text:
User:OrphicBot/Sandbox/A Midsummer Night's Dream

 * ACT i|I
 * SCENE i|I. 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|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
 * 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|I woo'd thee with my sword,
 * And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
 * But i|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!
 * THESEUS
 * Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with thee?
 * EGEUS
 * Full of vexation come i|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,
 * 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,
 * i|I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,
 * As she is mine, i|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
 * 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|I would my father look'd but with my eyes.
 * THESEUS
 * Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.
 * HERMIA
 * i|I do entreat your grace to pardon me.
 * i|I know not by what power i|I am made bold,
 * Nor how it may concern my modesty,
 * In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
 * But i|I beseech your grace that i|I may know
 * The worst that may befall me in this case,
 * If i|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,
 * 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|I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
 * Ere i|I will my virgin patent up
 * Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke
 * My soul consents not to give sovereignty.
 * THESEUS
 * Take time to pause; and, by the next 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.
 * 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|I do estate unto Demetrius.
 * LYSANDER
 * i|I am, my lord, as well derived as he,
 * As well possess'd; my love is more than his;
 * 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|I am beloved of beauteous Hermia:
 * Why should not i|I then prosecute my right?
 * Demetrius, i|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.
 * THESEUS
 * i|I must confess that i|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|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--
 * To death, or to a vow of single life.
 * Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love?
 * Demetrius and Egeus, go along:
 * i|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|I could well
 * Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.
 * LYSANDER
 * Ay me! for aught that i|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|O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low.
 * LYSANDER
 * Or else misgraffed in respect of years,--
 * HERMIA
 * o|O spite! too old to be engaged to young.
 * LYSANDER
 * Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,--
 * HERMIA
 * o|O hell! to choose love by another's eyes.
 * 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,
 * 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|A good persuasion: therefore, hear me, Hermia.
 * i|I have a widow aunt, a dowager
 * Of great revenue, and she hath no child:
 * From Athens is her house remote seven leagues;
 * And she respects me as her only son.
 * There, gentle Hermia, may i|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|I did meet thee once with Helena,
 * To do observance to a morn of May,
 * There will i|I stay for thee.
 * HERMIA
 * My good Lysander!
 * i|I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow,
 * By his best arrow with the golden head,
 * 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|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|O happy fair!
 * 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|O, were favour so,
 * Yours would i|I catch, fair Hermia, ere i|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,
 * The rest i|I'd give to be to you translated.
 * o|O, teach me how you look, and with what art
 * You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.
 * HERMIA
 * i|I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.
 * HELENA
 * o|O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!
 * HERMIA
 * i|I give him curses, yet he gives me love.
 * HELENA
 * o|O that my prayers could such affection move!
 * HERMIA
 * The more i|I hate, the more he follows me.
 * HELENA
 * The more i|I love, the more he hateth me.
 * HERMIA
 * His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.
 * 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|I did Lysander see,
 * Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me:
 * o|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,
 * Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,
 * a|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|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;
 * And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!
 * Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight
 * From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.
 * LYSANDER
 * i|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|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,
 * So i|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,
 * 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|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|I have thanks, it is a dear expense:
 * But herein mean i|I to enrich my pain,
 * To have his sight thither and back again.
 * Exit
 * SCENE II. Athens. QUINCE's|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.
 * QUINCE
 * Marry, our play is, The most lamentable comedy, and
 * most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby.
 * BOTTOM
 * a|A very good piece of work, i|I assure you, and a
 * merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your
 * actors by the scroll. Masters, spread yourselves.
 * QUINCE
 * Answer as i|I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver.
 * BOTTOM
 * Ready. Name what part i|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|A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love.
 * BOTTOM
 * That will ask some tears in the true performing of
 * it: if i|I do it, let the audience look to their
 * eyes; i|I will move storms, i|I will condole in some
 * measure. To the rest: yet my chief humour is for a
 * tyrant: i|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
 * 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.
 * FLUTE
 * Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; i|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|I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too, i|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.
 * 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|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|I am slow of study.
 * QUINCE
 * You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
 * BOTTOM
 * Let me play the lion too: i|I will roar, that i|I will
 * do any man's heart good to hear me; i|I will roar,
 * that i|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.
 * BOTTOM
 * i|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|I will aggravate my
 * voice so that i|I will roar you as gently as any
 * sucking dove; i|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|I will undertake it. What beard were i|I best
 * to play it in?
 * QUINCE
 * Why, what you will.
 * BOTTOM
 * i|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|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|I
 * will draw a bill of properties, such as our play
 * wants. i|I pray you, fail me not.
 * 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
 * ACT II
 * SCENE i|I. a|A wood near Athens.
 * Enter, from opposite sides, a Fairy, and PUCK
 * PUCK
 * How now, spirit! whither wander you?
 * Fairy
 * Over hill, over dale,
 * Thorough bush, thorough brier,
 * Over park, over pale,
 * Thorough flood, thorough fire,
 * i|I do wander everywhere,
 * Swifter than the moon's sphere;
 * And i|I serve the fairy queen,
 * To dew her orbs upon the green.
 * The cowslips tall her pensioners be:
 * In their gold coats spots you see;
 * Those be rubies, fairy favours,
 * In those freckles live their savours:
 * i|I must go seek some dewdrops here
 * And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
 * Farewell, thou lob of spirits; i|I'll be gone:
 * Our queen and all our elves come here anon.
 * PUCK
 * The king doth keep his revels here to-night:
 * Take heed the queen come not within his sight;
 * For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,
 * Because that she as her attendant hath
 * a|A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king;
 * She never had so sweet a changeling;
 * And jealous Oberon would have the child
 * Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;
 * But she perforce withholds the loved boy,
 * Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy:
 * And now they never meet in grove or green,
 * By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,
 * But, they do square, that all their elves for fear
 * Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there.
 * Fairy
 * Either i|I mistake your shape and making quite,
 * Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
 * Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he
 * That frights the maidens of the villagery;
 * Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern
 * And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;
 * And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;
 * Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
 * Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
 * You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
 * Are not you he?
 * PUCK
 * Thou speak'st aright;
 * i|I am that merry wanderer of the night.
 * i|I jest to Oberon and make him smile
 * When i|I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
 * Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
 * And sometime lurk i|I in a gossip's bowl,
 * In very likeness of a roasted crab,
 * And when she drinks, against her lips i|I bob
 * And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.
