Fair Helena; who more engilds the night
Than all yon fiery oes and eyes of light.
Why seek'st thou me? could not this make thee
know,
The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so?
Her. You speak not as you think; it cannot
Hel. Lo, she is one of this confederacy! [be.
Now I perceive they have conjoin'd, all three,
To fashion this false sport in spite of me.
Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid!
Have you conspir'd, have you with these con-
To bait me with this foul derision? [triv'd
Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd,
The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent,
When we have chid the hasty-footed time
For parting us,-O, and is all forgot?
AN school-days' friendship, childhood inno-
cence?
We, Hermia, like two artificialt gods,
Have with our neelds created both one flower,
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
Both warbling of one song, both in one key;
As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds,
Had been incorporate. So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted;
But yet a union in partition,
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem:
So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart;
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,
Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.
And will you rent our ancient love asunder,
To join with men in scorning your poor friend?
It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly:
Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it;
Though I alone do feel the injury.
Her. I am amazed at your passionate words:
I scorn you not; it seems that you scorn me.
Hel. Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn,
To follow me, and praise my eyes and face?
And made your other love, Demetrius,
(Who even but now did spurn me with his foot,)
To call me goddess, nymph, divine, and rare,
Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this
To her he hates? and wherefore doth Lysander
Deny your love, so rich within his soul,
And tender me, forsooth, affection;
But by your setting on, by your consent?
What though I be not so in grace as you,
So hang upon with love, so fortunate;
But miserable most, to love unlov'd?
This you should pity, rather than despise."
Her.I understand not what you mean by this.
Hel. Ay, do, perséver, counterfeit sad looks,
Make mows upon me when I turn my back;
Wink at each other; hold the sweet jest up:
This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.
If you have any pity, grace, or manners,
You would not make me such an argument.
But, fare ye well; 'tis partly mine own fault;
Which death, or absence, soon shall remedy.
Lys. Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse;
My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena!
Hel. O excellent!
Her.
Sweet, do not scorn her so.
Dem. If she cannot entreat, I can compel.
* Circles. + Ingenious. ‡ Needles.
buds of flowers.
Lys. Thou canst compel no more than she
[weak prayers.-
Thy threats have no more strength, than her
Helen, I love thee; by my life, I do ;
I swear by that which I will lose for thee,
To prove him false, that says I love thee not,
Dem. I say, I love thee more than he can do.
Lys. If thou say so, withdraw, and prove
Dem. Quick, come,-
Her.
[it too.
Lysander, whereto tends all this?
Lys. Away, you Ethiop!
Dem.
No, no, sir:-he will Seem to break loose; take on, as you would follow;
But yet come not: You are a tame man, go!
Lys. Hang off, thou cat, thou burr: vile
thing let loose;
Or I will shake thee from me, like a serpent.
Her. Why are you grown so rude? what
Sweet love?!
[change is this,
Lys. Thy love? out, tawny Tartar, out!
Out, loathed medicine! hated potion, hence!
Her. Do you not jest?
Yes, 'sooth; and so do you. Lys. Demetrius, I will keep my word with
[ceive, Dem. I would, I had your bond; for, I per. A weak bond holds you; I'll not trust your word. [kill her dead! Lys. What should I hurt her, strike her, Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so. Her. What, can you do me greater harm,
[love?
Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my
Am not I Hermia? Are not you Lysander?
I am as fair now, as I was erewhile. [left me:
Since night, you lov'd nie; yet, since night you
Why, then you left me,-0, the gods forbid!-
In earnest, shall I say?
Ay, by my life;
And never did desire to see thee more.
Therefore, be out of hope, of question, doubt,
Be certain, nothing truer; 'tis no jest,
That I do hate thee, and love Helena. [som!
Her. O me! you juggler! you canker-blos
You thief of love! what, have you come by
And stolen my love's heart from him? (night,
Hel.
Fine, i'faith!
Have you no modesty, no maiden shame,
No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear
Impatient answers from my gentle tongue?
Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet you! [game.
Her. Puppet! why so? Ay, that way goes the
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures, she hath urg'd her height;
And with her personage, her tall personage,
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with
him.-
And are you grown so high in his esteem,
Because I am so dwarfish, and so low?
