Shakspeare's Dramatic Works

Her dotage now I do begin to pity.

For meeting her of late, behind the wood,
Seeking fweet favours for this hateful fool,
I did upbraid her, and fall out with her:
For the his hairy temples then had rounded
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
And that fame dew, which fometime on the buds
Was wont to fwell, like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flouret's eyes,
Like tears, that did their own difgrace bewail.
When I had, at my pleasure, taunted her,
And she, in mild terms, begg'd my patience,
I then did ask of her her changeling child;
Which strait she gave me, and her fairy fent
To bear him to my bower in fairy land.
And, now I have the boy, I will undo
This hateful imperfection of her eyes.
And, gentle Puck, take this transformed fcalp
From off the head of the Athenian swain;
That he awaking when the others do,
May all to Athens back again repair;
And think no more of this night's accidents,
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
But first I will release the fairy queen;
Be, as thou waft wont to be;
[Touching her eyes with an herb.
See, as thou waft wont to fee:
Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower

Hath fuch force and bleffed power.

Now, my Titania; wake you, my fweet queen. Queen. My Oberon! what vifions have I seen! Methought I was enamour'd of an afs.

Ob. There lies your love.

Queen. How came these things to pass? Oh, how mine eye doth loath his vifage now! Ob. Silence, a while. Robin, take off this

head.

ΤΟ

And will, to-morrow midnight, folemnly,
Dance in duke Thefeus' house triumphantly,
And blefs it to all fair pofterity:

There fhall thefe pairs of faithful lovers be
Wedded, with Thefeus, all in jollity.

Puck. Fairy king, attend, and mark;
I do hear the morning lark.

Ob. Then, my queen, in filence fad 2,
Trip we after the night's shade:
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wand'ring moon.

Queen. Come, my lord; and in our flight,
Tell me how it came this night,

That I fleeping here was found,

With thefe mortals, on the ground. [Exeunt.
[Wind borns within.

Enter Thefeus, Egeus, Hippolita, and train.
The. Go, one of you, find out the forefter ;-
For now our obfervation is perform'd 3 :

20 And fince we have the vaward 4 of the day,
My love fhall hear the mufick of my hounds.
Uncouple in the western valley; go:-
Difpatch, I fay, and find the forester.—
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,
And mark the mufical confufion

Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

[kind,

Hip. 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 hear 30 Such gallant chiding 5; for, besides the groves, The fkies, the fountains, every region near Seem'd all one mutual cry; I never heard So mufical a difcord, fuch fweet thunder. The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan 35 So flewd, fo fanded, and their heads are hung With ears that sweep away the morning dew; Crook-knee'd, and dew-lap'd like Theffalian bulls; Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells, Each under each. A cry more tuneable Was never halloo'd to, nor cheer'd with horn, In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Theffaly: [are these? Judge, when you hear.-But, soft; what nymphs Ege. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep; And this, Lyfander; this Demetrius is; This Helena, old Nedar's Helena:

Titania, mufick call; and ftrike more dead
Than common fleep, of all these five the fenfe.
Queen. Mufick, ho! mufick; fuch as charmeth
Пеер.
[eyes peep.
Puck. When thou awak'ft, with thine own fool's 55
Ob. Sound, mufick. [Still mufick.] Come, my

queen, take hands with me,
And rock the ground whereon these fleepers be.
Now thou and I are new in amity;

I wonder at their being here together.

The. No doubt, they rofe up early, to obferve The rite of May; and hearing our intent, Came here in grace of our folemnity.

But, fpeak, Egeus; is not this the day

That Hermia fhould give answer of her choice? Ege. It is, my lord.

The. Go, bid the huntfmen wake them with their horns.

Horns, and fhout within; Demetrius, Lyfander, Her-
mia, and Helena, wake and start up.
The. Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is
Begin thefe wood-birds but to couple now? [paft;

3 Meaning, the honours due to the morn5 Chiding means fund. 6 i. c.

That is, difperfe yourselves. 2 i. e. grave or fober. ing of May. 4 Vaward is an obfolete word fignifying the fore-part. fo mouthed. Flews are the large chaps of a deep-mouthed hound,

Lyf

Lyf. Pardon, my lord. [They all kneel to Thefeus.
The. I pray you all, ftand up.

