Therefore, be out of hope, of question, doubt,
Be certain, nothing truer ; 'tis no jest,
That I do hate thee, and love Helena.

Her. O me! you juggler! you canker-blos-
som; .

You thief of love: what, have you come by night

And stol'n my love's heart from him?

Hel. Fine, i'faith!

Have you no modesty, no maiden shame,
No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear
Impatient answers from my gentle tongue ?
Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet you!

Her. Puppet! why so? Ay, that way goes the
game.

Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures, she hath urg'd ber height;
And with her personage, her tall personage,
Her height forsooth, she hath prevail'd with
him.-

And are you grown so high in his esteem,
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole ? speak ;
How low am I? I am not yet so low,
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.
Her. I pray you, though you mock me, gen-
tlemen,

Let her not hurt me: I was never curst; t
I have no gift at all in shrewishness;
I am a right maid for my cowardice;
Let her not strike me: You, perhaps,

think,

Because she's something lower than myself,
That I can match her.

Her. Lower! bark, again.

may

Her. You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you:

Nay, go not back.

Hel. I will not trust you, I;
Nor longer stay in your curst company.
Your hands, than mine, are quicker for a fray;
My legs are longer though, to run away.

[Exit. Her. I am amaz'd, and know not what to say. [Exit, pursuing HELENA. Obe. This is thy negligence: still thou mistak'st,

Or else commit'st thy knaveries wilfully.
Puck. Believe me, king of shadows, I mis
took.

Did not you tell me, I should know the man
By the Athenian garments he had on?
And so far blameless proves my enterprise,
That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes:
And so far am I glad it so did sort,
As this their jangling I esteem a sport.
Obe. Thou seest, these lovers scek a place to
fight:

Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night;
The starry welkin cover thou anon
With drooping fog, as black as Acheron;
And lead these testy rivals so astray,

As one come not within another's way.
Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,
Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong;
And sometime rail thou like Demetrius ;
And from each other look thou lead them thus,
Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep
With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep:
Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye;

Hel. Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with Whose liquor hath this virtuous property, †

me.

To take from thence all error, with his might,
And make his eye-balls roll with wonted sight.
When they next wake, all this derision
Shall seem a dream, and fruitless vision:
And back to Athens shall the lovers wend, t
With league, whose date till death shall never
end.

Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,
I'll to my queen, and beg her Indian boy;
And then I will her charmed eye release
From monster's view, and all things shall be
peace.

Puck. My fairy lord, this must be done with
baste;

For nights's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,

And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger;

At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and
there,

Troop home to church-yards: damned spirits all,
That in cross-ways and floods have burial,
Already to their wormy beds are gone;
For fear lest day should look their shames
upon,

They wilfully themselves exi'e from light,
And must for aye consort with black-brow'd
night.

Obe. But we are spirits of another sort:

I with the Morning's Love § have oft made
sport;

And, like a forester, the groves may tread,
Even till the eastern gate, all fiery red,
Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,
Turns into yellow gold his salt-green streams.
But, notwithstanding, baste; make no delay :
We may effect this business yet ere day.

[Exit OBERON.
Puck. Up and down, up and down;
I will lead them up and down:

I am fear'd in field and town;

Goblin, lead them up and down.

Here comes one.

Speak. In some bush? Where dost thou hide The man shall have his mare again, and all shall

I did upbraid her, and fall out with her:
For she his hairy temples then had rounded
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
And that same dew, which sometime on the
buds

Was wont to swell, like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flourets' eyes,
Like tears, that did their own disgrace bewail.
When I had, at my pleasure, taunted her,
And she, in mild terms, begg'd my patience,
I then did ask of her her changeling child;
Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent
To bear him to my bower in fairy land.
And now I have the boy, I will undo
This hateful imperfection of her eyes.
And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp
From off the head of this Athenian swain;
That he awaking when the other do,
May all to Athens back again repair;

And think no more of this night's accidents,
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
But first I will release the fairy queen.
Be, as thou wast wont to be;

The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,

So flew'd, so sanded; and their heads are hung

With ears that sweep away the morning dew; Crook-knee'd, and dew-lap'd like Thessalian bulls;

Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like
bells,

Each under each. A cry more tuneable
Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly:

Judge, when you hear.-But, soft; what nymphs
are these?

