Text placed in the public domain by Moby Lexical Tools, 1992.
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SGML markup by Jon Bosak, 1992-1994.
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XML version by Jon Bosak, 1996-1998.
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This work may be freely copied and distributed worldwide.
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-
- Dramatis Personae
- THESEUS, Duke of Athens.
- EGEUS, father to Hermia.
-
- LYSANDER
- DEMETRIUS
- in love with Hermia.
-
- PHILOSTRATE, master of the revels to Theseus.
- QUINCE, a carpenter.
- SNUG, a joiner.
- BOTTOM, a weaver.
- FLUTE, a bellows-mender.
- SNOUT, a tinker.
- STARVELING, a tailor.
- HIPPOLYTA, queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus.
- HERMIA, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander.
- HELENA, in love with Demetrius.
- OBERON, king of the fairies.
- TITANIA, queen of the fairies.
- PUCK, or Robin Goodfellow.
-
- PEASEBLOSSOM
- COBWEB
- MOTH
- MUSTARDSEED
- fairies.
-
- Other fairies attending their King and Queen.
- Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta.
-
- SCENE Athens, and a wood near it.
- A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
-
- ACT I
-
- SCENE I. Athens. The palace of THESEUS.
- Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and
-Attendants
-
- THESEUS
- Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
- Draws on apace; four happy days bring in
- Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow
- This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,
- Like to a step-dame or a dowager
- Long withering out a young man revenue.
-
-
- HIPPOLYTA
- Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;
- Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
- And then the moon, like to a silver bow
- New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night
- Of our solemnities.
-
-
- THESEUS
- Go, Philostrate,
- Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
- Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;
- Turn melancholy forth to funerals;
- The pale companion is not for our pomp.
- Exit PHILOSTRATE
- Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,
- And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
- But I will wed thee in another key,
- With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.
-
- Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS
-
- EGEUS
- Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!
-
-
- THESEUS
- Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with thee?
-
-
- EGEUS
- Full of vexation come I, with complaint
- Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
- Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,
- This man hath my consent to marry her.
- Stand forth, Lysander: and my gracious duke,
- This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child;
- Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
- And interchanged love-tokens with my child:
- Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,
- With feigning voice verses of feigning love,
- And stolen the impression of her fantasy
- With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
- Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers
- Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth:
- With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart,
- Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,
- To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke,
- Be it so she; will not here before your grace
- Consent to marry with Demetrius,
- I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,
- As she is mine, I may dispose of her:
- Which shall be either to this gentleman
- Or to her death, according to our law
- Immediately provided in that case.
-
-
- THESEUS
- What say you, Hermia? be advised fair maid:
- To you your father should be as a god;
- One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
- To whom you are but as a form in wax
- By him imprinted and within his power
- To leave the figure or disfigure it.
- Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
-
-
- HERMIA
- So is Lysander.
-
-
- THESEUS
- In himself he is;
- But in this kind, wanting your father's voice,
- The other must be held the worthier.
-
-
- HERMIA
- I would my father look'd but with my eyes.
-
-
- THESEUS
- Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.
-
-
- HERMIA
- I do entreat your grace to pardon me.
- I know not by what power I am made bold,
- Nor how it may concern my modesty,
- In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
- But I beseech your grace that I may know
- The worst that may befall me in this case,
- If I refuse to wed Demetrius.
-
-
- THESEUS
- Either to die the death or to abjure
- For ever the society of men.
- Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires;
- Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
- Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
- You can endure the livery of a nun,
- For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd,
- To live a barren sister all your life,
- Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
- Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood,
- To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
- But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,
- Than that which withering on the virgin thorn
- Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness.
-
-
- HERMIA
- So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
- Ere I will my virgin patent up
- Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke
- My soul consents not to give sovereignty.
-
-
- THESEUS
- Take time to pause; and, by the nest new moon--
- The sealing-day betwixt my love and me,
- For everlasting bond of fellowship--
- Upon that day either prepare to die
- For disobedience to your father's will,
- Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would;
- Or on Diana's altar to protest
- For aye austerity and single life.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- Relent, sweet Hermia: and, Lysander, yield
- Thy crazed title to my certain right.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- You have her father's love, Demetrius;
- Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him.
-
-
- EGEUS
- Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love,
- And what is mine my love shall render him.
- And she is mine, and all my right of her
- I do estate unto Demetrius.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- I am, my lord, as well derived as he,
- As well possess'd; my love is more than his;
- My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,
- If not with vantage, as Demetrius';
- And, which is more than all these boasts can be,
- I am beloved of beauteous Hermia:
- Why should not I then prosecute my right?
- Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,
- Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,
- And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
- Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
- Upon this spotted and inconstant man.
-
-
- THESEUS
- I must confess that I have heard so much,
- And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof;
- But, being over-full of self-affairs,
- My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come;
- And come, Egeus; you shall go with me,
- I have some private schooling for you both.
- For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself
- To fit your fancies to your father's will;
- Or else the law of Athens yields you up--
- Which by no means we may extenuate--
- To death, or to a vow of single life.
- Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love?
- Demetrius and Egeus, go along:
- I must employ you in some business
- Against our nuptial and confer with you
- Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.
-
-
- EGEUS
- With duty and desire we follow you.
-
- Exeunt all but LYSANDER and HERMIA
-
- LYSANDER
- How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale?
- How chance the roses there do fade so fast?
-
-
- HERMIA
- Belike for want of rain, which I could well
- Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Ay me! for aught that I could ever read,
- Could ever hear by tale or history,
- The course of true love never did run smooth;
- But, either it was different in blood,--
-
-
- HERMIA
- O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Or else misgraffed in respect of years,--
-
-
- HERMIA
- O spite! too old to be engaged to young.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,--
-
-
- HERMIA
- O hell! to choose love by another's eyes.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
- War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
- Making it momentany as a sound,
- Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;
- Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
- That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
- And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!'
- The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
- So quick bright things come to confusion.
-
-
- HERMIA
- If then true lovers have been ever cross'd,
- It stands as an edict in destiny:
- Then let us teach our trial patience,
- Because it is a customary cross,
- As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,
- Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- A good persuasion: therefore, hear me, Hermia.
- I have a widow aunt, a dowager
- Of great revenue, and she hath no child:
- From Athens is her house remote seven leagues;
- And she respects me as her only son.
- There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;
- And to that place the sharp Athenian law
- Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,
- Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night;
- And in the wood, a league without the town,
- Where I did meet thee once with Helena,
- To do observance to a morn of May,
- There will I stay for thee.
-
-
- HERMIA
- My good Lysander!
- I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow,
- By his best arrow with the golden head,
- By the simplicity of Venus' doves,
- By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,
- And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen,
- When the false Troyan under sail was seen,
- By all the vows that ever men have broke,
- In number more than ever women spoke,
- In that same place thou hast appointed me,
- To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.
-
- Enter HELENA
-
- HERMIA
- God speed fair Helena! whither away?
-
-
- HELENA
- Call you me fair? that fair again unsay.
- Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!
- Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's sweet air
- More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,
- When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
- Sickness is catching: O, were favour so,
- Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;
- My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,
- My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.
- Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
- The rest I'd give to be to you translated.
- O, teach me how you look, and with what art
- You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.
-
-
- HERMIA
- I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.
-
-
- HELENA
- O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!
-
-
- HERMIA
- I give him curses, yet he gives me love.
-
-
- HELENA
- O that my prayers could such affection move!
-
-
- HERMIA
- The more I hate, the more he follows me.
-
-
- HELENA
- The more I love, the more he hateth me.
-
-
- HERMIA
- His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.
-
-
- HELENA
- None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine!
-
-
- HERMIA
- Take comfort: he no more shall see my face;
- Lysander and myself will fly this place.
- Before the time I did Lysander see,
- Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me:
- O, then, what graces in my love do dwell,
- That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell!
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Helen, to you our minds we will unfold:
- To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold
- Her silver visage in the watery glass,
- Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,
- A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,
- Through Athens' gates have we devised to steal.
-
-
- HERMIA
- And in the wood, where often you and I
- Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,
- Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,
- There my Lysander and myself shall meet;
- And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,
- To seek new friends and stranger companies.
- Farewell, sweet playfellow: pray thou for us;
- And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!
- Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight
- From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- I will, my Hermia.
- Exit HERMIA
- Helena, adieu:
- As you on him, Demetrius dote on you!
-
- Exit
-
- HELENA
- How happy some o'er other some can be!
- Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
- But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
- He will not know what all but he do know:
- And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,
- So I, admiring of his qualities:
- Things base and vile, folding no quantity,
- Love can transpose to form and dignity:
- Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
- And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:
- Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;
- Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:
- And therefore is Love said to be a child,
- Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
- As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
- So the boy Love is perjured every where:
- For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,
- He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;
- And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
- So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.
- I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:
- Then to the wood will he to-morrow night
- Pursue her; and for this intelligence
- If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:
- But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
- To have his sight thither and back again.
-
- Exit
-
-
- SCENE II. Athens. QUINCE'S house.
- Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and
-STARVELING
-
- QUINCE
- Is all our company here?
-
-
- BOTTOM
- You were best to call them generally, man by man,
- according to the scrip.
-
-
- QUINCE
- Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is
- thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our
- interlude before the duke and the duchess, on his
- wedding-day at night.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats
- on, then read the names of the actors, and so grow
- to a point.
-
-
- QUINCE
- Marry, our play is, The most lamentable comedy, and
- most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a
- merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your
- actors by the scroll. Masters, spread yourselves.
