Here will I rest me, 'till the break of day.

Heav'ns shield Lyfander, if they mean a fray! [Lyes down. PUCK. On the ground

Sleep found,
I'll apply

To your eye,

Gentle lover, remedy.

[Squeezing the juice on Lysander's eye.

When thou wak'st,

Thou tak'ft

True delight

In the fight

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 fhall have Jill,

Naught fhall go ill,

The man shall have his mare again, and all be well.

ACT IV.

[Exit. Puck. [They fleep.

SCENE I.

Continued, The Wood.

Enter queen of the Fairies, Bottom, Fairies attending, and

C

the king behind them.

QUEEN.

OME, fit thee down upon this flow'ry bed,

While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,

And stick musk roses in thy fleek, fmooth'd head;
And kifs thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.

BOT. Where's Peafebloffom?

PEASE. Ready.

BOT. Scratch my head, Peaseblossom.

fieur Cobweb?

COB. Ready.

Where's mon

BOT. Monfieur Cobweb, good monfieur, get your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipt humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good monfieur, bring the honeybag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, monfieur; and, good monfieur, have a care, the honey-bag break not; I should be loth to have you over-flown with a honey-bag, fignior. Where's monsieur Mustardfeed?

MUST. Ready.

BOT. Give me thy neife, monfieur Mustardfeed; pray you leave your curtefy, good monfieur.

MUST. What's your will?

'BOT. Nothing, good monfieur, but to help Cavalero Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber's, monfieur; for, methinks, I am marvellous hairy about the face. And I am fuch a tender ass, if my hair doth but tickle me, I must fcratch.

QUEEN. What, wilt thou hear fome musick, my fweet love?

BOT. I have a reasonable good ear in mufick; let us have the tongs and the bones.

Rural mufick, Tongs, &c.

QUEEN. Or fay, fweet love, what thou defir'st to eat. BOT. Truly, a peck of provender: I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks I have a great defire to a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay hath no fellow.

QUEEN. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek The fquirrel's hoard, and fetch thee thence new nuts.

BOT. I had rather have a handful or two of dried pease. But, I pray you, let none of your people ftir me; I have an expofition of fleep come upon me.

QEEN. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms; Fairies, be gone, and be always away :

So doth the woodbine, the fweet honey-fuckle,
Gently entwift; the female ivy fo

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.

O, how I love thee! how I doat on thee!

Enter Puck.

OB. Welcome, good Robin; seest thou this sweet fight? Her dotage now I do begin to pity;

For, meeting her of late behind the wood,
Seeking fweet favours for this hateful fool,
I did upbraid her, and fall out with her :
For the his hairy temples then had rounded
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
And that fame dew, which fometime on the buds
Was wont to fwell, like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flouret's eyes,
Like tears that did their own difgrace 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 strait she gave me, and her fairy fent,
To bear him to my bower in fairy-land.
And now. I have the boy, I will undo
This hateful imperfection of her eye:
And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp

From off the head of the Athenian swain ;
That he, awaking, when the others 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 firft, I will release the fairy queen.
Be, as thou waft wont to be;
See, as thou waft wont to fee:
Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flow'r

Hath fuch force and bleffed pow'r.

Now, my Titania, wake you, my sweet queen.
QUEEN. My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
Methought, I was enamour'd of an afs.

OB. There lies your love.

QUEEN. HOW came these things to pass? Oh, how mine eyes do loath this visage now!

OB. Silence, a while-Robin, take off his head; Titania, mufick call; and strike more dead

Than common fleep of all these five the sense.

QUEEN. Musick, ho! mufick: fuch as charmeth Яleep.

[Still mufick. PUCK. When thou awak'ft, with thy own fool's eyes

peep.

OB. Sound, musick; come, my queen, take hand with

me,

And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.

Now thou and I are new in amity;

And will to-morrow midnight folemnly

Dance in duke Thefeus' house triumphantly,

And blefs it to all fair pofterity;

There shall these pairs of faithful lovers be

Wedded, with Thefeus, all in jollity.

PUCK. Fairy king, attend and mark;

I do hear the morning lark.

OB. Then, my queen, in filence fad, Trip we after the night's fhade;

We the globe can compa's foon,

Swifter than the wand'ring moon.

QUEEN. Come, my lord, and in our flight

Tell me how it came this night,

That I fleeping here was found,

With thefe mortals on the ground.

[Sleepers lie ftill. [Exeunt.

[Wind horns within.

Enter Thefeus, Egeus, Hippolita, and all his train.

THE. Go one of you, find out the forefter,

For now our obfervation is perform'd,

And fince we have the vaward of the day,

My love fhall hear the musick of my hounds.
Uncouple in the western valley, go-

Difpatch, I fay, and find the forefter.

We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's töp,
And mark the mufical confufion

Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

HIP. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear
With hounds of Sparta; never did I hear
Such gallant chiding. For, befides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, ev'ry region near
Seem'd all one mutual cry. I never heard
So mufical a difcord, fuch fweet-thunder.

THE. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flew'd, fo fanded, and their heads are hung
With ears that fweep away the morning dew;