VOLUME I BOOK IX

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

By William Shakespeare
 Dramatis Personae

THESEUS Duke of Athens. HIPPOLYTA queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus.

EGEUS father to Hermia. HERMIA daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander.

LYSANDER in love with HELENA in love with Demetrius.

DEMETRIUS Hermia. OBERON king of the fairies.

PHILOSTRATE master of the revels to Theseus. TITANIA queen of the fairies.

QUINCE a carpenter. PUCK or Robin Goodfellow.

SNUG a joiner. PEASEBLOSSOM

BOTTOM a weaver. COBWEB

fairies.
MOTH
FLUTE a bellows-mender.
MUSTARDSEED
SNOUT a tinker.
STARVELING a tailor. Other fairies attending their King and Queen. (FAIRY)
Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta.

SCENE Athens, and a wood near it.

 A Midsummer Night’s Dream

ACT I
SCENE I THESEUS Thanks, good Egeus: what’s the news
Athens. The palace of THESEUS. with thee?

[Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, EGEUS Full of vexation come I, with complaint
Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
and Attendants] Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,
THESEUS Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour This man hath my consent to marry her.
Draws on apace; four happy days bring in Stand forth, Lysander: and my gracious duke,
Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow This man hath bewitch’d the bosom of my child;
This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires, Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
Like to a step-dame or a dowager And interchanged love-tokens with my child:
Long withering out a young man revenue. Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,
With feigning voice verses of feigning love,
HIPPOLYTA Four days will quickly steep themselves And stolen the impression of her fantasy
in night; With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
Four nights will quickly dream away the time; Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers
And then the moon, like to a silver bow Of strong prevailment in unharden’d youth:
New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night With cunning hast thou filch’d my daughter’s heart,
Of our solemnities. Turn’d her obedience, which is due to me,
To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke,
THESEUS Go, Philostrate, Be it so she; will not here before your grace
Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments; Consent to marry with Demetrius,
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth; I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,
Turn melancholy forth to funerals; As she is mine, I may dispose of her:
The pale companion is not for our pomp. Which shall be either to this gentleman
Or to her death, according to our law
[Exit PHILOSTRATE] Immediately provided in that case.
Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword,
THESEUS What say you, Hermia? Be advised fair maid:
And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
To you your father should be as a god;
But I will wed thee in another key,
One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.
To whom you are but as a form in wax
[Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and By him imprinted and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it.
DEMETRIUS] Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
EGEUS Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!
HERMIA So is Lysander.

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THESEUS In himself he is; LYSANDER I am, my lord, as well derived as he,

But in this kind, wanting your father’s voice, As well possess’d; my love is more than his;
The other must be held the worthier. My fortunes every way as fairly rank’d,
If not with vantage, as Demetrius’;
HERMIA I would my father look’d but with my eyes. And, which is more than all these boasts can be,
THESEUSRather your eyes must with his I am beloved of beauteous Hermia:
judgment look. Why should not I then prosecute my right?
Demetrius, I’ll avouch it to his head,
HERMIA I do entreat your grace to pardon me. Made love to Nedar’s daughter, Helena,
I know not by what power I am made bold, And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
Nor how it may concern my modesty, Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
In such a presence here to plead my thoughts; Upon this spotted and inconstant man.
But I beseech your grace that I may know
The worst that may befall me in this case, THESEUS I must confess that I have heard so much,
If I refuse to wed Demetrius. And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof;
But, being over-full of self-affairs,
THESEUS Either to die the death or to abjure My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come;
For ever the society of men. And come, Egeus; you shall go with me,
Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires; I have some private schooling for you both.
Know of your youth, examine well your blood, For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself
Whether, if you yield not to your father’s choice, To fit your fancies to your father’s will;
You can endure the livery of a nun, Or else the law of Athens yields you up—
For aye to be in shady cloister mew’d, Which by no means we may extenuate—
To live a barren sister all your life, To death, or to a vow of single life.
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love?
Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood, Demetrius and Egeus, go along:
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage; I must employ you in some business
But earthlier happy is the rose distill’d, Against our nuptial and confer with you
Than that which withering on the virgin thorn Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.
Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness.
EGEUS With duty and desire we follow you.
HERMIA So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
Ere I will my virgin patent up [Exeunt all but LYSANDER and HERMIA]
Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke
LYSANDER How now, my love! Why is your cheek
My soul consents not to give sovereignty.
so pale?
THESEUS Take time to pause; and, by the nest How chance the roses there do fade so fast?
new moon—
HERMIA Belike for want of rain, which I could well
The sealing-day betwixt my love and me,
Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.
For everlasting bond of fellowship—
Upon that day either prepare to die LYSANDER Ay me! For aught that I could ever read,
For disobedience to your father’s will, Could ever hear by tale or history,
Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would; The course of true love never did run smooth;
Or on Diana’s altar to protest But, either it was different in blood,—
For aye austerity and single life.
HERMIA O cross! Too high to be enthrall’d to low.
DEMETRIUS Relent, sweet Hermia: and, Lysander, yield
Thy crazed title to my certain right. LYSANDER Or else misgraffed in respect of years,—

LYSANDER You have her father’s love, Demetrius; HERMIA O spite! Too old to be engaged to young.
Let me have Hermia’s: do you marry him.
LYSANDER Or else it stood upon the choice
EGEUS Scornful Lysander!True, he hath my love, of friends,—
And what is mine my love shall render him.
And she is mine, and all my right of her HERMIA O hell! To choose love by another’s eyes.
I do estate unto Demetrius.
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LYSANDER Or, if there were a sympathy in choice, When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it, Sickness is catching: O, were favour so,
Making it momentany as a sound, Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream; My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,
Brief as the lightning in the collied night, My tongue should catch your tongue’s sweet melody.
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
And ere a man hath power to say “Behold!” The rest I’d give to be to you translated.
The jaws of darkness do devour it up: O, teach me how you look, and with what art
So quick bright things come to confusion. You sway the motion of Demetrius’ heart.
HERMIA If then true lovers have been ever cross’d, HERMIA I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.
It stands as an edict in destiny:
Then let us teach our trial patience, HELENA O that your frowns would teach my smiles
Because it is a customary cross, such skill!
As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs, HERMIA I give him curses, yet he gives me love.
Wishes and tears, poor fancy’s followers.
HELENA O that my prayers could such affection move!
LYSANDER A good persuasion: therefore,
hear me, Hermia. HERMIA The more I hate, the more he follows me.
I have a widow aunt, a dowager
Of great revenue, and she hath no child: HELENA The more I love, the more he hateth me.
From Athens is her house remote seven leagues;
HERMIA His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.
And she respects me as her only son.
There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee; HELENA None, but your beauty: would that fault
And to that place the sharp Athenian law were mine!
Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,
Steal forth thy father’s house to-morrow night; HERMIA Take comfort: he no more shall see my face;
And in the wood, a league without the town, Lysander and myself will fly this place.
Where I did meet thee once with Helena, Before the time I did Lysander see,
To do observance to a morn of May, Seem’d Athens as a paradise to me:
There will I stay for thee. O, then, what graces in my love do dwell,
That he hath turn’d a heaven unto a hell!
HERMIA My good Lysander!
I swear to thee, by Cupid’s strongest bow, LYSANDER Helen, to you our minds we will unfold:
By his best arrow with the golden head, To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold
By the simplicity of Venus’ doves, Her silver visage in the watery glass,
By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves, Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,
And by that fire which burn’d the Carthage queen, A time that lovers’ flights doth still conceal,
When the false Troyan under sail was seen, Through Athens’ gates have we devised to steal.
By all the vows that ever men have broke,
In number more than ever women spoke, HERMIA And in the wood, where often you and I
In that same place thou hast appointed me, Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,
To-morrow truly will I meet with thee. Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,
There my Lysander and myself shall meet;
LYSANDER Keep promise, love. Look, here And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,
comes Helena. To seek new friends and stranger companies.
Farewell, sweet playfellow: pray thou for us;
[Enter HELENA] And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!
Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight
HERMIA God speed fair Helena! Whither away? From lovers’ food till morrow deep midnight.
HELENA Call you me fair? That fair again unsay. LYSANDER I will, my Hermia.
Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!
Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue’s sweet air [Exit HERMIA]
More tuneable than lark to shepherd’s ear,

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Helena, adieu: QUINCE Marry, our play is, The most lamentable
As you on him, Demetrius dote on you! comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby.

