Category: Hatchet

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Act 2, page 1

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ACT 2 SCENE 2 Setting: Another part of the wood.

Enter TITANIA, 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 rere–mice for their leathern wings,
To make my small elves coats, and some keep back
The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders
At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
Then to your offices and let me rest.
FAIRIES' SONG
You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen; 10
Newts and blind–worms, do no wrong,
Come not near our fairy queen.'
Philomel, with melody
Sing in our sweet lullaby;
Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:
Never harm,
Nor spell nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby.'
II.
Weaving spiders, come not here; 20
Hence, you long–legg'd spinners, hence!
Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm nor snail, do no offence.
Philomel, with melody, &c.'
Fairy Hence, away! now all is well:
One aloof stand sentinel.
Exeunt Fairies. TITANIA sleeps.

Enter OBERON and squeezes the flower 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, 30
Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
In thy eye that shall appear
When thou wakest, it is thy dear:
Wake when some vile thing is near.
Exit
Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA
LYSANDER Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood;
And to speak troth, I have forgot our way:
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. 40
LYSANDER One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;
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.
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. 50
Then by your side no bed–room me deny;
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
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: 60
Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end!
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.
But Athenian found I none,
On whose eyes I might approve
This flower's force in stirring love.
Night and silence.––Who is here? 70
Weeds of Athens he doth wear:
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
Near this lack–love, this kill–courtesy.
Churl, upon thy eyes I throw
All the power this charm doth owe.
When thou wakest, let love forbid 80
Sleep his seat on thy eyelid:
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.
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; 90
For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.
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
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! 100
Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.
Lysander if you live, good sir, awake.
LYSANDER Awaking.
Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,
That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.
Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word
Is that vile name to perish on my sword!
HELENA Do not say so, Lysander; say not so
What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?
Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content. 110
LYSANDER Content with Hermia! No; I do repent
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.
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 120
And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook
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,
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. 130
But fare you well: perforce I must confess
I thought you lord of more true gentleness.
O, that a lady, of one man refused.
Should of another therefore be abused!
Exit
LYSANDER She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there:
And never mayst thou come Lysander near!
For as a surfeit of the sweetest things
The deepest loathing to the stomach brings,
Or as tie heresies that men do leave
Are hated most of those they did deceive, 140
So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,
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 Awaking.
To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!
Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here!
Lysander, look how I do quake with fear:
Methought a serpent eat my heart away,
And you sat smiling at his cruel prey.
Lysander! what, removed? Lysander! lord! 151
What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word?
Alack, where are you speak, an if you hear;
Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.
No? then I well perceive you all not nigh
Either death or you I'll find immediately.
Exit

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Act 3, page 0

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ACT 3 SCENE 1 Setting: The wood. TITANIA lying asleep.

Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, 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.
BOTTOM Peter Quince,––
QUINCE What sayest thou, bully Bottom?
BOTTOM There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and
Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must
draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies
cannot abide. How answer you that? 11
SNOUT By'r lakin, a parlous fear.
STARVELING I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.
BOTTOM Not a whit: I have a device to make all well.
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. 20
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?
STARVELING I fear it, I promise you.
BOTTOM Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves: to
bring in––God shield us!––a lion among ladies, is a
most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful
wild–fowl than your lion living; and we ought to
look to 't. 30
SNOUT Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion.
BOTTOM Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must
be seen through the lion's neck: and he himself
must speak through, saying thus, or to the same
defect,––'Ladies,'––or 'Fair–ladies––I would wish
You,'––or 'I would request you,'––or 'I would
entreat you,––not to fear, not to tremble: my life
for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it
were pity of my life: no I am no such thing; I am a
man as other men are;' and there indeed let him name
his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner. 41
QUINCE Well it shall be so. But there is two hard things;
that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber; for,
you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moonlight.
SNOUT Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?
BOTTOM A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanac; find
out moonshine, find out moonshine.
QUINCE Yes, it doth shine that night.
BOTTOM Why, then may you leave a casement of the great
chamber window, where we play, open, and the moon
may shine in at the casement. 51
QUINCE Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns
and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure, or to
present, the person of Moonshine. Then, there is
another thing: we must have a wall in the great
chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby says the story, did
talk through the chink of a wall.
SNOUT You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom? 58
BOTTOM Some man or other must present Wall: and let him
have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough–cast
about him, to signify wall; and let him hold his
fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus
and Thisby whisper.
QUINCE If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down,
every mother's son, and rehearse your parts.
Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken your
speech, enter into that brake: and so every one
according to his cue.
Enter PUCK behind.
PUCK What hempen home–spuns have we swaggering here,
So near the cradle of the fairy queen?
What, a play toward! I'll be an auditor;
An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause. 70
QUINCE Speak, Pyramus. Thisby, stand forth.
BOTTOM Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet,––
QUINCE Odours, odours.
BOTTOM –– odours savours sweet:
So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear.
But hark, a voice! stay thou but here awhile,
And by and by I will to thee appear.
Exit
PUCK [Aside.] A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here.
Exit.
FLUTE Must I speak now? 79
QUINCE Ay, marry, must you; for you must understand he goes
but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again.
FLUTE Most radiant Pyramus, most lily–white of hue,
Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier,
Most brisky juvenal and eke most lovely Jew,
As true as truest horse that yet would never tire,
I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb.
QUINCE Ninus' tomb,' man: why, you must not speak that
yet; that you answer to Pyramus: you speak all your
part at once, cues and all Pyramus enter: your cue
is past; it is, 'never tire.' 90
FLUTE O,––As true as truest horse, that yet would
never tire.
Re–enter PUCK, and BOTTOM with an ass's head.
BOTTOM If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine:
QUINCE O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted. Pray,
masters! fly, masters! Help!

