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[3 of 5] A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene 2 - Act III, Scene 2 (1595) William Shakespeare
Author: William Shakespeare
Shakespeare, William. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act II, Scene 2 - Act III, Scene 2” Open Source Shakespeare, 1595, https://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=midsummer&Act=3&Scope=act&pleasewait=1&msg=pl
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Act II, Scene 2
Another part of the wood.
[Enter TITANIA, with her train]
-
Titania.
Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;650
Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;
Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,
Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,
To make my small elves coats, and some keep back
The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders655
At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
Then to your offices and let me rest.
[The Fairies sing]
You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;660
Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
Come not near our fairy queen.
Philomel, with melody
Sing in our sweet lullaby;
Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:665
Never harm,
Nor spell nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby.
Weaving spiders, come not here;670
Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!
Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm nor snail, do no offence.
Philomel, with melody, &c.
-
Fairy.
Hence, away! now all is well:675
One aloof stand sentinel.
[Exeunt Fairies. TITANIA sleeps]
[Enter OBERON and squeezes the flower on TITANIA's eyelids]
-
Oberon.
What thou seest when thou dost wake,
Do it for thy true-love take,680
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 wakest, it is thy dear:685
Wake when some vile thing is near.
-
Lysander.
Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood;
And to speak troth, I have forgot our way:690
We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,
And tarry for the comfort of the day.
-
Hermia.
Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed;
For I upon this bank will rest my head.
-
Lysander.
One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;695
One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth.
-
Hermia.
Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear,
Lie further off yet, do not lie so near.
-
Lysander.
O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!
Love takes the meaning in love's conference.700
I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit
So that but one heart we can make of it;
Two bosoms interchained with an oath;
So then two bosoms and a single troth.
Then by your side no bed-room me deny;705
For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.
-
Hermia.
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 courtesy710
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!715
-
Lysander.
Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I;
And then end life when I end loyalty!
Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest!
- Hermia. With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd!
-
Puck.
Through the forest have I gone.
But Athenian found I none,
On whose eyes I might approve
This flower's force in stirring love.725
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,730
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.735
When thou wakest, let love forbid
Sleep his seat on thy eyelid:
So awake when I am gone;
For I must now to Oberon.
[Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running]
- Helena. Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.
- Demetrius. I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.
- Helena. O, wilt thou darkling leave me? do not so.
- Demetrius. Stay, on thy peril: I alone will go.745
-
Helena.
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.750
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 Demetrius755
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.760
Lysander if you live, good sir, awake.
-
Lysander.
[Awaking] And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake.
Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,
That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.
Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word765
Is that vile name to perish on my sword!
-
Helena.
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.
-
Lysander.
Content with Hermia!
No; I do repent770
The tedious minutes I with her have spent.
Not Hermia but Helena 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.775
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'erlook780
Love's stories written in love's richest book.
-
Helena.
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,785
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 confess790
I thought you lord of more true gentleness.
O, that a lady, of one man refused.
Should of another therefore be abused!
-
Lysander.
She sees not Hermia.
Hermia, sleep thou there:795
And never mayst thou come Lysander near!
For as a surfeit of the sweetest things
The deepest loathing to the stomach brings,
Or as tie heresies that men do leave
Are hated most of those they did deceive,800
So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,
Of all be hated, but the most of me!
And, all my powers, address your love and might
To honour Helen and to be her knight!
-
Hermia.
[Awaking] Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best
To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!
Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here!
Lysander, look how I do quake with fear:
Methought a serpent eat my heart away,810
And you sat smiling at his cruel pray.
Lysander! what, removed? Lysander! lord!
What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word?
Alack, where are you speak, an if you hear;
Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.815
No? then I well perceive you all not nigh
Either death or you I'll find immediately.
add
Act III, Scene 1
The wood. TITANIA lying asleep.
[Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING]
- Bottom. Are we all met?820
-
Quince.
Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place
for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our
stage, this hawthorn-brake our tiring-house; and we
will do it in action as we will do it before the duke.
- Bottom. Peter Quince,—825
- Quince. What sayest thou, bully Bottom?
-
Bottom.
There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and
Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must
draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies
cannot abide. How answer you that?830
- Snout. By'r lakin, a parlous fear.
- Starveling. I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.
-
Bottom.
Not a whit: I have a device to make all well.
Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to
say, we will do no harm with our swords, and that835
Pyramus is not killed indeed; and, for the more
better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not
Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put them
out of fear.
-
Quince.
Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall be840
written in eight and six.
- Bottom. No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight.
- Snout. Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?
- Starveling. I fear it, I promise you.
-
Bottom.
Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves: to845
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 't.
- Snout. Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion.850
-
Bottom.
Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must
be seen through the lion's neck: and he himself
must speak through, saying thus, or to the same
defect,—'Ladies,'—or 'Fair-ladies—I would wish
You,'—or 'I would request you,'—or 'I would855
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.860
-
Quince.
Well it shall be so.
But there is two hard things;
that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber; for,
you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moonlight.
- Snout. Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?
-
Bottom.
A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanac; find865
out moonshine, find out moonshine.
- Quince. Yes, it doth shine that night.
-
Bottom.
Why, then may you leave a casement of the great
chamber window, where we play, open, and the moon
may shine in at the casement.870
-
Quince.
Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns
and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure, or to
present, the person of Moonshine. Then, there is
another thing: we must have a wall in the great
chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby says the story, did875
talk through the chink of a wall.
- Snout. You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom?
-
Bottom.
Some man or other must present Wall: and let him
have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast
about him, to signify wall; and let him hold his880
fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus
and Thisby whisper.
-
Quince.
If that may be, then all is well.
Come, sit down,
every mother's son, and rehearse your parts.
Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken your885
speech, enter into that brake: and so every one
according to his cue.
-
Puck.
What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here,
So near the cradle of the fairy queen?890
What, a play toward! I'll be an auditor;
An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause.
- Quince. Speak, Pyramus. Thisby, stand forth.
- Bottom. Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet,—
- Quince. Odours, odours.895
-
Bottom. —odours savours sweet:
So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear.
But hark, a voice! stay thou but here awhile,
And by and by I will to thee appear.
- Puck. A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here.
- Flute. Must I speak now?
-
Quince.
Ay, marry, must you; for you must understand he goes
but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again.905
-
Flute.
Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue,
Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier,
Most brisky juvenal and eke most lovely Jew,
As true as truest horse that yet would never tire,
I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb.910
-
Quince.
'Ninus' tomb,' man: why, you must not speak that
yet; that you answer to Pyramus: you speak all your
part at once, cues and all Pyramus enter: your cue
is past; it is, 'never tire.'
-
Flute.
O,—As true as truest horse, that yet would915
never tire.
[Re-enter PUCK, and BOTTOM with an ass's head]
- Bottom. If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine.
-
Quince.
O monstrous!
O strange! we are haunted.
Pray,
masters! fly, masters! Help!920
[Exeunt QUINCE, SNUG, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING]
-
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, sometime a hound,
A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire;925
And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,
Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.
-
Bottom.
Why do they run away? this is a knavery of them to
make me afeard.930
- Snout. O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on thee?
-
Bottom.
What do you see? you see an asshead of your own, do
you?
-
Quince.
Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art
translated.
-
Bottom.
I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me;940
to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir
from this place, do what they can: I will walk up
and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear
I am not afraid.
[Sings]945
The ousel cock so black of hue,
With orange-tawny bill,
The throstle with his note so true,
The wren with little quill,—
- Titania. [Awaking] What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?950
-
Bottom.
[Sings]
The finch, the sparrow and the lark,
The plain-song cuckoo gray,
Whose note full many a man doth mark,
And dares not answer nay;—955
for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish
a bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry
'cuckoo' never so?
-
Titania.
I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:
Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note;960
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.
-
Bottom.
Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason
for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and965
love keep little company together now-a-days; the
more the pity that some honest neighbours will not
make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.
- Titania. Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.
-
Bottom.
Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get out970
of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.
-
Titania.
Out of this wood do not desire to go:
Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.
I am a spirit of no common rate;
The summer still doth tend upon my state;975
And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;
I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep;
And I will purge thy mortal grossness so980
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.
Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed!
[Enter PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, and MUSTARDSEED]
- Peaseblossom. Ready.
- Cobweb. And I.985
- Moth. And I.
- Mustardseed. And I.
- All. Where shall we go?
-
Titania.
Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes;990
Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;
The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees,
And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs
And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,995
To have my love to bed and to arise;
And pluck the wings from Painted butterflies
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.
- Peaseblossom. Hail, mortal!1000
- Cobweb. Hail!
- Moth. Hail!
- Mustardseed. Hail!
-
Bottom.
I cry your worship's mercy, heartily: I beseech your
worship's name.1005
- Cobweb. Cobweb.
-
Bottom.
I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master
Cobweb: if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with
you. Your name, honest gentleman?
- Peaseblossom. Peaseblossom.1010
-
Bottom.
I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your
mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. Good
Master Peaseblossom, I shall desire you of more
acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you, sir?
- Mustardseed. Mustardseed.1015
-
Bottom.
Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience well:
that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath
devoured many a gentleman of your house: I promise
you your kindred had made my eyes water ere now. I
desire your more acquaintance, good Master1020
Mustardseed.
-
Titania.
Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower.
The moon methinks looks with a watery eye;
And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,
Lamenting some enforced chastity.1025
Tie up my love's tongue bring him silently.
Act III, Scene 2
Another part of the wood.
[Enter OBERON]
-
Oberon.
I wonder if Titania be awaked;
Then, what it was that next came in her eye,1030
Which she must dote on in extremity.
[Enter PUCK]
Here comes my messenger.
How now, mad spirit!
What night-rule now about this haunted grove?1035
-
Puck.
My mistress with a monster is in love.
Near to her close and consecrated bower,
While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,
A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,
That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,1040
Were met together to rehearse a play
Intended for great Theseus' nuptial-day.
The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort,
Who Pyramus presented, in their sport
Forsook his scene and enter'd in a brake1045
When I did him at this advantage take,
An ass's nole I fixed on his head:
Anon his Thisbe must be answered,
And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy,
As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,1050
Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort,
Rising and cawing at the gun's report,
Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky,
So, at his sight, away his fellows fly;
And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls;1055
He murder cries and help from Athens calls.
Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears
thus strong,
Made senseless things begin to do them wrong;
For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch;1060
Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all
things catch.
I led them on in this distracted fear,
And left sweet Pyramus translated there:
When in that moment, so it came to pass,1065
Titania waked and straightway loved an ass.
-
Oberon.
This falls out better than I could devise.
But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes
With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?
-
Puck.
I took him sleeping,—that is finish'd too,—1070
And the Athenian woman by his side:
That, when he waked, of force she must be eyed.
- Oberon. Stand close: this is the same Athenian.
- Puck. This is the woman, but not this the man.1075
-
Demetrius.
O, why rebuke you him that loves you so?
Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.
-
Hermia.
Now I but chide; but I should use thee worse,
For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse,
If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,1080
Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep,
And kill me too.
The sun was not so true unto the day
As he to me: would he have stolen away
From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon1085
This whole earth may be bored and that the moon
May through the centre creep and so displease
Her brother's noontide with Antipodes.
It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him;
So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim.1090
-
Demetrius.
So should the murder'd look, and so should I,
Pierced through the heart with your stern cruelty:
Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear,
As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere.
-
Hermia.
What's this to my Lysander? where is he?1095
Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me?
- Demetrius. I had rather give his carcass to my hounds.
-
Hermia.
Out, dog! out, cur! thou drivest me past the bounds
Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him, then?
Henceforth be never number'd among men!1100
O, once tell true, tell true, even for my sake!
Durst thou have look'd upon him being awake,
And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch!
Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?
An adder did it; for with doubler tongue1105
Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.
-
Demetrius.
You spend your passion on a misprised mood:
I am not guilty of Lysander's blood;
Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.
- Hermia. I pray thee, tell me then that he is well.1110
- Demetrius. An if I could, what should I get therefore?
-
Hermia.
A privilege never to see me more.
And from thy hated presence part I so:
See me no more, whether he be dead or no.
-
Demetrius.
There is no following her in this fierce vein:
Here therefore for a while I will remain.
So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow
For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe:
Which now in some slight measure it will pay,1120
If for his tender here I make some stay.
-
Oberon.
What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite
And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight:
Of thy misprision must perforce ensue1125
Some true love turn'd and not a false turn'd true.
-
Puck.
Then fate o'er-rules, that, one man holding troth,
A million fail, confounding oath on oath.