 * The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
 * Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
 * Then slip i|I from her bum, down topples she,
 * And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;
 * And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
 * And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear
 * a|A merrier hour was never wasted there.
 * But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon.
 * Fairy
 * And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!
 * Enter, from one side, OBERON, with his train; from the other, TITANIA, with hers
 * OBERON
 * Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.
 * TITANIA
 * What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence:
 * i|I have forsworn his bed and company.
 * OBERON
 * Tarry, rash wanton: am not i|I thy lord?
 * TITANIA
 * Then i|I must be thy lady: but i|I know
 * When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,
 * And in the shape of Corin sat all day,
 * Playing on pipes of corn and versing love
 * To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,
 * Come from the farthest Steppe of India?
 * But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,
 * Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love,
 * To Theseus must be wedded, and you come
 * To give their bed joy and prosperity.
 * OBERON
 * How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
 * Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,
 * Knowing i|I know thy love to Theseus?
 * Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night
 * From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
 * And make him with fair AEgle break his faith,
 * With Ariadne and Antiopa?
 * TITANIA
 * These are the forgeries of jealousy:
 * And never, since the middle summer's spring,
 * Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
 * By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
 * Or in the beached margent of the sea,
 * To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
 * But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.
 * Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
 * As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea
 * Contagious fogs; which falling in the land
 * Have every pelting river made so proud
 * That they have overborne their continents:
 * The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,
 * The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
 * Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard;
 * The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
 * And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;
 * The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud,
 * And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
 * For lack of tread are undistinguishable:
 * The human mortals want their winter here;
 * No night is now with hymn or carol blest:
 * Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
 * Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
 * That rheumatic diseases do abound:
 * And thorough this distemperature we see
 * The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
 * Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
 * And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown
 * An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
 * Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,
 * The childing autumn, angry winter, change
 * Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,
 * By their increase, now knows not which is which:
 * And this same progeny of evils comes
 * From our debate, from our dissension;
 * We are their parents and original.
 * OBERON
 * Do you amend it then; it lies in you:
 * Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
 * i|I do but beg a little changeling boy,
 * To be my henchman.
 * TITANIA
 * Set your heart at rest:
 * The fairy land buys not the child of me.
 * His mother was a votaress of my order:
 * And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,
 * Full often hath she gossip'd by my side,
 * And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,
 * Marking the embarked traders on the flood,
 * When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive
 * And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;
 * Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait
 * Following,--her womb then rich with my young squire,--
 * Would imitate, and sail upon the land,
 * To fetch me trifles, and return again,
 * As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
 * But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;
 * And for her sake do i|I rear up her boy,
 * And for her sake i|I will not part with him.
 * OBERON
 * How long within this wood intend you stay?
 * TITANIA
 * Perchance till after Theseus' wedding-day.
 * If you will patiently dance in our round
 * And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
 * If not, shun me, and i|I will spare your haunts.
 * OBERON
 * Give me that boy, and i|I will go with thee.
 * TITANIA
 * Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away!
 * We shall chide downright, if i|I longer stay.
 * Exit TITANIA with her train
 * OBERON
 * Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove
 * Till i|I torment thee for this injury.
 * My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
 * Since once i|I sat upon a promontory,
 * And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
 * Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
 * That the rude sea grew civil at her song
 * And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
 * To hear the sea-maid's music.
 * PUCK
 * i|I remember.
 * OBERON
 * That very time i|I saw, but thou couldst not,
 * Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
 * Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took
 * At a fair vestal throned by the west,
 * And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
 * As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;
 * But i|I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
 * Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
 * And the imperial votaress passed on,
 * In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
 * Yet mark'd i|I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
 * It fell upon a little western flower,
 * Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
 * And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
 * Fetch me that flower; the herb i|I shew'd thee once:
 * The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid
 * Will make or man or woman madly dote
 * Upon the next live creature that it sees.
 * Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again
 * Ere the leviathan can swim a league.
 * PUCK
 * i|I'll put a girdle round about the earth
 * In forty minutes.
 * Exit
 * OBERON
 * Having once this juice,
 * i|I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,
 * And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.
 * The next thing then she waking looks upon,
 * Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
 * On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,
 * She shall pursue it with the soul of love:
 * And ere i|I take this charm from off her sight,
 * As i|I can take it with another herb,
 * i|I'll make her render up her page to me.
 * But who comes here? i|I am invisible;
 * And i|I will overhear their conference.
 * Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA, following him
 * DEMETRIUS
 * i|I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
 * Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?
 * The one i|I'll slay, the other slayeth me.
 * Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood;
 * And here am i|I, and wode within this wood,
 * Because i|I cannot meet my Hermia.
 * Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
 * HELENA
 * You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;
 * But yet you draw not iron, for my heart
 * Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw,
 * And i|I shall have no power to follow you.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * Do i|I entice you? do i|I speak you fair?
 * Or, rather, do i|I not in plainest truth
 * Tell you, i|I do not, nor i|I cannot love you?
 * HELENA
 * And even for that do i|I love you the more.
 * i|I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,
 * The more you beat me, i|I will fawn on you:
 * Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
 * Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
 * Unworthy as i|I am, to follow you.
 * What worser place can i|I beg in your love,--
 * And yet a place of high respect with me,--
 * Than to be used as you use your dog?
 * DEMETRIUS
 * Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;
 * For i|I am sick when i|I do look on thee.
 * HELENA
 * And i|I am sick when i|I look not on you.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * You do impeach your modesty too much,
 * To leave the city and commit yourself
 * Into the hands of one that loves you not;
 * To trust the opportunity of night
 * And the ill counsel of a desert place
 * With the rich worth of your virginity.
 * HELENA
 * Your virtue is my privilege: for that
 * It is not night when i|I do see your face,
 * Therefore i|I think i|I am not in the night;
 * Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
 * For you in my respect are all the world:
 * Then how can it be said i|I am alone,
 * When all the world is here to look on me?
 * DEMETRIUS
 * i|I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,
 * And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.
 * HELENA
 * The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
 * Run when you will, the story shall be changed:
 * Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
 * The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
 * Makes speed to catch the tiger; bootless speed,
 * When cowardice pursues and valour flies.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * i|I will not stay thy questions; let me go:
 * Or, if thou follow me, do not believe
 * But i|I shall do thee mischief in the wood.
