Quin. You can play no part but Pyramus: for Call'd Robin Good-fellow are you not he, Pyramus is a sweet-faced man; a proper man, as That fright the maidens of the villagery; one shall see in a summer's day; a most lovely, Skim milk; and sometimes labour in the quern," gentleman-like man; therefore you must needs And bootless make the breathless housewife churn; play Pyramus. And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;
Quin. Why, what you will.
Bot. Well, I will undertake it. What beard Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm: were I best to play it in? Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck, You do their work, and they shall have good luck: Bot. I will discharge it in either your straw-Are not you he? coloured beard, your orange-tawny beard, your Puck. Thou speak'st aright; purple-in-grain beard, or your French-crown-co-I am that merry wanderer of the night. lour beard, your perfect yellow. I jest to Oberon, and make him smile, Quin. Some of your French crowns have no hair When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, at all, and then you will play bare-faced.-But, Neighing in likeness of a filly foal: masters, here are your parts: and I am to entreat And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl, you, request you, and desire you, to con them by In very likeness of a roasted crab;2 to-morrow night: and meet me in the palace wood, And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob, a mile without the town, by moon-light; there will And on her wither'd dew-lap pour the ale. we rehearse for if we meet in the city, we shall The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale, be dogg'd with company, and our devices known. Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me: In the mean time I will draw a bill of properties,' Then slip I from her bum, down topples she, such as our play wants. I pray you, fail me not. And tailor cries, and falls into a cough; Bot. We will meet; and there we may rehearse And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe more obscenely, and courageously. Take pains; And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear be perfect; adieu. A merrier hour was never wasted there.But room, Faery, here comes Oberon.
Quin. At the duke's oak we meet.
Bot. Enough; Hold, or cut bow-strings. [Exe.
SCENE I-9 wood near Athens. Enter a Fairy
at one door, and Puck at another.
Puck. How now, spirit! whither wander you?
Fai. Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire,
I do wander every where,
Swifter than the moones sphere;
And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green:
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you sce;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours:
I must go seek some dew-drops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
Farewell, thou lob of spirits, I'll be gone;
Our queen and all her elves come here anon.
Puck. The king doth keep his revels here to-night;
Take heed, the queen come not within his sight.
For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,
Because that she, as her attendant, hath
A lovely boy, stol'n from an Indian king;
She never had so sweet a changeling:
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild:
But she, perforce, withholds the loved boy,
Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her
joy:
And now they never meet in grove, or green,
By fountain clear, or spangled star-light sheen,"
But they do square; that all their elves, for fear,
Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there.
Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making
quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite,
(1) Articles required in performing a play.
(2) At all events.
(4) A term of contempt.
(3) Circles.
(5) Shining.
Fai. And here my mistress:-'Would that he were gone!
|SCENE II.-Enter Oberon, at one door, with his train, and Titania, at another, with hers.
Obe. Il met by moon-light, proud Titania.
Tita. What, jealous Oberon? Fairy, skip hence;
have forsworn his bed and company.
Obe. Tarry, rash wanton; Am not I thy lord?
Tita. Then I must be thy lady: But I know
When thou hast stol'n away from fairy land,
And in the shape of Corin sat all day,
Playing on pipes of corn, and versing love
To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,
Come from the farthest steep of India?
But that forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,
Your buskin'd mistress, and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded; and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.
Obe. How canst thou thus, for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering
From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
And make him with fair Æglé break his faith,
With Ariadne, and Antiopa?
Tita. These are the forgeries of jealousy:
And never, since the middle summer's spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead,
By paved fountain, or by rushy brook,
Or on the beached margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport:
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea
Contagious fogs; which falling in the land,
Have every pelting19 river made so proud,
That they have overborne their continents:11
The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat; and the green corn
Hath rotted, ere his youth attain'd a beard:
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock;
(6) Quarrel. (7) Mill.
(9) Wild apple. (10) Petty.
(11) Banks which contain them.
The nine men's morris' is fill'd up with mud;
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
For lack of tread, are undistinguishable:
The human mortals want their winter here;
No night is now with hymn or carol blest:-
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound:"
And thorough this distemperature, we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose;
And on old Hyems' chin, an icy crown,
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set: The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries; and the 'mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which:
And this same progeny of evils comes
From our debate, from our dissension;
We are their parents and original.
Obe. Do you amend it then; it lies in you:
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy,
To be my henchman.4
Tita.
