William Shakespeare, A Midsummer-Night’s Dream [1623]

Edition used:

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (The Oxford Shakespeare), ed. with a glossary by W.J. Craig M.A. (Oxford University Press, 1916).

Author: William Shakespeare

Editor: William James Craig

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One of the plays in the 1916 Oxford University Press edition of all of Shakespeare’s plays and poems.

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The text is in the public domain.

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A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT’S DREAM

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

THESEUS, | Duke of Athens.
EGEUS, | Father to Hermia.
LYSANDER, } | in love with Hermia.
DEMETRIUS, }
PHILOSTRATE, | Master of the Revels to Theseus.
QUINCE, | a Carpenter.
SNUG, | a Joiner.
BOTTOM, | a Weaver.
FLUTE, | a Bellows-mender.
SNOUT, | a Tinker.
STARVELING, | a Tailor.
HIPPOLYTA, | Queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus.
HERMIA, | Daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander.
HELENA, | in love with Demetrius.
OBERON, | King of the Fairies.
TITANIA, | Queen of the Fairies.
PUCK, | or Robin Goodfellow.
PEASE-BLOSSOM, } | Fairies.
COBWEB, }
MOTH, }
MUSTARD-SEED, }
Other Fairies attending their King and Queen. Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta.

Scene.—Athens, and a Wood near it.

ACT I.

Scene I.—

Athens. The Palace ofTheseus.

EnterTheseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate,and Attendants.

The.

Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour

Draws on apace: four happy days bring in

Another moon; but O! methinks how slow

This old moon wanes; she lingers my desires,4

Like to a step dame, or a dowager

Long withering out a young man’s revenue.

Hip.

Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;

Four nights will quickly dream away the time;8

And then the moon, like to a silver bow

New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night

Of our solemnities.

The.

Go, Philostrate,

Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;12

Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;

Turn melancholy forth to funerals;

The pale companion is not for our pomp.

[ExitPhilostrate.

Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword,16

And won thy love doing thee injuries;

But I will wed thee in another key,

With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling.

EnterEgeus, Hermia, Lysander,andDemetrius.

Ege.

Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!

The.

Thanks, good Egeus: what’s the news with thee?

Ege.

Full of vexation come I, with complaint

Against my child, my daughter Hermia.

Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,24

This man hath my consent to marry her.

Stand forth, Lysander: and, my gracious duke,

This man hath bewitch’d the bosom of my child:

Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rimes,

And interchang’d love-tokens with my child;29

Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,

With feigning voice, verses of feigning love;

And stol’n the impression of her fantasy32

With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,

Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers

Of strong prevailment in unharden’d youth;

With cunning hast thou filch’d my daughter’s heart;36

Turn’d her obedience, which is due to me,

To stubborn harshness. And, my gracious duke,

Be it so she will not here before your Grace

Consent to marry with Demetrius,40

I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,

As she is mine, I may dispose of her;

Which shall be either to this gentleman,

Or to her death, according to our law44

Immediately provided in that case.

The.

What say you, Hermia? be advis’d, fair maid.

To you, your father should be as a god;

One that compos’d your beauties, yea, and one

To whom you are but as a form in wax49

By him imprinted, and within his power

To leave the figure or disfigure it.

Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.52

Her.

So is Lysander.

The.

In himself he is;

But, in this kind, wanting your father’s voice,

The other must be held the worthier.

Her.

I would my father look’d but with my eyes.56

The.

Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.

Her.

I do entreat your Grace to pardon me.

I know not by what power I am made bold,

Nor how it may concern my modesty60

In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;

But I beseech your Grace, that I may know

The worst that may befall me in this case,

If I refuse to wed Demetrius.64

The.

Either to die the death, or to abjure

For ever the society of men.

Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires;

Know of your youth, examine well your blood,

Whe’r, if you yield not to your father’s choice,

You can endure the livery of a nun,

For aye to be in shady cloister mew’d,

To live a barren sister all your life,72

Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.

Thrice blessed they that master so their blood,

To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;

But earthlier happy is the rose distill’d,76

Than that which withering on the virgin thorn

Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.

Her.

So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,

Ere I will yield my virgin patent up80

Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke

My soul consents not to give sovereignty.

The.

Take time to pause; and, by the next new moon,—

The sealing-day betwixt my love and me84

For everlasting bond of fellowship,—

Upon that day either prepare to die

For disobedience to your father’s will,

Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would;88

Or on Diana’s altar to protest

For aye austerity and single life.

Dem.

Relent, sweet Hermia; and, Lysander, yield

Thy crazed title to my certain right.92

Lys.

You have her father’s love, Demetrius;

Let me have Hermia’s: do you marry him.

Ege.

Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love,

And what is mine my love shall render him;96

And she is mine, and all my right of her

I do estate unto Demetrius.

Lys.

I am, my lord, as well deriv’d as he,

As well possess’d; my love is more than his;100

My fortunes every way as fairly rank’d

If not with vantage, as Demetrius’;

And, which is more than all these boasts can be,

I am belov’d of beauteous Hermia.104

Why should not I then prosecute my right?

Demetrius, I’ll avouch it to his head,

Made love to Nedar’s daughter, Helena,

And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,

Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,109

Upon this spotted and inconstant man.

The.

I must confess that I have heard so much,

And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof;112

But, being over-full of self-affairs,

My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come;

And come, Egeus; you shall go with me,

I have some private schooling for you both.116

For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself

To fit your fancies to your father’s will,

Or else the law of Athens yields you up,

Which by no means we may extenuate,120

To death, or to a vow of single life.

Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love?

Demetrius and Egeus, go along:

I must employ you in some business124

Against our nuptial, and confer with you

Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.

Ege.

With duty and desire we follow you.

[ExeuntTheseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, Demetrius,and Train.

Lys.

How now, my love! Why is your cheek so pale?128

How chance the roses there do fade so fast?

Her.

Belike for want of rain, which I could well

Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes.

Lys.

Ay me! for aught that ever I could read,132

Could ever hear by tale or history,

The course of true love never did run smooth;

But, either it was different in blood,—

Her.

O cross! too high to be enthrall’d to low.136

Lys.

Or else misgraffed in respect of years,—

Her.

O spite! too old to be engag’d to young.

Lys.

Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,—

Her.

O hell! to choose love by another’s eye.140

Lys.

Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,

War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,

Making it momentany as a sound,

Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,144

Brief as the lightning in the collied night,

That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,

And ere a man hath power to say, ‘Behold!’

The jaws of darkness do devour it up:148

So quick bright things come to confusion.

Her.

If then true lovers have been ever cross’d,

It stands as an edict in destiny:

Then let us teach our trial patience,152

Because it is a customary cross,

As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,

Wishes and tears, poor fancy’s followers.

Lys.

A good persuasion: therefore, hear me, Hermia.156

I have a widow aunt, a dowager

Of great revenue, and she hath no child:

From Athens is her house remote seven leagues;

And she respects me as her only son.160

There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee,

And to that place the sharp Athenian law

Cannot pursue us. If thou lov’st me then,

Steal forth thy father’s house to-morrow night,

And in the wood, a league without the town,165

Where I did meet thee once with Helena,

To do observance to a morn of May,

There will I stay for thee.

Her.

My good Lysander!168

I swear to thee by Cupid’s strongest bow,

By his best arrow with the golden head,

By the simplicity of Venus’ doves,

By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,

And by that fire which burn’d the Carthage queen,173

When the false Troyan under sail was seen,

By all the vows that ever men have broke,—

In number more than ever women spoke,—176

In that same place thou hast appointed me,

To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.

Lys.

Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.

EnterHelena.

Her.

God speed fair Helena! Whither away?

Hel.

Call you me fair? that fair again unsay.

Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!

Your eyes are lode-stars! and your tongue’s sweet air

More tuneable than lark to shepherd’s ear,184

When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.

Sickness is catching: O! were favour so,

Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;

My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,

My tongue should catch your tongue’s sweet melody.189

Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,

The rest I’d give to be to you translated.

O! teach me how you look, and with what art

You sway the motion of Demetrius’ heart.193

Her.

I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.

Hel.

O! that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill.

Her.

I give him curses, yet he gives me love.

Hel.

O! that my prayers could such affection move.

Her.

The more I hate, the more he follows me.

Hel.

The more I love, the more he hateth me.

Her.

His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.

Hel.

None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine!201

Her.

Take comfort: he no more shall see my face;

Lysander and myself will fly this place.

Before the time I did Lysander see,204

Seem’d Athens as a paradise to me:

O! then, what graces in my love do dwell,

That he hath turn’d a heaven unto a hell.

Lys.

Helen, to you our minds we will unfold.

To-morrow night, when Phœbe doth behold209

Her silver visage in the wat’ry glass,

Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,—

A time that lovers’ flights doth still conceal,—

Through Athens’ gates have we devis’d to steal.

Her.

And in the wood, where often you and I

Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,

Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,216

There my Lysander and myself shall meet;

And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,

To seek new friends and stranger companies.

Farewell, sweet playfellow: pray thou for us;

And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!221

Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight

From lovers’ food till morrow deep midnight.

Lys.

I will, my Hermia.—[ExitHermia.] Helena, adieu:224

As you on him, Demetrius dote on you!

[Exit.

Hel.

How happy some o’er other some can be!