[Exit] BOTTOM A very good piece of work, I assure you, and

amerry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your
HELENA How happy some o’er other some can be! actors by the scroll. Masters, spread yourselves.
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so; QUINCE Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver.
He will not know what all but he do know:
BOTTOM Ready. Name what part I am for, and
And as he errs, doting on Hermia’s eyes,
proceed.
So I, admiring of his qualities:
Things base and vile, folding no quantity, QUINCE You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.
Love can transpose to form and dignity:
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; BOTTOM What is Pyramus? A lover, or a tyrant?
And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind:
Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgement taste; QUINCE A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love.
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste: BOTTOM That will ask some tears in the true
And therefore is Love said to be a child, performing of it: if I do it, let the audience look to their
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled. eyes; I will move storms, I will condole in some
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear, measure. To the rest: yet my chief humour is for a
So the boy Love is perjured every where: tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to
For ere Demetrius look’d on Hermia’s eyne, tear a cat in, to make all split.
He hail’d down oaths that he was only mine;
The raging rocks
And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
And shivering shocks
So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.
Shall break the locks
I will go tell him of fair Hermia’s flight:
Of prison gates;
Then to the wood will he to-morrow night
And Phibbus’ car
Pursue her; and for this intelligence Shall shine from far
And make and mar
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:
The foolish Fates.
But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
To have his sight thither and back again. This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players.
This is Ercles’ vein, a tyrant’s vein; a lover is
[Exit] more condoling.
SCENE II QUINCE Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.
Athens. QUINCE’s house.
FLUTE Here, Peter Quince.
[Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, QUINCE Flute, you must take Thisby on you.
SNOUT, and STARVELING]
FLUTE What is Thisby? A wandering knight?
QUINCE Is all our company here?
QUINCE It is the lady that Pyramus must love.
BOTTOM You were best to call them generally, man by
man, according to the scrip. FLUTE Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a
beard coming.
QUINCE Here is the scroll of every man’s name, which
is thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our QUINCE That’s all one: you shall play it in a mask, and
interlude before the duke and the duchess, on his you may speak as small as you will.
wedding-day at night.
BOTTOM An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too,
BOTTOM First, good Peter Quince, say what the play I’ll speak in a monstrous little voice. “Thisne,
treatson, then read the names of the actors, and so Thisne;” “Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! Thy Thisby dear,
grow to a point. and lady dear!”

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QUINCE No, no; you must play Pyramus: and, Flute, voice so that I will roar you as gently as any
you Thisby. sucking dove; I will roar you an ’twere any nightingale.
BOTTOM Well, proceed. QUINCE You can play no part but Pyramus; for
Pyramus is a sweet-faced man; a proper man, as one
QUINCE Robin Starveling, the tailor. shall see in a summer’s day; a most lovely
STARVELING Here, Peter Quince. gentleman-like man: therefore you must needs
play Pyramus.
QUINCE Robin Starveling, you must play
Thisby’s mother. BOTTOM Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I
Tom Snout, the tinker. bestto play it in?

SNOUT Here, Peter Quince. QUINCE Why, what you will.

QUINCE You, Pyramus’ father: myself, Thisby’s father: BOTTOM I will discharge it in either your straw-colour
Snug, the joiner; you, the lion’s part: and, I hope, here beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain
is a play fitted. beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, your
perfect yellow.
SNUG Have you the lion’s part written? Pray you, if it
be, give it me, for I am slow of study. QUINCE Some of your French crowns have no hair at
all, and then you will play bare-faced. But, masters,
QUINCE You may do it extempore, for it is nothing here are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request
but roaring. you and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night;
and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the
BOTTOM Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I will town, by moonlight; there will we rehearse, for if
do any man’s heart good to hear me; I will roar, we meet in the city, we shall be dogged with
that I will make the duke say “Let him roar again, company, and our devices known. In the meantime I
let him roar again.” will draw a bill of properties, such as our play
wants. I pray you, fail me not.
QUINCE An you should do it too terribly, you would
fright the duchess and the ladies, that they would BOTTOM We will meet; and there we may rehearse
shriek; and that were enough to hang us all. most obscenely and courageously. Take pains; be
perfect: adieu.
ALL That would hang us, every mother’s son.
QUINCE At the duke’s oak we meet.
BOTTOM I grant you, friends, if that you should fright
the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more BOTTOM Enough; hold or cut bow-strings.
discretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my
[Exeunt]

ACT II

SCENE I Swifter than the moon’s sphere;

A wood near Athens. And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslips tall her pensioners be:
[Enter, from opposite sides, a Fairy, and PUCK] In their gold coats spots you see;
PUCK How now, spirit! Whither wander you? Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours:
FAIRY Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier, I must go seek some dewdrops here
Over park, over pale, And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear.
Thorough flood, thorough fire, Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I’ll be gone:
I do wander everywhere, Our queen and all our elves come here anon.

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PUCK The king doth keep his revels here to-night: TITANIA Then I must be thy lady: but I know
Take heed the queen come not within his sight; When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,
For Oberon is passing fell and wrath, And in the shape of Corin sat all day,
Because that she as her attendant hath Playing on pipes of corn and versing love
A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king; To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,
She never had so sweet a changeling; Come from the farthest Steppe of India?
And jealous Oberon would have the child But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild; Your buskin’d mistress and your warrior love,
But she perforce withholds the loved boy, To Theseus must be wedded, and you come
Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy: To give their bed joy and prosperity.
And now they never meet in grove or green,
By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen, OBERON How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
But, they do square, that all their elves for fear Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,
Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there. Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night
FAIRY Either I mistake your shape and making quite, From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite And make him with fair Ægle break his faith,
Call’d Robin Goodfellow: are not you he With Ariadne and Antiopa?
That frights the maidens of the villagery;
Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern TITANIA These are the forgeries of jealousy:
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn; And never, since the middle summer’s spring,
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm; Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm? By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck, Or in the beached margent of the sea,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck: To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
Are not you he? But with thy brawls thou hast disturb’d our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
PUCK Thou speak’st aright; As in revenge, have suck’d up from the sea
I am that merry wanderer of the night. Contagious fogs; which falling in the land
I jest to Oberon and make him smile Have every pelting river made so proud
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, That they have overborne their continents:
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal: The ox hath therefore stretch’d his yoke in vain,
And sometime lurk I in a gossip’s bowl, The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
In very likeness of a roasted crab, Hath rotted ere his youth attain’d a beard;
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And on her wither’d dewlap pour the ale. And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;
The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale, The nine men’s morris is fill’d up with mud,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me; And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she, For lack of tread are undistinguishable:
And “tailor” cries, and falls into a cough; The human mortals want their winter here;
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh, No night is now with hymn or carol blest:
And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
A merrier hour was never wasted there. Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
But, room, fairy! Here comes Oberon. That rheumatic diseases do abound:
And thorough this distemperature we see
FAIRY And here my mistress. Would that he were gone! The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
[Enter, from one side, OBERON, with his train; And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
from the other, TITANIA, with hers] An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
OBERON Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
TITANIA What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence: Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,
I have forsworn his bed and company. By their increase, now knows not which is which:
And this same progeny of evils comes
OBERON Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?

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From our debate, from our dissension; Cupid all arm’d: a certain aim he took
We are their parents and original. At a fair vestal throned by the west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
OBERON Do you amend it then; it lies in you: As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;
Why should Titania cross her Oberon? But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft
I do but beg a little changeling boy, Quench’d in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
To be my henchman. And the imperial votaress passed on,
TITANIA Set your heart at rest: In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
The fairy land buys not the child of me. Yet mark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
His mother was a votaress of my order: It fell upon a little western flower,
And, in the spiced Indian air, by night, Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound,
Full often hath she gossip’d by my side, And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
And sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands, Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew’d thee once:
Marking the embarked traders on the flood, The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid
When we have laugh’d to see the sails conceive Will make or man or woman madly dote
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind; Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again
Following,—her womb then rich with Ere the leviathan can swim a league.
my young squire,— PUCK I’ll put a girdle round about the earth
Would imitate, and sail upon the land, In forty minutes.
To fetch me trifles, and return again,
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise. [Exit]
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;
And for her sake do I rear up her boy, OBERON Having once this juice,
And for her sake I will not part with him. I’ll watch Titania when she is asleep,
And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.
OBERON How long within this wood intend you stay? The next thing then she waking looks upon,
Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
TITANIA Perchance till after Theseus’ wedding-day.
On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,
If you will patiently dance in our round
She shall pursue it with the soul of love:
And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
And ere I take this charm from off her sight,
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.
As I can take it with another herb,
OBERON Give me that boy, and I will go with thee. I’ll make her render up her page to me.
But who comes here? I am invisible;
TITANIA Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away! And I will overhear their conference.
We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.
[Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA, following him]
[Exit TITANIA with her train]
DEMETRIUS I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
OBERON Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?
this grove The one I’ll slay, the other slayeth me.
Till I torment thee for this injury. Thou told’st me they were stolen unto this wood;
My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest And here am I, and wode within this wood,
Since once I sat upon a promontory, Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
That the rude sea grew civil at her song HELENA You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, But yet you draw not iron, for my heart
To hear the sea-maid’s music. Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw,
And I shall have no power to follow you.
PUCK I remember.
DEMETRIUS Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair?
OBERON That very time I saw, but thou couldst not, Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth
Flying between the cold moon and the earth, Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?