How low am I? thou painted maypole? speak;
How low am I? I am not yet so low,
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.
Hel. I pray you, though you mock me, gentle
Let her not hurt me: I was never curst ¶; [men,
Wry faces. A worm that preys on Shrewish or mischievous.
I have no gift at all in shrewishness;
I am a right maid for my cowardice; [think,
Let her not strike me: You, perhaps, may
Because she's something lower than myself,
That I can match her.
Her. Hel. Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with I evermore did love you, Hermia, [me, Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd Save, that, in love unto Demetrius, [you; I told him of your stealth unto this wood: He follow'd you; for love, I follow'd him. But he hath chid me hence; and threaten'd me To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too: And now, so you will let me quiet go, To Athens will I bear my folly back, And follow you no further: Let me go: You see how simple and how fond* I am. Her. Why, get you gone: Who is't that binders you? [hind. Hel. A foolish heart, that I leave here beHer. What, with Lysander? Hel. With Demetrius. Lys. Be not afraid: she shall not harm thee, Helena. [take her part. Dem. No, sir; she shall not, though you Hel. O, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd :
She was a vixen, when she went to school; And, though she be but little, she is fierce. Her.Little again? nothing but low and little? Why will you suffer her to flout me thus? Let me come to her.
Lys. Get you gone, you dwarf; You minimus, of hind'ring knot-grasst made; You bead, you acorn.
You are too officious, In her behalf that scorns your services. Let her alone; speak not of Helena; Take not her part: for if thou dost intend Never so little show of love to her, Thou shalt aby it. Lys. Now she holds me not; Now follow, if thou dar'st, to try whose right, Or thine or mine, is most in Helena.
Dem. Follow ? nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jole. [Exeunt Lys. and DEM. Her.You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you: Nay, go not back. Hel. I will not trust you, I; Nor longer stay in your curst company. Your hands, than mine, are quicker for a fray; My legs are longer though, to run away. [Exit. Her. I am amaz'd, and know not what to say.
And so far am I glad it so did sort ý,
As this their jangling I esteem a sport.
Obe. Thou seest, these lovers seek a place
to fight:
Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night;
The starry welkin cover thou anon
With drooping fog, as black as Acheron ;
And lead these testy rivals so astray,
As one come not within another's way.
Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,
Then stir Demetrins up with bitter wrong;
And sometime rail thou like Demetrius ;
And from each other look thou lead them thus,
Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep
With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep:
Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye;
Whose liquor hath this virtuous property,
To take from thence all error, with his might,
And make his eye-balls 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 T,
With league, whose date till death shall never
Whiles I in this affair do thee employ, [end.
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.
[haste;
Puck. My fairy lord, this must be done with For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger; [fast, At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there,
Troop home to church-yards: damned spirits
That in cross-ways and floods have burial, [all,
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.
[Erit OBERON.
Up and down, up and down;
I will lead them up and down:
I am fear'd in field and town;
Goblin, lead them up and down.
[Exit, pursuing HELENA. Here comes one. Obe. This is thy negligence: still thou
Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully. Puck. Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.
Did not you tell me, I should know the man
By the Athenian garments he had on?
And so far blameless proves my enterprise,
That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes:
+ Anciently, knot-grass was believed to prevent the growth of children. Pretend. ¶ Go.
** Cephalus, the paramour of Aurora.
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,
And here will rest me. Come, thou gentle day!
[Lies down.
For if but once thou show me thy gray light,
I'll find Demetrius, and revenge this spite.
[Sleeps.
Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS. Puck. Ho, ho! ho, ho! Coward, why com'st thou not?
Dem. Abide me, if thou dar'st; for well I wot,
Thon runn'st before me, shifting every place; And dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face. Where art thou?
Come hither; I am here. Dem. Nay, then thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this dear,
If ever I thy face by day light 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.
[Lies down and sleeps.
Hel. O weary night, long and tedious night, Abate thy hours: shine, comforts, from the east;
That I may back to Athens, by day-light,
From these that my poor company detest:And, sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's
Steal me awhile from mine own company. [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.
Enter HERMIA.
