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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
buds

the

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 Muste.] Come, my

queen, take hands 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'ing moon.

Ege. It is, my lord.

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

Horns, and shout within.

DEMETRIUS, LY

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,
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 Hernia 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;

Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their
stealth,

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

train.

The. Go, one of you, find out the forester ;-
For now our observation is perform'd:
And since we bave the vaward of the day,
My love shall hear the music of my hounds.-
Uncouple in the western valley; go:
Despatch, I say, and find the forester.-
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,
And mark the musical confusion
of hounds and echo in conjunction.

Hip. I was with Hercules, and Cadmus,

once,

When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear
15 th hounds of Sparta : never did I bear
Such callant chiding; + for, besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, every region near
Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.

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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 Heimia
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 bear anon.-
Egeus, I will overbear your will;

For in the temple, by and by with us,
These couples shall eternally be kuit.
And, for the morning now is something worn,

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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 bearts ?

Quin. Bottom! O most courageous day! 0 most happy 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 bis part; for, the short and the long is, our play is preferred. In any case, let Thisby bave clean linen; and let not bim, that plays the lion, pare bis nails, for they shall hang out of the lion's claws. And, most dear actors, cat Bo oui as, nor garlick, for we are to utter sweet treats: and I do not doubt, but to hear them say, it is a sweet comedy. No more words: away; M, [Exeunt.

away.

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 I.-The same.-A Room in the Apartmend r! Snout, the tinker! Starveling! God's my life stolen hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare vision. I bave 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 methought I had. The eye of nian bath not heard, the ear of man bath not seen; inan'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 Dreain, 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.

These 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 port,
Are of imagination all compact:
One sees niore devils thau vast bell can bold;
That is, the madman: the lover, alt as frantic,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolin,
Doth glance 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 Turus them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing

House.

Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVE

LING.

Quin. Have you sent to Bottom's house? is he come home yet?

Star. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt, he is transported.

Flu. If he come not, then the play is marred; It goes not forward, doth it?

Quin. It is not possible: you have not a man in all Athens, able to discharge Pyramus, but he.

Flu. No; he hath simply the best wit of any bandycraft man in Athens.

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

Flu. You must say, paragon: a paramour is, God bless us, a thing of nought.

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.

Flu. O sweet bully Bottom! Thus bath 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.

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A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks bath 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.

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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?

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to be sung,

By an Athenian eunuch to the harp. We'll noue 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

inories

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 bear that play;

For never auy thing can be amiss,
When simpleness and duty tender it.

60,

ladies.

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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

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bring them in :-and take your places," [Exit PHILOSTRATE. Hip. I love not to see wretchedness o'ercbarg'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 this

kind.

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

Oer sport shall be, to take what they mistake: 42341 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 welconies; Where I have seen them shiver and look pale, Make periods in the midst of sentences, i brottle their practis'd accent in their fears, tnd, in conclusion, dumbly have broke off, Sot paying me a welcome: Trust me, sweet, Uit of this silence, yet, I pick'd a welcome; af in the modesty of fearful duty

"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 bight,; "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:

Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth, and tall, "And finds bis 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

84

main."

[Exeunt PROLOGUE, THISBE, LION, and

MOONSHINE.

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The. I wonder, if the lion be to speak. Dem. No wonder, my lord: One lion may, when many asses do.

Wall. In this same interlude, it doth be-
fall,

"That I, one Snout by name, present a wall:
"And such a wall, as I would have you think,
"That bad in it a cranny'd hole, or chink,
"Through which the lovers, Pyramus and
Thisby,

"Did whisper often very secretly.

"This loan, this rough-cast, and this stone doth

show,

"That I am that same wall; the truth is so:
"And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
"Through which the fearful lovers are to
whisper."

The. Would you desire lime and hair to speak
better?

Dem. It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard discourse, my lord.

The. Pyramus draws near the wall: silence!

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[WALL holds up his fingers. liste "Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well

for this!