Through Athens I am thought as fair as she;

But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;

He will not know what all but he do know;229

And as he errs, doting on Hermia’s eyes,

So I, admiring of his qualities.

Things base and vile, holding no quantity,232

Love can transpose to form and dignity.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,

And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind.

Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgment taste;

Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:237

And therefore is Love said to be a child,

Because in choice he is so oft beguil’d.

As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,

So the boy Love is perjur’d every where;241

For ere Demetrius look’d on Hermia’s eyne,

He hail’d down oaths that he was only mine;

And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,

So he dissolv’d, and showers of oaths did melt.

I will go tell him of fair Hermia’s flight:246

Then to the wood will he to-morrow night

Pursue her; and for this intelligence

If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:

But herein mean I to enrich my pain,250

To have his sight thither and back again.

[Exit.

Scene II.—

The Same. A Room inQuince’sHouse.

EnterQuince, Snug, Bottom, Flute, Snout,andStarveling.

Quin.

Is all our company here?

Bot.

You were best to call them generally, man by man, according to the scrip.

Quin.

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.7

Bot.

First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats on; then read the names of the actors, and so grow to a point.10

Quin.

Marry, our play is, The most lamentable comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby.13

Bot.

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.17

Quin.

Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver.

Bot.

Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.21

Quin.

You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.

Bot.

What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant?

Quin.

A lover, that kills himself most gallantly for love.26

Bot.

That will ask some tears in the true performing of it: if I do it, let the audience look to their eyes; I will move storms, I will condole in some measure. To the rest: yet my chief humour is for a tyrant. I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split.33

The raging rocks

And shivering shocks

Shall break the locks36

Of prison gates:

And Phibbus’ car

Shall shine from far

And make and mar40

The foolish Fates.

This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players. This is Ercles’ vein, a tyrant’s vein; a lover is more condoling.44

Quin.

Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.

Flu.

Here, Peter Quince.

Quin.

You must take Thisby on you.

Flu.

What is Thisby? a wandering knight?

Quin.

It is the lady that Pyramus must love.

Flu.

Nay, faith, let not me play a woman; I have a beard coming.51

Quin.

That’s all one: you shall play it in a mask, and you may speak as small as you will.

Bot.

An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too. I’ll speak in a monstrous little voice, ‘Thisne, Thisne!’ ‘Ah, Pyramus, my lover dear; thy Thisby dear, and lady dear!’57

Quin.

No, no; you must play Pyramus; and Flute, you Thisby.

Bot.

Well, proceed.60

Quin.

Robin Starveling, the tailor.

Star.

Here, Peter Quince.

Quin.

Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby’s mother. Tom Snout, the tinker.64

Snout.

Here, Peter Quince.

Quin.

You, Pyramus’s father; myself, Thisby’s father; Snug, the joiner, you the lion’s part: and, I hope, here is a play fitted.68

Snug.

Have you the lion’s part written? pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study.

Quin.

You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.72

Bot.

Let me play the lion too. I will roar, that I will do any man’s heart good to hear me; I will roar, that I will make the duke say, ‘Let him roar again, let him roar again.’76

Quin.

An you should do it too terribly, you would fright the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek; and that were enough to hang us all.80

All.

That would hang us, every mother’s son.

Bot.

I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us; but I will aggravate my voice so that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove; I will roar you as ’twere any nightingale.87

Quin.

You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a sweet-faced man; a proper man, as one shall see in a summer’s day; a most lovely, gentleman-like man; therefore, you must needs play Pyramus.92

Bot.

Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best to play it in?

Quin.

Why, what you will.

Bot.

I will discharge it in either your straw-colour beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your French-crown colour beard, your perfect yellow.99

Quin.

Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and then you will play bare-faced. But masters, here are your parts; and I am to entreat you, request you, and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night, and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the town, by moonlight: there will we rehearse; for if we meet in the city, we shall be dogged with company, and our devices known. In the meantime I will draw a bill of properties, such as our play wants. I pray you, fail me not.110

Bot.

We will meet; and there we may rehearse more obscenely and courageously. Take pains; be perfect; adieu.

Quin.

At the duke’s oak we meet.

Bot.

Enough; hold, or cut bow-strings.115

[Exeunt.

ACT II.

Scene I.—

A Wood near Athens.

Enter a Fairy on one side, andPuckon the other.

Puck.

How now, spirit! whither wander you?

Fai.

Over hill, over dale,

Thorough bush, thorough brier,

Over park, over pale,4

Thorough flood, thorough fire,

I do wander every where,

Swifter than the moone’s sphere;

And I serve the fairy queen,8

To dew her orbs upon the green:

The cowslips tall her pensioners be;

In their gold coats spots you see;

Those be rubies, fairy favours,12

In their freckles live their savours:

I must go seek some dew-drops here,

And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear.

Farewell, thou lob of spirits: I’ll be gone;16

Our queen and all her elves come here anon.

Puck.

The king doth keep his revels here to-night.

Take heed the queen come not within his sight;

For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,20

Because that she as her attendant hath

A lovely boy, stol’n from an Indian king;

She never had so sweet a changeling;

And jealous Oberon would have the child24

Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;

But she, perforce, withholds the loved boy,

Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy.

And now they never meet in grove, or green,28

By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,

But they do square; that all their elves, for fear,

Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there.

Fai.

Either I mistake your shape and making quite,32

Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite

Call’d Robin Goodfellow: are you not he

That frights the maidens of the villagery;

Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern,

And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;37

And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;

Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?

Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,

You do their work, and they shall have good luck:41

Are you not he?

Puck.

Fairy, thou speak’st aright;

I am that merry wanderer of the night.

I jest to Oberon, and make him smile44

When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,

Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:

And sometime lurk I in a gossip’s bowl,

In very likeness of a roasted crab;48

And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob

And on her wither’d dewlap pour the ale.

The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,

Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;52

Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,

And ‘tailor’ cries, and falls into a cough;

And then the whole quire hold their hips and loff;

And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear56

A merrier hour was never wasted there.

But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon.

Fai.

And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!

EnterOberonfrom one side, with his Train; andTitaniafrom the other, with hers.

Obe.

Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.60

Tita.

What! jealous Oberon. Fairies, skip hence:

I have forsworn his bed and company.

Obe.

Tarry, rash wanton! am not I thy lord?

Tita.

Then, I must be thy lady; but I know

When thou hast stol’n away from fairy land,65

And in the shape of Corin sat all day,

Playing on pipes of corn, and versing love

To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,68

Come from the furthest steppe of India?

But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,

Your buskin’d mistress and your warrior love,

To Theseus must be wedded, and you come72

To give their bed joy and prosperity.

Obe.

How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,

Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,

Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?76

Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night

From Perigouna, whom he ravished?

And make him with fair Ægle break his faith,

With Ariadne, and Antiopa?80

Tita.

These are the forgeries of jealousy:

And never, since the middle summer’s spring,

Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead,

By paved fountain, or by rushy brook,84

Or in the beached margent of the sea,

To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,

But with thy brawls thou hast disturb’d our sport.

Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,88

As in revenge, have suck’d up from the sea

Contagious fogs; which, falling in the land,

Have every pelting river made so proud

That they have overborne their continents:92

The ox hath therefore stretch’d his yoke in vain,

The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn

Hath rotted ere his youth attain’d a beard:

The fold stands empty in the drowned field,96

And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;

The nine men’s morris is fill’d up with mud,

And the quaint mazes in the wanton green

For lack of tread are undistinguishable:100

The human mortals want their winter here:

No night is now with hymn or carol blest:

Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,

Pale in her anger, washes all the air,104

That rheumatic diseases do abound:

And thorough this distemperature we see

The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts

Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,108

And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown

An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds

Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,

The childing autumn, angry winter, change112

Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,

By their increase, now knows not which is which.

And this same progeny of evil comes

From our debate, from our dissension:116

We are their parents and original.

Obe.

Do you amend it then; it lies in you.

Why should Titania cross her Oberon?

I do but beg a little changeling boy,120

To be my henchman.

Tita.

Set your heart at rest;

The fairy land buys not the child of me.

His mother was a votaress of my order:

And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,124

Full often hath she gossip’d by my side,

And sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands,

Marking the embarked traders on the flood;

When we have laugh’d to see the sails conceive

And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;

Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait

Following,—her womb then rich with my young squire,—

Would imitate, and sail upon the land,132

To fetch me trifles, and return again,

As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.

But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;

And for her sake I do rear up her boy,136

And for her sake I will not part with him.

Obe.

How long within this wood intend you stay?

Tita.

Perchance, till after Theseus’ weddingday.

If you will patiently dance in our round,140

And see our moonlight revels, go with us;

If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

Obe.

Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.

Tita.

Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away!144

We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.

[ExitTitaniawith her Train.

Obe.

Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove

Till I torment thee for this injury.

My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou remember’st

Since once I sat upon a promontory,149

And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back

Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,

That the rude sea grew civil at her song,152

And certain stars shot madly from their spheres

To hear the sea-maid’s music.

Puck.

I remember.

Obe.

