Here the comes, curft and fad :-
Cupid is a knavish lad,

Thus to make poor females mad.
Enter HERMIA.

}

Her. Never fo weary, never fo 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 defires.
Here will I reft me till the break of day.

Heavens fhield Lyfander, if they mean a fray! [Lies 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'ft,

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;

Nought fhall go ill;

}

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

[Exit PUCK.

[They fleep.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

The Wood. Enter Queen of the Fairies, BOTTOM, Fairies attending, and the King behind them.

Queen.

COME, fit thee down upon this flowery bed,
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,

And ftick mufk-rofes in thy fleek fmooth head;
And kifs thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.
Bot. Where's Peafebloffom?

Peafe. Ready.

Bot. Scratch my head, Peasebloffom.-Where's monfieur Cobweb?

Cob. Ready.

Bot. Monfieur Cobweb; good monfieur, get your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hip'd humblebee on the top of a thiftle; and, good monfieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, monfieur; and, good monfieur, have a care the honey-bag break not; I fhould be loth to have you overflown with a honey-bag, fignior.-Where's monfieur Muftardfeed?

Muft. Ready.

Bot. Give thy neif,[3] monfieur Muftardfeed. Pray you, leave your courtefy, good monsieur.

Muft. What's your will?

Bot. Nothing, good monfieur, but to help cavalero Cobweb to scratch,[4] I muft to the barber's, monfieur; for methinks, I am marvellous hairy about the face: and I am fuch a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I muft fcratch.

Queen. What, wilt thou hear fome mufic, my sweet love? Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in mufic: let us have the tongs and the bones.

Queen. Or, fay, sweet love, what thou defir'ft 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, fweet hay, hath no fellow.

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

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

Queen. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.

So doth the woodbine, the fweet honey-fuckle,
Gently entwist,-the female ivy[5] fo

[3] i. e. fift. GRAY.

[4] Without doubt it should be 'Cavalero Peafebloffom'; as for 'Cavalero Cobweb,' he had just been dispatched upon a perilous adventure. ib. [5] Shakespeare calls it 'female ivy,' because it always requires fome fupport, which is poetically called its hufband. So Milton:

-led the vine

To wed her elm: fhe fpous'd, about him twines
Her marriageable arms------------->>

STEEV.

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.

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

OBERON advances. Enter PUCK.

Ob. Welcome, good Robin. Seeft 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 fhe his hairy temples then had rounded
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
And that fame dew, which fometimes on the buds
Was wont to fwell, like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flowret's eyes,
Like tears that did their own difgrace bewail.
When I had at my pleasure taunted her,
And the, in mild terms, begg'd my patience,
I then did afk 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 the Athenian fwain ;
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 first I will release the fairy queen :-
Be, as thou waft wont to be ;

[Touching her eyes with an Herb.

See as thou waft wont to fee:

Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower

Hath fuch force and bleffed power.

Now, my Titania, wake you, my fweet queen.
Queen. My Oberon! what vifions have I feen!
Methought, I was enamour'd of an afs.

Ob. There lies your love.

Queen. How came these things to pafs?

Oh, how mine eye doth loath his vifage now!

Ob. Silence a-while.-Robin, take off this head.

Titania, mufic call; and ftrike more dead

Than common sleep, of all these five the sense.

Queen. Mufic, ho! mufic; fuch as charmeth fleep. [Still mufic. Puck. [To BOT.] When thou awak'ft, with thine own fool's eyes peep.

Ob. Sound, mufic. Come, my queen, take hand with me,
And rock the ground whereon these fleepers be.
Now thou and I are new in amity;

And will, to-morrow midnight, folemnly,
Dance in duke Thefeus' houfe triumphantly,
And blefs it to all fair pofterity:

There fhall 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 compafs 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.

[Exeunt.

[Wind horns within.

Enter THESEUS, EGEUS, HIPPOLITA, and all his train.

The. Go, one of you, find out the forefter ;-
For now our obfervation is perform'd :[5]
And fince we have the vaward of the day,
My love shall hear the mufic of my hounds.
-Uncouple in the western valley; go :—
Dispatch, I fay, and find the forefter.

-We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,
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 fkies, the fountains, every region near
Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard
So mufical a difcord, fuch fweet thunder.

[5] The honours due to the morning of May. I know not why Shakefpeare calls this play a Midfummer-Night's Dream, when he fo carefully informs us that it happened on the night preceding May-day.

VOL. II.

T

JOHNS.

The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flew'd,[6] fo fanded,[7] and their heads are hung
With ears that fweep away the morning dew;
Crook-knee'd, and dew-lap'd like Theffalian bulls ;
Slow in purfuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tuneable

Was never halloo'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly :

Judge when you hear.-But foft; what nymphs are these?
Ege. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep;
And this Lyfander; this Demetrius is;

This Helena, old Nedar's Helena:

I wonder at their being here together.

The. No doubt they rose up early to obferve
The rite of May; and, hearing our intent,
Came here in grace of our folemnity.-
But fpeak, Egeus; is not this the day

That Hermia fhould give answer of her choice?
Ege. It is, my lord.

The. Go bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.

Horns, and fhout within; DEMETRIUS, LYSANDEK, HERMIA, and HELENA, wake and start up.

The. Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past ;[8] Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?

Lyf. Pardon, my lord. [They all kneel to THESE US. The. I pray you all, ftand up.

I know you two are rival enemies;

How comes this gentle concord in the world
That hatred is fo far from jealousy,

To fleep by hate, and fear no enmity?
Lyf My lord, I fhall reply amazedly,

Half 'fleep, half waking: But, as yet, I fwear,
I cannot truly fay how I came here:
But, as I think (for truly would I speak,-
And now I do bethink me fo it is),

I came with Hermia hither. Our intent

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

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

[6] So flew'd.] i. c. fo mouthed. Flews' are the large chaps of a deepmouth'd hound. HANMER.

[7] 'Sandy'd' means of a fandy colour, which is one of the true denotements of a blood-hound. STEEV.

[8] Alluding to the old faying, That birds begin to couple on St. Valentine's day.

STEEV.