.
TLN 1658archaic vocab
“paramour”
Quince means 'paragon' (a model of excellence) but says 'paramour' (a lover, especially an illicit one). This is a malapropism — a comic confusion of similar-sounding words — a signature form of humor with the mechanicals throughout the play. Flute immediately corrects him at TLN 1660, noting that a paramour is 'a thing of naught' (something disreputable).
TLN 1664archaic vocab
“made men”
'Made men' means men whose fortunes are made, men who have been set up for life — not 'manufactured men.' The phrase records the Elizabethan belief that a royal or ducal patron could transform a craftsman's prospects by cash payment or a permanent pension.
TLN 1665archaic vocab
“bully”
'Bully' in Elizabethan English was a term of warm affection meaning 'fine fellow' or 'good friend' — the opposite of its modern meaning (an aggressor). The word appears as a term of camaraderie throughout Shakespeare; here Flute is expressing genuine fondness for the missing Bottom.
TLN 1665historical topical
“sixpence a day”
Flute imagines the duke would have granted Bottom a pension of sixpence a day for his performance — a specific figure that evokes Elizabethan royal bounty. A daily pension of sixpence was a modest but real reward associated with royal and noble patronage of performers; the repetition of the phrase four times in six lines underscores how enormous this would seem to a craftsman earning perhaps eight or ten pence a day for a full day's work.
TLN 1680archaic vocab
“preferred”
'Preferred' means selected or chosen for performance — not 'preferred' in the modern sense of 'liked better.' Bottom announces that their play has been picked from the list of entertainments Theseus was offered. The idiom 'prefer a suit' (to put forward a petition) underlies the usage.