Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

To measure out my length on this cold bed.

By day's approach look to be visited. [Lies down and sleeps.

Re-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 daylight,

From these that my poor company detest: And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye, Steal me awhile from mine own company.

Puck.

431

[Lies down and sleeps.

Yet but three? Come one more;
Two of both kinds makes up four.
Here she comes, curst and sad:
Cupid is a knavish lad,

Thus to make poor females mad.

Re-enter HERMIA.

Her. Never so weary, never so in woe,

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. Here will I rest me till the break of day.

Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!

[blocks in formation]

440

[Lies down and sleeps.

450

[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:

460

[ocr errors]

Jack shall have Jill;

Nought shall go ill;

The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.

ACT IV.

[Exit.

SCENE I. The same.

The same. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA,
and HERMIA lying asleep.

Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM; PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARDSEED, and other Fairies attending; OBERON behind unseen.

Tita.

Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,

And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.
Bot. Where's Peaseblossom?

Peas. Ready.

Bot. Scratch my head, Peaseblossom. Where's Mounsieur Cobweb?

Cob. Ready.

9

Bot. 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 would be loath to have you overflown with a honey-bag, signior. Where's Mounsieur Mustardseed?

Mus. Ready.

Bot. Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray you, leave your courtesy, good mounsieur.

Mus. What's your will?

20

Bot. Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber's, mounsieur; 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's have the tongs and the bones.

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 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 new nuts.

32

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. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.

Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.

So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle

Gently entwist; the female ivy so

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.

[Exeunt fairies.

40

O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee !

[They sleep.

Enter PUCK.

Obe. [Advancing.] Welcome, good Robin. See'st thou

this sweet sight?

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 o
With 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.

or

тро

50

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 straight 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 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 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.
Tita. My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamour'd of an ass!

Obe. There lies your love.

Tita.

O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!

[merged small][ocr errors]

How came these things to pass?

Obe. Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head.
Titania, music call; and strike more dead
Than common sleep of all these five the sense.

80

Tita. Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep! [Music, still. Puck. Now, when thou wakest, with thine own fool's eyes peep.

Obe. Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands with me, And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.

Now thou and I are new in amity

And will to-morrow midnight solemnly

Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly

And bless it to all fair prosperity:

[ocr errors]

There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be
Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.

Puck.

Obe.

Tita.

Fairy king, attend, and mark :

I do hear the morning lark.

Then, my queen, in silence sad,
Trip we after night's shade:

We the globe can compass soon, ✓
Swifter than the wandering moon.

Come, my lord, and in our flight
Tell me how it came this night
That I sleeping here was found
With these mortals on the ground.

90

100

[Exeunt.

[Horns winded within.

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train.

The. 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 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.

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
Such gallant chiding; for, besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, every 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 flew'd, so sanded, and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew; 0
Crook-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls;
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tuneable

[ocr errors][merged small]
« PreviousContinue »