1 1 SCENE II.-The same.-A Rvom in a Cottage. Bot. Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best to play it in? Quin. Why, what you will. Bot. I will discharge it in either your straw-colour'd beard, your oravye-lawny beard, your purple-inBot. You were best to call them generally, man by grain beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, man, according to the scrip. your perfect yellow'. Quin. Here is the scroll of every man's name, Quin. Some of your French crowns have no hair which is thought fit, through all Athens, to play in at all, and then you will play bare-faced.-But, our interlude before the duke and duchess, on his masters, here are your parts : and I am to entreat wedding-day at night. you, request you, and desire you, lo con them by toBot. First, good Peter Quince, say what the play morrow night: and meet me in the palace wood, a treats on; then read the names of the actors; and so mile without the town, by moon-light, there will we grow to a point. rehearse : for if we meet in the city, we shall be medy, and inost cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby; the mean time, : and our devices properties Bot. A very good piece of work, I assure you, and such as our play wants. I pray you, fail me not. a merry.--Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your Bot. We will meet; and there we may rehearse actors by the scroll: masters, spread yourselves. more obscenely, and courageously. Take pains; Quin. Answer as I call you.- Nick Bottom, the be perfect; adieu. Quin. At the duke's oak we meet. (Exeunt. Quin. You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus. ACT II. SCENE 1.-A Wood near Athens. Enter a FAIRY at one Door, and Puck at another. Thorough flood, thorough fire, « The raging rocks, I do wander every where, " With shivering shocks, Swifter than the moones sphere: " Shall break the locks And I serve the fairy queen, “ Of prison-gates : To dew her orbs t upon the green: * And Phibbus' car The cowslips tall her pensioners be; “ Shall shine from far, In their gold coats spots you see ; « And make and mar Those be rubies, fairy favours; In those freckles live their savours; Farewell, thou lob ý of spirits, I'll be gone; Our queen and all her elves come here anon. Puck. The king doth keep his revels here to- night; Flu. Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have Because that she, as her attendant, bath A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king; And jealous Oberon would have the child joy: By fountain clear, or spangled star-light sheen 1, But they do square f ; that all their elves, for fear, Creep into acorn-cups, and hide them there. Fal. Either I mistake your shape and making quite, Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite, Call'd Robin Good-fellow; are you not he, And bootless make the breathless housewife churn; Snug. Have you the lion's part written ? Pray you, And sometime make the drink to bear no barm; if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study. Mislead night wanderers, laughing at their harmi Quin. You inay do it extempore, for it is nothing those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck, but roaring. You do their work, and they shall have good luck: I jest to Oberon, and make him smile, All. That would hang us every mother's son. Iu very likeness of a roasted crab; 40l. I grant you, friends, if that you should fright And, wben she drinks, against her lips I bob, Quin. You can play no part but Pyramus : for And tailor cries, and falls into a cough ; + At all events. Circles. 6 A term of contempt. || Shining. • As if. Quarrel. • Mill, you Aad waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear To fetch me trifles, and return again, As from a voyage, rich with merchandize. But she, being mortal, of that boy did die; Fai. And here my mistress :-'Would that he were And, for her sake, I do rear up her boy: gone! And, for her sake, I will not part with him. Obe. How long within this wood intend you stay? SCENE II. Tita. Perchance, till after Theseus' wedding-day. If will patiently dance in our round, Enter OBERON, at one Door, with his Train, and And see our moon-light revels, go with us; If not, shun me, and I will spare your hannts. Obe. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee. Tita. What, jealous Oberon ? Fairy, skip hence; - Tita. Not for thy kingdom.-Fairies, away: I have forsworn his bed and company. We shall chide down-right, if I longer stay. Obe. Tarry, rash wanton; am not I thy lord ? (Ereuni Titania and her Train. Tita. Then I must be thy lady: but I know Obe. Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from tluis When thou hast stol'n away from fairy land, grove, And in the shape of Corin sat all day, Till I torment thee for this injury. Playing on pipes of corn, and versing love My gentle Puck, come hither : thou remember'st To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here, Since once I sat upon a promontory, Come from the farthest steep of India ? And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back, But that, forsooth, the bouneing Amazon, Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, To hear the sea-maid's music. Obe. That very time I saw, (but thou couldst not,) Knowing I know thy love to Theseus? Plying between the cold moon and the earth, Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering Cupid all arm'd : a certain aim he took night At a fair vestal, throned by the west; From Perigenia, whom he ravished ? And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow, And make him with fair Æglé break his faith, As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts': With Ariadne, and Antiopa? But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft Tita. These are the forgeries of jealousy: Quench'd in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon ; And never, since the middle summer's spring, And the imperial vot'ress passed on, Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead, In maiden nieditation, fancy-free By paved fountain, or by rushy brook, Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid sell : Or on the beached margent of the sea, It fell upon a little western flower, To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind, Before, milk-white; now purple with love's wound, But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport, And maidens call it, love-in-idleness. Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain, Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid, Contagious fogs; which falling in the land, Will make or man or woman madly dote Have every pelting river made so proud, Upon the next live creature that it sees. That they have overborne their continents +: Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again, The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain, Ere the leviathan can swim a league. The ploughman lost his sweat; and the green Puck. I'll put a girdle round about the earth corn In forty minutes. (Exit Puck. Hath rotted, ere his youth attain'd a beard : Obe. Having once this juice, (Be it on lion, bear, or woll, or bull, For lack of tread, are undistinguishable : On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,) And ere I take this charm off from her sight, I'll make her render up her page to me. But who comes here? 'I am invisible; And I will over hear their conference, Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA following him. And on old Hyems' chin, and icy erown, Dem. I love thee not, therefore pursue me not. An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds Where is Lysander, and fair Hermia ? Is, as in mockery, ket: the spring, the summer, The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me. The childing ý autumn, angry winter, change Thou told'st me they were stol'n into this wood, Their wonted liveries ; and the 'mazed world, And here am I, and wood + within this wood, By their increase ll, now knows not which is which : Because I cannot meet with Hermia. And this same progeny of evil comes Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more. From our debaie, from our dissention; Hel. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant ; We are their parents and original. But yet you draw not iron, for my heart Obe. Do you amend it then ; it lies in you: Is true as steel : leave you your power to draw, Why should Titania cross her Oberon? And I shall have no power to follow you. I do but beg a little changeling boy, Dem. Do I entice yon? Do I speak you fair? To be my henchman . Or, rather, do I not in plaineet truth Tita. Set your heart at rest, Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you? The fairy land buys not the child of me. Hel. And even for that do I love you the more. His mother was a votress of my order: I am your spaniel ; and, Demetrius, And, in the spiced Indian air by night, The more you beat me, I will fawn on you : Full often hath she gossipp'd by my side; Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands, Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave, Marking the embarked traders on the flood; Unworthy as I am, to follow you. When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive, What worser place can I beg in your love, And grow big-bellied, with the wanton wind : (And yet a place of high respeci with me,) Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait, Ihan to be used as you use your dog? (Following her womb, then rich with my young Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit, 'squire,) For I am sick, when I do look on thee. Would imitate; and sail upon the land, Hel. And I am sick, when I look not on you. Dem. You do impeach your modesty loo much, • Petty. + Banks which contain them. To leave the city, and commit yourself * A game played at by boys. Autumn producing flowers unseasonably. • Exempt from love. + Mad, raving. Produce. Page. Bring in question. this grove, Into the hands of one that loves you not; II. 2 Fai. Wearing spiders, come not here , Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, lence; Beetles black, approach not near ; Il orm, nor snail, do no offence Chorus Philomel, with melody, &c. 1 Fai. Hence, away ; now all is well : One aloot, stand centinel. [Errunt Fairies.-Titania sleeps Enter OBERON. (Squeezes the flower on Titania's eye-lids. Apollo tlies, and Daphne holds the chase ; Do it for thy true love lake; Love and languish for his sake: Pard, or boar with bristled hair, When thou wak'st, it is thy dear ; Wake, when some vile thing is near. [Full Enter LYSANDER and Hrama. Lys. Fair love, you faint with wandering in th wood: We'li rest us, Hermia, if you think it good, And tarry for the comtort of the day. Hur. Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed Obe. Fare thee well, nymph: 'ere he do leave For I upon this bank will rest my head. Lys. One turf shall serve as pillow for us both; Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love.- One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth, Her. Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear, Lie further oft yet, do not lie so near. Lys. (), take ihe sense, sweet, of my innocence; Love takes the meaning, in love's conference, I mean, that my heart into yours is knit; So that but one heart we can make of it: Two bosoms interchained with an oath; So then, two bosoms, and a single troth. Then, by your side no bed-room me deny; For, lying so, Hermia, I do not lie. ller. Lysander riddles very prettily :- Now much beshrew my manners and my pride, Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in: 11 Hermia meant to say, Lysander lied. But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy Liesither ofl"; in human nodesty Such separation, as may well be said, Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid : So far be distant; and good night, sweet friend : Thy love ne'er alter, till thy sweet life end ! Lys. Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I; And then end lite, when I end loyalty ! Here is my bed : Sleep give thee all his rest! Her. With half that wish the wisher's eyes be [They sleep. Puck. Fear not my lord, your servant shall do so. Enter Puck. (Exeunt. Puck. Through the forest have I gone, But Athenian found I none, On whose eyes I might approve This flower's force in stirring love. Night and silence! who is here! Weeds of Athens he doth wear : This is he, my master said, Despised the Athenian maid. And here the maiden, sleeping sound, On the dark and dirty ground. Pretty soul! she durst not lie Near this lack-love, kill-courtesy. Churl, upon thy eyes I throw All the power this charm doth owe: + When thou wak'st, let love forbid Sleep his seat on thy eye-lid. So awake, when I am gone; For I must now to Oberon. [Erit. Thorny hedge-hogs, be not seen ; Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA running. Hel. Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius. Dem. I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt ine thus. Hel. 0, wilt thou darkling I leave me? Do not so. Den. Stay, on thy peril; I alone will go. (Exit Demetrius. Never, harm, nor spell nor charm, Come our lovely lady nigh; Hel. 0, I am out of breath, in this fond chace! The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace. For she hath blessed, and attractive eyes. Sports. + P ssess In the dark. press'd! 1 • By. How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears : Snout. By’rlakin*, a parloust fear. Star. I believe, we must leave the killing out, when all is done Fur beasts that meet me, run away for fear : Bot. Not a whit; I have a device to make all There tore, no marvel, though Demetrius well. Write me a prologue : and let the prologue Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus. seem to say, we will do no harm with our swords; What wicked and dissembling glass of mine and that l'yramus is not kill'd indeed : and for the Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne * ?- more better assurance, tell them, that I, Pyramus, But who is here ? Lysander! on the ground ! am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: This will Dead! or asleep? I see no blood, no wound : put them out of fear. Lysander, if you live, good Sir, awake. Quin. Well, we will have such a prologue ; and Lys. And run through tire I will, for thy sweet it shall be written in eight and six. sake. [ii aking. Bot. No, make it two more ; let it be written in Transparent Helena! Nature here shews art, eight and eight. That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart. Snout. Will not the ladies be afraid of the lion ? Where is Demetrius ? O, how fit a word ! Stur. I fear it, I promise you. Is that vile name to perish on my sword ! Bot. Masters, you ought to consider with yourHi. Do not say so, Lysander; ay not so: selves: to bring in, God shield us! a lion amoug What though he love your Hernia! Lord, what ladies is a most dreadful thing: for there is not a though? more fearfuli wild-fowl than your lion, living; and Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content. we ought to look to it. Lys. Content with Hermia ? No:1 do repent Snout. Therefore, another prologue must tell, he The tedious minutes I with her have spent. is not a lion. Not Hermia, but Helena I love: Bot. Nay, you must name his name, and half his Who will not change a raren tor a dove? face must be seen through the lion's neck; and he The will of man is by his reason sway'd ; himselt must speak through, saying thus, or to the And reason says you are the worthier maid. same detect,-Ladies, or fair ladies, I would wish Things growing are not ripe until their season: you, or, I would request you, or I would cntreat So I, being young, till now ripe not to reasou: you, not to fear, not to treinble: my liie for yours. And touching now the point of human skill, If you think I conie hither as a lion, it were pity of Reason becomes the marshal to my will, my life: no, I am no such thing; I am a man as And leads me to your eyes; where I o'erlook other men are :- And there indeed, let him name Love's stories, written in love's richest booth. his name; and tell them plainly, he is Snug the Tel. Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born ? joiner. When, at your hands, did I deserve this scorn? Quin. Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard 1a't not enough, is't not enough, young man, things; that is to bring the moonlight into a chamThat I did never, no, nor never can, ber: for you know, Pyranius and Thisby met by Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye, moon-light. But you inust flout my insulliciency? Snug. Doth the moon shine, that night we play Bot. A calendar, a calendar! look in the alma- Quin. Yes, il doth shine that night. Bot. Why, then you may leave a casement of Quin. Ay, or else one must come in with a bush figure, or to present, the person of moon-shine. The deepest loathing to the stomach brings ; Then, there is another thing: we must have a wall Or, as the heresies, that men do leave, in the great chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby, Are hated most of those they did deceive; says the story, did talk through the chink of a wall. So thou, my surfeit, and my heresy, Snug. You never can bring in a wall.-Whai say Of all be hated ; but the most of me! you, Bottom ? And all my powers, address your love and might, Bot. Some man or other must present wall: and To honour Helen, and to be her knight! (Erit. let him have some plaster, or some lome, or some Her. (Starting.) Help me, Lyaunder, help me! do rough cast about him, to signify wall: or let him thy best, hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast ! Pyramus and Thisby whisper. Ah me, for pity - What a dream was here? Quin. If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit Lysander, look, how I do quake with fear: down, every mother's son, and rehearse your parts. Methought, a serpent eat my heart away, Pyramus, you begin : when you have spoken your And you sai smiling at his cruel prey : speech, enter into that brake; and so every one Enter Puck ochind. gering here, What, a play toward? I'll be an auditor; An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause. Quin. Speak, Pyramus :—Thisby, stand forth. SCENE I.