Set your heart at rest,
The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a vot'ress of my order:
And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,
Full often hath she gossip'd by my side;
And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,
Marking the embarked traders on the flood;
When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive,
And grow big-bellied, with the wanton wind:
Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait
(Following her womb, then rich with my young
'squire,)
Would imitate; and sail upon the land,
To fetch me trifles, and return again,
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;
And, for her sake, I do rear up her boy:
And, for her sake, I will not part with him.
Obe. How long within this wood intend you stay?
Tita. Perchance, till after Theseus' wedding-day.
If you will patiently dance in our round,
And see our moon-light revels, go with us;
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.
Obe. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.
Tita. Not for thy kingdom.-Fairies, away:
We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.
[Exeunt Titania and her train. Obe. Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove,
Till I torment thee for this injury.-
My gentle Puck, come hither: Thou remember'st
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back,
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song;
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear the sea-maid's music.
Obe. That very time I saw (but thou could'st not,) Flying between the cold moon and the earth, Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took At a fair vestal, throned by the west; And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow, As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts: But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft Quench'd in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon; And the imperial vot'ress passed on,
(1) A game played by boys.
(2) Autumn producing flowers unseasonably.
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,-
Before, milk-white; now purple with love's
wound,-
And maidens call it, love-in-idleness.
Fetch me that flower; the herb I show'd thee once;
The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid,
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb: and be thou here again,
Ere the leviathan can swim a league.
Puck. I'll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes.
[Exit Puck.
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,
On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,)
She shall pursue it with the soul of love.
And ere I take this charm off from her sight
(As I can take it, with another herb,)
I'll make her render up her page to me.
But who comes here? I am invisible;
And I will over-hear their conference.
Enter Demetrius, Helena following him.
Dem. I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
Where is Lysander, and fair Hermia?
The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.
Thou told'st me, they were stol'n into this wood.
And here am I, and woods within this wood,
Because I cannot meet with Hermia.
Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
Hel. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant; But yet you draw not iron, for my heart Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw, And I shall have no power to follow you.
Dem. Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair? Or rather, do I not in plainest truth Tell you-I do not, nor I cannot love you?
Hel. And even for that do I love you the more. I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, The more you beat me, I will fawn on you: Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave, Unworthy as I am, to follow you. What worser place can I beg in your love (And yet a place of high respect with me,) Than to be used as you use your dog?
Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit; For I am sick, when I do look on thee.
Hel. And I am sick when I look not on you. Dem. You do impeach" your modesty too much, To leave the city, and commit yourself Into the hands of one that loves you not; To trust the opportunity of night, And the ill counsel of a desert place, With the rich worth of your virginity.
Hel. Your virtue is my privilege for that. It is not night, when I do see your face, Therefore I think I am not in the night: Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company; For you, in my respect, are all the world: Then how can it be said, I am alone, When all the world is here to look on me? Dem. I'll run from thee, and hide me in the brakes, And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.
Hel. The wildest hath not such a heart as you. Run when you will, the story shall be chang'd;
(3) Produce. (4) Page. (5) Exempt from love. (6) Mad, raving. (7) Bring in question.
Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
Makes speed to catch the tiger: bootless speed!
When cowardice pursues, and valour flies.
Dem. I will not stay thy questions; let me go:
Or, if thou follow me, do not believe
But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.
Hel. Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius !
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:
We cannot fight for love, as men may do;
We should be woo'd, and were not made to woo.
Pll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell,
To die upon the hand I love so well.
[Exeunt Dem. and Hel.
Obe. Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave
Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love.
Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.
Puck. Ay, there it is.
Obe.
I pray thee, give it me,
I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,
Where ox-lips2 and the nodding violet grows;
Quite over-canopied with lush3 woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania, some time of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamell❜d skin
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantasies.
Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove
A sweet Athenian lady is in love
With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;
Bit do it, when the next thing he espies
May be the lady: thou shalt know the man
By the Athenian garments he hath on.
Effect it with some care; that he may prove
More fond on her, than she upon her love:
And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.
Puck. Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do
SCENE III.-Another part of the wood.
Titania, with her train.
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And to speak truth, I have forgot our way;
We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,
And tarry for the comfort of the day.
Her. Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed,
For I upon this bank will rest my head.
Lys. One turf shall serve as pillow for us both,
One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth.
Her. Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear,
Lic further off yet, do not lie so near.
Lys. O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence;
Love takes the meaning, in love's conference.
I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit,
So that but one heart we can make of it':
Two bosoms interchained with an oath;
So then, two bosoms, and a single troth.
Then, by your side no bed-room me deny;
For, lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.
