Her. I do entreat your grace to pardon me. I know not by what power I am made bold; Nor how it may concern my modesty. In such a presence here, to plead my thoughts: But I beseech your grace that I may know The worst that may befal me in this case, If I refuse to wed Demetrius. The. Either to die the death, or to abjure For ever the society of men. Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires, Her. So will I grow, so live, so die, my ford, new moon, (The sealing-day betwixt my love and me, Lys. You have her father's love, Demetrius; Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him. Ege. Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love; And what is mine my love shall render him; Lys. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he, As well possess'd; my love is more than his; My fortunes every way as fairly rank❜d, If not with vantage, as Demetrius'; And, which is more than all these boasts can be, I am belov'd of beauteous Hermia: Why should not I then prosecute my right? Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head, Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena, And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes, Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry, Upon this spotted and inconstant man. And with Demetrius thought to have spoke How chance the roses there do fade so fast? could well Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes. Lys. Ah me! for aught that ever I could Could ever hear by tale or history, [read, The course of true love never did run smooth: But, either it was different in blood; [low! Her. O cross! too high to be inthrall'd to Lys. Or else misgraffed, in respect of years; Her. O spite ! too old to be engag'd to young! Lys.Or else it stood upon the choice of friends: Her. O hell! to choose love by another's eye! Lys. Or, if there were a sympathy in choice, War, death, or sickness, did lay siege to it; Making it momentany§ as a sound, Swift as a shadow, short as any dream; Her. My good Lysander! The. I must confess, that I have heard so By the simplicity of Venus' doves; * Ever. + Wicked. Give, bestow. § Momentary. || Black. Love's. And by that fire which burn'd' the Carthage queen, When the false Trojan under sail was seen; Enter HELENA. Her. God speed, fair Helena! Whither away? Hel. Call you me fair? that fair again unsay. Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair! Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's sweet air More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear, When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear. Sickness is catching; O, were favour + so! smiles such skill!' Her. I give him curses, yet he gives me love. Hel. O, that my prayers could such affection move! [me. Her. The more I hate, the more he follows Hel. The more I love, the more he hateth me. Her. His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine. Hel. None, but your beauty'; 'Would that fault were mine!? [my face; Her. Take comfort; he no more shall see Lysander and myself will fly this place. Before the time I did Lysander see, Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me: O then, what graces in my love do dwell, That he hath turn'd a heaven unto hell! [fold: Lys. Helen, to you our minds we will unTo-morrow-night, when Phoebe doth behold Her silver visage in the wat'ry glass, Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass, (A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,) Through Athens' gates have we devis'd to steal. Her. And in the wood, where often you and I Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie, Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet: There my Lysander and myself shall meet: And thence, from Athens, turn away our eyes, To seek new friends and stranger companies. Farewell, sweet playfellow; pray thou for us, And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius ! Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight From lover's food, till morrow deep midnight. [Erit HERM, Lys. I will, my Hermia.-Helena, adieu: As you on him, Demetrius dote on you. [Exit Lys. Hel. How happy some, or other some can be! Through Athens I am thought as fair as she. * Pole-stars. But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so; SCENE II [Exit. The same. A Room in a Cottage. Enter SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, QUINCE, and STARVELING. Quin. Is all our company here? Bot. You were best to call them generally, man by man, according to the scrip. Quin. Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our interlude before the duke and duchess, on his wedding day at night." Bot. First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats on; then read the names of the actors; and so grow to a point. Quin. Marry, our play is-The most lamentable comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby. Bot. A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry.-Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your actors by the scroll: Masters, spread yourselves. Quin. Answer, as I call you.-Nick Bottom, the weaver. Bot. Ready: Name what part. I am for, and proceed. Quin. You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus. Bot. What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant? Quin. A lover, that kills himself most gallantly for love, Bot. That will ask some tears in the true performing of it: If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes; I will move storms, I will condole in some measure. To the rest:-Yet my chief humour is for a tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split. "The raging rocks, "Of prison-gates: "And Phibbus' car "Shall shine from far, "And make and mar "The foolish fates." This was lofty!-Now name the rest of the players. This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is more condoling. Quin. Francis Flute, the bellows-mender. Flu. Here, Peter Quince, Quin. You must take Thisby on you. Flu. What is Thisby? a wandering knight? Quin. It is the lady that Pyramus must love. Flu. Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming. Quin. That's all one; you shall play it in a mask, and you may speak as small as you will. Bot. An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too: I'll speak in a monstrous little voice;-Thisne, Thisne.-Ah, Pyramus, my lover dear; thy Thisby dear! und lady dear! Quin. No, no; you must play Pyramus, and, Flute, you Thisby. Bot. Well, proceed. Quin. Robin Starveling, the tailor. Quin. Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother.-Tom Snout, the tinker. Snout. Here, Peter Quince. Quin. You, Pyramus's father; myself, Thisby's father; Snug, the joiner, you, the lion's part:-and, I hope, here is a play fitted. Snug. Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study. Quin. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring. Bot. Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I will do any man's heart good to hear me; I will roar, that I will make the duke say, Let him roar again, Let him roar again. Quin. An you should do it too terribly, you would fright the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek: and that were enough to hang us all. All. That would hang us every mother's son. Bot. I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my voice so, that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any nightingale. Quin. You can play no part but Pyramus: for Pyramus is a sweet-faced man; a proper man, as one shall see in a summer's day; a most lovely, gentleman-like man; therefore you must needs play Pyramus. Bot. Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best to play it in? Quin. Why, what you will. Bot. I will discharge it in either your strawcoloured beard, your orange-tawny_beard, your purple-in-grain-beard, or your Frenchcrown-colour beard, your perfect yellow. Quin. Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and then you will play bare-faced. But, masters, here are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request you, and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night; and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the town, by moon-light; there will we rehearse: for if we meet in the city, we shall be dog'd with company, and our devices known. In the mean time I will draw a bill of proper ties t, such as our play wants. I pray you, fail me not. Bot. We will meet; and there we may rehearse more obscenely, and courageously. Take pains; be perfect; adieu. Quin. At the duke's oak we meet. Bot. Enough; Hold, or cut bow-strings. [Exeunt. Puck.How now, spirit! whither wander you? Fai. Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough brier, Over park, over pale, I must go seek some dew-drops here, Farewell, thou lob || of spirits, I'll be gone; And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear. Our queen and all her elves come here anon. Puck. The king doth keep his revels here to-night; Take heed, the queen come not within his sight. Thorough flood, thorough fire, * As if. At all events. And now they never meet in grove, or green, By fountain clear, or spangled star-light sheen, But they do squaret; thatall their elves, for fear, Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there. Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quite, Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite, Call'd Robin Good-fellow are you not he, That fright the maidens of the villagery; Skim milk; and sometimes labour in the quernt, [churn; And bootless make the breathless housewife And sometime make the drink to bear no barnı; [harm? Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck, You do their work, and they shall have good Are not you he? [luck: Puck. Thou speak'st aright; And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear SCENE II. Enter OBERON, at one door, with his train, I have forsworn his bed and company. Tita. These are the forgeries of jealousy: And never, since the middle summer's spring, Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead, By paved fountain, or by rushy brook, Or on the beached margent of the sea, To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind, But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport. Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain, As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea Contagious fogs; which, falling in the land, Have every pelting ¶ river made so proud, That they have overborne their continents** : The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain, [corn The ploughman lost his sweat; and the greenHath rotted, ere his youth attain'd a beard: The fold stands empty in the drowned field, And crows are fatted with the murrain flock; The nine men's morristt is fill'd up with mud; And the quaint mazes in the wanton green, For lack of tread, are undistinguishable : The human mortals want their winter here; No night is now with hymn or carol blest:Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, Pale in her anger, washes all the air, That rheumatic diseases do abound: And thorough this distemperature, we see The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose; Ard on old Hyems' chin, and icy crown, An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds Is, as in mockery, set: The spring, the summer, The childing # autumn, angry winter, change Their wonted liveries; and the 'mazed world By their increases, now knows not which is And this same progeny of evils comes [which : From our debate, from our dissension; We are their parents and original. Obe. Do you amend it then; it lies in you: Why should Titania cross her Oberon? I do but beg a little changeling boy, To be my henchman. Tita. Set your heart at rest, Yeast. Il Wild Apple. * Shining. + Quarrel. + Mill. ** Banks which contain them. #Autumn producing flowers unseasonably. Page. If you will patiently dance in our round, Tita. Not for thy kingdom.-Fairies, away: We shall chide down-right, if I longer stay. [Exeunt TITANIA, and her train. Obe. Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove, Till I torment thee for this injury. [ber'st Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell: And maidens call it, love-in-idleness. [once: Is true as steel: Leave you your power to draw, And I shall have no power to follow you. Dem. Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair? Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth Tell you-I do not, nor I cannot love you? Hel. And even for that do I love you the I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, [more. The more you beat me, I will fawn on you: Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave, [me, Unworthy as I am, to follow you. What worser place can I beg in your love, (And yet a place of high respect with me,) Than to be used as you use your dog? [spirit; Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my For I am sick, when I do look on thee. Hel. And I am sick,when I look not on you. Dem. You do impeach your modesty too To leave the city, and commit yourself. [much, Into the hands of one that loves you not; To trust the opportunity of night, And the ill counsel of a desert place, With the rich worth of your virginity. Hel. Your virtue is my privilege for that. It is not night, when I do see your face, Therefore I think I am not in the night: Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company; For you, in my respect, are all the world: Then how can it be said, I am alone, When all the world is here to look on me? Dem. I'll run from thee, and hide me in the brakes,' And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts. Hel. The wildest hath not such a heart as you. Run when you will,the story shall be chang'd; Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase: 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 Or, if thou follow me, do not believe But I shall do thee mischief in the wood. [go: Hel. Ay, in the temple, in the town, the You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius! [field, 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, [love.Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy 1 Re-enter PUCK. Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanPuck. Ay, there it is. [derer. Obe. I pray thee, give it me. I know a bank whereon the wild thymne blows, Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows; Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine, With sweet musk roses, and with eglantine: Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more. There sleeps Titania, some time of the night, Hel. You draw me, you hard-hearted ada-Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight; mant'; But yet you draw not iron, for my heart And there the snake throws her enamell❜d skin, Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in: * Exempt from love. + Mad, raving. The greater cowslip. Bring in question. ¶ Vigorous. § By. ! |