Slow in purfuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tuneable

Was never holloo'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Theffaly:

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

This Helena, old Nedar's Helena;

I wonder at their being here together.

The. 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, Egeus, is not this the day

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

The. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.

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

The. Good morrow, friends; faint Valentine is past:
Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
Lyf. Pardon, my lord.

The. I pray you all, ftand up:

I know, you two are rival enemies.

How comes this gentle concord in the world,
That hatred is fo far from jealoufy,

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 speak)
And now I do methink me, fo it is:

I came with Hermia hither. Our intent

Was to be gone from Athens, where we might

Be without peril of th' Athenian law.

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

They

They would have ftol'n away, they would, Demetrius,
Thereby to have defeated you and me;

You of your wife, and me of my confent;

Of my consent that she should be your wife.

Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
Of this their purpose hither to this wood;
And I in fury hither follow'd them;

Fair Helena in fancy follow'd me:

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 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 betrothed ere I Hermia faw;
But, like a fickness, did I loath this food;
Yet, as in health, come to my natural taste,
love it, "long for it,

Now do I wish it,

And will for evermore be true to it.

The. 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,
These couples shall eternally be knit ;

And, for the morning now is fomething worn,
Our purpos'd hunting shall be set aside.

Away, with us, to Athens, three and three,
We'll hold a feast in great folemnity.

Come, my Hippolita.

[Exe. duke and lords.

Dem. Thefe things feem fmall, and undistinguishable,

Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.

Her. Methinks, I see these things with parted eye,

When every thing seems double.

Hel. So, methinks;

And

And I have found Demetrius, a jewel,

Mine own, and not mine own.

Dem. It seems to me,

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

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.

Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will anfwer. My next is, most fair Pyramus - hey, ho! Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snowt, the tinker! Starveling! god's my life! ftol'n hence, and left me afleep! I have had a most rare vision. I had a dream past the wit of man to fay 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 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 taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was. I will get Peter 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 the play before the duke: peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall fing it after death.

SCENE IV.

Athens.

Enter Quince, Flute, Snowt, and Starveling.

Quin. Have you fent to Bottom's house?

fent to Bottom's houfe? is he come home yet? Star. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt, he is transported.

Flute..

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

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

Flute. You muft fay, paragon; a paramour is, God bless us! a thing of naught.

Enter Snug.

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

Flute. O fweet bully Bottom! thus hath he loft fix-pence a-day, during his life; he could not have 'scap'd fix-pence a-day; an the duke had not given him fix-pence 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 these lads? where are these hearts?

Quin. Bottom! o most courageous day! o most happy hour! Bot. Masters, I am to difcourfe wonders; but afk 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 strings to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps, meet presently 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 linen; and Îet not him that plays the lion pare his nails, for they shall hang out for 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 to hear them fay, it is a fweet comedy. No more words; away,

go away.

[Exeunt.

ACT

ACT V. SCENE I.

Enter Thefeus, Hippolita, Egeus, and his lords.

HIPPOLITA.

IS ftrange, my Thefeus, what these lovers speak of.
The. More strange than true. I never may believe

These antick fables, nor these fairy toys;

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such fhaping fantafies, that apprehend
More than cool reafon ever comprehends.
The lunatick, the lover, and the poet,
Are of imagination all compact:

One fees more devils than vast hell can hold;

The madman. While the lover, all as frantick,

Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt.

The poet's eye, 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 shape, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation, and a name.

Such tricks hath ftrong imagination,
That, if it would but apprehend fome joy,
It comprehends fome bringer of that joy:
So in the night imagining fome fear,

How easy is a bush fuppos'd a bear?

Hip. But all the story of the night told over,
And all their minds transfigur'd fo together,
More witnesseth than fancy's images,
And grows to fomething of great conftancy;
Be't howsoever strange and admirable.

VOL. I.

R

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Enter