When I come where he calls, then he is gone.
The villain is much lighter heel'd than I:
I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly;
That fallen am I in dark uneven way,
And here will rest me. Come, thou gentle day!
[Lies down.
For if but once thou show me thy grey light,
I'll find Demetrius, and revenge this spite. [Sleeps.

Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS.

Puck. Ho, ho! ho, ho! Coward, why com'st thou

not?

Puck. Yet but three? Come one more;
Two of both kinds makes up four.
Here she comes, curst and sad:-
Cupid is a knavish lad,

Thus to make poor females mad.
Enter HERMIA.

Her. Never so weary, never so in woe,

Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briers:
I can no further crawl, no further go;

My legs can keep no pace with my desires.
Here will I rest me till the break of day.
Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!
[Lies down.

Puck. On the ground
Sleep sound:
I'll apply

To your eye,

Gentle lover, remedy.

[Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER's eye. When thou wak'st,

ACT IV.

Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM, Fairies attend-
ing; OBERON behind unseen.

Tita. Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,"

And stick musk roses in thy sleek smooth head,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.
Bot. Where's Peas-blossom?

Peas. Ready.

[Exit PUCK.-DEM., HEL., &c., sleep.

Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in music: let us have the tongs and the bones.

Tita. Or, say, sweet love, what thou desir'st to eat. Bot. Truly, a peck of provender; I could munch your dry good oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle of hay; good hay, sweet hay hath no fellow.

Tita. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts. Bot. I had rather have a handful, or two, of dried

Bot. Scratch my head, Peas-blossom.-Where's peas. But I pray you, let none of your people stir monsieur Cobweb?

Cob. Ready.

me: I have an exposition of sleep come upon me. Tita. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. Fairies, begone, and be all ways away.

Bot. Monsieur Cobweb; good monsieur, get your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped [Exeunt Fairies. humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good mon- So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle, sieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret your Gently entwist,-the female ivy so self too much in the action, monsieur; and, good Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. monsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not: IO, how I love thee! how I dote on thee! would be loath to have you overflown with a honeybag, signior.-Where's monsieur Mustard-seed?

Must. Ready.

Bot. Give me your nief, monsieur Mustard-seed. Pray you, leave your courtesy, good monsieur. Must. What's your will?

Bot. Nothing, good monsieur, but to help cavalero Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber's, monsieur; for, methinks, I am marvellous hairy about the face: and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch.

Tita. What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love?

[They sleep.

OBERON advances. Enter Puck.

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 savors 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,
And that same dew, which sometime on the buds
Was wont to swell, like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flowrets' eyes,

Like tears, that did their own disgrace bewail.
When I had, at my pleasure, taunted her,
And she, in mild terms, begg'd my patience,
I then did ask of her her changeling child;
Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent
To bear him to my bower in fairy land.
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 others 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;

The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind
So flew'd, so sanded; and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook-knee'd, and dew-lap'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. 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 observo The rite of May; and, hearing our intent,

[Touching her eyes with an herb. Came here in grace of our solemnity.

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 enamor'd of an ass.

Obe. There lies your love.
'Tita.
How came these things to pass?
O, how mine eyes do loath his visage now!
Obe. Silence, a while.-Robin, take off this head.
Titania, music call; and strike more dead
Than common sleep, of all these five the sense.

Tita. Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep.
Puck. Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own

fool's eyes peep.

Obe. Sound, music. [Still music.] 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 bless it to all fair posterity:

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

Puck. Fairy king, attend and mark;
I do hear the morning lark.

Obe. Then, my queen, in silence sad,
Trip we after the night's shade:
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wand'ring moon.

Tita. Come, my lord; and in our flight,
Tell me how it came this night,
That I sleeping here was found,
With these mortals, on the ground. [Exeunt.
[Horns sound within.
Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train.
The. Go, one of you, find out the forester;-
For now our observation is perform'd;
And since we have the vaward' of the day,
My love shall hear the music of my hounds.-
Uncouple in the western valley; 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.

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
Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.
1 For art.

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 and shouts within. DEMETRIUS, LYSANDER,
HERMIA, and HELENA, wake and start up.
The. Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is
past;

Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
Lys. Pardon, my lord.

The.

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

I know you are two 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: But as yet, I swear
I cannot truly say how I came here:
But, as I think, (for truly would I speak,-
And now I do bethink me, so it is,)

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, Deme-
trius,

Thereby to have defeated you and me:
You, of your wife; and me, of my consent;
Of my consent that she should be your wife.

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 doth the snow, seems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gawd,
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:
But, like in sickness, did I loath this food:
But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
Now do I wish it, love it, long for it,
And will for evermore be true to it.

The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
Of this 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, Hippolyta.

[Exeunt THE., HIP., EGE., and train. Dem. These things seem small and undistinguishable,

Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.

SCENE II-Athens. A Room in Quince's House.

Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING.

Quin. Have you sent to Bottom's house? is he come home yet!

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

• Flu. If he come not, then the play is marred; It goes not forward, doth it?

Quin. It is not possible: you have not a man in all Athens, able to discharge Pyramus, but he.

Flu. No; he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft man in Athens.

Quin. Yea, and the best person too: and he is

Her. Methinks, I see these things with parted a very paramour, for a sweet voice.

[Exeunt.

As they go out, BOTTOм awakes. Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer :-my next is, Most fair Pyramus.-Hey, ho!-Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout, the tinker! Starveling! God's 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 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 t in the latter end of the play, before the duke! Peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it at her death. [Exeunt.

Flu. You must say, paragon: a paramour is,
God bless us, a thing of nought.
Enter SsUG.

Snug. Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and there is two or three lords and ladies more married: if our sport had gone forward, we had all been made men.

Flu. O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a day during his life; he could not have 'scaped sixpence a-day: an the duke had not given him sixpence a-day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged; he would have deserved it: sixpence a-day, in Pyramus, or nothing.

Enter BOTTOM.

Bot. Where are these lads? where are these hearts? Quin. Bottom!-O most courageous day! O most happy hour!

Bot. Masters. I am to discourse wonders: but ask me not what; for, if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I will tell you every thing, right as it fell out. Quin. Let us hear, sweet Bottom.

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

ACT V.

SCENE I-An Apartment in the Palace of One sees more devils than vast hell can hola;

Theseus.

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE,

Lords, and Attendants.

Hip. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers
speak of.

The. More strange than true, I never may believe
These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
Lovers, and madmen, have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,
Are of imagination all compact:*

• Compacted, made.

That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to
heaven,

And, as imagination bodies forth

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

Such tricks hath strong imagination;
That, if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
Or, in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush suppo'd a bear?