Exeunt QUINCE, SNUG, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING.

PUCK I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round,
Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier:
Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound,
A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire;
And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, 100
Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.
Exit
BOTTOM Why do they run away? this is a knavery of them to
make me afeard.
Re–enter SNOUT.
SNOUT O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on thee?
BOTTOM What do you see? you see an asshead of your own, do
you?
Exit SNOUT.
Re–enter QUINCE.
QUINCE Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art
translated. 109
Exit
BOTTOM I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me;
to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir
from this place, do what they can: I will walk up
and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear
I am not afraid.
Sings.
The ousel cock so black of hue,
With orange–tawny bill,
The throstle with his note so true,
The wren with little quill,––'
TITANIA Awaking.
BOTTOM Sings.
The finch, the sparrow and the lark, 120
The plain–song cuckoo gray,
Whose note full many a man doth mark,
And dares not answer nay;––'
for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish
a bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry
cuckoo' never so?
TITANIA I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:
Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note;
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee. 130
BOTTOM Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason
for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and
love keep little company together now–a–days; the
more the pity that some honest neighbours will not
make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.
TITANIA Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.
BOTTOM Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get out
of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.
TITANIA Out of this wood do not desire to go:
Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no. 140
I am a spirit of no common rate;
The summer still doth tend upon my state;
And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;
I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep;
And I will purge thy mortal grossness so
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.
Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed!

Enter PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, and MUSTARDSEED.

PEASEBLOSSOM Ready.
COBWEB And I.
MOTH And I.
MUSTARDSEED And I.
ALL Where shall we go? 150
TITANIA Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes;
Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;
The honey–bags steal from the humble–bees,
And for night–tapers crop their waxen thighs
And light them at the fiery glow–worm's eyes,
To have my love to bed and to arise;
And pluck the wings from Painted butterflies
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes: 160
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.
PEASEBLOSSOM Hail, mortal!
COBWEB Hail!
MOTH Hail!
MUSTARDSEED Hail!
BOTTOM I cry your worship's mercy, heartily: I beseech your
worship's name.
COBWEB Cobweb.
BOTTOM I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master
Cobweb: if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with
you. Your name, honest gentleman? 171
PEASEBLOSSOM Peaseblossom.
BOTTOM I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your
mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. Good
Master Peaseblossom, I shall desire you of more
acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you, sir?
MUSTARDSEED Mustardseed.
BOTTOM Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience well:
that same cowardly, giant–like ox–beef hath
devoured many a gentleman of your house: I promise
you your kindred had made my eyes water ere now. I
desire your more acquaintance, good Master
Mustardseed. 182
TITANIA Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower.
The moon methinks looks with a watery eye;
And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,
Lamenting some enforced chastity.
Tie up my love's tongue bring him silently.
Exeunt

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Act 3, page 1

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ACT 3 SCENE 2 Setting: Another part of the wood.

Enter OBERON, solus

OBERON I wonder if Titania be awaked;
Then, what it was that next came in her eye,
Which she must dote on in extremity.
Enter PUCK
Here comes my messenger.
How now, mad spirit!
What night–rule now about this haunted grove?
PUCK My mistress with a monster is in love.
Near to her close and consecrated bower,
While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,
A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,
That work for bread upon Athenian stalls, 10
Were met together to rehearse a play
Intended for great Theseus' nuptial–day.
The shallowest thick–skin of that barren sort,
Who Pyramus presented, in their sport
Forsook his scene and enter'd in a brake
When I did him at this advantage take,
An ass's nole I fixed on his head:
Anon his Thisbe must be answered,
And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy,
As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye, 20
Or russet–pated choughs, many in sort,
Rising and cawing at the gun's report,
Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky,
So, at his sight, away his fellows fly;
And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls;
He murder cries and help from Athens calls.
Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears
thus strong,
Made senseless things begin to do them wrong;
For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch;
Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all
things catch. 30
I led them on in this distracted fear,
And left sweet Pyramus translated there:
When in that moment, so it came to pass,
Titania waked and straightway loved an ass.
OBERON This falls out better than I could devise.
But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes
With the love–juice, as I did bid thee do?
PUCK I took him sleeping,––that is finish'd too,––
And the Athenian woman by his side:
That, when he waked, of force she must be eyed. 40

