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Lysander! what, removed! 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.

[The night deepens during the preceding scene.
exit of HERMIA the new moon is seen to rise.

Enter TITANIA, with her Train.

Tita. Come, now a roundel, and a fairy song;
Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;
Some, to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds:
Some, war with rear-mice for their leathern wings,
To make my small elves coats; and some keep back
The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots and wonders
At our quaint spirits: sing me now asleep,
Then to your offices, and let me rest.

[Exit. At the

SONG.

I.

1. Fai. You spotted snakes, with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not scen;

Newts, and blind-worms, do no wrong;
Come not near our fairy queen :

CHORUS.

Philomel, with melody

Sing in our sweet lullaby;

Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby;
Never harm, nor spell, nor charm,

Come our lovely lady nigh;

So, good-night, with lullaby.

II.

2 Fai. Weaving spiders, come not here:

Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence,
Beetles black, approach not near;

Worm, nor snail, do no offence.

CHORUS.

Philomel, with melody, etc.

[Exeunt FAIRIES. TITANIA sleeps.

Enter OBERON.

Obe. What thou scest, when thou dost wake,

[Squeezes the flower on TITANIA's eyelids.

Do it for thy true-love take;

Love and languish for his sake;
Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
In thy eye that shall appear
When thou wak'st, it is thy dear;

Wake, when some vile thing is near.

[Exit.

[The curtain slowly falls when the moon reaches its height and its rays fall on TITANIA. To the strain which brings the curtain down, it slowly again ascends..

41

ACT III.

SAME SCENE.-The curtain rises, disclosing TITANIA still asleep on the bank, C. The moon is not in sight, but its rays still fall on the scene.

Enter QUINCE, SNUG, FLUTE, SNOUT, STARVELING, and BOTTOM,

Bot. Are we all met?

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 Thisbe that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that?

Snout. By 'r lakin, a parlous fear.

Star. I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is donc.

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.

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-foul than your lion, living; and we ought to look to 't.

lion.

.

Snout. Therefore, another prologue must tell he is not a

If

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. 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 moonlight into a chamber: for, you know, Pyramus and Thisbe meet by moonlight.

Snug. Doth the moon shine that night we play our play? Bot. A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanac ; find out moonshine, find out moonshine.

Quin. Yes, it doth shine that night.

[After consulting a scroll. Bot. Why, then may you leave a casement of the great chamber-window, where we play, open; and the moon may shine in at the casement.

Quin. Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lantern, and say he comes to disfigure, or to present, the person of Moonshine. Then there is another thing; we must have a wall in the great chamber; for Pyramus and Thisbe, says the story, did talk through the chink of a wall.

Snug. You can never bring in a wall.-What say you, Bot

tom ?

Bot. Some man or other must present wall; and let him have some plaster, or some loam, or some roughcast, about him, · to signify wall; or let him hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisbe whisper.

Quin. If that may be, then all is well. mother's son, and rehearse your parts.

Come, sit down, every
Pyramus, you begin:

when you have spoken your speech, enter into that brake; and so every one according to his cuc.

[They sit about, some lying at full length.

Enter PUCK, behind.

Puck. What hempen homespuns have we swaggering 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 :-Thisbe, stand forth.

Bot. [As PYRAMUS.] Thisbe, the flowers of odious savours

sweet.

Quin. Odours, odours.

Bot. [As PYRAMUS.]

-odours savours sweet:

So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisbe, dear. But, hark, a voice! stay thou but here a while, And by and by I will to thee appear.

[Exit to the R.

Puck. [Aside.] A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here! [Exit after BOTTOM.

Flu. Must I speak now?

Quin. Ay, marry, must you for you must understand he goes but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again. Flu. [As THISBE.] Most radiant Pyramus, most lily white of huc,

Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier,

Most brisky juvenal, and cke 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, cucs and all.-Pyramus, enter; your cue is past; it is, never tire.

Re-enter PUCK, and after him BOTTOM with an ass's head. Flu. [As THISBE.] O,-As true as truest horse, that yet would never tire.

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