Bot. Truly, a peck of provender: I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle of hay good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.

Tita. I have a venturous fairy that shall seck

The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.

Bot. I had rather have a handful, or two, of dried peas. But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me;

I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.

Tita. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.

Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.

So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle
Gently entwist; the female ivy so

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.

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

[Exeunt FAIRIES.

OBERON advances. Enter PUCK.

[They sleep.

Obe. Welcome, good Robin. See'st thou this sweet sight? Her dotage now I do begin to pity:

For meeting her of late, behind the wood,
Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool,
I did upbraid her and fall out with her :
For she his hairy temples then had rounded
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
When I had, at my pleasure, taunted her,
And she, in mild terms, begg'd my patience,
I then did ask of her that changeling child;
Which straight she gave me.

And now I have the boy, I will undo
This hateful imperfection of her eyes.

And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp
From off the head of this Athenian swain;

That he, awaking when the other do,

May all to Athens back again repair,

And think no more of this night's accidents,
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.

But first I will release the fairy queen.

Be, as thou wast wont to be,

[Touching her eyes with an herb.

See, as thou wast wont to see :
Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower

Hath such force and blessed power.

Now, my Titania, wake you, my sweet queen.
Tita. My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamoured of an ass.

Obe. There lies your love.
Tita.

How came these things to pass?

O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!

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

Puck. [Removing the ass's head from BOTTOM's shoulders.
Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own fool's eyes peep.

Fairy king, attend, and mark,

I do hear the morning lark.

Obe. Come, my queen, take hands with me,
And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.
Now thou and I are new in amity;

And will, to-morrow midnight, solemnly,
Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly,
And biess it to all fair posterity:

There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be
Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.

[Music, as they excunt. As they go out, BOTTOM awakes. Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer:-my next is, Most fair Pyramus.-Hey ho!--[He sits up.]. Peter. Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout, the tinker! Starveling! By my life! stolen hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream,-past the wit of man to say what dream it was.-Man is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was-there is no man can tell what. Methought I was-and I methought I had, but man is but a patched fool, if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard,. the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream: it shall be called Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the latter end of a play, before the duke:

peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it after Thisbe's death. [Exit BOTTOM.

[After a strain of music daybreak begins to appear.

The

sun rises. The glen and tangled wood disappear, as the mists ascend and discover the lovers asleep as before. Hunting-music is heard, and a pleasure-barge appears in the background bearing THESEUS, HIPPOLITA EGEUS, PHILOSTRATE, and others. It pauses at the C., and THESEUS and the others disembark.

The. Go, one of you, find out the forester,
For now our observation is performed;
And since we have the vaward of the day,
My love shall hear the music of my hounds.
Uncouple in the western valley; let them go:
Despatch, I say, and find the forester.
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,
And mark the musical confusion
Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

[Exit PHILOSTrate.

Hip. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear
With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear
Such gallant chiding; for, besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, every region near
Secm'd all one mutual cry: I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.

The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flew'd, so sanded; and their heads are hung
With cars that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook-knee'd and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls;
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tuneable

Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,

In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly:

Judge, when you hear.-But, soft; what nymphs are these?

Ege. [Who has discovered HERMIA and beckoned to THESEUS.] My lord, this is my daughter here asleep;

And this Lysander; this Demetrius is;
This Helena, old Nedar's Helena:
I wonder of their being here together.

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

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

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

[Horns heard, and PHILOSTRATE re-enters. DEMETRIUS, LYSANDER, HERMIA, and HELENA wake and start up.

The. Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past.
Lys. Pardon, my lord.

The.

[He and the rest kneel to THEseus. I pray you all, stand up.

I know, you two are rival enemies;

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

To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?

Lys. My lord, I shall reply amazedly,

Half 'sleep, half waking,

I came with Hermia hither: our intent
Was, to be gone from Athens, where we might be
Without the peril of the Athenian law.

Ege. Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough :
I beg the law, the law, upon his head.

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

You of your wife, and me of my consent.

Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,

Of this their purpose hither, to this wood;

And I in fury hither follow'd them,

Fair Helena in fancy following me.

But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,
(But, by some power it is,) my love to Hermia,
Melted as the snow, seems to me now

As the remembrance of an idle gaud,
Which in my childhood I did dote upon :
And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,
The object, and the pleasure of mine eye,
Is only Helena. To her, my lord,
Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia.

The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
Of this discourse we more will hear anon.
Egeus, I will overbear your will,
For in the temple, by and by with us,
These couples shall eternally be knit.

And, for the morning now is something worn,
Our purpos'd hunting shall be set aside.

Away, with us, to Athens; three and three,

We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.

Come, Hippolita.

[He re-enters the barge with HIPPOLITA and EGEUS, PHILOSTRATE following.

That we are awake? It seems to me,

That yet we sleep, we dream.-Do not you think,

The duke was here, and bid us follow him?

Her. Yea, he did bid us follow to the temple.
Dem. Why then, we are awake: let's follow him,

And, by the way, let us recount our dreams.

[Exeunt into the barge. [As the barge begins to move off the picture changes, showing the passage of THESEUS to his capital.

CURTAIN.
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