A Midsummer Night 's Dream 16.html

<span id = 295 ></span><span id = 299 ><h3>SCENE I. Athens. The palace of THESEUS.</h3><blockquote><i>Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Attendants</i></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour</a><br /><a>Draws on apace; four happy days bring in</a><br /><a>Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow</a><br /><a>This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,</a><br /><a>Like to a step-dame or a dowager</a><br /><a>Long withering out a young man revenue.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HIPPOLYTA</b></a><blockquote><a>Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;</a><br /><a>Four nights will quickly dream away the time;</a><br /><a>And then the moon, like to a silver bow</a><br /><a>New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night</a><br /><a>Of our solemnities.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Go, Philostrate,</a><br /><a>Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;</a><br /><a>Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;</a><br /><a>Turn melancholy forth to funerals;</a><br /><a>The pale companion is not for our pomp.</a><br /><p><i>Exit PHILOSTRATE</i></p><a>Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,</a><br /><a>And won thy love, doing thee injuries;</a><br /><a>But I will wed thee in another key,</a><br /><a>With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.</a><br /><p><i>Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>EGEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with thee?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>EGEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Full of vexation come I, with complaint</a><br /><a>Against my child, my daughter Hermia.</a><br /><a>Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,</a><br /><a>This man hath my consent to marry her.</a><br /><a>Stand forth, Lysander: and my gracious duke,</a><br /><a>This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child;</a><br /><a>Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,</a><br /><a>And interchanged love-tokens with my child:</a><br /><a>Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,</a><br /><a>With feigning voice verses of feigning love,</a><br /><a>And stolen the impression of her fantasy</a><br /><a>With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,</a><br /><a>Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers</a><br /><a>Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth:</a><br /><a>With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart,</a><br /><a>Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,</a><br /><a>To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke,</a><br /><a>Be it so she; will not here before your grace</a><br /><a>Consent to marry with Demetrius,</a><br /><a>I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,</a><br /><a>As she is mine, I may dispose of her:</a><br /><a>Which shall be either to this gentleman</a><br /><a>Or to her death, according to our law</a><br /><a>Immediately provided in that case.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>What say you, Hermia? be advised fair maid:</a><br /><a>To you your father should be as a god;</a><br /><a>One that composed your beauties, yea, and one</a><br /><a>To whom you are but as a form in wax</a><br /><a>By him imprinted and within his power</a><br /><a>To leave the figure or disfigure it.</a><br /><a>Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>So is Lysander.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>                  In himself he is;</a><br /><a>But in this kind, wanting your father's voice,</a><br /><a>The other must be held the worthier.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>I would my father look'd but with my eyes.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>I do entreat your grace to pardon me.</a><br /><a>I know not by what power I am made bold,</a><br /><a>Nor how it may concern my modesty,</a><br /><a>In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;</a><br /><a>But I beseech your grace that I may know</a><br /><a>The worst that may befall me in this case,</a><br /><a>If I refuse to wed Demetrius.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Either to die the death or to abjure</a><br /><a>For ever the society of men.</a><br /><a>Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires;</a><br /><a>Know of your youth, examine well your blood,</a><br /><a>Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,</a><br /><a>You can endure the livery of a nun,</a><br /><a>For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd,</a><br /><a>To live a barren sister all your life,</a><br /><a>Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.</a><br /><a>Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood,</a><br /><a>To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;</a><br /><a>But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,</a><br /><a>Than that which withering on the virgin thorn</a><br /><a>Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,</a><br /><a>Ere I will my virgin patent up</a><br /><a>Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke</a><br /><a>My soul consents not to give sovereignty.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Take time to pause; and, by the nest new moon--</a><br /><a>The sealing-day betwixt my love and me,</a><br /><a>For everlasting bond of fellowship--</a><br /><a>Upon that day either prepare to die</a><br /><a>For disobedience to your father's will,</a><br /><a>Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would;</a><br /><a>Or on Diana's altar to protest</a><br /><a>For aye austerity and single life.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Relent, sweet Hermia: and, Lysander, yield</a><br /><a>Thy crazed title to my certain right.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>You have her father's love, Demetrius;</a><br /><a>Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>EGEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love,</a><br /><a>And what is mine my love shall render him.</a><br /><a>And she is mine, and all my right of her</a><br /><a>I do estate unto Demetrius.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>I am, my lord, as well derived as he,</a><br /><a>As well possess'd; my love is more than his;</a><br /><a>My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,</a><br /><a>If not with vantage, as Demetrius';</a><br /><a>And, which is more than all these boasts can be,</a><br /><a>I am beloved of beauteous Hermia:</a><br /><a>Why should not I then prosecute my right?</a><br /><a>Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,</a><br /><a>Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,</a><br /><a>And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,</a><br /><a>Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,</a><br /><a>Upon this spotted and inconstant man.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I must confess that I have heard so much,</a><br /><a>And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof;</a><br /><a>But, being over-full of self-affairs,</a><br /><a>My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come;</a><br /><a>And come, Egeus; you shall go with me,</a><br /><a>I have some private schooling for you both.</a><br /><a>For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself</a><br /><a>To fit your fancies to your father's will;</a><br /><a>Or else the law of Athens yields you up--</a><br /><a>Which by no means we may extenuate--</a><br /><a>To death, or to a vow of single life.</a><br /><a>Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love?</a><br /><a>Demetrius and Egeus, go along:</a><br /><a>I must employ you in some business</a><br /><a>Against our nuptial and confer with you</a><br /><a>Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>EGEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>With duty and desire we follow you.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt all but LYSANDER and HERMIA</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale?</a><br /><a>How chance the roses there do fade so fast?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Belike for want of rain, which I could well</a><br /><a>Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay me! for aught that I could ever read,</a><br /><a>Could ever hear by tale or history,</a><br /><a>The course of true love never did run smooth;</a><br /><a>But, either it was different in blood,--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Or else misgraffed in respect of years,--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>O spite! too old to be engaged to young.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>O hell! to choose love by another's eyes.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,</a><br /><a>War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,</a><br /><a>Making it momentany as a sound,</a><br /><a>Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;</a><br /><a>Brief as the lightning in the collied night,</a><br /><a>That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,</a><br /><a>And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!'</a><br /><a>The jaws of darkness do devour it up:</a><br /><a>So quick bright things come to confusion.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>If then true lovers have been ever cross'd,</a><br /><a>It stands as an edict in destiny:</a><br /><a>Then let us teach our trial patience,</a><br /><a>Because it is a customary cross,</a><br /><a>As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,</a><br /><a>Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>A good persuasion: therefore, hear me, Hermia.</a><br /><a>I have a widow aunt, a dowager</a><br /><a>Of great revenue, and she hath no child:</a><br /><a>From Athens is her house remote seven leagues;</a><br /><a>And she respects me as her only son.</a><br /><a>There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;</a><br /><a>And to that place the sharp Athenian law</a><br /><a>Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,</a><br /><a>Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night;</a><br /><a>And in the wood, a league without the town,</a><br /><a>Where I did meet thee once with Helena,</a><br /><a>To do observance to a morn of May,</a><br /><a>There will I stay for thee.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>My good Lysander!</a><br /><a>I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow,</a><br /><a>By his best arrow with the golden head,</a><br /><a>By the simplicity of Venus' doves,</a><br /><a>By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,</a><br /><a>And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen,</a><br /><a>When the false Troyan under sail was seen,</a><br /><a>By all the vows that ever men have broke,</a><br /><a>In number more than ever women spoke,</a><br /><a>In that same place thou hast appointed me,</a><br /><a>To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.</a><br /><p><i>Enter HELENA</i></p></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>God speed fair Helena! whither away?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>Call you me fair? that fair again unsay.</a><br /><a>Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!</a><br /><a>Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's sweet air</a><br /><a>More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,</a><br /><a>When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.</a><br /><a>Sickness is catching: O, were favour so,</a><br /><a>Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;</a><br /><a>My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,</a><br /><a>My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.</a><br /><a>Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,</a><br /><a>The rest I'd give to be to you translated.</a><br /><a>O, teach me how you look, and with what art</a><br /><a>You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>I give him curses, yet he gives me love.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>O that my prayers could such affection move!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>The more I hate, the more he follows me.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>The more I love, the more he hateth me.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Take comfort: he no more shall see my face;</a><br /><a>Lysander and myself will fly this place.</a><br /><a>Before the time I did Lysander see,</a><br /><a>Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me:</a><br /><a>O, then, what graces in my love do dwell,</a><br /><a>That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Helen, to you our minds we will unfold:</a><br /><a>To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold</a><br /><a>Her silver visage in the watery glass,</a><br /><a>Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,</a><br /><a>A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,</a><br /><a>Through Athens' gates have we devised to steal.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>And in the wood, where often you and I</a><br /><a>Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,</a><br /><a>Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,</a><br /><a>There my Lysander and myself shall meet;</a><br /><a>And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,</a><br /><a>To seek new friends and stranger companies.</a><br /><a>Farewell, sweet playfellow: pray thou for us;</a><br /><a>And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!</a><br /><a>Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight</a><br /><a>From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>I will, my Hermia.</a><br /><p><i>Exit HERMIA</i></p><a>Helena, adieu:</a><br /><a>As you on him, Demetrius dote on you!</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>How happy some o'er other some can be!</a><br /><a>Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.</a><br /><a>But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;</a><br /><a>He will not know what all but he do know:</a><br /><a>And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,</a><br /><a>So I, admiring of his qualities:</a><br /><a>Things base and vile, folding no quantity,</a><br /><a>Love can transpose to form and dignity:</a><br /><a>Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;</a><br /><a>And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:</a><br /><a>Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;</a><br /><a>Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:</a><br /><a>And therefore is Love said to be a child,</a><br /><a>Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.</a><br /><a>As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,</a><br /><a>So the boy Love is perjured every where:</a><br /><a>For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,</a><br /><a>He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;</a><br /><a>And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,</a><br /><a>So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.</a><br /><a>I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:</a><br /><a>Then to the wood will he to-morrow night</a><br /><a>Pursue her; and for this intelligence</a><br /><a>If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:</a><br /><a>But herein mean I to enrich my pain,</a><br /><a>To have his sight thither and back again.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 302 ><h3>SCENE II. Athens. QUINCE'S house.</h3><blockquote><i>Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING</i></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Is all our company here?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>You were best to call them generally, man by man,</a><br /><a>according to the scrip.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is</a><br /><a>thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our</a><br /><a>interlude before the duke and the duchess, on his</a><br /><a>wedding-day at night.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats</a><br /><a>on, then read the names of the actors, and so grow</a><br /><a>to a point.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Marry, our play is, The most lamentable comedy, and</a><br /><a>most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a</a><br /><a>merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your</a><br /><a>actors by the scroll. Masters, spread yourselves.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>That will ask some tears in the true performing of</a><br /><a>it: if I do it, let the audience look to their</a><br /><a>eyes; I will move storms, I will condole in some</a><br /><a>measure. To the rest: yet my chief humour is for a</a><br /><a>tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to</a><br /><a>tear a cat in, to make all split.