-
-
- QUINCE
- Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.
-
-
- QUINCE
- You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant?
-
-
- QUINCE
- A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- That will ask some tears in the true performing of
- it: if I do it, let the audience look to their
- eyes; I will move storms, I will condole in some
- measure. To the rest: yet my chief humour is for a
- tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to
- tear a cat in, to make all split.
- The raging rocks
- And shivering shocks
- Shall break the locks
- Of prison gates;
- And Phibbus' car
- Shall shine from far
- And make and mar
- The foolish Fates.
- This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players.
- This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is
- more condoling.
-
-
- QUINCE
- Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.
-
-
- FLUTE
- Here, Peter Quince.
-
-
- QUINCE
- Flute, you must take Thisby on you.
-
-
- FLUTE
- What is Thisby? a wandering knight?
-
-
- QUINCE
- It is the lady that Pyramus must love.
-
-
- FLUTE
- Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming.
-
-
- QUINCE
- That's all one: you shall play it in a mask, and
- you may speak as small as you will.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too, I'll
- speak in a monstrous little voice. 'Thisne,
- Thisne;' 'Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! thy Thisby dear,
- and lady dear!'
-
-
- QUINCE
- No, no; you must play Pyramus: and, Flute, you Thisby.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Well, proceed.
-
-
- QUINCE
- Robin Starveling, the tailor.
-
-
- STARVELING
- Here, Peter Quince.
-
-
- QUINCE
- Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother.
- Tom Snout, the tinker.
-
-
- SNOUT
- Here, Peter Quince.
-
-
- QUINCE
- You, Pyramus' father: myself, Thisby's father:
- Snug, the joiner; you, the lion's part: and, I
- hope, here is a play fitted.
-
-
- SNUG
- Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if it
- be, give it me, for I am slow of study.
-
-
- QUINCE
- You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I will
- do any man's heart good to hear me; I will roar,
- that I will make the duke say 'Let him roar again,
- let him roar again.'
-
-
- QUINCE
- An you should do it too terribly, you would fright
- the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek;
- and that were enough to hang us all.
-
-
- ALL
- That would hang us, every mother's son.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the
- ladies out of their wits, they would have no more
- discretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my
- voice so that I will roar you as gently as any
- sucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any
- nightingale.
-
-
- QUINCE
- You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a
- sweet-faced man; a proper man, as one shall see in a
- summer's day; a most lovely gentleman-like man:
- therefore you must needs play Pyramus.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best
- to play it in?
-
-
- QUINCE
- Why, what you will.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- I will discharge it in either your straw-colour
- beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain
- beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, your
- perfect yellow.
-
-
- QUINCE
- Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and
- then you will play bare-faced. But, masters, here
- are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request
- you and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night;
- and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the
- town, by moonlight; there will we rehearse, for if
- we meet in the city, we shall be dogged with
- company, and our devices known. In the meantime I
- will draw a bill of properties, such as our play
- wants. I pray you, fail me not.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- We will meet; and there we may rehearse most
- obscenely and courageously. Take pains; be perfect: adieu.
-
-
- QUINCE
- At the duke's oak we meet.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Enough; hold or cut bow-strings.
-
- Exeunt
-
-
-
- ACT II
-
- SCENE I. A wood near Athens.
- Enter, from opposite sides, a Fairy, and PUCK
-
- PUCK
- How now, spirit! whither wander you?
-
-
- Fairy
- Over hill, over dale,
- Thorough bush, thorough brier,
- Over park, over pale,
- Thorough flood, thorough fire,
- I do wander everywhere,
- Swifter than the moon's sphere;
- And I serve the fairy queen,
- To dew her orbs upon the green.
- The cowslips tall her pensioners be:
- In their gold coats spots you see;
- Those be rubies, fairy favours,
- In those freckles live their savours:
- I must go seek some dewdrops here
- And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
- Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone:
- Our queen and all our elves come here anon.
-
-
- PUCK
- The king doth keep his revels here to-night:
- Take heed the queen come not within his sight;
- For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,
- Because that she as her attendant hath
- A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king;
- She never had so sweet a changeling;
- And jealous Oberon would have the child
- Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;
- But she perforce withholds the loved boy,
- Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy:
- And now they never meet in grove or green,
- By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,
- But, they do square, that all their elves for fear
- Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there.
-
-
- Fairy
- Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
- Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
- Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he
- That frights the maidens of the villagery;
- Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern
- And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;
- And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;
- Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
- Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
- You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
- Are not you he?
-
-
- PUCK
- Thou speak'st aright;
- I am that merry wanderer of the night.
- I jest to Oberon and make him smile
- When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
- Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
- And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
- In very likeness of a roasted crab,
- And when she drinks, against her lips I bob
- And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.
- The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
- Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
- Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
- And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;
- And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
- And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear
- A merrier hour was never wasted there.
- But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon.
-
-
- Fairy
- And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!
-
- Enter, from one side, OBERON, with his train;
-from the other, TITANIA, with hers
-
- OBERON
- Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.
-
-
- TITANIA
- What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence:
- I have forsworn his bed and company.
-
-
- OBERON
- Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?
-
-
- TITANIA
- Then I must be thy lady: but I know
- When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,
- And in the shape of Corin sat all day,
- Playing on pipes of corn and versing love
- To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,
- Come from the farthest Steppe of India?
- But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,
- Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love,
- To Theseus must be wedded, and you come
- To give their bed joy and prosperity.
-
-
- OBERON
- How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
- Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,
- Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
- Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night
- From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
- And make him with fair AEgle break his faith,
- With Ariadne and Antiopa?
-
-
- TITANIA
- These are the forgeries of jealousy:
- And never, since the middle summer's spring,
- Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
- By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
- Or in the beached margent of the sea,
- To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
- But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.
- Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
- As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea
- Contagious fogs; which falling in the land
- Have every pelting river made so proud
- That they have overborne their continents:
- The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,
- The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
- Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard;
- The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
- And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;
- The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud,
- And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
- For lack of tread are undistinguishable:
- The human mortals want their winter here;
- No night is now with hymn or carol blest:
- Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
- Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
- That rheumatic diseases do abound:
- And thorough this distemperature we see
- The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
- Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
- And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown
- An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
- Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,
- The childing autumn, angry winter, change
- Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,
- By their increase, now knows not which is which:
- And this same progeny of evils comes
- From our debate, from our dissension;
- We are their parents and original.
-
-
- OBERON
- Do you amend it then; it lies in you:
- Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
- I do but beg a little changeling boy,
- To be my henchman.
-
-
- TITANIA
- Set your heart at rest:
- The fairy land buys not the child of me.
- His mother was a votaress of my order:
- And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,
- Full often hath she gossip'd by my side,
- And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,
- Marking the embarked traders on the flood,
- When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive
- And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;
- Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait
- Following,--her womb then rich with my young squire,--
- Would imitate, and sail upon the land,
- To fetch me trifles, and return again,
- As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
- But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;
- And for her sake do I rear up her boy,
- And for her sake I will not part with him.
-
-
- OBERON
- How long within this wood intend you stay?
-
-
- TITANIA
- Perchance till after Theseus' wedding-day.
- If you will patiently dance in our round
- And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
- If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.
-
-
- OBERON
- Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.
-
-
- TITANIA
- Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away!
- We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.
-
- Exit TITANIA with her train
-
- OBERON
- Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove
- Till I torment thee for this injury.
- My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
- Since once I sat upon a promontory,
- And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
- Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
- That the rude sea grew civil at her song
- And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
- To hear the sea-maid's music.
-
-
- PUCK
- I remember.
-
-
- OBERON
- That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,
- Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
- Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took
- At a fair vestal throned by the west,
- And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
- As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;
- But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
- Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
- And the imperial votaress passed on,
- In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
- Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
- It fell upon a little western flower,
- Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
- And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
- Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once:
- The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid
- Will make or man or woman madly dote
- Upon the next live creature that it sees.
- Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again
- Ere the leviathan can swim a league.
-
-
- PUCK
- I'll put a girdle round about the earth
- In forty minutes.
-
- Exit
-
- OBERON
- Having once this juice,
- I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,
- And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.
- The next thing then she waking looks upon,
- Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
- On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,
- She shall pursue it with the soul of love:
- And ere I take this charm from off her sight,
- As I can take it with another herb,
- I'll make her render up her page to me.
- But who comes here? I am invisible;
- And I will overhear their conference.
-
- Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA, following him
-
- DEMETRIUS
- I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
- Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?
- The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.
- Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood;
- And here am I, and wode within this wood,
- Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
- Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
-
-
- HELENA
- You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;
- But yet you draw not iron, for my heart
- Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw,
- And I shall have no power to follow you.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- Do I entice you? do I speak you fair?
- Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth
- Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?
-
-
- HELENA
- And even for that do I love you the more.
- I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,
- The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
- Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
- Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
- Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
- What worser place can I beg in your love,--
- And yet a place of high respect with me,--
- Than to be used as you use your dog?
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;
- For I am sick when I do look on thee.
-
-
- HELENA
- And I am sick when I look not on you.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- You do impeach your modesty too much,
- To leave the city and commit yourself
- Into the hands of one that loves you not;
- To trust the opportunity of night
- And the ill counsel of a desert place
- With the rich worth of your virginity.
-
-
- HELENA
- Your virtue is my privilege: for that
- It is not night when I do see your face,
- Therefore I think I am not in the night;
- Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
- For you in my respect are all the world:
- Then how can it be said I am alone,
- When all the world is here to look on me?
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,
- And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.
