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My gentle Puck, come hither: Thou remember'st
Since once I sat upon a promontory,

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 musick.

Puck. I remember.

Ob. That very time I saw (but thou could'st 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;

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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 moon;
And the imperial votress passed on,

In maiden meditation, fancy free.

Yet mark'd I where the bolt of cupid fell:

It fell upon a little western flower,

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Before, milk-white; now purple with love's wound,

And maidens call it love-in-idleness.

Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once;

The juice of it, on sleeping eye-lids laid,
Will make or man or woman madly doat

Upon the next live creature that it sees.

Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again,
Ere the leviathan can swim a league.

Puck. I'll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes.

[Exit.

Ob.

Ob. Having once this juice,

I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,

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And drop the liquor of it in her eyes :

The next thing when 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 not. Where is Lysander, and fair Hermia?

The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.

Thou told'st me, they were stoln unto this wood;
And here am I, and wood within this wood,
Because I cannot meet my Hermia.

Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.

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Hel. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant ; 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?
Hel. And even for that do I love you the more.
I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,

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The

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?

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Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit; For I am sick, when I do look on thee.

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

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?

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Dem. I'll run from thee, and hide me in the

brakes,

And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.

Hel. The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
Run when you will, the story shall be chang'd:
Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind

Makes

Makes speed to catch the tyger: Bootless speed!
When cowardice pursues, and valour flies.

Dem. I will not stay thy questions; let me go:
Or, if thou follow me do not believe

But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.

Hel. Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:
We cannot fight for love, as men may do;

We shou'd be woo'd, and were not made to woo.
I'll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell,
To die upon the hand I love so well.

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[Exeunt. Ob. Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this

grove,

Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love.- 250 Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.

Re-enter PUCK.

Puck. Ay, there it is.

Ob. 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-canopy'd 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 enamel'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.

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