</a><br /><a>The raging rocks</a><br /><a>And shivering shocks</a><br /><a>Shall break the locks</a><br /><a>Of prison gates;</a><br /><a>And Phibbus' car</a><br /><a>Shall shine from far</a><br /><a>And make and mar</a><br /><a>The foolish Fates.</a><br /><a>This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players.</a><br /><a>This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is</a><br /><a>more condoling.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>FLUTE</b></a><blockquote><a>Here, Peter Quince.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Flute, you must take Thisby on you.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>FLUTE</b></a><blockquote><a>What is Thisby? a wandering knight?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>It is the lady that Pyramus must love.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>FLUTE</b></a><blockquote><a>Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>That's all one: you shall play it in a mask, and</a><br /><a>you may speak as small as you will.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too, I'll</a><br /><a>speak in a monstrous little voice. 'Thisne,</a><br /><a>Thisne;' 'Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! thy Thisby dear,</a><br /><a>and lady dear!'</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>No, no; you must play Pyramus: and, Flute, you Thisby.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Well, proceed.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Robin Starveling, the tailor.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>STARVELING</b></a><blockquote><a>Here, Peter Quince.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother.</a><br /><a>Tom Snout, the tinker.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SNOUT</b></a><blockquote><a>Here, Peter Quince.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>You, Pyramus' father: myself, Thisby's father:</a><br /><a>Snug, the joiner; you, the lion's part: and, I</a><br /><a>hope, here is a play fitted.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SNUG</b></a><blockquote><a>Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if it</a><br /><a>be, give it me, for I am slow of study.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I will</a><br /><a>do any man's heart good to hear me; I will roar,</a><br /><a>that I will make the duke say 'Let him roar again,</a><br /><a>let him roar again.'</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>An you should do it too terribly, you would fright</a><br /><a>the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek;</a><br /><a>and that were enough to hang us all.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ALL</b></a><blockquote><a>That would hang us, every mother's son.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the</a><br /><a>ladies out of their wits, they would have no more</a><br /><a>discretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my</a><br /><a>voice so that I will roar you as gently as any</a><br /><a>sucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any</a><br /><a>nightingale.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a</a><br /><a>sweet-faced man; a proper man, as one shall see in a</a><br /><a>summer's day; a most lovely gentleman-like man:</a><br /><a>therefore you must needs play Pyramus.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best</a><br /><a>to play it in?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, what you will.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>I will discharge it in either your straw-colour</a><br /><a>beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain</a><br /><a>beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, your</a><br /><a>perfect yellow.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and</a><br /><a>then you will play bare-faced. But, masters, here</a><br /><a>are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request</a><br /><a>you and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night;</a><br /><a>and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the</a><br /><a>town, by moonlight; there will we rehearse, for if</a><br /><a>we meet in the city, we shall be dogged with</a><br /><a>company, and our devices known. In the meantime I</a><br /><a>will draw a bill of properties, such as our play</a><br /><a>wants. I pray you, fail me not.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>We will meet; and there we may rehearse most</a><br /><a>obscenely and courageously. Take pains; be perfect: adieu.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>At the duke's oak we meet.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><a>Enough; hold or cut bow-strings.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></span><span id = 304 ></span><span id = 308 ><h3>SCENE I. A wood near Athens.</h3><blockquote><i>Enter, from opposite sides, a Fairy, and PUCK</i></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>How now, spirit! whither wander you?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Fairy</b></a><blockquote><a>     Over hill, over dale,</a><br /><a>Thorough bush, thorough brier,</a><br /><a>Over park, over pale,</a><br /><a>Thorough flood, thorough fire,</a><br /><a>I do wander everywhere,</a><br /><a>Swifter than the moon's sphere;</a><br /><a>And I serve the fairy queen,</a><br /><a>To dew her orbs upon the green.</a><br /><a>The cowslips tall her pensioners be:</a><br /><a>In their gold coats spots you see;</a><br /><a>Those be rubies, fairy favours,</a><br /><a>In those freckles live their savours:</a><br /><a>I must go seek some dewdrops here</a><br /><a>And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.</a><br /><a>Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone:</a><br /><a>Our queen and all our elves come here anon.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>The king doth keep his revels here to-night:</a><br /><a>Take heed the queen come not within his sight;</a><br /><a>For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,</a><br /><a>Because that she as her attendant hath</a><br /><a>A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king;</a><br /><a>She never had so sweet a changeling;</a><br /><a>And jealous Oberon would have the child</a><br /><a>Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;</a><br /><a>But she perforce withholds the loved boy,</a><br /><a>Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy:</a><br /><a>And now they never meet in grove or green,</a><br /><a>By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,</a><br /><a>But, they do square, that all their elves for fear</a><br /><a>Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Fairy</b></a><blockquote><a>Either I mistake your shape and making quite,</a><br /><a>Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite</a><br /><a>Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he</a><br /><a>That frights the maidens of the villagery;</a><br /><a>Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern</a><br /><a>And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;</a><br /><a>And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;</a><br /><a>Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?</a><br /><a>Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,</a><br /><a>You do their work, and they shall have good luck:</a><br /><a>Are not you he?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>                  Thou speak'st aright;</a><br /><a>I am that merry wanderer of the night.</a><br /><a>I jest to Oberon and make him smile</a><br /><a>When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,</a><br /><a>Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:</a><br /><a>And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,</a><br /><a>In very likeness of a roasted crab,</a><br /><a>And when she drinks, against her lips I bob</a><br /><a>And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.</a><br /><a>The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,</a><br /><a>Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;</a><br /><a>Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,</a><br /><a>And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;</a><br /><a>And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,</a><br /><a>And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear</a><br /><a>A merrier hour was never wasted there.</a><br /><a>But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Fairy</b></a><blockquote><a>And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!</a><br /><p><i>Enter, from one side, OBERON, with his train; from the other, TITANIA, with hers</i></p></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence:</a><br /><a>I have forsworn his bed and company.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Then I must be thy lady: but I know</a><br /><a>When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,</a><br /><a>And in the shape of Corin sat all day,</a><br /><a>Playing on pipes of corn and versing love</a><br /><a>To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,</a><br /><a>Come from the farthest Steppe of India?</a><br /><a>But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,</a><br /><a>Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love,</a><br /><a>To Theseus must be wedded, and you come</a><br /><a>To give their bed joy and prosperity.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,</a><br /><a>Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,</a><br /><a>Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?</a><br /><a>Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night</a><br /><a>From Perigenia, whom he ravished?</a><br /><a>And make him with fair AEgle break his faith,</a><br /><a>With Ariadne and Antiopa?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>These are the forgeries of jealousy:</a><br /><a>And never, since the middle summer's spring,</a><br /><a>Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,</a><br /><a>By paved fountain or by rushy brook,</a><br /><a>Or in the beached margent of the sea,</a><br /><a>To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,</a><br /><a>But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.</a><br /><a>Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,</a><br /><a>As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea</a><br /><a>Contagious fogs; which falling in the land</a><br /><a>Have every pelting river made so proud</a><br /><a>That they have overborne their continents:</a><br /><a>The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,</a><br /><a>The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn</a><br /><a>Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard;</a><br /><a>The fold stands empty in the drowned field,</a><br /><a>And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;</a><br /><a>The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud,</a><br /><a>And the quaint mazes in the wanton green</a><br /><a>For lack of tread are undistinguishable:</a><br /><a>The human mortals want their winter here;</a><br /><a>No night is now with hymn or carol blest:</a><br /><a>Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,</a><br /><a>Pale in her anger, washes all the air,</a><br /><a>That rheumatic diseases do abound:</a><br /><a>And thorough this distemperature we see</a><br /><a>The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts</a><br /><a>Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,</a><br /><a>And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown</a><br /><a>An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds</a><br /><a>Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,</a><br /><a>The childing autumn, angry winter, change</a><br /><a>Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,</a><br /><a>By their increase, now knows not which is which:</a><br /><a>And this same progeny of evils comes</a><br /><a>From our debate, from our dissension;</a><br /><a>We are their parents and original.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>Do you amend it then; it lies in you:</a><br /><a>Why should Titania cross her Oberon?</a><br /><a>I do but beg a little changeling boy,</a><br /><a>To be my henchman.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>                  Set your heart at rest:</a><br /><a>The fairy land buys not the child of me.</a><br /><a>His mother was a votaress of my order:</a><br /><a>And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,</a><br /><a>Full often hath she gossip'd by my side,</a><br /><a>And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,</a><br /><a>Marking the embarked traders on the flood,</a><br /><a>When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive</a><br /><a>And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;</a><br /><a>Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait</a><br /><a>Following,--her womb then rich with my young squire,--</a><br /><a>Would imitate, and sail upon the land,</a><br /><a>To fetch me trifles, and return again,</a><br /><a>As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.</a><br /><a>But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;</a><br /><a>And for her sake do I rear up her boy,</a><br /><a>And for her sake I will not part with him.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>How long within this wood intend you stay?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Perchance till after Theseus' wedding-day.</a><br /><a>If you will patiently dance in our round</a><br /><a>And see our moonlight revels, go with us;</a><br /><a>If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away!</a><br /><a>We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.</a><br /><p><i>Exit TITANIA with her train</i></p></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove</a><br /><a>Till I torment thee for this injury.</a><br /><a>My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest</a><br /><a>Since once I sat upon a promontory,</a><br /><a>And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back</a><br /><a>Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath</a><br /><a>That the rude sea grew civil at her song</a><br /><a>And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,</a><br /><a>To hear the sea-maid's music.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>I remember.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,</a><br /><a>Flying between the cold moon and the earth,</a><br /><a>Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took</a><br /><a>At a fair vestal throned by the west,</a><br /><a>And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,</a><br /><a>As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;</a><br /><a>But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft</a><br /><a>Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon,</a><br /><a>And the imperial votaress passed on,</a><br /><a>In maiden meditation, fancy-free.</a><br /><a>Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:</a><br /><a>It fell upon a little western flower,</a><br /><a>Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,</a><br /><a>And maidens call it love-in-idleness.</a><br /><a>Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once:</a><br /><a>The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid</a><br /><a>Will make or man or woman madly dote</a><br /><a>Upon the next live creature that it sees.</a><br /><a>Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again</a><br /><a>Ere the leviathan can swim a league.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>I'll put a girdle round about the earth</a><br /><a>In forty minutes.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>                  Having once this juice,</a><br /><a>I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,</a><br /><a>And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.</a><br /><a>The next thing then she waking looks upon,</a><br /><a>Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,</a><br /><a>On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,</a><br /><a>She shall pursue it with the soul of love:</a><br /><a>And ere I take this charm from off her sight,</a><br /><a>As I can take it with another herb,</a><br /><a>I'll make her render up her page to me.</a><br /><a>But who comes here? I am invisible;</a><br /><a>And I will overhear their conference.</a><br /><p><i>Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA, following him</i></p></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.</a><br /><a>Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?</a><br /><a>The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.