Scene 1

[Enter Oberon Stage L, After a while, Titania enters Stage R and is angry at seeing Oberon]

OBERON
Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.

TITANIA
What, jealous Oberon!
We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.

[Titania goes to other side of stage and goes to sleep on the ground]

OBERON
Go thy way! I shall torment thee for this injury.
My gentle Puck, come hither.

[Enter Puck Stage L ]

OBERON
Fetch me a flower; the herb I showed thee once.
The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb.

PUCK
I'll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes.

[Exit Puck Stage L ]

OBERON
Having once this juice,
I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,
And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.
The next thing then she waking looks upon,
Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
She shall pursue it with the soul of love.

HELENA
(Off-stage) Demetrius!

OBERON
But who comes here? I am invisible
And will overhear...
[He hides in the corner and overhears the conversation]

[Enter Demetrius and Helena Stage L]

HELENA
Demetrius! Demetrius!
[She grabs his hand]

DEMETRIUS
[Pushes her onto the ground]
Helena, I do not, nor I cannot love you!

HELENA
And even for that do love you the more.

DEMETRIUS
I’ll run from thee!

HELENA
I’ll follow there!
[Exit Demetrius and Helena Stage R ]

[Oberon comes out of hiding]

OBERON
Fare thee well, nymph.
[Re-enter Puck Stage R ]

OBERON
Hast thou the flower there?

PUCK
Ay, there it is.

OBERON
I pray thee, give it me.
[Oberon sees Titania asleep and goes over to her]
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night.
And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantasies.
[Puts the love juice in Titania’s eyes]
Titania, wake when some vile thing is near.
[To Puck]
Take thou some of it, [Gives the flower to Puck] and seek through this grove.
A sweet young lady is in love
With a disdainful youth. Put this on his eyes.
But do it when the next thing he then spies
May be the lady.

PUCK
Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.

[Exit Oberon and Puck Stage L]

[Enter Lysander and Hermia Stage R ]

LYSANDER
Fair love, I have forgot our way.
We'll rest us here, Hermia.

HERMIA
Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed;
For l upon this bank will rest my head.

[She lies down and goes to sleep]

LYSANDER
Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest!
[He lies down a bit further away from her and sleeps]

[Enter Puck Stage L]

PUCK
[Sees Lysander]
Who is here?
This is he, my master said,
Despised the young maid.
[He sees Hermia]
And here the maiden, sleeping sound.
[He puts the love juice in Lysander's eyes]
Upon thy eyes I throw
All the power this charm doth owe.
So awake when I am gone.
For I must now to Oberon.

[Enter Helena Stage R ]

LYSANDER
[Awakes]
Not Hermia but Helena I love.
Who will not change a raven for a dove?
Helena! Helena!

[Helena runs away, chased by Lysander Stage L]

HERMIA
[Awaking]
Ay me, what a dream was here!
Lysander! Lysander!
Alack, where are you?
[She gets up and goes off to find him Stage R]
Scene 3

[Enter Mechanicals]

QUINCE
Is all our company here? Is all our company here?

BOTTOM
You were best to call them generally, man by man, according to the script.

QUINCE
Here is the scroll of every man’s name, which is thought fit through all Athens to play in our
interlude before the duke and the duchess on his wedding day at night.

BOTTOM
First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats on, then read the names of the actors, and so
grow on to a point.

QUINCE
Marry, our play is ‘The most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe.’

BOTTOM
A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your
actors by the scroll. Masters, spread yourselves.

QUINCE
Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver.

BOTTOM
Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.
QUINCE
You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.

BOTTOM
What is Pyramus, a lover or a tyrant?

QUINCE
A lover that kills himself most gallantly for love.

BOTTOM
That will ask some tears in the true performing of it. If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes: I
will move storms; I will condole in some measure.To the rest — yet my chief humour is for a
tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely,or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split.
The raging rocks
And shivering shocks
Shall break the locks
Of prison gates.
And Phibbus’ car
Shall shine from far
And make and mar
The foolish Fates.
This was lofty. Now name the rest of the players. This is Ercles’ vein, a tyrant’s vein: a lover is
more condoling.

QUINCE
Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.

FLUTE
Here, Peter Quince.

QUINCE
You must take Thisbe on you.

FLUTE
What is Thisbe? A wand’ring knight?
QUINCE
It is the lady that Pyramus must love.

FLUTE
Nay, faith, let not me play a woman: I have a beard coming.

QUINCE
That’s all one. You shall play it in a mask, and you may speak as small as you will.

