My soul consents not to give sovereignty. Dem. Relent, sweet Hermia;-And, Lysander, Thy crazed title to my certain right. [yield Lys. You have her father's love, Demetrius; Let me have Hermia's: do you marry hiin. Ege. Scornful Lysander! true he hath my love; And what is mine my love shall render him; And she is mine; and all my right of her I do estate unto Demetrius. Lus. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he, And, which is more than all these boasts can be, Why should not I then prosecute my right? Upon this spotted and inconstant man. The. I must confess, that I have heard so much, And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof; But, being over-full of self-affairs, My mind did lose it.-But, Demetrius, come; I must employ you in some business something nearly that concerns yourselves. Ege. With duty, and desire, we follow you. [Exeunt. THES. HIP. EGE. DEM. and train. Lus. How now, my love? Why is your cheek so How chance the roses there do fade so fast? [pale? Her. Belike for want of rain; which I could well Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes. Lus. Ah me! for ought that ever I could read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth: But, either it was different in blood. Her. O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low! Lus. Or else misgraffed, in respect of years: Her. O spite! too old to be engag'd to young! Lys. Or else it stood upon the choice of friends: Her. O hell! to choose love by another's eye! Lys. Or, if there were a sympathy in choice, War, death, or sickness, did lay siege to it; Making it momentary as a sound, Swift as a shadow, short as any dream; Brief as the lightning in the collied night, That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, And ere a man hath power to say,-Behold! The jaws of darkness do devour it up: So quick bright things come to confusion. Her. If then true lovers have been ever cross'd, It stands as an edíct in destiny: Then let us teach our trial patience, Because it is a customary cross; Her. My good Lysander! I swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow; By his best arrow with the golden head; By the simplicity of Venus' doves; By that which knitteth souls, and prospers loves; And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen, When the false Trojan under sail was seen; By all the vows that ever men have broke, In number more than ever women spoke ;In that same place thou hast appointed me, To-morrow truly will I meet with thee. Lys. Keep promise, love: Look, here comes Helena. Enter HELENA. Her. God speed fair Helena! Whither away? Hel. Call you me fair? that fair again unsay. Demetrius loves you fair: O happy fair! Your eyes are load-stars; and your tongue's sweet air More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear, When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear. Sickness is catching; O, were favour so! Your's would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go; My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye, My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody. Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated, The rest I'll give to be to you translated. O, teach me how you look; and with what art You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart. Her. I frown upon him, yet he loves me still. Her. I give him curses, yet he gives me love. Her. Take comfort; he no more shall see my face; Lys. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold: Her. And in the wood, where often you and I Farewell, sweet playfellow; pray thou for us, Things base and vile, holding no quantity, [Exit. SCENE II.-The same. A Room in a Cottage. Enter SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, QUINCE, and STARVELING. "And Phibbus' car "The foolish fates." This was lofty!-Now name the rest of the players. This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is more condoling. Quin. Francis Flute, the bellows-mender. Flu. Here, Peter Quince. Quin. You must take Thisby on you. Flu. What is Thisby? a wandering knight? Quin. That's all one; you shall play it in a mask, Bot. An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby I too: I'll speak in a monstrous little voice ;-Thisne, Thisne,-Ah, Pyramus, my lover dear; thy Thisby dear! and lady dear! Quin. No, no; you must play Pyramus, and, Flute, you Thisby. Bot. Well, proceed. Quin. Robin Starveling, the tailor. Star. Here, Peter Quince. Quin. Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother. Tom Snout, the tinker. Snout. Here, Peter Quince. Quin. You, Pyramus's father; myself, Thisby's father;-Snug, the joiner, you, the lion's part:—and, I hope, here is a play fitted. Shug. Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study. Quin. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring. Bot. 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 Quin. Is all our company here? Bot. You were best to call them generally, man again, Let him roar again. by man, according to the scrip. Quin. 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 duchess, on his wedding-day at night. Bot. First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats on; then read the names of the actors; and so grow to a point. Quin. Marry, our play is-The most lamentable comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby. Bot. 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. Quin. Answer, as I call you.-Nick Bottom, the Quin. 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. Bot. 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 you an 'twere any nightingale. Quin. You can play no part but Pyramus: for Pyramus is a sweet-faced man; a proper man, as gentleman-like man; therefore you must needs play one shall see in a summer's day; a most lovely, Pyramus. Bot. Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best to play it in? Quin. Why, what you will. Bot. I will discharge it in either your strawcoloured beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, your perfect yellow. at all, and then you will play bare-faced.-But, masQuin. Some of your French crowns have no hair ters; here are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request you, and desire you, to con them by tomile without the town, by moon-light; there will morrow night; and meet me in the palace wood, a we rehearse for if we meet in the city, we shall be dog'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. Bot. We will meet; and there we may rehearse more obscenely, and courageously. Take pains; be| perfect; adieu. Quin. At the duke's oak we meet. Bet. Enough; Hold, or cut bow-strings. [Exeunt. ACT II. SCENE I.-A Wood near Athens. Enter a Fairy at one door, and Puck at another. Thorough bush, thorough briar, Thorough flood, thorough fire, In those freckles live their savours: Fei. Either I mistake your shape and making quite, Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite, Cail'd Robin Good-fellow are you not he, That fright the maidens of the villagery; Skim milk; and sometimes labour in the quern, And bootless make the breathless housewife churn; And sometime make the drink to bear no barm; Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm? Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck, You do their work, and they shall have good luck : Are not you he? Puck. Thou speak'st aright; I am that merry wanderer of the night. I jest to Oberon, and make him smile, When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, Neighing in likeness of a filly foal: And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl, In very likeness of a roasted crab; And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob, And on her wither'd dew-lap pour the ale. The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale, Sometime for three foot stool mistaketh me; Then slip I from her bum, down topples she, And tailor cries, and falls into a cough; And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe And waxen in their mirth, and neeze and swear A merrier hour was never wasted there.But room, Faery, here comes Oberon. [gone Fai. And here my mistress :-'Would that he were SCENE II.