-
Oberon.
About the wood go swifter than the wind,
And Helena of Athens look thou find:1130
All fancy-sick she is and pale of cheer,
With sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear:
By some illusion see thou bring her here:
I'll charm his eyes against she do appear.
-
Puck.
I go, I go; look how I go,1135
Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow.
-
Oberon.
Flower of this purple dye,
Hit with Cupid's archery,
Sink in apple of his eye.1140
When his love he doth espy,
Let her shine as gloriously
As the Venus of the sky.
When thou wakest, if she be by,
Beg of her for remedy.1145
-
Puck.
Captain of our fairy band,
Helena is here at hand;
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover's fee.1150
Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
-
Oberon.
Stand aside: the noise they make
Will cause Demetrius to awake.
-
Puck.
Then will two at once woo one;1155
That must needs be sport alone;
And those things do best please me
That befal preposterously.
-
Lysander.
Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?1160
Scorn and derision never come in tears:
Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows so born,
In their nativity all truth appears.
How can these things in me seem scorn to you,
Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true?1165
-
Helena.
You do advance your cunning more and more.
When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray!
These vows are Hermia's: will you give her o'er?
Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh:
Your vows to her and me, put in two scales,1170
Will even weigh, and both as light as tales.
- Lysander. I had no judgment when to her I swore.
- Helena. Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er.
- Lysander. Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.
-
Demetrius.
[Awaking] O Helena, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!1175
To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne?
Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show
Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!
That pure congealed white, high Taurus snow,
Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow1180
When thou hold'st up thy hand: O, let me kiss
This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!
-
Helena.
O spite!
O hell!
I see you all are bent
To set against me for your merriment:
If you we re civil and knew courtesy,1185
You would not do me thus much injury.
Can you not hate me, as I know you do,
But you must join in souls to mock me too?
If you were men, as men you are in show,
You would not use a gentle lady so;1190
To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts,
When I am sure you hate me with your hearts.
You both are rivals, and love Hermia;
And now both rivals, to mock Helena:
A trim exploit, a manly enterprise,1195
To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes
With your derision! none of noble sort
Would so offend a virgin, and extort
A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport.
-
Lysander.
You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so;1200
For you love Hermia; this you know I know:
And here, with all good will, with all my heart,
In Hermia's love I yield you up my part;
And yours of Helena to me bequeath,
Whom I do love and will do till my death.1205
- Helena. Never did mockers waste more idle breath.
-
Demetrius.
Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none:
If e'er I loved her, all that love is gone.
My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd,
And now to Helen is it home return'd,1210
There to remain.
- Lysander. Helen, it is not so.
-
Demetrius.
Disparage not the faith thou dost not know,
Lest, to thy peril, thou aby it dear.
Look, where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear.1215
-
Hermia.
Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,
The ear more quick of apprehension makes;
Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense,
It pays the hearing double recompense.1220
Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found;
Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound
But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?
- Lysander. Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go?
- Hermia. What love could press Lysander from my side?1225
-
Lysander.
Lysander's love, that would not let him bide,
Fair Helena, who more engilds the night
Than all you fiery oes and eyes of light.
Why seek'st thou me? could not this make thee know,
The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so?1230
- Hermia. You speak not as you think: it cannot be.
-
Helena.
Lo, she is one of this confederacy!
Now I perceive they have conjoin'd all three
To fashion this false sport, in spite of me.
Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid!1235
Have you conspired, have you with these contrived
To bait me with this foul derision?
Is all the counsel that we two have shared,
The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent,
When we have chid the hasty-footed time1240
For parting us,—O, is it all forgot?
All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence?
We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,
Have with our needles created both one flower,
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,1245
Both warbling of one song, both in one key,
As if our hands, our sides, voices and minds,
Had been incorporate. So we grow together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
But yet an union in partition;1250
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;
So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart;
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,
Due but to one and crowned with one crest.
And will you rent our ancient love asunder,1255
To join with men in scorning your poor friend?
It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly:
Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it,
Though I alone do feel the injury.
-
Hermia.
I am amazed at your passionate words.1260
I scorn you not: it seems that you scorn me.
-
Helena.
Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn,
To follow me and praise my eyes and face?
