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, 43 I Abate thy hours! Shine comforts from the east, That I may back to Athens by daylight, From these that my poor company datest: And sleep, that sometimes shuts up Sorrow’s eye, Steal 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: Cupid is a knavish lad, 44C 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 ! - [Lies down and sleeps.

Puck. On the ground
Sleep sound:
I'll apply 450
To your eye,
Gentle lover, remedy.
|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

Jack shall have Jill ; Nought shall go ill; The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well. |Exit.

A CT IV.

SCENE I. The same. LysANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA lying asleep.

Enter TITANIA and Bottoms; 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, Q. A And Stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head, / And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.

Bot. Where's Peaseblossom P
Peas. Ready.

Bot. Scratch my head, Peaseblossom. Where’s Mounsieur Cobweb 2

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 V 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? 2 O

Bot. Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber's, mounsieur; for b_> 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. Ilet’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. . 32

Tita. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek The squirrel’s hoard, and fetch thee 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.

Táta. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away. [Exeunt fairies. So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle 4O Gently entwist; the female ivy so Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee I [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 b 5o 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, y” Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes Like tears that did their own disgrace 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 straight she gave me, and her fairy sent
To bear him to my bower in fairy land. i 6o
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 ; 7o
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.

Táta. How came these things to pass : O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now !

Obe. Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head. Titania, music call; and strike more dead 8O Than common sleep of all these five the sense.

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:

There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be 9 O Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.

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

Obe. Then, my queen, in silence sad,
Trip we after night’s shade:
We the globe can compass soon, V
Swifter than the wandering moon.

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

Hip. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bay’d the bears’
With hounds of Sparta : never did I hear **
Such gallant chiding; for, besides the ov/
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; 9 - I 2 O 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