Ege. My lord, this is my daughter here
asleep :

And this, Lysander: this Demetrius is;
This Helena, old Nedar's Helena :

I wonder of their being here together.
The. No doubt, they rose up early to observe
The rite of May; and, hearing our intent,
Came here in grace of our solemnity.-
But, speak, Egeus; is not this the day

[Touching her eyes with an herb. That Hermia should give answer of her choice?

See, as thou wast wont to see:

Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower

Hath such force and blessed power.

Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.

Tita. My Oberon! what visions have I seen!

Methought, I was enamour'd of an ass.

Obe. There lies your love.

Tita. How came these things to pass?
Oh! how mine eyes do loath his visage now!
Obe. Silence, a while.-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.] Come, my queen, take bands with me,

And rock the ground whereon those 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.

Obe. Then, my queen, in silence sad,
Trip we after the night's shade :
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wand'ring moon.

Ege. It is, my lord.

SANDER, 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.

[He and the rest kneel to THESEUS. The. I pray you all, stand up.

I know you are two rival enemies ;
How comes this gentle concord in the world,
That hatred is so far from jealousy,
To sleep by hate and fear no enmity?

Lys. My lord, I shall reply amazedly,
Half 'sleep, balf waking: But as yet, I swear,
I cannot truly say how I came here:
But, as I think, (for truly would I speak,-
And now I do bethink me, so it is ;)

I came with Hermia hither: our intent
Was, to be gone from Athens, where we might
be

Without the peril of the Athenian law.

Ege. Enough, enough, my lord; you have
enough :

I beg the law, the law upon his head.-
They would have stol'n away, they would,

Demetrius,

Thereby to have defeated you and me:
You, of your wife; and me, of my consent;

Tita. Come, my lord; and in our flight, Of my consent that she should be your wife.
Tell me how it came this night,
That I sleeping here was found,
With these mortals, on the ground.

Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their

[Exeunt. [Horns sound within. | Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and

train.

stealth,

Of this their purpose hither to this wood;

And I in fury hither follow'd them;

Fair Helena in fancy + following me.

But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,
(But by some power it is,) my love to Hermia
Melted as doth the snow, seems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gawd,
Which in my childhood I did dote upon :
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 betroth'd ere I saw Hermia :
But, like in sickness, 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.

The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
Of this discourse we more will hear anon.-
Egeus, I will overbear your will;

For in the temple, by and by with us,
These couples shall eternally be knit.

And, for the morning now is something worn,

As they go out, BOTTOM awakes. Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer :-my text is, Most fair Pyramus.

Enter BOTTOM.

Bot. Where are these lads? where are these hearts ?

Quin. Bottom! O most courageous day! O most bappy hour!

Bot. Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask me not what; for, if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I will tell you every thing, right as it fell out.

Quin. Let us hear, sweet Bottom.

Bot. Not a word of me. All that I will tell you, is, that the duke hath dined. Get your apparel together; good strings to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the palace; every man look o'er his part; for, the short and the long is, our play is preferred. In any case, let Thisby have clean linen; and let not him, that plays the lion, pare bis nails, for they shall hang out of the lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onions, nor garlick, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I do not doubt, but to hear them say, it is a sweet comedy. No more words: away; go, away. [Exeunt.

ACT V.

ment of THESEUS.

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE,
Lords, and Attendants.

Hip. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these
lovers speak of.

The. More strange than true. I never may believe

-Hey, ho!-Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows- SCENE 1.-The same.-A Room in the Apart. mender! Snout, the tinker! Starveling! God's my life! stolen hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream,-Past the wit of man to say what dream it was: Man is but an ass, 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 patched fool, if he will offer to say what me-These thought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen; man's haud is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was. will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream It shall be called Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the latter end of a play, before the duke; Peradventure to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it at her death. [Exit.

antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
Lovers, and madmen, have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,
Are of imagination all compact:
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold ;
That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth giance from heaven to earth, from earth to
heaven;
And, as imagination bodies forth

SCENE II.-Athens.-A Room in QUINCE's The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen

House.