Her. Lysander riddles very prettily:--
Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,
[Exeunt. If Hermia meant to say, Lysander lied.
Enter Lie further off'; in human modesty
But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy
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Such separation, as, may well be said,
Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid:
So far be distant; and good night, sweet friend:
Thy love ne'er alter, till thy sweet life end!
Lys. Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I;
And then end life, when I end loyalty!
Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest!
Her. With half that wish the wisher's eyes be
press'd!
[They sleep.
Puck. Through the forest have I gone,
But Athenian found I none,
On whose eyes I might approve
This flower's force in stirring love.
Night and silence! who is here?
Weeds of Athens he doth wear :
This is he, my master said,
Despised the Athenian maid;
And here the maiden, sleeping sound,
On the dank and dirty ground.
Pretty soul! she durst not lie
Near this lack-love, kill-courtesy.
Churl, upon thy eyes I throw
All the power this charm doth owc:10
(1) By. (2) The greater cowslip. (3) Vigorous. (7) Efts. (8) Slow-worms. (9) The small tiger. (4) A kind of dance.
When thou wak'st, let love forbid
Sleep his seat on thy eyelid.
So awake, when I am gone;
For I must now to Oberon.
Enter Demetrius and Helena, running.
Hel. Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.
Dem. I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt
me thus.
Her. [Starting.] Help me, Lysander, help me :
do thy best,
To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!
[Exit. Ah me, for pity!-what a dream was here!
Lysander, look, how I do quake with fear:
Methought a serpent eat my heart away,
And you sat smiling at his cruel prey:-
Lysander! what, remov'd? Lysander! lord!
What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word?
Alack, where are you? speak, an if you hear;
Speak, of all loves; I swoon almost with fear.
No?-then I well perceive you are not nigh:
Either death, or you, I'll find immediately. [Exit.
Hel. O, wilt thou darkling1 leave me? do not so.
Dem. Stay, on thy peril; I alone will go.
[Exit Demetrius.
Hel. O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!
The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.
Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies;
For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.
How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears:
If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers.
No, no, I am as ugly as a bear;
For beasts that meet me, run away for fear:
Therefore, no marvel, though Demetrius
Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus.
What wicked and dissembling glass of mine
Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne?
But who is here ?-Lysander! on the ground!
Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound :-
Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake.
Lys. And run through fire I will, for thy sweet
sake.
[Waking.
Transparent Helena! Nature here shows art,
That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.
Where is Demetrius ? O, how fit a word
Is that vile name, to perish on my sword!
Hel. Do not say so, Lysander; say not so:
What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what
Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content.
Lys. Content with Hermia? No: I do repent
The tedious minutes I with her have spent.
Not Hermia, but Helena I love:
Who will not change a raven for a dove?
The will of man is by his reason sway'd;
And reason says you are the worthier maid.
Things growing are not ripe until their season:
So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;
And touching now the point of human skill,
Reason becomes the marshal to my will,
And leads me to your eyes; where I o'erlook
Love's stories written in love's richest book.
Hel. Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?
When, at your hands, did I deserve this scorn?
Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man,
That I did never, no, nor never can,
Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye,
But you must flout my insufficiency?
SCENE I-The same. The queen of fairies lying asleep. Enter Quince, Snug, Bottom, Flute, Snout, and Starveling.
Quin. Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place for our rehearsal: this green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn brake our tyring-house; and we will do it in action, as we will do it before the duke.
Bot. Peter Quince,-
Quin. What say'st thou, bully Bottom?
Bot. There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisby, that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that?
Snout. By'rlakin, a parlous fear.
Star. I believe, we must leave the killing out, when all is done.
Bot. Not a whit; I have a device to make all well. Write me a prologue: and let the prologue seem to say, we will do no harm with our swords: and that Pyramus is not killed indeed: and, for the more better assurance, tell them, that I, Pyramus, am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put them out of fear.
Quin. Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall be written in eight and six.
Bot. No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight.
Snout. Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?
Star. I fear it, I promise you.
Bot. Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves: to bring in, God shield us! a lion among ladies, is a most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful wild-fowl than your lion, living; and we ought to look to it.
Snout. Therefore, another prologue must tell he
Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do, is not a lion.
In such disdainful manner me to woo.
But fare you well: perforce I must confess,
I thought you lord of more true gentleness."
O, that a lady, of one man refus'd,
Should, of another, therefore be abus'd!
Lys. She sees not Hermia :-Hermia, sleep thou
there;
And never may'st thou come Lysander near!
