[4 of 5] A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act IV, Scenes 1-2 (1595) William Shakespeare

Author: William Shakespeare

Shakespeare, William. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act IV, Scenes 1-2” Open Source Shakespeare, 1595, https://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=midsummer&Act=4&Scope=act&pleasewait=1&msg=pl

Act IV, Scene 1

The same. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA

lying asleep. [p][Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM; PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH,] [p]MUSTARDSEED, and other Fairies attending; OBERON [p]behind unseen]

• Titania. 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.

• Bottom. Where's Peaseblossom?1550

• Peaseblossom. Ready.

• Bottom. Scratch my head Peaseblossom. Where's Mounsieur Cobweb?

• Cobweb. Ready.

• Bottom. Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get you your
  weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped1555
  humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good
  mounsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret
  yourself too much in the action, mounsieur; and,
  good mounsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not;
  I would be loath to have you overflown with a1560
  honey-bag, signior. Where's Mounsieur Mustardseed?

• Mustardseed. Ready.

• Bottom. Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray you,
  leave your courtesy, good mounsieur.

• Mustardseed. What's your Will?1565

• Bottom. Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery 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.1570

• Titania. What, wilt thou hear some music,
  my sweet love?

• Bottom. I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let's have
  the tongs and the bones.

• Titania. Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat.1575

• Bottom. 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.

• Titania. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek
  The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.1580

• Bottom. 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 me.

• Titania. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.
  Fairies, begone, and be all ways away.1585
  [Exeunt fairies]
  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!1590

[They sleep]

[Enter PUCK]

• Oberon. [Advancing] Welcome, good Robin.
  See'st thou this sweet sight?
  Her dotage now I do begin to pity:1595
  For, meeting her of late behind the wood,
  Seeking sweet favours from this hateful fool,
  I did upbraid her and fall out with her;
  For she his hairy temples then had rounded
  With a coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;1600
  And that same dew, which sometime on the buds
  Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls,
  Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes
  Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail.
  When I had at my pleasure taunted her1605
  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 undo1610
  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 repair1615
  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;
  See as thou wast wont to see:1620
  Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower
  Hath such force and blessed power.
  Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.

• Titania. My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
  Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.1625

• Oberon. There lies your love.

• Titania. How came these things to pass?
  O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!

• Oberon. Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head.
  Titania, music call; and strike more dead1630
  Than common sleep of all these five the sense.

• Titania. Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep!

[Music, still]

• Puck. Now, when thou wakest, with thine
  own fool's eyes peep.1635

• Oberon. Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands with me,
  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,1640
  And bless it to all fair prosperity:
  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.1645

• Oberon. Then, my queen, in silence sad,
  Trip we after the night's shade:
  We the globe can compass soon,
  Swifter than the wandering moon.

• Titania. Come, my lord, and in our flight1650
  Tell me how it came this night
  That I sleeping here was found
  With these mortals on the ground.

[Exeunt]

[Horns winded within]

[Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train]

• Theseus. 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.1660
  Uncouple in the western valley; let them go:
  Dispatch, I say, and find the forester.
  [Exit an Attendant]
  We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,
  And mark the musical confusion1665
  Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

• Hippolyta. 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, besides the groves,1670
  The skies, the fountains, every region near
  Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard
  So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.

• Theseus. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
  So flew'd, so sanded, and their heads are hung1675
  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,1680
  In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly:
  Judge when you hear. But, soft! what nymphs are these?

• Egeus. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep;
  And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is;
  This Helena, old Nedar's Helena:1685
  I wonder of their being here together.

• Theseus. No doubt they rose up early to observe
  The rite of May, and hearing our intent,
  Came here in grace our solemnity.
  But speak, Egeus; is not this the day1690
  That Hermia should give answer of her choice?

• Egeus. It is, my lord.

• Theseus. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.
  [Horns and shout within. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS,]
  HELENA, and HERMIA wake and start up]1695
  Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past:
  Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?

• Lysander. Pardon, my lord.