-Enter OBERON, at one door, with his Obe. Tarry, rash wanton; Am not I thy lord? Obe. How canst thou thus, for shame, Titania, Knowing I know thy love to Theseus? Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night And make him with fair Eglé break his faith, Tita. These are the forgeries of jealousy: By their increase, now knows not which is which: And this same progeny of evils comes From our debate, from our dissension; We are their parents and original. : Obe. Do you amend it then it lies in you: Why should Titania cross her Oberon? I do but beg a little changeling boy, To be my henchman. Tita. Set your heart at rest, When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive, Obe. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee. Tita. Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away: We shall chide down-right, if I longer stay. [grove, [Exeunt TITANIA and her train. Obe. Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this Till I torment thee for this injury.My gentle Puck come hither: Thou remember'st Since once I sat upon a promontory, And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back, Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, That the rude sea grew civil at her song; And certain stars shot madly from their spheres To hear the sea-maid's music. Obe. That very time I saw, (but thou could'st not,) Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell: Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once; upon, Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA following him. Dem. I love thee not, therefore pursue me not. Where is Lysander, and fair Hermia? The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me. Thou told'st me, they were stol'n into this wood. And here am I, and wood within this wood, Because I cannot meet with Hermia. Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more. Hel. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant, But yet you draw not iron, for my heart Is true as steel: Leave you your power to draw, And I shall have no power to follow you. Dem. Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair? Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth Tell you I do not, nor I cannot love you? Hel. And even for that do I love you the more. I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, The more you beat me, I will fawn on you: Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave, Unworthy as I am, to follow you. What worser place can I beg in your love, (And yet a place of high respect with me,) Than to be used as you use your dog? Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit: For I am sick, when I do look on thee. Hel. And I am sick, when I look not on you. Hel. Your virtue is my privilege for that. Dem. I'll run from thee, and hide me in the brakes, And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts. Hel. The wildest hath not such a heart as you. Run when you will, the story shall be chang'd; Dem. I will not stay thy questions; let me go: Hel. Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field, You do me mischief. Fye, Demetrius! Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex: We cannot fight for love, as men may do: We should be woo'd, and were not made to woo. I'll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell, To die upon the hand I love so well. [Exeunt DEM. and HEL. Obe. Fare thee well, nymph; ere he do leave this grove, Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love. Re-enter Puck. Hast thou the flower there? Welcome wanderer. Puck. Ay, there it is. Obe. I pray thee, give it me. I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows ; Quite over canopied with lush woodbine, With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine; There sleeps Titania, some time of the night Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight; And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin, Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in; And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes, And make her full of hateful fantasies. Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove. A sweet Athenian lady is in love With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes; But do it, when the next thing he espies SCENE III.-Another part of the Wood. Enter TITANIA, with her train. Tita. Come, now a roundel, and a fairy song; Then, for the third part of a minute, hence; Some, to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds; Some, war with rear-mice for their leathern wings, To make my small elves coats; and some, keep back The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, and wonders At our quaint spirits: Sing me now asleep; Then to your offices, and let me rest. Wake, when some vile thing is near. Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA. [Exit. Lys. Fair love, you faint with wandering in the And to speak troth, I have forgot our way; [wood; We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good, And tarry for the comfort of the day. Her. Be it so, Lysander, find you out a bed, For I upon this bank will rest my head. Lys. One turf shall serve as pillow for us both; One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth. Her. Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear, Lie further off yet, do not lie so near. Lys. O take the sense, sweet, of my innocence; Love takes the meaning, in love's conference. I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit ; So that but one heart we can make of it: Two bosoms interchained with an oath; So then, two bosoms, and a single troth. Then, by your side no bed-room me deny; For, lying so, Hermia, I do not lie. Her. Lysander riddles very prettily:Now much beshrew my manners and my pride, If Hermia meant to say, Lysander lied. But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy Lie further off; in human modesty Such separation, as, may well be said, Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid: So far be distant; and good night, sweet friend: Thy love ne'er alter, till thy sweet life end! Lys. Amen, Amen, to that fair prayer, say I; And then end life, when I end loyalty! Here is my bed: Sleep give thee all his rest! Her. With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd! [They sleep. Enter PUCK. Puck. Through the forest have I gone, Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running. [Exit. Hel. Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius. Dem. I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus. Hel. O, wilt thou darkling leave me? do not so. Dem. Stay, on thy peril; I alone will go. [Exit DEMETRIUS. Hel. O, I am out of breath in this fond chase! The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace. 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. No, no, I am as ugly as a bear; For beasts that meet me, run away for fear: Therefore, no marvel, though Demetrius Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus. What wicked and dissembling glass of mine Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne ?But who is here?-Lysander! on the ground! Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound!Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake. sake. Lys. And run through fire I will, for thy swee [Waking. Transparent Helena! Nature here shews art, That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart. Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word Is that vile name, to perish on my sword? Hel. Do not say so, Lysander; say not so: What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though? Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content. |