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Bot. The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,

The plain-song cuckoo' gray,
Whose note full many a man doth mark,

And dares not answer, nay ;

for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a
bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry,
cuckoo, never so?

Tita. I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again;
Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note,
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me,
On the first view, to say, to swear, I love thee.

Bot. Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that: And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays: The more the pity, that some honest neighbours will not make them friends. Nay, I can gleek up

on occasion.

Tita. Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful. Bot. Not so, neither; but if I had wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine

own turn.

Tita. Out of this wood do not desire to go;
Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.
I am a spirit of no common rate;

The summer still doth tend upon my state,
And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;
I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee;
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep:
And sing, while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep:
And I will purge thy mortal grossness so
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.-
Peas-blossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustard-seed!
Enter four Fairies.

1 Fai. Ready.

2 Fai.

3 Fai.

4 Fai.

And I.

And I.

And I.

All. Where shall we go?

1 The cuckoo, having no variety of note, sings in plain song (plano cantu), by which expression the uniform modulation or simplicity of the chaunt was anciently distinguished in opposition to prick-song, or variated music sung by note.

2 i. e. jest or scoff.

Tita. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes;
Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;
The honey bags steal from the humble-bees,
And, for night tapers, crop their waxen thighs,
And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,
To have my love to bed, and to arise;
And pluck the wings from painted butterflies,
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.
1 Fai. Hail, mortal!

2 Fai. Hail!

3 Fai, Hail!

4 Fai. Hail!

Bot. I cry your worship's mercy, heartily.-I beseech, your worship's name?

Cob. Cobweb.

4

Bot. I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good master Cobweb: If I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you.-Your name, honest gentleman?

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Here comes my messenger.-How now, mad spirit?
What night-rule" now about this haunted grove?
Puck. My mistress with a monster is in love.
Near to her close and consecrated bower,
While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,
A crew of patches," rude mechanicals,
That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,
Were met together to rehearse a play,
Intended for great Theseus' nuptial day.
The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort,"
Who Pyramus presented, in their sport
Forsook his scene, and entered in a brake:
When I did him at this advantage take,
An ass's now119 I fixed on his head;
Anon, his Thisbe must be answered,

And forth my mimic comes: When they him spy,
As wild geese that the creeping fowler
eye
Or russet-pated choughs,12 many in sort,13
ken ironically, as it was the prevailing opinion in Shak.
speare's time, that mustard excited choler.
7 Revelry.

8 A patch sometimes means a fool, or simpleton; but it was a common contemptuous term, and may be either a corruption of the Italian pazzo, or derived from the patch'd clothes sometimes worn by persons of low con

3 The fruit of a bramble called Rubus cæsius: some-dition. Tooke gives a different origin from the Saxon

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I led them on in this distracted fear,
And left sweet Pyramus translated there:
When in that moment (so it came to pass,)
Titania wak'd, and straightway lov'd an ass.

Obe. This falls out better than I could devise.
But hast thou yet latch'd' the Athenian's eyes
With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?

Puck. I took him sleeping,-that is finish'd too,And the Athenian woman by his side; That, when he wak'd, of force she must be ey'd.

Enter DEMETRIUS and HERMIA.

Obe. Stand close; this is the same Athenian. Puck. This is the woman, but not this the man. Dem. O, why rebuke you him that loves you so? Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.

Her. Now I but chide, but I should use thee worse;
For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse.
If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,

Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep,
And kill me too.

The sun was not so true unto the day,
As he to me: Would he have stolen away
From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon,
This whole earth may be bor'd; and that the moon
May through the centre creep, and so displease
Her brother's noon-tide with the Antipodes.
It cannot be, but thou hast murder'd him;
So should a murderer look; so dead, so grim.
Dem. So should the murder'd look; and so should I,
Pierc'd through the heart with your stern cruelty:
Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear,
As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere.
Her. What's this to my Lysander? Where is he?
Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me?
Dem. I had rather give his carcass to my hounds.
Her. Out, dog! out, cur! thou driv'st me past
the bounds

Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him then?
Henceforth be never number'd among men!
O! once tell true, tell true, even for my sake;
Durst thou have look'd upon him, being awake,
And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch!2
Could not a worın, an adder, do so much?
An adder did it; for with doubler tongue
Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.
Dem. You spend your passion on a mispris'd3

mood:

I am not guilty of Lysander's blood;
Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.

Her. I pray thec, tell me then that he is well.
Dem. An if I could, what should I get therefore?
Her. A privilege, never to see me more.-
And from thy hated presence part I so:
See me no more, whether he be dead or no. [Exit.
Dem. There is no following her in this fierce vein:
Here, therefore, for a while I will remain.
So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow
For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe;
Which now,
in some slight measure it will pay,
If for his tender here I make some stay.

[Lies down.

