four.

Puck. Come thou hither, I am here.

Dem. Nay then thou mock'it me; thou shalt buy this dear, If ever I thy face by day-light 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.

[Lyes down. S CE N E X.

Enter Helena.
Hel. O weary night, o long and tedious night,

Abate thy hours; shine comforts from the East,
That I may back to Athens by day-light,

From these that my poor company detest; And fiecp, that sometimes shuts up forrow's eye, Steal me a while from mine own company! [Sleeps.

Puck. 4 'Yet but three here? come one more,
Two of both kinds make

up
Here she s/cometh,' curft and sad:
Cupid is a knavish lad,
Thus to make poor females mad.

Enter Hermia.
Her. Never fo weary, never so in woe,

Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briars,
I can no further crawl, no further go;

My legs can keep no pace with my desires : Here will I rest me 'till the break of day. Heav'ns shield Lysander, if they mean a fray! [Lyes down.

Puck. On the ground, sleep thou sound, I'll apply to your eye, gentle lover, remedy.

(Squeezing the juice on Lysander's eye. When thou ?/wakeft next, thou takeft True delight, in the sight, of thy former lady's eye, And the country proverb known,

2. That every man should take his own, In your waking shall be shown.

S

Jack 4 Yet but three? come

5 comes, o feep found

7 wak'it, thou tak

}

Jack shall have Jill, nought shall go ill,
The man fhall have his mare again, and all be well.

[Exit Puck.
[They peep

ACT IV. SCENE I.

The WOOD.

Enter Queen of Fairies, Bottom, Fairies attending, and

the King bebind them.

QUEEN.
CI do
OME, sit thee down upon this flow'ry bed,

coy,
And stick musk-roses in thy seek-smooth'd head,

And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.
Bot. Where's Peaseblossom?
Peafe. Ready.

Bot. Scratch my head, Peafebloffom. Where's monfieur Cobweb?

Cob. Ready.

Bot. Monsieur Cobweb, good monsieur, get your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipt humble-bee on the top of a thistle, and, good monsieur, bring me the honeybag. Do not fret your self too much in the action, monsieur; and, good monsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not; I would be loth to have you overflown with a honey-bag, signior. Where's monsieur Mustardfeed?

Muf. Ready.

Bot. Give me thy neafe, monsieur Mustardsecd: pray you, leave your curtesie, good monsieur.

Muf. What's

Bot. Nothing, good monsieur, but to help Cavalero Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber's, monsieur, for

your will?

mc

methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face. And I am such a tender ass, if my hair doth but tickle me, I must scratch.

Queen. What, wilt thou hear some musick, my sweet love?

Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in musick, let us have the tongs and the bones.

Mufick. Tongs, rural mufick. Queen. Or, say sweet love, what thou desir’st to eat.

Bot. Truly a peck of provender ; I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay hath no fellow.

Queen. I have a venturous Fairy that shall seck The squirrel's hoard, and 8 'fetch thee thence new nuts.

Bot. I had rather have a handful or two of dried pease. But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me, I have an exposition of neep come upon me.

Queen. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms; Fairies, be gone, and be a while away : So doth the woodbine, the sweet hony-fuckle, Gently entwist, the female ivy so Enring, the barky fingers of the elm. O, how I love thee! how I doat on thee!

Enter Puck. Ob. Welcome, good Robin ; Seest thou this sweet fight? Her dotage now I do begin to pity; For meeting her of late behind the wood, Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool, I did upbraid her, and fall out with her ; For she his hairy temples then had rounded With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers, And that fame dew which sometime on the buds Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls, Stood now within the pretty flouriets eyes, Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail.

When 8 fetch thee new nuts, 9 all ways or always

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 sent
To bear him to my bower in Fairy land.
And, now I have the boy, I will undo
This hateful imperfection of her eyes ;
And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp
From off the head of this Athenian swain;
That he awaking when the others do,
May all to Arbens 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 wast wont to be ;
See as thou wast wont to see :
Dian's bud, loer. Cupid's flower,

Hath such force and blessed power.
Now, my Titania, wake you, my fweet Queen.

Queen. My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamour'd of an afs.

Ob. There lyes your love.

Queen. How came these things to pass ?
Oh, how mine eyes do loath this visage now!

Ob. Silence, a while ; Robin, take off his head,
Titania, musick call, and strike more dead
Than common sleep of all these 2 'five the sense.
Queen. Musick, ho! musick; such as charmeth Neep.

Still mufick. Puck. When thou awak't, with thinę own fool's eyes peep,

[me, Ob. Sound, musick; come, my Queen, take hand with And rock the ground whereon these Neepers be, Now thou and I are new in amity ; And will to-morrow midnight folemnly

Dance I of ... old edit. Thirl. emend. 2 fine .. , old edit. Thirl. emend.

Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly,
And bless it to all 3 'far' posterity :
There shall these pairs of faithful lovers be
Wedded with Theseus all in jollity.

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

Ob. Then, my Queen, in silence fad
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 Neeping here was found, (Sleepers lye fill. With these mortals on the ground.

[Exeunt.

[Wind horns.
S Ε Ν Ε II.
Enter Theseus, Egeus, Hippolita, and all his train.

The. Go one of you, find out the forester,
For now our observation a is perform’d;
And since we have the vaward of the day,
My love shall hear the musick of my hounds.
Uncouple in the western valley, go,
Dispatch, I say, and find the forester.
We will, fair Queen, up to the mountain's top,
And mark the musical confusion
Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

Hip. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the + 'boar"
With hounds of Sparta; never did I hear
Such gallant chiding. For besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, ev'ry region near
Seem'd all one mutual cry. I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.

The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So few'd, so fanded, and their heads are hung

With (a) Meaning the observance of the time prescribed for their nuptials. 3 fair ...öld edit, Warb, emend,

4

bear