Her. Never so weary, never soi n 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. Puck. On the ground Sleep sound: I'll apply
To your eye,
Gentle lover, remedy.
[Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER's eye. When thou wak'st,
Thou tak'st
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; [be well. The man shall have his mare again, and all shall [Exit PUCK.-DEM. HEL. &c. sleep.
the honey-bag break not; I would be loth to have you overflown with a honey-bag, signior.-Where's monsieur Mustard-seed? Must. Ready.
Bot. Give me your neift, monsieur Mustardseed. Pray you, leave your courtesy, good monsieur.
Must. What's your will?
Bot. Nothing, good monsieur, but to help cavalero Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber's, monsieur; for, methinks, I am mar vellous 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
Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in music: let us have the tongs and the bones. Tita. Or, say, sweet love, what thou desir'st - to eat.
Bot. Truly, a peck of provender; I could | Now thou and I are new in amity; 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.
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.
[my arms.
Tita. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in
Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.
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!
[They sleep.
OBERON advances. Enter PUCK.
Obe. Welcome, good Robin. See'st thou
this sweet sight?
Her dotage now I do begin to pity.
For meeting her of late, behind the wood,
Seeking sweet savours 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 flow'ret's 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
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
From off the head of this Athenian swain;
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;
[Touching her eyes with an herb.
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 loath 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.
[own fool's eyes peep.
Puck. Now, when thou wak'st, with thine
Obe. Sound, music. [Still music.] Come, my
queen, take hands with me,
And rock the ground whereon these sleepers
+ Sound.
And will, to-morrow midnight, solemnly,
Dance in duke Theseus' house triumphantly,
And bless it to all fair posterity:
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 the night's shade:
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wand'ring' 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 sound 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,
My love shall hear the music of my hounds.-
Uncouple in the western valley; go:
Despatch, I say, and find the forester.-
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 chidingt; for, besides the groves,
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,
[hung
So flew'd, so sanded; and their heads are
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian
[bells,
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like
Each under each. A cry more tuneable
Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
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
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.
[their horns.
The. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with
Horns, and shout within. DEMETRIUS,
LYSANDER, HERMIA, and HELENA, wake
and start up.
The. Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valen-
tine is past;
Begin these wood birds but to couple now?
Lys. Pardon, my lord.
[He and the rest kneel to THESEUS. The flues are the large chaps of a hound,
The. I pray you all, stand up. I know, you are two 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;)
I came with Hermia hither: our intent
Was, to be gone from Athens, where we might
Without the peril of the Athenian law. [be
Ege. Enough, enough, my lord; you have
enough:
I beg the law, the law, upon his head.-
They would have stolen away, they would,
Demetrius,
Thereby to have defeated you and me:
You, of your wife; and me, of my consent;
Of my consent that she should be your wife.
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 Her
mia,
Melted as doth the snow, seems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gawd t,
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 loath this food:
But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
Now do I 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;
For in the temple, by and by with us,
These couples shall eternally be knit.
And, for the morning now is something worn,
Our purpos'd hunting shall be set aside.-
Away, with us, to Athens: Three and three,
We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.→→
Come, Hippolyta.
Dem. Why then, we are awake; let's follow him;
And, by the way, let us recount our dreams. [Exeunt. As they go out, Воrтoм awakes. Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer :-my next is, Most fair Pyra mus.-Hey, 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 but 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 dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a 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 after death. [Exit. SCENE II.
Athens. A Room in 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 handicraft man in Athens.
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 nought. Enter SNUG.
Snug. Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and there is two or three lords and [Exeunt THE. HIP. EGE. and train. ladies more married: if our sport had gone Dem. These things seem small, and undis-forward, we had all been made men.. tinguishable,
Like far off mountains turned into clouds.
Her. Methinks, I see these things with parted When every thing seems double. [eye, Hel. So methinks: And I have found Demetrius like a jewel, Mine own, and not mine own.
It seems to me, That yet we sleep, we dream.-Do not you think,
The duke was here, and bid us follow him?
Her. Yea; and my father.
Hel.
And Hippolyta.
Lys. And he did bid us follow to the temple.
* Love..
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; I am but ask me not what; for, if I tell you, Toy..
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