bout the face: and I am such a tender ass, if my bir do but tickle me, I must scratch. The. What, wilt thou hear some musick, my sweet love? But. I have a reasonable good ear in musick: let above the tongs and the bones. Tita. Or, say, sweet love, what thou desir'st to eat. Bat. Truly, a peck of provender; I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks, I have a great desire a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no Tita. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek But, I pray you, let none of your people stir So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle, Earings the barky fingers of the elm. 0, how I love thee! how I dote on thee! [They sleep. OBERON advances. Enter Puck. Obe. Sound, musick. [Still musick.] Come, my And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be. Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUs, and train. Obe. Welcome, good Robin. See'st thou this My love shall hear the musick of my hounds. sweet sight? Her dotage now I do begin to pity. [Touching her eyes with an herb. See, as thou wast wont to see: Ole. There lies your love. Tita. How came these things to pass? Oke. Silence, a while. - Robin, take off this Tania, musick call; and strike more dead Pack. Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own fool's eyes peep Uncouple in the western valley; go: Hip. I was with Hercules, and Cadmus, once, The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn, Judge, when you hear. But, soft; what nymphs are these? Ege. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep; I wonder of their being here together. The. No doubt, they rose up early, to observe That Hermia should give answer of her choice? The. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their Horns, and shout within. DEMETRIUS, LYSANDER, Begin these wood-birds but to couple now? [He and the rest kneel to THESEUS. I pray you all, stand up. I know, you are two rival enemies; The. L2 2 How comes this gentle concord in the world, To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity? Lys. My lord, I shall reply amazedly, I came with Hermia hither: our intent Ege. Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough: The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met : [Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train. Dem. These things seem small and undistinguishable, Like far-off mountains turned into clouds. Her. Methinks, I see these things with parted eye, When every thing seems double. Hel. So, methinks: And I have found Demetrius like a jewel, Dem. Hel. And Hippolyta. Lys. And he did bid us follow to the temple. Dem. Why then, we are awake: let's follow him; And, by the way, let us recount our dreams. vision. I have had a dream, -past the wit of m to say what dream it was : -- -Man is but an ass, it go about to expound this dream. Methought I v - there is no man can tell what. Methought I w and methought I had. But man is but a patch fool, if he will offer to say what methought I ha The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of m hath not seen; man's hand is not able to taste, tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, w my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to writ ballad of this dream: it shall be called Botton Dream, because it hath no bottom; and I will si it in the latter end of a play, before the duke: P adventure, to make it the more gracious, I sh sing it at her death. [E SCENE IL-Athens. A Room in Quince's Hou Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING Quin. Have you sent to Bottom's house? is come home yet? Star. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt, is transported. Flu. If he come not then, the play is marre It goes not forward, doth it? Quin. It is not possible: you have not a man all Athens, able to discharge Pyramus, it he. Flu. No; he hath simply the best wit of a handycraft man in Athens. Quin. Yea, and the best person too: and he is very paramour, for a sweet voice. Flu. You must say, paragon: a paramour God bless us, a thing of nought. Enter SNUG. Snug. Masters, the duke is coming from t temple, and there is two or three lords and ladi more married: if our sport had gone forward, had all been made men. Flu. O sweet Bully Bottom! Thus hath he lo sixpence a-day during his life; he could not ha 'scaped sixpence a-day: an the duke had not giv him sixpence a-day for playing Pyramus, I'll hanged; he would have deserved it: sixpence a-da in Pyramus, or nothing. Enter BOTTOM. Bot. Where are these lads? where are these heart Quin. Bottom! - O most courageous day! most happy hour! Bot. Masters, I am to discourse wonders: ask me not what; for if I tell you, I am no Athenian. I will tell you every thing, right-as fell out. Quin. Let us hear, sweet Bottom. Bot. Not a word of me. All that I will tell is, that the duke hath dined: Get your apparel gether; good strings to your beards, new ribbe to your pumps; meet presently at the palace; eve man look o'er his part; for, the short and the lo is, our play is preferred. In any case, let This have clean linen; and let not him, that plays lion, pare his nails, for they shall hang out for lion's claws. And, most dear actor:, eat no onio nor garlick, for we are to utter sweet breath; and do not doubt, but to hear them say, it is a sw comedy. No more words; away; go, away. 1 ACT V. SCENE I.-The same. An Apartment in the Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, Hp. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of. The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals, The. More strange than true. I never may be- Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony. lieve These antique fables, nor these fairy toys. Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, One sees more devils than vast hell can hold; And, as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Such tricks hath strong imagination; Hip. But all the story of the night told over, Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and The. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth. Joy, gentle friends! joy, and fresh days of love, More than to us Lys. Wait on your royal walks, your board, your bed! The. Come now; what masks, what dances shall A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus, Which is as brief as I have known a play; For Pyramus therein doth kill himself. here, Which never labour'd in their minds till now; No, my noble lord, The. Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing. Hip. He says, they can do nothing in this kind. The. The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing. Our sport shall be, to take what they mistake: Noble respect takes it in might, not merit. I read as much, as from the rattling tongue Enter PHILOSTRATE. Philost. So please your grace, the prologue is addrest. The. Let him approach. [Flourish of trumpets. Enter Prologue. Prol. 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 content you, Our true intent is. All for your delight, We are not here. That you should here repent you, The actors are at hand; and, by their show, You shall know all, that you are like to know. The. This fellow doth not stand upon points. Lys. He hath rid his prologue, like a rough colt; he knows not the stop. A good moral, my lord: It is not enough to speak, but to speak true. Hip. Indeed he hath played on this prologue, like a child on a recorder; a sound, but not in government. The. His speech was like a tangled chain; nothing impaired, but all disordered. Who is next? Enter PYRAMUS and THISBE, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion, as in dumb show. Prol. "Gentles perchance, you wonder at this show; "But wonder on, till truth make all things plain. "This man is Pyramus, if you would know; "This beauteous lady Thisby is, certain. "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 lantern, dog, and bush of thorn, "Presenteth moon-shine: for, if you will know, "By moon-shine did these lovers think no scorn "To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo. "This grisly beast, which by name lion hight, "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 his boiling bloody breast; And, Thisby tarrying in mulberry shade, "His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest, "Let lion, moon-shine, wall, and lovers twain, 'At large discourse, while here they do remain." [Exeunt Prol. THISBE, Lion, and Moonshine. The. I wonder, if the lion be to speak. "And this the cranny is, right and sinister, "Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper." The. Would you desire lime and hair to speak better? Dem. It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard discourse, my lord. The. Pyramus draws near the wall: silence! Enter PYRAMUS. Pyr. "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 an mine; "Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall, "Shew me thy chink, to blink through with min [Wall holds up his finger "Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee we for this! eyne. "But what see I? No Thisby do I see. "O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss; "Curst be thy stones for thus deceiving me!" The. The wall, methinks, being sensible, shoul curse again. Pyr. No, in truth, sir, he should not. Deceivin me, is Thisby's cue: she is to enter now, and I a to spy her through the wall. You shall see, it wi fall pat as I told you: - Yonder she comes. Enter THISBE. This. "O wall, full often hast thou heard n moans, "For parting my fair Pyramus and me: "My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones; "Thy stones with linfe and hair knit up in thee Pyr. "I see a voice: now will I to the chink, "To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face. "Thisby!" This." My love! thou art my love, I think." Pyr. "Think what thou wilt, I am thy love grace; "And like Limander am I trusty still." This. "And I like Helen, till the fates me kill Pyr. "Not Shafalus to Procrus, was so true.' This. "As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you." Pyr. "O, kiss me through the hole of this v wall." This. "I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all Pyr. "Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meeti straightway?" This. "Tide life, tide death, I come withe delay." Wall. "Thus have I, wall, my part discharged "And, being done, thus wall away doth go." [Exeunt Wall, PYRAMUS and THIS The. Now is the mural down between the t Dem. No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when neighbours. 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 cranny'd 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 Dem. No remedy, my lord, when walls are wilful to hear without warning. Hip. This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard. The. The best in this kind are but shadows; a the worst are no worse, if imagination amend the Hip. It must be your imagination then, and theirs. The. If we imagine no worse of them, than th of themselves, they may pass for excellent Here come two noble beasts in, a moon and a li |