Enter HERMIA and DEMETRIUS

OBERON Stand close: this is the same Athenian.
PUCK This is the woman, but not this the man.
DEMETRIUS O, why rebuke you him that loves you so?
Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.
HERMIA Now I but chide; but I should use thee worse,
For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse,
If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,
Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep,
And kill me too.
The sun was not so true unto the day 50
As he to me: would he have stolen away
From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon
This whole earth may be bored and that the moon
May through the centre creep and so displease
Her brother's noontide with Antipodes.
It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him;
So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim.
DEMETRIUS So should the murder'd look, and so should I,
Pierced through the heart with your stern cruelty:
Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear, 60
As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere.
HERMIA What's this to my Lysander? where is he?
Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me?
DEMETRIUS I had rather give his carcass to my hounds.
HERMIA Out, dog! out, cur! thou drivest me past the bounds
Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him, then?
Henceforth be never number'd among men!
O, once tell true, tell true, even for my sake!
Durst thou have look'd upon him being awake,
And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch! 70
Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?
An adder did it; for with doubler tongue
Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.
DEMETRIUS You spend your passion on a misprised mood:
I am not guilty of Lysander's blood;
Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.
HERMIA I pray thee, tell me then that he is well.
DEMETRIUS An if I could, what should I get therefore?
HERMIA A privilege never to see me more.
And from thy hated presence part I so: 80
See me no more, whether he be dead or no.
Exit
DEMETRIUS There is no following her in this fierce vein:
Here therefore for a while I will remain.
So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow
For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe:
Which now in some slight measure it will pay,
If for his tender here I make some stay.
Lies down and sleeps
OBERON What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite
And laid the love–juice on some true–love's sight:
Of thy misprision must perforce ensue 90
Some true love turn'd and not a false turn'd true.
PUCK Then fate o'er–rules, that, one man holding troth,
A million fail, confounding oath on oath.
OBERON About the wood go swifter than the wind,
And Helena of Athens look thou find:
All fancy–sick she is and pale of cheer,
With sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear:
By some illusion see thou bring her here:
I'll charm his eyes against she do appear.
PUCK I go, I go; look how I go, 100
Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow.
Exit
OBERON Flower of this purple dye,
Hit with Cupid's archery,
Sink in apple of his eye.
When his love he doth espy,
Let her shine as gloriously
As the Venus of the sky.
When thou wakest, if she be by,
Beg of her for remedy.
Re–enter PUCK
PUCK Captain of our fairy band, 110
Helena is here at hand;
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover's fee.
Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
OBERON Stand aside: the noise they make
Will cause Demetrius to awake.
PUCK Then will two at once woo one;
That must needs be sport alone;
And those things do best please me 120
That befal preposterously.
Enter LYSANDER and HELENA
LYSANDER Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?
Scorn and derision never come in tears:
Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows so born,
In their nativity all truth appears.
How can these things in me seem scorn to you,
Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true?
HELENA You do advance your cunning more and more.
When truth kills truth, O devilish–holy fray!
These vows are Hermia's: will you give her o'er? 130
Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh:
Your vows to her and me, put in two scales,
Will even weigh, and both as light as tales.
LYSANDER I had no judgment when to her I swore.
HELENA Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er.
LYSANDER Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.
DEMETRIUS Awaking
To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne?
Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show
Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow! 140
That pure congealed white, high Taurus snow,
Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow
When thou hold'st up thy hand: O, let me kiss
This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!
HELENA O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent
To set against me for your merriment:
If you we re civil and knew courtesy,
You would not do me thus much injury.
Can you not hate me, as I know you do,
But you must join in souls to mock me too? 150
If you were men, as men you are in show,
You would not use a gentle lady so;
To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts,
When I am sure you hate me with your hearts.
You both are rivals, and love Hermia;
And now both rivals, to mock Helena:
A trim exploit, a manly enterprise,
To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes
With your derision! none of noble sort
Would so offend a virgin, and extort
A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport.
LYSANDER You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so;
For you love Hermia; this you know I know:
And here, with all good will, with all my heart,
In Hermia's love I yield you up my part;
And yours of Helena to me bequeath,
Whom I do love and will do till my death.
HELENA Never did mockers waste more idle breath.
DEMETRIUS Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none:
If e'er I loved her, all that love is gone. 170
My heart to her but as guest–wise sojourn'd,
And now to Helen is it home return'd,
There to remain.
LYSANDER Helen, it is not so.
DEMETRIUS Disparage not the faith thou dost not know,
Lest, to thy peril, thou aby it dear.
Look, where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear.
Re–enter HERMIA
HERMIA Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,
The ear more quick of apprehension makes;
Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense,
It pays the hearing double recompense. 180
Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found;
Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound
But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?
LYSANDER Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go?
HERMIA What love could press Lysander from my side?
LYSANDER Lysander's love, that would not let him bide,
Fair Helena, who more engilds the night
Than all you fiery oes and eyes of light.
Why seek'st thou me? could not this make thee know,
The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so? 190
HERMIA You speak not as you think: it cannot be.
HELENA Lo, she is one of this confederacy!
Now I perceive they have conjoin'd all three
To fashion this false sport, in spite of me.
Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid!
Have you conspired, have you with these contrived
To bait me with this foul derision?
Is all the counsel that we two have shared,
The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent,
When we have chid the hasty–footed time 200
For parting us,––O, is it all forgot?
All school–days' friendship, childhood innocence?
We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,
Have with our needles created both one flower,
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
Both warbling of one song, both in one key,
As if our hands, our sides, voices and minds,
Had been incorporate. So we grow together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, 210
But yet an union in partition;
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;
So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart;
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,
Due but to one and crowned with one crest.
And will you rent our ancient love asunder,
To join with men in scorning your poor friend?
It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly:
Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it,
Though I alone do feel the injury.
HERMIA I am amazed at your passionate words. 220
I scorn you not: it seems that you scorn me.
HELENA Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn,
To follow me and praise my eyes and face?
And made your other love, Demetrius,
Who even but now did spurn me with his foot,
To call me goddess, nymph, divine and rare,
Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this
To her he hates? and wherefore doth Lysander
Deny your love, so rich within his soul,
And tender me, forsooth, affection, 230
But by your setting on, by your consent?
What thought I be not so in grace as you,
So hung upon with love, so fortunate,
But miserable most, to love unloved?