-
-
- HELENA
- The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
- Run when you will, the story shall be changed:
- Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
- The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
- Makes speed to catch the tiger; bootless speed,
- When cowardice pursues and valour flies.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- I will not stay thy questions; let me go:
- Or, if thou follow me, do not believe
- But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.
-
-
- HELENA
- Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
- You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!
- Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:
- We cannot fight for love, as men may do;
- We should be wood and were not made to woo.
- Exit DEMETRIUS
- I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,
- To die upon the hand I love so well.
-
- Exit
-
- OBERON
- Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove,
- Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love.
- Re-enter PUCK
- Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.
-
-
- PUCK
- Ay, there it is.
-
-
- OBERON
- I pray thee, give it me.
- I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
- Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
- Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
- With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
- There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
- Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
- And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,
- Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
- And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,
- And make her full of hateful fantasies.
- Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:
- A sweet Athenian lady is in love
- With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;
- But do it when the next thing he espies
- May be the lady: thou shalt know the man
- By the Athenian garments he hath on.
- Effect it with some care, that he may prove
- More fond on her than she upon her love:
- And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.
-
-
- PUCK
- Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.
-
- Exeunt
-
-
- SCENE II. Another part of the wood.
- Enter TITANIA, with her train
-
- TITANIA
- Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;
- Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;
- Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,
- Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,
- To make my small elves coats, and some keep back
- The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders
- At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
- Then to your offices and let me rest.
- The Fairies sing
- You spotted snakes with double tongue,
- Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
- Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
- Come not near our fairy queen.
- Philomel, with melody
- Sing in our sweet lullaby;
- Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:
- Never harm,
- Nor spell nor charm,
- Come our lovely lady nigh;
- So, good night, with lullaby.
- Weaving spiders, come not here;
- Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!
- Beetles black, approach not near;
- Worm nor snail, do no offence.
- Philomel, with melody, &c.
-
-
- Fairy
- Hence, away! now all is well:
- One aloof stand sentinel.
-
- Exeunt Fairies. TITANIA sleeps
- Enter OBERON and squeezes the flower on TITANIA's eyelids
-
- OBERON
- What thou seest when thou dost wake,
- Do it for thy true-love take,
- Love and languish for his sake:
- Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
- Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
- In thy eye that shall appear
- When thou wakest, it is thy dear:
- Wake when some vile thing is near.
-
- Exit
- Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA
-
- LYSANDER
- Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood;
- And to speak troth, I have forgot our way:
- We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,
- And tarry for the comfort of the day.
-
-
- HERMIA
- Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed;
- For I upon this bank will rest my head.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;
- One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth.
-
-
- HERMIA
- Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear,
- Lie further off yet, do not lie so near.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!
- Love takes the meaning in love's conference.
- I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit
- So that but one heart we can make of it;
- Two bosoms interchained with an oath;
- So then two bosoms and a single troth.
- Then by your side no bed-room me deny;
- For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.
-
-
- HERMIA
- Lysander riddles very prettily:
- Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,
- If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied.
- But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy
- Lie further off; in human modesty,
- Such separation as may well be said
- Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid,
- So far be distant; and, good night, sweet friend:
- Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end!
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I;
- And then end life when I end loyalty!
- Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest!
-
-
- HERMIA
- With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd!
-
- They sleep
- Enter PUCK
-
- PUCK
- Through the forest have I gone.
- But Athenian found I none,
- On whose eyes I might approve
- This flower's force in stirring love.
- Night and silence.--Who is here?
- Weeds of Athens he doth wear:
- This is he, my master said,
- Despised the Athenian maid;
- And here the maiden, sleeping sound,
- On the dank and dirty ground.
- Pretty soul! she durst not lie
- Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.
- Churl, upon thy eyes I throw
- All the power this charm doth owe.
- When thou wakest, let love forbid
- Sleep his seat on thy eyelid:
- So awake when I am gone;
- For I must now to Oberon.
-
- Exit
- Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running
-
- HELENA
- Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.
-
-
- HELENA
- O, wilt thou darkling leave me? do not so.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- Stay, on thy peril: I alone will go.
-
- Exit
-
- HELENA
- O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!
- The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.
- Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies;
- For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.
- How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears:
- If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers.
- No, no, I am as ugly as a bear;
- For beasts that meet me run away for fear:
- Therefore no marvel though Demetrius
- Do, as a monster fly my presence thus.
- What wicked and dissembling glass of mine
- Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne?
- But who is here? Lysander! on the ground!
- Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.
- Lysander if you live, good sir, awake.
-
-
- LYSANDER
-
- Awaking And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake.
- Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,
- That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.
- Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word
- Is that vile name to perish on my sword!
-
-
- HELENA
- Do not say so, Lysander; say not so
- What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?
- Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Content with Hermia! No; I do repent
- The tedious minutes I with her have spent.
- Not Hermia but Helena I love:
- Who will not change a raven for a dove?
- The will of man is by his reason sway'd;
- And reason says you are the worthier maid.
- Things growing are not ripe until their season
- So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;
- And touching now the point of human skill,
- Reason becomes the marshal to my will
- And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook
- Love's stories written in love's richest book.
-
-
- HELENA
- Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?
- When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?
- Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man,
- That I did never, no, nor never can,
- Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye,
- But you must flout my insufficiency?
- Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do,
- In such disdainful manner me to woo.
- But fare you well: perforce I must confess
- I thought you lord of more true gentleness.
- O, that a lady, of one man refused.
- Should of another therefore be abused!
-
- Exit
-
- LYSANDER
- She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there:
- And never mayst thou come Lysander near!
- For as a surfeit of the sweetest things
- The deepest loathing to the stomach brings,
- Or as tie heresies that men do leave
- Are hated most of those they did deceive,
- So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,
- Of all be hated, but the most of me!
- And, all my powers, address your love and might
- To honour Helen and to be her knight!
-
- Exit
-
- HERMIA
-
- Awaking Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best
- To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!
- Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here!
- Lysander, look how I do quake with fear:
- Methought a serpent eat my heart away,
- And you sat smiling at his cruel pray.
- Lysander! what, removed? Lysander! lord!
- What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word?
- Alack, where are you speak, an if you hear;
- Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.
- No? then I well perceive you all not nigh
- Either death or you I'll find immediately.
-
- Exit
-
-
-
- ACT III
-
- SCENE I. The wood. TITANIA lying asleep.
- Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and
-STARVELING
-
- BOTTOM
- Are we all met?
-
-
- QUINCE
- Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place
- for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our
- stage, this hawthorn-brake our tiring-house; and we
- will do it in action as we will do it before the duke.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Peter Quince,--
-
-
- QUINCE
- What sayest thou, bully Bottom?
-
-
- BOTTOM
- There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and
- Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must
- draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies
- cannot abide. How answer you that?
-
-
- SNOUT
- By'r lakin, a parlous fear.
-
-
- STARVELING
- I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Not a whit: I have a device to make all well.
- Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to
- say, we will do no harm with our swords, and that
- Pyramus is not killed indeed; and, for the more
- better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not
- Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put them
- out of fear.
-
-
- QUINCE
- Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall be
- written in eight and six.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight.
-
-
- SNOUT
- Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?
-
-
- STARVELING
- I fear it, I promise you.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves: to
- bring in--God shield us!--a lion among ladies, is a
- most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful
- wild-fowl than your lion living; and we ought to
- look to 't.
-
-
- SNOUT
- Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must
- be seen through the lion's neck: and he himself
- must speak through, saying thus, or to the same
- defect,--'Ladies,'--or 'Fair-ladies--I would wish
- You,'--or 'I would request you,'--or 'I would
- entreat you,--not to fear, not to tremble: my life
- for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it
- were pity of my life: no I am no such thing; I am a
- man as other men are;' and there indeed let him name
- his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner.
-
-
- QUINCE
- Well it shall be so. But there is two hard things;
- that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber; for,
- you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moonlight.
-
-
- SNOUT
- Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?
-
-
- BOTTOM
- A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanac; find
- out moonshine, find out moonshine.
-
-
- QUINCE
- Yes, it doth shine that night.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Why, then may you leave a casement of the great
- chamber window, where we play, open, and the moon
- may shine in at the casement.
-
-
- QUINCE
- Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns
- and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure, or to
- present, the person of Moonshine. Then, there is
- another thing: we must have a wall in the great
- chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby says the story, did
- talk through the chink of a wall.
-
-
- SNOUT
- You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom?
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Some man or other must present Wall: and let him
- have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast
- about him, to signify wall; and let him hold his
- fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus
- and Thisby whisper.
-
-
- QUINCE
- If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down,
- every mother's son, and rehearse your parts.
- Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken your
- speech, enter into that brake: and so every one
- according to his cue.
-
- Enter PUCK behind
-
- PUCK
- What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here,
- So near the cradle of the fairy queen?
- What, a play toward! I'll be an auditor;
- An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause.
-
-
- QUINCE
- Speak, Pyramus. Thisby, stand forth.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet,--
-
-
- QUINCE
- Odours, odours.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- --odours savours sweet:
- So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear.
- But hark, a voice! stay thou but here awhile,
- And by and by I will to thee appear.
-
- Exit
-
- PUCK
- A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here.
-
- Exit
-
- FLUTE
- Must I speak now?
-
-
- QUINCE
- Ay, marry, must you; for you must understand he goes
- but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again.
-
-
- FLUTE
- Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue,
- Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier,
- Most brisky juvenal and eke most lovely Jew,
- As true as truest horse that yet would never tire,
- I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb.
