With ears that fweep away the morning dew;
Crook-knee'd, and dew-lap'd, like Theffalian bulls,
Slow in purfuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tuneable

Was never hollow'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
In Creet, in Sparta, nor in Theffaly:

Judge when you hear. But foft, what nymphs are these?
Ege. My lord, this is my daughter here afleep,
And this Lyfander, this Demetrius is,

This Helena, old Nedar's Helena ;

I wonder at their being here together.

Thef. No doubt they rofe up early to observe
The Rite of May, and hearing our intent,
Came here in grace of our folemnity.
But fpeak Egens, is not this the day

That Hermia fhould give answer of her choice?
Ege. It is, my lord.

Thef. Go bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.`

Horns, and they wake. Shout within, they all start up.

Thef. Good morrow friends; Saint Valentine is past:
Begin thefe wood-birds but to couple now?
Lyf. Pardon, my lord.

Thef. I pray you all stand up :
I know you two are rival enemies.

How comes this gentle concord in the world,
That hatred is fo far from jealoufie,
To fleep by hate, and fear no enmity?
Lyf. My lord, I fhall reply amazedly,
Half fleep, half waking. But as yet I swear
I cannot truly fay how I came here:
But as I think, (for truly would I fpeak,)
And now I do methink me, fo it is;

1 came with Hermia hither. Our intent
Was to be gone from Athens, where we might be
Without the peril of th' Athenian law.

Ege. Enough, enough, my lord, you have enough; I beg the law, the law upon his head:

They would have ftoll'n away, they would, Demetrius,

1

Thereby

Thereby to have defeated you and me,
You of your wife, and me of my confent;
Of my confent that she should be your wife.
Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
Of this their purpofe hither to this wood;
And I in fury hither follow'd them;

Fair Helena in fancy follow'd me:

upon:

But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,
But by fome power it is, my love to Hermia
Is melted as the fnow, feems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle † gaude
Which in my childhood I did doat
And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,
The object and the pleasure of mine eye,
Is only Helena. To her, my lord,
Was I betrothed ere I Hermia faw;
But like a fickness did I loath this food;
But as in health come to my natural taste,
Now do I wish it, love it, long for it,
And will for evermore be true to it.

Thef. Fair lovers you are fortunately met:
Of this difcourfe we fhall hear more anon.
Egeus, I will over-bear your will,

For in the temple, by and by with us,
Thefe couples fhall eternally be knit;

And for the morning now is fomething worn,
Our purpos'd hunting fhall be fet afide.
Away with us to Athens, three and three,
We'll hold a feaft in great folemnity.

Come Hippolita.

[Exe. Duke and lords.

Dem. These things feem fmall and undiftinguishable, Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.

Her. Methinks I fee thefe things with parted eye, When every thing feems double

Hel. So methinks;

And I have found Demetrius like a jewel;

Mine own, and not mine own.

Dem. It feems to me.

That yet we fleep, we dream. Do not you think

The

Gawde, or Bawble.

The Duke was here, and bid us follow him ?
Her. Yea, and my father.

Hel. And Hippolita.

Lyf. And he bid us to follow to the temple.

Dem. Why then we are awake; let's follow him, And by the way let us recount our dreams. [Exeunt. [Bottom wakes.

SCENE III.

Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will anhey ho, fwer. My next is, Moft fair Pyramus. Peter Quince! Flute the bellows-mender! Snout the tinker! Starveling! god's my life! ftol'n hence, and left me asleep. I have had a most rare vifion. I had a dream paft the wit of man to fay what dream it was: man is but an afs if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was, there is no man can tell what. Methought I was, and methought I had. But man is but a patch'd fool, if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not feen; man's hand is not able to tafte, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report Quince to write a ballad of this dream; it shall be call'd Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom and I will fing it in the latter end of a play before the Duke peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I fhall fing it at her death.

what my dream was. I will get Peter

SCENE IV.

[Exit.

Enter Quince, Flute, Snowt, and Starveling.*

Quin. Have you fent to Bottom's houfe is he come home yet?

Star. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is tranfported.

Flute. If he come not, then the play is marr’d. It goes not forward, doth it?

Quin. It is not poffible; you have not a man in all Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he,

Flute

Flute. No, he hath fimply the best wit of any handy-craft man in Athens."

Quin. Yea, and the best perfon too; and he is a very paramour for a fweet voice.

Flute. You muft fay, paragon; a paramour is (God blefs us) a thing of nought.

Enter Snug.

Snug. Mafters, the Duke is coming from the temple, and there is two or three lords and ladies more married; if our fport had gone forward, we had all been made men.

Flute. O fweet bully Bottom; thus hath he loft fixpence a-day during his life; he could not have 'fcap'd fix-pence a-day; an the Duke had not given him fixpence a-day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hang'd: he would have deferv'd it. Six-pence a-day in Pyramus, or nothing.

Enter Bottom.

Bot. Where are thefe lads? where are these hearts? Quin. Bottom! O moft courageous day! O most happy hour!

Bot. Mafters, I am to difcourfe wonders; but ask me not what; for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I will tell you every thing as it fell out. Quin. Let us hear, fweet Bottom.

Bot. Not a word of me; all I will tell you is that the Duke hath dined. Get your apparel together, good ftrings to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps, meet prefently at the palace, every man look o'er his part; for the fhort and the long is, our play is preferred: in any cafe let Thisby have clean linnen; and let not him that plays the lion pare his nails, for they fhall hang out for the lion's claws; and, most dear actors! eat no onions nor garlick, for we are to utter fweet breath; and I do not doubt to hear them fay, it is a fweet comedy. No more words; away, go away.

I }

[Exeunt.

ACT

ACT V. SCENE I

Enter Thefeus, Hippolita, Egeus, and his Lords.

'T

HIPPOLIT A.

IS ftrange, my Thefeus, what these lovers fpeak of.

Thef. More ftrange than true. I never may believe

Thefe antick fables, nor thefe Fairy toys;
Lovers and madmen have such feething
brains,

Such fhaping fantafies, that apprehend more
Than cooler reafon eyer comprehends.
The lunatick, the lover, and the poet,
Are of imagination all compact:

One fees more devils than vaft hell can hold;
The madman. While the lover, all as frantick,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt.

The poet's eve in a fine frenzy rowling,

Doth glance from heav'n to earth, from earth to heav'n;
And as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to fhape, and gives to aiery nothing
A local habitation and a name.

Such tricks hath ftrong imagination,

That if he would but apprehend fome joy,
It comprehends fome bringer of that joy:
Or in the night imagining fome fear,
How eafie is a bufh fuppos'd a bear?

Hip. But all the ftory of the night told over,
And all their minds transfigur'd fo together,
More witneffeth than fancy's images,
And grows to fomething of great conftancy;
But howsoever ftrange and admirable.

Enter