And made your other love, Demetrius,
Who even but now did spurn me with his foot,1265
To call me goddess, nymph, divine and rare,
Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this
To her he hates? and wherefore doth Lysander
Deny your love, so rich within his soul,
And tender me, forsooth, affection,1270
But by your setting on, by your consent?
What thought I be not so in grace as you,
So hung upon with love, so fortunate,
But miserable most, to love unloved?
This you should pity rather than despise.1275
- Hermia. I understand not what you mean by this.
-
Helena.
Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks,
Make mouths upon me when I turn my back;
Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up:
This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.1280
If you have any pity, grace, or manners,
You would not make me such an argument.
But fare ye well: 'tis partly my own fault;
Which death or absence soon shall remedy.
-
Lysander.
Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse:1285
My love, my life my soul, fair Helena!
- Helena. O excellent!
- Hermia. Sweet, do not scorn her so.
- Demetrius. If she cannot entreat, I can compel.
-
Lysander.
Thou canst compel no more than she entreat:1290
Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers.
Helen, I love thee; by my life, I do:
I swear by that which I will lose for thee,
To prove him false that says I love thee not.
- Demetrius. I say I love thee more than he can do.1295
- Lysander. If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.
- Demetrius. Quick, come!
- Hermia. Lysander, whereto tends all this?
- Lysander. Away, you Ethiope!
-
Demetrius.
No, no; he'll1300
Seem to break loose; take on as you would follow,
But yet come not: you are a tame man, go!
-
Lysander.
Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! vile thing, let loose,
Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent!
-
Hermia.
Why are you grown so rude? what change is this?1305
Sweet love,—
-
Lysander.
Thy love! out, tawny Tartar, out!
Out, loathed medicine! hated potion, hence!
- Hermia. Do you not jest?
- Helena. Yes, sooth; and so do you.1310
- Lysander. Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee.
-
Demetrius.
I would I had your bond, for I perceive
A weak bond holds you: I'll not trust your word.
-
Lysander.
What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead?
Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so.1315
-
Hermia.
What, can you do me greater harm than hate?
Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my love!
Am not I Hermia? are not you Lysander?
I am as fair now as I was erewhile.
Since night you loved me; yet since night you left1320
me:
Why, then you left me—O, the gods forbid!—
In earnest, shall I say?
-
Lysander.
Ay, by my life;
And never did desire to see thee more.1325
Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt;
Be certain, nothing truer; 'tis no jest
That I do hate thee and love Helena.
-
Hermia.
O me! you juggler! you canker-blossom!
You thief of love! what, have you come by night1330
And stolen my love's heart from him?
-
Helena.
Fine, i'faith!
Have you no modesty, no maiden shame,
No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear
Impatient answers from my gentle tongue?1335
Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet, you!
-
Hermia.
Puppet? why so? ay, that way goes the game.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures; she hath urged her height;
And with her personage, her tall personage,1340
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him.
And are you grown so high in his esteem;
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak;
How low am I? I am not yet so low1345
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.
-
Helena.
I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen,
Let her not hurt me: I was never curst;
I have no gift at all in shrewishness;
I am a right maid for my cowardice:1350
Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think,
Because she is something lower than myself,
That I can match her.
- Hermia. Lower! hark, again.
-
Helena.
Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.1355
I evermore did love you, Hermia,
Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you;
Save that, in love unto Demetrius,
I told him of your stealth unto this wood.
He follow'd you; for love I follow'd him;1360
But he hath chid me hence and threaten'd me
To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too:
And now, so you will let me quiet go,
To Athens will I bear my folly back
And follow you no further: let me go:1365
You see how simple and how fond I am.
- Hermia. Why, get you gone: who is't that hinders you?
- Helena. A foolish heart, that I leave here behind.
- Hermia. What, with Lysander?
- Helena. With Demetrius.1370
- Lysander. Be not afraid; she shall not harm thee, Helena.
- Demetrius. No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.
-
Helena.
O, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd!
She was a vixen when she went to school;
And though she be but little, she is fierce.1375
-
Hermia.
'Little' again! nothing but 'low' and 'little'!
Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?
Let me come to her.
-
Lysander.
Get you gone, you dwarf;
You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made;1380
You bead, you acorn.
-
Demetrius.
You are too officious
In her behalf that scorns your services.
Let her alone: speak not of Helena;
Take not her part; for, if thou dost intend1385
Never so little show of love to her,
Thou shalt aby it.
