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Tita. What, wilt thou hear fome mufick, my sweet love?

Bot. I have a reafonable good ear in mufick: let us have the tongs and the bones,

Tita. Or, fay, fweet love, what thou defir'st to eat.

Bot. Truly, a peck of provender; I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks, I have a great defire to a bottle of hay good hay, fweet hay, hath no fellow.

Tita. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek

The fquirrel'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 ftir me; I have an expofition of fleep 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 fweet honeysuckle,
Gently entwift, the female ivy fo

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.

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

OBERON advances. Enter PUCK.

[They fleep.

Obe. Welcome, good Robin. See'st thou this sweet

fight?

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 the his hairy temples then had rounded
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
And that fame dew, which sometime on the buds
Was wont to fwell, like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flourets' eyes,
Like tears, that did their own disgrace bewail.

When

When I had, at my pleasure, taunted her,
And fhe, 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 fcalp
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 waft wont to be;

Touching her eyes with an herb.

See, as thou waft wont to fee:

Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower
Hath fuch force and bleffed power.

Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.
Tita. My Oberon! what vifions have I feen!
Methought, I was enamour'd of an ass.

Obe. There lies your love.

Tita.
O, how mine eyes do loath this visage now!

How came these things to país?

Obe. Silence, a while.-Robin, take off this head.

Titania, mufick call; and ftrike more dead
Than common fleep, of all these five the fenfe.

Tita. Mufick, ho! mufick; fuch as charmeth fleep. Puck. Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own fool's

eyes peep.

Obe. Sound, mufick. [Still musick.] Come, my queen, take hands with me,

And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.

E 3

Now

Now thou and I are new in amity;

And will, to-morrow midnight, folemnly,
Dance in duke Thefeus' house triumphantly,
And bless it to all fair posterity:

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

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

Obe. Then, my queen, in filence fad,
Trip we after the night's fhade:
We the globe can compass foon,

Swifter than the wand'ring moon.

Tita. Come, my lord; and in our flight,
Tell me how it came this night,

'That I fleeping here was found,

With these mortals, on the ground.

[Exeunt.

[Horns found within.

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train,

The. Go, one of you, find out the forefter ;

For now our observation is perform'd :

And fince we have the vaward of the day,
My love shall hear the mufick of my hounds.-
Uncouple in the western valley; go :—
Defpatch, I fay, and find the forefter.-
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,
And mark the mufical confufion

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, befides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, every region near

Seem'd

Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard

So mufical a difcord, fuch sweet thunder.

The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flew'd, fo fanded; and their heads are hung.
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook-knee'd, and dew-lap'd like Thessalian bulls;
Slow in purfuit, 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 Theffaly :

Judge, when you hear.-But, foft; what nymphs are these?

Ege. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep;
And this, Lyfander; this Demetrius is;
This Helena, old Nedar's Helena:

I wonder of their being here together.

The. No doubt, they rose up early, to observe
The rite of May; and, hearing our intent,
Came here in grace of our folemnity.—
But, fpeak, Egeus; is not this the day

That Hermia should give anfwer of her choice?

Ege. It is, my lord.

The. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.

Horns, and fhout 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?

Lyf. Pardon, my lord.

The.

[He and the reft kneel to THESEUS.
I pray you all, stand up. :

I know, you two are rival enemies;
How comes this gentle concord in the world,

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That hatred is so far from jealousy,

To fleep by hate, and fear no enmity?

Lyf. My lord, I shall reply amazedly,
Half 'fleep, half waking: But as yet, I swear,
I cannot truly fay how I came here :
But, as I think, (for truly would I speak,-
And now I do bethink me, fo 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.—

They would have stol'n away, they would, Demetrius, Thereby to have defeated you and mé:

You, of your wife; and me, of my confent;

Of

my confent 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 fome power it is,) my love to Hermia,
Melted as doth the fnow, 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 faw Hermia:
But, like in fickness, 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

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