</a><br /><a>Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood;</a><br /><a>And here am I, and wode within this wood,</a><br /><a>Because I cannot meet my Hermia.</a><br /><a>Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;</a><br /><a>But yet you draw not iron, for my heart</a><br /><a>Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw,</a><br /><a>And I shall have no power to follow you.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Do I entice you? do I speak you fair?</a><br /><a>Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth</a><br /><a>Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>And even for that do I love you the more.</a><br /><a>I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,</a><br /><a>The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:</a><br /><a>Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,</a><br /><a>Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,</a><br /><a>Unworthy as I am, to follow you.</a><br /><a>What worser place can I beg in your love,--</a><br /><a>And yet a place of high respect with me,--</a><br /><a>Than to be used as you use your dog?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;</a><br /><a>For I am sick when I do look on thee.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>And I am sick when I look not on you.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>You do impeach your modesty too much,</a><br /><a>To leave the city and commit yourself</a><br /><a>Into the hands of one that loves you not;</a><br /><a>To trust the opportunity of night</a><br /><a>And the ill counsel of a desert place</a><br /><a>With the rich worth of your virginity.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>Your virtue is my privilege: for that</a><br /><a>It is not night when I do see your face,</a><br /><a>Therefore I think I am not in the night;</a><br /><a>Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,</a><br /><a>For you in my respect are all the world:</a><br /><a>Then how can it be said I am alone,</a><br /><a>When all the world is here to look on me?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,</a><br /><a>And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>The wildest hath not such a heart as you.</a><br /><a>Run when you will, the story shall be changed:</a><br /><a>Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;</a><br /><a>The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind</a><br /><a>Makes speed to catch the tiger; bootless speed,</a><br /><a>When cowardice pursues and valour flies.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I will not stay thy questions; let me go:</a><br /><a>Or, if thou follow me, do not believe</a><br /><a>But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,</a><br /><a>You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!</a><br /><a>Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:</a><br /><a>We cannot fight for love, as men may do;</a><br /><a>We should be wood and were not made to woo.</a><br /><p><i>Exit DEMETRIUS</i></p><a>I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,</a><br /><a>To die upon the hand I love so well.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove,</a><br /><a>Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter PUCK</i></p><a>Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, there it is.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>I pray thee, give it me.</a><br /><a>I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,</a><br /><a>Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,</a><br /><a>Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,</a><br /><a>With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:</a><br /><a>There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,</a><br /><a>Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;</a><br /><a>And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,</a><br /><a>Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:</a><br /><a>And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,</a><br /><a>And make her full of hateful fantasies.</a><br /><a>Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:</a><br /><a>A sweet Athenian lady is in love</a><br /><a>With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;</a><br /><a>But do it when the next thing he espies</a><br /><a>May be the lady: thou shalt know the man</a><br /><a>By the Athenian garments he hath on.</a><br /><a>Effect it with some care, that he may prove</a><br /><a>More fond on her than she upon her love:</a><br /><a>And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 309 ><h3>SCENE II. Another part of the wood.</h3><blockquote><i>Enter TITANIA, with her train</i></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;</a><br /><a>Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;</a><br /><a>Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,</a><br /><a>Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,</a><br /><a>To make my small elves coats, and some keep back</a><br /><a>The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders</a><br /><a>At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;</a><br /><a>Then to your offices and let me rest.</a><br /><p><i>The Fairies sing</i></p><a>You spotted snakes with double tongue,</a><br /><a>Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;</a><br /><a>Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,</a><br /><a>Come not near our fairy queen.</a><br /><a>Philomel, with melody</a><br /><a>Sing in our sweet lullaby;</a><br /><a>Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:</a><br /><a>Never harm,</a><br /><a>Nor spell nor charm,</a><br /><a>Come our lovely lady nigh;</a><br /><a>So, good night, with lullaby.</a><br /><a>Weaving spiders, come not here;</a><br /><a>Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!</a><br /><a>Beetles black, approach not near;</a><br /><a>Worm nor snail, do no offence.</a><br /><a>Philomel, with melody,  &amp; c.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Fairy</b></a><blockquote><a>Hence, away! now all is well:</a><br /><a>One aloof stand sentinel.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt Fairies. TITANIA sleeps</i></p><p><i>Enter OBERON and squeezes the flower on TITANIA's eyelids</i></p></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>What thou seest when thou dost wake,</a><br /><a>Do it for thy true-love take,</a><br /><a>Love and languish for his sake:</a><br /><a>Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,</a><br /><a>Pard, or boar with bristled hair,</a><br /><a>In thy eye that shall appear</a><br /><a>When thou wakest, it is thy dear:</a><br /><a>Wake when some vile thing is near.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p><p><i>Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood;</a><br /><a>And to speak troth, I have forgot our way:</a><br /><a>We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,</a><br /><a>And tarry for the comfort of the day.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed;</a><br /><a>For I upon this bank will rest my head.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;</a><br /><a>One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear,</a><br /><a>Lie further off yet, do not lie so near.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!</a><br /><a>Love takes the meaning in love's conference.</a><br /><a>I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit</a><br /><a>So that but one heart we can make of it;</a><br /><a>Two bosoms interchained with an oath;</a><br /><a>So then two bosoms and a single troth.</a><br /><a>Then by your side no bed-room me deny;</a><br /><a>For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Lysander riddles very prettily:</a><br /><a>Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,</a><br /><a>If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied.</a><br /><a>But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy</a><br /><a>Lie further off; in human modesty,</a><br /><a>Such separation as may well be said</a><br /><a>Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid,</a><br /><a>So far be distant; and, good night, sweet friend:</a><br /><a>Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I;</a><br /><a>And then end life when I end loyalty!</a><br /><a>Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd!</a><br /><p><i>They sleep</i></p><p><i>Enter PUCK</i></p></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>Through the forest have I gone.</a><br /><a>But Athenian found I none,</a><br /><a>On whose eyes I might approve</a><br /><a>This flower's force in stirring love.</a><br /><a>Night and silence.--Who is here?</a><br /><a>Weeds of Athens he doth wear:</a><br /><a>This is he, my master said,</a><br /><a>Despised the Athenian maid;</a><br /><a>And here the maiden, sleeping sound,</a><br /><a>On the dank and dirty ground.</a><br /><a>Pretty soul! she durst not lie</a><br /><a>Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.</a><br /><a>Churl, upon thy eyes I throw</a><br /><a>All the power this charm doth owe.</a><br /><a>When thou wakest, let love forbid</a><br /><a>Sleep his seat on thy eyelid:</a><br /><a>So awake when I am gone;</a><br /><a>For I must now to Oberon.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p><p><i>Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running</i></p></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>O, wilt thou darkling leave me? do not so.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Stay, on thy peril: I alone will go.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!</a><br /><a>The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.</a><br /><a>Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies;</a><br /><a>For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.</a><br /><a>How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears:</a><br /><a>If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers.</a><br /><a>No, no, I am as ugly as a bear;</a><br /><a>For beasts that meet me run away for fear:</a><br /><a>Therefore no marvel though Demetrius</a><br /><a>Do, as a monster fly my presence thus.</a><br /><a>What wicked and dissembling glass of mine</a><br /><a>Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne?</a><br /><a>But who is here? Lysander! on the ground!</a><br /><a>Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.</a><br /><a>Lysander if you live, good sir, awake.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>[Awaking]  And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake.</a><br /><a>Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,</a><br /><a>That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.</a><br /><a>Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word</a><br /><a>Is that vile name to perish on my sword!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>Do not say so, Lysander; say not so</a><br /><a>What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?</a><br /><a>Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Content with Hermia! No; I do repent</a><br /><a>The tedious minutes I with her have spent.</a><br /><a>Not Hermia but Helena I love:</a><br /><a>Who will not change a raven for a dove?</a><br /><a>The will of man is by his reason sway'd;</a><br /><a>And reason says you are the worthier maid.</a><br /><a>Things growing are not ripe until their season</a><br /><a>So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;</a><br /><a>And touching now the point of human skill,</a><br /><a>Reason becomes the marshal to my will</a><br /><a>And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook</a><br /><a>Love's stories written in love's richest book.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?</a><br /><a>When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?</a><br /><a>Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man,</a><br /><a>That I did never, no, nor never can,</a><br /><a>Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye,</a><br /><a>But you must flout my insufficiency?</a><br /><a>Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do,</a><br /><a>In such disdainful manner me to woo.</a><br /><a>But fare you well: perforce I must confess</a><br /><a>I thought you lord of more true gentleness.</a><br /><a>O, that a lady, of one man refused.</a><br /><a>Should of another therefore be abused!</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there:</a><br /><a>And never mayst thou come Lysander near!</a><br /><a>For as a surfeit of the sweetest things</a><br /><a>The deepest loathing to the stomach brings,</a><br /><a>Or as tie heresies that men do leave</a><br /><a>Are hated most of those they did deceive,</a><br /><a>So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,</a><br /><a>Of all be hated, but the most of me!</a><br /><a>And, all my powers, address your love and might</a><br /><a>To honour Helen and to be her knight!</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><a>[Awaking]  Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best</a><br /><a>To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!</a><br /><a>Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here!</a><br /><a>Lysander, look how I do quake with fear:</a><br /><a>Methought a serpent eat my heart away,</a><br /><a>And you sat smiling at his cruel pray.</a><br /><a>Lysander! what, removed? Lysander! lord!</a><br /><a>What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word?</a><br /><a>Alack, where are you speak, an if you hear;</a><br /><a>Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.</a><br /><a>No? then I well perceive you all not nigh</a><br /><a>Either death or you I'll find immediately.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></span><span id = 311 ></span><span id = 315 ><h3>SCENE I. The wood. TITANIA lying asleep.</h3><blockquote><i>Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING</i></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Are we all met?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place</a><br /><a>for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our</a><br /><a>stage, this hawthorn-brake our tiring-house; and we</a><br /><a>will do it in action as we will do it before the duke.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Peter Quince,--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>What sayest thou, bully Bottom?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and</a><br /><a>Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must</a><br /><a>draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies</a><br /><a>cannot abide. How answer you that?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SNOUT</b></a><blockquote><a>By'r lakin, a parlous fear.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>STARVELING</b></a><blockquote><a>I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Not a whit: I have a device to make all well.</a><br /><a>Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to</a><br /><a>say, we will do no harm with our swords, and that</a><br /><a>Pyramus is not killed indeed; and, for the more</a><br /><a>better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not</a><br /><a>Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put them</a><br /><a>out of fear.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall be</a><br /><a>written in eight and six.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SNOUT</b></a><blockquote><a>Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>STARVELING</b></a><blockquote><a>I fear it, I promise you.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves: to</a><br /><a>bring in--God shield us!--a lion among ladies, is a</a><br /><a>most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful</a><br /><a>wild-fowl than your lion living; and we ought to</a><br /><a>look to 't.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SNOUT</b></a><blockquote><a>Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must</a><br /><a>be seen through the lion's neck: and he himself</a><br /><a>must speak through, saying thus, or to the same</a><br /><a>defect,--'Ladies,'--or 'Fair-ladies--I would wish</a><br /><a>You,'--or 'I would request you,'--or 'I would</a><br /><a>entreat you,--not to fear, not to tremble: my life</a><br /><a>for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it</a><br /><a>were pity of my life: no I am no such thing; I am a</a><br /><a>man as other men are;' and there indeed let him name</a><br /><a>his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Well it shall be so. But there is two hard things;</a><br /><a>that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber; for,</a><br /><a>you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moonlight.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SNOUT</b></a><blockquote><a>Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanac; find</a><br /><a>out moonshine, find out moonshine.