Philostrate Quotes

Go, Philostrate,
Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments.
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth.
Turn melancholy forth to funerals;
The pale companion is not for our pomp.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. Theseus instructs his Master of the Revels Philostrate to organize a celebratory atmosphere among the young people of Athens. He charges him with awakening the spirit of merriment for his marriage. He personifies both mirth and melancholy in this passage and says that sadness is for funerals and not the friend of a wedding celebration.

THESEUS: Come now; what masques, what dances shall we have
To wear away this long age of three hours
Between our after-supper and bed-time?
Where is our usual manager of mirth?
What revels are in hand? Is there no play
To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
Call Philostrate.
PHILOSTRATE: Here, mighty Theseus.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1. In Shakespeare’s England the Master of Revels had the important role of arranging entertainment at the royal court. Philostrate is Theseus’ Master of Revels. Among his responsibilities was selecting the best plays to entertain the Duke and his courtiers.

THESEUS: Say what abridgment have you for this evening,
What masque, what music? How shall we beguile
The lazy time if not with some delight?
PHILOSTRATE: [giving Theseus a paper] There is a brief how many sports are ripe.
Make choice of which your Highness will see first.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1. Theseus asks royal party planner Philostrate what he has lined up for their evening entertainent. The Master of Revels hands the Duke a list of all that is available.

A play there is, my lord, some ten words long
(Which is as brief as I have known a play),
But by ten words, my lord, it is too long,
Which makes it tedious; for in all the play,
There is not one word apt, one player fitted.
And tragical, my noble lord, it is.
For Pyramus therein doth kill himself,
Which, when I saw rehearsed, I must confess,
Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears
The passion of loud laughter never shed.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1. Philostrate tries to dissuade Theseus from choosing the Mechanicals’ play about Pyramus and Thisbe for the night’s entertainment. The play is brief, he tells him, but it is so tedious and badly played that its short length is still too long. The tragic story of Pyramus’ suicide will bring tears to the eyes, but from laughter, he warns the Duke.

Hard-handed men that work in Athens here,
Which never laboured in their minds till now,
And now have toiled their unbreathed memories
With this same play, against your nuptial.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1. Philostrate is not enamored of the group of Mechanicals who want to put on a play for Duke Theseus’ wedding. He tells Theseus that they are uneducated manual workers who have never had to do anything that required thinking. They have overtaxed their under-exercised minds to create this play, he maintains.
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