A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare

  Exeunt Lysander and Demetrius

  HERMIA You, mistress, all this coil is 'long352 of you.

  Nay, go not back.

  HELENA I will not trust you, I,

  Nor longer stay in your curst company.

  Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray,

  My legs are longer though, to run away.

  [Exit Helena, running, followed by Hermia]

  Enter Oberon and [Robin] Puck [coming forward]

  OBERON This is thy negligence. Still thou mistak'st, Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully.

  ROBIN Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.

  Did not you tell me I should know the man

  By the Athenian garments he hath on?

  And so far blameless proves my enterprise,

  That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes,

  And so far am I glad it so did sort365, As this their jangling366 I esteem a sport.

  OBERON Thou see'st these lovers seek a place to fight: Hie368 therefore, Robin, overcast the night, The starry welkin369 cover thou anon With drooping fog as black as Acheron370, And lead these testy371 rivals so astray As372 one come not within another's way.

  Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue373, Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong374; And sometime rail375 thou like Demetrius; And from each other look thou lead them thus,

  Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep

  With leaden legs and batty378 wings doth creep;

  Then crush this herb379 into Lysander's eye,

  Gives herb

  Whose liquor hath this virtuous380 property, To take from thence all error with his381 might, And make his eyeballs roll with wonted382 sight.

  When they next wake, all this derision383

  Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision,

  And back to Athens shall the lovers wend385

  With league whose date386 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-swift dragons cut392 the clouds full fast, And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger393, At whose approach, ghosts, wand'ring here and there,

  Troop home to churchyards; damned spirits all,

  That in crossways and floods396 have burial, Already to their wormy beds are gone;

  For fear lest day should look their shames upon,

  They wilfully themselves exile from light

  And must for aye consort400 with black-browed night.

  OBERON But we are spirits of another sort:

  I with the morning's love have oft made sport402, And, like a forester403, the groves may tread, Even till the eastern gate, all fiery red,

  Opening on Neptune405 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.

  Goblin412, lead them up and down.

  Here comes one.

  Enter Lysander

  LYSANDER Where art thou, proud Demetrius? Speak thou now.

  ROBIN Here, villain, drawn415 and ready.

  Imitating Demetrius

  Where art thou?

  LYSANDER I will be with thee straight417.

  ROBIN Follow me, then, to plainer418 ground.

  Exit Lysander,

  following the voice

  Enter Demetrius

  DEMETRIUS Lysander, speak again;

  Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?

  Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?

  ROBIN Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars,

  Imitating Lysander

  Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars,

  And wilt not come? Come, recreant424, come, thou child.

  I'll whip thee with a rod. He is defiled

  That draws a sword on thee.

  DEMETRIUS Yea, art thou there?

  ROBIN Follow my voice. We'll try428 no manhood here.

  Exeunt

  Enter Lysander

  LYSANDER He goes before me and still dares me on.

  When I come where he calls, then he's 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. Come, thou gentle day!

  Lie down

  For if but once thou show me thy grey light,

  I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite436.

  He sleeps

  Enter Robin and Demetrius, shifting places

  ROBIN Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why com'st thou not?

  DEMETRIUS Abide me, if thou dar'st, for well I wot438

  Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place,

  And dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face.

  Where art thou now?

  ROBIN Come hither. I am here.

  DEMETRIUS Nay then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy443 this dear If ever I thy face by daylight see.

  Now, go thy way: faintness constraineth445 me To measure out my length on this cold bed.

  By day's approach look to be visited.

  Lies down and sleeps

  Enter Helena

  HELENA O weary night, O long and tedious night,

  Abate449 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 sometime shuts up sorrow's eye,

  Steal me awhile from mine own company.

  Sleep

  ROBIN Yet but three? Come one more,

  Two of both kinds make up four.

  Here she comes, curst and sad.

  Cupid is a knavish lad,

  Enter Hermia

  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.

  Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!

  Lies down and sleeps

  ROBIN On the ground

  Sleep sound.

  I'll apply

  To your eye,

  Gentle lover, remedy.

  Squeezes the juice on Lysander's eyes

  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.

  Jack478 shall have Jill, Nought479 shall go ill, The man shall have his mare480 again, and all shall be well.

  Exit

  They [Lysander, Demetrius, Helena and Hermia] sleep all the act

  Act 4 [Scene 1]

  running scene 5 continues

  Enter Queen of Fairies [Titania] and Clown [Bottom, with ass head, wearing a coronet of flowers] and Fairies [Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, Mustardseed] and the King [Oberon] behind them

  TITANIA Come, sit thee down upon this flow'ry bed, While I thy amiable cheeks do coy2, And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,

  And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.

  |She fondles him|

  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 honey-bag.

  Do not fret yourself too much in the action, monsieur;

  and, good monsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not. I

  would be loath to have you overflown15 with a honey-bag,

  signior. Where's Monsieur Mustardseed?

  Cobweb may exit

  MUSTARDSEED Ready.

  BOTTOM Give me your neaf18, Monsieur Mustardseed. Pray you leave your courtesy19, good monsieur.

  MUSTARDSEED What's your will?

