Or I will shake thee from me, like a serpent.
Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my love?
HER. Why are you grown so rude? what change is Am not I Hermia? Are not you Lysander?
this,
I am as fair now as I was erewhile.
Sweet love?

And stol'n my love's heart from him?
HEL.

Fine, i' faith
Have you no modesty, no maiden shame,
No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear
Impatient answers from my gentle tongue ?

Since night, you lov'd me; yet, since night, you left 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 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.

HEL. 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's something lower than myself,

That I can match her.

HER.

Lower! hark, again.

HEL. Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.
I evermore did love you, Hermia,

Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you;
Save that, in love unto Demetrius,

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.

HER. Why, get you gone: who is 't that hinders you?

HEL. A foolish heart that I leave here behind.

HER. What, with Lysander?

HEL.

With Demetrius.

I will not trust you, I;

[Exit.

Nor longer stay in your curst company.
Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray,
My legs are longer though, to run away.
HER. I am amaz'd, and know not what to say.
[Exit, pursuing HELENA.
OBE. This is thy negligence: still thou mistak'st,
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 garments he had on?

And so far blameless proves my enterprise,

That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes:

And so far am I glad it so did sort,

As this their jangling I esteem a sport,

OBE. Thou seest, 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,
Than 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, a 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

Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all,
That in cross-ways and floods have burial,

Already to their wormy beds are gone;

For fear lest day should look their shames upon,
They wilfully themselves exile from light,

And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night.
OBE. But we are spirits of another sort:

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 elay:
We may effect this business yet ere day.

[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 Demetrius ? speak

thou now.

PUCK. Here, villain; drawn and ready. Where

art thou?

LYS. I will be with thee straight.

PUCK.

To plainer ground.

DEM.

Follow me then,

Here will I rest me, till the break of day.
Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!

He goes before me, and still dares me on.
DEM. Abide me, if thou dar'st; for well I wot,
[Exit Lys. as following the voice. Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place;
And dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face.
Enter DEMETRIUS.
Where art thou now?
PUCK.
Come hither; I am here.
DEM. Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt
'by this dear,

Lysander! speak again.
Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled-
Speak-in some bush? Where dost thou hide thy
head?
[stars,
PUCK. Thou coward, art thou bragging to the
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 defil'd
That draws a sword on thee.

DEM.
Yea; art thou there?
PUCK. Follow my voice: we'll try no manhood
here.
[Exeunt.

Re-enter LYSANDER.

Lys. He goes before me, and still dares me on;
When I come where he calls, then he is gone.
The villain is much lighter heel'd than I,

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.
Enter HELENA.

HEL. O, weary night, O, long and tedious night,
Abate thy hours: 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.
PUCK. Yet but three? Come one more;
Two of both kinds makes up four.

[Lies down.

[Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER's eye. When thou wak'st,

Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM, Fairies attending;
OBERON behind unseen.

ACT IV.
SCENE I.-The Wood.

your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good monsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret yourself TITA. Come, sit thee down upon this flowery too much in the action, monsieur; and, good monsieur, bed,

BOT. Nothing, good monsieur, but to help cavalero Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber's, monsieur; BOT. Monsieur Cobweb; good monsieur, get you for, methinks, I am marvellous hairy about the face;!

COB. Ready.

peas. But, I pray you, let none of your people stir
me; I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.
TITA. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my

arms.

Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.

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.

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

That he awaking when the other do,
And think no more of this night's accidents,
May all to Athens back again repair,
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
But first I will release the fairy queen.
Be, as thou wast wont to be,

[Touching her eyes with an herb.
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.
TITA. My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
See'st thou this Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.
OBE. There lies your love.

OBERON advances. Enter PUCK.
OBE. Welcome, good Robin.
sweet sight?

Her dotage now I do begin to pity:

TITA.

How came these things to pass?

OBE.

PUCK. Fairy king, attend, and mark,
I do hear the morning lark.
Then, my queen, in silence sad,
Trip we after the night's shade:
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wand'ring moon.
TITA. Come, my lord, and in our flight,
Tell me how it came this night,
That I sleeping here was found,
With these mortals on the ground.
[Exeunt.
[Horns sound within.

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and Train.
THE. Go one of you, find out the forester,

For meeting her of late, behind the wood,
Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool,
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 buds
Was wont to swell, like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flow'rets' 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;

Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed.

O, how mine eyes do loath his visage now!

For now our observation is performed;

OBE. Silence a while. - Robin, take off this And since we have the vaward of the day,
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
[Still music.
eyes peep.

OBE. 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 posterity:

There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be
Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.
300

My love shall hear the music of my hounds.
Uncouple in the western valley; let them go :
Despatch, I say, and find the forester.
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,
Of hounds and echo in conjunction.
And mark the musical confusion

When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear
HIP. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
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.

THE. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind
So flew'd, so sanded; and their heads are hung

With ears that sweep away the morning dew;

Crook-knee'd and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls;
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?

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.

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

That Hermia should give answer of her choice?
EGE. It is, my lord.

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

Horns, and shout within.

DEMETRIUS, LYSANDER, HERMIA, and HELENA, wake and start up.

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 a 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 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 purpos'd 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.
DEM. These things seem small and undistinguish-
able,

Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.
HER. Methinks I see these things with parted eye,
So methinks:

THE. Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is When everything seems double.
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 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?

Lys. My lord, I shall reply amazedly,

Hall 'sleep, half waking: but as yet, I swear

I cannot truly say how I came here:

But, as I think, (for truly would I speak,-
And now I do bethink me, so it is;)

I came with Hermia hither: our intent
Was, to be gone from Athens, where we might be
Without the peril of the Athenian law.

EGE. Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough:
I beg the law, the law, upon his head.
They would have stol'n away, they would, Demetrius,
Thereby to have defeated you and me :
You of your wife, and me of my consent,-
Of my consent that she should be your wife.
DEM. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
Of this their purpose hither, to this wood;
And I in fury hither follow'd them,
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 :

HEL.
And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,
Mine own, and not mine own.

DEM.
Are you sure
That we are awake? It seems to me,
That yet we sleep, we dream.-Do not you think,
The duke was here, and bid us follow him?
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,
And, by the way, let us recount our dreams.

As they go out, BOTTOM awakes.

[Exeunt.

BOT. When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer :-my next is, Most fair Pyramus.-Hey, 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 after death.

[Exit.

SCENE II.-Athens. A Room in Quince's House.
Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELing.
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 handi

craft 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 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.

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.

BOT. Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask
me not what; for if I tell you I am no true Athenian.
I will tell you everything, right as it fell out.
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 Thisbe have clean linen: and let not him that plays the lion pare his nails, for they shall hang out for the lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onions, nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet comedy. No more words; away; go, away.

[Exeunt.