-
-
- QUINCE
- 'Ninus' tomb,' man: why, you must not speak that
- yet; that you answer to Pyramus: you speak all your
- part at once, cues and all Pyramus enter: your cue
- is past; it is, 'never tire.'
-
-
- FLUTE
- O,--As true as truest horse, that yet would
- never tire.
-
- Re-enter PUCK, and BOTTOM with an ass's head
-
- BOTTOM
- If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine.
-
-
- QUINCE
- O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted. Pray,
- masters! fly, masters! Help!
-
- Exeunt QUINCE, SNUG, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING
-
- PUCK
- I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round,
- Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier:
- Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound,
- A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire;
- And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,
- Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.
-
- Exit
-
- BOTTOM
- Why do they run away? this is a knavery of them to
- make me afeard.
-
- Re-enter SNOUT
-
- SNOUT
- O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on thee?
-
-
- BOTTOM
- What do you see? you see an asshead of your own, do
- you?
-
- Exit SNOUT
- Re-enter QUINCE
-
- QUINCE
- Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art
- translated.
-
- Exit
-
- BOTTOM
- I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me;
- to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir
- from this place, do what they can: I will walk up
- and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear
- I am not afraid.
- Sings
- The ousel cock so black of hue,
- With orange-tawny bill,
- The throstle with his note so true,
- The wren with little quill,--
-
-
- TITANIA
-
- Awaking What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?
-
-
- BOTTOM
-
- Sings
-
- The finch, the sparrow and the lark,
- The plain-song cuckoo gray,
- Whose note full many a man doth mark,
- And dares not answer nay;--
- for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish
- a bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry
- 'cuckoo' never so?
-
-
- TITANIA
- I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:
- Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note;
- So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
- And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me
- On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason
- for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and
- love keep little company together now-a-days; the
- more the pity that some honest neighbours will not
- make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.
-
-
- TITANIA
- Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get out
- of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.
-
-
- TITANIA
- Out of this wood do not desire to go:
- Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.
- I am a spirit of no common rate;
- The summer still doth tend upon my state;
- And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;
- I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
- And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
- And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep;
- And I will purge thy mortal grossness so
- That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.
- Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed!
-
- Enter PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, and MUSTARDSEED
-
- PEASEBLOSSOM
- Ready.
-
-
- COBWEB
- And I.
-
-
- MOTH
- And I.
-
-
- MUSTARDSEED
- And I.
-
-
- ALL
- Where shall we go?
-
-
- TITANIA
- Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
- Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes;
- Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
- With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;
- The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees,
- And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs
- And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,
- To have my love to bed and to arise;
- And pluck the wings from Painted butterflies
- To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:
- Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.
-
-
- PEASEBLOSSOM
- Hail, mortal!
-
-
- COBWEB
- Hail!
-
-
- MOTH
- Hail!
-
-
- MUSTARDSEED
- Hail!
-
-
- BOTTOM
- I cry your worship's mercy, heartily: I beseech your
- worship's name.
-
-
- COBWEB
- Cobweb.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master
- Cobweb: if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with
- you. Your name, honest gentleman?
-
-
- PEASEBLOSSOM
- Peaseblossom.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your
- mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. Good
- Master Peaseblossom, I shall desire you of more
- acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you, sir?
-
-
- MUSTARDSEED
- Mustardseed.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience well:
- that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath
- devoured many a gentleman of your house: I promise
- you your kindred had made my eyes water ere now. I
- desire your more acquaintance, good Master
- Mustardseed.
-
-
- TITANIA
- Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower.
- The moon methinks looks with a watery eye;
- And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,
- Lamenting some enforced chastity.
- Tie up my love's tongue bring him silently.
-
- Exeunt
-
-
- SCENE II. Another part of the wood.
- Enter OBERON
-
- OBERON
- I wonder if Titania be awaked;
- Then, what it was that next came in her eye,
- Which she must dote on in extremity.
- Enter PUCK
- Here comes my messenger.
- How now, mad spirit!
- What night-rule now about this haunted grove?
-
-
- PUCK
- My mistress with a monster is in love.
- Near to her close and consecrated bower,
- While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,
- A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,
- That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,
- Were met together to rehearse a play
- Intended for great Theseus' nuptial-day.
- The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort,
- Who Pyramus presented, in their sport
- Forsook his scene and enter'd in a brake
- When I did him at this advantage take,
- An ass's nole I fixed on his head:
- Anon his Thisbe must be answered,
- And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy,
- As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,
- Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort,
- Rising and cawing at the gun's report,
- Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky,
- So, at his sight, away his fellows fly;
- And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls;
- He murder cries and help from Athens calls.
- Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears
- thus strong,
- Made senseless things begin to do them wrong;
- For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch;
- Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all
- things catch.
- I led them on in this distracted fear,
- And left sweet Pyramus translated there:
- When in that moment, so it came to pass,
- Titania waked and straightway loved an ass.
-
-
- OBERON
- This falls out better than I could devise.
- But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes
- With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?
-
-
- PUCK
- I took him sleeping,--that is finish'd too,--
- And the Athenian woman by his side:
- That, when he waked, of force she must be eyed.
-
- Enter HERMIA and DEMETRIUS
-
- OBERON
- Stand close: this is the same Athenian.
-
-
- PUCK
- This is the woman, but not this the man.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- O, why rebuke you him that loves you so?
- Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.
-
-
- HERMIA
- Now I but chide; but I should use thee worse,
- For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse,
- If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,
- Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep,
- And kill me too.
- The sun was not so true unto the day
- As he to me: would he have stolen away
- From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon
- This whole earth may be bored and that the moon
- May through the centre creep and so displease
- Her brother's noontide with Antipodes.
- It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him;
- So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- So should the murder'd look, and so should I,
- Pierced through the heart with your stern cruelty:
- Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear,
- As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere.
-
-
- HERMIA
- What's this to my Lysander? where is he?
- Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me?
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- I had rather give his carcass to my hounds.
-
-
- HERMIA
- Out, dog! out, cur! thou drivest me past the bounds
- Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him, then?
- Henceforth be never number'd among men!
- O, once tell true, tell true, even for my sake!
- Durst thou have look'd upon him being awake,
- And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch!
- Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?
- An adder did it; for with doubler tongue
- Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- You spend your passion on a misprised mood:
- I am not guilty of Lysander's blood;
- Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.
-
-
- HERMIA
- I pray thee, tell me then that he is well.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- An if I could, what should I get therefore?
-
-
- HERMIA
- A privilege never to see me more.
- And from thy hated presence part I so:
- See me no more, whether he be dead or no.
-
- Exit
-
- DEMETRIUS
- There is no following her in this fierce vein:
- Here therefore for a while I will remain.
- So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow
- For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe:
- Which now in some slight measure it will pay,
- If for his tender here I make some stay.
-
- Lies down and sleeps
-
- OBERON
- What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite
- And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight:
- Of thy misprision must perforce ensue
- Some true love turn'd and not a false turn'd true.
-
-
- PUCK
- Then fate o'er-rules, that, one man holding troth,
- A million fail, confounding oath on oath.
-
-
- OBERON
- About the wood go swifter than the wind,
- And Helena of Athens look thou find:
- All fancy-sick she is and pale of cheer,
- With sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear:
- By some illusion see thou bring her here:
- I'll charm his eyes against she do appear.
-
-
- PUCK
- I go, I go; look how I go,
- Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow.
-
- Exit
-
- OBERON
- Flower of this purple dye,
- Hit with Cupid's archery,
- Sink in apple of his eye.
- When his love he doth espy,
- Let her shine as gloriously
- As the Venus of the sky.
- When thou wakest, if she be by,
- Beg of her for remedy.
-
- Re-enter PUCK
-
- PUCK
- Captain of our fairy band,
- Helena is here at hand;
- And the youth, mistook by me,
- Pleading for a lover's fee.
- Shall we their fond pageant see?
- Lord, what fools these mortals be!
-
-
- OBERON
- Stand aside: the noise they make
- Will cause Demetrius to awake.
-
-
- PUCK
- Then will two at once woo one;
- That must needs be sport alone;
- And those things do best please me
- That befal preposterously.
-
- Enter LYSANDER and HELENA
-
- LYSANDER
- Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?
- Scorn and derision never come in tears:
- Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows so born,
- In their nativity all truth appears.
- How can these things in me seem scorn to you,
- Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true?
-
-
- HELENA
- You do advance your cunning more and more.
- When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray!
- These vows are Hermia's: will you give her o'er?
- Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh:
- Your vows to her and me, put in two scales,
- Will even weigh, and both as light as tales.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- I had no judgment when to her I swore.
-
-
- HELENA
- Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
-
- Awaking O Helena, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!
- To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne?
- Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show
- Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!
- That pure congealed white, high Taurus snow,
- Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow
- When thou hold'st up thy hand: O, let me kiss
- This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!
-
-
- HELENA
- O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent
- To set against me for your merriment:
- If you we re civil and knew courtesy,
- You would not do me thus much injury.
- Can you not hate me, as I know you do,
- But you must join in souls to mock me too?
- If you were men, as men you are in show,
- You would not use a gentle lady so;
- To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts,
- When I am sure you hate me with your hearts.