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HELENA And even for that do I love you the more. I’ll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,
I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, To die upon the hand I love so well.
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, [Exit]
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you. OBERON Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave
What worser place can I beg in your love,— this grove,
And yet a place of high respect with me,— Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love.
Than to be used as you use your dog?
[Re-enter PUCK]
DEMETRIUS Tempt not too much the hatred of
Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.
my spirit;
For I am sick when I do look on thee. PUCK Ay, there it is.
HELENA And I am sick when I look not on you. OBERON I pray thee, give it me.
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
DEMETRIUS You do impeach your modesty too much,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
To leave the city and commit yourself
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
Into the hands of one that loves you not;
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
To trust the opportunity of night
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
And the ill counsel of a desert place
Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight;
With the rich worth of your virginity.
And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin,
HELENA Your virtue is my privilege: for that Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
It is not night when I do see your face, And with the juice of this I’ll streak her eyes,
Therefore I think I am not in the night; And make her full of hateful fantasies.
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company, Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:
For you in my respect are all the world: A sweet Athenian lady is in love
Then how can it be said I am alone, With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;
When all the world is here to look on me? But do it when the next thing he espies
May be the lady: thou shalt know the man
DEMETRIUS I’ll run from thee and hide me in By the Athenian garments he hath on.
the brakes, Effect it with some care, that he may prove
And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts. More fond on her than she upon her love:
And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.
HELENA The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
Run when you will, the story shall be changed: PUCK Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.
Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind [Exeunt]
Makes speed to catch the tiger; bootless speed,
When cowardice pursues and valour flies. SCENE II
Another part of the wood.
DEMETRIUS I will not stay thy questions; let me go:
Or, if thou follow me, do not believe [Enter TITANIA, with her train]
But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.
TITANIA Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;
HELENA Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field, Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;
You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius! Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex: Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,
We cannot fight for love, as men may do; To make my small elves coats, and some keep back
We should be wood and were not made to woo. The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders
At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
[Exit DEMETRIUS] Then to your offices and let me rest.

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 A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ACT II

[The Fairies sing] Two bosoms interchained with an oath;

So then two bosoms and a single troth.
You spotted snakes with double tongue, Then by your side no bed-room me deny;
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong, For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.
Come not near our fairy queen. HERMIA Lysander riddles very prettily:
Philomel, with melody
Sing in our sweet lullaby; Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,
Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby: If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied.
Never harm, But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy
Nor spell nor charm, Lie further off; in human modesty,
Come our lovely lady nigh; Such separation as may well be said
So, good night, with lullaby. Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid,
Weaving spiders, come not here; So far be distant; and, good night, sweet friend:
Hence, you long-legg’d spinners, hence! Thy love ne’er alter till thy sweet life end!
Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm nor snail, do no offence. LYSANDER Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I;
Philomel, with melody, &c. And then end life when I end loyalty!
FAIRY Hence, away! Now all is well: Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest!
One aloof stand sentinel. HERMIA With half that wish the wisher’s e
yes be press’d!
[Exeunt Fairies. TITANIA sleeps]
[They sleep]
[Enter OBERON and squeezes the flower on
TITANIA’s eyelids] [Enter PUCK]
OBERON What thou seest when thou dost wake, PUCK Through the forest have I gone.
Do it for thy true-love take, But Athenian found I none,
Love and languish for his sake: On whose eyes I might approve
Be it ounce, or cat, or bear, This flower’s force in stirring love.
Pard, or boar with bristled hair, Night and silence.—Who is here?
In thy eye that shall appear Weeds of Athens he doth wear:
When thou wakest, it is thy dear: This is he, my master said,
Wake when some vile thing is near. Despised the Athenian maid;
And here the maiden, sleeping sound,
[Exit] On the dank and dirty ground.
Pretty soul! She durst not lie
[Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA] Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.
Churl, upon thy eyes I throw
LYSANDER Fair love, you faint with wandering in All the power this charm doth owe.
the wood; When thou wakest, let love forbid
And to speak troth, I have forgot our way: Sleep his seat on thy eyelid:
We’ll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good, So awake when I am gone;
And tarry for the comfort of the day. For I must now to Oberon.

HERMIA Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed; [Exit]

For I upon this bank will rest my head.
[Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running]
LYSANDER One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;
One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth. HELENA Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.

HERMIA Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear, DEMETRIUS I charge thee, hence, and do not
Lie further off yet, do not lie so near. haunt me thus.

LYSANDER O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence! HELENA O, wilt thou darkling leave me? Do not so.
Love takes the meaning in love’s conference.
DEMETRIUS Stay, on thy peril: I alone will go.
I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit
So that but one heart we can make of it; [Exit]
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 A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ACT II

HELENA O, I am out of breath in this fond chase! Is’t not enough, is’t not enough, young man,
The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace. That I did never, no, nor never can,
Happy is Hermia, wheresoe’er she lies; Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius’ eye,
For she hath blessed and attractive eyes. But you must flout my insufficiency?
How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears: Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do,
If so, my eyes are oftener wash’d than hers. In such disdainful manner me to woo.
No, no, I am as ugly as a bear; But fare you well: perforce I must confess
For beasts that meet me run away for fear: I thought you lord of more true gentleness.
Therefore no marvel though Demetrius O, that a lady, of one man refused.
Do, as a monster fly my presence thus. Should of another therefore be abused!
What wicked and dissembling glass of mine
Made me compare with Hermia’s sphery eyne? [Exit]
But who is here? Lysander! On the ground!
Dead? Or asleep? I see no blood, no wound. LYSANDER She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep
Lysander if you live, good sir, awake. thou there:
And never mayst thou come Lysander near!
LYSANDER [Awaking] And run through fire I will for For as a surfeit of the sweetest things
thy sweet sake. The deepest loathing to the stomach brings,
Transparent Helena! Nature shows art, Or as tie heresies that men do leave
That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart. Are hated most of those they did deceive,
Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,
Is that vile name to perish on my sword! Of all be hated, but the most of me!
And, all my powers, address your love and might
HELENA Do not say so, Lysander; say not so To honour Helen and to be her knight!
What though he love your Hermia? Lord,
what though? [Exit]
Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content.
HERMIA [Awaking] Help me, Lysander, help me!
LYSANDER Content with Hermia! No; I do repent do thy best
The tedious minutes I with her have spent. To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!
Not Hermia but Helena I love: Ay me, for pity! What a dream was here!
Who will not change a raven for a dove? Lysander, look how I do quake with fear:
The will of man is by his reason sway’d; Methought a serpent eat my heart away,
And reason says you are the worthier maid. And you sat smiling at his cruel pray.
Things growing are not ripe until their season Lysander! What, removed? Lysander! Lord!
So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason; What, out of hearing? Gone? No sound, no word?
And touching now the point of human skill, Alack, where are you speak, an if you hear;
Reason becomes the marshal to my will Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.
And leads me to your eyes, where I o’erlook No? Then I well perceive you all not nigh
Love’s stories written in love’s richest book. Either death or you I’ll find immediately.
HELENA Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born? [Exit]
When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?

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 A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ACT III

ACT III

SCENE I himself must speak through, saying thus, or to the

The wood. TITANIA lying asleep. same defect,—“Ladies,”—or “Fair-ladies—I would
wish You,”—or “I would request you,”—or “I would
[Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, entreat you,—not to fear, not to tremble: my life
SNOUT, and STARVELING] for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it
were pity of my life: no I am no such thing; I am a
BOTTOM Are we all met? man as other men are;” and there indeed let him name
his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner.
QUINCE Pat, pat; and here’s a marvellous convenient
placefor our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our QUINCE Well it shall be so. But there is two hard things;
stage, this hawthorn-brake our tiring-house; and we that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber; for, you
will do it in action as we will do it before the duke. know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moonlight.
BOTTOM Peter Quince,— SNOUT Doth the moon shine that night we play
our play?
QUINCE What sayest thou, bully Bottom?
BOTTOM A calendar, a calendar! Look in the almanac;
BOTTOM There are things in this comedy of Pyramus find out moonshine, find out moonshine.
and Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must
draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies QUINCE Yes, it doth shine that night.
cannot abide. How answer you that?
BOTTOM Why, then may you leave a casement of the
SNOUT By’r lakin, a parlous fear. greatchamber window, where we play, open, and the
moon may shine in at the casement.
STARVELING I believe we must leave the killing out,
when all is done. QUINCE Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of
thorns and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure,
BOTTOM Not a whit: I have a device to make all well. or to present, the person of Moonshine. Then, there is
Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to another thing: we must have a wall in the great
say, we will do no harm with our swords, and that chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby says the story, did
Pyramus is not killed indeed; and, for the more talk through the chink of a wall.
better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not
Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put them SNOUT You can never bring in a wall. What say
out of fear. you, Bottom?
QUINCE Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall BOTTOM Some man or other must present Wall: and
be written in eight and six. let him have some plaster, or some loam, or some
rough-cast about him, to signify wall; and let him hold
BOTTOM No, make it two more; let it be written in his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus
eight and eight. and Thisby whisper.
SNOUT Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion? QUINCE If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down,
STARVELING I fear it, I promise you. every mother’s son, and rehearse your parts.
Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken your
BOTTOM Masters, you ought to consider with speech, enter into that brake: and so every one
yourselves: to bring in—God shield us!—a lion among according to his cue.
ladies, is a most dreadful thing; for there is not a more
fearful wild-fowl than your lion living; and we ought to [Enter PUCK behind]
look to ’t.
PUCK What hempen home-spuns have we
SNOUT Therefore another prologue must tell he is swaggering here,
not a lion. So near the cradle of the fairy queen?
What, a play toward! I’ll be an auditor;
BOTTOM Nay, you must name his name, and half his An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause.
face must be seen through the lion’s neck: and he