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Yes, it doth shine that night.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, then may you leave a casement of the great</a><br /><a>chamber window, where we play, open, and the moon</a><br /><a>may shine in at the casement.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns</a><br /><a>and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure, or to</a><br /><a>present, the person of Moonshine. Then, there is</a><br /><a>another thing: we must have a wall in the great</a><br /><a>chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby says the story, did</a><br /><a>talk through the chink of a wall.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>SNOUT</b></a><blockquote><a>You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Some man or other must present Wall: and let him</a><br /><a>have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast</a><br /><a>about him, to signify wall; and let him hold his</a><br /><a>fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus</a><br /><a>and Thisby whisper.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit  down,</a><br /><a>every mother's son, and rehearse your parts.</a><br /><a>Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken your</a><br /><a>speech, enter into that brake: and so every one</a><br /><a>according to his cue.</a><br /><p><i>Enter PUCK behind</i></p></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here,</a><br /><a>So near the cradle of the fairy queen?</a><br /><a>What, a play toward! I'll be an auditor;</a><br /><a>An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Speak, Pyramus. Thisby, stand forth.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet,--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Odours, odours.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>--odours savours sweet:</a><br /><a>So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear.</a><br /><a>But hark, a voice! stay thou but here awhile,</a><br /><a>And by and by I will to thee appear.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>FLUTE</b></a><blockquote><a>Must I speak now?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, marry, must you; for you must understand he goes</a><br /><a>but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>FLUTE</b></a><blockquote><a>Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue,</a><br /><a>Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier,</a><br /><a>Most brisky juvenal and eke most lovely Jew,</a><br /><a>As true as truest horse that yet would never tire,</a><br /><a>I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>'Ninus' tomb,' man: why, you must not speak that</a><br /><a>yet; that you answer to Pyramus: you speak all your</a><br /><a>part at once, cues and all Pyramus enter: your cue</a><br /><a>is past; it is, 'never tire.'</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>FLUTE</b></a><blockquote><a>O,--As true as truest horse, that yet would</a><br /><a>never tire.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter PUCK, and BOTTOM with an ass's head</i></p></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted. Pray,</a><br /><a>masters! fly, masters! Help!</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt QUINCE, SNUG, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING</i></p></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round,</a><br /><a>Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier:</a><br /><a>Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound,</a><br /><a>A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire;</a><br /><a>And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,</a><br /><a>Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Why do they run away? this is a knavery of them to</a><br /><a>make me afeard.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter SNOUT</i></p></blockquote><a><b>SNOUT</b></a><blockquote><a>O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on thee?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>What do you see? you see an asshead of your own, do</a><br /><a>you?</a><br /><p><i>Exit SNOUT</i></p><p><i>Re-enter QUINCE</i></p></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art</a><br /><a>translated.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me;</a><br /><a>to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir</a><br /><a>from this place, do what they can: I will walk up</a><br /><a>and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear</a><br /><a>I am not afraid.</a><br /><p><i>Sings</i></p><a>The ousel cock so black of hue,</a><br /><a>With orange-tawny bill,</a><br /><a>The throstle with his note so true,</a><br /><a>The wren with little quill,--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>[Awaking]  What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>[Sings]</a><br /><a>The finch, the sparrow and the lark,</a><br /><a>The plain-song cuckoo gray,</a><br /><a>Whose note full many a man doth mark,</a><br /><a>And dares not answer nay;--</a><br /><a>for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish</a><br /><a>a bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry</a><br /><a>'cuckoo' never so?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:</a><br /><a>Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note;</a><br /><a>So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;</a><br /><a>And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me</a><br /><a>On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason</a><br /><a>for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and</a><br /><a>love keep little company together now-a-days; the</a><br /><a>more the pity that some honest neighbours will not</a><br /><a>make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get out</a><br /><a>of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Out of this wood do not desire to go:</a><br /><a>Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.</a><br /><a>I am a spirit of no common rate;</a><br /><a>The summer still doth tend upon my state;</a><br /><a>And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;</a><br /><a>I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,</a><br /><a>And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,</a><br /><a>And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep;</a><br /><a>And I will purge thy mortal grossness so</a><br /><a>That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.</a><br /><a>Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed!</a><br /><p><i>Enter PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, and MUSTARDSEED</i></p></blockquote><a><b>PEASEBLOSSOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Ready.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>COBWEB</b></a><blockquote><a>     And I.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MOTH</b></a><blockquote><a>          And I.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MUSTARDSEED</b></a><blockquote><a>                  And I.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>ALL</b></a><blockquote><a>Where shall we go?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;</a><br /><a>Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes;</a><br /><a>Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,</a><br /><a>With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;</a><br /><a>The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees,</a><br /><a>And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs</a><br /><a>And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,</a><br /><a>To have my love to bed and to arise;</a><br /><a>And pluck the wings from Painted butterflies</a><br /><a>To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:</a><br /><a>Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PEASEBLOSSOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Hail, mortal!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>COBWEB</b></a><blockquote><a>Hail!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MOTH</b></a><blockquote><a>Hail!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MUSTARDSEED</b></a><blockquote><a>Hail!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>I cry your worship's mercy, heartily: I beseech your</a><br /><a>worship's name.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>COBWEB</b></a><blockquote><a>Cobweb.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master</a><br /><a>Cobweb: if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with</a><br /><a>you. Your name, honest gentleman?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PEASEBLOSSOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Peaseblossom.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your</a><br /><a>mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. Good</a><br /><a>Master Peaseblossom, I shall desire you of more</a><br /><a>acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you, sir?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MUSTARDSEED</b></a><blockquote><a>Mustardseed.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience well:</a><br /><a>that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath</a><br /><a>devoured many a gentleman of your house: I promise</a><br /><a>you your kindred had made my eyes water ere now. I</a><br /><a>desire your more acquaintance, good Master</a><br /><a>Mustardseed.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower.</a><br /><a>The moon methinks looks with a watery eye;</a><br /><a>And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,</a><br /><a>Lamenting some enforced chastity.</a><br /><a>Tie up my love's tongue bring him silently.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 316 ><h3>SCENE II. Another part of the wood.</h3><blockquote><i>Enter OBERON</i></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>I wonder if Titania be awaked;</a><br /><a>Then, what it was that next came in her eye,</a><br /><a>Which she must dote on in extremity.</a><br /><p><i>Enter PUCK</i></p><a>Here comes my messenger.</a><br /><a>How now, mad spirit!</a><br /><a>What night-rule now about this haunted grove?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>My mistress with a monster is in love.</a><br /><a>Near to her close and consecrated bower,</a><br /><a>While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,</a><br /><a>A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,</a><br /><a>That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,</a><br /><a>Were met together to rehearse a play</a><br /><a>Intended for great Theseus' nuptial-day.</a><br /><a>The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort,</a><br /><a>Who Pyramus presented, in their sport</a><br /><a>Forsook his scene and enter'd in a brake</a><br /><a>When I did him at this advantage take,</a><br /><a>An ass's nole I fixed on his head:</a><br /><a>Anon his Thisbe must be answered,</a><br /><a>And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy,</a><br /><a>As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,</a><br /><a>Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort,</a><br /><a>Rising and cawing at the gun's report,</a><br /><a>Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky,</a><br /><a>So, at his sight, away his fellows fly;</a><br /><a>And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls;</a><br /><a>He murder cries and help from Athens calls.</a><br /><a>Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears</a><br /><a>thus strong,</a><br /><a>Made senseless things begin to do them wrong;</a><br /><a>For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch;</a><br /><a>Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all</a><br /><a>things catch.</a><br /><a>I led them on in this distracted fear,</a><br /><a>And left sweet Pyramus translated there:</a><br /><a>When in that moment, so it came to pass,</a><br /><a>Titania waked and straightway loved an ass.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>This falls out better than I could devise.</a><br /><a>But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes</a><br /><a>With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>I took him sleeping,--that is finish'd too,--</a><br /><a>And the Athenian woman by his side:</a><br /><a>That, when he waked, of force she must be eyed.</a><br /><p><i>Enter HERMIA and DEMETRIUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>Stand close: this is the same Athenian.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>This is the woman, but not this the man.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>O, why rebuke you him that loves you so?</a><br /><a>Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Now I but chide; but I should use thee worse,</a><br /><a>For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse,</a><br /><a>If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,</a><br /><a>Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep,</a><br /><a>And kill me too.</a><br /><a>The sun was not so true unto the day</a><br /><a>As he to me: would he have stolen away</a><br /><a>From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon</a><br /><a>This whole earth may be bored and that the moon</a><br /><a>May through the centre creep and so displease</a><br /><a>Her brother's noontide with Antipodes.</a><br /><a>It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him;</a><br /><a>So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>So should the murder'd look, and so should I,</a><br /><a>Pierced through the heart with your stern cruelty:</a><br /><a>Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear,</a><br /><a>As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>What's this to my Lysander? where is he?</a><br /><a>Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I had rather give his carcass to my hounds.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Out, dog! out, cur! thou drivest me past the bounds</a><br /><a>Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him, then?</a><br /><a>Henceforth be never number'd among men!</a><br /><a>O, once tell true, tell true, even for my sake!</a><br /><a>Durst thou have look'd upon him being awake,</a><br /><a>And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch!</a><br /><a>Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?</a><br /><a>An adder did it; for with doubler tongue</a><br /><a>Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>You spend your passion on a misprised mood:</a><br /><a>I am not guilty of Lysander's blood;</a><br /><a>Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>I pray thee, tell me then that he is well.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>An if I could, what should I get therefore?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>A privilege never to see me more.</a><br /><a>And from thy hated presence part I so:</a><br /><a>See me no more, whether he be dead or no.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>There is no following her in this fierce vein:</a><br /><a>Here therefore for a while I will remain.</a><br /><a>So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow</a><br /><a>For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe:</a><br /><a>Which now in some slight measure it will pay,</a><br /><a>If for his tender here I make some stay.</a><br /><p><i>Lies down and sleeps</i></p></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite</a><br /><a>And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight:</a><br /><a>Of thy misprision must perforce ensue</a><br /><a>Some true love turn'd and not a false turn'd true.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>Then fate o'er-rules, that, one man holding troth,</a><br /><a>A million fail, confounding oath on oath.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>About the wood go swifter than the wind,</a><br /><a>And Helena of Athens look thou find:</a><br /><a>All fancy-sick she is and pale of cheer,</a><br /><a>With sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear:</a><br /><a>By some illusion see thou bring her here:</a><br /><a>I'll charm his eyes against she do appear.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>I go, I go; look how I go,</a><br /><a>Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>   Flower of this purple dye,</a><br /><a>Hit with Cupid's archery,</a><br /><a>Sink in apple of his eye.</a><br /><a>When his love he doth espy,</a><br /><a>Let her shine as gloriously</a><br /><a>As the Venus of the sky.</a><br /><a>When thou wakest, if she be by,</a><br /><a>Beg of her for remedy.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter PUCK</i></p></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>   Captain of our fairy band,</a><br /><a>Helena is here at hand;</a><br /><a>And the youth, mistook by me,</a><br /><a>Pleading for a lover's fee.