- You both are rivals, and love Hermia;
- And now both rivals, to mock Helena:
- A trim exploit, a manly enterprise,
- To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes
- With your derision! none of noble sort
- Would so offend a virgin, and extort
- A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so;
- For you love Hermia; this you know I know:
- And here, with all good will, with all my heart,
- In Hermia's love I yield you up my part;
- And yours of Helena to me bequeath,
- Whom I do love and will do till my death.
-
-
- HELENA
- Never did mockers waste more idle breath.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none:
- If e'er I loved her, all that love is gone.
- My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd,
- And now to Helen is it home return'd,
- There to remain.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Helen, it is not so.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- Disparage not the faith thou dost not know,
- Lest, to thy peril, thou aby it dear.
- Look, where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear.
-
- Re-enter HERMIA
-
- HERMIA
- Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,
- The ear more quick of apprehension makes;
- Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense,
- It pays the hearing double recompense.
- Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found;
- Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound
- But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go?
-
-
- HERMIA
- What love could press Lysander from my side?
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Lysander's love, that would not let him bide,
- Fair Helena, who more engilds the night
- Than all you fiery oes and eyes of light.
- Why seek'st thou me? could not this make thee know,
- The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so?
-
-
- HERMIA
- You speak not as you think: it cannot be.
-
-
- HELENA
- Lo, she is one of this confederacy!
- Now I perceive they have conjoin'd all three
- To fashion this false sport, in spite of me.
- Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid!
- Have you conspired, have you with these contrived
- To bait me with this foul derision?
- Is all the counsel that we two have shared,
- The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent,
- When we have chid the hasty-footed time
- For parting us,--O, is it all forgot?
- All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence?
- We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,
- Have with our needles created both one flower,
- Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
- Both warbling of one song, both in one key,
- As if our hands, our sides, voices and minds,
- Had been incorporate. So we grow together,
- Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
- But yet an union in partition;
- Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;
- So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart;
- Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,
- Due but to one and crowned with one crest.
- And will you rent our ancient love asunder,
- To join with men in scorning your poor friend?
- It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly:
- Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it,
- Though I alone do feel the injury.
-
-
- HERMIA
- I am amazed at your passionate words.
- I scorn you not: it seems that you scorn me.
-
-
- HELENA
- Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn,
- To follow me and praise my eyes and face?
- And made your other love, Demetrius,
- Who even but now did spurn me with his foot,
- To call me goddess, nymph, divine and rare,
- Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this
- To her he hates? and wherefore doth Lysander
- Deny your love, so rich within his soul,
- And tender me, forsooth, affection,
- But by your setting on, by your consent?
- What thought I be not so in grace as you,
- So hung upon with love, so fortunate,
- But miserable most, to love unloved?
- This you should pity rather than despise.
-
-
- HERNIA
- I understand not what you mean by this.
-
-
- HELENA
- Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks,
- Make mouths upon me when I turn my back;
- Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up:
- This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.
- If you have any pity, grace, or manners,
- You would not make me such an argument.
- But fare ye well: 'tis partly my own fault;
- Which death or absence soon shall remedy.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse:
- My love, my life my soul, fair Helena!
-
-
- HELENA
- O excellent!
-
-
- HERMIA
- Sweet, do not scorn her so.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- If she cannot entreat, I can compel.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Thou canst compel no more than she entreat:
- Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers.
- Helen, I love thee; by my life, I do:
- I swear by that which I will lose for thee,
- To prove him false that says I love thee not.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- I say I love thee more than he can do.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- Quick, come!
-
-
- HERMIA
- Lysander, whereto tends all this?
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Away, you Ethiope!
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- No, no; he'll
- Seem to break loose; take on as you would follow,
- But yet come not: you are a tame man, go!
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! vile thing, let loose,
- Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent!
-
-
- HERMIA
- Why are you grown so rude? what change is this?
- Sweet love,--
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Thy love! out, tawny Tartar, out!
- Out, loathed medicine! hated potion, hence!
-
-
- HERMIA
- Do you not jest?
-
-
- HELENA
- Yes, sooth; and so do you.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- I would I had your bond, for I perceive
- A weak bond holds you: I'll not trust your word.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead?
- Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so.
-
-
- HERMIA
- What, can you do me greater harm than hate?
- Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my love!
- Am not I Hermia? are not you Lysander?
- I am as fair now as I was erewhile.
- Since night you loved me; yet since night you left
- me:
- Why, then you left me--O, the gods forbid!--
- In earnest, shall I say?
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Ay, by my life;
- And never did desire to see thee more.
- Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt;
- Be certain, nothing truer; 'tis no jest
- That I do hate thee and love Helena.
-
-
- HERMIA
- O me! you juggler! you canker-blossom!
- You thief of love! what, have you come by night
- And stolen my love's heart from him?
-
-
- HELENA
- Fine, i'faith!
- Have you no modesty, no maiden shame,
- No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear
- Impatient answers from my gentle tongue?
- Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet, you!
-
-
- HERMIA
- Puppet? why so? ay, that way goes the game.
- Now I perceive that she hath made compare
- Between our statures; she hath urged her height;
- And with her personage, her tall personage,
- Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him.
- And are you grown so high in his esteem;
- Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
- How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak;
- How low am I? I am not yet so low
- But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.
-
-
- HELENA
- I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen,
- Let her not hurt me: I was never curst;
- I have no gift at all in shrewishness;
- I am a right maid for my cowardice:
- Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think,
- Because she is something lower than myself,
- That I can match her.
-
-
- HERMIA
- Lower! hark, again.
-
-
- HELENA
- Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.
- I evermore did love you, Hermia,
- Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you;
- Save that, in love unto Demetrius,
- I told him of your stealth unto this wood.
- He follow'd you; for love I follow'd him;
- But he hath chid me hence and threaten'd me
- To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too:
- And now, so you will let me quiet go,
- To Athens will I bear my folly back
- And follow you no further: let me go:
- You see how simple and how fond I am.
-
-
- HERMIA
- Why, get you gone: who is't that hinders you?
-
-
- HELENA
- A foolish heart, that I leave here behind.
-
-
- HERMIA
- What, with Lysander?
-
-
- HELENA
- With Demetrius.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Be not afraid; she shall not harm thee, Helena.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.
-
-
- HELENA
- O, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd!
- She was a vixen when she went to school;
- And though she be but little, she is fierce.
-
-
- HERMIA
- 'Little' again! nothing but 'low' and 'little'!
- Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?
- Let me come to her.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Get you gone, you dwarf;
- You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made;
- You bead, you acorn.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- You are too officious
- In her behalf that scorns your services.
- Let her alone: speak not of Helena;
- Take not her part; for, if thou dost intend
- Never so little show of love to her,
- Thou shalt aby it.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Now she holds me not;
- Now follow, if thou darest, to try whose right,
- Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- Follow! nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jole.
-
- Exeunt LYSANDER and DEMETRIUS
-
- HERMIA
- You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you:
- Nay, go not back.
-
-
- HELENA
- I will not trust you, I,
- Nor longer stay in your curst company.
- Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray,
- My legs are longer though, to run away.
-
- Exit
-
- HERMIA
- I am amazed, and know not what to say.
-
- Exit
-
- OBERON
- This is thy negligence: still thou mistakest,
- Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully.
-
-
- PUCK
- Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.
- Did not you tell me I should know the man
- By the Athenian garment be had on?
- And so far blameless proves my enterprise,
- That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes;
- And so far am I glad it so did sort
- As this their jangling I esteem a sport.
-
-
- OBERON
- Thou see'st these lovers seek a place to fight:
- Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night;
- The starry welkin cover thou anon
- With drooping fog as black as Acheron,
- And lead these testy rivals so astray
- As one come not within another's way.
- Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,
- Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong;
- And sometime rail thou like Demetrius;
- And from each other look thou lead them thus,
- Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep
- With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep:
- Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye;
- Whose liquor hath this virtuous property,
- To take from thence all error with his might,
- And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.
- When they next wake, all this derision
- Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision,
- And back to Athens shall the lovers wend,
- With league whose date till death shall never end.
- Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,
- I'll to my queen and beg her Indian boy;
- And then I will her charmed eye release
- From monster's view, and all things shall be peace.
-
-
- PUCK
- My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,
- For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,
- And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger;
- At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there,
- Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all,
- That in crossways and floods have burial,
- Already to their wormy beds are gone;
- For fear lest day should look their shames upon,
- They willfully themselves exile from light
- And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night.
-
-
- OBERON
- But we are spirits of another sort:
- I with the morning's love have oft made sport,
- And, like a forester, the groves may tread,
- Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red,
- Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,
- Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams.
- But, notwithstanding, haste; make no delay:
- We may effect this business yet ere day.
-
- Exit
-
- PUCK
- Up and down, up and down,
- I will lead them up and down:
- I am fear'd in field and town:
- Goblin, lead them up and down.
- Here comes one.
-
- Re-enter LYSANDER
-
- LYSANDER
- Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now.
-
-
- PUCK
- Here, villain; drawn and ready. Where art thou?
-
-
- LYSANDER
- I will be with thee straight.
-
-
- PUCK
- Follow me, then,
- To plainer ground.
-
- Exit LYSANDER, as following the voice
- Re-enter DEMETRIUS
-
- DEMETRIUS
- Lysander! speak again:
- Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?
- Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?
-
-
- PUCK
- Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars,
- Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars,
- And wilt not come? Come, recreant; come, thou child;
- I'll whip thee with a rod: he is defiled
- That draws a sword on thee.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- Yea, art thou there?
-
-
- PUCK
- Follow my voice: we'll try no manhood here.
