Puck. Thou speak'st aright ;

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 sometimes 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 dew-lap pour the ale.
The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And tailor cries, and falls into a cough;
And then the whole quire hold their hips, and
loffe ;

And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear
A merrier hour was never wasted there.-
But room, Fairy here comes Oberon.

Is, as in mockery, set: The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter change
Their wonted liveries; and the 'mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is
which :

And this same progeny of evils comes
From our debate, from our dissention;
We are their parents and original.

Obe. Do you amend it then; it lies in you:
Why should Titania cross her Oberon ?
I do but beg a little changeling boy,
To be my henchman. Į

Tita. Set your heart at rest,
The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a vot'ress of my order:
And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,
Full often hath she gossip'd by my side;
And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,

he were gone!

SCENE II.

Enter OBERON, at one door, with his train,
and TITANIA, at another, with her's.
Obe. Il met by moon-light, proud Titania.
Tita. What, jealous Oberon? Fairy, skip
hence;

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

Obe. How canst thou thus, for shame, Titania,

Glance at my credit with Hyppolyta,
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?

Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night

From Perigenia, whom he ravish'd?

And make him with fair Æglé break his faith, With Ariadne, and Antiopa ?

Tita. These are the forgeries of jealousy: And never, since the middle summer's spring, Met we on bill, in dale, forest, or mead, By paved fountain or by rushy brook, Or on the beached margent of the sea, To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind, But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd

sport.

our

Therefore the winds piping to us in vain,
As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea
Contagions fogs; which falling in the land,
Have every pelting + river made so proud,
That they have overborne their continents: t
The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat; and the green

cora

Hath rotted, ere his youth attain'd a beard:
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock;
The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud;
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread are undistinguishable:
The human mortals want their winter here;
No night is now with hymn or carol blest :-
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound:
And thorough this distemperature, we see
The seasons alter: hoary headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose;
And on old Hyems' chin, and icy crown,
An oderous chaplet of sweet summer buds
+ Petty.
1 Bank which contain them.
A gane played by boys.

• Wild apple.

When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive, And grow big-bellied, with the wanton wind: Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait,

(Following her womb, then rich with my young 'squire,)

Would imitate; and sail upon the land,
To fetch me trifles, and return again,
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
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?

Tita. Perchance, till after Theseus' weddingday.

If you will patiently dance in our round,
And see our moon-light revels, go with us;
If not shun me, and I will spare your haunts.
Obe. Give me that boy, and I will go with
thee.

Tita. Not for thy kingdom.-Fairies, away: We shall chide down-right, if I longer stay. [Exeunt TITANIA, and her train. Obe. Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove,

Till I torment thee for this injury.

My gentle Puck, come hither: Thon remember'st
Since once 1 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 music.

Puck. I remember.

Obe. 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;
And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from bis bow
As it should pierce a hundred thousand bearts:
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quench'd in the chaste beams of the wat'ry
moon;

And the imperial vot'ress passed on,
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.

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

The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids 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.
Puck. I'll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes.
[Exit PUCK

Obe. Having once this juice,

Pyramus and Thisby, says the story, did talk through the chinks of a wall.

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

Bot. Some man or other must present wall: and let him have some plaster, or some k me, or some rough-cast about him, to signify wall; or let him hold his fingers thus, and through

lying asleep.

Quin. If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down, every mother's son, and rehearse your

Bot. Peter Quince,

Quin. What say'st thou, bully Bottom?

Bot. There are things in this comedy of Py. ramus and Thisby, that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw his 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 assurance, tell them, that I Pyramus am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: This will put them out of fear.

Quin. Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall be written in eight and six.

Bot. No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight.

Snout. Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion ?

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 your's. 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.

Quin. Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard things; that is, to bring the moon-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 moon-shine, find out moonshine.

Quin. Yes, it doth shine that night.

Bot. Why, then you may 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 moon-shine. Then, there is another thing: we must have a wall in the great chamber; for

spoken your speech, enter into that brake and 80 every one according to his cue.

Enter PUCK behind.

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

So near the cradle of the fairy queen ?
What, a play toward? I' be an auditor;
An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause.

Quin. Speak, Pyramus :-Thisby, stand forth. Pyr. Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet,

Quin. Odours, odours.

Pyr. -odours savours sweet:

So doth thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear.

But, hark, a voice! stay thou but here a while.

And by and by I will to thee appear.

[Exit. Puck. A stranger Pyramus than e'er play'd here! [Aside.-Exit.

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 lily

white of hue,

Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier,

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 past; it is, never tire.

Re-enter PUCK, and BOTTOM with an ass' head.

This. O-As true as trucst horse, that yet would never tire.

Pyr. If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine :

Quin. O monstrous ! O strange ! we are haunted.

Pray, masters ! fly, masters! help!

[Exeunt Clowns. Puck. I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round,

Through bog, through bush, through brake, through briar;

Sometime a horse I'll be, sometimes a hound,
A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire;
And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and

Tita. What angel wakes me from my flowery bed? [Waking. Bot. 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; And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move

me,

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 no.
I am a spirit, of no common rate;
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 pressed flowers dost
sleep :

And I will purge thy mortal grossness so,
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.-
Peas-blossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustard-
seed!

Enter four FAIRIES.

1 Fai. Ready.

2 Fai. And I.

3 Fai. And I.

4 Fai. Where shall we go?

Here comes my messenger.-How now, mal
spirit?
What night-rule now about this haunted grove ?
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.
The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort, †
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 now I fixed on his head;
Anon, his Thisbe must be answered,
And forth my mimický comes; When they him

thus strong,

man;

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.

things catch.

I led them on in this distracted fear,
And left sweet Pyramus translated there :
When in that moment (so it came to pass,)
Titania wak'd, and straightway lov'd an ass.

Obe. This falls out better than I could devise. But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?

Puck. I took him sleeping,-that is finish'd

↑ Joke.