1 Latch'd or letch'd, licked or smeared over.

2 A touch anciently signified a trick. Ascham has

the shrewd touches of many curst boys.' And in the

Obe. What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken
quite,

And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight:
Of thy misprision must perforce ensue
Some true-love turn'd, and not a false turn'd true.
Puck. Then fate o'er-rules; that, one man hold-

ing troth,

A million fail, confounding oath on oath.

Obe. About the wood go swifter than the wind,
And Helena of Athens look thou find :

All fancy-sick she is, and pale of cheers
With sighs of love, that cost the fresh blood dear:"
By some illusion see thou bring her here;
I'll charm his eyes, against she do appear.
Puck. I go, I go; look, how I go

Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow. [Exit
Obe. Flower of this purple die,
Hit with Cupid's archery,
Sink in apple of his eye!
When his love he doth espy,
Let her shine as gloriously
As the Venus of the sky.-
When thou wak'st, if she be by,
Beg of her for remedy.

Re-enter PUCK.

Puck. Captain of our fairy band,
Helena is here at hand;
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover's fee;

Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!

Obe. Stand aside: the noise they make,
Will cause Demetrius to awake.

Puck. Then will two at once woo one;
That must needs be sport alone;
And those things do best please me,
That befall preposterously.

Enter LYSANDER and HELENA. Lys. Why should you think, that I should woo in scorn?

Scorn and derision never come in tears:
Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows so born
In their nativity all truth appears.
How can these things in me seem scorn to you,
Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true?

Hel. You do advance your cunning more and more.
When truth kills truth, O devilish holy fray!
These vows are Hermia's; Will you give her o'er?
Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh:
Your vows, to her and me, put in two scales,
Will even weigh; and both as light as tales.

Lys. I had no judgment when to her I swore.
Hel. Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er.
Lys. Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.
Dem. [awaking.] O Helen, goddess, nymph, per
fect divine!
To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne?
Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show
Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!
That pure congealed white, high Taurus's snow,
Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow,
When thou hold'st up thy hand: O let me kiss
This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!

To set against me, for your merriment,
Hel. O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent
If you were civil, and knew courtesy,
You would not do me thus much injury.
Can you not hate me, as I know you do,
But you must join in souls, to mock me too?
If you were men, as men you are in show,

signifying the face, visage, sight, or countenance, look or cheere of a man or woman.' The old French chere had the same meaning.

6 So in K. Henry VI. we have blood-consuming, blood-drinking,' and 'blood-sucking sighs. All allud.

old story of Howleglas, for at all times he did some mading to the ancient supposition, that every sigh was indultouch.

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ged at the expense of a drop of blood.

7 So in Antony and Cleopatra:

My playfellow, your hand; this kingly seal, And plighter of high hearts."

9 i. e. join heartily, unite in the same mind,

You would not use a gentle lady so;

To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts,
When, I am sure, you hate me with your hearts.
You both are rivals, and love Hermia;
And now both rivals to mock Helena:

A trim exploit, a manly enterprise,

To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes,
With your derision! none of noble sort
Would so offend a virgin; and extort
A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport.
Lys. You are unkind, Demetrius; "be not so;
For you love Hermia: this, you know, I know:
And here, with all good will, with all my heart,
In Hermia's love I yield you up my part;
And yours of Helena to me bequeath,
Whom I do love, and will do to my death.

Hel. Never did mockers waste more idle breath.
Dem. Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none:
If e'er I lov'd her, all that love is gone.
My heart with her but, as guest-wise, sojourn'd;
And now to Helen is it home return'd,
There to remain.

Helen, it is not so.

Lys. Dem. Disparage not the faith thou dost not know, Lest, to thy peril, thou abide it dear.2Look where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear. Enter HERMIA.

Her. Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,

The ear more quick of apprehension makes;
Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense,
It pays the hearing double recompense:-
Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found;
Mine ear I thank it, brought me to thy sound.
But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?
Lys. Why should he stay, whom love doth press
to go?

Her. What love could press Lysander from my

side?

Lys. Lysander's love, that would not let him bide. 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 bare thee made me leave thee so.

Her. You speak not as you think; it cannot be. Hel. Lo, she is one of this confederacy! 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 contriv'd
To bate me with this foul derision?

Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd,4
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?
All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence ?
We, Hermia, like two artificial' 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;

1 Degree, or quality.

2 Pay dearly for it, rue it.

3 i. e. circles.

4 Is all the counsel that we two have shared,' &c. 'Gregory of Nazianzen's poem on his own life contains some beautiful lines (resembling these) which burst from the heart and speak the pangs of injured and lost friendship. Shakspeare had never read the poems of Gregory; he was ignorant of the Greek language; but his mother tongue, the language of nature, is the same in Cappadocia as in Britain.'-Gibbon's Hist. vol v p. 17, 8vo. ed.

5 i. e. ingenious, artful. Artificiose, Lat 6 i. e. needles

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.

