So thou, my furfeit, and my heresy,

Of all be hated; but the most of me!

And all my powers, addrefs your love and might,
To honour Helen, and to be her knight !

[Exit.

Her. [ftarting.] Help me, Lyfander, help me! do thy beft,

To pluck this crawling ferpent from my breast!

Ah me, for pity !—what a dream was here ?
Lyfander, look, how I do quake with fear:
Methought, a ferpent eat my heart away,
And you fat finiling at his cruel prey :-
Lyfander! what, remov'd? Lyfander! lord!
What, out of hearing? gone? no found, no word?
Alack, where are you? fpeak, an if you hear;
Speak, of all loves; I fwoon almoft with fear.
No?-then I well perceive you are not nigh:
Either death, or you, I'll find immediately.

[Exit.

ACT

ACT III. SCENE I.

The fame. The Queen of Fairies lying afleep.

Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING.

Bot. Are we all met?

Quin. Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place for our rehearsal: This green plot fhall be our stage, this hawthorn brake our tyring-house; and we will do it in action, as we will do it before the duke.

Bot. Peter Quince,

Quin. What fay'ft thou, bully Bottom?

Bot. There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisby, that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a fword to kill himself; which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that?

Snout. By'rlakin, a parlous fear.

Star. I believe, we must leave the killing out, when all is done.

Bot. Not a whit; I have a device to make all well. Write me a prologue: and let the prologue feem to say, we will do no harm with our fwords; and that Pyramus is not killed indeed: and, for the more better afsurance, tell them, that I Pyramus am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: This will put them out of fear.

Quin. Well, we will have fuch a prologue; and it fhall be written in eight and fix.

Bot. No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight.

Snout.

Snout. Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?
Star. I fear it, I promise you.

Bot. Masters, you ought to confider with yourselves: to bring in, God shield us! a lion among ladies, is a most dreadful thing: for there is not a more fearful wild-fowl` than your lion, living; and we ought to look to it.

Snout. Therefore, another prologue muft tell, he is not a lion.

Bot. Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must be seen through the lion's neck; and he himself must fpeak through, faying thus, or to the fame defect,-Ladies, or fair ladies, I would with you, or, I would requeft you, or, I would entreat you, not to fear, not to tremble: my life for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life: No, I am no such thing; I am a man as other men are :-and there, indeed, let him name his name; and tell them plainly, he is Snug the joiner.

Quin. Well, it fhall be fo. But there is two hard things; that is, to bring the moon-light into a chamber : for you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moon-light. Snug. Doth the moon shine, that night we play our play?

Bot. A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanack; find out moon-fhine, find out moon-shine.

Quin. Yes, it doth shine that night.

Bot. Why, then you may leave a casement of the great chamber window, where we play, open; and the moon may shine in at the casement.

Quin. Ay; or elfe one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lanthorn, and say, he comes to disfigure, or to prefent, the perfon of moon-fhine. Then, there is another thing we must have a wall in the great chamber;

for

for Pyramus and Thisby, fays the story, did talk through the chink of a wall.

Snug. You never can bring in a wall. What fay you, Bottom?

Bot. Some man or other must present wall: and let him have fome plaifter, or some lome, or fome rough-cast about him, to fignify wall; or let him hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny fhall Pyramus and Thisby whisper.

Quin. If that may be, then all is well. Come, fit down, every mother's fon, and rehearse your parts. Pyramus, you begin when you have spoken your speech, enter into that brake; and fo every one according to his cue.

Enter PUCK behind.

Puck. What hempen home-fpuns have we fwaggering

here,

So near the cradle of the fairy queen ?

What, a play toward? I'll be an auditor;

An actor too, perhaps, if I fee cause.

Quin. Speak, Pyramus :-Thisby, ftand forth.
Pyr. Thisby, the flowers of odious favours fweet,—
Quin. Odours, odours.

Pyr.

- odours favours fweet:

So doth thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear.

But, bark, a voice! ftay thou but here a while,

And by and by I will to thee appear.

[Exit.

[afide.-Exit.

Puck. A ftranger Pyramus than e'er play'd here!

This. Muft I fpeak now?

Quin. Ay, marry, must you: for you muft understand, he goes but to fee a noife that he heard, and is to come again.

Thil. Moft radiant Pyramus, moft lilly-white of bue,
Of colour like the red rofe on triumphant brier,
Most brifky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew,
As true as trueft horse, that yet would never tire,
I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb.

that

Quin. Ninus' tomb, man: Why you must not speak yet; that you answer to Pyramus: you speak all your part at once, cues and all.-Pyramus enter; your cue is paft; it is, never tire.

Re-enter PUCK, and BOTTOM with an ass's head.

Thif. O,-As true as trueft horse, that yet would never tire. Pyr. If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine :

Quin. O monstrous! O ftrange! we are haunted. Pray, matters! fly, masters! help!

[Exeunt Clowns.

Puck. I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round, Through bog, through bush, through brake, through

brier;

Sometime a horse I'll be, fometime a hound,

A hog, a headless bear, fometime a fire;

And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn. [Exit. Bot. Why do they run away? this is a knavery of them, to make me afeard.

Re-enter SNOUT.

Snout. O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I fee on thee?

Bot. What do you fee? you fee an afs' head of your own; Do you?

I

Re-enter