This you should pity rather than despise.
HERNIA I understand not what you mean by this.
HELENA Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks,
Make mouths upon me when I turn my back;
Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up:
This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled. 240
If you have any pity, grace, or manners,
You would not make me such an argument.
But fare ye well: 'tis partly my own fault;
Which death or absence soon shall remedy.
LYSANDER Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse:
My love, my life my soul, fair Helena!
HELENA O excellent!
HERMIA Sweet, do not scorn her so.
DEMETRIUS If she cannot entreat, I can compel.
LYSANDER Thou canst compel no more than she entreat:
Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers.
Helen, I love thee; by my life, I do: 251
I swear by that which I will lose for thee,
To prove him false that says I love thee not.
DEMETRIUS I say I love thee more than he can do.
LYSANDER If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.
DEMETRIUS Quick, come!
HERMIA Lysander, whereto tends all this?
LYSANDER Away, you Ethiope!
DEMETRIUS No, no; he'll …
Seem to break loose; take on as you would follow,
But yet come not: you are a tame man, go!
LYSANDER Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! vile thing, let loose,
Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent! 261
HERMIA Why are you grown so rude? what change is this?
Sweet love,––
LYSANDER Thy love! out, tawny Tartar, out!
Out, loathed medicine! hated potion, hence!
HERMIA Do you not jest?
HELENA Yes, sooth; and so do you.
LYSANDER Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee.
DEMETRIUS I would I had your bond, for I perceive
A weak bond holds you: I'll not trust your word.
LYSANDER What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead?
Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so. 270
HERMIA What, can you do me greater harm than hate?
Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my love!
Am not I Hermia? are not you Lysander?
I am as fair now as I was erewhile.
Since night you loved me; yet since night you left
me:
Why, then you left me––O, the gods forbid!––
In earnest, shall I say?
LYSANDER Ay, by my life;
And never did desire to see thee more.
Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt;
Be certain, nothing truer; 'tis no jest 280
That I do hate thee and love Helena.
HERMIA O me! you juggler! you canker–blossom!
You thief of love! what, have you come by night
And stolen my love's heart from him?
HELENA Fine, i'faith!
Have you no modesty, no maiden shame,
No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear
Impatient answers from my gentle tongue?
Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet, you!
HERMIA Puppet? why so? ay, that way goes the game.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare 290
Between our statures; she hath urged her height;
And with her personage, her tall personage,
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him.
And are you grown so high in his esteem;
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak;
How low am I? I am not yet so low
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.
HELENA I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen,
Let her not hurt me: I was never curst; 300
I have no gift at all in shrewishness;
I am a right maid for my cowardice:
Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think,
Because she is something lower than myself,
That I can match her.
HERMIA Lower! hark, again.
HELENA Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.
I evermore did love you, Hermia,
Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you;
Save that, in love unto Demetrius,
I told him of your stealth unto this wood. 310
He follow'd you; for love I follow'd him;
But he hath chid me hence and threaten'd me
To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too:
And now, so you will let me quiet go,
To Athens will I bear my folly back
And follow you no further: let me go:
You see how simple and how fond I am.
HERMIA Why, get you gone: who is't that hinders you?
HELENA A foolish heart, that I leave here behind.
HERMIA What, with Lysander?
HELENA With Demetrius. 320
LYSANDER Be not afraid; she shall not harm thee, Helena.
DEMETRIUS No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.
HELENA O, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd!
She was a vixen when she went to school;
And though she be but little, she is fierce.
HERMIA Little' again! nothing but 'low' and 'little'!
Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?
Let me come to her.
LYSANDER Get you gone, you dwarf;
You minimus, of hindering knot–grass made;
You bead, you acorn.
DEMETRIUS You are too officious 330
In her behalf that scorns your services.
Let her alone: speak not of Helena;
Take not her part; for, if thou dost intend
Never so little show of love to her,
Thou shalt aby it.
LYSANDER Now she holds me not;
Now follow, if thou darest, to try whose right,
Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.
DEMETRIUS Follow! nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jole.
Exeunt LYSANDER and DEMETRIUS
HERMIA You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you:
Nay, go not back.
HELENA I will not trust you, I, 340
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
HERMIA I am amazed, and know not what to say.
Exit
OBERON This is thy negligence: still thou mistakest,
Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully.
PUCK Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.
Did not you tell me I should know the man
By the Athenian garment be had on?
And so far blameless proves my enterprise, 350
That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes;
And so far am I glad it so did sort
As this their jangling I esteem a sport.
OBERON Thou see'st these lovers seek a place to fight:
Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night;
The starry welkin cover thou anon
With drooping fog as black as Acheron,
And lead these testy rivals so astray
As one come not within another's way.
Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue, 360
Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong;
And sometime rail thou like Demetrius;
And from each other look thou lead them thus,
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 370
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.
PUCK 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; 380
At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there,
Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all,
That in crossways and floods have burial,
Already to their wormy beds are gone;
For fear lest day should look their shames upon,
They willfully themselves exile from light
And must for aye consort with black–brow'd 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, 390
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 OBERON
PUCK Up and down, up and down,
I will lead them up and down:
I am fear'd in field and town:
Goblin, lead them up and down.
Here comes one. 400
Re–enter LYSANDER
LYSANDER Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now.
PUCK Here, villain; drawn and ready. Where art thou?
LYSANDER I will be with thee straight.
PUCK Follow me, then,
To plainer ground.
Exit LYSANDER, as following the voice.
Re–enter DEMETRIUS
DEMETRIUS Lysander! speak again.
Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?
Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?
PUCK 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 410
That draws a sword on thee.
DEMETRIUS Yea, art thou there?
PUCK Follow my voice: we'll try no manhood here.
Exeunt
Re–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–heel'd than I:
I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly;
That fallen am I in dark uneven way,
And here will rest me.
Lies down
Come, thou gentle day!
For if but once thou show me thy grey light,
I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite.
Sleeps
Re–enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS
PUCK Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why comest thou not? 421
DEMETRIUS Abide me, if thou darest; for well I wot
Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place,
And darest not stand, nor look me in the face.
Where art thou now?
PUCK 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.
By day's approach look to be visited.
Lies down and sleeps.
Re–enter HELENA
HELENA O weary night, O long and tedious night, 431
Abate thy hour! 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 awhile from mine own company.
Lies down and sleeps
PUCK Yet but three? Come one more;
Two of both kinds make up four.
Here she comes, curst and sad:
Cupid is a knavish lad, 440
Thus to make poor females mad.
Re–enter HERMIA
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.
PUCK On the ground
Sleep sound:
I'll apply 450
To your eye,
Gentle lover, remedy.
Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER's eyes.
When thou wakest,
Thou takest
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: 460
Jack shall have Jill;
Nought shall go ill;
The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.
Exit

