Re-enter LYSANDER. Lys. He goes before me, and still dares me on; I followed fast, but faster he did fly; Come, thou gentle day! [Lies down. For if but once thou show me thy gray light, Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS. Puck. Ho, ho! ho, ho!1 Coward, why com'st thou not? Dem. Abide me, if thou dar'st; for well I wot, Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place; And dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face. Where art thou? Puck. Come hither; I am here. Dem. Nay, then thou mock'st me. buy this dear, If ever I thy face by day-light see. Thou shalt Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me 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 day-light, From these that my poor company detest. 1 This exclamation would have been uttered with more propriety by Puck, if he were not now playing an assumed character, which he seems to forget. In the old song printed by Percy, in which all his gambols are related, he concludes every stanza with ho! ho! ho! It was also the established dramatic exclamation given to the devil whenever he appeared on the stage, and attributed to him whenever he appeared in reality. And, sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye, [Sleeps. Puck. Yet but three? Come one more; Two of both kinds makes up four. Here she comes, curst and sad. Cupid is a knavish lad, Thus to make poor females mad. Enter HERMIA. Her. Never so weary, never so in woe, I can no farther crawl, no farther go; My legs can keep no pace with my desires. Here will I rest me, till the break of day. Heaven shield Lysander if they mean a fray! Puck. On the ground Sleep sound. I'll apply To your eye, Gentle lover, remedy. [Lies down. [Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER's eye. When thou wak'st, Thou tak'st 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.1 [Exit PUCK.-DEM., HEL., &c. sleep. 1 These three last lines are to be found in Heywood's Epigrams, or Three Hundred Proverbs. ACT IV. SCENE I. The same. Enter TITANIA and BOTTOм, Fairies attending; OBERON behind, unseen. Tita. Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed, While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,1 And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head, And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy. Bot. Where's Peas-blossom? Peas. Ready. Bot. Scratch my head, Peas-blossom.-Where's monsieur Cobweb? Cob. Ready. Bot. Monsieur Cobweb, good monsieur, get 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 too much in the action, monsieur; and, good monsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not; I would be loath to have you overflown with the honey-bag, seignior. Where's monsieur Mustard-seed? Must. Ready. Bot. Give me your neif,2 monsieur Mustard-seed. Pray you, leave your courtesy, good monsieur. Must. What's your will? Bot. Nothing, good monsieur, but to help cavalero 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. Tita. What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love? 1 To coy is to stroke or soothe with the hand. Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let us have the tongs and the bones.1 Tita. Or say, sweet love, what thou desir'st to eat. Bot. 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. Tita. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts. Bot. 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. 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, Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee! [They sleep. OBERON advances. Enter PUCK. Obe. 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, 1 The old, rough, rustic music of the tongs. The folio has this stage direction: "Musicke Tongs, Rurall Music." To bear him to my bower in fairy land. [Touching her eyes with an herb. See as thou wast wont to see. Dian's bud1 o'er Cupid's flower Hath such force and blessed power. Now, my Titania, wake you, my sweet queen. Obe. There lies your love. Tita. How came these things to pass? O, how mine eyes do loath his visage now! Obe. Silence, awhile.-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.] queen, take hands with me, Come, my 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. Puck. Fairy king, attend and mark ; I do hear the morning lark. 1 Dian's bud is the bud of the Agnus Castus. |