</a><br /><a>Shall we their fond pageant see?</a><br /><a>Lord, what fools these mortals be!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>Stand aside: the noise they make</a><br /><a>Will cause Demetrius to awake.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>Then will two at once woo one;</a><br /><a>That must needs be sport alone;</a><br /><a>And those things do best please me</a><br /><a>That befal preposterously.</a><br /><p><i>Enter LYSANDER and HELENA</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?</a><br /><a>Scorn and derision never come in tears:</a><br /><a>Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows so born,</a><br /><a>In their nativity all truth appears.</a><br /><a>How can these things in me seem scorn to you,</a><br /><a>Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>You do advance your cunning more and more.</a><br /><a>When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray!</a><br /><a>These vows are Hermia's: will you give her o'er?</a><br /><a>Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh:</a><br /><a>Your vows to her and me, put in two scales,</a><br /><a>Will even weigh, and both as light as tales.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>I had no judgment when to her I swore.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>[Awaking]  O Helena, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!</a><br /><a>To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne?</a><br /><a>Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show</a><br /><a>Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!</a><br /><a>That pure congealed white, high Taurus snow,</a><br /><a>Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow</a><br /><a>When thou hold'st up thy hand: O, let me kiss</a><br /><a>This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent</a><br /><a>To set against me for your merriment:</a><br /><a>If you we re civil and knew courtesy,</a><br /><a>You would not do me thus much injury.</a><br /><a>Can you not hate me, as I know you do,</a><br /><a>But you must join in souls to mock me too?</a><br /><a>If you were men, as men you are in show,</a><br /><a>You would not use a gentle lady so;</a><br /><a>To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts,</a><br /><a>When I am sure you hate me with your hearts.</a><br /><a>You both are rivals, and love Hermia;</a><br /><a>And now both rivals, to mock Helena:</a><br /><a>A trim exploit, a manly enterprise,</a><br /><a>To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes</a><br /><a>With your derision! none of noble sort</a><br /><a>Would so offend a virgin, and extort</a><br /><a>A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so;</a><br /><a>For you love Hermia; this you know I know:</a><br /><a>And here, with all good will, with all my heart,</a><br /><a>In Hermia's love I yield you up my part;</a><br /><a>And yours of Helena to me bequeath,</a><br /><a>Whom I do love and will do till my death.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>Never did mockers waste more idle breath.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none:</a><br /><a>If e'er I loved her, all that love is gone.</a><br /><a>My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd,</a><br /><a>And now to Helen is it home return'd,</a><br /><a>There to remain.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>                  Helen, it is not so.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Disparage not the faith thou dost not know,</a><br /><a>Lest, to thy peril, thou aby it dear.</a><br /><a>Look, where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter HERMIA</i></p></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,</a><br /><a>The ear more quick of apprehension makes;</a><br /><a>Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense,</a><br /><a>It pays the hearing double recompense.</a><br /><a>Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found;</a><br /><a>Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound</a><br /><a>But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>What love could press Lysander from my side?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Lysander's love, that would not let him bide,</a><br /><a>Fair Helena, who more engilds the night</a><br /><a>Than all you fiery oes and eyes of light.</a><br /><a>Why seek'st thou me? could not this make thee know,</a><br /><a>The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>You speak not as you think: it cannot be.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>Lo, she is one of this confederacy!</a><br /><a>Now I perceive they have conjoin'd all three</a><br /><a>To fashion this false sport, in spite of me.</a><br /><a>Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid!</a><br /><a>Have you conspired, have you with these contrived</a><br /><a>To bait me with this foul derision?</a><br /><a>Is all the counsel that we two have shared,</a><br /><a>The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent,</a><br /><a>When we have chid the hasty-footed time</a><br /><a>For parting us,--O, is it all forgot?</a><br /><a>All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence?</a><br /><a>We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,</a><br /><a>Have with our needles created both one flower,</a><br /><a>Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,</a><br /><a>Both warbling of one song, both in one key,</a><br /><a>As if our hands, our sides, voices and minds,</a><br /><a>Had been incorporate. So we grow together,</a><br /><a>Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,</a><br /><a>But yet an union in partition;</a><br /><a>Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;</a><br /><a>So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart;</a><br /><a>Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,</a><br /><a>Due but to one and crowned with one crest.</a><br /><a>And will you rent our ancient love asunder,</a><br /><a>To join with men in scorning your poor friend?</a><br /><a>It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly:</a><br /><a>Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it,</a><br /><a>Though I alone do feel the injury.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>I am amazed at your passionate words.</a><br /><a>I scorn you not: it seems that you scorn me.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn,</a><br /><a>To follow me and praise my eyes and face?</a><br /><a>And made your other love, Demetrius,</a><br /><a>Who even but now did spurn me with his foot,</a><br /><a>To call me goddess, nymph, divine and rare,</a><br /><a>Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this</a><br /><a>To her he hates? and wherefore doth Lysander</a><br /><a>Deny your love, so rich within his soul,</a><br /><a>And tender me, forsooth, affection,</a><br /><a>But by your setting on, by your consent?</a><br /><a>What thought I be not so in grace as you,</a><br /><a>So hung upon with love, so fortunate,</a><br /><a>But miserable most, to love unloved?</a><br /><a>This you should pity rather than despise.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERNIA</b></a><blockquote><a>I understand not what you mean by this.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks,</a><br /><a>Make mouths upon me when I turn my back;</a><br /><a>Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up:</a><br /><a>This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.</a><br /><a>If you have any pity, grace, or manners,</a><br /><a>You would not make me such an argument.</a><br /><a>But fare ye well: 'tis partly my own fault;</a><br /><a>Which death or absence soon shall remedy.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse:</a><br /><a>My love, my life my soul, fair Helena!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>O excellent!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>                  Sweet, do not scorn her so.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>If she cannot entreat, I can compel.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Thou canst compel no more than she entreat:</a><br /><a>Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers.</a><br /><a>Helen, I love thee; by my life, I do:</a><br /><a>I swear by that which I will lose for thee,</a><br /><a>To prove him false that says I love thee not.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I say I love thee more than he can do.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Quick, come!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Lysander, whereto tends all this?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Away, you Ethiope!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>                  No, no; he'll [        ]</a><br /><a>Seem to break loose; take on as you would follow,</a><br /><a>But yet come not: you are a tame man, go!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! vile thing, let loose,</a><br /><a>Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Why are you grown so rude? what change is this?</a><br /><a>Sweet love,--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Thy love! out, tawny Tartar, out!</a><br /><a>Out, loathed medicine! hated potion, hence!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Do you not jest?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>Yes, sooth; and so do you.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I would I had your bond, for I perceive</a><br /><a>A weak bond holds you: I'll not trust your word.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead?</a><br /><a>Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>What, can you do me greater harm than hate?</a><br /><a>Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my love!</a><br /><a>Am not I Hermia? are not you Lysander?</a><br /><a>I am as fair now as I was erewhile.</a><br /><a>Since night you loved me; yet since night you left</a><br /><a>me:</a><br /><a>Why, then you left me--O, the gods forbid!--</a><br /><a>In earnest, shall I say?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, by my life;</a><br /><a>And never did desire to see thee more.</a><br /><a>Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt;</a><br /><a>Be certain, nothing truer; 'tis no jest</a><br /><a>That I do hate thee and love Helena.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>O me! you juggler! you canker-blossom!</a><br /><a>You thief of love! what, have you come by night</a><br /><a>And stolen my love's heart from him?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>Fine, i'faith!</a><br /><a>Have you no modesty, no maiden shame,</a><br /><a>No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear</a><br /><a>Impatient answers from my gentle tongue?</a><br /><a>Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet, you!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Puppet? why so? ay, that way goes the game.</a><br /><a>Now I perceive that she hath made compare</a><br /><a>Between our statures; she hath urged her height;</a><br /><a>And with her personage, her tall personage,</a><br /><a>Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him.</a><br /><a>And are you grown so high in his esteem;</a><br /><a>Because I am so dwarfish and so low?</a><br /><a>How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak;</a><br /><a>How low am I? I am not yet so low</a><br /><a>But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen,</a><br /><a>Let her not hurt me: I was never curst;</a><br /><a>I have no gift at all in shrewishness;</a><br /><a>I am a right maid for my cowardice:</a><br /><a>Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think,</a><br /><a>Because she is something lower than myself,</a><br /><a>That I can match her.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Lower! hark, again.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.</a><br /><a>I evermore did love you, Hermia,</a><br /><a>Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you;</a><br /><a>Save that, in love unto Demetrius,</a><br /><a>I told him of your stealth unto this wood.</a><br /><a>He follow'd you; for love I follow'd him;</a><br /><a>But he hath chid me hence and threaten'd me</a><br /><a>To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too:</a><br /><a>And now, so you will let me quiet go,</a><br /><a>To Athens will I bear my folly back</a><br /><a>And follow you no further: let me go:</a><br /><a>You see how simple and how fond I am.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, get you gone: who is't that hinders you?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>A foolish heart, that I leave here behind.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>What, with Lysander?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>With Demetrius.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Be not afraid; she shall not harm thee, Helena.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>O, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd!</a><br /><a>She was a vixen when she went to school;</a><br /><a>And though she be but little, she is fierce.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>'Little' again! nothing but 'low' and 'little'!</a><br /><a>Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?</a><br /><a>Let me come to her.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Get you gone, you dwarf;</a><br /><a>You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made;</a><br /><a>You bead, you acorn.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>You are too officious</a><br /><a>In her behalf that scorns your services.</a><br /><a>Let her alone: speak not of Helena;</a><br /><a>Take not her part; for, if thou dost intend</a><br /><a>Never so little show of love to her,</a><br /><a>Thou shalt aby it.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>                  Now she holds me not;</a><br /><a>Now follow, if thou darest, to try whose right,</a><br /><a>Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Follow! nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jole.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt LYSANDER and DEMETRIUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you:</a><br /><a>Nay, go not back.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>                  I will not trust you, I,</a><br /><a>Nor longer stay in your curst company.</a><br /><a>Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray,</a><br /><a>My legs are longer though, to run away.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>I am amazed, and know not what to say.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>This is thy negligence: still thou mistakest,</a><br /><a>Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.</a><br /><a>Did not you tell me I should know the man</a><br /><a>By the Athenian garment be had on?</a><br /><a>And so far blameless proves my enterprise,</a><br /><a>That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes;</a><br /><a>And so far am I glad it so did sort</a><br /><a>As this their jangling I esteem a sport.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>Thou see'st these lovers seek a place to fight:</a><br /><a>Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night;</a><br /><a>The starry welkin cover thou anon</a><br /><a>With drooping fog as black as Acheron,</a><br /><a>And lead these testy rivals so astray</a><br /><a>As one come not within another's way.</a><br /><a>Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,</a><br /><a>Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong;</a><br /><a>And sometime rail thou like Demetrius;</a><br /><a>And from each other look thou lead them thus,</a><br /><a>Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep</a><br /><a>With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep:</a><br /><a>Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye;</a><br /><a>Whose liquor hath this virtuous property,</a><br /><a>To take from thence all error with his might,</a><br /><a>And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.</a><br /><a>When they next wake, all this derision</a><br /><a>Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision,</a><br /><a>And back to Athens shall the lovers wend,</a><br /><a>With league whose date till death shall never end.</a><br /><a>Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,</a><br /><a>I'll to my queen and beg her Indian boy;</a><br /><a>And then I will her charmed eye release</a><br /><a>From monster's view, and all things shall be peace.