spent,
When we have chid the basty-footed time
For parting us,-Oh! and is all forgot?
All school-days' friendship, childhood, inno-
cence ?
We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,
Have with our neelds created both one flower,
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
Both warbling of one song, both in one key;
As if our bands, our sides, voices, and minds,
Had been incorporate. So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
But yet a 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
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.
be.
Hel. 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 conspir'd, have you with these con- or I
H
Out,
H
H
La
D
A we
L
Alth
H
Scene II.
Therefore, be out of hope, of question, doubt,
Be certain, nothing truer ; 'tis no jest,
That I do hate thee, and love Helena.
Her. O me! you juggler! you canker-blos-
som; •
You thief of love: what, have you come by
night
And stol'n my love's heart from him?
Hel. Fine, i'faith!
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
Have you no modesty, no maiden shame,
No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear
Impatient answers from ny gentle tongue ?
Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet you!
Her. Puppet! why so? Ay, that way goes the
game.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures, she hath urg'd her beight;
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,
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,
think,
Because she's something lower than myself,
That i can match her.
619
Her. You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of
you:
Nay, go not back.
Hel. 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.
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.
Her. I pray you, though you mock me, gen-
tlemen,
[Exit.
Her. I am amaz'd, and know not what to say.
[Ecit, pursuing HELENA.
Obe. This is thy negligence: still thou mis-
tak'st,
knaveries wilfully.
Or else commit'st th
Puck. Believe me, king of shadows, I mis-
took.
Did not you tell me, I should know the man
By the Athenian garments he had on?
And so far blameless proves my enterprise,
And so far am I glad it so did sort,⚫
That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes:
As this their jangling I esteem a sport.
Obe. Thou seest, these lovers seek a place to
fight:
Her. Lower! hark, again.
me.
Hel. Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with Whose liquor hath this virtuous property, t
To take from thence all error, with his might,
And make his eye-balls 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 nights'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 church-yards: damned spirits all,
That in cross-ways and floods have burial,
Already to their wormy beds are goue;
For fear lest day should look their shames
upon,
They wilfully themselves exi'e from light,
And must for aye consort with black-brow'd
1 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 be bath chid me hence; and threaten'd
me
Why will you suffer her to flout me thus ?
Let me come to her.
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.
Her. Why, get you gone: Who is't that bin-
ders you?
Hel. A foolish heart
hind?
Her. What, with Lysander?
Hel. With Demetrius.
that I leave here be
Lys. Be not afraid; she shall not harm thee,
Helena.
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 rall 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;
Dem. No, Sir; she shall not, though you take
her part.
Hel. Oh! when she's angry, she is keen and
shrewd :
She was a vixen, when she went to school;
but low and
And, though she be but little, she is fierce.
Her. Little again? nothing
little?
Lvs. Get you gone, you dwarf;
You minimas, of hind'ring knot-grass made;
You bead, you acorn.
Dem. You are too officions
Lys. Now she holds me not;
Now follow, if thou dar'st, to try whose right,
or thine or mine, is most in Helena.
Dem. Follow? nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by
[Exeunt Lys. and DEM.
jule.
night.
Obe. 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 til the eastern gate, all fiery red,
Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,
Turns into yellow gold bis salt-green streams.
But, notwithstanding, haste; make no delay:
We may effect this business yet ere day.
A worm that preys on buds of flowers.
: Foolish.
Shrewish or mischievous.
Anciently knot-grass was believed to prevent the
1 Pretend.
of children.
[Exit OBERON.
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.
Enter LYSANDER.
Lys. Where art thou, proud Demetrias? speak thou now.
Scene II.
I did upbraid her, and fall out with her :
For she his hairy temples then had rounded
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
And that same dew, which sometime on the
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
buds
Was wont to swell, like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flourets' 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.
621
The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan
kind,
So flew'd, so sanded; and their heads are
hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook-knee'd, and dew-lap'd like Thessalian
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like
bells,
bulls;
The. No doubt, they rose up early to observe
The rite of May; and, hearing our intent,
Came here in grace of our solemnity.-
But, speak, Egeus; is not this the day
Be, as thou wast wont to be;
Ege. It is, my lord.
[Touching her eyes with an herb. That Hermia should give answer of her choice?
See, as thou wast wont to see:
Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower
Hath such force and blessed power.
The. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with
their horns.
Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.
Tita. My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
Methought, I was enamour'd of an ass.
Obe. There lies your love.
Each under each. A cry more tuneable
Was never bolla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly:
Judge, when you hear.-But, soft; what nymphs
are these?
Ege. My lord, this is my daughter here
asleep :
And this, Lysander: this Demetrius is;
This Helena, old Nedar's Helena :
I wonder of their being here together.
Tita. How came these things to pass?
Oh how mine eyes do loath his visage now!
Obe. Silence, a while.-Robin, take off this
head.-
Titania, music call; and strike more dead
Than common sleep, of all these five the sense.
Tita. Music, ho! music; such as charmeth
sleep.
Puck. Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own
fool's eyes peep.
Obe. Sound, music. [Still Music.] Come, my
take hands with me,
queen,
And rock the ground whereon those sleepers
be.
DEMETRIUS, LY.
Horns, and shout within.
SANDER, HERMIA, and HELENA, wake and
start up.
The. Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valentine
is past;
Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
Lys. Pardon, my lord.
[He and the rest kneel to THESEUS.
The. I pray you all, stand up.
I know you are two rival enemies;
How comes this gentle concord in the world,
To sleep by hate and fear no enmity?
That hatred is so far from jealousy,
Now thou and I are new in amity;
And will, to-morrow midnight, solemnly,
Dance in duke Thesens' house triumphantly,
And bless it to all fair posterity:
There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be
Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.