That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,

Flying between the cold moon and the earth,156

Cupid all arm’d: a certain aim he took

At a fair vestal throned by the west,

And loos’d his love-shaft smartly from his bow,

As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;

But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft161

Quench’d in the chaste beams of the wat’ry moon,

And the imperial votaress passed on,

In maiden meditation, fancy-free.164

Yet mark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell:

It fell upon a little western flower,

Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound,

And maidens call it, Love-in-idleness.168

Fetch me that flower; the herb I show’d thee once:

The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid

Will make or man or woman madly dote

Upon the next live creature that it sees.172

Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again

Ere the leviathan can swim a league.

Puck.

I’ll put a girdle round about the earth

In forty minutes.

[Exit.

Obe.

Having once this juice176

I’ll watch Titania when she is asleep,

And drop the liquor of it in her eyes:

The next thing then she waking looks upon,

Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,180

On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,

She shall pursue it with the soul of love:

And ere I take this charm off from her sight,

As I can take it with another herb,184

I’ll make her render up her page to me.

But who comes here? I am invisible,

And I will overhear their conference.

I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.188

Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?

The one I’ll slay, the other slayeth me.

Thou told’st me they were stol’n into this wood;

And here am I, and wood within this wood,192

Because I cannot meet my Hermia.

Hence! get thee gone, and follow me no more.

Hel.

You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant:

But yet you draw not iron, for my heart196

Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw,

And I shall have no power to follow you.

Dem.

Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair?

Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth200

Tell you I do not nor I cannot love you?

Hel.

And even for that do I love you the more.

I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,

The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:204

Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,

Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,

Unworthy as I am, to follow you.

What worser place can I beg in your love,208

And yet a place of high respect with me,

Than to be used as you use your dog?

Dem.

Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit,

For I am sick when I do look on you.212

Hel.

And I am sick when I look not on you.

Dem.

You do impeach your modesty too much,

To leave the city, and commit yourself

Into the hands of one that loves you not;216

To trust the opportunity of night

And the ill counsel of a desert place

With the rich worth of your virginity.

Hel.

Your virtue is my privilege: for that220

It is not night when I do see your face,

Therefore I think I am not in the night;

Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,

For you in my respect are all the world:224

Then how can it be said I am alone,

When all the world is here to look on me?

Dem.

I’ll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,

And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.228

Hel.

The wildest hath not such a heart as you.

Run when you will, the story shall be chang’d;

Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;

The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind232

Makes speed to catch the tiger: bootless speed,

When cowardice pursues and valour flies.

Dem.

I will not stay thy questions: let me go;

Or, if thou follow me, do not believe236

But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.

Hel.

Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,

You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!

Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex.240

We cannot fight for love, as men may do;

We should be woo’d and were not made to woo.

[ExitDemetrius.

I’ll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,

To die upon the hand I love so well.

[Exit.

Obe.

Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove,245

Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love.

Re-enterPuck.

Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.

Puck.

Ay, there it is.

Obe.

I pray thee, give it me.248

I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine:252

There sleeps Titania some time of the night,

Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight;

And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin,

Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:256

And with the juice of this I’ll streak her eyes,

And make her full of hateful fantasies.

Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:

A sweet Athenian lady is in love260

With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;

But do it when the next thing he espies

May be the lady. Thou shalt know the man

By the Athenian garments he hath on.264

Effect it with some care, that he may prove

More fond on her than she upon her love.

And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.

Puck.

Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.

[Exeunt.

Scene II.—

Another Part of the Wood.

EnterTitania,with her Train.

Tita.

Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;

Then, for the third of a minute, hence;

Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,

Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,4

To make my small elves coats, and some keep back

The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, and wonders

At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;

Then to your offices, and let me rest.8

The Fairies sing.

I.

You spotted snakes with double tongue,

Thorny hedge-hogs, be not seen;

Newts, and blind-worms, do no wrong;

Come not near our fairy queen.12

Philomel, with melody,

Sing in our sweet lullaby:

Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby:

Never harm,16

Nor spell, nor charm,

Come our lovely lady nigh;

So, good night, with lullaby.

II.

Weaving spiders come not here;20

Hence, you long-legg’d spinners, hence!

Beetles black, approach not near;

Worm nor snail, do no offence.

Philomel, with melody, &c.24

Fai.

Hence, away! now all is well.

One aloof stand sentinel.

[Exeunt Fairies.Titaniasleeps.

EnterOberon,and squeezes the flower onTitania’seyelids.

Obe.

What thou seest when thou dost wake,

Do it for thy true-love take;28

Love and languish for his sake:

Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,

Pard, or boar with bristled hair,

In thy eye that shall appear32

When thou wak’st, it is thy dear.

Wake when some vile thing is near.

[Exit.

EnterLysanderandHermia.

Lys.

Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood;

And to speak troth, I have forgot our way:36

We’ll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,

And tarry for the comfort of the day.

Her.

Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed,

For I upon this bank will rest my head.40

Lys.

One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;

One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth.

Her.

Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear,

Lie further off yet, do not lie so near.44

Lys.

O! take the sense, sweet, of my innocence,

Love takes the meaning in love’s conference.

I mean that my heart unto yours is knit,

So that but one heart we can make of it;48

Two bosoms interchained with an oath;

So then two bosoms and a single troth.

Then by your side no bed-room me deny,

For, lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.52

Her.

Lysander riddles very prettily:

Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,

If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied.

But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy56

Lie further off; in human modesty,

Such separation as may well be said

Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid,

So far be distant; and, good night, sweet friend.

Thy love ne’er alter till thy sweet life end!61

Lys.

Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I;

And then end life when I end loyalty!

[Retires a little distance.

Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest!

Her.

With half that wish the wisher’s eyes be press’d!

[They sleep.

EnterPuck.

Puck.

Through the forest have I gone,

But Athenian found I none,

On whose eyes I might approve68

This flower’s force in stirring love.

Night and silence! who is here?

Weeds of Athens he doth wear:

This is he, my master said,72

Despised the Athenian maid;

And here the maiden, sleeping sound,

On the dank and dirty ground.

Pretty soul! she durst not lie76

Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.

[Squeezes the flower onLysander’seyelids.]

Churl, upon thy eyes I throw

All the power this charm doth owe.

When thou wak’st, let love forbid80

Sleep his seat on thy eyelid:

So awake when I am gone;

For I must now to Oberon.

[Exit.

EnterDemetriusandHelena,running.

Hel.

Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.84

Dem.

I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.

Hel.

O! wilt thou darkling leave me? do not so.

Dem.

Stay, on thy peril: I alone will go.

[ExitDemetrius.

Hel.

O! I am out of breath in this fond chase.

The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.89

Happy is Hermia, wheresoe’er she lies;

For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.

How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears:

If so, my eyes are oftener wash’d than hers.93

No, no, I am as ugly as a bear;

For beasts that meet me run away for fear;

Therefore no marvel though Demetrius96

Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus.

What wicked and dissembling glass of mine

Made me compare with Hermia’s sphery eyne?

But who is here? Lysander! on the ground!100

Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.

Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake.

Lys.

[Awaking.] And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake.

Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,104

That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.

Where is Demetrius? O! how fit a word

Is that vile name to perish on my sword.

Hel.

Do not say so, Lysander; say not so.108

What though he love your Hermia? Lord! what though?

Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content.

Lys.

Content with Hermia! No: I do repent

The tedious minutes I with her have spent.112

Not Hermia, but Helena I love:

Who will not change a raven for a dove?

The will of man is by his reason sway’d,

And reason says you are the worthier maid.116

Things growing are not ripe until their season;

So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;

And touching now the point of human skill,

Reason becomes the marshal to my will,120

And leads me to your eyes; where I o’erlook

Love’s stories written in love’s richest book.

Hel.

Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?

When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?

Is’t not enough, is’t not enough, young man,

That I did never, no, nor never can,

Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius’ eye,

But you must flout my insufficiency?128

Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do,

In such disdainful manner me to woo.

But fare you well: perforce I must confess

I thought you lord of more true gentleness.132

O! that a lady of one man refus’d,

Should of another therefore be abus’d.

[Exit.

Lys.

She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there;

And never mayst thou come Lysander near.136

For, as a surfeit of the sweetest things

The deepest loathing to the stomach brings;

Or, as the heresies that men do leave

Are hated most of those they did deceive:140

So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,

Of all be hated, but the most of me!

And, all my powers, address your love and might

To honour Helen, and to be her knight.

[Exit.

Her.

[Awaking.] Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best145

To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast.

Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here!

Lysander, look how I do quake with fear:148

Methought a serpent eat my heart away,

And you sat smiling at his cruel prey.

Lysander! what! remov’d?—Lysander! lord!

What! out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word?152

Alack! where are you? speak, an if you hear;

Speak, of all loves! I swound almost with fear.

No! then I well perceive you are not nigh:

Either death or you I’ll find immediately.

[Exit.

ACT III.

Scene I.—

A Wood.Titanialying asleep.

EnterQuince, Snug, Bottom, Flute, Snout,andStarveling.

Bot.

Are we all met?

Quin.

Pat, pat; and here’s a marvellous convenient place for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn-brake our tiring-house; and we will do it in action as we will do it before the duke.

Bot.

Peter Quince,—

Quin.

What sayst thou, bully Bottom?8

Bot.

There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill himself, which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that?13

Snout.

By’r lakin, a parlous fear.

Star.

I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.16

Bot.

