Till o’er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep
With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep.
Then crush this herb into Lysander’s eye—
Whose liquor hath this virtuous property,
To take from thence all error with his might,
And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.
When they next wake, all this derision
Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision,
And back to Athens shall the lovers wend
With league whose date till death shall never end.
Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,
I’ll to my queen and beg her Indian boy;
And then I will her charmed eye release
From monster’s view, and all things shall be peace.
ROBIN
My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,
For night’s swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,
And yonder shines Aurora’s harbinger,
At whose approach ghosts, wand’ring here and there,
Troop home to churchyards; damned spirits all
That in cross-ways and floods have burial
Already to their wormy beds are gone,
For fear lest day should look their shames upon.
They wilfully themselves exiled from light,
And must for aye consort with black-browed night.
OBERON
But we are spirits of another sort.
I with the morning’s love have oft made sport,
And like a forester the groves may tread
Even till the eastern gate, all fiery red,
Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams
Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams.
But notwithstanding, haste, make no delay;
We may effect this business yet ere day. Exit
ROBIN
Up and down, up and down,
I will lead them up and down.
I am feared in field and town.
Goblin, lead them up and down.
Here comes one.
Enter Lysander
LYSANDER
Where art thou, proud Demetrius? Speak thou now.
ROBIN ⌈shifting place⌉
Here, villain, drawn and ready. Where art thou?
LYSANDER
I will be with thee straight.
ROBIN ⌈shifting place⌉ Follow me then
To plainer ground. ⌈Exit Lysander⌉
Enter Demetrius
DEMETRIUS ⌈shifting place⌉ Lysander, speak again.
Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?
Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?
ROBIN ⌈shifting place⌉
Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars,
Telling the bushes that thou look’st for wars,
And wilt not come? Come, recreant; come, thou child,
I’ll whip thee with a rod. He is defiled
That draws a sword on thee.
DEMETRIUS ⌈shifting place⌉ Yea, art thou there?
ROBIN ⌈shifting place⌉
Follow my voice; we’ll try no manhood here. Exeunt
3.3 ⌈Enter Lysander⌉
LYSANDER
He goes before me, and still dares me on;
When I come where he calls, then he is gone.
The villain is much lighter heeled than I;
I followed fast, but faster he did fly,
That fallen am I in dark uneven way,
And here will rest me.He lies down
Come, thou gentle day;
For if but once thou show me thy grey light,
I’ll find Demetrius, and revenge this spite. He sleeps
Enter Robin Goodfellow and Demetrius
ROBIN ⌈shifting place⌉
Ho, ho, ho, coward, why com’st thou not?
DEMETRIUS
Abide me if thou dar‘st, for well I wot
Thou runn’st before me, shifting every place,
And dar’st not stand nor look me in the face.
Where art thou now?
ROBIN ⌈shifting place⌉ Come hither, I am here.
DEMETRIUS
Nay, then thou mock’st me. Thou shalt buy this
dear
If ever I thy face by daylight see.
Now go thy way. Faintness constraineth me
To measure out my length on this cold bed.He lies down
By day’s approach look to be visited. He sleeps
Enter Helena
HELENA
O weary night, O long and tedious night,
Abate thy hours; shine comforts from the east
That I may back to Athens by daylight
From these that my poor company detest;
And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow’s eye,
Steal me a while from mine own company.
She lies down and sleeps
ROBIN
Yet but three? Come one more,
Two of both kinds makes up four.
⌈Enter Hermia⌉
Here she comes, curst and sad.
Cupid is a knavish lad
Thus to make poor females mad.
HERMIA
Never so weary, never so in woe,
Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briers,
I can no further crawl, no further go.
My legs can keep no pace with my desires.
Here will I rest me till the break of day.
She lies down
Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray.
She sleeps
ROBIN On the ground sleep sound.
I’ll apply to your eye,
Gentle lover, remedy.
He drops the juice on Lysander’s eyelids
When thou wak‘st thou tak’st
True delight in the sight
Of thy former lady’s eye,
And the country proverb known,
That ‘every man should take his own’,
In your waking shall be shown.
Jack shall have Jill,
Naught shall go ill,
the man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well. Exit
4.1 Enter Titania, Queen of Fairies, and Bottom the clown with the ass-head, and fairies: Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseed
TITANIA (to Bottom)
Come, sit thee down upon this flow’ry bed,
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,
And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.
BOTTOM Where’s Peaseblossom?
PEASEBLOSSOM Ready.
BOTTOM Scratch my head, Peaseblossom. Where’s Monsieur Cobweb?
COBWEB Ready.
BOTTOM Monsieur Cobweb, good monsieur, get you your weapons in your hand and kill me a red-hipped humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good monsieur, bring me the honeybag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, monsieur; and, good monsieur, have a care the honeybag break not. I would be loath to have you overflowen with a honeybag, signor. ⌈Exit Cobweb⌉ Where’s Monsieur Mustardseed?
MUSTARDSEED Ready.
BOTTOM Give me your neaf, Monsieur Mustardseed. Pray you, leave your courtesy, good monsieur.
MUSTARDSEED What’s your will?
BOTTOM Nothing, good monsieur, but to help Cavaliery Peaseblossom to scratch. I must to the barber’s, monsieur, for methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face; and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me I must scratch.
TITANIA
What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love?
BOTTOM I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let’s have the tongs and the bones.
⌈Rural music⌉
TITANIA
Or say, sweet love, what thou desir’st to eat.
