I beg the law, the law upon his head.

They would have ftol'n away, they would, Demetrius,
Thereby to have defeated you and me:

You of your wife, and me of my confent;
Of my confent that the fhould be your wife.
Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their ftealth,
Of this their purpose hither, to this wood;
And I, in fury hither, follow'd them;
Fair Helena in fancy following me.[9]

But, my good lord, I wot not by what power
(But by fome power it is) my love to Hermia,
Melted as is the fnow, feems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gawd
Which in my childhood I did doat 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 betrothed ere I did fee Hermia :
But, like a fickness, did I loathe this food;
But, as in health, come to my natural tafte
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 difcourfe we fhall hear more anon.-
Egeus, I will overbear your will;

For in the temple, by and by, with us,
Thefe couples fhall eternally be knit.

And, for the morning now is fomething worn,
Our purpos'd hunting fhall be fet afide.-
Away, with us, to Athens: Three and three,
We'll hold a feaft in great folemnity.-

Come, Hippolita.

[Exeunt Duke, HIP. and Train. Dem. These things feem small and undistinguishable, Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.

Her. Methinks I fee these things with parted eye,

When every thing feems double.

Hel. So methinks:

And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,

Mine own, and not mine own.

Dem. Are you fure

[9] 'Fancy' is here taken for 'love' or 'affection,' and is oppofed to fury,' as before, "Sighs and tears poor fancy's followers."

Some now call that which a man takes particular delight in, his 'fancy. Flower-Fancier, for a florift, and Bird-Fancier, for a lover and feeder of birds, are colloquial words,

JOHNS,

That we are awake?-it seems to me,

That yet we fleep, we dream.-Do not you think,
The duke was here, and bid us follow him?

Her. Yea; and my father.

Hel. And Hippolita.

Lyf. And he did bid us follow to the temple. Dem. Why, then, we are awake; let's follow him; And, by the way, let us recount our dreams. [Exeunt

As they go out, BOTTOM awakes.

Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer: my next is, Moft fair Pyramus.-Hey, ho !-Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout, the tinker! Starveling! God's my life! ftol'n hence, and left me afleep! I have had a most rare vifion. I had a dream, -paft the wit of man to fay what dream it was: Man is but an afs, 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 patch'd fool,[1] 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 tafte, 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 fhall be call'd Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom; and I will fing it in the latter end of a play, before the duke Peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I fhall fing it at her death.[2] [Exit.

SCENE II.

Athens. QUINCE's House. Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING.

Quin. Have you fent to Bottom's houfe? is he come home yet?

Star. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt, he is. tranfported.

Flu. If he come not, then the play is marr'd: it goes not forward, doth it?

Quin. It is not poffible; you have not a man in all Athens, able to difcharge Pyramus, but he.

[1] That is, a fool in a parti-colour'd coat. JOHNS.

[2] He means the death of Thisbe, which is what his head is at prefent full of. STEEV.

Flu. No; he hath fimply the best wit of any handycraft-man in Athens.

Quin.. Yea, and the beft perfon too: and he is a very paramour for a sweet voice.

Flu. You must fay, paragon a paramour is (God blefs us!) a thing of nought.

Enter SNUG.

Snug. Mafters, 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 fweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he loft fixpence a-day during his life; he could not have 'fcap'd' fix-pence a-day: an the duke had not given him fixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hang'd; he would have deserv'd it : fix-pence 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. Mafters, I am to difcourfe 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, fweet Bottom.

Bot. Not a word of me. All I will tell you, is that the duke hath dined: Get your apparel together; good ftrings to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the palace; every man look o'er his part; for, the fhort and the long is, our play is preferr'd. In any cafe, let Thisbe have clean linen; and let not him, that plays the lion, pare his nails, for they fhall hang out for the lion's claws. And, moft dear. actors! eat no onions, nor garlick, for we are to utter fweet breath; and I do not doubt but to hear them fay, it is a moft fweet comedy. No more words; away; go, away. [Exeunt.

The Palace. Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLITA, EGEUS, ›

and his Lords.

Hippolita.

"TIS ftrange, my Thefeus, that these lovers speak of

1

The. More ftrange than true. I never may believe
Thefe antique fables, nor thefe fairy toys;
Lovers and madmen, have fuch feething brains,
Such fhaping fantafies, that apprehend
More than cool reafon ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,
Are of imagination all compact:

One fees more devils than vaft hell can hold ;

That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:

The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven ;-
And, as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to fhapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation, and a name.

Such tricks hath ftrong imagination;

That, if he would but apprehend fome joy,
It comprehends fome bringer of that joy;
Or, in the night, imagining fome fear,
How eafy is a bufh fuppos'd a bear?

Hip. But all the ftory of the night told over,
And all their minds transfigur'd fo together,
More witneffeth than fancy's images,

And grows to fomething of great conftancy ;.
But, howsoever, strange and admirable.

Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and HELENA.
The. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.
-Joy, gentle friends! joy, and fresh days of love,
Accompany your hearts!

Lyf. More than to us

Wait on your royal walks, your board, your bed!
The. Come now; what masks, what dances fhall we have,
To wear away this long age of three hours,
Between our after-fupper and bed-time?
Where is our ufual manager of mirth?
What revels are in hand? Is there no play
To eafe the anguish of a torturing hour?
Call Philoftrate.

Enter PHILOSTRATE.

Phil. Here, mighty Thefeus.

The. Say, what abridgment[3] have you for this evening?

T3] By abiidgment' aur author means dramatic performance, which crowds the events of years into as many hours. STEEV.

What mask? what mufic? How fhall we beguile The lazy time, if not with fome delight?

Phil. There is a brief, how many fports are ripe :: Make choice of which your highness shall fee first. (Giving a paper.

The. [reads.] The battle of the Centaurs, to be fung by an Athenian eunuch to the harp.

We'll none of that: that I have told my love,
In glory of my kinfman Hercules.

The riot of the tipfy Bacchanals,

Tearing the Thracian finger in their rage..
That is an old device; and it was play'd
When I from Thebes came laft a conqueror.
The thrice three Mufes mourning for the death
Of learning, late deceas'd in beggary.
That is fome fatire, keen and critical;
Not forting with a nuptial ceremony.

A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus,
And his love Thibe; very tragical mirth.
Merry and tragical? Tedious and brief?
That is, hot ice, and wonderous ftrange fnow.
How fhall we find the concord of this difcord?
Phil. A play there is, my lord, fome 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;
For Pyramus therein doth kill himself.
Which, when I faw rehears'd, I muft confefs,
Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears,
The paffion of loud laughter never thed.

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 unbreath'd memories With this fame 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 fport in their intents,
Extremely ftretch'd, and conn'd with cruel pain,
To do you fervice.