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 A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ACT III

QUINCE Speak, Pyramus. Thisby, stand forth. BOTTOM Why do they run away? This is a knavery of
them to make me afeard.
BOTTOM Thisby, the flowers of odious
savours sweet,— [Re-enter SNOUT]
QUINCE Odours, odours. SNOUT O Bottom, thou art changed! What do I see
on thee?
BOTTOM —odours savours sweet:
So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear. BOTTOM What do you see? You see an asshead of your
But hark, a voice! Stay thou but here awhile, own, do you?
And by and by I will to thee appear.
[Exit SNOUT]
[Exit]
[Re-enter QUINCE]
PUCK A stranger Pyramus than e’er played here.
QUINCE Bless thee, Bottom! Bless thee! Thou
[Exit] art translated.
FLUTE Must I speak now? [Exit]
QUINCE Ay, marry, must you; for you must understand BOTTOM I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of
he goes but to see a noise that he heard, and is to me; to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir
come again. from this place, do what they can: I will walk up
FLUTE Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue, and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear
Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier, I am not afraid.
Most brisky juvenal and eke most lovely Jew,
As true as truest horse that yet would never tire, [Sings]
I’ll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny’s tomb. The ousel cock so black of hue,
With orange-tawny bill,
QUINCE “Ninus’ tomb,” man: why, you must not speak The throstle with his note so true,
that yet; that you answer to Pyramus: you speak all The wren with little quill,—
your part at once, cues and all Pyramus enter: your cue
is past; it is, “never tire.” TITANIA [Awaking] What angel wakes me from my
flowery bed?
FLUTE O,—As true as truest horse, that yet would
never tire. BOTTOM [Sings]
The finch, the sparrow and the lark,
[Re-enter PUCK, and BOTTOM with an The plain-song cuckoo gray,
ass’s head] Whose note full many a man doth mark,
And dares not answer nay;—
BOTTOM If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine.
For, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a bird?
QUINCE O monstrous! O strange! We are haunted.
Who would give a bird the lie, though he cry
Pray, masters! Fly, masters! Help!
“cuckoo”never so?
[Exeunt QUINCE, SNUG, FLUTE, SNOUT, TITANIA I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:
and STARVELING] Mine ear is much enamour’d of thy note;
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
PUCK I’ll follow you, I’ll lead you about a round,
And thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move me
Through bog, through bush, through brake,
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.
through brier:
Sometime a horse I’ll be, sometime a hound, BOTTOM Methinks, mistress, you should have little
A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire; reason for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and
And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, love keep little company together now-a-days; the
Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn. more the pity that some honest neighbours will not
make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.
[Exit]
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 A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ACT III

TITANIA Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful. PEASEBLOSSOM Peaseblossom.

BOTTOM Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get BOTTOM I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash,
out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine your mother, and to Master Peascod, your father.
own turn. Good Master Peaseblossom, I shall desire you of more
acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you, sir?
TITANIA Out of this wood do not desire to go:
Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no. MUSTARDSEED Mustardseed.
I am a spirit of no common rate;
The summer still doth tend upon my state; BOTTOM Good Master Mustardseed, I know your
And I do love thee: therefore, go with me; patience well: that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef
I’ll give thee fairies to attend on thee, hath devoured many a gentleman of your house:
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep, Ipromise you your kindred had made my eyes water
And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep; ere now. I desire your more acquaintance, good
And I will purge thy mortal grossness so Master Mustardseed.
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go. TITANIA Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower.
Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! And Mustardseed! The moon methinks looks with a watery eye;
And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,
[Enter PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, and Lamenting some enforced chastity.
MUSTARDSEED] Tie up my love’s tongue bring him silently.
PEASEBLOSSOM Ready.
[Exeunt]
COBWEB And I.
SCENE II
MOTH And I. Another part of the wood.
MUSTARDSEED And I. [Enter OBERON]
ALL Where shall we go? OBERON I wonder if Titania be awaked;
TITANIA Be kind and courteous to this gentleman; Then, what it was that next came in her eye,
Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes; Which she must dote on in extremity.
Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries; [Enter PUCK]
The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees, Here comes my messenger. How now, mad spirit!
And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs What night-rule now about this haunted grove?
And light them at the fiery glow-worm’s eyes,
To have my love to bed and to arise; PUCK My mistress with a monster is in love.
And pluck the wings from Painted butterflies Near to her close and consecrated bower,
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes: While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies. A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,
That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,
PEASEBLOSSOM Hail, mortal! Were met together to rehearse a play
COBWEB Hail! Intended for great Theseus’ nuptial-day.
The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort,
MOTH Hail! Who Pyramus presented, in their sport
Forsook his scene and enter’d in a brake
MUSTARDSEED Hail! When I did him at this advantage take,
An ass’s nole I fixed on his head:
BOTTOM I cry your worship’s mercy, heartily: I beseech
Anon his Thisbe must be answered,
your worship’s name.
And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy,
COBWEB Cobweb. As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,
Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort,
BOTTOM I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Rising and cawing at the gun’s report,
Master Cobweb: if I cut my finger, I shall make bold Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky,
with you. Your name, honest gentleman?
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 A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ACT III

So, at his sight, away his fellows fly; HERMIA Out, dog! Out, cur! Thou drivest me past
And, at our stamp, here o’er and o’er one falls; the bounds
He murder cries and help from Athens calls. Of maiden’s patience. Hast thou slain him, then?
Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears Henceforth be never number’d among men!
thus strong, O, once tell true, tell true, even for my sake!
Made senseless things begin to do them wrong; Durst thou have look’d upon him being awake,
For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch; And hast thou kill’d him sleeping? O brave touch!
Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?
things catch. An adder did it; for with doubler tongue
I led them on in this distracted fear, Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.
And left sweet Pyramus translated there:
When in that moment, so it came to pass, DEMETRIUS You spend your passion on a
Titania waked and straightway loved an ass. misprised mood:
I am not guilty of Lysander’s blood;
OBERON This falls out better than I could devise. Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.
But hast thou yet latch’d the Athenian’s eyes
With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do? HERMIA I pray thee, tell me then that he is well.

PUCK I took him sleeping,—that is finish’d too,— DEMETRIUS An if I could, what should I get therefore?
And the Athenian woman by his side: HERMIA A privilege never to see me more.
That, when he waked, of force she must be eyed. And from thy hated presence part I so:
See me no more, whether he be dead or no.
[Enter HERMIA and DEMETRIUS]
OBERON Stand close: this is the same Athenian. [Exit]

PUCK This is the woman, but not this the man. DEMETRIUS There is no following her in this fierce vein:
Here therefore for a while I will remain.
DEMETRIUS O, why rebuke you him that loves you so? So sorrow’s heaviness doth heavier grow
Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe. For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe:
Which now in some slight measure it will pay,
HERMIA Now I but chide; but I should use thee worse, If for his tender here I make some stay.
For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse,
If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep, [Lies down and sleeps]
Being o’er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep,
And kill me too. OBERON What hast thou done? Thou hast
The sun was not so true unto the day mistaken quite
As he to me: would he have stolen away And laid the love-juice on some true-love’s sight:
From sleeping Hermia? I’ll believe as soon Of thy misprision must perforce ensue
This whole earth may be bored and that the moon Some true love turn’d and not a false turn’d true.
May through the centre creep and so displease
Her brother’s noontide with Antipodes. PUCK Then fate o’er-rules, that, one man
It cannot be but thou hast murder’d him; holding troth,
So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim. A million fail, confounding oath on oath.

DEMETRIUS So should the murder’d look, and so OBERON About the wood go swifter than the wind,
should I, And Helena of Athens look thou find:
Pierced through the heart with your stern cruelty: All fancy-sick she is and pale of cheer,
Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear, With sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear:
As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere. By some illusion see thou bring her here:
I’ll charm his eyes against she do appear.
HERMIA What’s this to my Lysander? Where is he?
Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me? PUCK I go, I go; look how I go,
Swifter than arrow from the Tartar’s bow.
DEMETRIUS I had rather give his carcass to my hounds.
[Exit]

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 A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ACT III

OBERON Flower of this purple dye, HELENA O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent
Hit with Cupid’s archery, To set against me for your merriment:
Sink in apple of his eye. If you we re civil and knew courtesy,
When his love he doth espy, You would not do me thus much injury.
Let her shine as gloriously
As the Venus of the sky. Can you not hate me, as I know you do,
When thou wakest, if she be by, But you must join in souls to mock me too?
Beg of her for remedy. If you were men, as men you are in show,
You would not use a gentle lady so;
[Re-enter PUCK] To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts,
When I am sure you hate me with your hearts.
PUCK Captain of our fairy band, You both are rivals, and love Hermia;
Helena is here at hand;
And the youth, mistook by me, And now both rivals, to mock Helena:
Pleading for a lover’s fee. A trim exploit, a manly enterprise,
Shall we their fond pageant see? To conjure tears up in a poor maid’s eyes
Lord, what fools these mortals be! With your derision! None of noble sort
Would so offend a virgin, and extort
OBERON Stand aside: the noise they make A poor soul’s patience, all to make you sport.
Will cause Demetrius to awake.
PUCK Then will two at once woo one; LYSANDER You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so;
That must needs be sport alone; For you love Hermia; this you know I know:
And those things do best please me And here, with all good will, with all my heart,
That befal preposterously. In Hermia’s love I yield you up my part;
And yours of Helena to me bequeath,
[Enter LYSANDER and HELENA] Whom I do love and will do till my death.
LYSANDER Why should you think that I should woo HELENA Never did mockers waste more idle breath.
in scorn?
Scorn and derision never come in tears: DEMETRIUS Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none:
Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows so born, If e’er I loved her, all that love is gone.
In their nativity all truth appears. My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn’d,
How can these things in me seem scorn to you, And now to Helen is it home return’d,
Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true? There to remain.

