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ACT I, SCENE I.

Athens. The palace of THESEUS.

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Attendants

THESEUS
001: Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
002: Draws on apace; four happy days bring in
003: Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow
004: This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,
005: Like to a step-dame or a dowager
006: Long withering out a young man revenue.

HIPPOLYTA
007: Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;
008: Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
009: And then the moon, like to a silver bow
010: New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night
011: Of our solemnities.

THESEUS
012: Go, Philostrate,
013: Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
014: Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;
015: Turn melancholy forth to funerals;
016: The pale companion is not for our pomp.
[Exit PHILOSTRATE]
017: Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,
018: And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
019: But I will wed thee in another key,
020: With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.

Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS

EGEUS
021: Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!

THESEUS
022: Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with thee?

EGEUS
023: Full of vexation come I, with complaint
024: Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
025: Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,
026: This man hath my consent to marry her.
027: Stand forth, Lysander: and my gracious duke,
028: This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child;
029: Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
030: And interchanged love-tokens with my child:
031: Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,
032: With feigning voice verses of feigning love,
033: And stolen the impression of her fantasy
034: With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
035: Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers
036: Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth:
037: With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart,
038: Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,
039: To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke,
040: Be it so she; will not here before your grace
041: Consent to marry with Demetrius,
042: I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,
043: As she is mine, I may dispose of her:
044: Which shall be either to this gentleman
045: Or to her death, according to our law
046: Immediately provided in that case.

THESEUS
047: What say you, Hermia? be advised fair maid:
048: To you your father should be as a god;
049: One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
050: To whom you are but as a form in wax
051: By him imprinted and within his power
052: To leave the figure or disfigure it.
053: Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.

HERMIA
054: So is Lysander.

THESEUS
055: In himself he is;
056: But in this kind, wanting your father's voice,
057: The other must be held the worthier.

HERMIA
058: I would my father look'd but with my eyes.

THESEUS
059: Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.

HERMIA
060: I do entreat your grace to pardon me.
061: I know not by what power I am made bold,
062: Nor how it may concern my modesty,
063: In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
064: But I beseech your grace that I may know
065: The worst that may befall me in this case,
066: If I refuse to wed Demetrius.

THESEUS
067: Either to die the death or to abjure
068: For ever the society of men.
069: Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires;
070: Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
071: Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
072: You can endure the livery of a nun,
073: For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd,
074: To live a barren sister all your life,
075: Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
076: Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood,
077: To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
078: But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,
079: Than that which withering on the virgin thorn
080: Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness.

HERMIA
081: So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
082: Ere I will my virgin patent up
083: Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke
084: My soul consents not to give sovereignty.

THESEUS
085: Take time to pause; and, by the nest new moon--
086: The sealing-day betwixt my love and me,
087: For everlasting bond of fellowship--
088: Upon that day either prepare to die
089: For disobedience to your father's will,
090: Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would;
091: Or on Diana's altar to protest
092: For aye austerity and single life.

DEMETRIUS
093: Relent, sweet Hermia: and, Lysander, yield
094: Thy crazed title to my certain right.

LYSANDER
095: You have her father's love, Demetrius;
096: Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him.

EGEUS
097: Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love,
098: And what is mine my love shall render him.
099: And she is mine, and all my right of her
100: I do estate unto Demetrius.

LYSANDER
101: I am, my lord, as well derived as he,
102: As well possess'd; my love is more than his;
103: My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,
104: If not with vantage, as Demetrius';
105: And, which is more than all these boasts can be,
106: I am beloved of beauteous Hermia:
107: Why should not I then prosecute my right?
108: Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,
109: Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,
110: And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
111: Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
112: Upon this spotted and inconstant man.

THESEUS
113: I must confess that I have heard so much,
114: And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof;
115: But, being over-full of self-affairs,
116: My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come;
117: And come, Egeus; you shall go with me,
118: I have some private schooling for you both.
119: For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself
120: To fit your fancies to your father's will;
121: Or else the law of Athens yields you up--
122: Which by no means we may extenuate--
123: To death, or to a vow of single life.
124: Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love?
125: Demetrius and Egeus, go along:
126: I must employ you in some business
127: Against our nuptial and confer with you
128: Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.

EGEUS
129: With duty and desire we follow you.

Exeunt all but LYSANDER and HERMIA

LYSANDER
130: How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale?
131: How chance the roses there do fade so fast?

HERMIA
132: Belike for want of rain, which I could well
133: Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.