-The same.-The Queen of Fairies lying Pyr. Thisby, the flowers of odivus savours sweet, asleep. Quin. Odours, odours. Pur. --odours savours sueet : Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, PLUTE, SNOUT, So doth thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear.. and STARVELING. But, hark, a voice! Stay thou but here a while, And by and by I will to thee appear. (Erit. Puck. A stranger Pyramus than e'er play'd here! [Aside.--Exit. nient place for our rehearsal : this green plot shall This. Must I speak now? be our stage, this hawthorn brake our tyring-house ; and we wiil do it in action, as we will do it before stand, he goes but to see a noise that he heard, and Quin. Ay, marry, must you: for you must underthe duke. is to come again. Bot. Peter Quince,Quin. What say'st thou, bully Bottom ? This. Alosi radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue, Bot. There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisby, that will never please. First, Pyramus Most briskly juvenal, and eke most lovely Jeu', of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier, must draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that? As true as truest horse, that yet would never tire, P'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb. Terrible. you, Sir? Quin. Ninus' tomb, man: why you must not | The honey bags steal from the humble-bees, speak that yet; that you answer io Pyramus: you And, for night tapers, crop their waxen thighs, speak all your part at once, cuese and all.–Pyra- And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes, nius enter : your cue is past; it is, never tire. To have my love to bed, and to arise ; And pluck the wings from painted butterflies, i Fai. Hail, mortal! Quin. O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted. 3 Fai. Hail! Puck. I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round, Bol. I cry your worships mercy, heartily.-1 be- ('ob. Cobweb. Bot. I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good A hog, a heedless bear, sometime a tire; master Cobweb: if I cut iny finger, I shall make And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, bold with you. Your name, honest gentleman ? Like horse, hound, hog, bear, tire, al every turn. Peas. Peas-blossom. [Erit. Bot. I pray you, commend me to mistress Squash, Bot. Why do they run away ? This is a knavery your mother, and to master Peascod, your father. of them, to make me afeard t. Good master Peas-blossom, I shall desire you or more acquaintance too.—Your name, I beseech Re-enter SNOUT. Snout. O Bottom, thou art changed! What do I Mus. Mustard seed. see on thee? Bot. Good master Mastard-seed, I know your pa Bot. What do you see ? You see an ass's head of tience well: that same cowardly, giant-like, or your own; Do you ! beef hath devour'd many a gentlenian of your Re-enter QUINCE. house : I promise you, your kindred hath made my eyes water ere now. I desire you more acquailQuin. Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art tance, good master Mustard seed. translated. [Eiit. Tita. Come, watt upon him; lead him to my Bol. I see their knavery : this is to inake an ass bower. of me; to fright me, if they could. But I will not The moon, methinks, looks with a watery eye; stir from this place, do what they can: I will walk And when she weeps, weeps every little tiower, up and down here, and I will sing, that they shall Lamenting some enforced chastity. hear I am not afraid. (Sings. Tie up my love's tongue, bring him silently, The ou sel-cock, so black of hue, (Eseunt. With orange-tawney bill, The throstle with his note so true, SCENE II.-Another part of the Wood. Enter OSERON. (Waking. Then, what was it that next came in her eye, Bot. The finch, the sparrow, and the lark, Which she must dote on in extremity. Enter Puck. Here comes my messenger.-How now, mad spirit! Near to her close and consecrated bower, A crew of patches +, rude mechanicals, That work for bread upon Athenian stails, Bot. Methinks, mistress, you should have little The shallowest thick-skin ot that barren sort I, Anon, his Thisbe inust be answered, Bot. Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye, Rising and cawing at the gun's report Sever themselves, and madly sweep the sky; And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls; He murder cries, and help from Athens calls, And I do love thee: therefore, go with me; Their sense, thus weak, lost with their tears, thus I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee; strong, And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep, Made senseless things begin to do them wrong; And sing, while thou on pressed flowers doth sleep: For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch; And I will purge thy mortal grossness so, Some, sleeves; some hats : from yielders all things catch, And left sweet Pyramus translated there: When in that moment, (so it came to pass,) Titania waked, and straightway loved an ass. 2 Fai. And I. Obe. This falls out better than I could devise. 3 Fai. And I. But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes 4 Fai. Where shall we go? With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do? And the Athenian woman by his side; That, when he waked, of force she must be eyed. Enter DEMETRIUS and HERMIA. • The last words of the preceding speech, which Obe. Stand close; this is the same Athenian. serve as a hint to him who is to speak next. Puck. This is the woman, but not this the man. Afraid. 1 The cuckoo with her note. • Revelry. + Simple fellows. Stupid company. Ø Head. s Infected. |