• Theseus. I pray you all, stand up.
  I know you two are rival enemies:1700
  How comes this gentle concord in the world,
  That hatred is so far from jealousy,
  To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?

• Lysander. My lord, I shall reply amazedly,
  Half sleep, half waking: but as yet, I swear,1705
  I cannot truly say how I came here;
  But, as I think,—for truly would I speak,
  And now do I bethink me, so it is,—
  I came with Hermia hither: our intent
  Was to be gone from Athens, where we might,1710
  Without the peril of the Athenian law.

• Egeus. Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough:
  I beg the law, the law, upon his head.
  They would have stolen away; they would, Demetrius,
  Thereby to have defeated you and me,1715
  You of your wife and me of my consent,
  Of my consent that she should be your wife.

• Demetrius. 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,1720
  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 the snow, seems to me now
  As the remembrance of an idle gaud1725
  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:1730
  But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food;
  But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
  Now I do wish it, love it, long for it,
  And will for evermore be true to it.

• Theseus. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:1735
  Of this discourse we more will hear anon.
  Egeus, 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,1740
  Our purposed hunting shall be set aside.
  Away with us to Athens; three and three,
  We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.
  Come, Hippolyta.

[Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train]

• Demetrius. These things seem small and undistinguishable,

• Hermia. Methinks I see these things with parted eye,
  When every thing seems double.

• Helena. So methinks:
  And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,1750
  Mine own, and not mine own.

• Demetrius. Are you sure
  That we are awake? It seems to me
  That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think
  The duke was here, and bid us follow him?1755

• Hermia. Yea; and my father.

• Helena. And Hippolyta.

• Lysander. And he did bid us follow to the temple.

• Demetrius. Why, then, we are awake: let's follow him
  And by the way let us recount our dreams.1760

[Exeunt]

• Bottom. [Awaking] When my cue comes, call me, and I will
  answer: my next is, 'Most fair Pyramus.' Heigh-ho!
  Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout,
  the tinker! Starveling! God's my life, stolen1765
  hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare
  vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to
  say what dream it was: man is but an ass, if he go
  about to expound this dream. Methought I was—there
  is no man can tell what. Methought I was,—and1770
  methought I had,—but man is but a patched fool, if
  he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye
  of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not
  seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue
  to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream1775
  was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of
  this dream: it shall be called Bottom's Dream,
  because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the
  latter end of a play, before the duke:
  peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall1780
  sing it at her death.

[Exit]

Act IV, Scene 2

Athens. QUINCE’S house.

[Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING]

• Quince. Have you sent to Bottom's house? is he come home yet?

• Starveling. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is1785
  transported.

• Flute. If he come not, then the play is marred: it goes
  not forward, doth it?

• Quince. It is not possible: you have not a man in all
  Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he.1790

• Flute. No, he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft
  man in Athens.

• Quince. Yea and the best person too; and he is a very
  paramour for a sweet voice.

• Flute. You must say 'paragon:' a paramour is, God bless us,1795
  a thing of naught.

[Enter SNUG]

• Snug. Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and
  there is two or three lords and ladies more married:
  if our sport had gone forward, we had all been made1800
  men.

• Flute. O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a
  day during his life; he could not have 'scaped
  sixpence a day: an the duke had not given him
  sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged;1805
  he would have deserved it: sixpence a day in
  Pyramus, or nothing.

[Enter BOTTOM]

• Bottom. Where are these lads? where are these hearts?

• Quince. Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour!1810

• Bottom. Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask me not
  what; for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I
  will tell you every thing, right as it fell out.

• Quince. Let us hear, sweet Bottom.

• Bottom. Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that1815
  the duke hath dined. Get your apparel together,
  good strings to your beards, new ribbons to your
  pumps; meet presently at the palace; every man look
  o'er his part; for the short and the long is, our
  play is preferred. In any case, let Thisby have1820
  clean linen; and let not him that plays the lion
  pair his nails, for they shall hang out for the
  lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onions
  nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I
  do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet1825
  comedy. No more words: away! go, away!

[Exeunt]

DMU Timestamp: May 05, 2025 14:29