BOTTOM
An I may hide my face, let me play Thisbe too. I’ll speak in a monstrous little voice. ‘Thisbe,
Thisbe!’ ‘Ah, Pyramus, my lover dear! Thy Thisbe dear and lady dear!’

QUINCE
No, no, you must play Pyramus.— And, Flute, you Thisbe.

BOTTOM
Well, proceed.

QUINCE
Robin Starveling, the tailor.

STARVELING
Here, Peter Quince.

QUINCE
Robin Starveling, you must play Thisbe’s mother and the moon.

STARVELING
The moon?

QUINCE
Tom Snout, the tinker.
SNOUT
Here, Peter Quince.

QUINCE
You, Pyramus’ father; myself, Thisbe’s father; Snug the joiner, you, the lion’s part: and I hope
there is a play fitted.

SNUG
Have you the lion’s part written? Pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study.

QUINCE
You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.

BOTTOM
Let me play the lion too: I will roar that I will do any man’s heart good to hear me. I will roar that I
will make the duke say ‘Let him roar again, let him roar again.’

QUINCE
If you should do it too terribly, you would fright the duchess and the ladies that they would
shriek, and that were enough to hang us all.

ALL
That would hang us, every mother’s son.

BOTTOM
I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more
discretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my voice so that I will roar you as gently as any
sucking dove. I will roar an ’twere any nightingale.

QUINCE
You can play no part but Pyramus, for Pyramus is a sweet-faced man, a proper man, as one
shall see in a summer’s day; a most lovely gentlemanlike man: therefore you must needs play
Pyramus.

BOTTOM
Well, I will undertake it.

QUINCE
(Passes out the parts) But, masters, here are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request you
and desire you, to con them by tomorrow night, and meet me in the palace wood a mile without
the town by moonlight. There will we rehearse, for if we meet in the city we shall be dogged with
company, and our devices known. In the meantime I will draw a bill of properties, such as our
play wants. I pray you fail me not.

BOTTOM
We will meet, and there we may rehearse more obscenely and courageously. Take pains, be
perfect. Adieu.

QUINCE
At the duke’s oak we meet.
Scene 4

[Enter PUCK Stage L]

PUCK
[Speaks to the audience]
What silly people have we swaggering here,
So near the cradle of the fairy queen?
[Puck transforms Bottom's head into an donkey’s head]

BOTTOM
[Panic]
[He starts walking around and bumps into Titania who is asleep]

TITANIA
[Awaking]
What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?
I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again.
Thy fair virtues doth move me
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.

BOTTOM
Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that.

TITANIA
I will wind thee in my arms.
O, how I love theel how I dote on thee!
[She leads him off and they exit Stage L]

[Enter Oberon and Puck Stage R]

PUCK
My mistress with a monster is in love.

OBERON
This falls out better than I could devise.
But hast thou yet touched the gentleman's eyes
With the love-juice?

PUCK
I took him sleeping.

[Enter Demetrius and Hermia]

OBERON
This the same gentleman.

PUCK
This is the woman, but not this the man.

HERMIA
Leave me alone, Demetrius!
See me no more!

[She runs off Stage R]

DEMETRIUS
There is no following her in this fierce vein.
Here a while I will remain.

[Lies down and sleeps]

[Exit Puck and Oberon puts love juice in Demetrius' eyes, then he stands aside]

[Enter Helena and Lysander Stage L]

LYSANDER
Helena, I do love thee!

HELENA
You love Hermia, not me!
[She walks to Demetrius]
Oh! Demetrius!

DEMETRIUS
[Awaking]
O Helena, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!

HELENA
O spite! O hell!

[Enter HERMIA]

HERMIA
Lysander!

LYSANDER
Why seek'st thou me? I do hate thee and love Helena!
HERMIA
O me! you juggler! you canker-blossom!

HELENA
Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet, you!

[The girls start fighting with each other and the boys try to separate them.
As the boys are fighting, they punch one another and knock each other out. They lie on the
ground asleep].

HELENA
I will not trust you!
Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray.
My legs are longer though, to run away.

[The girls chase each other around, run into one another, knock heads and fall down onto the
ground asleep]
Scene 5

[Oberon and Puck come out of hiding]

OBERON
This is thy negligence!

PUCK
Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.

[Oberon gives flower to Puck]

OBERON
Crush this herb into Lysander's eye.

[Puck puts the love juice into Lysander's eye. The lovers all wake up and hug one another. They
then exit together Stage L].

OBERON
Good Robin.
Dost thou see this sweet sight?
[Points to Titania and Bottom who enter Stage R without seeing them. Titania and Bottom go to
sleep on the ground. Oberon starts to feel guilty.]
Gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp.
From off the head of this foolish man.
[Puck removes Bottom's ass's head]
I will release the fairy queen.
[Squeezes juice onto her eyelids]
Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.

