The Works of William Shakespeare

370

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 and 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 peace.
Puck. My fairy lord, this must be done with
haste,

For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,
And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger; 380
At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and
there,

Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all,
That in crossways 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 delay:
We may effect this business yet ere day. [Exit.
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

Here comes one.

390

and down.

400

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: I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly;

That fallen am I in dark uneven way,

421

Dem. Abide me, if thou darest; for well I wot Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place, And darest not stand, nor look me in the face. Where art thou now?

Puck.
Come hither: I am here.
Dem. Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou
shalt buy this dear,

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.

430

[Lies down and sleeps.

Re-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. [Lies down and 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.

Re-enter HERMIA.

440

Her. Never so weary, never so in woe, Bedabbled with the dew and torn with briers, I can no further crawl, no further go;

My legs can keep no pace with my desires. Here will I rest me till the break of day. Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray! [Lies down and sleeps. On the ground Sleep sound:

Puck.

I'll apply

To your eye,

Gentle lover, remedy.

450

[Squeezing the juice on Lysander's eyes. When thou wakest,

Thou takest

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;

460

The man shall have his mare again, and all shall

be well.

ACT IV.

[Exit.

SCENE I. The same. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS,
HELENA, and HERMIA lying asleep
Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM; PEASEBLOSSOM,
COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARDSEED, and other
Fairies attending; OBERON behind unseen.

And here will rest me. [Lies down.] Come, Tita. Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,

thou gentle day!

While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,

And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.
Bot. Where's Peaseblossom?
Peas.

Ready.

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

Bot. Scratch my head, Peaseblossom. Where's From off the head of this Athenian swain;
Mounsieur Cobweb?

Bot. Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray you, leave your courtesy, good mounsieur.

Mus. What's your will?

Bot. Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber's, mounsieur; 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?

Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let's have the tongs and the bones.

Tita. Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest 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. 40

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.

[Exeunt fairies. 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!

Enter PUCK.

[They sleep.

That, he awaking when the other 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 first I will release the fairy queen.
Be as thou wast wont to be;

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!
Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.
Obe. There lies your love.

Tita.

How came these things to pass?
O, how mine eyes do loathe 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!
[Music, still.

Puck. Now, when thou wakest, with thine
own fool's eyes peep.
Sound, music!
hands with me,

Obe.

Come, my queen, take

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 prosperity:
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.
Obe. Then, my queen, in silence sad,
Trip we after night's shade:
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wandering 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 winded within. Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train. The. Go, one of you, find out the forester; For now our observation is perform'd; And since we have the vaward of the day,

Obe. [Advancing] Welcome, good Robin. My love shall hear the music of my hounds.

See'st thou this sweet sight?

Her dotage now I do begin to pity:
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 flowerets' 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

ΙΙΟ

Uncouple in the western valley; let them go:
Dispatch, I say, and find the forester.
[Exit an Attendant.
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top
And mark the musical confusion
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, besides the groves, 120
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, 130
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

140

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. Lys.,
Dem., Hel., and Her., wake and start up.
Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past:
Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
Lys. Pardon, my lord.
The.

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,
Half 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,—

150

[Exeunt.

Bot. [Awaking] When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer: my next is, 'Most fair Pyramus.' Heigh-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 out 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 They would have stolen away; they would, dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a

I came with Hermia hither: our intent

Was to be gone from Athens, where we might,
Without the peril of the Athenian law.

Ege. Enough, enough, my lord; you have
enough:

I beg the law, the law, upon his head.

Demetrius,

Thereby to have defeated you and me,

You of your wife and me of my consent,

my consent that she should be your wife.

160

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, 170
Melted as the snow, seems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gawd
Which in my childhood I did dote upon;
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 in sickness, did I loathe this food;
But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
Now I do 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;

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 at her death. [Exit.

SCENE II. Athens. 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 180 handicraft man in Athens.

ΙΟ

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.

Enter BOTTOM.

Bot. Where are these lads? where are these hearts ?

Quin. Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour!

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 every thing, 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 Thisby 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.

ACT V.

SCENE I. Athens. The palace of THESEUS. Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, Lords, and Attendants.

Hip. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of.

The.

More strange than true: I never may

believe

These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping, fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover and the poet

Are of imagination all compact:

One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic, 10
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,

More witnesseth than fancy's images
And grows to something of great constancy
But, howsoever, strange and admirable.
The. Here come the lovers, full of joy and
mirth.

Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and
HELENA.

