Leon. No, that you shall not, till you take her Writ in my cousin's hand, stolen from her pocket, hand, Before this friar, and swear to marry her. Claud. Give me your hand before this holy friar; And when you loved, you were my other husband. Nothing certainer: D. Pedro. The former Hero! Hero that is dead! Leon. She died, my lord, but whiles her slander lived. Friar. All this amazement can I qualify; Bene. Soft and fair, friar.- Which is Beatrice? What is your will? Bene. Do not you love me? Beat. No, no more than reason. Bene. Why, then your uncle, and the prince, and Claudio, Have been deceived; for they swore you did. Beat. Do you not love me? No, no more than reason. Beat. Why, then my cousin, Margaret, and Ursula, Are much deceiv'd; for they did swear you did. Bene. They swore that you were almost sick for me. Beat. They swore that you were well-nigh dead for me. Bene. 'Tis no such matter:-Then you do not love me? Beat. No, truly, but in friendly recompense. Leon. Come, cousin, I am sure you love the gentleman. Containing her affection unto Benedick. Bene. A miracle! here's our own hands against our hearts!-Come, I will have thee; but, by this light, I take thee for pity. Beat. I would not deny you; but, by this good day, I yield upon great persuasion; and, partly, to save your life; for I was told you were in a consumption. Bene. Peace, I will stop your mouth. [Kissing her. D. Pedro. How dost thou, Benedick the married man? Bene. I'll tell thee what, prince; a college of wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humor: Dost thou think, I care for a satire, or an epigram: No: If a man will be beaten with brains, he shall wear nothing handsome about him: In brief, since I do propose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it; and therefore never flout at me for what I have said against it; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion. For thy part, Claudio, I did think to have beaten thee; but in that thou art like to be my kinsman, live unbruised, and love my cousin. Claud. I had well hoped, thou wouldst have denied Beatrice, that I might have cudgelled thee out of thy single life, to make thee a double dealer; which, out of question, thou wilt be, if my cousin do not look exceeding narrowly to thee. Bene. Come, come, we are friends:-let's have a dance, ere we are married, that we might lighten our own hearts and our wives' heels. Leon. We'll have dancing afterwards. Bene. First, o'my word; therefore, play, music. -Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife: there is no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn. Enter a Messenger. Mess. My lord, your brother John is ta'en in flight, And brought with armed men back to Messina. Bene. Think not on him till to-morrow; I'll devise thee brave punishments for him. Strike up, pipers. [Dance.-Exeunt. • Because. Theseus. ACT I. SCENE I-Athens. A Room in the Palace of Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword, Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and Ege. Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke! The. Thanks, good Egeus: What's the news with thee? Ege. Full of vexation come I, with complaint Against my child, my daughter Hermia.- This man hath my consent to marry her:- Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me, I beg the ancient privilege of Athens; The. What say you, Hermia? be advised, fair maid: The. Rather your eyes must with his judgment Her. I do entreat your grace to pardon me. The. Either to die the death, or to abjure Her. So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord, My soul consents not to give sovereignty. How chance the roses there do fade so fast? Lys. Ah me! for aught that ever I could read, Her. O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low! 3 War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it; Her. If then true lovers have been ever cross'd, The. Take time to pause; and, by the next new Then let us teach our trial patience, moon, (The sealing-day betwixt my love and me, For everlasting bond of fellowship,) Upon that day either prepare to die, For disobedience to your father's will; Or else, to wed Demetrius, as he would; Or on Diana's altar to protest, For aye, austerity and single life. Because it is a customary cross; As due to love, as thoughts, and dreams, and sighs, Lys. A good persuasion; therefore, hear me, Hermia. I have a widow aunt, a dowager From Athens is her house remote seven leagues; Dem. Relent, sweet Hermia;-And, Lysander, And she respects me as her only son. yield Thy crazed title to my certain right. Lys. You have her father's love, Demetrius: Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him. Ege. Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love; Lys. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he, If not with vantage, as Demetrius'; There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee; And to that place the sharp Athenian law I swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow; And, which is more than all these boasts can be, By that which knitteth souls, and prospers loves; I am belov'd of beauteous Hermia: Why should not I then prosecute my right? The. I must confess, that I have heard so much, My mind did lose it. --But, Demetrius, come; And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen, Lys. Keep promise, love; Look, here comes Helena. Enter HELENA. Her. God speed fair Helena! Whither away! Hel. Call you me fair! that fair again unsay. Demetrius loves you fair: O happy fair! Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's sweet air More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear, My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye, • Wicked. Give, bestow. • Black. • Pole stars. * Momentary. Love's. Countenance. Her. The more I hate, the more he follows me. Hel. The more I love, the more he hateth me. Her. His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine. Hel. None, but your beauty; 'Would that fault were mine! Her. Take comfort; he no more shall see my face, Lysander and myself will fly this place.Before the time I did Lysander see, Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me: O then, what graces in my love do dwell, That he hath turn'd a heaven unto hell! Lys. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold! To-morrow night when Phœbe doth behold Her silver visage in the wat'ry glass, Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass, (A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,) Through Athens' gates have we devis'd to steal. Her. And in the wood, where often you and I Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie, Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet; There my Lysander and myself shall meet: And thence, from Athens, turn away our eyes, To seek new friends and stranger companies. Farewell, sweet play-fellow; pray thou for us, And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius! Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight From lovers' food, till morrow deep midnight. [Exit HERM. Lys. I will, my Hermia.-Helena, adieu: Quin. Is all our company here? • Eyes. Bot. You were best to call them generally, man by man, according to the scrip. Quin. Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our interlude before the duke and duchess, on his wedding-day at night. Bot. First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats on; then read the names of the actors; and so grow to a point. Quin. Marry, our play is-The most lamentable comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby. Bot. A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your actors by the scroll: Masters, spread yourselves. Quin. Answer, as I call you.-Nick Bottom, the weaver. Bot. Ready: Name what part I am for, and proceed. Quin. You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Py ramus. Bot. What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant. Quin. A lover, that kills himself most gallantly for love. Bot. That will ask some tears in the true performing of it: If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes; I will move storms, I will condole in some measure. To the rest:-Yet my chief humor is for a tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split. "The raging rocks, "With shivering shocks, "Shall break the locks "Of prison gates: "And Phibbus' car "Shall shine from far, "And make and mar "The foolish fates." Flute you Thisby. Bot. Well, proceed. Quin. Robin Starveling, the tailor. Quin. Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother. Tom Snout, the tinker. Snout. Here, Peter Quince. Quin. You, Pyramus's father; myself Thisby's father; Snug, the joiner, you, the lion's part:and, I hope, here is a play fitted. Snug. Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study. Quin. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring. Bot. Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I will do any man's heart good to hear me; I will roar, that I will make the duke say, Let him roar again, Let him roar again. Quin. An you should do it too terribly, you would fright the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek: and that were enough to hang us all. All. That would hang us every mother's son. Bot. I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us: but I will ag- | gravate my voice so, that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any nightingale. Quin. You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a sweet-faced man; a proper man, as one shall see in a summer's day: a most lovely, gentleman-like man; therefore you must needs play Pyramus. 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 strawcolored beard, your orange-tawny beard, your SCENE I-A Wood near Athens. purple-in-grain beard, or your French-crown-color beard, your perfect yellow. Quin. Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and then you will play bare-faced.But, masters, here are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request you, and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night; and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the town, by moonlight; there will we rehearse: for if we meet in the city, we shall be dog'd with company, and our devices known. In the mean time, I will draw a bill of properties, such as our play wants. I pray you, fail me not. Bot. We will meet; and there we may rehearse more obscenely, and courageously. Take pains; be perfect; adieu. Quin. At the duke's oak we meet. ACT II. Enter a Fairy at one door, and Puck at another. Thorough bush, thorough briar, 2 And I serve the fairy queen, In those freckles live their savors: Puck. The king doth keep his revels here to-night; Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quite, Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite, Thou speak'st aright; Puck. 1 As if. 2 Circles. • Shining. 5 Quarrel. A term of contempt. • Mill. [Exeunt. I am that merry wanderer of the night. Fai. And here my mistress:-'Would that he were gone! SCENE II. Enter OBERON, at one door, with his train, and TITANIA, at another, with hers. Obe. Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. Tita. What, jealous Oberon? Fairy, skip hence; I have forsworn his bed and company. Obe. Tarry, rash wanton: Am not I thy lord! Tita. Then I must be thy lady: But I know When thou hast stol'n away from fairy land, And in the shape of Corin sat all day, Playing on pipes of corn, and versing love To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here, Come from the farthest steep of India? But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, Your buskin'd mistress, and your warrior love, To Theseus must be wedded; and you come To give their bed joy and prosperity. Obe. How canst thou thus, for shame, Titania, Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, Knowing I know thy love to Theseus! Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night, From Perigenia, whom he ravished! Tita. These are the forgeries of jealousy: At all events. |