HELENA You do advance your cunning more LYSANDER Helen, it is not so.
and more.
DEMETRIUS Disparage not the faith thou dost
When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray!
not know,
These vows are Hermia’s: will you give her o’er?
Lest, to thy peril, thou aby it dear.
Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh:
Look, where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear.
Your vows to her and me, put in two scales,
Will even weigh, and both as light as tales. [Re-enter HERMIA]
LYSANDER I had no judgment when to her I swore. HERMIA Dark night, that from the eye his
HELENA Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o’er. function takes,
The ear more quick of apprehension makes;
LYSANDER Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you. Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense,
It pays the hearing double recompense.
DEMETRIUS [Awaking] O Helena, goddess, nymph, Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found;
perfect, divine! Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound
To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne? But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?
Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show
Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow! LYSANDER Why should he stay, whom love doth
That pure congealed white, high Taurus snow, press to go?
Fann’d with the eastern wind, turns to a crow
When thou hold’st up thy hand: O, let me kiss HERMIA What love could press Lysander from my side?
This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!

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 A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ACT III

LYSANDER Lysander’s love, that would not let him bide, HERNIA I understand not what you mean by this.
Fair Helena, who more engilds the night
Than all you fiery oes and eyes of light. HELENA Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks,
Why seek’st thou me? Could not this make thee know, Make mouths upon me when I turn my back;
The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so? Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up:
This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.
HERMIA You speak not as you think: it cannot be. If you have any pity, grace, or manners,
You would not make me such an argument.
HELENA Lo, she is one of this confederacy! But fare ye well: ’tis partly my own fault;
Now I perceive they have conjoin’d all three Which death or absence soon shall remedy.
To fashion this false sport, in spite of me.
Injurious Hermia! Most ungrateful maid! LYSANDER Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse:
Have you conspired, have you with these contrived My love, my life my soul, fair Helena!
To bait me with this foul derision?
Is all the counsel that we two have shared, HELENA O excellent!
The sisters’ vows, the hours that we have spent, HERMIA Sweet, do not scorn her so.
When we have chid the hasty-footed time
For parting us,—O, is it all forgot? DEMETRIUS If she cannot entreat, I can compel.
All school-days’ friendship, childhood innocence?
We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, LYSANDER Thou canst compel no more than
Have with our needles created both one flower, she entreat:
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion, Thy threats have no more strength than
Both warbling of one song, both in one key, her weak prayers.
As if our hands, our sides, voices and minds, Helen, I love thee; by my life, I do:
Had been incorporate. So we grow together, I swear by that which I will lose for thee,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, To prove him false that says I love thee not.
But yet an union in partition;
DEMETRIUS I say I love thee more than he can do.
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;
So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart; LYSANDER If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,
Due but to one and crowned with one crest. DEMETRIUS Quick, come!
And will you rent our ancient love asunder,
To join with men in scorning your poor friend? HERMIA Lysander, whereto tends all this?
It is not friendly, ’tis not maidenly: LYSANDER Away, you Ethiope!
Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it,
Though I alone do feel the injury. DEMETRIUS No, no; he’ll...
Seem to break loose; take on as you would follow,
HERMIA I am amazed at your passionate words. But yet come not: you are a tame man, go!
I scorn you not: it seems that you scorn me.
LYSANDER Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! Vile thing,
HELENA Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn, let loose,
To follow me and praise my eyes and face? Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent!
And made your other love, Demetrius,
Who even but now did spurn me with his foot, HERMIA Why are you grown so rude? What change is
To call me goddess, nymph, divine and rare, this? Sweet love,—
Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this
To her he hates? And wherefore doth Lysander LYSANDER Thy love! Out, tawny Tartar, out!
Deny your love, so rich within his soul, Out, loathed medicine! Hated potion, hence!
And tender me, forsooth, affection, HERMIA Do you not jest?
But by your setting on, by your consent?
What thought I be not so in grace as you, HELENA Yes, sooth; and so do you.
So hung upon with love, so fortunate,
But miserable most, to love unloved? LYSANDER Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee.
This you should pity rather than despise.
DEMETRIUS I would I had your bond, for I perceive
A weak bond holds you: I’ll not trust your word.
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 A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ACT III

LYSANDER What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill And now, so you will let me quiet go,
her dead? To Athens will I bear my folly back
Although I hate her, I’ll not harm her so. And follow you no further: let me go:
You see how simple and how fond I am.
HERMIA What, can you do me greater harm than hate?
Hate me! Wherefore? O me! What news, my love! HERMIA Why, get you gone: who is’t that hinders you?
Am not I Hermia? Are not you Lysander?
I am as fair now as I was erewhile. HELENA A foolish heart, that I leave here behind.
Since night you loved me; yet since night you left me: HERMIA What, with Lysander?
Why, then you left me—O, the gods forbid!—
In earnest, shall I say? HELENA With Demetrius.
LYSANDER Ay, by my life; LYSANDER Be not afraid; she shall not harm
And never did desire to see thee more. thee, Helena.
Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt;
Be certain, nothing truer; ’tis no jest DEMETRIUS No, sir, she shall not, though you take
That I do hate thee and love Helena. her part.

HERMIA O me! You juggler! You canker-blossom! HELENA O, when she’s angry, she is keen and shrewd!
You thief of love! What, have you come by night She was a vixen when she went to school;
And stolen my love’s heart from him? And though she be but little, she is fierce.

HELENA Fine, i’faith! HERMIA “Little” again! Nothing but “low” and “little”!
Have you no modesty, no maiden shame, Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?
No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear Let me come to her.
Impatient answers from my gentle tongue?
LYSANDER Get you gone, you dwarf;
Fie, fie! You counterfeit, you puppet, you!
You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made;
HERMIA Puppet? Why so? Ay, that way goes the game. You bead, you acorn.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures; she hath urged her height; DEMETRIUS You are too officious
And with her personage, her tall personage, In her behalf that scorns your services.
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail’d with him. Let her alone: speak not of Helena;
And are you grown so high in his esteem; Take not her part; for, if thou dost intend
Because I am so dwarfish and so low? Never so little show of love to her,
How low am I, thou painted maypole? Speak; Thou shalt aby it.
How low am I? I am not yet so low LYSANDER Now she holds me not;
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes. Now follow, if thou darest, to try whose right,
HELENA I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen, Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.
Let her not hurt me: I was never curst; DEMETRIUS Follow! Nay, I’ll go with thee, cheek by jole.
I have no gift at all in shrewishness;
I am a right maid for my cowardice: [Exeunt LYSANDER and DEMETRIUS]
Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think,
Because she is something lower than myself, HERMIA You, mistress, all this coil is ’long of you:
That I can match her. Nay, go not back.
HERMIA Lower! Hark, again. HELENA I will not trust you, I,
Nor longer stay in your curst company.
HELENA Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.
Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray,
I evermore did love you, Hermia,
My legs are longer though, to run away.
Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong’d you;
Save that, in love unto Demetrius, [Exit]
I told him of your stealth unto this wood.
He follow’d you; for love I follow’d him; HERMIA I am amazed, and know not what to say.
But he hath chid me hence and threaten’d me
To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too: [Exit]
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 A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ACT III

