LYSANDER, betrothed to Hermia.

DEMETRIUS, once suitor to Helena, now in love with Hermia.

PHILOSTRATE, Master of the Revels to Theseus.

QUINCE, a Carpenter,

Prologue,

HIPPOLYTA, Queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus.

HERMIA, betrothed to Lysander.

HELENA, in love with Demetrius.

SCENE: Athens, and a Wood not far from it.

A Midsummer-Night's

ACT ONE.

Dream

SCENE I. Athens. A Room in the Palace of THESEUS.

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Attendants.

THE

HESEUS. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
Draws on apace: four happy days bring in

Another moon; but, oh, 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's revenue.

Hippolyta. Four days will quickly steep themselves in nights;

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.

Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth :

2 four... days. The action of the play involves but three. (R)

10 Newbent. Folios and quartos have Now bent. It is plain that Hippolyta speaks of the moon as it will be, not as it is. Rowe made the correction. [Evidently, however, the play was not written VOL. III. 11

10

by the almanac, for there was to be bright moonlight for the play that evening, III. i. 56, and for the rehearsal the night before, I. ii. 101.]

11 Philostrate. The name occurs in Chaucer and in Plutarch in connection with Theseus. (R)

Turn melancholy forth to funerals;

[Exit PHIL.

The pale companion is not for our pomp.—

Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,
And won thy love doing thee injuries;
But I will wed thee in another key,

With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling.

Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS.
Egeus. Happy be Theseus, our renowned Duke!
The. Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with
thee?

Ege. Full of vexation come I; with complaint
Against my child, my daughter Hermia.-
Stand forth, Demetrius. - My noble lord,
This man hath my consent to marry her.
Stand forth, Lysander: and, my gracious Duke,
This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child:
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes
And interchang'd love-tokens with my child:
Thou hast by moon-light at her window sung,
With faining voice, verses of faining love;
And stol'n the impression of her fantasy
With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweet-meats, messengers
Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth;
With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart;

19 triumph," applied to all high, great, and stately doings." Falstaff tells Bardolph, 1 Henry IV., III. iii. 46, that his face is "a perpetual triumph."

20 Duke. . . . Dante calls Theseus " Duca d'Atene," Inf. XII. 17; and Chaucer has " a duk highte Theseus," in his Knightes Tale. Cf. 1 Chronicles, i. 51-4. (w)

24 Stand forth, Demetrius. Folio[s] and quartos exhibit this and the corresponding address to Lysander as stage-directions, — accidentally, as the context and the fact that each completes an otherwise imperfect line plainly show. (w)

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 beg the ancient privilege of Athens,
As she is mine, I may dispose of her,
Which shall be either to this gentleman,
Or to her death, according to our law
Immediately provided in that case.

The. What say you, Hermia? be advis'd, fair maid. To you your father should be as a god;

One that compos'd 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.

The.

In himself he is;

But, in this kind — wanting your father's voice

The other must be held the worthier.

Her. I would, my father look'd but with my eyes!

The. Rather, your eyes must with his judgment look.

Her. I do entreat your Grace to pardon me.

I know not by what power I am made bold,
Nor how it may concern my modesty,

In such a presence here, to plead my thoughts;
But I beseech your Grace, that I may know
The worst that may befall me in this case,
If I refuse to wed Demetrius.

The. Either to die the death, or to abjure
For ever the society of men.

Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires;

54 this kind, i. e. a matter of marriage. (R)