WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Read the extract below and answer the question:
Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
Make periods in the midst of sentences,
Throttle their practised accent I their fears,
And in conclusion, dumbly have broken off,
Not paying me a welcome...
The speech is in reaction to
The speech by Theseus is in reaction to the arrival of the players (the amateur actors, also known as the "mechanicals"), who are about to perform the play-within-the-play, Pyramus and Thisbe, for the wedding festivities.
Theseus reflects on how well-learned men (great clerks) often become nervous when speaking in his presence. This sets up the contrast between the mechanicals—who are uneducated and clumsy but brave enough to perform—and those who are learned but hesitate out of fear.
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