 * HELENA
 * Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
 * You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!
 * Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:
 * We cannot fight for love, as men may do;
 * We should be wood and were not made to woo.
 * Exit DEMETRIUS
 * i|I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,
 * To die upon the hand i|I love so well.
 * Exit
 * OBERON
 * Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove,
 * Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love.
 * Re-enter PUCK
 * Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.
 * PUCK
 * Ay, there it is.
 * OBERON
 * i|I pray thee, give it me.
 * i|I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
 * Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
 * Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
 * With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
 * There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
 * Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
 * And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,
 * Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
 * And with the juice of this i|I'll streak her eyes,
 * And make her full of hateful fantasies.
 * Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:
 * a|A sweet Athenian lady is in love
 * With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;
 * But do it when the next thing he espies
 * May be the lady: thou shalt know the man
 * By the Athenian garments he hath on.
 * Effect it with some care, that he may prove
 * More fond on her than she upon her love:
 * And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.
 * PUCK
 * Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.
 * Exeunt
 * SCENE II. 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.
 * The Fairies sing
 * You spotted snakes with double tongue,
 * Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
 * 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.
 * Weaving spiders, come not here;
 * 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,
 * 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|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|I upon this bank will rest my head.
 * 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|O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!
 * Love takes the meaning in love's conference.
 * i|I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit
 * So that but one heart we can make of it;
 * Two bosoms interchained with an oath;
 * So then two bosoms and a single troth.
 * Then by your side no bed-room me deny;
 * For lying so, Hermia, i|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:
 * Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end!
 * LYSANDER
 * Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say i|I;
 * And then end life when i|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|I gone.
 * But Athenian found i|I none,
 * On whose eyes i|I might approve
 * This flower's force in stirring love.
 * Night and silence.--Who is here?
 * 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|I throw
 * All the power this charm doth owe.
 * When thou wakest, let love forbid
 * Sleep his seat on thy eyelid:
 * So awake when i|I am gone;
 * For i|I must now to Oberon.
 * Exit
 * Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running
 * HELENA
 * Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * i|I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.
 * HELENA
 * o|O, wilt thou darkling leave me? do not so.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * Stay, on thy peril: i|I alone will go.
 * Exit
 * HELENA
 * o|O, i|I am out of breath in this fond chase!
 * The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.
 * Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies;
 * For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.
 * How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears:
 * If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers.
 * No, no, i|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!
 * Dead? or asleep? i|I see no blood, no wound.
 * Lysander if you live, good sir, awake.
 * LYSANDER
 * (Awaking) And run through fire i|I will for thy sweet sake.
 * Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,
 * That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.
 * Where is Demetrius? o|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.
 * LYSANDER
 * Content with Hermia! No; i|I do repent
 * The tedious minutes i|I with her have spent.
 * Not Hermia but Helena i|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|I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;
 * And touching now the point of human skill,
 * Reason becomes the marshal to my will
 * And leads me to your eyes, where i|I o'erlook
 * Love's stories written in love's richest book.
 * HELENA
 * Wherefore was i|I to this keen mockery born?
 * When at your hands did i|I deserve this scorn?
 * Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man,
 * That i|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.
 * But fare you well: perforce i|I must confess
 * i|I thought you lord of more true gentleness.
 * o|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,
 * 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) Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best
 * To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!
 * Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here!
 * Lysander, look how i|I do quake with fear:
 * Methought a serpent eat my heart away,
 * And you sat smiling at his cruel pray.
 * Lysander! what, removed? Lysander! lord!
 * What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word?
 * Alack, where are you speak, an if you hear;
 * Speak, of all loves! i|I swoon almost with fear.
 * No? then i|I well perceive you all not nigh
 * Either death or you i|I'll find immediately.
 * Exit
 * ACT III
 * SCENE i|I. 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?
 * SNOUT
 * By'r lakin, a parlous fear.
 * STARVELING
 * i|I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.
 * BOTTOM
 * Not a whit: i|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|I, Pyramus, am not
 * Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put them
 * out of fear.
 * 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|I fear it, i|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.
 * 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|I would wish
 * You,'--or 'i|I would request you,'--or 'i|I would
 * entreat you,--not to fear, not to tremble: my life
 * for yours. If you think i|I come hither as a lion, it
 * were pity of my life: no i|I am no such thing; i|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.
 * 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|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.
 * 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?
 * 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|I'll be an auditor;
 * An actor too, perhaps, if i|I see cause.
 * 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|I will to thee appear.
 * Exit
 * PUCK
 * a|A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here.
 * Exit
 * FLUTE
 * Must i|I speak now?
 * 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|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.'
 * FLUTE
 * o|O,--As true as truest horse, that yet would
 * never tire.
 * Re-enter PUCK, and BOTTOM with an ass's head
 * BOTTOM
 * If i|I were fair, Thisby, i|I were only thine.
 * QUINCE
 * o|O monstrous! o|O strange! we are haunted. Pray,
 * masters! fly, masters! Help!
 * Exeunt QUINCE, SNUG, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING
 * PUCK
 * i|I'll follow you, i|I'll lead you about a round,
 * Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier:
 * Sometime a horse i|I'll be, sometime a hound,
 * a|A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire;
 * And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,
 * 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|O Bottom, thou art changed! what do i|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.
 * Exit
 * BOTTOM
 * i|I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me;
 * to fright me, if they could. But i|I will not stir
 * from this place, do what they can: i|I will walk up
 * and down here, and i|I will sing, that they shall hear
 * i|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) What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?
 * BOTTOM
 * (Sings)
 * The finch, the sparrow and the lark,
 * 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|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|I love thee.
 * 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|I can gleek upon occasion.
 * TITANIA
 * Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.
 * BOTTOM
 * Not so, neither: but if i|I had wit enough to get out
 * of this wood, i|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.
 * i|I am a spirit of no common rate;
 * The summer still doth tend upon my state;
 * And i|I do love thee: therefore, go with me;
 * i|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|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|I.
 * MOTH
 * And i|I.
 * MUSTARDSEED
 * And i|I.
 * ALL
 * Where shall we go?
 * 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:
 * Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.