BOTTOM Truly, a peck of provender. I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle of hay. Good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.
TITANIA
I have a venturous fairy that shall seek
The squirrel’s hoard, and fetch thee off new nuts.
Bottom I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas. But I pray you, let none of your people stir me. I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.
TITANIA
Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.
Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.Exeunt Fairies
So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle
Gently entwist; the female ivy so
Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.
O how I love thee, how I dote on thee!They sleep.
Enter Robin Goodfellow ⌈and Oberon, meeting⌉
OBERON
Welcome, good Robin. Seest thou this sweet sight?
Her dotage now I do begin to pity,
For meeting her of late behind the wood,
Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool,
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 the buds
Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls
Stood now within the pretty flow’rets’ eyes,
Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail.
When I had at my pleasure taunted her,
And she in mild terms begged 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 fairyland.
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.He drops the juice on Titania’s eyelids
Be as thou wast wont to be,
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.
TITANIA (awaking)
My Oberon, what visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamoured of an ass.
OBERON
There lies your love.
TITANIA How came these things to pass?
O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!
OBERON Silence a while.—Robin, take off this head.—Titania, music call, and strike more dead Than common sleep of all these five the sense.
TITANIA
Music, ho—music such as charmeth sleep.
⌈Still musica⌉
ROBIN (taking the ass-head off Bottom)
Now when thou wak’st with thine own fool’s eyes peep.
OBERON
Sound music.⌈The music changes⌉
Come, my queen, take hands with me,
And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.
Oberon and Titania dance
Now thou and I are new in amity,
And will tomorrow midnight solemnly
Dance in Duke Theseus’ house, triumphantly,
And bless it to all fair prosperity.
There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be
Wedded with Theseus, all in jollity.
ROBIN
Fairy King, attend and mark.
I do hear the morning lark.
OBERON
Then, my queen, in silence sad
Trip we after nightës shade.
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wand’ring moon.
TITANIA
Come, my lord, and in our flight
Tell me how it came this night
That I sleeping here was found
With these mortals on the ground.
Exeunt Oberon, Titania, and Robin. The sleepers lie still Wind horns within. Enter Theseus with Egeus, Hippolyta, and all his train
THESEUS
Go, one of you, find out the forester,
For now our observation is performed;
And since we have the vanguard of the day,
My love shall hear the music of my hounds.
Uncouple in the western valley; let them go.
Dispatch, I say, and find the forester. Exit one
We will, fair Queen, up to the mountain’s top,
And mark the musical confusion
Of hounds and echo in conjunction.
HIPPOLYTA
I was with Hercules and Cadmus once
When in a wood of Crete they bayed the bear
With hounds of Sparta. Never did I hear
Such gallant chiding; for besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, every region near
Seemed all one mutual cry. I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.
THESEUS
My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flewed, so sanded; and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew,
Crook-kneed, and dewlapped like Thessalian bulls,
Slow in pursuit, but matched in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tuneable
Was never holla’d to nor cheered with horn
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly.
Judge when you hear. But soft: what nymphs are
these?
EGEUS
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.
THESEUS
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
That Hermia should give answer of her choice?
EGEUS It is, my lord.
THESEUS
Go bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.⌈Exit one⌉
Shout within: wind horns. The lovers all start up
Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past.
Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
LYSANDER
Pardon, my lord.
The lovers kneel
THESEUS I pray you all stand up.
The lovers stand
(To Demetrius and Lysander) I know you two are 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?
LYSANDER
My lord, I shall reply amazèdly,
Half sleep, half waking. But as yet, I swear,
I 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 Hermia hither. Our intent
Was to be gone from Athens where we might,
Without the peril of the Athenian law—
EGEUS (to Theseus)
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,
Of my consent that she should be your wife.
DEMETRIUS (to Theseus)
My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
Of this their purpose hither to this wood,
And I in fury hither followed them,
Fair Helena in fancy following me.
But, my good lord, I wot no
t by what power—
But by some power it is—my love to Hermia,
Melted as the snow, seems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gaud
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 betrothed ere I see Hermia.
But like in sickness did I loathe this food;
But, as in health come to my natural taste,
Now I do wish it, love it, long for it,
And will for evermore be true to it.
THESEUS
Fair lovers, you are fortunately met.
Of this discourse we more will hear anon.—
Egeus, I will overbear your will,
For in the temple by and by with us
These couples shall eternally be knit.—
And, for the morning now is something worn,
Our purposed hunting shall be set aside.
Away with us to Athens. Three and three,
We’ll hold a feast in great solemnity.
Come, Hippolyta.
Exit Duke Theseus with Hippolyta, Egeus, and all his train
DEMETRIUS
These things seem small and undistinguishable,
Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.
HERMIA
Methinks I see these things with parted eye,
When everything seems double.
HELENA So methinks,
And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,
Mine own and not mine own.
DEMETRIUS It seems to me
That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think
The Duke was here and bid us follow him?
HERMIA
Yea, and my father.
HELENA And Hippolyta.
LYSANDER
And he did bid us follow to the temple.
DEMETRIUS
Why then, we are awake. Let’s follow him,
And by the way let us recount our dreams.
Exeunt the lovers
Bottom wakes
BOTTOM When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer. My next is ‘most fair Pyramus’. Heigh-ho. Peter Quince? Flute the bellows-mender? Snout the tinker? Starveling? God’s my life! Stolen hence, and left me asleep?—I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream past the wit of man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about t‘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 man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream. It shall be called ‘Bottom’s Dream’, 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
The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works Page 141
