Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let us have the tongs and the bones.1 Tita. Or say, sweet love, what thou desir'st to eat. 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 seek 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, Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee! [They sleep. OBERON advances. Enter PUCK. Obe. Welcome, good Robin. sweet sight? See'st thou this Her dotage now I do begin to pity. 1 The old, rough, rustic music of the longs. The folio has this stage direction: "Musicke Tongs, Rurall Music." To bear him to my bower in fairy land. [Touching her eyes with an herb. See as thou wast wont to see. Obe. There lies your love. Tita. How came these things to pass? O, how mine eyes do loath his visage now! Obe. Silence, awhile.-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.] queen, take hands with me, Come, my 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. 1 Dian's bud is the bud of the Agnus Castus. Obe. Then, my queen, in silence sad,1 We the globe can compass soon, Tita. Come, my lord; and in our flight, [Exeunt. [Horns sound within. Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and Train. The. Go, one of you, find out the forester ;- And since we have the vaward of the day, Of hounds and echo in conjunction. 3 Hip. I was with Hercules, and Cadmus, once, 4 The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, So flewed, so sanded; 5 and their heads are hung With ears that sweep away the morning dew; Crook-kneed, and dew-lapped like Thessalian bulls; Slow in pursuit, but matched in mouth like bells, Each under each. A cry more tunable 1 Sad here signifies only grave, serious. 2 i. e. the honors due to the morning of May. 3 Chiding means here the cry of hounds. To chide is used sometimes for to sound, or make a noise, without any reference to scolding. 4 The flews are the large chaps of a deep-mouthed hound. 5 Sanded means of a sandy color, which is one of the true denotements of a blood-hound. Was never hollaed to, nor cheered with horn, Judge, when you hear.-But soft; what nymphs are these? Ege. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep; I wonder of their being here together. The. No doubt, they rose up early, to observe That Hermia should give answer of her choice? The. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns. Horns and shout 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, To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity? I Half 'sleep, half waking. But as yet, I swear, I came with Hermia hither. Our intent Was to be gone from Athens, where we might be Ege. Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough. I beg the law, the law, upon his head. They would have stolen away, they would, Demetrius, 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, But, my good lord, I wot not by what power The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met. And, for the morning now is something worn, Come, Hippolyta. [Exeunt THE., HIP., EGE. and Train. Like far-off mountains turned into clouds. Her. Methinks I see these things with parted eye, When every thing seems double. Hel. So methinks; And I have found Demetrius like a jewel, 1 Fancy is here love or affection, and is opposed to fury. |