THESEUS, Duke of Athens.
EGEUS, Father to Hermia.

}

in love with Hermia.

HELENA, in love with Demetrius.

LYSANDER,
DEMETRIUS,
PHILOSTRATE, Master of the Revels to Theseus. OBERON, King of the Fairies.

QUINCE, a Carpenter.

SNUG, a Joiner.

TITANIA, Queen of the Fairies.
PUCK, or Robin Goodfellow.

PEASE-BLOSSOM,

COBWEB,
Мотн,

MUSTARD-SEED,

}

Fairies.

HIPPOLYTA, Queen of the Amazons, betrothed Other Fairies attending their King and Queen.

to Theseus.

Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta.

SCENE.-Athens, and a Wood near it.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-Athens. The Palace of THESEUS.

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE,

and Attendants.

The. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour Draws on apace: four happy days bring in Another moon; but O! methinks how slow

This old moon wanes; she lingers my desires, 4 With feigning voice, verses of feigning love;

Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments; 12 Consent to marry with Demetrius,

Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;

Turn melancholy forth to funerals;

The pale companion is not for our pomp.

Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,
And won thy love doing thee injuries;
But I will wed thee in another key,

With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling.

Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and
DEMETRIUS.

Ege. Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!
The. Thanks, good Egeus: what's the nows

with thee?

The. What say you, Hermia? be advis'd, fai maid.

40

I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,
As she is mine, I may dispose of her;
Which shall be either to this gentleman,
Or to her death, according to our law
Immediately provided in that case.

4

For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd,

To live a barren sister all your life,
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
Thrice blessed they that master so their blood,
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,
Than that which withering on the virgin thorn
Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.

76

Her. So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,

Ere I will yield my virgin patent up

80

Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke

My soul consents not to give sovereignty.

60

Her. I do entreat your Grace to pardon me.
I know not by what power I am made bold,
Nor how it may concern my modesty
In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
But I beseech your Grace, that I may know
The worst that may befall me in this case,
If I refuse to wed Demetrius.

The. Either to die the death, or to abjure
For ever the society of men.

Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires;
Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
Whe'r, if you yield not to your father's choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun,

But, being over-full of self-affairs,
My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come;
And come, Egeus; you shall go with me,

120

64 I have some private schooling for you both. 116
For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself
To fit your fancies to your father's will,
Or else the law of Athens yields you up,
Which by no means we may extenuate,
To death, or to a vow of single life.
Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love?
Demetrius and Egeus, go along:
I must employ you in some business
Against our nuptial, and confer with you
Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.
Ege. With duty and desire we follow you.

72

124

[Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, DEMETRIUS, and Train.

Lys. How now, my love! Why is your cheek

so pale?

128°

How chance the roses there do fade so fast? Her. Belike for want of rain, which I could well

The. Take time to pause; and, by the next Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes.

And what is mine my love shall render him; 96
And she is mine, and all my right of her
I do estate unto Demetrius.

Lys. Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,, War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it, Making it momentany as a sound,

Lys. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he,
As well possess'd; my love is more than his; 100 And ere a man hath power to say, 'Behold!'

Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,

144

There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee,
And to that place the sharp Athenian law
Cannot pursue us. If thou lov'st me then,
Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night,
And in the wood, a league without the town, 165
Where I did meet thee once with Helena,
To do observance to a morn of May,
There will I stay for thee.
Her.

Her. Take comfort: he no more shall see my
face;

Lysander and myself will fly this place.
Before the time I did Lysander see,
Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me:
O! then, what graces in my love do dwell,
That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell.

204

Lys. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold.
To-morrow night, when Phœbe doth behold 209
Her silver visage in the wat'ry glass,
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,-
A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal, -
Through Athens' gates have we devis'd to steal.

Her. And in the wood, where often you and I

My good Lysander! 168 Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,

I swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow,
By his best arrow with the golden head,
By the simplicity of Venus' doves,
By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,
And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage
queen,
173

When the false Troyan under sail was seen,
By all the vows that ever men have broke, -
In number more than ever women spoke, - 176
In that same place thou hast appointed me,
To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.

Lys. Keep promise, love. Look, here comes
Helena.

197

Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet, 216
There my Lysander and myself shall meet;
And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,
To seek new friends and stranger companies.
Farewell, sweet playfellow: pray thou for us;
And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!
Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight
From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.
Lys. I will, my Hermia. - [Exit HERMIA.
Helena, adieu:

221

22

As you on him, Demetrius dote on you! [Exit.
Hel. How happy some o'er other some can be!
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she;
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
He will not know what all but he do know; 220
And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,
So I, admiring of his qualities.

23

24

Things base and vile, holding no quantity, 23:
Love can transpose to form and dignity.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste;
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguil'd.
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear
So the boy Love is perjur'd every where;
For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,
He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine
And when this hail some heat from Hermia fel
So he dissolv'd, and showers of oaths did mel
I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:
Then to the wood will he to-morrow night
Pursue her; and for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:
But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
To have his sight thither and back again. [Ex

22

Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, dear; thy Thisby dear, and lady dear!'

Bot. We will meet; and there we may rehearse more obscenely and courageously. Take pains; be perfect; adieu.

You do their work, and they shall have good luck:

41

Are you not he?
Puck.

Fairy, thou speak'st aright;

115

[Exeunt.
Exe

Quin. At the duke's oak we meet.
Bot. Enough; hold, or cut bow-strings.

АСТ П.

SCENE I.-A Wood near Athens.

Enter a Fairy on one side, and PUCK on the
other.

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 moone's 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 see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In their freckles live their savours:

44

I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon, and make him smile
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal :
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab;
And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob
And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.
The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me; 52
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,

4 And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;

8

12

48

And then the whole quire hold their hips and loff;

And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and

I have forsworn his bed and company.

20

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.

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, 65
And in the shape of Corin sat all day,
Playing on pipes of corn, and versing love
24 To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here, 68
Come from the furthest steppe of India?
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,
Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded, and you come 72
To give their bed joy and prosperity.

And now they never meet in grove, or green, 28
By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,
But they do square; that all their elves, for

fear,