Not a whit: I have a device to make all well. Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to say, we will do no harm with our swords, and that Pyramus is not killed indeed; and, for the more better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put them out of fear.

Quin.

Well, we will have such a prologue, and it shall be written in eight and six.25

Bot.

No, make it two more: let it be written in eight and eight.

Snout.

Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?29

Star.

I fear it, I promise you.

Bot.

Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves: to bring in,—God shield us!—a lion among ladies, is a most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful wild-fowl than your lion living, and we ought to look to it.

Snout.

Therefore, another prologue must tell he is not a lion.37

Bot.

Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must be seen through the lion’s neck; and he himself must speak through, saying thus, or to the same defect, ‘Ladies,’ or, ‘Fair ladies,’ ‘I would wish you,’ or, ‘I would request you,’ or, ‘I would entreat you, not to fear, not to tremble: my life for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life: no, I am no such thing: I am a man as other men are;’ and there indeed let him name his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner.48

Quin.

Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard things, that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber; for, you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moonlight.52

Snug.

Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?

Bot.

A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanack; find out moonshine, find out moonshine.57

Quin.

Yes, it doth shine that night.

Bot.

Why, then may you leave a casement of the great chamber-window, where we play, open; and the moon may shine in at the casement.62

Quin.

Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure, or to present, the person of Moonshine. Then, there is another thing: we must have a wall in the great chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby, says the story, did talk through the chink of a wall.69

Snug.

You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom?

Bot.

Some man or other must present Wall; and let him have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast about him, to signify wall; and let him hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper.76

Quin.

If that may be, than all is well. Come, sit down, every mother’s son, and rehearse your parts. Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken your speech, enter into that brake; and so every one according to his cue.81

EnterPuck,behind.

Puck.

What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here,

So near the cradle of the fairy queen?

What! a play toward; I’ll be an auditor;84

An actor too perhaps, if I see cause.

Quin.

Speak, Pyramus.—Thisby, stand forth.

Bot.

Thisby, the flowers have odious savours sweet,—

Quin.

Odorous, odorous.88

Bot.

—odours savours sweet:

So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear. But hark, a voice! stay thou but here awhile,

And by and by I will to thee appear.

[Exit.

Puck.

A stranger Pyramus than e’er play’d here!

[Exit.

Flu.

Must I speak now?

Quin.

Ay, marry, must you; for you must understand, he goes but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again.97

Flu.

Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue,

Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier,

Most brisky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew,

As true as truest horse that yet would never tire,101

I’ll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny’s tomb.

Quin.

‘Ninus’ tomb,’ man. Why, you must not speak that yet; that you answer to Pyramus: you speak all your part at once, cues and all. Pyramus, enter: your cue is past; it is ‘never tire.’

Flu.

O!—As true as truest horse, that yet would never tire.108

Re-enterPuck,andBottomwith an ass’s head.

Bot.

If I were, fair Thisby, I were only thine.

Quin.

O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted.

Pray, masters! fly, masters!—Help!

[Exeunt Clowns.

Puck.

I’ll follow you, I’ll lead you about a round,112

Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier:

Sometime a horse I’ll be, sometime a hound,

A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire;

And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,116

Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.

[Exit.

Bot.

Why do they run away? this is a knavery of them to make me afeard.

Re-enterSnout.

Snout.

O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on thee?121

Bot.

What do you see? you see an ass-head of your own, do you?

[ExitSnout.

Re-enterQuince.

Quin.

Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art translated.

[Exit.

Bot.

I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me; to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir from this place, do what they can: I will walk up and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear I am not afraid.

The ousel-cock, so black of hue,

With orange-tawny bill,132

The throstle with his note so true,

The wren with little quill.

Tita.

[Awaking.] What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?136

Bot.

The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,

The plain-song cuckoo gray,

Whose note full many a man doth mark,

And dares not answer, nay;140

for indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry ‘cuckoo’ never so?

Tita.

I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:

Mine ear is much enamour’d of thy note;145

So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;

And thy fair virtue’s force, perforce, doth move me,

On the first view, to say, to swear, I love thee.

Bot.

Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together now-a-days. The more the pity, that some honest neighbours will not make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.154

Tita.

Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.

Bot.

Not so, neither; but if I had wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.

Tita.

Out of this wood do not desire to go:

Thou shalt remain here, whe’r thou wilt or no.

I am a spirit of no common rate;161

The summer still doth tend upon my state;

And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;

I’ll give thee fairies to attend on thee,164

And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,

And sing, while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep:

And I will purge thy mortal grossness so

That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.168

Pease-blossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed!

Enter Four Fairies.

Peas.

Ready.

Cob.

And I.

Moth.

And I.

Mus.

And I.

All Four.

Where shall we go?

Tita.

Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;

Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes;172

Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,

With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries.

The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees,

And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs,

And light them at the fiery glow-worm’s eyes,

To have my love to bed, and to arise;

And pluck the wings from painted butterflies

To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:

Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.181

Peas.

Hail, mortal!

Cob.

Hail!

Moth.

Hail!184

Mus.

Hail!

Bot.

I cry your worships mercy, heartily: I beseech your worship’s name.

Cob.

Cobweb.188

Bot.

I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master Cobweb: if I out my finger, I shall make bold with you. Your name, honest gentleman?192

Peas.

Pease-blossom.

Bot.

I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. Good Master Pease-blossom, I shall desire you of more acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you, sir?198

Mus.

Mustard-seed.

Bot.

Good Master Mustard-seed, I know your patience well: that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath devoured many a gentleman of your house. I promise you, your kindred hath made my eyes water ere now. I desire you of more acquaintance, good Master Mustard-seed.

Tita.

Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower.206

The moon methinks, looks with a watery eye;

And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,

Lamenting some enforced chastity.

Tie up my love’s tongue, bring him silently.210

[Exeunt.

Scene II.—

Another Part of the Wood.

EnterOberon.

Obe.

I wonder if Titania be awak’d;

Then, what it was that next came in her eye,

Which she must dote on in extremity.

Here comes my messenger.

EnterPuck.

How now, mad spirit!4

What night-rule now about this haunted grove?

Puck.

My mistress with a monster is in love.

Near to her close and consecrated bower,

While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,8

A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,

That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,

Were met together to rehearse a play

Intended for great Theseus’ nuptial day.12

The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort,

Who Pyramus presented in their sport

Forsook his scene, and enter’d in a brake,

When I did him at this advantage take;16

An ass’s nowl I fixed on his head:

Anon his Thisbe must be answered,

And forth my mimick comes. When they him spy,

As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,20

Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort,

Rising and cawing at the gun’s report,

Sever themselves, and madly sweep the sky;

So, at his sight, away his fellows fly,24

And, at our stamp, here o’er and o’er one falls;

He murder cries, and help from Athens calls.

Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears thus strong,27

Made senseless things begin to do them wrong;

For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch;

Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all things catch.

I led them on in this distracted fear,

And left sweet Pyramus translated there;32

When in that moment, so it came to pass,

Titania wak’d and straightway lov’d an ass.

Obe.

This falls out better than I could devise.

But hast thou yet latch’d the Athenian’s eyes36

With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?

Puck.

I took him sleeping,—that is finish’d too,—

And the Athenian woman by his side;

That, when he wak’d, of force she must be ey’d.

EnterDemetriusandHermia.

Obe.

Stand close: this is the same Athenian.

Puck.

This is the woman; but not this the man.

Dem.

O! why rebuke you him that loves you so?

Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.44

Her.

Now I but chide; but I should use thee worse,

For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse.

If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,

Being o’er shoes in blood, plunge in knee deep,

And kill me too.49

The sun was not so true unto the day

As he to me. Would he have stol’n away

From sleeping Hermia? I’ll believe as soon52

This whole earth may be bor’d, and that the moon

May through the centre creep, and so displease

Her brother’s noontide with the Antipodes.

It cannot be but thou hast murder’d him;56

So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim.

Dem.

So should the murder’d look, and so should I,

Pierc’d through the heart with your stern cruelty;

Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear,

As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere.61

Her.

What’s this to my Lysander? where is he?

Ah! good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me?

Dem.

I had rather give his carcass to my hounds.64

Her.

Out, dog! out, cur! thou driv’st me past the bounds

Of maiden’s patience. Hast thou slain him then?

Henceforth be never number’d among men!

O! once tell true, tell true, e’en for my sake;68

Durst thou have look’d upon him being awake,

And hast thou kill’d him sleeping? O brave touch!

Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?

An adder did it; for with doubler tongue72

Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.

Dem.

You spend your passion on a mispris’d mood:

I am not guilty of Lysander’s blood,

Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.76

Her.

I pray thee, tell me then that he is well.

Dem.

An if I could, what should I get therefore?

Her.

A privilege never to see me more.

And from thy hated presence part I so;80

See me no more, whe’r he be dead or no.

[Exit.

Dem.

There is no following her in this fierce vein:

Here therefore for awhile I will remain.

So sorrow’s heaviness doth heavier grow84

For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe;

Which now in some slight measure it will pay,

If for his tender here I make some stay.

[Lies down and sleeps.

Obe.

What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite,88

And laid the love-juice on some true-love’s sight:

Of thy misprision must perforce ensue

Some true-love turn’d, and not a false turn’d true.