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,</a><br /><a>For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,</a><br /><a>And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger;</a><br /><a>At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there,</a><br /><a>Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all,</a><br /><a>That in crossways and floods have burial,</a><br /><a>Already to their wormy beds are gone;</a><br /><a>For fear lest day should look their shames upon,</a><br /><a>They willfully themselves exile from light</a><br /><a>And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>But we are spirits of another sort:</a><br /><a>I with the morning's love have oft made sport,</a><br /><a>And, like a forester, the groves may tread,</a><br /><a>Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red,</a><br /><a>Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,</a><br /><a>Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams.</a><br /><a>But, notwithstanding, haste; make no delay:</a><br /><a>We may effect this business yet ere day.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>   Up and down, up and down,</a><br /><a>I will lead them up and down:</a><br /><a>I am fear'd in field and town:</a><br /><a>Goblin, lead them up and down.</a><br /><a>Here comes one.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter LYSANDER</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>Here, villain; drawn and ready. Where art thou?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>I will be with thee straight.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>Follow me, then,</a><br /><a>To plainer ground.</a><br /><p><i>Exit LYSANDER, as following the voice</i></p><p><i>Re-enter DEMETRIUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>                  Lysander! speak again:</a><br /><a>Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?</a><br /><a>Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars,</a><br /><a>Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars,</a><br /><a>And wilt not come? Come, recreant; come, thou child;</a><br /><a>I'll whip thee with a rod: he is defiled</a><br /><a>That draws a sword on thee.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Yea, art thou there?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>Follow my voice: we'll try no manhood here.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p><p><i>Re-enter LYSANDER</i></p></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>He goes before me and still dares me on:</a><br /><a>When I come where he calls, then he is gone.</a><br /><a>The villain is much lighter-heel'd than I:</a><br /><a>I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly;</a><br /><a>That fallen am I in dark uneven way,</a><br /><a>And here will rest me.</a><br /><p><i>Lies down</i></p><a>Come, thou gentle day!</a><br /><a>For if but once thou show me thy grey light,</a><br /><a>I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite.</a><br /><p><i>Sleeps</i></p><p><i>Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS</i></p></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why comest thou not?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Abide me, if thou darest; for well I wot</a><br /><a>Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place,</a><br /><a>And darest not stand, nor look me in the face.</a><br /><a>Where art thou now?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>Come hither: I am here.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this dear,</a><br /><a>If ever I thy face by daylight see:</a><br /><a>Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me</a><br /><a>To measure out my length on this cold bed.</a><br /><a>By day's approach look to be visited.</a><br /><p><i>Lies down and sleeps</i></p><p><i>Re-enter HELENA</i></p></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>O weary night, O long and tedious night,</a><br /><a>Abate thy hour! Shine comforts from the east,</a><br /><a>That I may back to Athens by daylight,</a><br /><a>From these that my poor company detest:</a><br /><a>And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye,</a><br /><a>Steal me awhile from mine own company.</a><br /><p><i>Lies down and sleeps</i></p></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>Yet but three? Come one more;</a><br /><a>Two of both kinds make up four.</a><br /><a>Here she comes, curst and sad:</a><br /><a>Cupid is a knavish lad,</a><br /><a>Thus to make poor females mad.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter HERMIA</i></p></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Never so weary, never so in woe,</a><br /><a>Bedabbled with the dew and torn with briers,</a><br /><a>I can no further crawl, no further go;</a><br /><a>My legs can keep no pace with my desires.</a><br /><a>Here will I rest me till the break of day.</a><br /><a>Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!</a><br /><p><i>Lies down and sleeps</i></p></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><a>                  On the ground</a><br /><a>Sleep sound:</a><br /><a>I'll apply</a><br /><a>To your eye,</a><br /><a>Gentle lover, remedy.</a><br /><p><i>Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER's eyes</i></p><a>When thou wakest,</a><br /><a>Thou takest</a><br /><a>True delight</a><br /><a>In the sight</a><br /><a>Of thy former lady's eye:</a><br /><a>And the country proverb known,</a><br /><a>That every man should take his own,</a><br /><a>In your waking shall be shown:</a><br /><a>Jack shall have Jill;</a><br /><a>Nought shall go ill;</a><br /><a>The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></span><span id = 332 ></span><span id = 333 ><h3>SCENE I. The same. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA</h3><blockquote><a>lying asleep.</a><br /><p><i>Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM; PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH,  MUSTARDSEED, and other Fairies attending; OBERON behind unseen</i></p></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,</a><br /><a>While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,</a><br /><a>And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,</a><br /><a>And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Where's Peaseblossom?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PEASEBLOSSOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Ready.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Scratch my head Peaseblossom. Where's Mounsieur Cobweb?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>COBWEB</b></a><blockquote><a>Ready.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get you your</a><br /><a>weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped</a><br /><a>humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good</a><br /><a>mounsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret</a><br /><a>yourself too much in the action, mounsieur; and,</a><br /><a>good mounsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not;</a><br /><a>I would be loath to have you overflown with a</a><br /><a>honey-bag, signior. Where's Mounsieur Mustardseed?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MUSTARDSEED</b></a><blockquote><a>Ready.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray you,</a><br /><a>leave your courtesy, good mounsieur.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>MUSTARDSEED</b></a><blockquote><a>What's your Will?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb</a><br /><a>to scratch. I must to the barber's, monsieur; for</a><br /><a>methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face; and I</a><br /><a>am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me,</a><br /><a>I must scratch.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>What, wilt thou hear some music,</a><br /><a>my sweet love?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let's have</a><br /><a>the tongs and the bones.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Truly, a peck of provender: I could munch your good</a><br /><a>dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle</a><br /><a>of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>I have a venturous fairy that shall seek</a><br /><a>The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas.</a><br /><a>But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me: I</a><br /><a>have an exposition of sleep come upon me.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.</a><br /><a>Fairies, begone, and be all ways away.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt fairies</i></p><a>So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle</a><br /><a>Gently entwist; the female ivy so</a><br /><a>Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.</a><br /><a>O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!</a><br /><p><i>They sleep</i></p><p><i>Enter PUCK</i></p></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>[Advancing]  Welcome, good Robin.</a><br /><a>See'st thou this sweet sight?</a><br /><a>Her dotage now I do begin to pity:</a><br /><a>For, meeting her of late behind the wood,</a><br /><a>Seeking sweet favours from this hateful fool,</a><br /><a>I did upbraid her and fall out with her;</a><br /><a>For she his hairy temples then had rounded</a><br /><a>With a coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;</a><br /><a>And that same dew, which sometime on the buds</a><br /><a>Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls,</a><br /><a>Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes</a><br /><a>Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail.</a><br /><a>When I had at my pleasure taunted her</a><br /><a>And she in mild terms begg'd my patience,</a><br /><a>I then did ask of her her changeling child;</a><br /><a>Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent</a><br /><a>To bear him to my bower in fairy land.</a><br /><a>And now I have the boy, I will undo</a><br /><a>This hateful imperfection of her eyes:</a><br /><a>And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp</a><br /><a>From off the head of this Athenian swain;</a><br /><a>That, he awaking when the other do,</a><br /><a>May all to Athens back again repair</a><br /><a>And think no more of this night's accidents</a><br /><a>But as the fierce vexation of a dream.</a><br /><a>But first I will release the fairy queen.</a><br /><a>Be as thou wast wont to be;</a><br /><a>See as thou wast wont to see:</a><br /><a>Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower</a><br /><a>Hath such force and blessed power.</a><br /><a>Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>My Oberon! what visions have I seen!</a><br /><a>Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>There lies your love.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>How came these things to pass?</a><br /><a>O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head.</a><br /><a>Titania, music call; and strike more dead</a><br /><a>Than common sleep of all these five the sense.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep!</a><br /><p><i>Music, still</i></p></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>Now, when thou wakest, with thine</a><br /><a>own fool's eyes peep.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands with me,</a><br /><a>And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.</a><br /><a>Now thou and I are new in amity,</a><br /><a>And will to-morrow midnight solemnly</a><br /><a>Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly,</a><br /><a>And bless it to all fair prosperity:</a><br /><a>There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be</a><br /><a>Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>Fairy king, attend, and mark:</a><br /><a>I do hear the morning lark.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>Then, my queen, in silence sad,</a><br /><a>Trip we after the night's shade:</a><br /><a>We the globe can compass soon,</a><br /><a>Swifter than the wandering moon.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Come, my lord, and in our flight</a><br /><a>Tell me how it came this night</a><br /><a>That I sleeping here was found</a><br /><a>With these mortals on the ground.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p><p><i>Horns winded within</i></p><p><i>Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train</i></p></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Go, one of you, find out the forester;</a><br /><a>For now our observation is perform'd;</a><br /><a>And since we have the vaward of the day,</a><br /><a>My love shall hear the music of my hounds.</a><br /><a>Uncouple in the western valley; let them go:</a><br /><a>Dispatch, I say, and find the forester.</a><br /><p><i>Exit an Attendant</i></p><a>We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,</a><br /><a>And mark the musical confusion</a><br /><a>Of hounds and echo in conjunction.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HIPPOLYTA</b></a><blockquote><a>I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,</a><br /><a>When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear</a><br /><a>With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear</a><br /><a>Such gallant chiding: for, besides the groves,</a><br /><a>The skies, the fountains, every region near</a><br /><a>Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard</a><br /><a>So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,</a><br /><a>So flew'd, so sanded, and their heads are hung</a><br /><a>With ears that sweep away the morning dew;</a><br /><a>Crook-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls;</a><br /><a>Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,</a><br /><a>Each under each. A cry more tuneable</a><br /><a>Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,</a><br /><a>In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly:</a><br /><a>Judge when you hear. But, soft! what nymphs are these?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>EGEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>My lord, this is my daughter here asleep;</a><br /><a>And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is;</a><br /><a>This Helena, old Nedar's Helena:</a><br /><a>I wonder of their being here together.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>No doubt they rose up early to observe</a><br /><a>The rite of May, and hearing our intent,</a><br /><a>Came here in grace our solemnity.</a><br /><a>But speak, Egeus; is not this the day</a><br /><a>That Hermia should give answer of her choice?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>EGEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>It is, my lord.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.</a><br /><p><i>Horns and shout within. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA wake and start up</i></p><a>Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past:</a><br /><a>Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Pardon, my lord.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>                  I pray you all, stand up.</a><br /><a>I know you two are rival enemies:</a><br /><a>How comes this gentle concord in the world,</a><br /><a>That hatred is so far from jealousy,</a><br /><a>To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>My lord, I shall reply amazedly,</a><br /><a>Half sleep, half waking: but as yet, I swear,</a><br /><a>I cannot truly say how I came here;</a><br /><a>But, as I think,--for truly would I speak,</a><br /><a>And now do I bethink me, so it is,--</a><br /><a>I came with Hermia hither: our intent</a><br /><a>Was to be gone from Athens, where we might,</a><br /><a>Without the peril of the Athenian law.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>EGEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough:</a><br /><a>I beg the law, the law, upon his head.</a><br /><a>They would have stolen away; they would, Demetrius,</a><br /><a>Thereby to have defeated you and me,</a><br /><a>You of your wife and me of my consent,</a><br /><a>Of my consent that she should be your wife.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,</a><br /><a>Of this their purpose hither to this wood;</a><br /><a>And I in fury hither follow'd them,</a><br /><a>Fair Helena in fancy following me.</a><br /><a>But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,--</a><br /><a>But by some power it is,--my love to Hermia,</a><br /><a>Melted as the snow, seems to me now</a><br /><a>As the remembrance of an idle gaud</a><br /><a>Which in my childhood I did dote upon;</a><br /><a>And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,</a><br /><a>The object and the pleasure of mine eye,</a><br /><a>Is only Helena. To her, my lord,</a><br /><a>Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia:</a><br /><a>But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food;</a><br /><a>But, as in health, come to my natural taste,</a><br /><a>Now I do wish it, love it, long for it,</a><br /><a>And will for evermore be true to it.