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Would imitate, and sail upon the land,
To fetch me trifles, and return again,
As from a voyage, rich with merchandize.
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?
[day.
Tita. Perchance till after Theseus' wedding
If you will patiently dance in our round,
And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.
Obe. Give me that boy, and I will go with
[away!
Tita. Not for thy fairy kingdom.-Fairies,
We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.
[Exit Titania, and her train.
Obe. Well, go thy way: thou shalt not
from this grove,

thee.

Till I torment thee for this injury.-
My gentle Puck, come hither: Thou remem-
Since once I sat upon a promontory, [ber'st
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.

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Obe. That very time I saw (but thou couldst 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 watery
And the imperial votaress passed on, [moon,
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. [once:
Fetch me that flower; the herb I show'd thee
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.

Obe.

Puck. I'll put a girdle round about the earth In forty minutes. [Exit. 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 Where is Lysander, and fair Hermia? [not. The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me. Thou told'st me they were stol'n into this wood;

more.

And here am I, and wood within this wood,
Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
Hence! get thee gone, and follow me no
[adamant :
Hel. You draw me, you hard-hearted
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?

[more.

Hel. And even for that do I love you the 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 you.

Hel. And I am sick when I look not on thee. Dem. You do impeach your modesty too To leave the city, and commit yourself [much, 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

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I'll 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 this grove,
Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love.
Re-enter Puck.

Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wan-
Puck. Ay, there it is.
[derer.
Obe.
I pray thee, give it me.
I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,
Where ox-lips, and the nodding violet grows;
Quite over-canopied with luscious 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;
But 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 so.
[Exit.

SCENE III.-Another part of the Wood.

Enter Titania, with her train.

Tita, Come, now a roundel, and a fairy

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Chorus.

1 Fai.

Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm, nor snail, do no offence.
Philomel, with melody, &c.
Hence, away! now all is well.
One, aloof, stand sentinel.

[Exeunt Fairies. Titania sleeps.
Enter Oberon.

Obe. [Squeezes the flower on Titania's eyeWhat thou seest when thou dost wake, [lids.] 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. Enter Lysander and Hermia. Lys. Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood;

[Exit.

And to speak troth, I have forgot our way: We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good, And tarry for the comfort of the day.

Her. Beit so, Lysander: find you out a bed; For I upon this bank will rest my head. [both; Lys. One turf shall serve as pillow for us One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth. [my dear,

Her. Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, Lie farther off yet; do not lie so near. [cence! Lys. O, take the sense, sweet, of my innoLove 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 interchainèd 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, If Hermia meant to say, Lysander lied. But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy Lie further off; in human modesty, 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.

Enter Puck.
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.

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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. [Awaking.] And run through fire I will, for thy sweet sake. 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 though?

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?
Ist 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?
Good troth, you do me wrong,-good sooth,
you do,-

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! [Exit.
Lys. She sees not Hermia.-Hermia, sleep
thou there:

And never mayst 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! [might
And, all my powers, address your love and
To honour Helen, and to be her knight. [Exit.
Her. [Awaking.] Help me, Lysander, help

me! do thy best

To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!
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!
[word?
What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no
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.

ACT III.

[Exit.

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Bot. Peter Quince,—

Quin. What sayst 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 assurlance, that I, Pyramus, am not Pyramus, but

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Snout. Will not the ladies be afeard of the
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 is not a lion.

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.

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. [forth.
Quin. Speak, Pyramus. - Thisby, stand
Pyr. Thisby, the flowers of odious savours
Quin. Odours,' odours." [sweet,"-
Pyr. "Odours savours sweet:
So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby, dear.
But hark, a voice! stay thou but here awhile,
And by and by I will to thee appear."

"

"

[Exit.

[Exit.

Puck. [Aside.] A stranger Pyramus than e'er play'd here! This. 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.

This. "

Most radiant Pyramus, most lilywhite of hue,

[brier, Of colour like the red rose on triumphant Most brisky 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

Quin. Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard things,—that is, to bring the moon-past; it is, "never tire." 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?

Bot. A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanack; find out moonshine, find out moonshine.

Quin. Yes, it doth shine that night.

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 lanthorn, 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 Thisby, says the story, did talk through the chink of a wall.