Puck.

Then fate o’er-rules, that, one man holding troth,92

A million fail, confounding oath on oath.

Obe.

About the wood go swifter than the wind,

And Helena of Athens look thou find:

All fancy-sick she is, and pale of cheer96

With sighs of love, that cost the fresh blood dear.

By some illusion see thou bring her here:

I’ll charm his eyes against she do appear.

Puck.

I go, I go; look how I go;100

Swifter than arrow from the Tartar’s bow.

[Exit.

Obe.

Flower of this purple dye,

Hit with Cupid’s archery,

Sink in apple of his eye.104

When his love he doth espy,

Let her shine as gloriously

As the Venus of the sky.

When thou wak’st, if she be by,108

Beg of her for remedy.

Re-enterPuck.

Puck.

Captain of our fairy band,

Helena is here at hand,

And the youth, mistook by me,112

Pleading for a lover’s fee.

Shall we their fond pageant see?

Lord, what fools these mortals be!

Obe.

Stand aside: the noise they make116

Will cause Demetrius to awake.

Puck.

Then will two at once woo one;

That must needs be sport alone;

And those things do best please me120

That befall preposterously.

EnterLysanderandHelena.

Lys.

Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?

Scorn and derision never come in tears:

Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows so born,

In their nativity all truth appears.125

How can these things in me seem scorn to you,

Bearing the badge of faith to prove them true?

Hel.

You do advance your cunning more and more.128

When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray!

These vows are Hermia’s: will you give her o’er?

Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh:

Your vows, to her and me, put in two scales,132

Will even weigh, and both as light as tales.

Lys.

I had no judgment when to her I swore.

Hel.

Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o’er.

Lys.

Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.136

Dem.

[Awaking.] O Helen! goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!

To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne?

Crystal is muddy. O! how ripe in show

Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow,

This pure congealed white, high Taurus’ snow,

Fann’d with the eastern wind, turns to a crow

When thou hold’st up thy hand. O! let me kiss

That princess of pure white, this seal of bliss.144

Hel.

O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent

To set against me for your merriment:

If you were civil and knew courtesy,

You would not do me thus much injury.148

Can you not hate me, as I know you do,

But you must join in souls to mock me too?

If you were men, as men you are in show,

You would not use a gentle lady so;152

To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts,

When I am sure you hate me with your hearts.

You both are rivals, and love Hermia,

And now both rivals, to mock Helena:156

A trim exploit, a manly enterprise,

To conjure tears up in a poor maid’s eyes

With your derision! none of noble sort

Would so offend a virgin, and extort160

A poor soul’s patience, all to make you sport.

Lys.

You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so;

For you love Hermia; this you know I know:

And here, with all good will, with all my heart,

In Hermia’s love I yield you up my part;165

And yours of Helena to me bequeath,

Whom I do love, and will do to my death.

Hel.

Never did mockers waste more idle breath.

Dem.

Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none:

If e’er I lov’d her, all that love is gone.

My heart with her but as guest wise sojourn’d,

And now to Helen it is home return’d,172

There to remain.

Lys.

Helen, it is not so.

Dem.

Disparage not the faith thou dost not know,

Lest to thy peril thou aby it dear.

Look! where thy love comes: yonder is thy dear.

EnterHermia.

Her.

Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,177

The ear more quick of apprehension makes;

Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense,

It pays the hearing double recompense.180

Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found;

Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound.

But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?

Lys.

Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go?184

Her.

What love could press Lysander from my side?

Lys.

Lysander’s love, that would not let him bide,

Fair Helena, who more engilds the night

Than all yon fiery oes and eyes of light.188

Why seek’st thou me? could not this make thee know,

The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so?

Her.

You speak not as you think: it cannot be.

Hel.

Lo! she is one of this confederacy.192

Now I perceive they have conjoin’d all three

To fashion this false sport in spite of me.

Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid!

Have you conspir’d, have you with these contriv’d196

To bait me with this foul derision?

Is all the counsel that we two have shar’d,

The sister-vows, the hours that we have spent,

When we have chid the hasty-footed time200

For parting us, O! is it all forgot?

All school-days’ friendship, childhood innocence?

We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,

Have with our neelds created both one flower,

Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,

Both warbling of one song, both in one key,

As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds,

Had been incorporate. So we grew together,208

Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,

But yet an union in partition;

Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;

So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart;212

Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,

Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.

And will you rent our ancient love asunder,

To join with men in scorning your poor friend?

It is not friendly, ’tis not maidenly:217

Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it,

Though I alone do feel the injury.

Her.

I am amazed at your passionate words.

I scorn you not: it seems that you scorn me.

Hel.

Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn,

To follow me and praise my eyes and face,

And made your other love, Demetrius,—224

Who even but now did spurn me with his foot,—

To call me goddess, nymph, divine and rare,

Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this

To her he hates? and wherefore doth Lysander

Deny your love, so rich within his soul,229

And tender me, forsooth, affection,

But by your setting on, by your consent?

What though I be not so in grace as you,232

So hung upon with love, so fortunate,

But miserable most to love unlov’d?

This you should pity rather than despise.

Her.

I understand not what you mean by this.236

Hel.

Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks,

Make mouths upon me when I turn my back;

Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up:

This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.240

If you have any pity, grace, or manners,

You would not make me such an argument.

But, fare ye well: ’tis partly mine own fault,

Which death or absence soon shall remedy.244

Lys.

Stay, gentle Helena! hear my excuse:

My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena!

Hel.

O excellent!

Her.

Sweet, do not scorn her so.

Dem.

If she cannot entreat, I can compel.248

Lys.

Thou canst compel no more than she entreat:

Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers.

Helen, I love thee; by my life, I do:

I swear by that which I will lose for thee,252

To prove him false that says I love thee not.

Dem.

I say I love thee more than he can do.

Lys.

If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.

Dem.

Quick, come!

Her.

Lysander, whereto tends all this?

Lys.

Away, you Ethiop!

Dem.

No, no, he’ll . . .257

Seem to break loose; take on, as you would follow,

But yet come not: you are a tame man, go!

Lys.

[ToHermia.] Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! vile thing, let loose,260

Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent.

Her.

Why are you grown so rude? what change is this,

Sweet love,—

Lys.

Thy love! out, tawny Tartar, out!

Out, loathed medicine! hated poison, hence!

Her.

Do you not jest?

Hel.

Yes, sooth; and so do you.

Lys.

Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee.

Dem.

I would I had your bond, for I perceive

A weak bond holds you: I’ll not trust your word.

Lys.

What! should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead?269

Although I hate her, I’ll not harm her so.

Her.

What! can you do me greater harm than hate?

Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my love?272

Am not I Hermia? Are not you Lysander?

I am as fair now as I was erewhile.

Since night you lov’d me; yet, since night you left me:

Why, then you left me,—O, the gods forbid!—

In earnest, shall I say?

Lys.

Ay, by my life;277

And never did desire to see thee more.

Therefore be out of hope, of question, doubt;

Be certain, nothing truer: ’tis no jest,280

That I do hate thee and love Helena.

Her.

O me! you juggler! you canker-blossom!

You thief of love! what! have you come by night

And stol’n my love’s heart from him?

Hel.

Fine, i’ faith!

Have you no modesty, no maiden shame,285

No touch of bashfulness? What! will you tear

Impatient answers from my gentle tongue?

Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet you!288

Her.

Puppet! why, so: ay, that way goes the game.

Now I perceive that she hath made compare

Between our statures: she hath urg’d her height;

And with her personage, her tall personage,292

Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail’d with him.

And are you grown so high in his esteem,

Because I am so dwarfish and so low?

How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak;

How low am I? I am not yet so low297

But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.

Hel.

I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen,

Let her not hurt me: I was never curst;300

I have no gift at all in shrewishness;

I am a right maid for my cowardice:

Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think,

Because she is something lower than myself,304

That I can match her.

Her.

Lower! hark, again.

Hel.

Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.

I evermore did love you, Hermia,

Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong’d you;

Save that, in love unto Demetrius,309

I told him of your stealth unto this wood.

He follow’d you; for love I follow’d him;

But he hath chid me hence, and threaten’d me

To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too:313

And now, so you will let me quiet go,

To Athens will I bear my folly back,

And follow you no further: let me go:316

You see how simple and how fond I am.

Her.

Why, get you gone. Who is’t that hinders you?

Hel.

A foolish heart, that I leave here behind.

Her.

What! with Lysander?

Hel.

With Demetrius.

Lys.

Be not afraid: she shall not harm thee, Helena.321

Dem.

No, sir; she shall not, though you take her part.

Hel.

O! when she’s angry, she is keen and shrewd.

She was a vixen when she went to school:324

And though she be but little, she is fierce.

Her.

‘Little’ again! nothing but ‘low’ and ‘little!’

Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?

Let me come to her.

Lys.

Get you gone, you dwarf;328

You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made;

You bead, you acorn!

Dem.

You are too officious

In her behalf that scorns your services.

Let her alone; speak not of Helena;332

Take not her part, for, if thou dost intend

Never so little show of love to her,

Thou shalt aby it.

Lys.

Now she holds me not;

Now follow, if thou dar’st, to try whose right,

Or thine or mine, is most in Helena.337

Dem.

Follow! nay, I’ll go with thee, cheek by jole.