25

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 consent? your What though I be not so in grace as you So hung 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, persever, 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. Lys. Thou canst compel no more than she entreat; Thy threats have no more strength, than her weak

prayers.

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 it too.
Dem. Quick, come,-

Her.

Lysander, whereto tends all this? Lys. Away, you Ethiop! Dem. No, no, he'll-Sir, 10 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;

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Her. What, can you do me greater harm than
hate?

Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my love?
Am not I Hermia? Are not you Lysander?"
I am as fair now as I was erewhile.

Since night you lov'd me; yet since night you left

me:

Why, then you left me,-0, the gods forbid!-
In earnest shall I say?

Lys.
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.

Her. O me, you juggler! you canker-blossom!
You thief of love! what, have you come by night,
And stol'n my love's heart from him?
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!

Dem. 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 intends
Never so little show of love to her,
Thou shalt aby it.
Lys.
Now follow if thou dar'st, to try whose right,
Or thine, or mine, is most in Helena.

Now she holds me not;

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.
[Exit, pursuing HELENA.
Obe. This is thy negligence: still thou mistak'st,
Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully.

Puck. Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.

Her. Puppet! why so? Ay, that way goes the Did not you tell me, I should know the man

game.

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, gentlemen,
Let her not hurt me: I was never curst;2
I have no gift at all in shrewishness;
I am a right maid for my cowardice;
Let her not strike me: You, perhaps, may think,
Because she's something lower than myself,

That I can match her.

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Hel. Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.
I evermore did love you, Hermia,

Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you;
Save that, in love unto Demetrius,

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 fond3 I am.

Her. Why, get you gone: Who is't that hinders
you?

Hel. A foolish heart that I leave here behind.
Her. What! with Lysander?

Hel.

With Demetrius.

By the Athenian garments he had on?
And so far blameless proves my enterprise,
That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes:
And so far am I glad it so did sort,"

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 Demetrius 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
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;

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At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there, Troop home to church-yards: damned spirits all, Lys. Be not afraid: she shall not harm thee, He-That in cross-ways and floods have burial,' lena. 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:

Dem. No, sir; she shall not, though you take her

part.

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.

I with the Morning's love1 have oft made sport

Her. Little again? nothing but low and little ?- And, like a forester, the groves may tread,
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-grass made;
You bead, you acorn.

1 A worm that preys on the leaves or buds of flowers, always beginning in the middle.

2 i e. froward, cross, ill-conditioned, or ill-spoken. .3 Foolish.

4 Anciently knot-grass was believed to prevent the growth of children.

5 Pretend.

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Even till the eastern gate, all fiery red,
Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,
Turns into yellow gold his salt-green streams.11
But, notwithstanding, haste; make no delay:
We may effect this business yet ere day.

[Exit OBERON.

10 The ghosts of self-murderers, who are buried in cross-roads; and of those who being drowned were condemned (according to the opinion of the ancients) to wander for a hundred years, as the rites of sepulchre had never been regularly bestowed on their bodies,

11 Or that thy beauties lie in wormy bed.'-Milto's Ode on the Death of a fair Infant.

12 Cephalus, the mighty hunter, and paramour of Aurora, was here probably meant.

13 Oberon here boasts that he was not compelled, like meaner spirits, to vanish at the first dawn

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Hel. O weary night, O 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 eye,
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 inad.

Enter HERMIA.

Her. Never so weary, never so in woe,
Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briars;

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Cob. Ready.

weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped Bot. Monsieur Cobweb; good monsieur, get your humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good mon

sieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret yourself

too much in the action, monsieur; and, good mon-
be loath to have you overflown with the honey-bag,
sieur, have a care the honey-bag break not; I would
signior. Where's monsieur Mustard-seed?
Must. Ready.

Bot. Give me your neif, monsieur Mustard-seed.
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 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 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 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 driel 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. Gently entwist,-the female ivy so So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle,

Stee

wood's Epigrams, or Three Hundred Proverbs.
vens thinks we should read still instead of well, for the
sake of the rhyme.

1 This exclamation would have been uttered with more propriety by Puck, if he were not now playing an assumed character, which he seems to forget. In the old song printed by Percy, in which all his gambols are related, he concludes every stanza with ho! ho! ho! 4 To coy, is to stroke or soothe with the hand. The It was also the established dramatic exclamation given behaviour of Titania on this occasion seems copied from to the devil whenever he appeared on the stage, and at-that of the lady in Apuleius, lib. viii. tributed to him whenever he appeared in reality.

5 That is fist. So in K. Henry IV. Part II. Pistol says: Sweet knight, I kiss thy neif.

2 Johnson says, the poet perhaps wrote, thou shalt by this dear; as in another place, thou shalt aby it.' 6 The old rough rustic music of the tongs. The folio 3 These three last lines are to be found in Hay-has this stage direction: 'Musicke Tongs, Rural' ^^

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