Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea
Contagious fogs; which, falling in the land,
Have every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents: 92
The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard:
The fold stands empty in the drowned field, 96
And crows are fatted with the murrion 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 Hiems' thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change 112
Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which.
And this same progeny of evil comes
From our debate, from our dissension:
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.
Set your heart at rest; The fairy land buys not the child of me. His mother was a votaress of my order: And, in the spiced Indian air, by night, Fall often hath she gossip'd by my side, And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands, Marking the embarked traders on the flood; 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?
My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou remember'st
Since once I 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 couldst not,
Flying between the cold moon and the earth, 156
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 his bow,
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quench'd in the chaste beams of the wat❜ry
moon,
And the imperial votaress passed on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,
Obe. Having once this juice I'll watch Titania when she is asleep, And drop the liquor of it in her eyes: The next thing then she waking looks upon, Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull, On meddling monkey, or on busy ape, She shall pursue it with the soul of love: And ere I take this charm off from her sight, As I can take it with another herb, I'll make her render up her page to me. But who comes here? I am invisible, 140 And I will overhear their conference.
Tita. Perchance, till after Theseus' wedding. day.
I you will patiently dance in our round,
Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?
The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.
Thou told'st me they were stol'n into this wood;
And here am I, and wood within this wood, 192
Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
Hence! get thee gone, and follow me no more.
Hel. You draw me, you hard-hearted ada-
mant:
But yet you draw not iron, for my heart 196
Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw,
And I shall have no power to follow you.
Dem. Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair?
Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth
Tell you I do not nor I cannot love you?
Hel. And even for that do I love you the more.
I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you: 204
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
What worser place can I beg in your love,
And yet a place of high respect with me,
Than to be used as you use your dog?
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Obe. Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave
this grove,
Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love.
Re-enter PUCK.
Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.
Puck. Ay, there it is.
Obe.
I pray thee, give it me. 248
I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine: 252
There sleeps Titania some time of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
208 And there the snake throws her enamell❜d skin
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
250 And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,
Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my And make her full of hateful fantasies.
When thou wak'st, it is thy dear.
Wake when some vile thing is near.
Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA.
Lys. Fair love, you faint with wandering in the
wood;
And to speak troth, I have forgot our way: 36
We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,
And tarry for the comfort of the day.
Her. Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed,
For I upon this bank will rest my head.
Lys. One turf shall serve as pillow for us both; One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth. Her. Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear,
Lie further off yet, do not lie so near.
[Squeezes the flower on LYSANDER'S eyelids.]
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 eyelid:
So awake when I am gone;
For I must now to Oberon.
Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running.
Hel. Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Deme-
trius.
Dem. I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt
me thus.
Hel. O! wilt thou darkling leave me? do not so.
Dem. Stay, on thy peril: I alone will go.
[Exit DEMETRIUS.
Hel. O! I am out of breath in this fond chase.
The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace. 89
Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies;
For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.
How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears:
If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers. 93
48 No, no, I am as ugly as a bear;
Lys. O! take the sense, sweet, of my innocence,
Love takes the meaning in love's conference.
I mean that my heart unto yours is knit,
30 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.
Her. Lysander riddles very prettily:
Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,
if Hermia meant to say Lysander lied.
Bat, gentle friend, for love and courtesy
Lie further off; in human modesty,
ach 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!
For beasts that meet me run away for fear;
Therefore no marvel though Demetrius
Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus.
What wicked and dissembling glass of mine
Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne?
But who is here? Lysander! on the ground! 100
Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.
Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake.
Lys. [Awaking.] And run through fire I will
for thy sweet sake.
Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,
That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.
Where is Demetrius? O! how fit a word
Is that vile name to perish on my sword.
Hel. Do not say so, Lysander; say not so. 108 What though he love your Hermia? Lord! what though?
Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content.
Lys. Content with Hermia! No: I do repent
The tedious minutes I with her have spent. 112
Not Hermia, but Helena I love:
Who will not change a raven for a dove?
The will of man is by his reason sway'd,
And reason says you are the worthier maid. 116
Things growing are not ripe until their season;
So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;
And touching now the point of human skill,
Reason becomes the marshal to my will,
And leads me to your eyes; where I o'erlook
Love's stories written in love's richest book.
Hel. Wherefore was I to this keen mockery
born?
When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?
Is't not enough, is 't not enough, young man,
That I did never, no, nor never can,
Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye,
But you must flout my insufficiency?
Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth,
you do,
In such disdainful manner me to woo.
But fare you well: perforce I must confess
Bot. Not a whit: I have a device to make all well. Write me a prologue; and let the prologue 128 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.
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To honour Helen, and to be her knight. [Exit. Bot. Nay, you must name his name, and hal Her. [Awaking.] Help me, Lysander, help his face must be seen through the lion's neck me! do thy best 145 and he himself must speak through, saying thus To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast. or to the same defect, Ladies,' or, 'Fair ladies, Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here! 'I would wish you,' or, 'I would request you,' or Lysander, look how I do quake with fear: 148 'I would entreat you, not to fear, not to tremble Methought a serpent eat my heart away, my life for yours. If you think I come hither a And you sat smiling at his cruel prey. a lion, it were pity of my life: no, I am no such Lysander! what! remov'd?-Lysander! lord! thing: I am a man as other men are;' and ther What! out of hearing? gone? no sound, no indeed let him name his name, and tell ther word? 152 plainly he is Snug the joiner.
Alack! where are you? speak, an if you hear;
Speak, of all loves! I swound almost with fear.
No! then I well perceive you are not nigh:
Either death or you I'll find immediately. [Exit.
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 Moonshine. Then, there is another thing: we must have a wall in the great chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby, says the story, did talk through the chink of a wall.
69 Snug. You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom?
Bot. Some man or other must present Wall; and let him have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast about him, to signify wall; and let him hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper. 76 Quin. If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down, every mother's son, and rehearse your parts. Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken your speech, enter into that brake; and so every one according to his cue.
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