-
- Exeunt
- Re-enter LYSANDER
-
- LYSANDER
- He goes before me and still dares me on:
- When I come where he calls, then he is gone.
- The villain is much lighter-heel'd than I:
- I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly;
- That fallen am I in dark uneven way,
- And here will rest me.
- Lies down
- Come, thou gentle day!
- For if but once thou show me thy grey light,
- I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite.
-
- Sleeps
- Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS
-
- PUCK
- Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why comest thou not?
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- Abide me, if thou darest; for well I wot
- Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place,
- And darest not stand, nor look me in the face.
- Where art thou now?
-
-
- PUCK
- Come hither: I am here.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this dear,
- If ever I thy face by daylight see:
- Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me
- To measure out my length on this cold bed.
- By day's approach look to be visited.
-
- Lies down and sleeps
- Re-enter HELENA
-
- HELENA
- O weary night, O long and tedious night,
- Abate thy hour! Shine comforts from the east,
- That I may back to Athens by daylight,
- From these that my poor company detest:
- And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye,
- Steal me awhile from mine own company.
-
- Lies down and sleeps
-
- PUCK
- Yet but three? Come one more;
- Two of both kinds make up four.
- Here she comes, curst and sad:
- Cupid is a knavish lad,
- Thus to make poor females mad.
-
- Re-enter HERMIA
-
- HERMIA
- Never so weary, never so in woe,
- Bedabbled with the dew and torn with briers,
- I can no further crawl, no further go;
- My legs can keep no pace with my desires.
- Here will I rest me till the break of day.
- Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!
-
- Lies down and sleeps
-
- PUCK
- On the ground
- Sleep sound:
- I'll apply
- To your eye,
- Gentle lover, remedy.
- Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER's eyes
- When thou wakest,
- Thou takest
- True delight
- In the sight
- Of thy former lady's eye:
- And the country proverb known,
- That every man should take his own,
- In your waking shall be shown:
- Jack shall have Jill;
- Nought shall go ill;
- The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.
-
- Exit
-
-
-
- ACT IV
-
- SCENE I. The same. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA lying asleep.
- Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM; PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH,
-MUSTARDSEED, and other Fairies attending; OBERON
-behind unseen
-
- TITANIA
- Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,
- While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,
- And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,
- And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Where's Peaseblossom?
-
-
- PEASEBLOSSOM
- Ready.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Scratch my head Peaseblossom. Where's Mounsieur Cobweb?
-
-
- COBWEB
- Ready.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get you your
- weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped
- humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good
- mounsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret
- yourself too much in the action, mounsieur; and,
- good mounsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not;
- I would be loath to have you overflown with a
- honey-bag, signior. Where's Mounsieur Mustardseed?
-
-
- MUSTARDSEED
- Ready.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray you,
- leave your courtesy, good mounsieur.
-
-
- MUSTARDSEED
- What's your Will?
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb
- to scratch. I must to the barber's, monsieur; for
- methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face; and I
- am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me,
- I must scratch.
-
-
- TITANIA
- What, wilt thou hear some music,
- my sweet love?
-
-
- BOTTOM
- I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let's have
- the tongs and the bones.
-
-
- TITANIA
- Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Truly, a peck of provender: I could munch your good
- dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle
- of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.
-
-
- TITANIA
- I have a venturous fairy that shall seek
- The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas.
- But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me: I
- have an exposition of sleep come upon me.
-
-
- TITANIA
- Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.
- Fairies, begone, and be all ways away.
- Exeunt fairies
- So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle
- Gently entwist; the female ivy so
- Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.
- O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!
-
- They sleep
- Enter PUCK
-
- OBERON
-
- Advancing Welcome, good Robin.
- See'st thou this sweet sight?
- Her dotage now I do begin to pity:
- For, meeting her of late behind the wood,
- Seeking sweet favours from this hateful fool,
- I did upbraid her and fall out with her;
- For she his hairy temples then had rounded
- With a coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
- And that same dew, which sometime on the buds
- Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls,
- Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes
- Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail.
- When I had at my pleasure taunted her
- And she in mild terms begg'd my patience,
- I then did ask of her her changeling child;
- Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent
- To bear him to my bower in fairy land.
- And now I have the boy, I will undo
- This hateful imperfection of her eyes:
- And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp
- From off the head of this Athenian swain;
- That, he awaking when the other do,
- May all to Athens back again repair
- And think no more of this night's accidents
- But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
- But first I will release the fairy queen.
- Be as thou wast wont to be;
- See as thou wast wont to see:
- Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower
- Hath such force and blessed power.
- Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.
-
-
- TITANIA
- My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
- Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.
-
-
- OBERON
- There lies your love.
-
-
- TITANIA
- How came these things to pass?
- O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!
-
-
- OBERON
- Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head.
- Titania, music call; and strike more dead
- Than common sleep of all these five the sense.
-
-
- TITANIA
- Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep!
-
- Music, still
-
- PUCK
- Now, when thou wakest, with thine
- own fool's eyes peep.
-
-
- OBERON
- Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands with me,
- And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.
- Now thou and I are new in amity,
- And will to-morrow midnight solemnly
- Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly,
- And bless it to all fair prosperity:
- There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be
- Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.
-
-
- PUCK
- Fairy king, attend, and mark:
- I do hear the morning lark.
-
-
- OBERON
- Then, my queen, in silence sad,
- Trip we after the night's shade:
- We the globe can compass soon,
- Swifter than the wandering moon.
-
-
- TITANIA
- Come, my lord, and in our flight
- Tell me how it came this night
- That I sleeping here was found
- With these mortals on the ground.
- Exeunt
-
- Horns winded within
- Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train
-
- THESEUS
- Go, one of you, find out the forester;
- For now our observation is perform'd;
- And since we have the vaward of the day,
- My love shall hear the music of my hounds.
- Uncouple in the western valley; let them go:
- Dispatch, I say, and find the forester.
- Exit an Attendant
- We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,
- And mark the musical confusion
- Of hounds and echo in conjunction.
-
-
- HIPPOLYTA
- I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
- When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear
- With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear
- Such gallant chiding: for, besides the groves,
- The skies, the fountains, every region near
- Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard
- So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.
-
-
- THESEUS
- My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
- So flew'd, so sanded, and their heads are hung
- With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
- Crook-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls;
- Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
- Each under each. A cry more tuneable
- Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
- In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly:
- Judge when you hear. But, soft! what nymphs are these?
-
-
- EGEUS
- My lord, this is my daughter here asleep;
- And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is;
- This Helena, old Nedar's Helena:
- I wonder of their being here together.
-
-
- THESEUS
- No doubt they rose up early to observe
- The rite of May, and hearing our intent,
- Came here in grace our solemnity.
- But speak, Egeus; is not this the day
- That Hermia should give answer of her choice?
-
-
- EGEUS
- It is, my lord.
-
-
- THESEUS
- Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.
- Horns and shout within. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS,
-HELENA, and HERMIA wake and start up
- Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past:
- Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Pardon, my lord.
-
-
- THESEUS
- I pray you all, stand up.
- I know you two are rival enemies:
- How comes this gentle concord in the world,
- That hatred is so far from jealousy,
- To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?
-
-
- LYSANDER
- My lord, I shall reply amazedly,
- Half sleep, half waking: but as yet, I swear,
- I cannot truly say how I came here;
- But, as I think,--for truly would I speak,
- And now do I bethink me, so it is,--
- I came with Hermia hither: our intent
- Was to be gone from Athens, where we might,
- Without the peril of the Athenian law.
-
-
- EGEUS
- Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough:
- I beg the law, the law, upon his head.
- They would have stolen away; they would, Demetrius,
- Thereby to have defeated you and me,
- You of your wife and me of my consent,
- Of my consent that she should be your wife.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
- Of this their purpose hither to this wood;
- And I in fury hither follow'd them,
- Fair Helena in fancy following me.
- But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,--
- But by some power it is,--my love to Hermia,
- Melted as the snow, seems to me now
- As the remembrance of an idle gaud
- Which in my childhood I did dote upon;
- And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,
- The object and the pleasure of mine eye,
- Is only Helena. To her, my lord,
- Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia:
- But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food;
- But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
- Now I do wish it, love it, long for it,
- And will for evermore be true to it.
-
-
- THESEUS
- Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
- Of this discourse we more will hear anon.
- Egeus, I will overbear your will;
- For in the temple by and by with us
- These couples shall eternally be knit:
- And, for the morning now is something worn,
- Our purposed hunting shall be set aside.
- Away with us to Athens; three and three,
- We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.
- Come, Hippolyta.
-
- Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train
-
- DEMETRIUS
- These things seem small and undistinguishable,
-
-
- HERMIA
- Methinks I see these things with parted eye,
- When every thing seems double.
-
-
- HELENA
- So methinks:
- And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,
- Mine own, and not mine own.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- Are you sure
- That we are awake? It seems to me
- That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think
- The duke was here, and bid us follow him?
-
-
- HERMIA
- Yea; and my father.
-
-
- HELENA
- And Hippolyta.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- And he did bid us follow to the temple.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- Why, then, we are awake: let's follow him
- And by the way let us recount our dreams.
-
- Exeunt
-
- BOTTOM
-
- Awaking When my cue comes, call me, and I will
- answer: my next is, 'Most fair Pyramus.' Heigh-ho!
- Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout,
- the tinker! Starveling! God's my life, stolen
- hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare
- vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to
- say what dream it was: man is but an ass, if he go
- about to expound this dream. Methought I was--there
- is no man can tell what. Methought I was,--and
- methought I had,--but man is but a patched fool, if
- he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye
- of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not
- seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue
- to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream
- was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of
- this dream: it shall be called Bottom's Dream,
- because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the
- latter end of a play, before the duke:
- peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall
- sing it at her death.
-
- Exit
-
-
- SCENE II. Athens. QUINCE'S house.
- Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING
-
- QUINCE
- Have you sent to Bottom's house? is he come home yet?
-
-
- STARVELING
- He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is
- transported.
-
-
- FLUTE
- If he come not, then the play is marred: it goes
- not forward, doth it?
-
-
- QUINCE
- It is not possible: you have not a man in all
- Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he.
-
-
- FLUTE
- No, he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft
- man in Athens.
-
-
- QUINCE
- Yea and the best person too; and he is a very
- paramour for a sweet voice.
-
-
- FLUTE
- You must say 'paragon:' a paramour is, God bless us,
- a thing of naught.
-
- Enter SNUG
-
- SNUG
- Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and
- there is two or three lords and ladies more married:
- if our sport had gone forward, we had all been made
- men.
-
-
- FLUTE
- O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a
- day during his life; he could not have 'scaped
- sixpence a day: an the duke had not given him
- sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged;
- he would have deserved it: sixpence a day in
- Pyramus, or nothing.
-
- Enter BOTTOM
-
- BOTTOM
- Where are these lads? where are these hearts?
-
-
- QUINCE
- Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour!
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask me not
- what; for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I
- will tell you every thing, right as it fell out.
-
-
- QUINCE
- Let us hear, sweet Bottom.
-
-
- BOTTOM
- Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that
- the duke hath dined. Get your apparel together,
- good strings to your beards, new ribbons to your
- pumps; meet presently at the palace; every man look
- o'er his part; for the short and the long is, our
- play is preferred. In any case, let Thisby have
- clean linen; and let not him that plays the lion
- pair his nails, for they shall hang out for the
- lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onions
- nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I
- do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet
- comedy. No more words: away! go, away!
-
- Exeunt
-
-
-
- ACT V
-
- SCENE I. Athens. The palace of THESEUS.
- Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, Lords and
-Attendants
-
- HIPPOLYTA
- 'Tis strange my Theseus, that these
- lovers speak of.
-
-
- THESEUS
- More strange than true: I never may believe
- These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
- Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
- Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
- More than cool reason ever comprehends.
- The lunatic, the lover and the poet
- Are of imagination all compact:
- One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
- That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
- Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
- The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
- Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
- And as imagination bodies forth
- The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
- Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
- A local habitation and a name.
- Such tricks hath strong imagination,
- That if it would but apprehend some joy,
- It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
- Or in the night, imagining some fear,
- How easy is a bush supposed a bear!
-
-
- HIPPOLYTA
- But all the story of the night told over,
- And all their minds transfigured so together,
- More witnesseth than fancy's images
- And grows to something of great constancy;
- But, howsoever, strange and admirable.
-
-
- THESEUS
- Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.
- Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and HELENA
- Joy, gentle friends! joy and fresh days of love
- Accompany your hearts!
-
-
- LYSANDER
- More than to us
- Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed!
-
-
- THESEUS
- Come now; what masques, what dances shall we have,
- To wear away this long age of three hours
- Between our after-supper and bed-time?
- Where is our usual manager of mirth?
- What revels are in hand? Is there no play,
- To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
- Call Philostrate.
-
-
- PHILOSTRATE
- Here, mighty Theseus.
-
-
- THESEUS
- Say, what abridgement have you for this evening?
- What masque? what music? How shall we beguile
- The lazy time, if not with some delight?
-
-
- PHILOSTRATE
- There is a brief how many sports are ripe:
- Make choice of which your highness will see first.
-
- Giving a paper
-
- THESEUS
-
- Reads 'The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung
- By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.'
- We'll none of that: that have I told my love,
- In glory of my kinsman Hercules.
- Reads
- 'The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,
- Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.'
- That is an old device; and it was play'd
- When I from Thebes came last a conqueror.
- Reads
- 'The thrice three Muses mourning for the death
- Of Learning, late deceased in beggary.'
- That is some satire, keen and critical,
- Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.
- Reads
- 'A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
- And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.'
- Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!
- That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.
- How shall we find the concord of this discord?
-
-
- PHILOSTRATE
- A play there is, my lord, some ten words long,
- Which is as brief as I have known a play;
- But by ten words, my lord, it is too long,
- Which makes it tedious; for in all the play
- There is not one word apt, one player fitted:
- And tragical, my noble lord, it is;
- For Pyramus therein doth kill himself.
- Which, when I saw rehearsed, I must confess,
- Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears
- The passion of loud laughter never shed.
-
-
- THESEUS
- What are they that do play it?
-
-
- PHILOSTRATE
- Hard-handed men that work in Athens here,
- Which never labour'd in their minds till now,
- And now have toil'd their unbreathed memories
- With this same play, against your nuptial.
-
-
- THESEUS
- And we will hear it.
-
-
- PHILOSTRATE
- No, my noble lord;
- It is not for you: I have heard it over,
- And it is nothing, nothing in the world;
- Unless you can find sport in their intents,
- Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain,
- To do you service.
-
-
- THESEUS
- I will hear that play;
- For never anything can be amiss,
- When simpleness and duty tender it.
- Go, bring them in: and take your places, ladies.
-
- Exit PHILOSTRATE
-
- HIPPOLYTA
- I love not to see wretchedness o'er charged
- And duty in his service perishing.
-
-
- THESEUS
- Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing.
-
-
- HIPPOLYTA
- He says they can do nothing in this kind.
-
-
- THESEUS
- The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.
- Our sport shall be to take what they mistake:
- And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect
- Takes it in might, not merit.
- Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
- To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
- Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
- Make periods in the midst of sentences,
- Throttle their practised accent in their fears
- And in conclusion dumbly have broke off,
- Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,
- Out of this silence yet I pick'd a welcome;
- And in the modesty of fearful duty
- I read as much as from the rattling tongue
- Of saucy and audacious eloquence.
- Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity
- In least speak most, to my capacity.
-
- Re-enter PHILOSTRATE
-
- PHILOSTRATE
- So please your grace, the Prologue is address'd.
-
-
- THESEUS
- Let him approach.
-
- Flourish of trumpets
- Enter QUINCE for the Prologue
-
- Prologue
- If we offend, it is with our good will.
- That you should think, we come not to offend,
- But with good will. To show our simple skill,
- That is the true beginning of our end.
- Consider then we come but in despite.
- We do not come as minding to contest you,
- Our true intent is. All for your delight
- We are not here. That you should here repent you,
- The actors are at hand and by their show
- You shall know all that you are like to know.
-
-
- THESEUS
- This fellow doth not stand upon points.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows
- not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not
- enough to speak, but to speak true.
-
-
- HIPPOLYTA
- Indeed he hath played on his prologue like a child
- on a recorder; a sound, but not in government.
-
-
- THESEUS
- His speech, was like a tangled chain; nothing
- impaired, but all disordered. Who is next?
-
- Enter Pyramus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion
-
- Prologue
- Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show;
- But wonder on, till truth make all things plain.
- This man is Pyramus, if you would know;
- This beauteous lady Thisby is certain.
- This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present
- Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder;
- And through Wall's chink, poor souls, they are content
- To whisper. At the which let no man wonder.
- This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn,
- Presenteth Moonshine; for, if you will know,
- By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn
- To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo.
- This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name,
- The trusty Thisby, coming first by night,
- Did scare away, or rather did affright;
- And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall,
- Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain.
- Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall,
- And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain:
- Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,
- He bravely broach'd is boiling bloody breast;
- And Thisby, tarrying in mulberry shade,
- His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,
- Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain
- At large discourse, while here they do remain.
-
- Exeunt Prologue, Thisbe, Lion, and Moonshine
-
- THESEUS
- I wonder if the lion be to speak.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when many asses do.
-
-
- Wall
- In this same interlude it doth befall
- That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;
- And such a wall, as I would have you think,
- That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
- Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,
- Did whisper often very secretly.
- This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show
- That I am that same wall; the truth is so:
- And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
- Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.
-
-
- THESEUS
- Would you desire lime and hair to speak better?
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard
- discourse, my lord.
-
- Enter Pyramus
-
- THESEUS
- Pyramus draws near the wall: silence!
-
-
- Pyramus
- O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black!
- O night, which ever art when day is not!
- O night, O night! alack, alack, alack,
- I fear my Thisby's promise is forgot!
- And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,
- That stand'st between her father's ground and mine!
- Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,
- Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne!
- Wall holds up his fingers
- Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this!
- But what see I? No Thisby do I see.
- O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss!
- Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me!
-
-
- THESEUS
- The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again.
-
-
- Pyramus
- No, in truth, sir, he should not. 'Deceiving me'
- is Thisby's cue: she is to enter now, and I am to
- spy her through the wall. You shall see, it will
- fall pat as I told you. Yonder she comes.
-
- Enter Thisbe
-
- Thisbe
- O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans,
- For parting my fair Pyramus and me!
- My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones,
- Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.
-
-
- Pyramus
- I see a voice: now will I to the chink,
- To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face. Thisby!
-
-
- Thisbe
- My love thou art, my love I think.
-
-
- Pyramus
- Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace;
- And, like Limander, am I trusty still.
-
-
- Thisbe
- And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill.