LYSANDER
134: Ay me! for aught that I could ever read,
135: Could ever hear by tale or history,
136: The course of true love never did run smooth;
137: But, either it was different in blood,--

HERMIA
138: O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low.

LYSANDER
139: Or else misgraffed in respect of years,--

HERMIA
140: O spite! too old to be engaged to young.

LYSANDER
141: Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,--

HERMIA
142: O hell! to choose love by another's eyes.

LYSANDER
143: Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
144: War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
145: Making it momentany as a sound,
146: Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;
147: Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
148: That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
149: And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!'
150: The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
151: So quick bright things come to confusion.

HERMIA
152: If then true lovers have been ever cross'd,
153: It stands as an edict in destiny:
154: Then let us teach our trial patience,
155: Because it is a customary cross,
156: As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,
157: Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers.

LYSANDER
158: A good persuasion: therefore, hear me, Hermia.
159: I have a widow aunt, a dowager
160: Of great revenue, and she hath no child:
161: From Athens is her house remote seven leagues;
162: And she respects me as her only son.
163: There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;
164: And to that place the sharp Athenian law
165: Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,
166: Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night;
167: And in the wood, a league without the town,
168: Where I did meet thee once with Helena,
169: To do observance to a morn of May,
170: There will I stay for thee.

HERMIA
171: My good Lysander!
172: I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow,
173: By his best arrow with the golden head,
174: By the simplicity of Venus' doves,
175: By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,
176: And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen,
177: When the false Troyan under sail was seen,
178: By all the vows that ever men have broke,
179: In number more than ever women spoke,
180: In that same place thou hast appointed me,
181: To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.

LYSANDER
182: Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.

Enter HELENA

HERMIA
183: God speed fair Helena! whither away?

HELENA
184: Call you me fair? that fair again unsay.
185: Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!
186: Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's sweet air
187: More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,
188: When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
189: Sickness is catching: O, were favour so,
190: Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;
191: My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,
192: My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.
193: Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
194: The rest I'd give to be to you translated.
195: O, teach me how you look, and with what art
196: You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.

HERMIA
197: I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.

HELENA
198: O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!

HERMIA
199: I give him curses, yet he gives me love.

HELENA
200: O that my prayers could such affection move!

HERMIA
201: The more I hate, the more he follows me.

HELENA
202: The more I love, the more he hateth me.

HERMIA
203: His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.

HELENA
204: None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine!

HERMIA
205: Take comfort: he no more shall see my face;
206: Lysander and myself will fly this place.
207: Before the time I did Lysander see,
208: Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me:
209: O, then, what graces in my love do dwell,
210: That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell!

LYSANDER
211: Helen, to you our minds we will unfold:
212: To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold
213: Her silver visage in the watery glass,
214: Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,
215: A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,
216: Through Athens' gates have we devised to steal.

HERMIA
217: And in the wood, where often you and I
218: Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,
219: Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,
220: There my Lysander and myself shall meet;
221: And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,
222: To seek new friends and stranger companies.
223: Farewell, sweet playfellow: pray thou for us;
224: And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!
225: Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight
226: From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.

LYSANDER
227: I will, my Hermia.
[Exit HERMIA]
228: Helena, adieu:
229: As you on him, Demetrius dote on you!

Exit

HELENA
230: How happy some o'er other some can be!
231: Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
232: But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
233: He will not know what all but he do know:
234: And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,
235: So I, admiring of his qualities:
236: Things base and vile, folding no quantity,
237: Love can transpose to form and dignity:
238: Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
239: And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:
240: Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;
241: Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:
242: And therefore is Love said to be a child,
243: Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
244: As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
245: So the boy Love is perjured every where:
246: For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,
247: He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;
248: And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
249: So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.
250: I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:
251: Then to the wood will he to-morrow night
252: Pursue her; and for this intelligence
253: If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:
254: But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
255: To have his sight thither and back again.

Exit

ACT I, SCENE II.

Athens. QUINCE'S house.

Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING

QUINCE
001: Is all our company here?

BOTTOM
002: You were best to call them generally, man by man,
003: according to the scrip.

QUINCE
004: Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is
005: thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our
006: interlude before the duke and the duchess, on his
007: wedding-day at night.

BOTTOM
008: First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats
009: on, then read the names of the actors, and so grow
010: to a point.

QUINCE
011: Marry, our play is, The most lamentable comedy, and
012: most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby.

BOTTOM
013: A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a
014: merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your
015: actors by the scroll. Masters, spread yourselves.