 * PEASEBLOSSOM
 * Hail, mortal!
 * COBWEB
 * Hail!
 * MOTH
 * Hail!
 * MUSTARDSEED
 * Hail!
 * BOTTOM
 * i|I cry your worship's mercy, heartily: i|I beseech your
 * worship's name.
 * COBWEB
 * Cobweb.
 * BOTTOM
 * i|I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master
 * Cobweb: if i|I cut my finger, i|I shall make bold with
 * you. Your name, honest gentleman?
 * PEASEBLOSSOM
 * Peaseblossom.
 * BOTTOM
 * i|I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your
 * mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. Good
 * Master Peaseblossom, i|I shall desire you of more
 * acquaintance too. Your name, i|I beseech you, sir?
 * MUSTARDSEED
 * Mustardseed.
 * BOTTOM
 * Good Master Mustardseed, i|I know your patience well:
 * that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath
 * devoured many a gentleman of your house: i|I promise
 * you your kindred had made my eyes water ere now. i|I
 * desire your more acquaintance, good Master
 * Mustardseed.
 * 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
 * SCENE II. Another part of the wood.
 * Enter OBERON
 * OBERON
 * i|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|A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,
 * That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,
 * 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|I did him at this advantage take,
 * An ass's nole i|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,
 * 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.
 * i|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|I could devise.
 * But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes
 * With the love-juice, as i|I did bid thee do?
 * PUCK
 * i|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.
 * Enter HERMIA and DEMETRIUS
 * OBERON
 * Stand close: this is the same Athenian.
 * PUCK
 * This is the woman, but not this the man.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * o|O, why rebuke you him that loves you so?
 * Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.
 * HERMIA
 * Now i|I but chide; but i|I should use thee worse,
 * For thou, i|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
 * As he to me: would he have stolen away
 * From sleeping Hermia? i|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|I,
 * Pierced through the heart with your stern cruelty:
 * Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear,
 * 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|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|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|O brave touch!
 * 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|I am not guilty of Lysander's blood;
 * Nor is he dead, for aught that i|I can tell.
 * HERMIA
 * i|I pray thee, tell me then that he is well.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * An if i|I could, what should i|I get therefore?
 * HERMIA
 * a|A privilege never to see me more.
 * And from thy hated presence part i|I so:
 * 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|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|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
 * Some true love turn'd and not a false turn'd true.
 * PUCK
 * Then fate o'er-rules, that, one man holding troth,
 * a|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|I'll charm his eyes against she do appear.
 * PUCK
 * i|I go, i|I go; look how i|I go,
 * 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,
 * 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
 * That befal preposterously.
 * Enter LYSANDER and HELENA
 * LYSANDER
 * Why should you think that i|I should woo in scorn?
 * Scorn and derision never come in tears:
 * Look, when i|I vow, i|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|O devilish-holy fray!
 * These vows are Hermia's: will you give her o'er?
 * 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|I had no judgment when to her i|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) o|O Helena, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!
 * To what, my love, shall i|I compare thine eyne?
 * Crystal is muddy. o|O, how ripe in show
 * Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!
 * 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|O, let me kiss
 * This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!
 * HELENA
 * o|O spite! o|O hell! i|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|I know you do,
 * But you must join in souls to mock me too?
 * 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|I am sure you hate me with your hearts.
 * You both are rivals, and love Hermia;
 * And now both rivals, to mock Helena:
 * a|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|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|I know:
 * And here, with all good will, with all my heart,
 * In Hermia's love i|I yield you up my part;
 * And yours of Helena to me bequeath,
 * Whom i|I do love and will do till my death.
 * HELENA
 * Never did mockers waste more idle breath.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * Lysander, keep thy Hermia; i|I will none:
 * If e'er i|I loved her, all that love is gone.
 * 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.
 * Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found;
 * Mine ear, i|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|I bear thee made me leave thee so?
 * HERMIA
 * You speak not as you think: it cannot be.
 * HELENA
 * Lo, she is one of this confederacy!
 * Now i|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
 * For parting us,--o|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,
 * 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|I, may chide you for it,
 * Though i|I alone do feel the injury.
 * HERMIA
 * i|I am amazed at your passionate words.
 * i|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,
 * But by your setting on, by your consent?
 * What thought i|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|I understand not what you mean by this.
 * HELENA
 * Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks,
 * Make mouths upon me when i|I turn my back;
 * Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up:
 * This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.
 * 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|O excellent!
 * HERMIA
 * Sweet, do not scorn her so.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * If she cannot entreat, i|I can compel.
 * LYSANDER
 * Thou canst compel no more than she entreat:
 * Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers.
 * Helen, i|I love thee; by my life, i|I do:
 * i|I swear by that which i|I will lose for thee,
 * To prove him false that says i|I love thee not.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * i|I say i|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|I will shake thee from me like a serpent!
 * 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|I will keep my word with thee.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * i|I would i|I had your bond, for i|I perceive
 * a|A weak bond holds you: i|I'll not trust your word.
 * LYSANDER
 * What, should i|I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead?
 * Although i|I hate her, i|I'll not harm her so.
 * HERMIA
 * What, can you do me greater harm than hate?
 * Hate me! wherefore? o|O me! what news, my love!
 * Am not i|I Hermia? are not you Lysander?
 * i|I am as fair now as i|I was erewhile.
 * Since night you loved me; yet since night you left
 * me:
 * Why, then you left me--o|O, the gods forbid!--
 * In earnest, shall i|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
 * That i|I do hate thee and love Helena.
 * HERMIA
 * o|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|I perceive that she hath made compare
 * 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|I am so dwarfish and so low?
 * How low am i|I, thou painted maypole? speak;
 * How low am i|I? i|I am not yet so low
 * But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.
 * HELENA
 * i|I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen,
 * Let her not hurt me: i|I was never curst;
 * i|I have no gift at all in shrewishness;
 * i|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|I can match her.
 * HERMIA
 * Lower! hark, again.
 * HELENA
 * Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.
 * i|I evermore did love you, Hermia,
 * Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you;
 * Save that, in love unto Demetrius,
 * i|I told him of your stealth unto this wood.
 * He follow'd you; for love i|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|I bear my folly back
 * And follow you no further: let me go:
 * You see how simple and how fond i|I am.