-
-
- Pyramus
- Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.
-
-
- Thisbe
- As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.
-
-
- Pyramus
- O kiss me through the hole of this vile wall!
-
-
- Thisbe
- I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all.
-
-
- Pyramus
- Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?
-
-
- Thisbe
- 'Tide life, 'tide death, I come without delay.
-
- Exeunt Pyramus and Thisbe
-
- Wall
- Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so;
- And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.
-
- Exit
-
- THESEUS
- Now is the mural down between the two neighbours.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear
- without warning.
-
-
- HIPPOLYTA
- This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.
-
-
- THESEUS
- The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst
- are no worse, if imagination amend them.
-
-
- HIPPOLYTA
- It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.
-
-
- THESEUS
- If we imagine no worse of them than they of
- themselves, they may pass for excellent men. Here
- come two noble beasts in, a man and a lion.
-
- Enter Lion and Moonshine
-
- Lion
- You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear
- The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,
- May now perchance both quake and tremble here,
- When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.
- Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am
- A lion-fell, nor else no lion's dam;
- For, if I should as lion come in strife
- Into this place, 'twere pity on my life.
-
-
- THESEUS
- A very gentle beast, of a good conscience.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I saw.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- This lion is a very fox for his valour.
-
-
- THESEUS
- True; and a goose for his discretion.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- Not so, my lord; for his valour cannot carry his
- discretion; and the fox carries the goose.
-
-
- THESEUS
- His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valour;
- for the goose carries not the fox. It is well:
- leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to the moon.
-
-
- Moonshine
- This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;--
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- He should have worn the horns on his head.
-
-
- THESEUS
- He is no crescent, and his horns are
- invisible within the circumference.
-
-
- Moonshine
- This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;
- Myself the man i' the moon do seem to be.
-
-
- THESEUS
- This is the greatest error of all the rest: the man
- should be put into the lanthorn. How is it else the
- man i' the moon?
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- He dares not come there for the candle; for, you
- see, it is already in snuff.
-
-
- HIPPOLYTA
- I am aweary of this moon: would he would change!
-
-
- THESEUS
- It appears, by his small light of discretion, that
- he is in the wane; but yet, in courtesy, in all
- reason, we must stay the time.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Proceed, Moon.
-
-
- Moonshine
- All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the
- lanthorn is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this
- thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- Why, all these should be in the lanthorn; for all
- these are in the moon. But, silence! here comes Thisbe.
-
- Enter Thisbe
-
- Thisbe
- This is old Ninny's tomb. Where is my love?
-
-
- Lion
-
- Roaring Oh--
-
- Thisbe runs off
-
- DEMETRIUS
- Well roared, Lion.
-
-
- THESEUS
- Well run, Thisbe.
-
-
- HIPPOLYTA
- Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines with a
- good grace.
-
- The Lion shakes Thisbe's mantle, and exit
-
- THESEUS
- Well moused, Lion.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- And so the lion vanished.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- And then came Pyramus.
-
- Enter Pyramus
-
- Pyramus
- Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams;
- I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright;
- For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams,
- I trust to take of truest Thisby sight.
- But stay, O spite!
- But mark, poor knight,
- What dreadful dole is here!
- Eyes, do you see?
- How can it be?
- O dainty duck! O dear!
- Thy mantle good,
- What, stain'd with blood!
- Approach, ye Furies fell!
- O Fates, come, come,
- Cut thread and thrum;
- Quail, crush, conclude, and quell!
-
-
- THESEUS
- This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would
- go near to make a man look sad.
-
-
- HIPPOLYTA
- Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man.
-
-
- Pyramus
- O wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame?
- Since lion vile hath here deflower'd my dear:
- Which is--no, no--which was the fairest dame
- That lived, that loved, that liked, that look'd
- with cheer.
- Come, tears, confound;
- Out, sword, and wound
- The pap of Pyramus;
- Ay, that left pap,
- Where heart doth hop:
- Stabs himself
- Thus die I, thus, thus, thus.
- Now am I dead,
- Now am I fled;
- My soul is in the sky:
- Tongue, lose thy light;
- Moon take thy flight:
- Exit Moonshine
- Now die, die, die, die, die.
-
- Dies
-
- DEMETRIUS
- No die, but an ace, for him; for he is but one.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- Less than an ace, man; for he is dead; he is nothing.
-
-
- THESEUS
- With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover, and
- prove an ass.
-
-
- HIPPOLYTA
- How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe comes
- back and finds her lover?
-
-
- THESEUS
- She will find him by starlight. Here she comes; and
- her passion ends the play.
-
- Re-enter Thisbe
-
- HIPPOLYTA
- Methinks she should not use a long one for such a
- Pyramus: I hope she will be brief.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which
- Thisbe, is the better; he for a man, God warrant us;
- she for a woman, God bless us.
-
-
- LYSANDER
- She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- And thus she means, videlicet:--
-
-
- Thisbe
- Asleep, my love?
- What, dead, my dove?
- O Pyramus, arise!
- Speak, speak. Quite dumb?
- Dead, dead? A tomb
- Must cover thy sweet eyes.
- These My lips,
- This cherry nose,
- These yellow cowslip cheeks,
- Are gone, are gone:
- Lovers, make moan:
- His eyes were green as leeks.
- O Sisters Three,
- Come, come to me,
- With hands as pale as milk;
- Lay them in gore,
- Since you have shore
- With shears his thread of silk.
- Tongue, not a word:
- Come, trusty sword;
- Come, blade, my breast imbrue:
- Stabs herself
- And, farewell, friends;
- Thus Thisby ends:
- Adieu, adieu, adieu.
-
- Dies
-
- THESEUS
- Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead.
-
-
- DEMETRIUS
- Ay, and Wall too.
-
-
- BOTTOM
-
- Starting up No assure you; the wall is down that
- parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the
- epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two
- of our company?
-
-
- THESEUS
- No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no
- excuse. Never excuse; for when the players are all
- dead, there needs none to be blamed. Marry, if he
- that writ it had played Pyramus and hanged himself
- in Thisbe's garter, it would have been a fine
- tragedy: and so it is, truly; and very notably
- discharged. But come, your Bergomask: let your
- epilogue alone.
- A dance
- The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:
- Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.
- I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn
- As much as we this night have overwatch'd.
- This palpable-gross play hath well beguiled
- The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed.
- A fortnight hold we this solemnity,
- In nightly revels and new jollity.
-
- Exeunt
- Enter PUCK
-
- PUCK
- Now the hungry lion roars,
- And the wolf behowls the moon;
- Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,
- All with weary task fordone.
- Now the wasted brands do glow,
- Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud,
- Puts the wretch that lies in woe
- In remembrance of a shroud.
- Now it is the time of night
- That the graves all gaping wide,
- Every one lets forth his sprite,
- In the church-way paths to glide:
- And we fairies, that do run
- By the triple Hecate's team,
- From the presence of the sun,
- Following darkness like a dream,
- Now are frolic: not a mouse
- Shall disturb this hallow'd house:
- I am sent with broom before,
- To sweep the dust behind the door.
-
- Enter OBERON and TITANIA with their train
-
- OBERON
- Through the house give gathering light,
- By the dead and drowsy fire:
- Every elf and fairy sprite
- Hop as light as bird from brier;
- And this ditty, after me,
- Sing, and dance it trippingly.
-
-
- TITANIA
- First, rehearse your song by rote
- To each word a warbling note:
- Hand in hand, with fairy grace,
- Will we sing, and bless this place.
-
- Song and dance
-
- OBERON
- Now, until the break of day,
- Through this house each fairy stray.
- To the best bride-bed will we,
- Which by us shall blessed be;
- And the issue there create
- Ever shall be fortunate.
- So shall all the couples three
- Ever true in loving be;
- And the blots of Nature's hand
- Shall not in their issue stand;
- Never mole, hare lip, nor scar,
- Nor mark prodigious, such as are
- Despised in nativity,
- Shall upon their children be.
- With this field-dew consecrate,
- Every fairy take his gait;
- And each several chamber bless,
- Through this palace, with sweet peace;
- And the owner of it blest
- Ever shall in safety rest.
- Trip away; make no stay;
- Meet me all by break of day.
-
- Exeunt OBERON, TITANIA, and train
-
- PUCK
- If we shadows have offended,
- Think but this, and all is mended,
- That you have but slumber'd here
- While these visions did appear.
- And this weak and idle theme,
- No more yielding but a dream,
- Gentles, do not reprehend:
- if you pardon, we will mend:
- And, as I am an honest Puck,
- If we have unearned luck
- Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
- We will make amends ere long;
- Else the Puck a liar call;
- So, good night unto you all.
- Give me your hands, if we be friends,
- And Robin shall restore amends.
-
-
-
-
diff --git a/resources/test7.xml b/resources/test7.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index b9dcbf7..0000000
--- a/resources/test7.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-
-
-
-
-
diff --git a/resources/textfile.txt b/resources/textfile.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 851fb83..0000000
--- a/resources/textfile.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-
diff --git a/resources/utf8testout.xml b/resources/utf8testout.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index 7d9b3c0..0000000
--- a/resources/utf8testout.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-
-
- The world has many languages
- Мир имеет много языков
- el mundo tiene muchos idiomas
- 世界有很多语言
- <Русский название="name" ценность="value"><имеет>
- <汉语 名字="name" 价值="value">世界有很多语言
- "Mëtæl!"
- <ä>Umlaut Element
-