OBERON
Fare thee well, nymph; ere he do leave this grove
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Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love.
Enter PUCK.
Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.
PUCK Ay, there it is.
OBERON I pray thee give it me.
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
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Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine.
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin,
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Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in;
And with the juice of this I’ll streak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantasies.
Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:
A sweet Athenian lady is in love
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With a disdainful youth; anoint his eyes;
But do it when the next thing he espies
May be the lady. Thou shalt know the man
By the Athenian garments he hath on.
Effect it with some care, that he may prove
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More fond on her than she upon her love:
And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.
PUCK Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.
Exeunt.
2.2 Enter TITANIA, Queen of Fairies, with her train.
TITANIA Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;
Then for the third part of a minute, hence:
Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds;
Some war with reremice for their leathern wings,
To make my small elves coats; and some keep back
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The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots and wonders
At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
Then to your offices, and let me rest.
[The Fairies sing.]
1 FAIRY You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
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Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
Come not near our fairy queen.
CHORUS Philomel, with melody,
Sing in our sweet lullaby;
Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby;
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Never harm, nor spell, nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So goodnight, with lullaby.
1 FAIRY Weaving spiders, come not here;
Hence, you long-legg’d spinners, hence!
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Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm nor snail, do no offence.
CHORUS Philomel, with melody, etc.
[Titania sleeps.]
2 FAIRY Hence, away! Now all is well;
One aloof stand sentinel. Exeunt Fairies.
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Enter OBERON, and squeezes the juice on
Titania’s eyelids.
OBERON What thou seest when thou dost wake,
Do it for thy true love take;
Love and languish for his sake.
Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
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In thy eye that shall appear
When thou wak’st, it is thy dear.
Wake when some vile thing is near. Exit.
Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA.
LYSANDER
Fair love, you faint with wand’ring in the wood,
And, to speak troth, I have forgot our way.
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We’ll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,
And tarry for the comfort of the day.
HERMIA Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed,
For I upon this bank will rest my head.
LYSANDER One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;
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One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth.
HERMIA Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear,
Lie further off yet; do not lie so near.
LYSANDER O take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!
Love takes the meaning in love’s conference.
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I mean that my heart unto 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;
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For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.
HERMIA Lysander riddles very prettily.
Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,
If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied!
But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy,
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Lie further off, in human modesty;
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!
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LYSANDER Amen, amen, to that fair prayer say I;
And then end life when I end loyalty!
Here is my bed; sleep give thee all his rest.
HERMIA
With half that wish the wisher’s eyes be press’d.
[They sleep.]
Enter PUCK.
PUCK Through the forest have I gone;
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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:
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This is he my master said
Despised the Athenian maid;
And here the maiden, sleeping sound,
On the dank and dirty ground.
Pretty soul, she durst not lie
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Near this lack-love, this 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 eyelid.
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So awake when I am gone;
For I must now to Oberon. Exit.
Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running.
HELENA Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius!
DEMETRIUS
I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.
HELENA O wilt thou darkling leave me? Do not so.
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DEMETRIUS Stay, on thy peril; I alone will go. Exit.
HELENA O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!
The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.
Happy is Hermia, wheresoe’er she lies,
For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.
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How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears;
If so, my eyes are oftener wash’d than hers.
No, no; I am as ugly as a bear,
For beasts that meet me run away for fear:
Therefore no marvel though Demetrius
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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?
Dead, or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.
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Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake!
LYSANDER [waking]
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
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Is that vile name to perish on my sword!
HELENA Do not sa
y so, Lysander, say not so.
What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?
Yet Hermia still loves you; then be content.
LYSANDER Content with Hermia? No. I do repent
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The tedious minutes I with her have spent.
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.
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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
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Love’s stories, written in love’s richest book.
HELENA 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
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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
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I thought you lord of more true gentleness.
O that a lady, of one man refus’d,
Should of another therefore be abus’d! Exit.
LYSANDER
She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there,
And never mayst thou come Lysander near!
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For, as a surfeit of the sweetest things
The deepest loathing to the stomach brings;
Or as the heresies that men do leave
Are hated most of those they did deceive;
So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,
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Of all be hated, but the most of me!
And, all my powers, address your love and might
To honour Helen, and to be her knight! Exit.
HERMIA [starting]
Help me, Lysander, help me! Do thy best
To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!
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Ay me, for pity! What a dream was here!
Lysander, look how I do quake with fear.
Methought a serpent ate my heart away,
And you sat smiling at his cruel prey.
Lysander! What, remov’d? Lysander! lord!
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What, out of hearing? Gone? No sound, no word?
Alack, where are you? Speak, and if you hear;
Speak, of all loves I swoon almost with fear.
No? Then I well perceive you are not nigh.
Either death or you I’ll find immediately. Exit.
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[Titania remains lying asleep.]
3.1 Titania still lying asleep. Enter QUINCE, BOTTOM,
SNUG, FLUTE, SNOUT and STARVELING.
BOTTOM Are we all met?
QUINCE Pat, pat; and here’s a marvellous convenient
place for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our
stage, this hawthorn-brake our tiring-house; and we
will do it in action, as we will do it before the Duke.
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BOTTOM Peter Quince!
QUINCE What sayest thou, bully Bottom?
BOTTOM There are things in this comedy of Pyramus
and Thisbe that will never please. First, Pyramus must
draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies cannot
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abide. How answer you that?
SNOUT Byrlakin, a parlous fear.
STARVELING#160; I believe we must leave the killing out,
when all is done.
BOTTOM Not a whit; I have a device to make all well.
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Write me a prologue, and let the prologue 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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QUINCE Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall
be written in eight and six.
BOTTOM No, make it two more; let it be written in eight
and eight.
SNOUT Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?
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STARVELING#160; I fear it, I promise you.
BOTTOM Masters, you ought to consider with yourself;
to bring in (God shield us!) a lion among ladies is a
most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 392