For, as a surfeit of the sweetest things
The deepest loathing to the stomach brings;
Or, as the heresies, that men do leave,
Are hated most of those they did deceive;
So thou, my surfeit, and my heresy,
Of all be hated; but the most of me!
And all my powers, address your love and might,
To honour Helen, and to be her knight !
Bot. Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must be seen through the lion's neck; and he himself must speak through, saying thus, or to the same defect,-Ladies, or fair ladies, I would wish you, or, I would request you, or, I would entreat you, not to fear, not to tremble: my life 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 man as other men are:-and there, indeed, let him name his name; and tell them plainly, he is Snug the joiner.
Quin. Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard things; that is, to bring the moon-light into a chamber: for you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moon-light.
Snug. Doth the moon shine, that night we play our play?
By all that is dear.. (3) Bv our ladykin. (4) Dangerous. (5) Terrible
Bot. A calendar, a calendar! look in the alma-| nac; find out moon-shine, find out moon-shine. Quin. Yes, it doth shine that night.
Bot. Why, then you may leave a casement of the great chamber window, where we play, open; and the moon may shine in at the casement.
Bot. Why do they run away? this is a knavery of them, to make me afeard.*
Snout. O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on thee?
Bot. What do you see? you see an ass's head
Quin. Ay; or else one must come in with a bush fthorns and a lanthorn, and say, he comes to dis-of your own; Do you? figure, or to present, the person of moon-shine. Then there is another thing: we must have a wall in the great chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby, says the story, did talk through the chinks of a wall. Snug. You never can bring in a wall.-What say you, Bottom?
Quin. Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art translated. [Exit. Bot. I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me; to fright me, if they could. But I will not Bot. Some man or other must present wall: and stir from this place, do what they can: I will walk let him have some plaster, or some loam, or some up and down here, and I will sing, that they shall rough-cast about him, to signify wall; or let him hear I am not afraid. hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper.
Quin. If that may be, then all is well: Come, sit down, every mother's son, and rehearse your parts. Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken your speech, enter into that brake, and so every one according to his cue.
Puck. What hempen home-spuns have we swag-
gering here,
So near the cradle of the fairy queen?
What, a play toward? I'll be an auditor;
An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause.
Quin. Speak, Pyramus:-Thisby, stand forth.
Pyr. Thisby, the flowers of odious savours
sweet,-
Quin. Odours, odours.
Pyr.-
-Odours savours sweet:
The ousel-cock, so black of hue,
With orange-tawny bill,
The throstle with his note so true,
The wren with little quill;
Tita. What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?
[Waking.
The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,
The plain-song cuckoo' gray,
Whose note full many a man doth mark,
And dares not answer, nay ;—
for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a
bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he
cry, cuckoo, never so?
Tita. I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:
Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note,
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me,
On the first view, to say, to swear, I love thee.
So doth thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear.-
But, hark, a voice! stay thou but here a while,
Bot. Methinks, mistress, you should have little
And by and by I will to thee appear.
[Exit. reason for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason
Puck. A stranger Pyramus than e'er play'd here! and love keep little company together now-a-days:
[Aside.-Exit. the more the pity, that some honest neighbours will
not make them friends. Nay, I can gleek," upon
This. Must I speak now? Quin. Ay, marry, must you: for you must un-occasion. derstand, he goes but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again.
This. Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of
Of colour like the red-rose on triumphant brier, Most briskly juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew, As true as truest horse, that yet would never tire, I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb. Quin. Ninus tomb, man: why you must not speak that yet; that you answer to Pyramus: you speak all your part at once, cues and all.-Pyramus enter; your cue is past; it is, never tire. Re-enter Puck, and Bottom with an ass's head. This. O,-As true as truest horse, that yet would
Pyr. If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine :-
Quin. O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted.
Pray, masters! fly, masters! help! [Exe. Clowns.
Puck. I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round,
Through bog, through bush, through brake, through
brier;
Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound,
A hog, a beardless bear, sometime a fire;
And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,
Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.
Tita. Out of this wood do not desire to go;
Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.
I am a spirit, of no common rate;
The summer still doth tend upon my state,
And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;
I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee;
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep:
And sing, while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep:
And I will purge thy mortal grossness so,
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.
Peas-blossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustard-seed!
Enter four Fairies.
Where shall we go?
Tita. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes;
Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,"
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;
The honey bags steal from the humble-bees,
And, for night tapers, crop their waxen thighs,
And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,
(3) The last words of the preceding speech, (4) Afraid. (5) The cuckoo, with his uniform note. which serve as a hint to him who is to speak next. (6) Joke. (7) Gooseberries.
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