 * HERMIA
 * Why, get you gone: who is't that hinders you?
 * HELENA
 * a|A foolish heart, that i|I leave here behind.
 * HERMIA
 * What, with Lysander?
 * HELENA
 * With Demetrius.
 * LYSANDER
 * Be not afraid; she shall not harm thee, Helena.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.
 * HELENA
 * o|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
 * 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|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|I will not trust you, i|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
 * HERMIA
 * i|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|I mistook.
 * Did not you tell me i|I should know the man
 * By the Athenian garment be had on?
 * And so far blameless proves my enterprise,
 * That i|I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes;
 * And so far am i|I glad it so did sort
 * As this their jangling i|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,
 * 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
 * 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|I in this affair do thee employ,
 * i|I'll to my queen and beg her Indian boy;
 * And then i|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;
 * 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|I with the morning's love have oft made sport,
 * And, like a forester, the groves may tread,
 * Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red,
 * Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,
 * Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams.
 * But, notwithstanding, haste; make no delay:
 * We may effect this business yet ere day.
 * Exit
 * PUCK
 * Up and down, up and down,
 * i|I will lead them up and down:
 * i|I am fear'd in field and town:
 * Goblin, lead them up and down.
 * Here comes one.
 * Re-enter LYSANDER
 * LYSANDER
 * Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now.
 * PUCK
 * Here, villain; drawn and ready. Where art thou?
 * LYSANDER
 * i|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|I'll whip thee with a rod: he is defiled
 * 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|I come where he calls, then he is gone.
 * The villain is much lighter-heel'd than i|I:
 * i|I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly;
 * That fallen am i|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|I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite.
 * Sleeps
 * Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS
 * PUCK
 * Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why comest thou not?
 * DEMETRIUS
 * Abide me, if thou darest; for well i|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|I am here.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this dear,
 * If ever i|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|O weary night, o|O long and tedious night,
 * Abate thy hour! Shine comforts from the east,
 * That i|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,
 * 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|I can no further crawl, no further go;
 * My legs can keep no pace with my desires.
 * Here will i|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|I'll apply
 * 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:
 * Jack shall have Jill;
 * Nought shall go ill;
 * The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.
 * Exit
 * ACT IV
 * SCENE i|I. The same. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA
 * lying asleep.
 * Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM; PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARDSEED, and other Fairies attending; OBERON behind unseen
 * TITANIA
 * Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,
 * While i|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.
 * 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|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?
 * BOTTOM
 * Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb
 * to scratch. i|I must to the barber's, monsieur; for
 * methinks i|I am marvellous hairy about the face; and i|I
 * am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me,
 * i|I must scratch.
 * TITANIA
 * What, wilt thou hear some music,
 * my sweet love?
 * BOTTOM
 * i|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|I could munch your good
 * dry oats. Methinks i|I have a great desire to a bottle
 * of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.
 * TITANIA
 * i|I have a venturous fairy that shall seek
 * The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.
 * BOTTOM
 * i|I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas.
 * But, i|I pray you, let none of your people stir me: i|I
 * have an exposition of sleep come upon me.
 * TITANIA
 * Sleep thou, and i|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
 * Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.
 * o|O, how i|I love thee! how i|I dote on thee!
 * They sleep
 * Enter PUCK
 * OBERON
 * (Advancing) Welcome, good Robin.
 * See'st thou this sweet sight?
 * Her dotage now i|I do begin to pity:
 * For, meeting her of late behind the wood,
 * Seeking sweet favours from this hateful fool,
 * i|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
 * 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|I had at my pleasure taunted her
 * And she in mild terms begg'd my patience,
 * i|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|I have the boy, i|I will undo
 * This hateful imperfection of her eyes:
 * And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp
 * From off the head of this Athenian swain;
 * That, he awaking when the other do,
 * May all to Athens back again repair
 * And think no more of this night's accidents
 * But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
 * But first i|I will release the fairy queen.
 * Be as thou wast wont to be;
 * See as thou wast wont to see:
 * Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower
 * Hath such force and blessed power.
 * Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.
 * TITANIA
 * My Oberon! what visions have i|I seen!
 * Methought i|I was enamour'd of an ass.
 * OBERON
 * There lies your love.
 * TITANIA
 * How came these things to pass?
 * o|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!
 * 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|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:
 * i|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|I sleeping here was found
 * With these mortals on the ground.
 * Exeunt
 * Horns winded within
 * Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train
 * THESEUS
 * Go, one of you, find out the forester;
 * 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|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|I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
 * When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear
 * With hounds of Sparta: never did i|I hear
 * Such gallant chiding: for, besides the groves,
 * The skies, the fountains, every region near
 * Seem'd all one mutual cry: i|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,
 * Each under each. a|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|I wonder of their being here together.
 * THESEUS
 * No doubt they rose up early to observe
 * The rite of May, and hearing our intent,
 * Came here in grace 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|I pray you all, stand up.
 * i|I know you two are rival enemies:
 * How comes this gentle concord in the world,
 * That hatred is so far from jealousy,
 * To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?
 * LYSANDER
 * My lord, i|I shall reply amazedly,
 * Half sleep, half waking: but as yet, i|I swear,
 * i|I cannot truly say how i|I came here;
 * But, as i|I think,--for truly would i|I speak,
 * And now do i|I bethink me, so it is,--
 * i|I came with Hermia hither: our intent
 * Was to be gone from Athens, where we might,
 * Without the peril of the Athenian law.
 * EGEUS
 * Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough:
 * i|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|I in fury hither follow'd them,
 * Fair Helena in fancy following me.
 * But, my good lord, i|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|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|I betroth'd ere i|I saw Hermia:
 * But, like in sickness, did i|I loathe this food;
 * But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
 * Now i|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|I will overbear your will;
 * For in the temple by and by with us
 * These couples shall eternally be knit:
 * And, for the morning now is something worn,
 * Our purposed hunting shall be set aside.
 * Away with us to Athens; three and three,
 * We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.
 * Come, Hippolyta.
 * Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train
 * DEMETRIUS
 * These things seem small and undistinguishable,
 * HERMIA
 * Methinks i|I see these things with parted eye,
 * When every thing seems double.