I know, you two are rival enemies;

How comes this gentle concord in the world,
That hatred is fo far from jealousy,

To fleep by hate, and fear no enmity?

Lyf. My lord, I fhall reply amazedly,
Half 'fleep, half waking: But as yet, I fwear,
I cannot truly say how I came here:

But, as I think, (for truly would I speak,-
And now I do bethink me, fo it is;)

I came with Hermia hither: our intent

Was, to be gone from Athens, where we might be
Without the peril of the Athenian law.

Dem. Why then, we are awake: let's follow And, by the way, let us recount our dreams. [h.m; [Exeunt.

As they go out, Bottom awakes.

Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will Janfwer-my next is, Mcft fair PyramusHey, ho!-Peter Quince! Flute the bellowsmender! Snout the tinker! Starveling! God's my life! ftol'n hence, and left me afleep! I have had 10a moft rare vifion. I have had a dream,-paft the wit of man to fay what dream it was: Man is but an afs, if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was there is no man can tell what. Methought I was, and methought I had,-But man is but a patch'd fool 3, if he will offer to fay what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen; man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was. I will get 20 Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream: it fhall be call'd Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom; and I will fing it in the latter end of a play, before the duke: Peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I fhall fing it at her death 4. [Ex. SCENE II. Arbens. Quince's Houfe.

Ege. Enough,enough,my lord; you have enough; 15
I beg the law, the law, upon his head. [trius,
They would have ftol'n away, they would, Deme-
Thereby to have defeated you and me :
You, of your wife; and me, of my confent;
Of my confent that she should be your wife.
Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
Of this their purpofe hither, to this wood;
And I in fury hither follow'd them;
Fair Helena in fancy following me.

But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,
(But by fome power it is) my love to Hermia,
Melted as is the fnow, feems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gawd 2,
Which in my childhood I did doat upon :
And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,
The object and the pleasure of mine eye,
Is only Helena. To her, my lord,
Was I betroth'd ere I faw Hermia:
But, like a fickness, did I loath this food:
But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
Now do I wifh it, love it, long for it,
And will for evermore be true to it.

Enter Quince, Flute, Snout, and Starveling. Quin. Have you fent to Bottom's house? is he 30 come home yet?

Star. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt, he is transported.

Flu. If he come not, then the play is marr'd; It goes not forward, doth it?

35 Quin. It is not poffible: you have not a man in all Athens, able to discharge Pyramus, but he.

Flu. No; he hath fimply the best wit of any handy-craft man in Athens.

Quin. Yea, and the best perfon too: and he is 40a very paramour, for a sweet voice.

The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
Of this difcourfe we fhall hear more anon.-
Egeus, I will over-bear your will;
For in the temple, by and by with us,
Thefe couples fhall eternally be knit.
And, for the morning now is something worn,
Our purpos'd hunting shall be set aside.—
Away, with us, to Athens: Three and three,
We'll hold a feaft in great folemnity.-
Come, Hippolita. [Exe. Thefeus, Hippolita, and train.
Dem. These things feem fmall,and undiftinguifh-
Like far-off mountains turned into clouds. [able,]
Her. Methinks I fee thefe things with parted eye, 50
When every thing feems double.

Hel. So methinks:

And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,
Mine own, and not mine own.

1451

Dem. Are you fure

That we are awake?-It seems to me,

coat.

Fancy here means love or affection.

Flu. You muft fay, paragon: a paramour is, God blefs us! a thing of nought.

Enter Snug.

Snug. Mafters, 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 5,

Flu. O fweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he loft fix-pence a-day during his life; he could not have fcaped fix-pence a-day: an the duke had not given him fix-pence a-day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hang'd; he would have deferv'd it: fix-pence aday, in Pyramus, or nothing.

Enter Bottom.

Bot. Where are thefe lads? where are these hearts?

Quin. Bottom!-O most courageous day! O most happy hour!