[ExeuntLysanderandDemetrius.

Her.

You, mistress, all this coil is ’long of you:

Nay, go not back.

Hel.

I will not trust you, I,340

Nor longer stay in your curst company.

Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray,

My legs are longer though, to run away.

[Exit.

Her.

I am amaz’d, and know not what to say.

[Exit.

Obe.

This is thy negligence: still thou mistak’st,345

Or else commit’st thy knaveries wilfully.

Puck.

Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.

Did not you tell me I should know the man348

By the Athenian garments he had on?

And so far blameless proves my enterprise,

That I have ’nointed an Athenian’s eyes;

And so far am I glad it so did sort,352

As this their jangling I esteem a sport.

Obe.

Thou see’st these lovers seek a place to fight:

Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night;

The starry welking cover thou anon356

With drooping fog as black as Acheron;

And lead these testy rivals so astray,

As one come not within another’s way.

Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,

Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong;361

And sometime rail thou like Demetrius;

And from each other look thou lead them thus,

Till o’er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep

With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep:

Then crush this herb into Lysander’s eye;

Whose liquor hath this virtuous property,

To take from thence all error with his might,368

And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.

When they next wake, all this derision

Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision;

And back to Athens shall the lovers wend,372

With league whose date till death shall never end.

Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,

I’ll to my queen and beg her Indian boy;

And then I will her charmed eye release376

From monster’s view, and all things shall be peace.

Puck.

My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,

For night’s swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,

And yonder shines Aurora’s harbinger;380

At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there,

Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all,

That in cross-ways and floods have burial,

Already to their wormy beds are gone;384

For fear lest day should look their shames upon,

They wilfully themselves exile from light,

And must for aye consort with black-brow’d night.

Obe.

But we are spirits of another sort.388

I with the morning’s love have oft made sport;

And, like a forester, the groves may tread,

Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red,

Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,392

Turns into yellow gold his salt green-streams.

But, notwithstanding, haste; make no delay:

We may effect this business yet ere day.

[ExitOberon.

Puck.

Up and down, up and down;396

I will lead them up and down:

I am fear’d in field and town;

Goblin, lead them up and down.

Here comes one.400

Re-enterLysander.

Lys.

Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now.

Puck.

Here, villain! drawn and ready. Where art thou?

Lys.

I will be with thee straight.

Puck.

Follow me, then,

To plainer ground.

[ExitLysanderas following the voice.

Re-enterDemetrius.

Dem.

Lysander! speak again.404

Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?

Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?

Puck.

Thou coward! art thou bragging to the stars,

Telling the bushes that thou look’st for wars,

And wilt not come? Come, recreant; come, thou child;409

I’ll whip thee with a rod: he is defil’d

That draws a sword on thee.

Dem.

Yea, art thou there?

Puck.

Follow my voice: we’ll try no manhood here.

[Exeunt.

Re-enterLysander.

Lys.

He goes before me and still dares me on:

When I come where he calls, then he is gone.

The villain is much lighter-heel’d than I:

I follow’d fast, but faster he did fly;416

That fallen am I in dark uneven way,

And here will rest me. [Lies down.] Come, thou gentle day!

For if but once thou show me thy grey light,

I’ll find Demetrius and revenge this spite.420

[Sleeps.

Re-enterPuckandDemetrius.

Puck.

Ho! ho! ho! Coward, why com’st thou not?

Dem.

Abide me, if thou dar’st; for well I wot

Thou runn’st before me, shifting every place,

And dar’st not stand, nor look me in the face.

Where art thou now?

Puck.

Come hither: I am here.

Dem.

Nay then, thou mock’st me. Thou shalt buy this dear,

If ever I thy face by daylight see:

Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me428

To measure out my length on this cold bed:

By day’s approach look to be visited.

[Lies down and sleeps.

Re-enterHelena.

Hel.

O weary night! O long and tedious night,

Abate thy hours! shine, comforts, from the east!432

That I may back to Athens by daylight,

From these that my poor company detest:

And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow’s eye,

Steal me awhile from mine own company.436

[Lies down and sleeps.

Puck.

Yet but three? Come one more;

Two of both kinds make up four.

Here she comes, curst and sad:

Cupid is a knavish lad,440

Thus to make poor females mad.

Re-enterHermia.

Her.

Never so weary, never so in woe,

Bedabbled with the dew and torn with briers,

I can no further crawl, no further go;444

My legs can keep no pace with my desires.

Here will I rest me till the break of day.

Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!

[Lies down and sleeps.

Puck.

On the ground448

Sleep sound:

I’ll apply

To your eye,

Gentle lover, remedy452

[Squeezing the juice onLysander’seyes.

When thou wak’st,

Thou tak’st

True delight

In the sight456

Of thy former lady’s eye:

And the country proverb known,

That every man should take his own,

In your waking shall be shown:460

Jack shall have Jill;

Nought shall go ill;

The man shall have his mare again,

And all shall be well.

[Exit.

ACT IV.

Scene I.—

A Wood.Lysander, Demetrius, HelenaandHermialying asleep.

EnterTitaniaandBottom,Fairies attending;Oberonbehind unseen.

Tita.

Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,

While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,

And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,

And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.4

Bot.

Where’s Pease-blossom?

Peas.

Ready.

Bot.

Scratch my head, Pease-blossom. Where’s Mounsieur Cobweb?8

Cob.

Ready.

Bot.

Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good mounsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, mounsieur; and, good mounsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not; I would be loath to have you overflown with a honey-bag, signior. Where’s Mounsieur Mustard-seed?18

Must.

Ready.

Bot.

Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustard-seed. Pray you, leave your curtsy, good mounsieur.

Must.

What’s your will?23

Bot.

Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber’s, mounsieur, for methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face; and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch.29

Tita.

What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love?

Bot.

I have a reasonable good ear in music: let us have the tongs and the bones.33

Tita.

Or say, sweet love, what thou desir’st to eat.

Bot.

Truly, a peck of provender: I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.39

Tita.

I have a venturous fairy that shall seek

The squirrel’s hoard, and fetch thee thence new nuts.

Bot.

I had rather have a handful or two of dried pease. But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me: I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.45

Tita.

Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.

Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.

[Exeunt Fairies.

So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle48

Gently entwist; the female ivy so

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.

O! how I love thee; how I dote on thee!

[They sleep.

EnterPuck.

Obe.

[Advancing.] Welcome, good Robin. See’st thou this sweet sight?52

Her dotage now I do begin to pity:

For, meeting her of late behind the wood,

Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool,

I did upbraid her and fall out with her;56

For she his hairy temples then had rounded

With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;

And that same dew, which sometime on the buds

Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls,60

Stood now within the pretty flowerets’ eyes

Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail.

When I had at my pleasure taunted her,

And she in mild terms begg’d my patience,64

I then did ask of her her changeling child;

Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent

To bear him to my bower in fairy land.

And now I have the boy, I will undo68

This hateful imperfection of her eyes:

And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp

From off the head of this Athenian swain,

That he, awaking when the other do,72

May all to Athens back again repair,

And think no more of this night’s accidents

But as the fierce vexation of a dream.

But first I will release the fairy queen.76

[Touching her eyes with an herb.

Be as thou wast wont to be;

See as thou wast wont to see:

Dian’s bud o’er Cupid’s flower

Hath such force and blessed power.80

Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.

Tita.

My Oberon! what visions have I seen!

Methought I was enamour’d of an ass.

Obe.

There lies your love.

Tita.

How came these things to pass?

O! how mine eyes do loathe his visage now.85

Obe.

Silence, awhile. Robin, take off this head.

Titania, music call; and strike more dead

Than common sleep of all these five the sense.

Tita.

Music, ho! music! such as charmeth sleep.

[Music.

Puck.

When thou wak’st, with thine own fool’s eyes peep.

Obe.

Sound, music! [Still, music.] Come, my queen, take hands with me,

And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.

Now thou and I are new in amity,93

And will to-morrow midnight solemnly

Dance in Duke Theseus’ house triumphantly,

And bless it to all fair prosperity.96

There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be

Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.

Puck.

Fairy king, attend, and mark:

I do hear the morning lark.100

Obe.

Then, my queen, in silence sad,

Trip we after the night’s shade;

We the globe can compass soon,

Swifter than the wandering moon.104

Tita.

Come, my lord; and in our flight

Tell me how it came this night

That I sleeping here was found

With these mortals on the ground.108

[Exeunt. Horns winded within.

EnterTheseus, Hippolyta, Egeus,and Train.

The.

Go, one of you, find out the forester;

For now our observation is perform’d;

And since we have the vaward of the day,

My love shall hear the music of my hounds.112

Uncouple in the western valley; let them go:

Dispatch, I say, and find the forester.

We will, fair queen, up to the mountain’s top,

And mark the musical confusion116

Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

Hip.

I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,

When in a wood of Crete they bay’d the bear

With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear120

Such gallant chiding; for, besides the groves,

The skies, the fountains, every region near

Seem’d all one mutual cry. I never heard

So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.124

The.

My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,

So flew’d, so sanded; and their heads are hung

With ears that sweep away the morning dew;

Crook-knee’d, and dew-lapp’d like Thessalian bulls;128

Slow in pursuit, but match’d in mouth like bells,

Each under each. A cry more tuneable

Was never holla’d to, nor cheer’d with horn,

In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly:132

Judge, when you hear. But, soft! what nymphs are these?