QUINCE
016: Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver.

BOTTOM
017: Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.

QUINCE
018: You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.

BOTTOM
019: What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant?

QUINCE
020: A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love.

BOTTOM
021: That will ask some tears in the true performing of
022: it: if I do it, let the audience look to their
023: eyes; I will move storms, I will condole in some
024: measure. To the rest: yet my chief humour is for a
025: tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to
026: tear a cat in, to make all split.
027: The raging rocks
028: And shivering shocks
029: Shall break the locks
030: Of prison gates;
031: And Phibbus' car
032: Shall shine from far
033: And make and mar
034: The foolish Fates.
035: This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players.
036: This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is
037: more condoling.

QUINCE
038: Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.

FLUTE
039: Here, Peter Quince.

QUINCE
040: Flute, you must take Thisby on you.

FLUTE
041: What is Thisby? a wandering knight?

QUINCE
042: It is the lady that Pyramus must love.

FLUTE
043: Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming.

QUINCE
044: That's all one: you shall play it in a mask, and
045: you may speak as small as you will.

BOTTOM
046: An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too, I'll
047: speak in a monstrous little voice. 'Thisne,
048: Thisne;' 'Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! thy Thisby dear,
049: and lady dear!'

QUINCE
050: No, no; you must play Pyramus: and, Flute, you Thisby.

BOTTOM
051: Well, proceed.

QUINCE
052: Robin Starveling, the tailor.

STARVELING
053: Here, Peter Quince.

QUINCE
054: Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother.
055: Tom Snout, the tinker.

SNOUT
056: Here, Peter Quince.

QUINCE
057: You, Pyramus' father: myself, Thisby's father:
058: Snug, the joiner; you, the lion's part: and, I
059: hope, here is a play fitted.

SNUG
060: Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if it
061: be, give it me, for I am slow of study.

QUINCE
062: You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.

BOTTOM
063: Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I will
064: do any man's heart good to hear me; I will roar,
065: that I will make the duke say 'Let him roar again,
066: let him roar again.'

QUINCE
067: An you should do it too terribly, you would fright
068: the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek;
069: and that were enough to hang us all.

ALL
070: That would hang us, every mother's son.

BOTTOM
071: I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the
072: ladies out of their wits, they would have no more
073: discretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my
074: voice so that I will roar you as gently as any
075: sucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any
076: nightingale.

QUINCE
077: You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a
078: sweet-faced man; a proper man, as one shall see in a
079: summer's day; a most lovely gentleman-like man:
080: therefore you must needs play Pyramus.

BOTTOM
081: Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best
082: to play it in?

QUINCE
083: Why, what you will.

BOTTOM
084: I will discharge it in either your straw-colour
085: beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain
086: beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, your
087: perfect yellow.

QUINCE
088: Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and
089: then you will play bare-faced. But, masters, here
090: are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request
091: you and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night;
092: and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the
093: town, by moonlight; there will we rehearse, for if
094: we meet in the city, we shall be dogged with
095: company, and our devices known. In the meantime I
096: will draw a bill of properties, such as our play
097: wants. I pray you, fail me not.

BOTTOM
098: We will meet; and there we may rehearse most
099: obscenely and courageously. Take pains; be perfect: adieu.

QUINCE
100: At the duke's oak we meet.

BOTTOM
101: Enough; hold or cut bow-strings.

Exeunt

ACT II, SCENE I.

A wood near Athens.

Enter, from opposite sides, a Fairy, and PUCK

PUCK
001: How now, spirit! whither wander you?

Fairy
002: Over hill, over dale,
003: Thorough bush, thorough brier,
004: Over park, over pale,
005: Thorough flood, thorough fire,
006: I do wander everywhere,
007: Swifter than the moon's sphere;
008: And I serve the fairy queen,
009: To dew her orbs upon the green.
010: The cowslips tall her pensioners be:
011: In their gold coats spots you see;
012: Those be rubies, fairy favours,
013: In those freckles live their savours:
014: I must go seek some dewdrops here
015: And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
016: Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone:
017: Our queen and all our elves come here anon.

PUCK
018: The king doth keep his revels here to-night:
019: Take heed the queen come not within his sight;
020: For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,
021: Because that she as her attendant hath
022: A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king;
023: She never had so sweet a changeling;
024: And jealous Oberon would have the child
025: Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;
026: But she perforce withholds the loved boy,
027: Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy:
028: And now they never meet in grove or green,
029: By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,
030: But, they do square, that all their elves for fear
031: Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there.