Bot. Mafters, I am to difcourfe wonders: but afk me not what; for, if I tell you, I am no true

2 See the note in p. 175.

3 i. e. a fool in a parti-coloured

4 This fhould have been after death, L. e. after having died as Pyramus he would come again

and fing the long,

5 Meaning, we had all made our fortunes.

Athenian.

More than cool reafon ever comprehends.
The lunatick, the lover, and the poet,
Are of imagination all compact1:

One fees more devils than vast hell can hold;
That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantick,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, [heaven;
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to
And, as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to fhapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination;
That, if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends fome bringer of that joy;
Or, in the night, imagining fome fear,
How easy is a bush suppos'd a bear?

Hip. But all the story of the night told over,
And all their minds transfigur'd fo together,
More witneffeth than fancy's images,
And grows to fomething of great conftancy 2:
But, howsoever, ftrange, and admirable.

Enter Lyfander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena,

To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
Call Philoftrate.

Philoft. Here, mighty Thefeus. [evening? The. Say, what abridgment 3 have you for this What mask? what mufick? How shall we beguile The lazy time, if not with fome delight?

Philoft. There is a brief 4, how many sports are

ripe;

Make choice of which your highness will fee first. [Giving a paper.

The. reads.] "The battle of the Centaurs, to be

fung

"By an Athenian eunuch to the harp." 30 We'll none of that: that I have told my love, In glory of my kinfman Hercules. "The riot of the tipfy Bacchanals,

140

"Tearing the Thracian finger in their rage." That is an old device; and it was play'd When I from Thebes came last a conqueror. "The thrice three Mufes mourning for the death "Of learning, late deceas'd in beggary." That is fome fatire, keen, and critical 5, Not forting with a nuptial ceremony.

"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 wonderous ftrange fnow. How fhall we find the concord of this difcord? 45 Philoft. A play there is, my lord, fome ten words long;

Which is as brief as I have known a play;
But by ten words, my lord, it is too long;
Which makes it tedious: for in all the play

The. Here come the lovers, full of joy and 53 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 faw rehears'd, I must confefs,
Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears
The paffion of loud laughter never shed.

[here,

The. What are they, that do play it? Philoft. Hard-handed men, that work in Athens Which never labour'd in their minds 'till now; And now have toil'd their unbreath'd memories 60 With this fame play, against your nuptial. The. And we will hear it.

3 By abridgment Shakspeare here means a dramatick per5 Meaning, criticizing, cenfuring. That is, unexercifed

thing.

Hip. He fays, they can do nothing in this kind. The. 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 refpect takes it in might 2, not merit.
Where I have come, great clerks have purpofed
To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
Where I have feen them fhiver, and look pale,
Make periods in the midst of fentences,
Throttle their practis'd accent in their fears,
And, in conclufion, dumbly have broke off,
Not paying me a welcome:, Truft me, fweet,
Out of this filence, yet, I pick'd a welcome;
And in the modefty of fearful duty

I read as much, as from the rattling tongue
Of fawcy and audacious eloquence.
Love, therefore, and tongue-ty'd fimplicity,
In leaft, fpeak moft, to my capacity.

Enter Philoftrate.

Phil. So please your grace, the prologue is

addreft 3.

The. Let him approach.

Enter the Prologue.

[Flur Trum.

"The actors are at hand; and by their fhow,
"You shall know all, that you are like to know."
The. This fellow doth not stand upon points.
Lyf. He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt ;|
he knows not the ftop. A good moral, my lord: 55
It is not enough to fpeak, but to speak true.

Hip. Indeed he hath play'd on this prologue, like a child on a recorder 4: a found, but not in government 5.

The. His 'peech was like a tangled chain: no-60 thing impair'd, but all disordered. Who is next?

Enter Pyramus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion, as in dumb fhoto.