Ege.

My lord, this is my daughter here asleep;

And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is;

This Helena, old Nedar’s Helena:136

I wonder of their being here together.

The.

No doubt they rose up early to observe

The rite of May, and, hearing our intent,

Came here in grace of our solemnity.140

But speak, Egeus, is not this the day

That Hermia should give answer of her choice?

Ege.

It is, my lord.

The.

Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.144

[Horns and shout within.Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia,andHelena,wake and start up.

Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past:

Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?

Lys.

Pardon, my lord.

[He and the rest kneel.

The.

I pray you all, stand up.

I know you two are rival enemies:148

How comes this gentle concord in the world,

That hatred is so far from jealousy,

To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?

Lys.

My lord, I shall reply amazedly,152

Half sleep, half waking: but as yet, I swear,

I cannot truly say how I came here;

But, as I think,—for truly would I speak,

And now I do bethink me, so it is,—156

I came with Hermia hither: our intent

Was to be gone from Athens, where we might,

Without the peril of the Athenian law—

Ege.

Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough:160

I beg the law, the law, upon his head.

They would have stol’n away; they would, Demetrius,

Thereby to have defeated you and me;

You of your wife, and me of my consent,164

Of my consent that she should be your wife.

Dem.

My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,

Of this their purpose hither, to this wood;

And I in fury hither follow’d them,168

Fair Helena in fancy following me.

But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,—

But by some power it is,—my love to Hermia,

Melted as doth the snow, seems to me now172

As the remembrance of an idle gaud

Which in my childhood I did dote upon;

And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,

The object and the pleasure of mine eye,176

Is only Helena. To her, my lord,

Was I betroth’d ere I saw Hermia:

But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food;

But, as in health, come to my natural taste,

Now do I wish it, love it, long for it,181

And will for evermore be true to it.

The.

Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:

Of this discourse we more will hear anon.184

Egeus, I will overbear your will,

For in the temple, by and by, with us,

These couples shall eternally be knit:

And, for the morning now is something worn,

Our purpos’d hunting shall be set aside.189

Away with us, to Athens: three and three,

We’ll hold a feast in great solemnity.

Come, Hippolyta.192

[ExeuntTheseus, Hippolyta, Egeus,and Train.

Dem.

These things seem small and undistinguishable,

Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.

Her.

Methinks I see these things with parted eye,

When everything seems double.

Hel.

So methinks:

And I have found Demetrius, like a jewel,197

Mine own, and not mine own.

Dem.

Are you sure

That we are awake? It seems to me

That yet we sleep, we dream. Do you not think

The duke was here, and bid us follow him?201

Her.

Yea; and my father.

Hel.

And Hippolyta.

Lys.

And he did bid us follow to the temple.

Dem.

Why then, we are awake. Let’s follow him;204

And by the way let us recount our dreams.

[Exeunt.

Bot.

[Awaking.] When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer: my next is, ‘Most fair Pyramus.’ Heigh-ho! Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout, the tinker! Starveling! God’s my life! stolen hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was: man is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was—there is no man can tell what. Methought I was,—and methought I had,—but man is but a patched fool, if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream: it shall be called Bottom’s Dream, because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the latter end of a play, before the duke: peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it at her death.226

[Exit.

Scene II.—

Athens. A Room inQuince’sHouse.

EnterQuince, Flute, Snout,andStarveling.

Quin.

Have you sent to Bottom’s house? is he come home yet?

Star.

He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is transported.4

Flu.

If he come not, then the play is marred: it goes not forward, doth it?

Quin.

It is not possible: you have not a man in all Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he.9

Flu

No; he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft man in Athens.

Quin.

Yea, and the best person too; and he is a very paramour for a sweet voice.13

Flu.

You must say, ‘paragon:’ a paramour is, God bless us! a thing of naught.

EnterSnug.

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.19

Flu.

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.25

EnterBottom.

Bot.

Where are these lads? where are these hearts?

Quin.

Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour!29

Bot.

Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask me not what; for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I will tell you everything, right as it fell out.33

Quin.

Let us hear, sweet Bottom.

Bot.

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 preferred. 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.

ACT V.

Scene I.—

Athens. An Apartment in the Palace ofTheseus.

EnterTheseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate, Lords, and Attendants.

Hip.

’Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of.

The.

More strange than true. I never may believe

These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,

Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend5

More than cool reason ever comprehends.

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,

Are of imagination all compact:8

One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,

That is, the madman; the lover, all as frantic,

Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt:

The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,12

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;

And, as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen

Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name.17

Such tricks hath strong imagination,

That, if it would but apprehend some joy,

It comprehends some bringer of that joy;20

Or in the night, imagining some fear,

How easy is a bush suppos’d a bear!

Hip.

But all the story of the night told over,

And all their minds transfigur’d so together,24

More witnesseth than fancy’s images,

And grows to something of great constancy,

But, howsoever, strange and admirable.

The.

Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.28

EnterLysander, Demetrius, Hermia,andHelena.

Joy, gentle friends! joy, and fresh days of love

Accompany your hearts!

Lys.

More than to us

Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed!

The.

Come now; what masques, what dances shall we have,32

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,36

To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?

Call Philostrate.

Philost.

Here, mighty Theseus.

The.

Say, what abridgment have you for this evening?

What masque? what music? How shall we beguile40

The lazy time, if not with some delight?

Philost.

There is a brief how many sports are ripe;

Make choice of which your highness will see first.

[Gives a paper.

The.

The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung44

By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.

We’ll none of that: that have I told my love,

In glory of my kinsman Hercules.

The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,48

Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.

That is an old device; and it was play’d

When I from Thebes came last a conqueror.

The thrice three Muses mourning for the death

Of Learning, late deceas’d in beggary.53

That is some satire keen and critical,

Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.

A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus56

And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.

Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!

That is, hot ice and wonderous strange snow.

How shall we find the concord of this discord?

Philost.

A play there is, my lord, some ten words long,61

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 play64

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 rehears’d, I must confess,68

Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears

The passion of loud laughter never shed.

The.

What are they that do play it?

Philost.

Hard-handed men, that work in Athens here,72

Which never labour’d in their minds till now,

And now have toil’d their unbreath’d memories

With this same play, against your nuptial.

The.

And we will hear it.

Philost.

No, my noble lord;

It is not for you: I have heard it over,77

And it is nothing, nothing in the world;

Unless you can find sport in their intents,

Extremely stretch’d and conn’d with cruel pain,

To do you service.

The.

I will hear that play;81

For never anything can be amiss,

When simpleness and duty tender it.

Go, bring them in: and take your places, ladies.

[ExitPhilostrate.

Hip.

I love not to see wretchedness o’ercharg’d,85

And duty in his service perishing.

The.

Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing.

Hip.

He says they can do nothing in this kind.88

The.

The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.

Our sport shall be to take what they mistake:

And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect

Takes it in might, not merit.92

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,96

Throttle their practis’d accent in their fears,

And, in conclusion, dumbly have broke off,

Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,

Out of this silence yet I pick’d a welcome;100

And in the modesty of fearful duty

I read as much as from the rattling tongue

Of saucy and audacious eloquence.

Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity104

In least speak most, to my capacity.

Re-enterPhilostrate.

Philost.

So please your Grace, the Prologue is address’d.

The.

Let him approach.

[Flourish of trumpets.

EnterQuincefor the Prologue.

Prol.

If we offend, it is with our good will.

That you should think, we come not to offend,109

But with good will. To show our simple skill,

That is the true beginning of our end.

Consider then we come but in despite.112

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,116

You shall know all that you are like to know.

The.

This fellow doth not stand upon points.

Lys.

He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not enough to speak, but to speak true.122

Hip.

Indeed he hath played on his prologue like a child on a recorder; a sound, but not in government.

The.

His speech was like a tangled chain; nothing impaired, but all disordered. Who is next?128

EnterPyramusandThisbe, Wall, Moonshine,andLion,as in dumb show.

Prol.

Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show;

But wonder on, till truth make all things plain.

This man is Pyramus, if you would know;

This beauteous lady Thisby is, certain.132

This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present

Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder;

And through Wall’s chink, poor souls, they are content135

To whisper, at the which let no man wonder.

This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn,

Presenteth Moonshine; for, if you will know,

By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn

To meet at Ninus’ tomb, there, there to woo.140

This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name,

The trusty Thisby, coming first by night,

Did scare away, or rather did affright;

And, as she fied, her mantle she did fall,144

Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain.

Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall,

And finds his trusty Thisby’s mantle slain:

Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,148

He bravely broach’d his boiling bloody breast;

And Thisby, tarrying in mulberry shade,

His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,

Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain,

At large discourse, while here they do remain.

[ExeuntPrologue, Pyramus, Thisbe, Lion,andMoonshine.

The.

I wonder, if the lion be to speak.

Dem.

No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when many asses do.156

Wall. In this same interlude it doth befall

That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;

And such a wall, as I would have you think,

That had in it a crannied hole or chink,160

Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,

Did whisper often very secretly.

This loam, this rough-cast, and this stone doth show

That I am that same wall; the truth is so;164

And this the cranny is, right and sinister,

Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.