"But what see I? No Thisby do I see.
"O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss;
"Curst be thy stones for thus deceiving me!"
The. The wall, methinks, being sensible should
curse again.

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Pyr. No, in truth, Sir, he should not. ceiving me, is Thisby's cue: she is to enter now, and I am to spy her through the wall. shall see, it will fall pat as I told you:-Yonder the she comes.

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This. "My love thou art my love, I think."
Pyr. "Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's for

grace;

com

"And like Limander am I trusty still."
This." And I like Helen, till the fates me

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"I thank thee, moon, for shining now 80
bright:

For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering streams,
"I trust to taste of truest Thisby's sight.

"But stay;-O spite !

But mark;-Poor knight,

"What dreadful dole is here ? "Eyes, do you see?

"How can it be?

"O dainty duck! O dear!

"

"Thy mantle good,

"What, stain'd with blood?

Approach, ye furies fell!

"O fates! come, come;

"Cut thread and thrum;

"Quail, crush, conclude, and quell! +” The. This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look Hip. Beshrew my heart, but I pity the

sad.

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Enter THISBE.

Hip. Methinks, she should not use a long one, for such a Pyramus: I hope, she will be brief.

Dem. A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which Thisbe, is the better.

Lys. She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes.

Dem. And thus she moans, videlicet.———

This. "Asleep, my love?

"What, dead, my dove?

"O Pyramus, arise,

"6 Speak, speak. Quite dumb!
"Dead, dead? A tomb

"Must cover thy sweet eyes.
"These lily brows,

"

"This cherry nose,

These yellow cowslip cheeks,

"Are gone, are gone:

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Lovers, make moan!

"His eyes were green as leeks. "O sisters three,

"Come, come, to me, "With hands as pale as milk; "Lay them in gore, Since you bave shore

"With shears his thread of silk. "Tongue, not a word :"Come, rusty sword;

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Dem. Ay, and wall too.

Bot. No, I assure you; the wall is down that parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the epilogue, or to hear a Bergonrask dance between two of our company?

The. No epilogue, 1 pray you; for your play needs no excuse. Never excuse; for when the players are all dead, there need none to be blamed. Marry, if he that writ it, had play'd Pyramus, and hanged himself in Thisbe's garter, it would have been a fine tragedy: and so it is, truly; and very notably discharged. But come, your Bergomask: let your epilogue [Here a dance of Clowns. The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve :fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn, Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time. As much as we this might have overwatch'd. This palpable-gross play hath well beguil'd The heavy gait of night.-Sweet friends, to

alone.

bed.

A fortnight hold we this solemnity, In ùightly revels, and new jollity.

[Exeunt.

SCENE 11.-Enter PUCK.
Puck. Now the hungry lion roars,
And the wolf bebowls the moon;
Whilst the heavy ploughman snores
All with weary task fordone. †
Now the wasted brands do glow,
Whilst the scritch-owl, scritching loud,
Puts the wretch, that lies in woe,
In remembrance of a shroud.
Now it is the time of night,

That the graves, all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite,
In the church-way paths to glide:
And we fairies, that do ruu

By the triple Hecat's team,
From the presence of the sun,
Following darkness like a dream,
Now are frolic; not a mouse
Shall disturb this hallow'd house:
I am sent, with broom, before,
To sweep the dust behind the door.

Enter OBERON and TITANIA, with their Train.

Obe. Through this house give limmering light,

By the dead and drowsy fire:

Every elf, and fairy sprite,

Hop as light as bird from brier;

And this ditty, after me,

Sing and dance it trippingly.

Tita. First, rehearse this song by rote;

To each word a warbling note,

Hand in hand, with fairy grace,
Will we sing, and bless this place.

SONG, and DANCE.

Obe. Now, until the break of day,
Through this house each fairy stray.
To the best bride-bed will we,
Which by us shall blessed be;
And the issue, there create,
Ever shall be fortunates
So shall all the couples three
Ever true in loving be:

And the blots of nature's band
Shall not in their issue stand;

1 Countenance.

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