Joy, gentle friends! joy and fresh days of love
Accompany your hearts!
Lys.
More than to us
Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed!
The. Come now; what masques, what dances
shall we have,

To wear away this long age of three hours
Between our after-supper and bed-time?
Where is our usual manager of mirth?
What revels are in hand? Is there no play,
To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
Call Philostrate.
Phil.

Here, mighty Theseus.

The. Say, what abridgement have you for this
evening?

What masque? what music? How shall we be-
The lazy time, if not with some delight ?
guile

Phil. There is a brief how many sports are ripe :

Make choice of which your highness will see first. [Giving a paper.

The. [Reads] 'The battle with the Centaurs, to
be sung

By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.'
We'll none of that: that have I told my love,
In glory of my kinsman Hercules.
[Reads] The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,
Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.'
That is an old device; and it was play'd
When I from Thebes came last a conqueror
[Reads] The thrice three Muses mourning for
the death

Of Learning, late deceased in beggary.'
That is some satire, keen and critical,
Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.
[Reads] A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth."
Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!

That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.
How shall we find the concord of this discord ? 60
Phil. A play there is, my lord, some ten words
long,

Which is as brief as I have known a play;
But by ten words, my lord, it is too long,
Which makes it tedious; for in all the play
There is not one word apt, one player fitted:
And tragical, my noble lord, it is;

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to For Pyramus therein doth kill himself.

heaven;

Which, when I saw rehearsed, I must confess,
Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears
The passion of loud laughter never shed.
The. What are they that do play it?
Phil. Hard-handed men that work in Athens
here,

Which never labour'd in their minds till now,
And now have toil'd their unbreathed memories
With this same play, against your nuptial.
The. And we will hear it.
Phil.

No, my noble lord;
It is not for you: I have heard it over,

And it is nothing, nothing in the world;
Unless you can find sport in their intents,
Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain, 80
To do you service.

The.

I will hear that play; For never anything can be amiss, When simpleness and duty tender it. Go, bring them in: and take your places, ladies. [Exit Philostrate. Hip. I love not to see wretchedness o'ercharged And duty in his service perishing.

The. Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing.

Hip. He says they can do nothing in this kind.

The. The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.

Our sport shall be to take what they mistake: 90
And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect
†Takes it in might, not merit.

Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
Make periods in the midst of sentences,
Throttle their practised accent in their fears
And in conclusion dumbly have broke off,
Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,
Out of this silence yet I pick'd a welcome;
And in the modesty of fearful duty

I read as much as from the rattling tongue
Of saucy and audacious eloquence.
Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity
In least speak most, to my capacity.

Re-enter PHILOSTRATE.

100

Phil. So please your grace, the Prologue is address'd.

The. Let him approach. [Flourish of trumpets.

Enter QUINCE for the Prologue.

Pro. If we offend, it is with our good will.

That you should think, we come not to offend, But with good will. To show our simple skill, 110 That is the true beginning of our end. Consider then we come but in despite.

We do not come as minding to content you, Our true intent is. All for your delight

We are not here. That you should here repent

you,

The actors are at hand and by their show
You shall know all that you are like to know.

The. This fellow doth not stand upon points. Lys. He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not enough to speak, but to speak true.

Hip. Indeed he hath played on his prologue like a child on a recorder; a sound, but not in government. The. His speech was like a tangled chain; nothing impaired, but all disordered. Who is

next?

Enter PYRAMUS and THISBE, WALL,
MOONSHINE, and LION.'

Pro. Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show;

This beauteous lady Thisby is certain. This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder;

And through Wall's chink, poor souls, they are

content

To whisper. At the which let no man wonder. This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn, Presenteth Moonshine; for, if you will know, By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo. This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name, 140 The trusty Thisby, coming first by night, Did scare away, or rather did affright; And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall,

Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain. Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall,

And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain: Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade, He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breast; And Thisby, tarrying in mulberry shade,

His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest, Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain 151 At large discourse, while here they do remain. [Exeunt Prologue, Pyramus, Thisbe, Lion, and Moonshine.

The. I wonder if the lion be to speak. Dem. No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when many asses do.

Wall. In this same interlude it doth befall That I, one Snout by name, present a wall; And such a wall, as I would have you think, That had in it a crannied hole or chink, Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby, Did whisper often very secretly.

161

This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show

That I am that same wall; the truth is so:
And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.
The. Would you desire lime and hair to speak
better?

Dem. It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard discourse, my lord.

But what see I? No Thisby do I see. O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss! Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me! The. The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again.

Pyr. No, in truth, sir, he should not. 'DeBut wonder on, till truth make all things plain.ceiving me' is Thisby's cue: she is to enter now, This man is Pyramus, if you would know; 130 and I am to spy her through the wall. You shall

« Zurück Weiter »

Books