Fairy
032: Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
033: Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
034: Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he
035: That frights the maidens of the villagery;
036: Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern
037: And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;
038: And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;
039: Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
040: Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
041: You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
042: Are not you he?

PUCK
043: Thou speak'st aright;
044: I am that merry wanderer of the night.
045: I jest to Oberon and make him smile
046: When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
047: Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
048: And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
049: In very likeness of a roasted crab,
050: And when she drinks, against her lips I bob
051: And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.
052: The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
053: Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
054: Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
055: And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;
056: And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
057: And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear
058: A merrier hour was never wasted there.
059: But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon.

Fairy
060: And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!

Enter, from one side, OBERON, with his train; from the other, TITANIA, with hers

OBERON
061: Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.

TITANIA
062: What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence:
063: I have forsworn his bed and company.

OBERON
064: Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?

TITANIA
065: Then I must be thy lady: but I know
066: When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,
067: And in the shape of Corin sat all day,
068: Playing on pipes of corn and versing love
069: To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,
070: Come from the farthest Steppe of India?
071: But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,
072: Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love,
073: To Theseus must be wedded, and you come
074: To give their bed joy and prosperity.

OBERON
075: How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
076: Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,
077: Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
078: Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night
079: From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
080: And make him with fair AEgle break his faith,
081: With Ariadne and Antiopa?

TITANIA
082: These are the forgeries of jealousy:
083: And never, since the middle summer's spring,
084: Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
085: By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
086: Or in the beached margent of the sea,
087: To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
088: But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.
089: Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
090: As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea
091: Contagious fogs; which falling in the land
092: Have every pelting river made so proud
093: That they have overborne their continents:
094: The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,
095: The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
096: Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard;
097: The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
098: And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;
099: The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud,
100: And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
101: For lack of tread are undistinguishable:
102: The human mortals want their winter here;
103: No night is now with hymn or carol blest:
104: Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
105: Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
106: That rheumatic diseases do abound:
107: And thorough this distemperature we see
108: The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
109: Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
110: And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown
111: An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
112: Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,
113: The childing autumn, angry winter, change
114: Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,
115: By their increase, now knows not which is which:
116: And this same progeny of evils comes
117: From our debate, from our dissension;
118: We are their parents and original.

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

TITANIA
123: Set your heart at rest:
124: The fairy land buys not the child of me.
125: His mother was a votaress of my order:
126: And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,
127: Full often hath she gossip'd by my side,
128: And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,
129: Marking the embarked traders on the flood,
130: When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive
131: And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;
132: Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait
133: Following,--her womb then rich with my young squire,--
134: Would imitate, and sail upon the land,
135: To fetch me trifles, and return again,
136: As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
137: But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;
138: And for her sake do I rear up her boy,
139: And for her sake I will not part with him.

OBERON
140: How long within this wood intend you stay?

TITANIA
141: Perchance till after Theseus' wedding-day.
142: If you will patiently dance in our round
143: And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
144: If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

OBERON
145: Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.

TITANIA
146: Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away!
147: We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.

Exit TITANIA with her train

OBERON
148: Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove
149: Till I torment thee for this injury.
150: My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
151: Since once I sat upon a promontory,
152: And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
153: Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
154: That the rude sea grew civil at her song
155: And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
156: To hear the sea-maid's music.

PUCK
157: I remember.

OBERON
158: That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,
159: Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
160: Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took
161: At a fair vestal throned by the west,
162: And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
163: As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;
164: But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
165: Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
166: And the imperial votaress passed on,
167: In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
168: Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
169: It fell upon a little western flower,
170: Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
171: And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
172: Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once:
173: The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid
174: Will make or man or woman madly dote
175: Upon the next live creature that it sees.
176: Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again
177: Ere the leviathan can swim a league.

PUCK
178: I'll put a girdle round about the earth
179: In forty minutes.

Exit

OBERON
180: Having once this juice,
181: I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,
182: And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.
183: The next thing then she waking looks upon,
184: Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
185: On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,
186: She shall pursue it with the soul of love:
187: And ere I take this charm from off her sight,
188: As I can take it with another herb,
189: I'll make her render up her page to me.
190: But who comes here? I am invisible;
191: And I will overhear their conference.

Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA, following him

DEMETRIUS
192: I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
193: Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?
194: The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.
195: Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood;
196: And here am I, and wode within this wood,
197: Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
198: Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.

