Than all yon fiery oes* and eyes of light.
Why seek'st thou me? could not this make
thee know,

The hate I bare thee made me leave thee so?
Her. You speak not as you think; it cannot be.
Hel. 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!
Have you conspir'd, have you with these con-
To bait me with this foul derison?
[triv'd
Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd,
The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent,
When we have chid the hasty-footed time
For parting us,-O, and is all forgot?

All school-days' friendship, childhood inno-
We, Hermia, like two artificialt gods, [cence?
Have with our neelds created both one flower,
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
Both warbling of one song, both in one key;
As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds,
Had been incorporate. So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
But yet a union in partition;

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, 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.

Her. I am amazed at your passionate words: I scorn you not; it seems that you scorn me. Hel. 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,)

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;
But by your setting on, by your consent?
What though I be not so in grace as you,
So hung upon with love, so fortunate;
But miserable most, to love unlov'd?
This you should pity, rather than despise.
Her. I understand not what you mean by
this.

Hel. Ay, do, persévere, counterfeit sad looks,
Make mowss upon me when I turn my back;
Wink at each other; hold the sweet jest up:
This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.
If you have any pity, grace, or manners,
You would not make me such an argument.
But, fare ye well: 'tis partly mine own fault;
Which death, or absence, soon shall remedy.
Lys. Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse;
My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena!
Hel. O excellent!

Her. Sweet, do not scorn her so.

Dem. If she cannot entreat, I can compel. Lys. Thou canst compel no more than she

entreat;

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.
Dem. I say, I love thee more than he can do.
Lys. If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it
too.

Dem. Quick, come,

• Circles, † Ingenious. I Needles. Wry faces,

Dem. I would, I had your bond; for, I perceive, [word. A weak bond holds you; I'll not trust your Lys. What should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead?

Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so. Her. What, can you do me greater harm than hate? [love? Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my Am not I Hermia? Are not you Lysander? I am as fair now, as I was erewhile.

Since night, you lov'd me; yet, since night you

left me:

Why, then you left me,-O, the gods forbid!In earnest shall I say?

Lys. Ay, by my life; And never did desire to see thee more. Therefore, be out of hope, of question, doubt, Be certain, nothing truer; 'tis no jest, That I do hate thee, and love Helena.

som!*

Her. O me! you juggler! you canker-blos-
[night.
You thief of love! what, have you come by
And stol'n my love's heart from him?
Hel. Fine, i'faith!

Have you no modesty, no maiden shame,
No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear
Impatient answers from my gentle tongue?
Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet you!

Her. Puppet! why so? Ay, that way goes the game.

Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between ourstatures, she hath urg'd her height;
And with her personage, her tall personage,
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 low,
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.
Hel. I pray you, though you mock me, gen-

tlemen,

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; [think,
Let her not strike me: You, perhaps, may
Because she's something lower than myself,
That I can match her.

[me.

Her. Lower! hark, again. Hel. Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with I evermore did love you, Hermia, Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd 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. But he hath chid me hence; and threaten'd mə To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too:

* A worm that preys on buds of flowers.

+ Shrewish or mischevious.

[you;

Dem. Abide me, if thou dar'st; for well I wot,

Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place; And dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face. Where art thou ?

Puck. Come hither; I am here.

shalt buy this dear,

If ever I thy face by day-light see:
Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me
To measure out my length on this cold bed.-
By day's approach look to be visited.

[Lies down and sleeps.

Must. Ready.

Bot. Give me your neif, monsieur Mustardseed. Pray you, leave your courtesy, good monsieur.

Must. What's your will?

Bot. Nothing, good monsieur, but to help cavalero 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.

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

Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in music: let us have the tongs and the bones.

Tita. Or, say, sweet love, what thou desir'st

to eat. Bot. Truly, a peck of provender; I could munch you good Methinks, I have a great desire to a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.

Tita. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek The squirrel'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

come upon me.

briers,

I can no further crawl, no further go;

My legs can keep no pace with my desires.

Here will I rest me, till the break of day. Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray! [Lies down.

Puck. On the ground

Sleep sound:

I'll apply

To your eye,

Gentle lover remedy.

[Squeezing the juice on Lysander's eye.

When thou wak'st,
Thou tak'st

True delight
In the sig sight

Of thy former lady's eye:

And the country proverb known,
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.

[Exit PUCK. DEM. HEL. &c. sleep.

Tita. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my

arms.

OBERON advances. Enter Puck.

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

Her dotage now I do begin to pity.
For meeting her of late, behind the wood,
Seeking sweet savours for this hateful fool,
I did upbraid her, and fall out with her:
For she his hairy temples then had rounded
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
And that same dew, which sometime on the
buds

Was wont to swell, like round and orient
pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flourets' eyes,
Like tears, that did their own disgrace bewail.
When I had, at my pleasure, taunted her,
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 undo
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 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 wast wont to be;

[Touching her eyes with an herb

See, as thou wast wont to see:

• Fist.

Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower

Hath such force and blessed power.

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

Obe. There lies your love. Titu. How came these things to pass? O, how mine eyes do loath his visage now! Obe. Silence, a while. Robin, take off this head.

Titania, music call; and strike more dead Than common sleep, of all these five the sense. Tita. Music, ho! music; such as charmeth sleep.

Puck. Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own fool's eyes peep.

Obe. Sound, music. [Still Music.] Come, my
queen, take hands with me,
[be.
And rock the ground whereon those sleepers
Now thou and I are new in amity;
And will, to-morrow midnight, solemnly,
Dance in duke Theseus' house triumphantly,
And bless it to all fair posterity:
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.
Obe. Then, my queen, in silence sad,
Trip we after the night's shade:
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wand'ring moon.
Tita. Come, my lord; and in our flight,
Tell me how it came this night,
That I sleeping here was found,
With these mortals, on the ground. [Exeunt.
[Horns sound within.

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train.
The. 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.-
Uncouple in the western valley; go:
Despatch, I say, and find the forester.-
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,

And mark the musical confusion

Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

once,

Hip. I was with Hercules, and Cadmus, When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear Such gallant chiding it

skies, the

chiding it for, besides the groves,
fountains, every region near

The skies,
Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.
The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan
kind,

Thung

So flew'd, so sanded; and their heads are With ears that sweep away the morning dew; Crook-knee'd, and dew-lap'd like Thessalian bulls;

[bells,

Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like
Each under A cry more tunable
Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly:
Judge, when you hear. But, soft; what

nymphs are these ?

Ege. My lord, this is my daughter here And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is; [asleep: 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 ring our intent, Came here in grace of our solemnity.

Begin these wood-birds but to couple now? Lys. Pardon, my lord.

[He and the rest kneel to THESEUS.

up.

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

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

Ege. Enough, enough, my lord; you have

I beg the law, the law upon his head.-
They would have stol'n away, they would,

Demetrius,

Thereby to have defeated you and me :
You, of your wife; and me, of my consent;
Of my consent 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,
Melted as
(But by some power it is,) my love to Hermia
doth the snow, seems to me now

As the remembrance of an idle gawd,t
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:

But, like in sickness, 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 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,
Our purpos'd hunting shall be set aside.-
Away, with us, to Athens: Three and three,
We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.-
Come, Hippolyta.

[Exeunt THE. HIP. EGE. and train.

Dem. These things seem small, and undistinguishable,

Like far-off mountains turned into clouds. Her. Methinks, I see these things with part

ed eye,

When every thing seems double.

Hel. So methinks:

And I have found Demetrius like a jewel, Mine own, and not mine own.

Dem. It seems to me,

[think,

That yet we sleep, we dream.-Do not you