Snug. Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and there is two or three lords and ladies more married: if our sport had gene forward, we had all been made men.

Flu. O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a day during his life; he could not have 'scaped sixpence a-day: an the duke had not given him sixpence a-day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged; he would have deserved it: sixpence a-day, in Pyramus, or nothing.

Turus them to shapes, and gives to airy EO-
thing

A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination;
That, if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
Or, in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush suppos'd a bear ?

Hip. But all the story of the night told over,
And all their minds transfigur'd so together,
More witnesseth than fancy's images.
And grows to something of great constancy; †
But, howsoever, strange, and admirable.

Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and

HELENA.

To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
Call Philostrate.

Philost. Here, mighty Theseus.

I read as much, as from the rattling tongue
Of saucy and audacious eloquence.
Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity,

The. Say, what abridgment have you for this In least, speak most, to my capacity.

evening?

What mask? what music? How shall we be

By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.
We'll none of that: that have I told my love,
In glory of my kinsman Hercules.

The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,
Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.
That is an old device; and it was play'd
When I from Thebes came last a conqueror.
The thrice three Muses mourning for the
death

Of learning, late deceas'd in beggary.
That is some satire, keen, and critical,
Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.

A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus,
And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.
Merry and tragical? Tedious and brief?
That is, hot ice, and wonderous strange snow.
How shall we find the concord of this discord?
Philost. A play there is, my lord, some ten
words long;

Which is as brief as I have known a play;
But by ten words, my lord, it is too long;
Which makes it tedious: for in all the play
There is not one word apt, one player fitted.
And tragical, my noble lord, it is;
For Pyramus therein doth kill himself.
Which, when I saw rehears'd, I must confess,
Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears
The passion of loud laughter never shed.

The. What are they, that do play it?
Philost. Hard-handed men, that work in
Athens here,

Which never laboured in their minds till now;
And now have toil'd their unbreath'd me.

mories

With this same play, against your nuptial.
The. And we will hear it.

Philost. No, my noble lord,

It is not for you: I have heard it over,

And it is nothing, nothing in the world;
Unless you can find sport in their intents,
Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain,
To do you service.

The. I will hear that play;
For never any thing can be amiss,
When simpleness and duty tender it.

But with good will. To show our simple
skill,

That is the true beginning of our end.
Consider then, we come but in despite,
We do not come as minding to content you,
Our true intent is. All for your delight,
We are not here. That you should here
repent you,
The actors are at hand; and, by their show,
You shall know all, that you are like to

Go, bring them in-and take your places,"
ladies.
[Exit PHILOSTRATE.

Hip. I love not to see wretchedness o'er-
charg'd,

And duty in his service perishing.
The. Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no
such thing.

Hip. He says, they can do nothing in
kind.

this

"Presenteth moonshine: for, if you will know,

By moonshine did these lovers think no scoru "To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to

Woo.

"This grisly beast, which by name lion hight,‡
"The trusty Thisby, coming first by night,
Did scare away, or rather did affright:
"And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall;
"Which lion vile with bloody mouth did
stain:

The. The kinder we, to give them thanks for"
nothing.

Our sport shall be, to take what they mistake:
And what poor duty cannot do,

Noble respect takes it in might, not merit.
Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
Make periods in the midst of sentences,
Throttle their practis'd accent in their fears,
And, in conclusion, dumbly have broke off,
Not paying me a welcome: Trust me, sweet,
Out of this silence, yet, I pick'd a welcome;
And in the modesty of fearful duty

Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth, and tall, "And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain: "Whereat with blade, with bloody blameful blade,

"He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breast;

"And, Thisby tarrying in mulberry shade

"His dagger drew, and died. For all the

rest,

"Let lion, moonshine, wall, and lovers twain,
"At large discourse, while here they do re-
main."

[Exeunt PROLOGUE, THISBE, LION, and
MOONSHINE.