HELENA
199: You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;
200: But yet you draw not iron, for my heart
201: Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw,
202: And I shall have no power to follow you.

DEMETRIUS
203: Do I entice you? do I speak you fair?
204: Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth
205: Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?

HELENA
206: And even for that do I love you the more.
207: I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,
208: The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
209: Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
210: Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
211: Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
212: What worser place can I beg in your love,--
213: And yet a place of high respect with me,--
214: Than to be used as you use your dog?

DEMETRIUS
215: Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;
216: For I am sick when I do look on thee.

HELENA
217: And I am sick when I look not on you.

DEMETRIUS
218: You do impeach your modesty too much,
219: To leave the city and commit yourself
220: Into the hands of one that loves you not;
221: To trust the opportunity of night
222: And the ill counsel of a desert place
223: With the rich worth of your virginity.

HELENA
224: Your virtue is my privilege: for that
225: It is not night when I do see your face,
226: Therefore I think I am not in the night;
227: Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
228: For you in my respect are all the world:
229: Then how can it be said I am alone,
230: When all the world is here to look on me?

DEMETRIUS
231: I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,
232: And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.

HELENA
233: The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
234: Run when you will, the story shall be changed:
235: Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
236: The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
237: Makes speed to catch the tiger; bootless speed,
238: When cowardice pursues and valour flies.

DEMETRIUS
239: I will not stay thy questions; let me go:
240: Or, if thou follow me, do not believe
241: But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.

HELENA
242: Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
243: You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!
244: Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:
245: We cannot fight for love, as men may do;
246: We should be wood and were not made to woo.
[Exit DEMETRIUS]
247: I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,
248: To die upon the hand I love so well.

Exit

OBERON
249: Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove,
250: Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love.
[Re-enter PUCK]
251: Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.

PUCK
252: Ay, there it is.

OBERON
253: I pray thee, give it me.
254: I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
255: Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
256: Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
257: With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
258: There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
259: Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
260: And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,
261: Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
262: And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,
263: And make her full of hateful fantasies.
264: Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:
265: A sweet Athenian lady is in love
266: With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;
267: But do it when the next thing he espies
268: May be the lady: thou shalt know the man
269: By the Athenian garments he hath on.
270: Effect it with some care, that he may prove
271: More fond on her than she upon her love:
272: And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.

PUCK
273: Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.

Exeunt

ACT II, SCENE II. Another part of the wood.

Enter TITANIA, with her train

TITANIA
001: Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;
002: Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;
003: Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,
004: Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,
005: To make my small elves coats, and some keep back
006: The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders
007: At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
008: Then to your offices and let me rest.
[The Fairies sing]
009: You spotted snakes with double tongue,
010: Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
011: Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
012: Come not near our fairy queen.
013: Philomel, with melody
014: Sing in our sweet lullaby;
015: Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:
016: Never harm,
017: Nor spell nor charm,
018: Come our lovely lady nigh;
019: So, good night, with lullaby.
020: Weaving spiders, come not here;
021: Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!
022: Beetles black, approach not near;
023: Worm nor snail, do no offence.
024: Philomel, with melody, &c.

Fairy
025: Hence, away! now all is well:
026: One aloof stand sentinel.

Exeunt Fairies. TITANIA sleeps

Enter OBERON and squeezes the flower on TITANIA's eyelids

OBERON
027: What thou seest when thou dost wake,
028: Do it for thy true-love take,
029: Love and languish for his sake:
030: Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
031: Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
032: In thy eye that shall appear
033: When thou wakest, it is thy dear:
034: Wake when some vile thing is near.

Exit

Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA

LYSANDER
035: Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood;
036: And to speak troth, I have forgot our way:
037: We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,
038: And tarry for the comfort of the day.

HERMIA
039: Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed;
040: For I upon this bank will rest my head.

LYSANDER
041: One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;
042: One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth.

HERMIA
043: Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear,
044: Lie further off yet, do not lie so near.

LYSANDER
045: O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!
046: Love takes the meaning in love's conference.
047: I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit
048: So that but one heart we can make of it;
049: Two bosoms interchained with an oath;
050: So then two bosoms and a single troth.
051: Then by your side no bed-room me deny;
052: For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.

HERMIA
053: Lysander riddles very prettily:
054: Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,
055: If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied.
056: But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy
057: Lie further off; in human modesty,
058: Such separation as may well be said
059: Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid,
060: So far be distant; and, good night, sweet friend:
061: Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end!