TITANIA
My Oberon! what visions have I seen!

OBERON
Come, my queen, take hands with me.
[They hold hands and exit together with Puck Stage L].

BOTTOM
[Awaking]
I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream!
I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream, and it shall be called Bottom's Dream,
because it hath no bottom!

[He exits Stage L]

[Enter Mechanicals]

QUINCE
If we offend, it is with our goodwill.
That you should think we come not to offend,
That is the true beginning of our end.
Consider, then, we come but in despite.
We do not come, as minding to content you,
Our true intent is. All for your delight
We are not here. That you should here repent you,
The actors are at hand, and, by their show,
You shall know all that you are like to know.

SNOUT
In this same interlude it doth befall
That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;

DEMETRIUS
A wall? Hahaha.

SNOUT
And such a wall as I would have you think
That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe,
Did whisper often, very secretly.
This loam, this roughcast, and this stone doth show
That I am that same wall. The truth is so.
And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.

BOTTOM
O grim-looked night! O night with hue so black!
O night, which ever art when day is not!
O night! O night! Alack, alack, alack!
I fear my Thisbe's promise is forgot.
And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,
That stand'st between her father's ground and mine,
Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,
Show me thy chink to blink through with mine eyne.
Thanks, courteous wall. Jove shield thee well for this.
But what see I? No Thisbe do I see.
O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss,
Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me!

FLUTE
O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans
For parting my fair Pyramus and me.
My cherry lips have often kissed thy stones,
Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.

BOTTOM
I see a voice!

HERMIA
See a voice? Does not he mean he hears a voice?
BOTTOM
Now will I to the chink
To spy an I can hear my Thisbe's face.
Thisbe?

FLUTE
My love! Thou art my love, I think.

BOTTOM
Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace,
And, like Limander, am I trusty still.

FLUTE
And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill.

BOTTOM
Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.

FLUTE
As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.

BOTTOM
O kiss me through the hole of this vile wall.

FLUTE
I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all.

BOTTOM
Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?

FLUTE
‘Tide life, 'tide death, I come without delay.
[Bottom and Flute exit.]
SNOUT
Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so,
And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.
[Exit]

[Enter Snug and Starveling.]

SNUG
You ladies, you whose gentle hearts do fear
The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,
May now perchance both quake and tremble here,
When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.

LYSANDER
A lion? Me thinks he’s more like a mouse!

SNUG
Then know that I, as Snug the joiner, am
A lion fell, nor else no lion's dam;
For if I should as lion come in strife
Into this place, 'twere pity on my life.

LYSANDER
Hahahahahahahaha.

STARVELING
This lanthorn doth the hornèd moon present.

HELENA
The moon? Is yond not a lant’rn?

STARVELING
This lanthorn doth the horned moon present.
Myself the man i' th' moon do seem to be.
This thornbush my thornbush, and this dog my dog.
[Enter Flute]

FLUTE
This is old Ninny's tomb.

QUINCE
Ninny!

FLUTE
Where is my love?

SNUG
Roar!

[The Lion roars. Thisbe runs off.]

[Enter Bottom]

BOTTOM
Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams.
I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright,
For by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams,
I trust to take of truest Thisbe sight --
But stay! O spite!
But mark, poor knight,
Come, tears, confound!
Out, sword, and wound
The pap of Pyramus;
Ay, that left pap,
Where heart doth hop.
[Stabs himself]
Pyramus stabs himself.?
Thus die I, thus, thus, thus.
Now am I dead;
Now am I fled;
My soul is in the sky.
Tongue, lose thy light!
Moon, take thy flight!
Now die, die, die, die, die.
[Moonshine exits]
[Pyramus falls]

FLUTE
Asleep, my love?
What, dead, my dove?
O Pyramus, arise!
Speak, speak. Quite dumb?
Dead? Dead? A tomb
Must cover thy sweet eyes.
These lily lips,
This cherry nose,
These yellow cowslip cheeks
Are gone, are gone!
Lovers, make moan;
His eyes were green as leeks.
O Sisters Three,
Come, come to me
With hands as pale as milk.
Lay them in gore,
Since you have shore
With shears his thread of silk.
Tongue, not a word!
Come, trusty sword,
Come, blade, my breast imbrue!
[Thisbe stabs herself]
And farewell, friends.
Thus Thisbe ends.
Adieu, adieu, adieu.
[Thisbe falls]
MECHANICALS
[Chaotic bow]

Scene 7

[Enter Puck]

PUCK
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends.
And Robin shall restore amends.

[Puck bows and exits]