  BOTTOM Nothing, good monsieur, but to help Cavalery21

  Cobweb22 to scratch. I must to the barber's, monsieur, for methinks I am marvellous23 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 us have

  the tongs and the bones27.

  Music: tongs, rural music

  TITANIA Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat.

  BOTTOM Truly, a peck29 of provender; I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle30 of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow31.

  TITANIA I have a vent'rous32 fairy that shall seek The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.

  BOTTOM I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas.

  But, I pray you let none of your people stir35 me. I have an exposition of36 sleep come upon me.

  TITANIA Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.

  Fairies, begone, and be all ways away38.

  [Exeunt fairies]

  So doth the woodbine39 the sweet honeysuckle Gently entwist; the female ivy so

  Enrings41 the barky fingers of the elm.

  O, how I love thee! How I dote on thee!

  They sleep

  Enter Robin Goodfellow and Oberon [who comes forward]

  OBERON Welcome, good Robin.

  See'st thou this sweet sight?

  Her dotage45 now I do begin to pity.

  For, meeting her of late behind the wood,

  Seeking sweet favours47 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 sometime51 on the buds Was wont to swell like round and orient52 pearls, Stood now within the pretty flowerets'53 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 fairy land.

  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 swain63; That, he awaking when the other64 do, May all to Athens back again repair65, And think no more of this night's accidents66

  But as the fierce vexation of a dream.

  But first I will release the fairy queen.

  Be thou as thou wast wont to be;

  Squeezes the herb on her eyes

  See as thou wast wont to see.

  Dian's bud71 o'er Cupid's flower Hath such force and blessed power.

  Now, my Titania, wake you, my sweet queen.

  TITANIA 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 awhile.-- Robin, take off this head.--

  Titania, music call, and strike more dead

  Than common sleep of all these five81 the sense.

  Music, still

  TITANIA Music, ho! Music, such as charmeth82 sleep!

  ROBIN Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own fool's eyes peep.

  OBERON Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands with me, Oberon and Titania may dance

  And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.

  Now thou and I are new in amity,

  And will tomorrow midnight solemnly87

  Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly88, And bless it to all fair prosperity.

  There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be

  Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.

  ROBIN Fairy king, attend92, and mark: I do hear the morning lark.

  OBERON Then, my queen, in silence sad94, Trip95 we after the night's 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. Sleepers lie still

  Wind horns. Enter Theseus, Egeus, Hippolyta, and all his train

  THESEUS Go, one of you, find out the forester,

  For now our observation103 is performed; And since we have the vaward104 of the day, My love shall hear the music of my hounds.

  Uncouple106 in the western valley, let them go;

  Dispatch, I say, and find the forester.

  [Exit an Attendant]

  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 Cadmus111 once, When in a wood of Crete they bayed112 the bear With hounds of Sparta113; never did I hear Such gallant chiding114, 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 kind118, So flewed, so sanded119, and their heads are hung With ears that sweep away the morning dew,

  Crook-kneed and dewlapped like Thessalian121 bulls, Slow in pursuit, but matched in mouth122 like bells, Each under each. A cry more tuneable123

  Was never hallowed to, nor cheered124 with horn, In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly;

  Judge when you hear. But, soft126! 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 of130 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 solemnity133.

  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.

  Horns and they wake. Shout within, they all start up.

  Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine138 is past.

  Begin these woodbirds but to couple139 now?

  LYSANDER Pardon, my lord.

  They kneel

  THESEUS I pray you all stand up.

  They stand

  I know you two are rival enemies.

  How comes this gentle concord in the world,

  That hatred is so far from jealousy144, To sleep by hate and fear no enmity?

  LYSANDER My lord, I shall reply amazedly,

  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 be

  Without the peril of the Athenian law.

  EGEUS Enough, enough, my lord. You have enough;

  I beg the law, the law, upon his head.--

  They would have s
tolen away, they would, Demetrius,

  Thereby to have defeated157 you and me: You of your wife and me of my consent,

  Of my consent that she should be your wife.

  DEMETRIUS 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 fancy163 followed me.

  But, my good lord, I wot not 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 gaud167

  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 saw Hermia:

  But like a 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 shall hear more anon.

  Egeus, I will overbear179 your will; For in the temple, by and by180 with us, These couples shall eternally be knit.

  And, for the morning now is something worn182, Our purposed183 hunting shall be set aside.

  Away with us to Athens; three and three,

  We'll hold a feast in great solemnity185.--

  Come, Hippolyta.

  Exeunt Duke and lords [and Hippolyta]

  DEMETRIUS These things seem small and undistinguishable187, Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.

  HERMIA Methinks I see these things with parted189 eye, When everything seems double.

  HELENA So methinks:

  And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,

  Mine own and not mine own193.

  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 bid us follow to the temple.

  Bottom wakes

  DEMETRIUS Why, then, we are awake; let's follow him

  And by201 the way let us recount our dreams.

  Exeunt lovers

  BOTTOM When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer. My next is, 'Most fair Pyramus.' Hey-ho! Peter Quince? Flute, the

  bellows-mender? Snout, the tinker? Starveling? God's204 my life, stolen hence and left me asleep! I have had a most rare205

  vision. I had a dream, past the wit206 of man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass, if he go about207 to expound this dream. Methought I was -- there is no man can tell what.