The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
Makes speed to catch the tiger: Bootless speed!
When cowardice pursues, and valour flies.
DEM. I will not stay thy questions; let me go:
Or, if thou follow me, do not believe

But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.
HEL. Ay, in the temple, in the town, and field,
You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:
We cannot fight for love, as men may do:

We should be woo'd, and were not made to woo.
I'll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell,
To die upon the hand I love so well.

[Exeunt DEM. and HEL.

OBE. Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove,
Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love.

Re-enter PUCK.

Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer. PUCK. Ay, there it is.

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows a,
Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows;
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine",
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania, sometime of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:

And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,

And make her full of hateful fantasies.

Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove :

A sweet Athenian lady is in love

With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;

But do it when the next thing he espies

• So all the old copies. Steevens, who hated variety in rhythm, as he gloated on a double-entendre, gives us—

"I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows."

For the same love of counting syllables upon the fingers, the luscious woodbine of the old copies is changed into lush woodbine: Farmer, who knew as little about the melody of verse as Steevens, would read

"O'er-canopied with luscious woodbine."

Their profane hands would not leave the passage as Milton had read it, when he wrote

"I sat me down to watch upon a bank

With ivy canopied, and interwoven

With flaunting honey-suckle."—(Comus.)

May be the lady: Thou shalt know the man
By the Athenian garments he hath on.
Effect it with some care; that he may prove
More fond on her, than she upon her love:
And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.
PUCK. Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.

SCENE III.—Another part of the Wood.
Enter TITANIA, with her train.

TITA. Come, now a roundel, and a fairy song;
Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;
Some, to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds;
Some, war with rear-mice a for their leathern wings,
To make my small elves coats; and some, keep back
The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots and wonders
At our quaint spirits: Sing me now asleep;
Then to your offices, and let me rest.

SONG.
I.

1 FAI. You spotted snakes ", with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen ;

Newts, and blind-worms, do no wrong;
Come not near our fairy queen :

CHORUS.

Philomel, with melody

Sing in our sweet lullaby;

Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby;

Never harm, nor spell nor charm,

Come our lovely lady nigh;

So, good night, with lullaby.

II.

2 FAI. Weaving spiders, come not here:

Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence:

Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm, nor snail, do no offence.

CHORUS.

Philomel, with melody, &c.

[Exeunt.

2 FAI. Hence, away; now all is well:

One, aloof, stand sentinel.

[Exeunt Fairies. TITANIA sleeps.

Rear-mice-bats.

Enter OBERON.

OBE. What thou seest, when thou dost wake,

Do it for thy true-love take;

Love and languish for his sake;
Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
In thy eye that shall appear

When thou wak'st, it is thy dear;

Wake, when some vile thing is near.

[Squeezes the flower on TITANIA's eyelids.

Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA.

Lys. Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood;
And, to speak troth, I have forgot our way;
We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,
And tarry for the comfort of the day.
HER. Be it so, Lysander, find you out a bed,
For I upon this bank will rest my head.
Lys. One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;
One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth.
HER. Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear,
Lie further off yet, do not lie so near.

Lys. O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence;
Love takes the meaning, in love's conference.
I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit ;
So that but one heart we can make of it:
Two bosoms interchained a with an oath;
So then, two bosoms, and a single troth.
Then, by your side no bed-room me deny;
For, lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.

HER. Lysander riddles very prettily:

Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,

If Hermia meant to say, Lysander lied.

But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy
Lie further off; in human modesty
Such separation, as, may well be said,
Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid:

So far be distant; and good night, sweet friend:
Thy love ne'er alter, till thy sweet life end!
Lys. Amen, Amen, to that fair prayer say I;
And then end life, when I end loyalty!

Interchained is the reading of the quartos. The folio has interchanged.

[Exit.

[They sleep.

Here is my bed: Sleep give thee all his rest!
HER. With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd!

Enter PUCK.

PUCK. Through the forest have I gone,

But Athenian find a I none,

On whose eyes I might approve

This flower's force in stirring love.
Night and silence! who is here?
Weeds of Athens he doth wear:
This is he my master said
Despised the Athenian maid;

And here the maiden, sleeping sound,
On the dank and dirty ground.
Pretty soul; she durst not lie

Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.

Churl, upon thy eyes I throw

All the power this charm doth owe:

When thou wak'st, let love forbid

Sleep his seat on thy eyelid.

So awake, when I am gone;

For I must now to Oberon.

[Exit.

Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running.

HEL. Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.
DEM. I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.
HEL. O, wilt thou darkling leave me? do not so.

DEM. Stay, on thy peril; I alone will go.

HEL. O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!
The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.
Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies;

For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.

How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears:
If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers.

No, no, I am as ugly as a bear;

For beasts that meet me run away for fear;
Therefore, no marvel, though Demetrius
Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus.
What wicked and dissembling glass of mine
Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne?
But who is here?-Lysander! on the ground!
Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound!

[Exit DEMETRIUS.

• Find is the reading of the folio, and of one of the quartos. The other quarto has found. This is the reading of the old copies. It is evidently intended for a long line amidst those of seven or eight syllables.

Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake.

Lys. And run through fire I will, for thy sweet sake.
Transparent Helena! Nature shows her arta,
That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.
Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word

Is that vile name to perish on my sword!
HEL. Do not say so, Lysander; say not so:

What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?
Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content.
Lys. Content with Hermia? No: I do repent
The tedious minutes I with her have spent.
Not Hermia, but Helena now I love:
Who will not change a raven for a dove?
The will of man is by his reason sway'd:
And reason says you are the worthier maid.
Things growing are not ripe until their season;
So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;
And touching now the point of human skill,
Reason becomes the marshal to my will,
And leads me to your eyes; where I o'erlook
Love's stories, written in love's richest book.
HEL. Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?
When, at your hands, did I deserve this scorn?
Is 't not enough, is 't not enough, young man,
That I did never, no, nor never can,
Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye,
But you must flout my insufficiency?

Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do,
In such disdainful manner me to woo.

But fare you well: perforce I must confess,

I thought you lord of more true gentleness.
O, that a lady of one man refus'd

Should of another therefore be abus'd!

Lys. She sees not Hermia:-Hermia, sleep thou there;
And never mayst thou come Lysander near!

For, as a surfeit of the sweetest things

The deepest loathing to the stomach brings;
Or, as the heresies that men do leave

Are hated most of those they did deceive;

So thou, my surfeit, and my heresy,

Of all be hated; but the most of me!

[Waking.

[Exit.

• Nature shows her art. The quartos read, "Nature shows art;" the folio, "Nature her shows art." This is clearly a typographical error; and we agree, with Malone, that "Nature shows her art" is more probably a genuine reading than "Nature here shows art," which is the received one.

Now is found in the folio, and in Roberts's quarto. In Fisher's quarto the emphatic now is omitted; and it is held that it can only be retained "to the injury of the metre."