Snug. You can never bring in a wall.What say you, Bottom?

Bot. Some man or other must present wall: and let him have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast about him, to signify wall; and let him 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.

Enter Puck, behind. Puck. What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here,

This. O,-" As true as truest horse, that yet would never tire." [head. Re-enter Puck, and Bottom with an ass's Pyr. "If I were, fair Thisby, I were only thine: [haunted. Quin. O monstrous! O strange! we are Pray, masters! fly, masters!-Help! [Exit, with Snug, Flute, Snout, and Starveling. 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 headless bear, sometime a fire; neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,

And

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turn.

[Exil. Bot. Why do they run away? this is a knavery of them, to make me afeard. Re-enter Snout.

Snout. O Bottom! thou art changed! what do I see on thee?

Bot. What do you see? you see an ass's head of your own, do you? [Exit Snout.

Re-enter Quince. 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 stir from this place, do what they can: I will walk up and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear I am not afraid. [Sings. The ousel-cock, so black of hue, With orange-tawny bill,

The throstle with his note so true,
The wren with little quill:

Tita. [Waking.] What angel wakes me
from my flowery bed?
Bot. (Sings.]

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; [me, And thy fair virtue's force, perforce doth move On the first view, to say, to swear, I love thee. Bot. Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together now-a-days;--the more the pity, that some honest neighbours will not make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.

Tita. Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful. Bot. Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.

Tita. Out of this wood do not desire to go:
Thou shalt remain here whether thou wilt or
I am a spirit of no common rate; [no.
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 pressèd flowers dost
sleep;

ance, good master Cobweb: if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you.-Your name,

Peas. Peas-blossom. [honest gentleman? Bot. I pray you, commend me to mistress Squash, your mother, and to master Peascod, your father. Good master Peas-blossom, I shall desire you of more acquaintance.--Your name, I beseech you, sir?

Mus. Mustard-seed.

Bot. Good master Mustard-seed, I know
your patience well; that same cowardly, giant-
like ox-beef, hath devoured many a gentleman
of your house: I promise you, your kindred
hath made mine eyes water ere now. I desire
you of more acquaintance, good master Mus-
tard-seed.
[my bower.
Tita. Come, wait upon him; lead him to
The moon, methinks, looks with a wat'ry eye;
And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,
Lamenting some enforced chastity.
Tie up my love's tongue, bring him silently.
[Exeunt.
SCENE II.-Another part of the Wood.
Enter Oberon.

Obe. I wonder if Titania be awak'd;
Then, what it was that next came in her eye,
Which she must dote on in extremity.
Here comes my messenger.-[Enter Puck.]
How now, mad spirit !
[grove?
What night-rule now about this haunted
Puck. My mistress with a monster is in love.
Near to her close and consecrated bower,
While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,
A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,
That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,
Were met together to rehearse a play,
Intended for great Theseus' nuptial day.

And I will purge thy mortal grossness so,
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.- [seed!
Peas-blossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustard-The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort,
Enter Peas-blossom, Cobweb, Moth,
and Mustard-seed.

Peas. Ready.

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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,
To have my love to bed, and to arise;
And pluck the wings from painted butterflies,
To fan the moon-beams from his sleeping eyes:
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.
Peas. Hail, mortal! Cob. Hail!

Moth. Hail!

Mus. Hail!

Who Pyramus presented, in their sport
Forsook his scene, and enter'd in a brake:
When I did him at this advantage take,
An ass's nowl I fixed on his head :
Anon his Thisbe must be answered, [spy,
And forth my mimic comes. When they him
As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,
Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort,
Rising and cawing at the gun's report,
Sever themselves, and madly sweep the sky;
So, at his sight, away his fellows fly;
And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls;
He murder cries, and help from Athens calls.
Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears thus

strong,

Made senseless things begin to do them wrong;
For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch;
Some, sleeves,—some, hats,—from yielders all
things catch.

I led them on in this distracted fear,
And left sweet Pyramus translated there :

Bet. I cry your worships mercy, heartily, When in that moment (so it came to pass,)

-I beseech your worship's name.

Cob. Cobweb.

Titania wak'd, and straightway lov'd an ass.
Obe. This falls out better than I could devise.

Bot. I shall desire you of more acquaint-But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes

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