 * HELENA
 * So methinks:
 * And i|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
 * 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|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|I have had a most rare
 * vision. i|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|I was--there
 * is no man can tell what. Methought i|I was,--and
 * methought i|I had,--but man is but a patched fool, if
 * he will offer to say what methought i|I had. The eye
 * of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not
 * seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue
 * to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream
 * was. i|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|I will sing it in the
 * latter end of a play, before the duke:
 * peradventure, to make it the more gracious, i|I shall
 * sing it at her death.
 * Exit
 * SCENE II. Athens. QUINCE's|S house.
 * Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING
 * QUINCE
 * Have you sent to Bottom's house ? is he come home yet?
 * STARVELING
 * He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is
 * transported.
 * FLUTE
 * If he come not, then the play is marred: it goes
 * not forward, doth it?
 * QUINCE
 * It is not possible: you have not a man in all
 * Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he.
 * FLUTE
 * No, he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft
 * man in Athens.
 * QUINCE
 * Yea and the best person too; and he is a very
 * paramour for a sweet voice.
 * FLUTE
 * You must say 'paragon:' a paramour is, God bless us,
 * a thing of naught.
 * Enter SNUG
 * SNUG
 * Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and
 * there is two or three lords and ladies more married:
 * if our sport had gone forward, we had all been made
 * men.
 * FLUTE
 * o|O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a
 * day during his life; he could not have 'scaped
 * sixpence a day: an the duke had not given him
 * sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, i|I'll be hanged;
 * he would have deserved it: sixpence a day in
 * Pyramus, or nothing.
 * Enter BOTTOM
 * BOTTOM
 * Where are these lads? where are these hearts?
 * QUINCE
 * Bottom! o|O most courageous day! o|O most happy hour!
 * BOTTOM
 * Masters, i|I am to discourse wonders: but ask me not
 * what; for if i|I tell you, i|I am no true Athenian. i|I
 * will tell you every thing, right as it fell out.
 * QUINCE
 * Let us hear, sweet Bottom.
 * BOTTOM
 * Not a word of me. All that i|I will tell you is, that
 * the duke hath dined. Get your apparel together,
 * good strings to your beards, new ribbons to your
 * pumps; meet presently at the palace; every man look
 * o'er his part; for the short and the long is, our
 * play is preferred. In any case, let Thisby have
 * clean linen; and let not him that plays the lion
 * pair his nails, for they shall hang out for the
 * lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onions
 * nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and i|I
 * do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet
 * comedy. No more words: away! go, away!
 * Exeunt
 * ACT v|V
 * SCENE i|I. Athens. The palace of THESEUS.
 * Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, Lords and Attendants
 * HIPPOLYTA
 * 'Tis strange my Theseus, that these
 * lovers speak of.
 * THESEUS
 * More strange than true: i|I never may believe
 * These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
 * Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
 * 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,
 * 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
 * The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
 * Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
 * a|A local habitation and a name.
 * Such tricks hath strong imagination,
 * That if it would but apprehend some joy,
 * 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,
 * 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.
 * Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and HELENA
 * Joy, gentle friends! joy and fresh days of love
 * 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
 * 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.
 * 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:
 * 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|I told my love,
 * In glory of my kinsman Hercules.
 * 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|I from Thebes came last a conqueror.
 * Reads
 * 'The thrice three Muses mourning for the death
 * Of Learning, late deceased in beggary.'
 * That is some satire, keen and critical,
 * Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.
 * Reads
 * 'a|A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
 * And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.'
 * 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|A play there is, my lord, some ten words long,
 * Which is as brief as i|I have known a play;
 * But by ten words, my lord, it is too long,
 * Which makes it tedious; for in all the play
 * There is not one word apt, one player fitted:
 * And tragical, my noble lord, it is;
 * For Pyramus therein doth kill himself.
 * Which, when i|I saw rehearsed, i|I must confess,
 * Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears
 * The passion of loud laughter never shed.
 * THESEUS
 * What are they that do play it?
 * PHILOSTRATE
 * Hard-handed men that work in Athens here,
 * Which never labour'd in their minds till now,
 * And now have toil'd their unbreathed memories
 * With this same play, against your nuptial.
 * THESEUS
 * And we will hear it.
 * PHILOSTRATE
 * No, my noble lord;
 * It is not for you: i|I have heard it over,
 * And it is nothing, nothing in the world;
 * Unless you can find sport in their intents,
 * Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain,
 * To do you service.
 * THESEUS
 * i|I will hear that play;
 * For never anything can be amiss,
 * When simpleness and duty tender it.
 * Go, bring them in: and take your places, ladies.
 * Exit PHILOSTRATE
 * HIPPOLYTA
 * i|I love not to see wretchedness o'er charged
 * And duty in his service perishing.
 * THESEUS
 * Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing.
 * HIPPOLYTA
 * He says they can do nothing in this kind.
 * THESEUS
 * The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.
 * Our sport shall be to take what they mistake:
 * And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect
 * Takes it in might, not merit.
 * Where i|I have come, great clerks have purposed
 * To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
 * Where i|I have seen them shiver and look pale,
 * Make periods in the midst of sentences,
 * Throttle their practised accent in their fears
 * And in conclusion dumbly have broke off,
 * Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,
 * Out of this silence yet i|I pick'd a welcome;
 * And in the modesty of fearful duty
 * i|I read as much as from the rattling tongue
 * Of saucy and audacious eloquence.
 * Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity
 * In least speak most, to my capacity.
 * Re-enter PHILOSTRATE
 * PHILOSTRATE
 * So please your grace, the Prologue is address'd.
 * THESEUS
 * Let him approach.
 * Flourish of trumpets
 * Enter QUINCE for the Prologue
 * 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,
 * 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,
 * 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|A good moral, my lord: it is not
 * 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?
 * Enter Pyramus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion
 * Prologue
 * Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show;
 * But wonder on, till truth make all things plain.
 * This man is Pyramus, if you would know;
 * This beauteous lady Thisby is certain.
 * This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present
 * Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder;
 * And through Wall's chink, poor souls, they are content
 * To whisper. At the which let no man wonder.
 * This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn,
 * Presenteth Moonshine; for, if you will know,
 * By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn
 * To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo.
 * This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name,
 * The trusty Thisby, coming first by night,
 * Did scare away, or rather did affright;
 * And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall,
 * Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain.
 * Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall,
 * And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain:
 * Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,
 * He bravely broach'd is boiling bloody breast;
 * And Thisby, tarrying in mulberry shade,
 * His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,
 * Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain
 * At large discourse, while here they do remain.
 * Exeunt Prologue, Thisbe, Lion, and Moonshine
 * THESEUS
 * i|I wonder if the lion be to speak.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when many asses do.
 * Wall
 * In this same interlude it doth befall
 * That i|I, one Snout by name, present a wall;
 * And such a wall, as i|I would have you think,
 * That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
 * Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,
 * Did whisper often very secretly.
 * This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show
 * That i|I am that same wall; the truth is so:
 * And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
 * Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.
 * THESEUS
 * Would you desire lime and hair to speak better?
 * DEMETRIUS
 * It is the wittiest partition that ever i|I heard
 * discourse, my lord.
 * Enter Pyramus
 * THESEUS
 * Pyramus draws near the wall: silence!
 * Pyramus
 * o|O grim-look'd night! o|O night with hue so black!
 * o|O night, which ever art when day is not!
 * o|O night, o|O night! alack, alack, alack,
 * i|I fear my Thisby's promise is forgot!
 * And thou, o|O wall, o|O sweet, o|O lovely wall,
 * That stand'st between her father's ground and mine!
 * Thou wall, o|O wall, o|O sweet and lovely wall,
 * Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne!
 * Wall holds up his fingers
 * Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this!
 * But what see i|I? No Thisby do i|I see.
 * o|O wicked wall, through whom i|I see no bliss!
 * Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me!
 * THESEUS
 * The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again.
 * Pyramus
 * No, in truth, sir, he should not. 'Deceiving me'
 * is Thisby's cue: she is to enter now, and i|I am to
 * spy her through the wall. You shall see, it will
 * fall pat as i|I told you. Yonder she comes.
 * Enter Thisbe
 * Thisbe
 * o|O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans,
 * For parting my fair Pyramus and me!
 * My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones,
 * Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.
 * Pyramus
 * i|I see a voice: now will i|I to the chink,
 * To spy an i|I can hear my Thisby's face. Thisby!
 * Thisbe
 * My love thou art, my love i|I think.
 * Pyramus
 * Think what thou wilt, i|I am thy lover's grace;
 * And, like Limander, am i|I trusty still.
 * Thisbe
 * And i|I like Helen, till the Fates me kill.
 * Pyramus
 * Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.
 * Thisbe
 * As Shafalus to Procrus, i|I to you.
 * Pyramus
 * o|O kiss me through the hole of this vile wall!
 * Thisbe
 * i|I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all.
 * Pyramus
 * Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?
 * Thisbe
 * 'Tide life, 'tide death, i|I come without delay.
 * Exeunt Pyramus and Thisbe
 * Wall
 * Thus have i|I, Wall, my part discharged so;
 * And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.
 * Exit
 * THESEUS
 * Now is the mural down between the two neighbours.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear
 * without warning.
 * HIPPOLYTA
 * This is the silliest stuff that ever i|I heard.
 * THESEUS
 * The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst
 * are no worse, if imagination amend them.
 * HIPPOLYTA
 * It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.
 * THESEUS
 * If we imagine no worse of them than they of
 * themselves, they may pass for excellent men. Here
 * come two noble beasts in, a man and a lion.
 * Enter Lion and Moonshine
 * Lion
 * You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear
 * The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,
 * May now perchance both quake and tremble here,
 * When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.
 * Then know that i|I, one Snug the joiner, am
 * a|A lion-fell, nor else no lion's dam;
 * For, if i|I should as lion come in strife
 * Into this place, 'twere pity on my life.
 * THESEUS
 * a|A very gentle beast, of a good conscience.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er i|I saw.
 * LYSANDER
 * This lion is a very fox for his valour.
 * THESEUS
 * True; and a goose for his discretion.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * Not so, my lord; for his valour cannot carry his
 * discretion; and the fox carries the goose.
 * THESEUS
 * His discretion, i|I am sure, cannot carry his valour;
 * for the goose carries not the fox. It is well:
 * leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to the moon.
 * Moonshine
 * This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;--
 * DEMETRIUS
 * He should have worn the horns on his head.
 * THESEUS
 * He is no crescent, and his horns are
 * invisible within the circumference.
 * Moonshine
 * This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;
 * Myself the man i' the moon do seem to be.
 * THESEUS
 * This is the greatest error of all the rest: the man
 * should be put into the lanthorn. How is it else the
 * man i' the moon?
 * DEMETRIUS
 * He dares not come there for the candle; for, you
 * see, it is already in snuff.
 * HIPPOLYTA
 * i|I am aweary of this moon: would he would change!
 * THESEUS
 * It appears, by his small light of discretion, that
 * he is in the wane; but yet, in courtesy, in all
 * reason, we must stay the time.
 * LYSANDER
 * Proceed, Moon.
 * Moonshine
 * All that i|I have to say, is, to tell you that the
 * lanthorn is the moon; i|I, the man in the moon; this
 * thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * Why, all these should be in the lanthorn; for all
 * these are in the moon. But, silence! here comes Thisbe.
 * Enter Thisbe
 * Thisbe
 * This is old Ninny's tomb. Where is my love?
 * Lion
 * (Roaring) Oh--
 * Thisbe runs off
 * DEMETRIUS
 * Well roared, Lion.
 * THESEUS
 * Well run, Thisbe.
 * HIPPOLYTA
 * Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines with a
 * good grace.
 * The Lion shakes Thisbe's mantle, and exit
 * THESEUS
 * Well moused, Lion.
 * LYSANDER
 * And so the lion vanished.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * And then came Pyramus.
 * Enter Pyramus
 * Pyramus
 * Sweet Moon, i|I thank thee for thy sunny beams;
 * i|I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright;
 * For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams,
 * i|I trust to take of truest Thisby sight.
 * But stay, o|O spite!
 * But mark, poor knight,
 * What dreadful dole is here!
 * Eyes, do you see?
 * How can it be?
 * o|O dainty duck! o|O dear!
 * Thy mantle good,
 * What, stain'd with blood!
 * Approach, ye Furies fell!