Prol. "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 Thifby is, certain. "This man, with lime and rough-caft, doth prefent "Wall, that vile wall which did thefe lovers "funder :

"And through wall's chink, poor fouls, they are

" content

To whifper; at the which let no man wonder. "This man with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn, "Prefenteth moon-fhine: for, if you will know, "By moon-fhine did thefe lovers think no fcorn

"To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo. "This grifly, beaft, which by name lion hight, The trufty Thisby, coming first by night, "Did fcare away, or rather did affright:

And, as he fled, her mantle fhe did fall; "Which lion vile with bloody mouth did stain : "Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth, and tall, "And finds his trufty Thifby's mantle flain: "Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade, "He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breaft; "And Thitby, tarrying in mulberry shade,

"His dagger drew, and died. For all the reft, "Let lion, moon-fhine, wall, and lovers twain, "At large difcourfe, while here they do remain." [Exeunt all but Wall. The. I wonder, if the lion be to speak. Dem. No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when many affes do.

Wall. "In this fame interlude, it doth befall, "That I, one Snout by name, prefent a wall: And fuch a wall, as I would have you think, That had in it a cranny'd hole, or chink, "Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thifby, "Did whisper often very fecretly. ["fhew "This lome, this rough-caft, and this stone, doth "That I am that fame wall; the truth is fo: "And this the cranny is, right and finister, "Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper." The. Would you defire lime and hair to speak

better?

Dem. It is the wittieft partition that ever I heard difcourfe, my lord.

The. Pyramus draws near the wall: filence! Enter Pyramus.

Pyr. "O grim-look'd night! O night with hue

"fo black!

"O night, which ever art, when day isnot! "O night, O night, alack, alack, alack,

"I fear my Thifby's promife is forgot!-"And thou, O wall, O fweet, O lovely wall, "That ftand'ft between her father's ground and

"mine;

"Thou wall, O wall, O fweet and lovely wall, "Shew me thy chink to blink through with mine 66 eyne.

Intents here means the object of their attention. 2 In might, is probably an elliptical expreffion for what might have been. 3 i. e. ready. 4 A kind of flute. Meaning, not regularly. Thanks,

"Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well " for this!

"But what fee I? No Thisby do I fee. "O wicked wall, through whom I fee no blifs; "Curft be thy ftones for thus deceiving me!" The. The wall, methinks, being fenfible, should curfe again.

Pyr. No, in truth, fir, he fhould not. Deceiv ing me, is Thisby's cue; fhe is to enter now, and I am to spy her through the wall. You fhall fee, it will fall pat as I told you: Yonder she comes.

"And like Limander am I trusty still."

The. A very gentle beaft,and of a good confcience. Dem. The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I faw.

Lyf. This lion is a very fox for his valour. The. True; and a goofe for his difcretion. Dem. Not fo, my lord: for his valour cannot carry his discretion; and the fox carries the goofe. The. His difcretion, I am fure, cannot carry his valour; for the goofe carries not the fox. It is 10 well: leave it to his discretion, and let us liften to the moon.

Mson. "This lanthorn doth the horned moon

"Myfelf the man i' th' moon do seem to be."

The. This is the greatest error of all the refl: the man fhould be put into the lanthorn; How is it elfe the man i' the moon?

Dem. He dares not come there for the candle: for, you fee, it is already in snuff1.

Thif." And I like Helen, till the fates me kill." 25 Hip. I am a-weary of this moon. Would, he

neighbours.

would change!

The. It appears, by his fmall light of discretion, that he is in the wane: but yet, in courtesy, in all reason, we must stay the time.

Lyf. Proceed, moon.

Moon. All that I have to fay is, to tell you, that the lanthorn is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this thorn-bufh, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.

Dem. Why all these should be in the lanthorn; for they are in the moon. But, filence; here Comes Thifbe.

Enter Thibe.

Dem. No remedy, my lord, when walls are fo4 Thif. "This is old Ninny's tomb : Where is my

wilful to hear without warning.

Hip. This is the fillieft stuff that ever I heard. The. The beft in this kind are but fhadows: and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them.

Hip. It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.

[floor,

"I thank thee, moon, for fhining now fo bright:

"The smallest monftrous mouse that creeps on 55" For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering ftreams,

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Shakspeare's Dramatic Works: With Explanatory Notes, Volume 1