OBERON This is thy negligence: still thou mistakest, But, notwithstanding, haste; make no delay:
Or else committ’st thy knaveries wilfully. We may effect this business yet ere day.
PUCK Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook. [Exit]
Did not you tell me I should know the man
By the Athenian garment be had on? PUCK Up and down, up and down,
I will lead them up and down:
And so far blameless proves my enterprise,
I am fear’d in field and town:
That I have ’nointed an Athenian’s eyes; Goblin, lead them up and down.
And so far am I glad it so did sort Here comes one.
As this their jangling I esteem a sport.
[Re-enter LYSANDER]
OBERON Thou see’st these lovers seek a place to fight:
Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night; LYSANDER Where art thou, proud Demetrius? Speak
The starry welkin cover thou anon thou now.
With drooping fog as black as Acheron,
And lead these testy rivals so astray PUCK Here, villain; drawn and ready. Where art thou?
As one come not within another’s way.
Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue, LYSANDER I will be with thee straight.
Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong; PUCK Follow me, then,
And sometime rail thou like Demetrius; To plainer ground.
And from each other look thou lead them thus,
Till o’er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep [Exit LYSANDER, as following the voice]
With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep:
Then crush this herb into Lysander’s eye; [Re-enter DEMETRIUS]
Whose liquor hath this virtuous property,
To take from thence all error with his might, DEMETRIUS Lysander! Speak again:
And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight. Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?
When they next wake, all this derision Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?
Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision,
PUCK Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars,
And back to Athens shall the lovers wend,
Telling the bushes that thou look’st for wars,
With league whose date till death shall never end.
And wilt not come? Come, recreant; come, thou child;
Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,
I’ll whip thee with a rod: he is defiled
I’ll to my queen and beg her Indian boy;
That draws a sword on thee.
And then I will her charmed eye release
From monster’s view, and all things shall be peace. DEMETRIUS Yea, art thou there?
PUCK My fairy lord, this must be done with haste, PUCK Follow my voice: we’ll try no manhood here.
For night’s swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,
And yonder shines Aurora’s harbinger; [Exeunt]
At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there,
Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all, [Re-enter LYSANDER]
That in crossways and floods have burial,
Already to their wormy beds are gone; LYSANDER He goes before me and still dares me on:
For fear lest day should look their shames upon, When I come where he calls, then he is gone.
They willfully themselves exile from light The villain is much lighter-heel’d than I:
And must for aye consort with black-brow’d night. I follow’d fast, but faster he did fly;
That fallen am I in dark uneven way,
OBERON But we are spirits of another sort: And here will rest me.
I with the morning’s love have oft made sport,
And, like a forester, the groves may tread, [Lies down]
Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red,
Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams, Come, thou gentle day!
Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams. For if but once thou show me thy grey light,
I’ll find Demetrius and revenge this spite.

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 A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ACT IV

[Sleeps] Cupid is a knavish lad,

Thus to make poor females mad.
[Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS]
[Re-enter HERMIA]
PUCK Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why comest thou not?
HERMIA Never so weary, never so in woe,
DEMETRIUS Abide me, if thou darest; for well I wot Bedabbled with the dew and torn with briers,
Thou runn’st before me, shifting every place, I can no further crawl, no further go;
And darest not stand, nor look me in the face. My legs can keep no pace with my desires.
Where art thou now? Here will I rest me till the break of day.
Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!
PUCK Come hither: I am here.
[Lies down and sleeps]
DEMETRIUS Nay, then, thou mock’st me. Thou shalt
buy this dear, PUCK On the ground
If ever I thy face by daylight see: Sleep sound:
Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me I’ll apply
To measure out my length on this cold bed. To your eye,
Gentle lover, remedy.
By day’s approach look to be visited.

[Lies down and sleeps] [Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER’s eyes]

When thou wakest,
[Re-enter HELENA] Thou takest
True delight
HELENA O weary night, O long and tedious night, In the sight
Abate thy hour! Shine comforts from the east, Of thy former lady’s eye:
That I may back to Athens by daylight, And the country proverb known,
From these that my poor company detest: That every man should take his own,
And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow’s eye, In your waking shall be shown:
Steal me awhile from mine own company. Jack shall have Jill;
Nought shall go ill;
The man shall have his mare again,
[Lies down and sleeps] and all shall be well.
PUCK Yet but three? Come one more;
Two of both kinds make up four. [Exit]
Here she comes, curst and sad:

ACT IV

SCENE I BOTTOM Where’s Peaseblossom?

The same. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, PEASEBLOSSOM Ready.
HELENA, and HERMIA lying asleep.
BOTTOM Scratch my head Peaseblossom. Where’s
[Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM; Mounsieur Cobweb?
PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH,
MUSTARDSEED, and other Fairies attending; COBWEB Ready.
OBERON behind unseen] BOTTOM Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get
TITANIA Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed, you your weapons in your hand, and kill me a
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy, red-hipped humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and,
And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head, good mounsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy. yourself too much in the action, mounsieur; and,
good mounsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not;

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 A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ACT IV

I would be loath to have you overflown with a And that same dew, which sometime on the buds
honey-bag, signior. Where’s Mounsieur Mustardseed? Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flowerets’ eyes
MUSTARDSEED Ready. Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail.
BOTTOM Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. When I had at my pleasure taunted her
Pray you, leave your courtesy, good mounsieur. And she in mild terms begg’d my patience,
I then did ask of her her changeling child;
MUSTARDSEED What’s your Will? Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent
To bear him to my bower in fairy land.
BOTTOM Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help And now I have the boy, I will undo
Cavalery Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber’s, This hateful imperfection of her eyes:
monsieur; for methinks I am marvellous hairy about And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp
the face; and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but From off the head of this Athenian swain;
tickle me, I must scratch. That, he awaking when the other do,
May all to Athens back again repair
TITANIAWhat, wilt thou hear some music,
And think no more of this night’s accidents
my sweet love?
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
BOTTOM I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let’s But first I will release the fairy queen.
have the tongs and the bones. Be as thou wast wont to be;
See as thou wast wont to see:
TITANIA Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat. Dian’s bud o’er Cupid’s flower
Hath such force and blessed power.
BOTTOM Truly, a peck of provender: I could munch
your good dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.
bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.
TITANIAMy Oberon! What visions have I seen!
TITANIA I have a venturous fairy that shall seek Methought I was enamour’d of an ass.
The squirrel’s hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.
OBERON There lies your love.
BOTTOM I had rather have a handful or two of
dried peas. But, I pray you, let none of your people stir TITANIAHow came these things to pass?
me: I have an exposition of sleep come upon me. O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!
TITANIA Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. OBERON Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head.
Fairies, begone, and be all ways away. Titania, music call; and strike more dead
Than common sleep of all these five the sense.
[Exeunt fairies]
TITANIA Music, ho! Music, such as charmeth sleep!
So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle
Gently entwist; the female ivy so [Music, still]
Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.
O, how I love thee! How I dote on thee! PUCK Now, when thou wakest, with thine
own fool’s eyes peep.
[They sleep] OBERON Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands
[Enter PUCK] with me,
And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.
OBERON [Advancing] Welcome, good Robin. Now thou and I are new in amity,
See’st thou this sweet sight? And will to-morrow midnight solemnly
Her dotage now I do begin to pity: Dance in Duke Theseus’ house triumphantly,
For, meeting her of late behind the wood, And bless it to all fair prosperity:
Seeking sweet favours from this hateful fool, There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be
I did upbraid her and fall out with her; Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.
For she his hairy temples then had rounded PUCK Fairy king, attend, and mark:
With a coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers; I do hear the morning lark.

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OBERON Then, my queen, in silence sad, But speak, Egeus; is not this the day
Trip we after the night’s shade: That Hermia should give answer of her choice?
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wandering moon. EGEUS It is, my lord.
TITANIA Come, my lord, and in our flight THESEUS Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with
Tell me how it came this night their horns.
That I sleeping here was found
With these mortals on the ground.
[Horns and shout within. LYSANDER,
[Exeunt] DEMETRIUS,HELENA, and HERMIA wake
and start up]
[Horns winded within]
Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past:
[Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
and train] LYSANDER Pardon, my lord.
THESEUS Go, one of you, find out the forester; THESEUS I pray you all, stand up.
For now our observation is perform’d; I know you two are rival enemies:
And since we have the vaward of the day, How comes this gentle concord in the world,
My love shall hear the music of my hounds. That hatred is so far from jealousy,
Uncouple in the western valley; let them go: To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?
Dispatch, I say, and find the forester.
LYSANDER My lord, I shall reply amazedly,
[Exit an Attendant] Half sleep, half waking: but as yet, I swear,
I cannot truly say how I came here;
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain’s top, But, as I think,—for truly would I speak,
And mark the musical confusion And now do I bethink me, so it is,—
Of hounds and echo in conjunction. I came with Hermia hither: our intent
HIPPOLYTA I was with Hercules and Cadmus once, Was to be gone from Athens, where we might,
When in a wood of Crete they bay’d the bear Without the peril of the Athenian law.
With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear EGEUS Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough:
Such gallant chiding: for, besides the groves, I beg the law, the law, upon his head.
The skies, the fountains, every region near They would have stolen away; they would, Demetrius,
Seem’d all one mutual cry: I never heard Thereby to have defeated you and me,
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder. You of your wife and me of my consent,
THESEUS My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, Of my consent that she should be your wife.
So flew’d, so sanded, and their heads are hung DEMETRIUS My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
With ears that sweep away the morning dew; Of this their purpose hither to this wood;
Crook-knee’d, and dew-lapp’d like Thessalian bulls; And I in fury hither follow’d them,
Slow in pursuit, but match’d in mouth like bells, Fair Helena in fancy following me.
Each under each. A cry more tuneable But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,—
Was never holla’d to, nor cheer’d with horn, But by some power it is,—my love to Hermia,
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly: Melted as the snow, seems to me now
Judge when you hear. But, soft! What nymphs As the remembrance of an idle gaud
are these? Which in my childhood I did dote upon;
EGEUS My lord, this is my daughter here asleep; And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,
And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is; The object and the pleasure of mine eye,
This Helena, old Nedar’s Helena: Is only Helena. To her, my lord,
I wonder of their being here together. Was I betroth’d ere I saw Hermia:
But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food;
THESEUS No doubt they rose up early to observe But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
The rite of May, and hearing our intent, Now I do wish it, love it, long for it,
Came here in grace our solemnity. And will for evermore be true to it.

