HIPPOLYTA	Tis strange my Theseus, that these
	lovers speak of.
THESEUS	More strange than true: I never may believe
	These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
	Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,	5
	Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
	More than cool reason ever comprehends.
	The lunatic, the lover and the poet
	Are of imagination all compact:
	One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,	10
	That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
	Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
	The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
	Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
	And as imagination bodies forth	15
	The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
	Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
	A local habitation and a name.
	Such tricks hath strong imagination,
	That if it would but apprehend some joy,	20
	It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
	Or in the night, imagining some fear,
	How easy is a bush supposed a bear!
HIPPOLYTA	But all the story of the night told over,
	And all their minds transfigured so together,	25
	More witnesseth than fancy's images
	And grows to something of great constancy;
	But, howsoever, strange and admirable.
THESEUS	Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.

	Joy, gentle friends! joy and fresh days of love	30
	Accompany your hearts!
LYSANDER	More than to us
	Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed!
THESEUS	Come now; what masques, what dances shall we have,
	To wear away this long age of three hours	35
	Between our after–supper and bed–time?
	Where is our usual manager of mirth?
	What revels are in hand? Is there no play,
	To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
	Call Philostrate.	40
PHILOSTRATE	Here, mighty Theseus.
THESEUS	Say, what abridgement have you for this evening?
	What masque? what music? How shall we beguile
	The lazy time, if not with some delight?
PHILOSTRATE	There is a brief how many sports are ripe:	45
	Make choice of which your highness will see first.
[Giving a paper]
THESEUS	[Reads] 'The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung
	By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.'
	We'll none of that: that have I told my love,
	In glory of my kinsman Hercules.	50
[Reads]
	The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,
	Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.'
	That is an old device; and it was play'd
	When I from Thebes came last a conqueror.
[Reads]
	The thrice three Muses mourning for the death	55
	Of Learning, late deceased in beggary.'
	That is some satire, keen and critical,
	Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.
[Reads]
	A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
	And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.'	60
	Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!
	That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.
	How shall we find the concord of this discord?
PHILOSTRATE	A play there is, my lord, some ten words long,
	Which is as brief as I have known a play;	65

PHILOSTRATE	So please your grace, the Prologue is address'd.
THESEUS	Let him approach.

Prologue	If we offend, it is with our good will.
	That you should think, we come not to offend,
	But with good will. To show our simple skill,	115
	That is the true beginning of our end.
	Consider then we come but in despite.
	We do not come as minding to contest you,
	Our true intent is. All for your delight
	We are not here. That you should here repent you,	120
	The actors are at hand and by their show
	You shall know all that you are like to know.
THESEUS	This fellow doth not stand upon points.
LYSANDER	He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows
	not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not	125
	enough to speak, but to speak true.
HIPPOLYTA	Indeed he hath played on his prologue like a child
	on a recorder; a sound, but not in government.
THESEUS	His speech, was like a tangled chain; nothing
	impaired, but all disordered. Who is next?	130