The.

Would you desire lime and hair to speak better?168

Dem.

It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard discourse, my lord.

The.

Pyramus draws near the wall: silence!

Re-enterPyramus.

Pyr.

O grim-look’d night! O night with hue so black!172

O night, which ever art when day is not!

O night! O night! alack, alack, alack!

I fear my Thisby’s promise is forgot.

And thou, O wall! O sweet, O lovely wall!176

That stand’st between her father’s ground and mine;

Thou wall, O wall! O sweet, and lovely wall!

Show me thy chink to blink through with mine eyne.

[Wall holds up his fingers.

Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this!180

But what see I? No Thisby do I see.

O wicked wall! through whom I see no bliss;

Curs’d be thy stones for thus deceiving me!

The.

The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again.185

Pyr.

No, in truth, sir, he should not. ‘Deceiving me,’ is Thisby’s cue: she is to enter now, and I am to spy her through the wall. You shall see, it will fall pat as I told you. Yonder she comes.

Re-enterThisbe.

This.

O wall! full often hast thou heard my moans,

For parting my fair Pyramus and me:192

My cherry lips have often kiss’d thy stones,

Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.

Pyr.

I see a voice: now will I to the chink,

To spy an I can hear my Thisby’s face.196

Thisby.

This.

My love! thou art my love, I think.

Pyr.

Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover’s grace;

And, like Limander, am I trusty still.200

This.

And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill.

Pyr.

Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.

This.

As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.

Pyr.

O! kiss me through the hole of this vile wall.204

This.

I kiss the wall’s hole, not your lips at all

Pyr.

Wilt thou at Ninny’s tomb meet me straightway?

This.

’Tide life, ’tide death, I come without delay.

[ExeuntPyramusandThisbe.

Wall.

Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so;208

And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.

[Exit

The.

Now is the mural down between the two neighbours.

Dem.

No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear without warning.213

Hip.

This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.

The.

The best in this kind are but shadows, and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them.217

Hip.

It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.

The.

If we imagine no worse of them than they of themselves, they may pass for excellent men. Here come two noble beasts in, a man and a lion.

Re-enterLionandMoonshine.

Lion.

You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear224

The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,

May now perchance both quake and tremble here,

When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.

Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am228

A lion-fell, nor else no lion’s dam:

For, if I should as lion come in strife

Into this place, ’twere pity on my life.

The.

A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience.233

Dem.

The very best at a beast, my lord, that e’er I saw.

Lys.

This lion is a very fox for his valour.

The.

True; and a goose for his discretion.237

Dem.

Not so, my lord; for his valour cannot carry his discretion, and the fox carries the goose.240

The.

His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valour, for the goose carries not the fox. It is well: leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to the moon.244

Moon.

This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;—

Dem.

He should have worn the horns on his head.

The.

He is no crescent, and his horns are invisible within the circumference.249

Moon.

This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;

Myself the man i’ the moon do seem to be.

The.

This is the greatest error of all the rest.

The man should be put into the lanthorn: how is it else the man i’ the moon?

Dem.

He dares not come there for the candle; for, you see, it is already in snuff.256

Hip.

I am aweary of this moon: would he would change!

The.

It appears, by his small light of discretion, that he is in the wane; but yet, in courtesy, in all reason, we must stay the time.261

Lys.

Proceed, Moon.

Moon.

All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the lanthorn is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.

Dem.

Why, all these should be in the lanthorn; for all these are in the moon. But, silence! here comes Thisbe.269

Re-enterThisbe.

This.

This is old Ninny’s tomb. Where is my love?

Lion.

[Roaring.]Oh—.

[Thisberuns off.

Dem.

Well roared, Lion.272

The.

Well run, Thisbe.

Hip.

Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines with a good grace.

[TheLiontearsThisbe’smantle, and exit.

The.

Well moused, Lion.276

Dem.

And then came Pyramus.

Lys.

And so the lion vanished.

Re-enterPyramus.

Pyr.

Sweet moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams;

I thank thee, moon, for shining now so bright,

For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering streams,

I trust to taste of truest Thisby’s sight.

But stay, O spite!

But mark, poor knight,284

What dreadful dole is here!

Eyes, do you see?

How can it be?

O dainty duck! O dear!288

Thy mantle good,

What! stain’d with blood!

Approach, ye Furies fell!

O Fates, come, come,292

Cut thread and thrum;

Quail, crush, conclude, and quell!

The.

This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad.

Hip.

Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man.

Pyr.

O! wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame?

Since lion vile hath here deflower’d my dear?

Which is—no, no—which was the fairest dame

That liv’d, that lov’d, that lik’d, that look’d with cheer.301

Come tears, confound;

Out, sword, and wound

The pap of Pyramus:304

Ay, that left pap,

Where heart doth hop:

Thus die I, thus, thus, thus.

[Stabs himself.

Now am I dead,308

Now am I fled;

My soul is in the sky:

Tongue, lose thy light!

Moon, take thy flight!312

[ExitMoonshine.

Now die, die, die, die, die.

[Dies.

Dem.

No die, but an ace, for him; for he is but one.

Lys.

Less than an ace, man, for he is dead; he is nothing.317

The.

With the help of a surgeon, he might yet recover, and prove an ass.

Hip.

How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe comes back and finds her lover?321

The.

She will find him by starlight. Here she comes; and her passion ends the play.

Re-enterThisbe.

Hip.

Methinks she should not use a long one for such a Pyramus: I hope she will be brief.

Dem.

A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which Thisbe, is the better: he for a man, God warrant us; she for a woman, God bless us.

Lys.

She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes.

Dem.

And thus she moans, videlicet:—

This.

Asleep, my love?332

What, dead, my dove?

O Pyramus, arise!

Speak, speak! Quite dumb?

Dead, dead! A tomb336

Must cover thy sweet eyes.

These lily lips,

This cherry nose,

These yellow cowslip cheeks,340

Are gone, are gone:

Lovers, make moan!

His eyes were green as leeks.

O, Sisters Three,344

Come, come to me,

With hands as pale as milk;

Lay them in gore,

Since you have shore348

With shears his thread of silk.

Tongue, not a word:

Come, trusty sword:

Come, blade, my breast imbrue:352

[Stabs herself.

And farewell, friends;

Thus Thisby ends:

Adieu, adieu, adieu.

[Dies.

The.

Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead.357

Dem.

Ay, and Wall too.

Bot.

No, I assure you; the wall is down that parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two of our company?362

The.

No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse. Never excuse; for when the players are all dead, there need none to be blamed. Marry, if he that writ it had played Pyramus, and hanged himself in Thisbe’s garter, it would have been a fine tragedy: and so it is, truly, and very notably discharged. But come, your Bergomask: let your epilogue alone.

[A dance.

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve;

Lovers, to bed; ’tis almost fairy time.373

I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn,

As much as we this night have overwatch’d.

This palpable-gross play hath well beguil’d376

The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed.

A fortnight hold we this solemnity,

In nightly revels, and new jollity.

[Exeunt.

Scene II.

EnterPuck.

Puck.

Now the hungry lion roars,

And the wolf behowls the moon;

Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,

All with weary task fordone.4

Now the wasted brands do glow,

Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud,

Puts the wretch that lies in woe

In remembrance of a shroud.8

Now it is the time of night

That the graves, all gaping wide,

Every one lets forth his sprite,

In the church-way paths to glide:12

And we fairies, that do run

By the triple Hecate’s team,

From the presence of the sun,

Following darkness like a dream,16

Now are frolic; not a mouse

Shall disturb this hallow’d house:

I am sent with broom before,

To sweep the dust behind the door.20

EnterOberonandTitania,with their Train.

Obe.

Through the house give glimmering light

By the dead and drowsy fire;

Every elf and fairy sprite

Hop as light as bird from brier;24

And this ditty after me

Sing and dance it trippingly.

Tita.

First, rehearse your song by rote,

To each word a warbling note:28

Hand in hand, with fairy grace,

Will we sing, and bless this place.

[Song and dance.

Obe.

Now, until the break of day,

Through this house each fairy stray.32

To the best bride-bed will we,

Which by us shall blessed be;

And the issue there create

Ever shall be fortunate.36

So shall all the couples three

Ever true in loving be;

And the blots of Nature’s hand

Shall not in their issue stand:40

Never mole, hare-lip, nor scar,

Nor mark prodigious, such as are

Despised in nativity,

Shall upon their children be.44

With this field-dew consecrate,

Every fairy take his gait,

And each several chamber bless,

Through this palace, with sweet peace;48

Ever shall in safety rest,

And the owner of it blest.

Trip away;

Make no stay;52

Meet me all by break of day.

[ExeuntOberon, Titania,and Train.

Puck.

If we shadows have offended,

Think but this, and all is mended,

That you have but slumber’d here56

While these visions did appear.

And this weak and idle theme,

No more yielding but a dream,

Gentles, do not reprehend:60

If you pardon, we will mend.

And, as I’m an honest Puck,

If we have unearned luck

Now to ’scape the serpent’s tongue,64

We will make amends ere long;

Else the Puck a liar call:

So, good night unto you all.

Give me your hands, if we be friends,68

And Robin shall restore amends.

[Exit.