 * o|O Fates, come, come,
 * Cut thread and thrum;
 * Quail, crush, conclude, and quell!
 * THESEUS
 * This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would
 * go near to make a man look sad.
 * HIPPOLYTA
 * Beshrew my heart, but i|I pity the man.
 * Pyramus
 * o|O wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame?
 * Since lion vile hath here deflower'd my dear:
 * Which is--no, no--which was the fairest dame
 * That lived, that loved, that liked, that look'd
 * with cheer.
 * Come, tears, confound;
 * Out, sword, and wound
 * The pap of Pyramus;
 * Ay, that left pap,
 * Where heart doth hop:
 * Stabs himself
 * Thus die i|I, thus, thus, thus.
 * Now am i|I dead,
 * Now am i|I fled;
 * My soul is in the sky:
 * Tongue, lose thy light;
 * Moon take thy flight:
 * Exit Moonshine
 * Now die, die, die, die, die.
 * Dies
 * DEMETRIUS
 * No die, but an ace, for him; for he is but one.
 * LYSANDER
 * Less than an ace, man; for he is dead; he is nothing.
 * THESEUS
 * With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover, and
 * prove an ass.
 * HIPPOLYTA
 * How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe comes
 * back and finds her lover?
 * THESEUS
 * She will find him by starlight. Here she comes; and
 * her passion ends the play.
 * Re-enter Thisbe
 * HIPPOLYTA
 * Methinks she should not use a long one for such a
 * Pyramus: i|I hope she will be brief.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * a|A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which
 * Thisbe, is the better; he for a man, God warrant us;
 * she for a woman, God bless us.
 * LYSANDER
 * She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * And thus she means, videlicet:--
 * Thisbe
 * Asleep, my love?
 * What, dead, my dove?
 * o|O Pyramus, arise!
 * Speak, speak. Quite dumb?
 * Dead, dead? a|A tomb
 * Must cover thy sweet eyes.
 * These My lips,
 * This cherry nose,
 * These yellow cowslip cheeks,
 * Are gone, are gone:
 * Lovers, make moan:
 * His eyes were green as leeks.
 * o|O Sisters Three,
 * Come, come to me,
 * With hands as pale as milk;
 * Lay them in gore,
 * Since you have shore
 * With shears his thread of silk.
 * Tongue, not a word:
 * Come, trusty sword;
 * Come, blade, my breast imbrue:
 * Stabs herself
 * And, farewell, friends;
 * Thus Thisby ends:
 * Adieu, adieu, adieu.
 * Dies
 * THESEUS
 * Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead.
 * DEMETRIUS
 * Ay, and Wall too.
 * BOTTOM
 * (Starting up) No assure you; the wall is down that
 * parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the
 * epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two
 * of our company?
 * THESEUS
 * No epilogue, i|I pray you; for your play needs no
 * excuse. Never excuse; for when the players are all
 * dead, there needs none to be blamed. Marry, if he
 * that writ it had played Pyramus and hanged himself
 * in Thisbe's garter, it would have been a fine
 * tragedy: and so it is, truly; and very notably
 * discharged. But come, your Bergomask: let your
 * epilogue alone.
 * a|A dance
 * The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:
 * Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.
 * i|I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn
 * As much as we this night have overwatch'd.
 * This palpable-gross play hath well beguiled
 * The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed.
 * a|A fortnight hold we this solemnity,
 * In nightly revels and new jollity.
 * Exeunt
 * Enter PUCK
 * PUCK
 * Now the hungry lion roars,
 * And the wolf behowls the moon;
 * Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,
 * All with weary task fordone.
 * Now the wasted brands do glow,
 * Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud,
 * Puts the wretch that lies in woe
 * In remembrance of a shroud.
 * Now it is the time of night
 * That the graves all gaping wide,
 * Every one lets forth his sprite,
 * In the church-way paths to glide:
 * And we fairies, that do run
 * By the triple Hecate's team,
 * From the presence of the sun,
 * Following darkness like a dream,
 * Now are frolic: not a mouse
 * Shall disturb this hallow'd house:
 * i|I am sent with broom before,
 * To sweep the dust behind the door.
 * Enter OBERON and TITANIA with their train
 * OBERON
 * Through the house give gathering light,
 * By the dead and drowsy fire:
 * Every elf and fairy sprite
 * Hop as light as bird from brier;
 * And this ditty, after me,
 * Sing, and dance it trippingly.
 * TITANIA
 * First, rehearse your song by rote
 * To each word a warbling note:
 * Hand in hand, with fairy grace,
 * Will we sing, and bless this place.
 * Song and dance
 * OBERON
 * Now, until the break of day,
 * Through this house each fairy stray.
 * To the best bride-bed will we,
 * Which by us shall blessed be;
 * And the issue there create
 * Ever shall be fortunate.
 * So shall all the couples three
 * Ever true in loving be;
 * And the blots of Nature's hand
 * Shall not in their issue stand;
 * Never mole, hare lip, nor scar,
 * Nor mark prodigious, such as are
 * Despised in nativity,
 * Shall upon their children be.
 * With this field-dew consecrate,
 * Every fairy take his gait;
 * And each several chamber bless,
 * Through this palace, with sweet peace;
 * And the owner of it blest
 * Ever shall in safety rest.
 * Trip away; make no stay;
 * Meet me all by break of day.
 * Exeunt OBERON, TITANIA, and train
 * PUCK
 * If we shadows have offended,
 * Think but this, and all is mended,
 * That you have but slumber'd here
 * While these visions did appear.
 * And this weak and idle theme,
 * No more yielding but a dream,
 * Gentles, do not reprehend:
 * if you pardon, we will mend:
 * And, as i|I am an honest Puck,
 * If we have unearned luck
 * Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
 * We will make amends ere long;
 * Else the Puck a liar call;
 * So, good night unto you all.
 * Give me your hands, if we be friends,
 * And Robin shall restore amends.
 * And this weak and idle theme,
 * No more yielding but a dream,
 * Gentles, do not reprehend:
 * if you pardon, we will mend:
 * And, as i|I am an honest Puck,
 * If we have unearned luck
 * Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
 * We will make amends ere long;
 * Else the Puck a liar call;
 * So, good night unto you all.
 * Give me your hands, if we be friends,
 * And Robin shall restore amends.