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Act 4, page 0

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ACT 4 SCENE 1 Setting: The same. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA lying asleep.

Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM; PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARDSEED, and other Fairies attending; OBERON behind them unseen.

TITANIA Come, sit thee down upon this flowery 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 Mounsieur Cobweb?
COBWEB Ready. 10
BOTTOM Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get you your
weapons in your hand, and kill me a red–hipped
humble–bee on the top of a thistle; and, good
mounsieur, bring me the honey–bag. Do not fret
yourself too much in the action, mounsieur; and,
good mounsieur, have a care the honey–bag break not;
I would be loath to have you overflown with a
honey–bag, signior. Where's Mounsieur Mustardseed?
MUSTARDSEED Ready.
BOTTOM Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray you,
leave your courtesy, good mounsieur.
MUSTARDSEED What's your Will? 20
BOTTOM Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb
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.
TITANIA Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest 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. 31
TITANIA I have a venturous 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 stir me: I
have an exposition of sleep come upon me.
TITANIA Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.
Fairies, begone, and be all ways away.
Exeunt fairies.
So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle
Gently entwist; the female ivy so 40
Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.
O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!
They sleep.
Enter PUCK
OBERON Advancing.
See'st thou this sweet sight?
Her dotage now I do begin to pity:
For, meeting her of late behind the wood,
Seeking sweet favours from this hateful fool,
I did upbraid her and fall out with her;
For she his hairy temples then had rounded
With a coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
And that same dew, which sometime on the buds 50
Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes
Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail.
When I had at my pleasure taunted her
And she in mild terms begg'd 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: 60
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.
Touching her eyes with an herb..
Be as thou wast wont to be;
See as thou wast wont to see:
Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower 70
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 enamour'd 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 five the sense.
TITANIA Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep! 80
Music, still
PUCK Now, when thou wakest, with thine
own fool's eyes peep.
OBERON Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands with me,
And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.
Now thou and I are new in amity,
And will to–morrow 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.
PUCK Fairy king, attend, and mark: 90
I do hear the morning lark.
OBERON Then, my queen, in silence sad,
Trip we after the night's shade:
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wandering 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.
Sleepers lie still. Exeunt [fairies].
Horns winded within

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train.

THESEUS Go, one of you, find out the forester; 100
For now our observation is perform'd;
And since we have the vaward 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 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 Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear 110
With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear
Such gallant chiding: for, besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, every region near
Seem'd 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 flew'd, so sanded, and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook–knee'd, and dew–lapp'd like Thessalian bulls;
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells, 120
Each under each. A cry more tuneable
Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd 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, 130
Came here in grace 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.

Horns and shout within. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS,HELENA, and HERMIA wake and start up.

Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past:
Begin these wood–birds but to couple now?
LYSANDER Pardon, my lord.
THESEUS I pray you all, stand up.
I know you two are rival enemies:
How comes this gentle concord in the world, 140
That hatred is so far from jealousy,
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 do I 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. 150
EGEUS Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough:
I beg the law, the law, upon his head.
They would have stolen 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 My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
Of this their purpose hither to this wood;
And I in fury hither follow'd them,
Fair Helena in fancy following me. 160
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 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 betroth'd ere I saw Hermia:
But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food; 170
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. 180
Away with us to Athens; three and three,
We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.
Come, Hippolyta.

Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train.

DEMETRIUS These things seem small and undistinguishable,
HERMIA Methinks I see these things with parted eye,
When every thing seems double.
HELENA So methinks:
And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,
Mine own, and not mine own.
DEMETRIUS Are you sure
That we are awake? It seems to me 190
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
BOTTOM Awaking
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 to 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 206
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

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Act 1, page 0

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ACT 1 SCENE 1 Setting: Athens. The palace of THESEUS.

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Attendants.

THESEUS Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
Draws on apace; four happy days bring in
Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow
This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,
Like to a step–dame or a dowager
Long withering out a young man revenue.
HIPPOLYTA Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;
Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
And then the moon, like to a silver bow
New–bent in heaven, shall behold the night 10
Of our solemnities.
THESEUS Go, Philostrate,
Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;
Turn melancholy forth to funerals;
The pale companion is not for our pomp.
Exit PHILOSTRATE.
Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,
And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.

Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS.

EGEUS Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke! 20
THESEUS Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with thee?
EGEUS Full of vexation come I, with complaint
Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,
This man hath my consent to marry her.
Stand forth, Lysander: and my gracious duke,
This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child;
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
And interchanged love–tokens with my child:
Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung, 30
With feigning voice verses of feigning love,
And stolen the impression of her fantasy
With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers
Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth:
With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart,
Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,
To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke,
Be it so she; will not here before your grace
Consent to marry with Demetrius, 40
I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,
As she is mine, I may dispose of her:
Which shall be either to this gentleman
Or to her death, according to our law
Immediately provided in that case.
THESEUS What say you, Hermia? be advised fair maid:
To you your father should be as a god;
One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax
By him imprinted and within his power 50
To leave the figure or disfigure it.
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
HERMIA So is Lysander.
THESEUS In himself he is;
But in this kind, wanting your father's voice,
The other must be held the worthier.
HERMIA I would my father look'd but with my eyes.
THESEUS Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.
HERMIA I do entreat your grace to pardon me.
I know not by what power I am made bold,
Nor how it may concern my modesty, 60
In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
But I beseech your grace that I may know
The worst that may befall me in this case,
If I refuse to wed Demetrius.
THESEUS Either to die the death or to abjure
For ever the society of men.
Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires;
Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun, 70
For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd,
To live a barren sister all your life,
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
Thrice–blessed they that master so their blood,
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,
Than that which withering on the virgin thorn
Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness.
HERMIA So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
Ere I will my virgin patent up 80
Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke
My soul consents not to give sovereignty.
THESEUS Take time to pause; and, by the nest new 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. 90
DEMETRIUS Relent, sweet Hermia: and, Lysander, yield
Thy crazed title to my certain right.
LYSANDER You have her father's love, Demetrius;
Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him.
EGEUS Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love,
And what is mine my love shall render him.
And she is mine, and all my right of her
I do estate unto Demetrius.
LYSANDER I am, my lord, as well derived as he,
As well possess'd; my love is more than his; 100
My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,
If not with vantage, as Demetrius';
And, which is more than all these boasts can be,
I am beloved of beauteous Hermia:
Why should not I then prosecute my right?
Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,
Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,
And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
Upon this spotted and inconstant man. 110
THESEUS I must confess that I have heard so much,
And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof;
But, being over–full of self–affairs,
My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come;
And come, Egeus; you shall go with me,
I have some private schooling for you both.
For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself
To fit your fancies to your father's will;
Or else the law of Athens yields you up––
Which by no means we may extenuate–– 120
To death, or to a vow of single life.
Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love?
Demetrius and Egeus, go along:
I must employ you in some business
Against our nuptial and confer with you
Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.
EGEUS With duty and desire we follow you.

Exeunt all but LYSANDER and HERMIA.

LYSANDER How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale?
How chance the roses there do fade so fast?
HERMIA Belike for want of rain, which I could well 130
Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.
LYSANDER Ay me! for aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth;
But, either it was different in blood,––
HERMIA O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low.
LYSANDER Or else misgraffed in respect of years,––
HERMIA O spite! too old to be engaged to young.
LYSANDER Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,––
HERMIA O hell! to choose love by another's eyes. 140
LYSANDER Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
Making it momentany as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!'
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion.
HERMIA If then true lovers have been ever cross'd, 150
It stands as an edict in destiny:
Then let us teach our trial patience,
Because it is a customary cross,
As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,
Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers.
LYSANDER A good persuasion: therefore, hear me, Hermia.
I have a widow aunt, a dowager
Of great revenue, and she hath no child:
From Athens is her house remov'd seven leagues;
And she respects me as her only son. 160
There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;
And to that place the sharp Athenian law
Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,
Steal forth thy father's house to–morrow night;
And in the wood, a league without the town,
Where I did meet thee once with Helena,
To do observance to a morn of May,
There will I stay for thee.
HERMIA My good Lysander!
I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow,
By his best arrow with the golden head, 170
By the simplicity of Venus' doves,
By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,
And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen,
When the false Troyan under sail was seen,
By all the vows that ever men have broke,
In number more than ever women spoke,
In that same place thou hast appointed me,
To–morrow truly will I meet with thee.
LYSANDER Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.
Enter HELENA.
HERMIA God speed fair Helena! whither away?
HELENA Call you me fair? that fair again unsay.
Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair! 182
Your eyes are lode–stars; and your tongue's sweet air
More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
Sickness is catching: O, were favour so,
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;
My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,
My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.
Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated, 190
The rest I'd give to be to you translated.
O, teach me how you look, and with what art
You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.
HERMIA I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.
HELENA O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!
HERMIA I give him curses, yet he gives me love.
HELENA O that my prayers could such affection move!
HERMIA The more I hate, the more he follows me.
HELENA The more I love, the more he hateth me.
HERMIA His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine. 200
HELENA None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine!
HERMIA 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 a hell!
LYSANDER Helen, to you our minds we will unfold:
To–morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold
Her silver visage in the watery glass, 210
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,
A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,
Through Athens' gates have we devised to steal.
HERMIA 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 playfellow: pray thou for us; 220
And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!
Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight
From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.
LYSANDER I will, my Hermia.
Exit HERMIA.
Helena, adieu:
As you on him, Demetrius dote on you!
Exit
HELENA How happy some o'er other some can be!
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
He will not know what all but he do know:
And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes, 230
So I, admiring of his qualities:
Things base and vile, folding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity:
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear, 240
So the boy Love is perjured every where:
For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,
He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;
And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.
I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:
Then to the wood will he to–morrow night
Pursue her; and for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:
But herein mean I to enrich my pain, 250
To have his sight thither and back again.
Exit

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ACT 1 SCENE 2 Setting: Athens. QUINCE'S house.

Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING

QUINCE Is all our company here?
BOTTOM You were best to call them generally, man by man,
according to the scrip.
QUINCE 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 the duchess, on his
wedding–day at night.
BOTTOM First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats
on, then read the names of the actors, and so grow
to a point. 10
QUINCE Marry, our play is, The most lamentable comedy, and
most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby.
BOTTOM 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.
QUINCE Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver.
BOTTOM Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.
QUINCE You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.
BOTTOM What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant?
QUINCE A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love. 20
BOTTOM 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 humour is for a
tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to
tear a cat in, to make all split.
The raging rocks
And shivering shocks
Shall break the locks
Of prison gates;
And Phibbus' car 30
Shall shine from far
And make and mar
The foolish Fates.
This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players.
This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is
more condoling.
QUINCE Francis Flute, the bellows–mender.
FLUTE Here, Peter Quince.
QUINCE Flute, you must take Thisby on you.
FLUTE What is Thisby? a wandering knight?
QUINCE It is the lady that Pyramus must love. 40
FLUTE Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming.
QUINCE That's all one: you shall play it in a mask, and
you may speak as small as you will.
BOTTOM An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too, I'll
speak in a monstrous little voice. 'Thisne,
Thisne;' 'Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! thy Thisby dear,
and lady dear!'
QUINCE No, no; you must play Pyramus: and, Flute, you Thisby.
BOTTOM Well, proceed. 50
QUINCE Robin Starveling, the tailor.
STARVELING Here, Peter Quince.
QUINCE Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother.
Tom Snout, the tinker.
SNOUT Here, Peter Quince.
QUINCE You, Pyramus' 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.
QUINCE You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring. 59
BOTTOM 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.'
QUINCE 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. 69
BOTTOM 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 aggravate my
voice so that I will roar you as gently as any
sucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any
nightingale.
QUINCE 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.
BOTTOM Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best
to play it in? 80
QUINCE Why, what you will.
BOTTOM I will discharge it in either your straw–colour
beard, your orange–tawny beard, your purple–in–grain
beard, or your French–crown–colour beard, your
perfect yellow.
QUINCE 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 dogged with
company, and our devices known. In the meantime I
will draw a bill of properties, such as our play
wants. I pray you, fail me not. 93
BOTTOM We will meet; and there we may rehearse most
obscenely and courageously. Take pains; be perfect: adieu.
QUINCE At the duke's oak we meet.
BOTTOM Enough; hold or cut bow–strings.
Exeunt

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ACT IV SCENE I� Setting: A room in the castle.

[Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN ]

KING CLAUDIUS There's matter in these sighs, these profound heaves: You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them. Where is your son? QUEEN GERTRUDE Bestow this place on us a little while.

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]

Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to–night!
KING CLAUDIUS What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
QUEEN GERTRUDE Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend
Which is the mightier: in his lawless fit,
Behind the arras hearing something stir,
Whips out his rapier, cries, 'A rat, a rat!' 10
And, in this brainish apprehension, kills
The unseen good old man.
KING CLAUDIUS O heavy deed!
It had been so with us, had we been there:
His liberty is full of threats to all;
To you yourself, to us, to every one.
Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer'd?
It will be laid to us, whose providence
Should have kept short, restrain'd and out of haunt,
This mad young man: but so much was our love,
We would not understand what was most fit; 20
But, like the owner of a foul disease,�
To keep it from divulging, let it feed
Even on the pith of Life. Where is he gone?
QUEEN GERTRUDE To draw apart the body he hath kill'd:
O'er whom his very madness, like some ore
Among a mineral of metals base,
Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done.
KING CLAUDIUS O Gertrude, come away!
The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch,
But we will ship him hence: and this vile deed 30
We must, with all our majesty and skill,
Both countenance and excuse. Ho, Guildenstern!

[Re–enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]

Friends both, go join you with some further aid:
Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him:
Go seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body
Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]

Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends;
And let them know, both what we mean to do,
And what's untimely done: [so, haply, slander], 40
Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,
As level as the cannon to his blank,
Transports his poison'd shot, may miss our name,
And hit the woundless air. O, come away!
My soul is full of discord and dismay.
[Exeunt]

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ACT IV SCENE II� Setting: Another room in the castle.

[Enter HAMLET]

HAMLET Safely stowed. GUILDENSTERN AND ROSENCRANTZ [Within.]�Hamlet! Lord Hamlet! HAMLET But soft, what noise? who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come. [Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN] ROSENCRANTZ What have you done, my lord, with the dead body? HAMLET Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin. ROSENCRANTZ Tell us where 'tis, that we may take it thence And bear it to the chapel. HAMLET Do not believe it. ROSENCRANTZ Believe what? 10 HAMLET That I can keep your counsel and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge! what replication should be made by the son of a king? ROSENCRANTZ Take you me for a sponge, my lord? HAMLET Ay, sir, that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed: when he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again. 20 ROSENCRANTZ I understand you not, my lord. HAMLET I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear. ROSENCRANTZ My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king. HAMLET The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing –– GUILDENSTERN A thing, my lord? HAMLET Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after. [Exeunt]

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ACT IV SCENE III� Setting: Another room in the castle.