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THESEUS Fair lovers, you are fortunately met: because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the
Of this discourse we more will hear anon. latter end of a play, before the duke: peradventure, to
Egeus, I will overbear your will; make it the more gracious, I shall sing it at her death.
For in the temple by and by with us
These couples shall eternally be knit: [Exit]
And, for the morning now is something worn,
Our purposed hunting shall be set aside. SCENE II
Away with us to Athens; three and three, Athens. QUINCE’S house.
We’ll hold a feast in great solemnity.
Come, Hippolyta. [Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and
STARVELING]
[Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA,
EGEUS, and train] QUINCE Have you sent to Bottom’s house? Is he come
home yet?
DEMETRIUS These things seem small and
undistinguishable, STARVELING He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt
he is transported.
HERMIA Methinks I see these things with parted eye,
When every thing seems double. FLUTE If he come not, then the play is marred: it goes
not forward, doth it?
HELENA So methinks:
And I have found Demetrius like a jewel, QUINCE It is not possible: you have not a man in all
Mine own, and not mine own. Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he.

DEMETRIUS Are you sure FLUTE No, he hath simply the best wit of any
That we are awake? It seems to me handicraft man in Athens.
That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think QUINCEYea and the best person too; and he is a very
The duke was here, and bid us follow him? paramour for a sweet voice.
HERMIA Yea; and my father. FLUTE You must say “paragon”: a paramour is, God
HELENA And Hippolyta. bless us, a thing of naught.

LYSANDER And he did bid us follow to the temple. [Enter SNUG]

DEMETRIUS Why, then, we are awake: let’s follow him SNUG Masters, the duke is coming from the temple,
And by the way let us recount our dreams. and there is two or three lords and ladies more
married: if our sport had gone forward, we had all been
[Exeunt] made men.

BOTTOM [Awaking] When my cue comes, call me, and FLUTE O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost
I will answer: my next is, “Most fair Pyramus”. sixpence a day during his life; he could not have ’scaped
Heigh-ho! Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! sixpence a day: an the duke had not given him
Snout,the tinker! Starveling! God’s my life, stolen sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I’ll be hanged;
hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare he would have deserved it: sixpence a day in
vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to Pyramus, or nothing.
say what dream it was: man is but an ass, if he go
about to expound this dream. Methought I was—there [Enter BOTTOM]
is no man can tell what. Methought I was,—and
BOTTOM Where are these lads? Where are these hearts?
methought I had,—but man is but a patched fool, if he
will offer to say what methought I had. The eye QUINCE Bottom! O most courageous day! O most
of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not happy hour!
seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue
to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream BOTTOM Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask
was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of me not what; for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I
this dream: it shall be called Bottom’s Dream, will tell you every thing, right as it fell out.

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QUINCE Let us hear, sweet Bottom. clean linen; and let not him that plays the lion
pair his nails, for they shall hang out for the
BOTTOM Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, lion’s claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onions
that the duke hath dined. Get your apparel together, nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I
good strings to your beards, new ribbons to your do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet
pumps; meet presently at the palace; every man look comedy. No more words: away! Go, away!
o’er his part; for the short and the long is, our
play is preferred. In any case, let Thisby have [Exeunt]

ACT V

SCENE I [Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA,

Athens. The palace of THESEUS. and HELENA]
[Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, Joy, gentle friends! Joy and fresh days of love
Lords and Attendants] Accompany your hearts!

HIPPOLYTA ’Tis strange my Theseus, that these LYSANDER More than to us

lovers speak of. Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed!

THESEUS More strange than true: I never may believe THESEUS Come now; what masques, what dances shall
These antique fables, nor these fairy toys. we have,
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, To wear away this long age of three hours
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend Between our after-supper and bed-time?
More than cool reason ever comprehends. Where is our usual manager of mirth?
The lunatic, the lover and the poet What revels are in hand? Is there no play,
Are of imagination all compact: To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold, Call Philostrate.
That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic, PHILOSTRATE Here, mighty Theseus.
Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet’s eye, in fine frenzy rolling, THESEUS Say, what abridgement have you for
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth this evening?
to heaven; What masque? What music? How shall we beguile
And as imagination bodies forth The lazy time, if not with some delight?
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing PHILOSTRATE There is a brief how many sports are ripe:
A local habitation and a name. Make choice of which your highness will see first.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That if it would but apprehend some joy, [Giving a paper]
It comprehends some bringer of that joy; THESEUS [Reads]
Or in the night, imagining some fear, “The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung
How easy is a bush supposed a bear! By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.”
HIPPOLYTA But all the story of the night told over, We’ll none of that: that have I told my love,
And all their minds transfigured so together, In glory of my kinsman Hercules.
More witnesseth than fancy’s images
And grows to something of great constancy; [Reads]
But, howsoever, strange and admirable. “The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,
THESEUS Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth. Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.”
That is an old device; and it was play’d
When I from Thebes came last a conqueror.
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[Reads] HIPPOLYTA He says they can do nothing in this kind.

“The thrice three Muses mourning for the death THESEUS The kinder we, to give them thanks
Of Learning, late deceased in beggary.” for nothing.
That is some satire, keen and critical, Our sport shall be to take what they mistake:
Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony. And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect
Takes it in might, not merit.
[Reads] Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
“A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.” Make periods in the midst of sentences,
Merry and tragical! Tedious and brief! Throttle their practised accent in their fears
That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow. And in conclusion dumbly have broke off,
How shall we find the concord of this discord? Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,
PHILOSTRATE A play there is, my lord, some ten Out of this silence yet I pick’d a welcome;
words long, And in the modesty of fearful duty
Which is as brief as I have known a play; I read as much as from the rattling tongue
But by ten words, my lord, it is too long, Of saucy and audacious eloquence.
Which makes it tedious; for in all the play Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity
There is not one word apt, one player fitted: In least speak most, to my capacity.
And tragical, my noble lord, it is;
[Re-enter PHILOSTRATE]
For Pyramus therein doth kill himself.
Which, when I saw rehearsed, I must confess, PHILOSTRATE So please your grace, the Prologue
Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears is address’d.
The passion of loud laughter never shed.
THESEUS Let him approach.
THESEUS What are they that do play it?
[Flourish of trumpets]
PHILOSTRATE Hard-handed men that work in
Athens here, [Enter QUINCE for the Prologue]
Which never labour’d in their minds till now,
And now have toil’d their unbreathed memories PROLOGUE If we offend, it is with our good will.
With this same play, against your nuptial. That you should think, we come not to offend,
But with good will. To show our simple skill,
THESEUS And we will hear it. That is the true beginning of our end.
PHILOSTRATE No, my noble lord; Consider then we come but in despite.
It is not for you: I have heard it over, We do not come as minding to contest you,
And it is nothing, nothing in the world; Our true intent is. All for your delight
Unless you can find sport in their intents, We are not here. That you should here repent you,
Extremely stretch’d and conn’d with cruel pain, The actors are at hand and by their show
To do you service. You shall know all that you are like to know.

THESEUS I will hear that play;

THESEUS This fellow doth not stand upon points.
For never anything can be amiss, LYSANDER He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt;
When simpleness and duty tender it. he knows not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not
Go, bring them in: and take your places, ladies. enough to speak, but to speak true.
[Exit PHILOSTRATE] HIPPOLYTA Indeed he hath played on his prologue like
a child on a recorder; a sound, but not in government.
HIPPOLYTA I love not to see wretchedness o’er charged
And duty in his service perishing. THESEUS His speech, was like a tangled chain; nothing
impaired, but all disordered. Who is next?
THESEUS Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no
such thing. [Enter Pyramus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine,
and Lion]
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 A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ACT V

PROLOGUE Gentles, perchance you wonder at PYRAMUS O grim-look’d night! O night with hue
this show; so black!
But wonder on, till truth make all things plain. O night, which ever art when day is not!
This man is Pyramus, if you would know; O night, O night! Alack, alack, alack,
This beauteous lady Thisby is certain. I fear my Thisby’s promise is forgot!
This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,
Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder; That stand’st between her father’s ground and mine!
And through Wall’s chink, poor souls, they are content Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,
To whisper. At the which let no man wonder. Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne!
This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn,
Presenteth Moonshine; for, if you will know, [Wall holds up his fingers]
By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn
To meet at Ninus’ tomb, there, there to woo. Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this!
This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name, But what see I? No Thisby do I see.
The trusty Thisby, coming first by night, O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss!
Did scare away, or rather did affright; Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me!
And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall, THESEUS The wall, methinks, being sensible, should
Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain. curse again.
Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall,
And finds his trusty Thisby’s mantle slain: PYRAMUS No, in truth, sir, he should not.
Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade, “Deceiving me” is Thisby’s cue:
He bravely broach’d is boiling bloody breast; she is to enter now, and I am to
And Thisby, tarrying in mulberry shade, spy her through the wall. You shall see, it will
His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest, fall pat as I told you. Yonder she comes.
Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain
At large discourse, while here they do remain. [Enter Thisbe]

[Exeunt Prologue, Thisbe, Lion, and Moonshine] THISBE O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans,
For parting my fair Pyramus and me!
THESEUS I wonder if the lion be to speak. My cherry lips have often kiss’d thy stones,
Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.
DEMETRIUS No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when
many asses do. PYRAMUS I see a voice: now will I to the chink,
To spy an I can hear my Thisby’s face. Thisby!
WALL In this same interlude it doth befall
That I, one Snout by name, present a wall; THISBE My love thou art, my love I think.
And such a wall, as I would have you think,
That had in it a crannied hole or chink, PYRAMUS Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover’s grace;
Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby, And, like Limander, am I trusty still.
Did whisper often very secretly. THISBE And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill.
This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show
That I am that same wall; the truth is so: PYRAMUS Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.
And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper. THISBE As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.