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:</a><br /><a>Of this discourse we more will hear anon.</a><br /><a>Egeus, I will overbear your will;</a><br /><a>For in the temple by and by with us</a><br /><a>These couples shall eternally be knit:</a><br /><a>And, for the morning now is something worn,</a><br /><a>Our purposed hunting shall be set aside.</a><br /><a>Away with us to Athens; three and three,</a><br /><a>We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.</a><br /><a>Come, Hippolyta.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train</i></p></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>These things seem small and undistinguishable,</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Methinks I see these things with parted eye,</a><br /><a>When every thing seems double.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>So methinks:</a><br /><a>And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,</a><br /><a>Mine own, and not mine own.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Are you sure</a><br /><a>That we are awake? It seems to me</a><br /><a>That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think</a><br /><a>The duke was here, and bid us follow him?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HERMIA</b></a><blockquote><a>Yea; and my father.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HELENA</b></a><blockquote><a>And Hippolyta.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>And he did bid us follow to the temple.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, then, we are awake: let's follow him</a><br /><a>And by the way let us recount our dreams.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>[Awaking]  When my cue comes, call me, and I will</a><br /><a>answer: my next is, 'Most fair Pyramus.' Heigh-ho!</a><br /><a>Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout,</a><br /><a>the tinker! Starveling! God's my life, stolen</a><br /><a>hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare</a><br /><a>vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to</a><br /><a>say what dream it was: man is but an ass, if he go</a><br /><a>about to expound this dream. Methought I was--there</a><br /><a>is no man can tell what. Methought I was,--and</a><br /><a>methought I had,--but man is but a patched fool, if</a><br /><a>he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye</a><br /><a>of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not</a><br /><a>seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue</a><br /><a>to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream</a><br /><a>was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of</a><br /><a>this dream: it shall be called Bottom's Dream,</a><br /><a>because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the</a><br /><a>latter end of a play, before the duke:</a><br /><a>peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall</a><br /><a>sing it at her death.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote></span><span id = 336 ><h3>SCENE II. Athens. QUINCE'S house.</h3><blockquote><i>Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING</i></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Have you sent to Bottom's house ? is he come home yet?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>STARVELING</b></a><blockquote><a>He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is</a><br /><a>transported.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>FLUTE</b></a><blockquote><a>If he come not, then the play is marred: it goes</a><br /><a>not forward, doth it?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>It is not possible: you have not a man in all</a><br /><a>Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>FLUTE</b></a><blockquote><a>No, he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft</a><br /><a>man in Athens.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Yea and the best person too; and he is a very</a><br /><a>paramour for a sweet voice.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>FLUTE</b></a><blockquote><a>You must say 'paragon:' a paramour is, God bless us,</a><br /><a>a thing of naught.</a><br /><p><i>Enter SNUG</i></p></blockquote><a><b>SNUG</b></a><blockquote><a>Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and</a><br /><a>there is two or three lords and ladies more married:</a><br /><a>if our sport had gone forward, we had all been made</a><br /><a>men.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>FLUTE</b></a><blockquote><a>O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a</a><br /><a>day during his life; he could not have 'scaped</a><br /><a>sixpence a day: an the duke had not given him</a><br /><a>sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged;</a><br /><a>he would have deserved it: sixpence a day in</a><br /><a>Pyramus, or nothing.</a><br /><p><i>Enter BOTTOM</i></p></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Where are these lads? where are these hearts?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask me not</a><br /><a>what; for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I</a><br /><a>will tell you every thing, right as it fell out.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>QUINCE</b></a><blockquote><a>Let us hear, sweet Bottom.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><a>Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that</a><br /><a>the duke hath dined. Get your apparel together,</a><br /><a>good strings to your beards, new ribbons to your</a><br /><a>pumps; meet presently at the palace; every man look</a><br /><a>o'er his part; for the short and the long is, our</a><br /><a>play is preferred. In any case, let Thisby have</a><br /><a>clean linen; and let not him that plays the lion</a><br /><a>pair his nails, for they shall hang out for the</a><br /><a>lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onions</a><br /><a>nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I</a><br /><a>do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet</a><br /><a>comedy. No more words: away! go, away!</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p></span><span id = 338 ></span><span id = 339 ><h3>SCENE I. Athens. The palace of THESEUS.</h3><blockquote><i>Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, Lords and Attendants</i></blockquote><a><b>HIPPOLYTA</b></a><blockquote><a>'Tis strange my Theseus, that these</a><br /><a>lovers speak of.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>More strange than true: I never may believe</a><br /><a>These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.</a><br /><a>Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,</a><br /><a>Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend</a><br /><a>More than cool reason ever comprehends.</a><br /><a>The lunatic, the lover and the poet</a><br /><a>Are of imagination all compact:</a><br /><a>One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,</a><br /><a>That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,</a><br /><a>Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:</a><br /><a>The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,</a><br /><a>Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;</a><br /><a>And as imagination bodies forth</a><br /><a>The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen</a><br /><a>Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing</a><br /><a>A local habitation and a name.</a><br /><a>Such tricks hath strong imagination,</a><br /><a>That if it would but apprehend some joy,</a><br /><a>It comprehends some bringer of that joy;</a><br /><a>Or in the night, imagining some fear,</a><br /><a>How easy is a bush supposed a bear!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HIPPOLYTA</b></a><blockquote><a>But all the story of the night told over,</a><br /><a>And all their minds transfigured so together,</a><br /><a>More witnesseth than fancy's images</a><br /><a>And grows to something of great constancy;</a><br /><a>But, howsoever, strange and admirable.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.</a><br /><p><i>Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and HELENA</i></p><a>Joy, gentle friends! joy and fresh days of love</a><br /><a>Accompany your hearts!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>More than to us</a><br /><a>Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Come now; what masques, what dances shall we have,</a><br /><a>To wear away this long age of three hours</a><br /><a>Between our after-supper and bed-time?</a><br /><a>Where is our usual manager of mirth?</a><br /><a>What revels are in hand? Is there no play,</a><br /><a>To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?</a><br /><a>Call Philostrate.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PHILOSTRATE</b></a><blockquote><a>                  Here, mighty Theseus.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Say, what abridgement have you for this evening?</a><br /><a>What masque? what music? How shall we beguile</a><br /><a>The lazy time, if not with some delight?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PHILOSTRATE</b></a><blockquote><a>There is a brief how many sports are ripe:</a><br /><a>Make choice of which your highness will see first.</a><br /><p><i>Giving a paper</i></p></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>[Reads]  'The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung</a><br /><a>By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.'</a><br /><a>We'll none of that: that have I told my love,</a><br /><a>In glory of my kinsman Hercules.</a><br /><p><i>Reads</i></p><a>'The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,</a><br /><a>Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.'</a><br /><a>That is an old device; and it was play'd</a><br /><a>When I from Thebes came last a conqueror.</a><br /><p><i>Reads</i></p><a>'The thrice three Muses mourning for the death</a><br /><a>Of Learning, late deceased in beggary.'</a><br /><a>That is some satire, keen and critical,</a><br /><a>Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.</a><br /><p><i>Reads</i></p><a>'A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus</a><br /><a>And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.'</a><br /><a>Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!</a><br /><a>That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.</a><br /><a>How shall we find the concord of this discord?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PHILOSTRATE</b></a><blockquote><a>A play there is, my lord, some ten words long,</a><br /><a>Which is as brief as I have known a play;</a><br /><a>But by ten words, my lord, it is too long,</a><br /><a>Which makes it tedious; for in all the play</a><br /><a>There is not one word apt, one player fitted:</a><br /><a>And tragical, my noble lord, it is;</a><br /><a>For Pyramus therein doth kill himself.</a><br /><a>Which, when I saw rehearsed, I must confess,</a><br /><a>Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears</a><br /><a>The passion of loud laughter never shed.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>What are they that do play it?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PHILOSTRATE</b></a><blockquote><a>Hard-handed men that work in Athens here,</a><br /><a>Which never labour'd in their minds till now,</a><br /><a>And now have toil'd their unbreathed memories</a><br /><a>With this same play, against your nuptial.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>And we will hear it.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>PHILOSTRATE</b></a><blockquote><a>No, my noble lord;</a><br /><a>It is not for you: I have heard it over,</a><br /><a>And it is nothing, nothing in the world;</a><br /><a>Unless you can find sport in their intents,</a><br /><a>Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain,</a><br /><a>To do you service.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>                  I will hear that play;</a><br /><a>For never anything can be amiss,</a><br /><a>When simpleness and duty tender it.</a><br /><a>Go, bring them in: and take your places, ladies.</a><br /><p><i>Exit PHILOSTRATE</i></p></blockquote><a><b>HIPPOLYTA</b></a><blockquote><a>I love not to see wretchedness o'er charged</a><br /><a>And duty in his service perishing.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HIPPOLYTA</b></a><blockquote><a>He says they can do nothing in this kind.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.</a><br /><a>Our sport shall be to take what they mistake:</a><br /><a>And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect</a><br /><a>Takes it in might, not merit.</a><br /><a>Where I have come, great clerks have purposed</a><br /><a>To greet me with premeditated welcomes;</a><br /><a>Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,</a><br /><a>Make periods in the midst of sentences,</a><br /><a>Throttle their practised accent in their fears</a><br /><a>And in conclusion dumbly have broke off,</a><br /><a>Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,</a><br /><a>Out of this silence yet I pick'd a welcome;</a><br /><a>And in the modesty of fearful duty</a><br /><a>I read as much as from the rattling tongue</a><br /><a>Of saucy and audacious eloquence.</a><br /><a>Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity</a><br /><a>In least speak most, to my capacity.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter PHILOSTRATE</i></p></blockquote><a><b>PHILOSTRATE</b></a><blockquote><a>So please your grace, the Prologue is address'd.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Let him approach.</a><br /><p><i>Flourish of trumpets</i></p><p><i>Enter QUINCE for the Prologue</i></p></blockquote><a><b>Prologue</b></a><blockquote><a>If we offend, it is with our good will.</a><br /><a>That you should think, we come not to offend,</a><br /><a>But with good will. To show our simple skill,</a><br /><a>That is the true beginning of our end.</a><br /><a>Consider then we come but in despite.</a><br /><a>We do not come as minding to contest you,</a><br /><a>Our true intent is. All for your delight</a><br /><a>We are not here. That you should here repent you,</a><br /><a>The actors are at hand and by their show</a><br /><a>You shall know all that you are like to know.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>This fellow doth not stand upon points.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows</a><br /><a>not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not</a><br /><a>enough to speak, but to speak true.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HIPPOLYTA</b></a><blockquote><a>Indeed he hath played on his prologue like a child</a><br /><a>on a recorder; a sound, but not in government.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>His speech, was like a tangled chain; nothing</a><br /><a>impaired, but all disordered. Who is next?</a><br /><p><i>Enter Pyramus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion</i></p></blockquote><a><b>Prologue</b></a><blockquote><a>Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show;</a><br /><a>But wonder on, till truth make all things plain.</a><br /><a>This man is Pyramus, if you would know;</a><br /><a>This beauteous lady Thisby is certain.</a><br /><a>This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present</a><br /><a>Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder;</a><br /><a>And through Wall's chink, poor souls, they are content</a><br /><a>To whisper. At the which let no man wonder.</a><br /><a>This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn,</a><br /><a>Presenteth Moonshine; for, if you will know,</a><br /><a>By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn</a><br /><a>To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo.</a><br /><a>This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name,</a><br /><a>The trusty Thisby, coming first by night,</a><br /><a>Did scare away, or rather did affright;</a><br /><a>And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall,</a><br /><a>Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain.</a><br /><a>Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall,</a><br /><a>And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain:</a><br /><a>Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,</a><br /><a>He bravely broach'd is boiling bloody breast;</a><br /><a>And Thisby, tarrying in mulberry shade,</a><br /><a>His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,</a><br /><a>Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain</a><br /><a>At large discourse, while here they do remain.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt Prologue, Thisbe, Lion, and Moonshine</i></p></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>I wonder if the lion be to speak.