-
Lysander.
Now she holds me not;
Now follow, if thou darest, to try whose right,
Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.1390
- Demetrius. Follow! nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jole.
[Exeunt LYSANDER and DEMETRIUS]
-
Hermia.
You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you:
Nay, go not back.
-
Helena.
I will not trust you, I,1395
Nor longer stay in your curst company.
Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray,
My legs are longer though, to run away.
- Hermia. I am amazed, and know not what to say.1400
-
Oberon.
This is thy negligence: still thou mistakest,
Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully.
-
Puck.
Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.
Did not you tell me I should know the man1405
By the Athenian garment be had on?
And so far blameless proves my enterprise,
That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes;
And so far am I glad it so did sort
As this their jangling I esteem a sport.1410
-
Oberon.
Thou see'st these lovers seek a place to fight:
Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night;
The starry welkin cover thou anon
With drooping fog as black as Acheron,
And lead these testy rivals so astray1415
As one come not within another's way.
Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,
Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong;
And sometime rail thou like Demetrius;
And from each other look thou lead them thus,1420
Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep
With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep:
Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye;
Whose liquor hath this virtuous property,
To take from thence all error with his might,1425
And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.
When they next wake, all this derision
Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision,
And back to Athens shall the lovers wend,
With league whose date till death shall never end.1430
Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,
I'll to my queen and beg her Indian boy;
And then I will her charmed eye release
From monster's view, and all things shall be peace.
-
Puck.
My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,1435
For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,
And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger;
At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there,
Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all,
That in crossways and floods have burial,1440
Already to their wormy beds are gone;
For fear lest day should look their shames upon,
They willfully themselves exile from light
And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night.
-
Oberon.
But we are spirits of another sort:1445
I with the morning's love have oft made sport,
And, like a forester, the groves may tread,
Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red,
Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,
Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams.1450
But, notwithstanding, haste; make no delay:
We may effect this business yet ere day.
-
Puck.
Up and down, up and down,
I will lead them up and down:1455
I am fear'd in field and town:
Goblin, lead them up and down.
Here comes one.
- Lysander. Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now.1460
- Puck. Here, villain; drawn and ready. Where art thou?
- Lysander. I will be with thee straight.
-
Puck.
Follow me, then,
To plainer ground.
[Exit LYSANDER, as following the voice]
-
Demetrius.
Lysander! speak again:
Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?
Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?
-
Puck.
Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars,1470
Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars,
And wilt not come? Come, recreant; come, thou child;
I'll whip thee with a rod: he is defiled
That draws a sword on thee.
- Demetrius. Yea, art thou there?1475
- Puck. Follow my voice: we'll try no manhood here.
-
Lysander.
He goes before me and still dares me on:
When I come where he calls, then he is gone.1480
The villain is much lighter-heel'd than I:
I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly;
That fallen am I in dark uneven way,
And here will rest me.
[Lies down]1485
Come, thou gentle day!
For if but once thou show me thy grey light,
I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite.
- Puck. Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why comest thou not?
-
Demetrius.
Abide me, if thou darest; for well I wot
Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place,
And darest not stand, nor look me in the face.
Where art thou now?1495
- Puck. Come hither: I am here.
-
Demetrius.
Nay, then, thou mock'st me.
Thou shalt buy this dear,
If ever I thy face by daylight see:
Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me
To measure out my length on this cold bed.1500
By day's approach look to be visited.
-
Helena.
O weary night, O long and tedious night,
Abate thy hour! Shine comforts from the east,1505
That I may back to Athens by daylight,
From these that my poor company detest:
And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye,
Steal me awhile from mine own company.
-
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.1515
-
Hermia.
Never so weary, never so in woe,
Bedabbled with the dew and torn with briers,
I can no further crawl, no further go;
My legs can keep no pace with my desires.1520
Here will I rest me till the break of day.
Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!
-
Puck.
On the ground
Sleep sound:1525
I'll apply
To your eye,
Gentle lover, remedy.
[Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER's eyes]
When thou wakest,1530
Thou takest
True delight
In the sight
Of thy former lady's eye:
And the country proverb known,1535
That every man should take his own,
In your waking shall be shown:
Jack shall have Jill;
Nought shall go ill;
The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.1540
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