THESEUS Would you desire lime and hair to PYRAMUS O kiss me through the hole of this vile wall!
speak better?
THISBE I kiss the wall’s hole, not your lips at all.
DEMETRIUS It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard
PYRAMUS Wilt thou at Ninny’s tomb meet me
discourse, my lord.
straightway?
[Enter Pyramus] THISBE ’Tide life, ’tide death, I come without delay.
THESEUS Pyramus draws near the wall: silence!
[Exeunt Pyramus and Thisbe]

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WALL Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so; MOONSHINE This lanthorn doth the horned
And, being done, thus Wall away doth go. moon present;
Myself the man i’ the moon do seem to be.
[Exit]
THESEUS This is the greatest error of all the rest: the
THESEUS Now is the mural down between the man should be put into the lanthorn. How is it else the
two neighbours. man i’ the moon?
DEMETRIUS No remedy, my lord, when walls are so DEMETRIUS He dares not come there for the candle;
wilful to hear without warning. for, you see, it is already in snuff.
HIPPOLYTA This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard. HIPPOLYTA I am aweary of this moon: would he
would change!
THESEUS The best in this kind are but shadows; and the
worst are no worse, if imagination amend them. THESEUS It appears, by his small light of discretion,
that he is in the wane; but yet, in courtesy, in all
HIPPOLYTA It must be your imagination then, and reason, we must stay the time.
not theirs.
LYSANDER Proceed, Moon.
THESEUS If we imagine no worse of them than they of
themselves, they may pass for excellent men. Here MOONSHINE All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the
come two noble beasts in, a man and a lion. lanthorn is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this
thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.
[Enter Lion and Moonshine]
DEMETRIUS Why, all these should be in the lanthorn;
LION You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear for all these are in the moon. But, silence! Here
The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor, comes Thisbe.
May now perchance both quake and tremble here,
When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar. [Enter Thisbe]
Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am
A lion-fell, nor else no lion’s dam; THISBE This is old Ninny’s tomb. Where is my love?
For, if I should as lion come in strife
LION [Roaring] Oh—
Into this place, ’twere pity on my life.
THESEUS A very gentle beast, of a good conscience. [Thisbe runs off]

DEMETRIUS The very best at a beast, my lord, that DEMETRIUS Well roared, Lion.
e’er I saw. THESEUS Well run, Thisbe.
LYSANDER This lion is a very fox for his valour. HIPPOLYTA Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines
THESEUS True; and a goose for his discretion. with a good grace.

DEMETRIUS Not so, my lord; for his valour cannot carry [The Lion shakes Thisbe’s mantle, and exit]
his discretion; and the fox carries the goose.
THESEUS Well moused, Lion.
THESEUS His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his
valour; for the goose carries not the fox. It is well: LYSANDER And so the lion vanished.
leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to the moon. DEMETRIUS And then came Pyramus.
MOONSHINE This lanthorn doth the horned moon
[Enter Pyramus]
present;—
PYRAMUS Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy
DEMETRIUS He should have worn the horns on
sunnybeams;
his head.
I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright;
THESEUS He is no crescent, and his horns are For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams,
invisible within the circumference. I trust to take of truest Thisby sight.

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But stay, O spite! [Re-enter Thisbe]

But mark, poor knight,
What dreadful dole is here! HIPPOLYTA Methinks she should not use a long one for
Eyes, do you see? such a Pyramus: I hope she will be brief.
How can it be?
O dainty duck! O dear! DEMETRIUS A mote will turn the balance, which
Thy mantle good, Pyramus, which Thisbe, is the better; he for a man, God
What, stain’d with blood! warrant us; she for a woman, God bless us.
Approach, ye Furies fell!
O Fates, come, come, LYSANDER She hath spied him already with those
Cut thread and thrum; sweet eyes.
Quail, crush, conclude, and quell!
DEMETRIUS And thus she means, videlicet:—
THESEUS This passion, and the death of a dear friend,
would go near to make a man look sad. THISBE Asleep, my love?
What, dead, my dove?
HIPPOLYTA Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man. O Pyramus, arise!
Speak, speak. Quite dumb?
PYRAMUS O wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame? Dead, dead? A tomb
Since lion vile hath here deflower’d my dear: Must cover thy sweet eyes.
Which is—no, no—which was the fairest dame These My lips,
That lived, that loved, that liked, that look’d This cherry nose,
with cheer. These yellow cowslip cheeks,
Are gone, are gone:
Come, tears, confound; Lovers, make moan:
Out, sword, and wound His eyes were green as leeks.
The pap of Pyramus; O Sisters Three,
Ay, that left pap, Come, come to me,
Where heart doth hop: With hands as pale as milk;
Lay them in gore,
[Stabs himself] Since you have shore
With shears his thread of silk.
Thus die I, thus, thus, thus. Tongue, not a word:
Now am I dead, Come, trusty sword;
Now am I fled; Come, blade, my breast imbrue:
My soul is in the sky:
Tongue, lose thy light; [Stabs herself]
Moon take thy flight:
And, farewell, friends;
[Exit Moonshine] Thus Thisby ends:
Adieu, adieu, adieu.
Now die, die, die, die, die.
[Dies]
[Dies]
THESEUS Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead.
DEMETRIUS No die, but an ace, for him; for he is
but one. DEMETRIUS Ay, and Wall too.

LYSANDER Less than an ace, man; for he is dead; he BOTTOM [Starting up] No assure you; the wall is down
is nothing. that parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the
epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two of
THESEUS With the help of a surgeon he might yet our company?
recover, and prove an ass.
THESEUS No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs
HIPPOLYTA How chance Moonshine is gone before no excuse. Never excuse; for when the players are all
Thisbe comes back and finds her lover? dead, there needs none to be blamed. Marry, if he
that writ it had played Pyramus and hanged himself
THESEUS She will find him by starlight. Here she in Thisbe’s garter, it would have been a fine
comes; and her passion ends the play. tragedy: and so it is, truly; and very notably

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discharged. But come, your Bergomask: let your TITANIA First, rehearse your song by rote
epilogue alone. To each word a warbling note:
Hand in hand, with fairy grace,
[A dance] Will we sing, and bless this place.

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve: [Song and dance]
Lovers, to bed; ’tis almost fairy time. OBERON Now, until the break of day,
I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn Through this house each fairy stray.
As much as we this night have overwatch’d. To the best bride-bed will we,
This palpable-gross play hath well beguiled Which by us shall blessed be;
The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed. And the issue there create
A fortnight hold we this solemnity, Ever shall be fortunate.
In nightly revels and new jollity. So shall all the couples three
Ever true in loving be;
[Exeunt] And the blots of Nature’s hand
Shall not in their issue stand;
Never mole, hare lip, nor scar,
[Enter PUCK] Nor mark prodigious, such as are
PUCK Now the hungry lion roars, Despised in nativity,
And the wolf behowls the moon; Shall upon their children be.
Whilst the heavy ploughman snores, With this field-dew consecrate,
All with weary task fordone. Every fairy take his gait;
Now the wasted brands do glow, And each several chamber bless,
Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud, Through this palace, with sweet peace;
Puts the wretch that lies in woe And the owner of it blest
In remembrance of a shroud. Ever shall in safety rest.
Now it is the time of night Trip away; make no stay;
That the graves all gaping wide, Meet me all by break of day.
Every one lets forth his sprite,
In the church-way paths to glide: [Exeunt OBERON, TITANIA, and train]
And we fairies, that do run
By the triple Hecate’s team, PUCK If we shadows have offended,
From the presence of the sun, Think but this, and all is mended,
Following darkness like a dream, That you have but slumber’d here
Now are frolic: not a mouse While these visions did appear.
Shall disturb this hallow’d house: And this weak and idle theme,
I am sent with broom before, No more yielding but a dream,
To sweep the dust behind the door. Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
[Enter OBERON and TITANIA with their train] If we have unearned luck
OBERON Through the house give gathering light, Now to ’scape the serpent’s tongue,
By the dead and drowsy fire: We will make amends ere long;
Every elf and fairy sprite Else the Puck a liar call;
Hop as light as bird from brier; So, good night unto you all.
And this ditty, after me, Give me your hands, if we be friends,
Sing, and dance it trippingly. And Robin shall restore amends.

[Exit]

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