Without the peril of the Athenian law.
Ege. Enough, enough, my lord; you have
enough:
Puck. Fairy king, attend, and mark;
I do hear the morning lark.
Obe. Then, my queen, in silence sad,
Trip we after the night's shade :
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wand'ing moon.
I beg the law, the law upon his head.-
have stol'n away, they would,
They would
Demetrius,
Thereby to have defeated you and me :
You, of your wife; and me, of my consent;
Tita. Come, my lord; and in our flight, Of my consent that she should be your wife.
Tell me how it came this night,
That I sleeping here was found,
With these mortals, on the ground.
Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their
stealth,
Lys. My lord, I shall reply amazedly,
Half 'sleep, balf waking: But as yet, I swear,
I cannot truly say how I came here:
But, as I think, (for truly would I speak,-
And now I do bethink me, so it is ;)
I came with Hermia hither: our intent
[Exeunt. [Horns sound within. Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and
train.
Was, to be gone from Athens, where we might
be
The. Go, one of you, find out the forester ;-
For now our observation is perform'd :
And since we have the vaward of the day,
y love shall hear the music of my hounds.-
couple in the western valley; go:
Despatch, I say, and find the forester.-
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,
A rad mark the musical confusion
of bounds and echo in conjunction.
Hip. I was with Hercules, and Cadmus,
once,
en in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear 11th hounds of Sparta: never did I bear Sach callant chiding; for, besides the groves, The skies, the fountains, every region near Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard musical a discord, such sweet thunder.
+ Sound.
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 Heimia
Melted as doth the snow, seems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gawd,
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 loath this food:
But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
Now do I wish it, love it, long for it,
And will for evermore be true to it.
The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
Of this discourse we more will bear anon.-
Egeus, I will overbear your will;
For in the temple, by and by with us,
These couples shall eternally be kuit.
And, for the morning now is something worn,
The flows are the large chaps of a bound.
tLove.
: Toy.
Our purpos'd hunting shall he set aside.-
Away, with us, to Athens: Three and three,
We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.—
Come, Hyppolyta.
[Exeunt THE. HIP. EGB, and train. Dem. These things seem small, and undistinguishable,
Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.
Her. Methinks, I see these things with part-
ed eye,
When every thing seems double.
Hel. So methinks:
And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,
Mine own, and not mine own.
Dem. It seems to me,
That yet we sleep, we dream.-Do not you think,
The duke was here, and bid us follow him?
Enter BOTTOM.
Bot. Where are these lads? where are these bearts?
Her. Yea; and my father.
Hel. And Hippolyta.
Lys. And he did bid us follow to the temple.
Dem. Why then, we are awake: let's follow
him;
Aud, by the way, let us recount our dreams.`
[Exeunt.
Quin. Bottom! O most courageous day! most happy hour!
Bot. Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask me not what; for, if I tell you, I am no true Atheniau. I will tell you every thing, right as it fell out.
Quin. Let us hear, sweet Bottom.
Bot. Not a word of me. All that I will tell you, is, that the duke hath dined. Get your apparel together; good strings to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the palace; every man look o'er his part; for, the short and the long is, our play is preferred. In any case, let Thisby bave clean linen; and let not bim, that plays the lion, pare bis nails, for they shall hang out of the lion's claws. And, most dear actors, cat no oni as, nor garlick, for we are to utter sweet read; and I do not doubt, but to hear them say, it is a sweet comedy. No more words: away; 1a, away. [Eierst.
As they go out, BOTTOM awakes.
ACT V.
Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer :-my text is, Most fair Pyramus.
ment of THESEUS.
-Hey, ho!-Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows SCENE I.-The same.-A Room in the Apart-
mend r! Snout, the tinker! Starveling! God's
my life stolen hence, and left me asleep! 1
have had a most rare vision. I bave 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 me-
thought I had. The eye of nian bath not heard,
the ear of man bath not seen; man's band is
not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor
his heart to report, what my dream was.
will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this
dream: It shall be called Bottom's Dream, One sees more devils thau vast bell can bold;
because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
in the latter end of a play, before the duke; Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
Peradventure to make it the more gracious, The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
I shall sing it at her death.
[Exit. Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to
heaven;
SCENE 11.-Athens.-A Room in QUINCE's The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
And, as imagination bodies forth
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy
thing
These antique fables, nor these fairy toys
Lovers, and madmen, have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprebend
More than cool reason comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover, and the port,
Are of imagination all compact : *
House.
Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVE
LING.
Quin. Have you sent to Bottom's house? is he come home yet?
Star. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt, he is transported.
Flu. If he come not, then the play is marred; It goes not forward, doth it?
Quin. It is not possible: you have not a man in all Athens, able to discharge Pyramus, but he.
Flu. No; he hath simply the best wit of any
bandycraft man in Athens.
Quin. Yea, and the best person too: and he is a very paramour, for a sweet voice.
Flu. You must say, paragon: a paramour is, God bless us, a thing of nought.
Enter SNUG.
Snug. Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and there is two or three lords and ladies inore married: if our sport had gone forward, we had all been made men.
Flu. O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a day during his life; he could not have 'scaped sixpence a-day: an the duke had not given him sixpence a-day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged; he would have deserved it: sixpence a-day, in Pyramus, or nothing.
Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE,
Lords, and Attendants.
Hip. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these
lovers speak of.
The. More strange than true. I never may believe
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 suppos'd a bear ?
Hip. But all the story of the night told over,
And all their minds transfigur'd so together,
More witnesseth thau fancy's images.
And grows to something of great constancy; *
But, bowsoever, strange, and admirable.
Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERNIA, and
HELENA.
|