Before the time I did Lysander see,

Seem'd Athens like a paradise to me :

O then, what graces in my love do dwell,
That he hath turn'd a heaven into a hell!

LYSANDER.

Helen, to you our minds we will unfold.
To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold
Her silver visage in the wat'ry glass,
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,
(A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,)
Through Athens' gates have we devis'd to steal.

HERMIA.

And in the wood, where often you and I
Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,
Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,
There my Lysander and myself shall meet;
And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,
To seek new friends and stranger companies.
Farewell, sweet playfellow : pray thou for us,
And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius ! -
Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight
From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.

[Exit HERMIA,

LYSANDER.

Helena, adieu :

I will, my Hermia.
As you on him, Demetrius dote on you!

HELENA.

[Exit LYSANDER,

How happy some o'er other some can be!
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she ;
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so ;
He will not know what all but he doth know;
And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,
So I, admiring of his qualities.
Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity :

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind :
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste;
Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste :
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he often is beguil'd.

As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
So the boy Love is perjur'd everywhere;
For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,
He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;
And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
So he dissolv'd, and showers of oaths did melt.
I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight;
Then to the wood will he, to-morrow night,
Pursue her ; and for this intelligence

If I have thanks, it is a dear expense :

But herein mean I to enrich my pain,

To have his sight thither and back again.

[Exit.

SCENE II.

The Same. A Room in a Cottage.

Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING.

QUINCE. Is all our company here?

BOTTOM. You were best to call them generally, man by man, according to the scrip.

QUINCE. Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our interlude before the Duke and the Duchess on his wedding-day at night.

BOTTOM. First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats on; then read the names of the actors, and so grow on to a point.

QUINCE. Marry, our play is The most lamentable Comedy, and most cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisby.

BOTTOM. A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your actors by the scroll. Masters, spread yourselves.

QUINCE. Answer, as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver.
BOTTOM. Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.
QUINCE. You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.
What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant?

BOTTOM. QUINCE. A lover, that kills himself most gallantly for love. BOTTOM. That will ask some tears in the true performing of it: If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes; I will move storms ; I will condole in some measure. To the rest. Yet my chief humor is for a tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split.

"The raging rocks,
And shivering shocks,
Shall break the locks
Of prison-gates :
And Phibbus' car
Shall shine from far,
And make and mar
The foolish Fates."

This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players.
Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is more condoling.
QUINCE. Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.

FLUTE. Here, Peter Quince.

QUINCE. You must take Thisby on you.

FLUTE. What is Thisby? a wandering knight?

QUINCE. It is the lady that Pyramus must love.

This is

FLUTE. Nay, faith, let me not play a woman: I have a beard coming.

QUINCE. That's all one. You shall play it in a mask, and you may speak as small as you will.

BOTTOM. An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too. I'll speak in a monstrous little voice :- "Thisne, Thisne Ah, Pyramus, my lover dear! thy Thisby dear, and lady dear!"

QUINCE. No, no; you must play Pyramus, and, Flute, you Thisby.

BOTTOM. Well, proceed.

QUINCE. Robin Starveling, the tailor.

STARVELING. Here, Peter Quince.

QUINCE. Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother. Tom Snout, the tinker.

SNOUT. Here, Peter Quince.

QUINCE. You, Pyramus' father; myself, Thisby's father. Snug, the joiner, you, the lion's part ; — and, I hope, there is a play fitted.

SNUG. Have you the lion's part written? Pray you, if it be, give it me; for I am slow of study.

QUINCE. You may do it extempore; for it is nothing but roaring. BOTTOM. Let me play the lion too. I will roar, that I will do any man's heart good to hear me: I will roar, that I will make the Duke say, "Let him roar again: let him roar again."

QUINCE. An you should do it too terribly, you would fright the Duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek; and that were enough to hang us all.

ALL. That would hang us, every mother's son.

BOTTOM. I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us; but I will aggravate my voice so, that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove: I will roar an 't were any nightingale.

QUINCE. You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a sweet-fac'd man; a proper man, as one shall see in a summer's day, a most lovely, gentlemanlike man; therefore, you must needs play Pyramus.

BOTTOM. Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best to play it in?

QUINCE. Why, what you will.

BOTTOM. I will discharge it in either your straw-color beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your Frenchcrown-color'd beard your perfect yellow.

QUINCE. Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and then you will play bare-fac'd. — But, Masters, here are your parts; and I am to entreat you, request you, and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night, and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the town, by moonlight: there we will rehearse; for if we meet in the city, we shall be dogg'd with company, and our devices known. In the mean time I will draw a bill of properties, such as our play wants. I pray you, fail me not.

BOTTOM. We will meet; and there we may rehearse more obscenely and courageously. Take pains; be perfect; adieu.

QUINCE. At the Duke's oak we meet.

BOTTOM. Enough; hold, or cut bow-strings.

14

[Exeunt.