That draws a sword on thee.
Dem.
Yea; art thou there?
Puck. Follow my voice; we'll try manhood here.
[Exeunt.

Re-enter LYSANDER.

Lys. He goes before me, and still dares me on; hen I come where he calls, then he is gone. e villain is much lighter heel'd than I: ollow'd fast, but faster he did fly;

at fallen am I in dark uneven way,

d here will rest me. Come, thou gentle day!

(Lies down.) rif but once thou show me thy grey light, find Demetrius, and revenge this spite. (Sleeps.)

Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS. Puck. Ho, ho! ho, ho! Coward, why com'st thou not?

Dem. Abide me, if thou dar'st; for well I wot,
ou runn'st before me, shifting every place;
d dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face.
here art thou?

Pack.

Come hither; I am here.

Dem. Nay, then thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this dear,

ever I thy face by day-light see:

w, go thy way.-Faintness constraineth me measure out my length on this cold bed.day's approach look to be visited.

(Lies down and sleeps.) Enter HELENA.

Hel. O weary night, O long and tedious night, Abate thy hours: shine, comforts, from the east; at I may back to Athens by day-light,

From these, that my poor company detest:d, sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye, al me a while from mine own company. (Sleeps.) Puck. Yet but three? Come one more; Two of both kinds make up four. Here she comes, curst and sad :Cupid is a knavish lad,

Thus to make poor females mad.
Enter HERMIA.

Her. Never so weary, never so in woe,

Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briers; an no further crawl, no further go;

My legs can keep no pace with my desires. fre will I rest me, till the break of day. avens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!

(Lies down.)

(Squeezing the juice on Lysander's eye.) 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;
Nought shall go ill;

he man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well. (Exit Puck.-Dem. Hel. &c. sleep. ACT IV.

SCENE I.-The same.

Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM, 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 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-hipped humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good monsieur, bring me the honey-bag. 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 over-flown with a honey-bag, signior. Where's monsieur Mustard-seed?

Must. Ready.

Bot. Give me your neif, monsieur Mustard-seed. Pray you, leave your courtesy, good monsieur. Must. What's your will?

Bot. Nothing, good monsieur, but to help cavalero Cobweb 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. (eat.

Tita. Or, say, sweet love, what thou desir'st to 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.

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 (arms.

me.

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

O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee! (They sleep.)

OBERON advances. Enter PUCK.

Obe. Welcome, good Robin. See'st thou this Her dotage now I do begin to pity. sweet sight?

For meeting her of late, behind the wood,
Seeking sweet savours for this hateful fool,
I did upbraid her, and fall out with her:
For she his hairy temples then had rounded
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 flouerets' eyes,
Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail.
When I had, at my plesure, 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;

(Touching her eyes with an herb.)

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.

How came these things to pass?

O, how mine eyes do loath his visage now!

Obe. Silence, a while.-Robin, take off this head. Titania, music call; and strike more dead Than common sleep, of all these five the sense. Tita. Music, ho! music; such as charmeth sleep. Puck. Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own fool's eyes peep.

Obe. Sound, music. (Still music.) queen, take hands with me,

Come, my

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 posterity:
There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be
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 the night's shade;
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wand'ring moon.
Tita. 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.

[Exeunt.
(Horns sound 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; go :—
Despatch, I say, and find the forester.-
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
Sach 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;
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
Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly:
Judge, when you hear.-But, soft; what nymphs
Ege. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep;
And this Lysander; this Demetrius is;
This Helena, old Nedar's Helena:
I wonder of their being here together.

[are these?

The. No doubt, they rose up early, to observe The rite of May; and hearing our intent, Came here in grace of our solemnity.But, speak, Egeus; is not this the day, That Hermia should give answer of her choice? Ege. It is, my lord.

(horns. The. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their Horns and shout within. DEMETRIUS, LYSANDER, HERMIA and HELENA, wake, and start up. The. Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past;

Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
Lys. Pardon, my lord.

(He and the rest kneel to Theseus.)
The.
I pray you all, stand up.
I know, you are two rival enemies;
How comes this gentle concord in the world,
That hatred is so far from jealousy,
To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?
Lys. My lord, I shall reply amazedly,
Half 'sleep, half waking: but as yet, I swear,
I cannot truly say how I came here:

But, as I think, (for truly would I speak,— And now I do bethink me, so it is ;)

I came with Hermia hither: our intent
Was to be gone from Athens, where we might be
Without the peril of the Athenian law.

Ege. Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough
I beg the law, the law, upon his head.- trins
They would have stol'n away, they would, Demr
Thereby to have defeated you and me :
You, of your wife; and me, of my consent;
Of my consent that she should be your wife.
Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth
Of this their purpose hither, to this wood;
And I in fury hither follow'd them;
Fair Helena in fancy following me.
But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,
(But, by some power it is,) my love to Hermia,
Melted as doth the snow, seems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gawd,
Which in my childhood I did dote upon :
And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,
The object, and the pleasure of mine eye,
Is only Helena. To her, my lord,
Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia;
But, like in sickness, did I loath this food:
But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
Now do I wish it, love it, long for it,
And will for evermore be true to it.

The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
Of this discourse we will hear more anon.-
Egens, I will overbear your will;
For in the temple, by and by with us,
These couples shall eternally be knit.
And, for the morning now is something worn,
Our purpos'd hunting shall be set aside.—
Away, with us, to Athens: three and three,
We'll hold a feast of great solemnity.—
Come, Hippolyta.

[Exeunt Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and tras Dem. These things seem small and undist guishable,

Like far off mountains turned into clouds.
Her. Methings, I see these things with parted eye.
When every thing seems double.

Hel. So methinks:

And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,
Mine own, and not mine own.

Dem.
It seems to me,
That yet we sleep, we dream.-Do not you think.
The duke was here, and bid us follow him?
Her. Yea; and my father.
Hel.

And Hippolyta Lys. And he did bid us follow to the temple. Dem. Why then, we are awake: let's follow him And, by the way, let us recount our dreams.

[Exeunt

As they go out, BOTTOM awakes. Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will swer: my next is, Most fair Pyramus.-Bry ho!-Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender" Snout, the tinker! Starveling! God's my life! stalen hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most vision. I have had a dream,-past the wit of to say what dream it was:-Man is but an ass, he go about to expound this dream. Methought was-there is no man can tell what. Methought T was, and methought I had,-but man is bat patched fool, if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear man hath not seen; man's hand is not able to taste. his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was, I will get Peter Quince to write ballad of this dream: it shall be called Bottom Dream, because it hath no bottom; and I will sing in the latter end of a play, before the duke: adventure, to make it the more gracious, I sing it after death.