Enter KING CLAUDIUS, attended.�

KING CLAUDIUS� I have sent to seek him, and to find the body. � � How dangerous is it that this man goes loose! � � Yet must not we put the strong law on him: � � He's loved of the distracted multitude, � Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes; � � And where tis so, the offender's scourge is weigh'd, � � But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even, � � This sudden sending him away must seem � � Deliberate pause: diseases desperate grown � By desperate appliance are relieved, �10 � Or not at all. � � Enter ROSENCRANTZ and others. � � How now! what hath befall'n? � ROSENCRANTZ� Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord, � � We cannot get from him. KING CLAUDIUS� But where is he? � ROSENCRANTZ� Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure. � KING CLAUDIUS� Bring him before us. � ROSENCRANTZ� Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord. � � Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN. � KING CLAUDIUS� Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? HAMLET� At supper. � KING CLAUDIUS� At supper! where? �19 HAMLET� Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain � � convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your � � worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all � creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for � � maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but � � variable service, two dishes, but to one table: � � that's the end. � KING CLAUDIUS� Alas, alas! HAMLET� A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a � � king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. � KING CLAUDIUS� What dost you mean by this? � HAMLET� Nothing but to show you how a king may go a � � progress through the guts of a beggar. �31 KING CLAUDIUS� Where is Polonius? � HAMLET� In heaven; send hither to see: if your messenger � � find him not there, seek him i' the other place yourself. But indeed, if you find him not within � this month, you shall nose him as you go up the � stairs into the lobby. � KING CLAUDIUS� Go seek him there. � � To some Attendants. � HAMLET� He will stay till ye come. � � Exeunt Attendants. � KING CLAUDIUS� Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,–– � � Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve �40 � For that which thou hast done,––must send thee hence � � With fiery quickness: therefore prepare thyself; � � The bark is ready, and the wind at help, � � The associates tend, and every thing is bent � � For England. HAMLET� For England. � KING CLAUDIUS� Ay, Hamlet. � HAMLET� Good. � KING CLAUDIUS� So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. � HAMLET� I see a cherub that sees them. But, come; for � England! Farewell, dear mother. � KING CLAUDIUS� Thy loving father, Hamlet. �49 HAMLET� My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man � � and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England! � � Exit � KING CLAUDIUS� Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard; � Delay it not; I'll have him hence to–night: � � Away! for every thing is seal'd and done � � That else leans on the affair: pray you, make haste. � � Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. � � And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught–– � � As my great power thereof may give thee sense, � Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red � � After the Danish sword, and thy free awe �60 � Pays homage to us––thou mayst not coldly set � � Our sovereign process; which imports at full, � � By letters congruing to that effect, � The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England; � � For like the hectic in my blood he rages, � � And thou must cure me: till I know 'tis done, � � Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun. � � Exit

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ACT IV SCENE IV� Setting: A plain in Denmark.

Enter FORTINBRAS, a Captain, and Soldiers, marching.�

PRINCE FORTINBRAS� Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king; � � Tell him that, by his licence, Fortinbras � � Craves the conveyance of a promised march � � Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous. � If that his majesty would aught with us, � � We shall express our duty in his eye; � � And let him know so. � Captain� I will do't, my lord. � PRINCE FORTINBRAS� Go softly on. � Exeunt FORTINBRAS and Soldiers. � � Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others. � HAMLET� Good sir, whose powers are these? � Captain� They are of Norway, sir. �10 HAMLET� How purposed, sir, I pray you? � Captain� Against some part of Poland. � HAMLET� Who commands them, sir? Captain� The nephews to old Norway, Fortinbras. � HAMLET� Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, � � Or for some frontier? � Captain� Truly to speak, and with no addition, � � We go to gain a little patch of ground � That hath in it no profit but the name. � � To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it; �20 � Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole � � A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee. � HAMLET� Why, then the Polack never will defend it. Captain� Yes, it is already garrison'd. � HAMLET� Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats � � Will not debate the question of this straw: � � This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace, � � That inward breaks, and shows no cause without � Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir. � Captain� God be wi' you, sir. �30 � Exit � ROSENCRANTZ� Will't please you go, my lord? � HAMLET� I'll be with you straight go a little before. � � Exeunt all except HAMLET. � � How all occasions do inform against me, � And spur my dull revenge! What is a man, � � If his chief good and market of his time � � Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. � � Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, � � Looking before and after, gave us not � That capability and god–like reason � � To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be � � Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple �40 � Of thinking too precisely on the event, � � A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom � And ever three parts coward, I do not know � � Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;' � � Sith I have cause and will and strength and means � � To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me: � � Witness this army of such mass and charge � Led by a delicate and tender prince, � � Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd � � Makes mouths at the invisible event, �50 � Exposing what is mortal and unsure � � To all that fortune, death and danger dare, � Even for an egg–shell. Rightly to be great � � Is not to stir without great argument, � � But greatly to find quarrel in a straw � � When honour's at the stake. How stand I then, � � That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd, � Excitements of my reason and my blood, � � And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see � � The imminent death of�twenty thousand men, �60 � That, for a fantasy and trick of fame, � � Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot � Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, � Which is not tomb enough and continent � � To hide the slain? O, from this time forth, � � My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth! � � Exit