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when many asses do.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Wall</b></a><blockquote><a>In this same interlude it doth befall</a><br /><a>That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;</a><br /><a>And such a wall, as I would have you think,</a><br /><a>That had in it a crannied hole or chink,</a><br /><a>Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,</a><br /><a>Did whisper often very secretly.</a><br /><a>This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show</a><br /><a>That I am that same wall; the truth is so:</a><br /><a>And this the cranny is, right and sinister,</a><br /><a>Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Would you desire lime and hair to speak better?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard</a><br /><a>discourse, my lord.</a><br /><p><i>Enter Pyramus</i></p></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Pyramus draws near the wall: silence!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Pyramus</b></a><blockquote><a>O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black!</a><br /><a>O night, which ever art when day is not!</a><br /><a>O night, O night! alack, alack, alack,</a><br /><a>I fear my Thisby's promise is forgot!</a><br /><a>And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,</a><br /><a>That stand'st between her father's ground and mine!</a><br /><a>Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,</a><br /><a>Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne!</a><br /><p><i>Wall holds up his fingers</i></p><a>Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this!</a><br /><a>But what see I? No Thisby do I see.</a><br /><a>O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss!</a><br /><a>Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Pyramus</b></a><blockquote><a>No, in truth, sir, he should not. 'Deceiving me'</a><br /><a>is Thisby's cue: she is to enter now, and I am to</a><br /><a>spy her through the wall. You shall see, it will</a><br /><a>fall pat as I told you. Yonder she comes.</a><br /><p><i>Enter Thisbe</i></p></blockquote><a><b>Thisbe</b></a><blockquote><a>O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans,</a><br /><a>For parting my fair Pyramus and me!</a><br /><a>My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones,</a><br /><a>Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Pyramus</b></a><blockquote><a>I see a voice: now will I to the chink,</a><br /><a>To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face. Thisby!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Thisbe</b></a><blockquote><a>My love thou art, my love I think.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Pyramus</b></a><blockquote><a>Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace;</a><br /><a>And, like Limander, am I trusty still.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Thisbe</b></a><blockquote><a>And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Pyramus</b></a><blockquote><a>Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Thisbe</b></a><blockquote><a>As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Pyramus</b></a><blockquote><a>O kiss me through the hole of this vile wall!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Thisbe</b></a><blockquote><a>I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Pyramus</b></a><blockquote><a>Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Thisbe</b></a><blockquote><a>'Tide life, 'tide death, I come without delay.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt Pyramus and Thisbe</i></p></blockquote><a><b>Wall</b></a><blockquote><a>Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so;</a><br /><a>And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.</a><br /><p><i>Exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Now is the mural down between the two neighbours.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear</a><br /><a>without warning.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HIPPOLYTA</b></a><blockquote><a>This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst</a><br /><a>are no worse, if imagination amend them.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HIPPOLYTA</b></a><blockquote><a>It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>If we imagine no worse of them than they of</a><br /><a>themselves, they may pass for excellent men. Here</a><br /><a>come two noble beasts in, a man and a lion.</a><br /><p><i>Enter Lion and Moonshine</i></p></blockquote><a><b>Lion</b></a><blockquote><a>You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear</a><br /><a>The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,</a><br /><a>May now perchance both quake and tremble here,</a><br /><a>When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.</a><br /><a>Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am</a><br /><a>A lion-fell, nor else no lion's dam;</a><br /><a>For, if I should as lion come in strife</a><br /><a>Into this place, 'twere pity on my life.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>A very gentle beast, of a good conscience.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I saw.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>This lion is a very fox for his valour.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>True; and a goose for his discretion.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Not so, my lord; for his valour cannot carry his</a><br /><a>discretion; and the fox carries the goose.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valour;</a><br /><a>for the goose carries not the fox. It is well:</a><br /><a>leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to the moon.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Moonshine</b></a><blockquote><a>This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>He should have worn the horns on his head.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>He is no crescent, and his horns are</a><br /><a>invisible within the circumference.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Moonshine</b></a><blockquote><a>This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;</a><br /><a>Myself the man i' the moon do seem to be.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>This is the greatest error of all the rest: the man</a><br /><a>should be put into the lanthorn. How is it else the</a><br /><a>man i' the moon?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>He dares not come there for the candle; for, you</a><br /><a>see, it is already in snuff.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HIPPOLYTA</b></a><blockquote><a>I am aweary of this moon: would he would change!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>It appears, by his small light of discretion, that</a><br /><a>he is in the wane; but yet, in courtesy, in all</a><br /><a>reason, we must stay the time.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Proceed, Moon.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Moonshine</b></a><blockquote><a>All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the</a><br /><a>lanthorn is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this</a><br /><a>thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Why, all these should be in the lanthorn; for all</a><br /><a>these are in the moon. But, silence! here comes Thisbe.</a><br /><p><i>Enter Thisbe</i></p></blockquote><a><b>Thisbe</b></a><blockquote><a>This is old Ninny's tomb. Where is my love?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Lion</b></a><blockquote><a>[Roaring]  Oh--</a><br /><p><i>Thisbe runs off</i></p></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Well roared, Lion.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Well run, Thisbe.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HIPPOLYTA</b></a><blockquote><a>Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines with a</a><br /><a>good grace.</a><br /><p><i>The Lion shakes Thisbe's mantle, and exit</i></p></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Well moused, Lion.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>And so the lion vanished.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>And then came Pyramus.</a><br /><p><i>Enter Pyramus</i></p></blockquote><a><b>Pyramus</b></a><blockquote><a>Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams;</a><br /><a>I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright;</a><br /><a>For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams,</a><br /><a>I trust to take of truest Thisby sight.</a><br /><a>But stay, O spite!</a><br /><a>But mark, poor knight,</a><br /><a>What dreadful dole is here!</a><br /><a>Eyes, do you see?</a><br /><a>How can it be?</a><br /><a>O dainty duck! O dear!</a><br /><a>Thy mantle good,</a><br /><a>What, stain'd with blood!</a><br /><a>Approach, ye Furies fell!</a><br /><a>O Fates, come, come,</a><br /><a>Cut thread and thrum;</a><br /><a>Quail, crush, conclude, and quell!</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would</a><br /><a>go near to make a man look sad.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HIPPOLYTA</b></a><blockquote><a>Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Pyramus</b></a><blockquote><a>O wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame?</a><br /><a>Since lion vile hath here deflower'd my dear:</a><br /><a>Which is--no, no--which was the fairest dame</a><br /><a>That lived, that loved, that liked, that look'd</a><br /><a>with cheer.</a><br /><a>Come, tears, confound;</a><br /><a>Out, sword, and wound</a><br /><a>The pap of Pyramus;</a><br /><a>Ay, that left pap,</a><br /><a>Where heart doth hop:</a><br /><p><i>Stabs himself</i></p><a>Thus die I, thus, thus, thus.</a><br /><a>Now am I dead,</a><br /><a>Now am I fled;</a><br /><a>My soul is in the sky:</a><br /><a>Tongue, lose thy light;</a><br /><a>Moon take thy flight:</a><br /><p><i>Exit Moonshine</i></p><a>Now die, die, die, die, die.</a><br /><p><i>Dies</i></p></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>No die, but an ace, for him; for he is but one.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>Less than an ace, man; for he is dead; he is nothing.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover, and</a><br /><a>prove an ass.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>HIPPOLYTA</b></a><blockquote><a>How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe comes</a><br /><a>back and finds her lover?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>She will find him by starlight. Here she comes; and</a><br /><a>her passion ends the play.</a><br /><p><i>Re-enter Thisbe</i></p></blockquote><a><b>HIPPOLYTA</b></a><blockquote><a>Methinks she should not use a long one for such a</a><br /><a>Pyramus: I hope she will be brief.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which</a><br /><a>Thisbe, is the better; he for a man, God warrant us;</a><br /><a>she for a woman, God bless us.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>LYSANDER</b></a><blockquote><a>She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>And thus she means, videlicet:--</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>Thisbe</b></a><blockquote><a>          Asleep, my love?</a><br /><a>What, dead, my dove?</a><br /><a>O Pyramus, arise!</a><br /><a>Speak, speak. Quite dumb?</a><br /><a>Dead, dead? A tomb</a><br /><a>Must cover thy sweet eyes.</a><br /><a>These My lips,</a><br /><a>This cherry nose,</a><br /><a>These yellow cowslip cheeks,</a><br /><a>Are gone, are gone:</a><br /><a>Lovers, make moan:</a><br /><a>His eyes were green as leeks.</a><br /><a>O Sisters Three,</a><br /><a>Come, come to me,</a><br /><a>With hands as pale as milk;</a><br /><a>Lay them in gore,</a><br /><a>Since you have shore</a><br /><a>With shears his thread of silk.</a><br /><a>Tongue, not a word:</a><br /><a>Come, trusty sword;</a><br /><a>Come, blade, my breast imbrue:</a><br /><p><i>Stabs herself</i></p><a>And, farewell, friends;</a><br /><a>Thus Thisby ends:</a><br /><a>Adieu, adieu, adieu.</a><br /><p><i>Dies</i></p></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>DEMETRIUS</b></a><blockquote><a>Ay, and Wall too.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>BOTTOM</b></a><blockquote><a>[Starting up]  No assure you; the wall is down that</a><br /><a>parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the</a><br /><a>epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two</a><br /><a>of our company?</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>THESEUS</b></a><blockquote><a>No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no</a><br /><a>excuse. Never excuse; for when the players are all</a><br /><a>dead, there needs none to be blamed. Marry, if he</a><br /><a>that writ it had played Pyramus and hanged himself</a><br /><a>in Thisbe's garter, it would have been a fine</a><br /><a>tragedy: and so it is, truly; and very notably</a><br /><a>discharged. But come, your Bergomask: let your</a><br /><a>epilogue alone.</a><br /><p><i>A dance</i></p><a>The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:</a><br /><a>Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.</a><br /><a>I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn</a><br /><a>As much as we this night have overwatch'd.</a><br /><a>This palpable-gross play hath well beguiled</a><br /><a>The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed.</a><br /><a>A fortnight hold we this solemnity,</a><br /><a>In nightly revels and new jollity.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt</i></p><p><i>Enter PUCK</i></p></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><blockquote><a>     Now the hungry lion roars,</a><br /><a>And the wolf behowls the moon;</a><br /><a>Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,</a><br /><a>All with weary task fordone.</a><br /><a>Now the wasted brands do glow,</a><br /><a>Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud,</a><br /><a>Puts the wretch that lies in woe</a><br /><a>In remembrance of a shroud.</a><br /><a>Now it is the time of night</a><br /><a>That the graves all gaping wide,</a><br /><a>Every one lets forth his sprite,</a><br /><a>In the church-way paths to glide:</a><br /><a>And we fairies, that do run</a><br /><a>By the triple Hecate's team,</a><br /><a>From the presence of the sun,</a><br /><a>Following darkness like a dream,</a><br /><a>Now are frolic: not a mouse</a><br /><a>Shall disturb this hallow'd house:</a><br /><a>I am sent with broom before,</a><br /><a>To sweep the dust behind the door.</a><br /><p><i>Enter OBERON and TITANIA with their train</i></p></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>     Through the house give gathering light,</a><br /><a>By the dead and drowsy fire:</a><br /><a>Every elf and fairy sprite</a><br /><a>Hop as light as bird from brier;</a><br /><a>And this ditty, after me,</a><br /><a>Sing, and dance it trippingly.</a><br /></blockquote><a><b>TITANIA</b></a><blockquote><a>First, rehearse your song by rote</a><br /><a>To each word a warbling note:</a><br /><a>Hand in hand, with fairy grace,</a><br /><a>Will we sing, and bless this place.</a><br /><p><i>Song and dance</i></p></blockquote><a><b>OBERON</b></a><blockquote><a>Now, until the break of day,</a><br /><a>Through this house each fairy stray.</a><br /><a>To the best bride-bed will we,</a><br /><a>Which by us shall blessed be;</a><br /><a>And the issue there create</a><br /><a>Ever shall be fortunate.</a><br /><a>So shall all the couples three</a><br /><a>Ever true in loving be;</a><br /><a>And the blots of Nature's hand</a><br /><a>Shall not in their issue stand;</a><br /><a>Never mole, hare lip, nor scar,</a><br /><a>Nor mark prodigious, such as are</a><br /><a>Despised in nativity,</a><br /><a>Shall upon their children be.</a><br /><a>With this field-dew consecrate,</a><br /><a>Every fairy take his gait;</a><br /><a>And each several chamber bless,</a><br /><a>Through this palace, with sweet peace;</a><br /><a>And the owner of it blest</a><br /><a>Ever shall in safety rest.</a><br /><a>Trip away; make no stay;</a><br /><a>Meet me all by break of day.</a><br /><p><i>Exeunt OBERON, TITANIA, and train</i></p></blockquote><a><b>PUCK</b></a><a>If we shadows have offended,</a><br /><a>Think but this, and all is mended,</a><br /><a>That you have but slumber'd here</a><br /><a>While these visions did appear.</a><br /><a>And this weak and idle theme,</a><br /><a>No more yielding but a dream,</a><br /><a>Gentles, do not reprehend:</a><br /><a>if you pardon, we will mend:</a><br /><a>And, as I am an honest Puck,</a><br /><a>If we have unearned luck</a><br /><a>Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,</a><br /><a>We will make amends ere long;</a><br /><a>Else the Puck a liar call;</a><br /><a>So, good night unto you all.</a><br /><a>Give me your hands, if we be friends,</a><br /><a>And Robin shall restore amends.</a></span>