Lys. I will be with thee straight. Follow me, then, To plainer ground. [Exit LYSANDER, as following the voice. Dem. Re-enter DEMETRIUS. Lysander! speak again : Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled? Speak! in some bush? where dost thou hide thy head? And wilt not come? Come, recreant; come, thou child; That draws a sword on thee. Dem. Yea, art thou there? Puck. Follow my voice: we'll try no manhood here. Re-enter LYSANDER. [Exeunt. Lys. He goes before me and still dares me on: When I come where he calls, then he is gone. The villain is much lighter-heel'd than I : I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly ; That fall'n am I in dark uneven way, And here will rest me. [Lies down.] — Come, thou gentle day! For, if but once thou show me thy gray light, I'll find Demetrius, and revenge this spite. Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS. [Sleeps. Puck. Ho, ho, ho, ho!39 Coward, why comest thou not? 89 A strong dash of malignant, or mischievous sportiveness belongs to this character. There was an old local proverb, "To laugh like Robin Goodfellow"; which probably meant, to laugh in mockery or scorn. In Dem. Abide me, if thou darest; for well I wot hou runn'st before me, shifting every place, nd darest not stand, nor look me in the face. There art thou now? Puck. Come hither: I am here. Dem. Nay, then thou mock'st me. this dear, Fever I thy face by daylight see: Thou shalt by 4 ow, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me o measure out my length on this cold bed. y day's approach look to be visited. [Lies down and sleeps. Re-enter HELENA. Hel. O weary night, O long and tedious night, bate thy hours! Shine comforts from the East, 'hat I may back to Athens by daylight, rom these that my poor company detest: and sleep, that sometime shuts up sorrow's eye, teal me awhile from mine own company. [Lies down and sleeps. Puck. Yet but three? Come one more ; Two of both kinds makes up four. Here she comes, curst and sad : Thus to make poor females mad. Re-enter HERMIA. Her. Never so weary, never so in woe; he old Moral-plays, as also in the older Miracle-plays, the Devil was gener lly one of the leading oberocters and his laughter of fiendish minth Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briers; I can no further crawl, no further go; My legs can keep no pace with my desires. Puck. On the ground sleep sound : Gentle lover, remedy. [Lies down and sleeps. [Squeezing the herb on LYSANDER's eyelids. 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;41 Nought shall go ill; The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well. [Exit. 41 This proverb is quoted repeatedly in old plays; and its meaning is much the same as that of the other proverbial sayings here clustered with it. So in Love's Labours Lost, v. 2: "Our wooing doth not end like an old play; Jack hath not fill." And in Heywood, 1598: "Come chat at home, all is well, Jack shall have Jill." SCENE I. The Wood. ACT IV. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA, lying asleep. Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM; PEAS-BLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARD-SEED, and other Fairies attending; OBERON be hind unseen. Tita. Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed, While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,1 And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head, And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy. Bot. Where's Peas-blossom? Peas. Ready. Bot. Scratch my head, Peas-blossom.-Where's Monsieur Cobweb? Cob. Ready. Bot. Monsieur Cobweb, good monsieur, get your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipp'd humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good monsieur, bring me the honeybag. Do not fret yourself 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 Mustard-seed? Mus. Ready. Bot. Give me your neif,2 Monsieur Mustard-seed. Pray you, leave your courtesy, good monsieur. 1 To coy is to stroke with the hand, to fondle, or caress. 2 Neif is an old word for fist. So in 2 Henry IV., ii. 4: I kiss thy neif." 44 Sweet knight, Mus. What's your will? Bot. Nothing, good monsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb 3 to scratch. I must to the barber's, monsieur; for methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face; and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch. Tita. What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love? Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in music: let us have the tongs and the bones. [Rough music. Tita. Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat. Bot. Truly, a peck of provender: I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle 4 of hay good hay, sweet hay hath no fellow. Tita. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee thence new nuts. Bot. I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas. But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me: I have an exposition of sleep come upon me. Tita. Fairies, be gone, and be awhile away. [Exeunt Fairies. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms : So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle Gently entwist; 5 the female ivy so 3 Bottom is here in a strange predicament, and has not had time to perfect himself in the nomenclature of his fairy attendants; and so he gets the names somewhat mixed. Probably he is here addressing Cavalery Peasblossom, but gives him the wrong name. + Bottle is an old word for bundle, from the French boteau. Richardson says, "It is still common in the northern parts of England to call a truss or bundle of hay a bottle." 5 Odd work has sometimes been made with this passage by explaining woodbine and honeysuckle as meaning the same thing; and Singer's explanation still proceeds upon an identity of the two plants. In Jonson's Vision of Delight we have the following: "Behold, how the blue bindweed doth itself infold with honeysuckle." Upon this passage Gifford notes as follows: |