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SEENE V.

Enter PUCK.

Риск.

Through the forest have I gone.
But Athenian find 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 damp and dirty ground.
Churl, upon thy eyes I throw,
All the power this charm doth owe
When thou wak'st, let love forbid,
Sleep his seat on thy eye-lid:
So awake when I am gone,

For I must now to Oberon.

SCENE VI.

[Exit Puck.

Enter DEMETRIUS, and HELENA following.

HELENA

Stay, tho' thou kill me, sweet Demetrius!

Deme. I charge thee hence, and do not haunt me thus.
Helen. O wilt thou, darling, leave me? do not so.

Deme. Stay, on thy peril, I alone will go

[Exit Demetrius. Helen. 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. But who is here? Lysunder, on the ground; Dead or asleep, I see no blood no wound: Lysander if you live, good Sir, awake.

Say

AIR.

LYSANDER.

Say, lovely dream, where could'st thou find
Sbades to counterfeit that face;
Colours of this glorious kind,

Come not from any mortal place;
In beaven itself thou sure wert drest,
With that angel-like disguise,
Tbus deluded am I blest,

And see my joy with closed eyes.

Transparent Helen, nature here shews art,
That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart:
Where is Demetrius? Oh, how fit a word
Is that vile name, to perish on my sword?

Hel. Do not say so, Lysander, say not so?
What tho' he loves your Hermia, yet you know,
That Hermia still loves you; then be content,
Lys. Content with Hermia? no, I do repent
The tedious minutes I with her have spent;
Not Hermia, but Helena now I love :
Who will not change a raven for a dove?

Hel. Wherefore was I to this keen mock'ry born
When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?
But fare you well. Perforce I must confess,
I thought you lord of more true gentleness.

{Exit HELENA. Lys. She sees not Hermia, Hermia sleep thou there, Helen is now Lysander's only Care.

SCENE VI.

HERMIA.

[Exit LYSANDER

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, speak, I almost swoon with fear;
Methought a serpent eat my heart away,
And you sat smiling at his cruel prey:
Lysander, what remov'd? Lysander, lord!
What out of hearing, gone? no sound, no word?

Where

Where are you, speak? alas! he is not near.

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Hail, and welcome, gracious king,

And all the Fairies that you bring;

But wherefore do you thus delay ?
The gentle night is prest to pay
The usury of long delights,

She owes to our protracted rites.

Obe. My fairy sprights, brief be your sports to night,
Much business we have yet to do ere light.

The queen in slumber wrapt near yonder brake,
At cautious distance watch her till she wake;
Then know, what 'tis that first comes in her eye,

That she must doat on in extremity :

Her new-born flame will all her thoughts employ,
Than I for asking, get her Indian boy.

This done, I will her charmed release

eye

From vision gross, and all things shall be peace.

AIR.

But you must not long delay,
Nor be weary yet,
There's no time to cast away,
Or for Fairies to forget
The virtue of their feet;
Knotty legs and plants of clay.
Seek for ease, and love delay;

But

But with you it still should fare,
As with the air, of which you are.

By the stars glimmering light
Aided by the glow-worm's fire,
Every elf and fairy spright,
Hop as light as bird from briar.
Now, now, begin to set
Your spirits in an active heat;
Instruct your nimble feet,
The velvet ground to beat:
To-morrow be it seen

Where we to-night have been.
Sing and dance around this place,
Hand in hand, with Fairy grace.

AIR.

Now until the break of day,

Through this wood each Fairy stray,

And your night-sports celebrate:

Every Fairy take bis gait,

Dance.

Trip away, make no stay,

Meet me all by break of day.

Excunt

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HOW now, mad spright,

OBERON.

What night-rule now about this haunted grove? Puck. My Mistress with a patch'd fool, is in love.

Near to her close and consecrated bower,

This clown with others had rehears'd a play
Intended for great Theseus' nuptial day.
When, starting from her bank of mossy-down,
Titania wak'd, and straightway lov'd the clown.
Obe. This falls out better than I could devise.
But hast thou latched the Athenian's eyes?

Puck.

Puck. That is finish'd too; I took him sleeping; And the Aibenian woman by his side,

That when he wakes, of force she must be ey'd.

SCENE II.

Enter DEMETRIUS and HERMIA,

OBERON.

Stand close this is the same Athenian.

Puck This is the woman, but not this the man.
Deme. O, why rebuke you him that loves you so?
Her. If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep.

Then kill me too

The sun was not so true unto the day,

As he to me.

Would he have stolen away

From sleeping Hermia?

It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him,

So should a murderer look, so dread, so grim

Deme. So should the murder'd look, and so should I Pierc'd thro' the heart, with your stern cruelty: Yet you, the murderer, Look as bright and clear, As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere.

AIR.

HERMIA.

How calm's the sky, how undisturb'd the deep,
Nature is busb't the very tempests sleep ;
The drowsy winds breathe gently thro' the trees,
And silent on the beach repose the seas:
Love only wakes, the storm that tears
For ever rages and distracts my rest.
O love, relentless love, tyrant accurst,
In desarts bred, by cruel tygers nurst.

my breast

[Exit HERMIA. Deme. There is no following her in this fierce vein, Here, brooding o'er my thoughts, I will remain,

SCENE III.

OBERON.

[Lies down

What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite, And laid thy love-juice on some true love's sigh*,

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