Queen. What, wilt thou hear fome mufic, my fweet love?

Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in mufic; let us have the tongs and bones.

Rural Mufic, Tongs, &c.

Queen. Or fay, fweet love, what thou defir'ft 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, sweet hay hath no fellow.

Queen. I have a venturous Fairy that fhall feek The fquirrel's hoard, and fetch thee thence new nuts.

Bot. I had rather have a handful or two of dried peafe. But, I pray you, let none of your people ftir me; I have an expofition of fleep come upon me. Queen. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away: farms; So doth the woodbine, the sweet honey-fuckle, Gently entwift the Maple; Ivy fo

Enrings the barky fingers of the Elm.

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

Enter Puck.

Ob. Welcome, good Robin; Seeft thou this sweet fight?

Her dotage now I do begin to pity;

For, meeting her of late behind the wood,
Seeking fweet 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 flouriet's eyes,
Like tears that did their own difgrace bewail.
When I had at my pleasure taunted her,
And fhe in mild terms begg'd my patience,

I then did afk of her her changeling child,
Which ftrait 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 others 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, firft, I will release the Fairy Queen;
Be, as thou waft wont to be;
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 fweet Queen.
Queen. My Oberon! what vifions have I feen!
Methought, I was enamour'd of an afs.

Ob. There lies your love.

Queen. How came these things to pass? Oh, how mine eyes do loath this visage now! Ob. Silence, a while; Robin, take off his head Titania, mufic call; and strike more dead Than common fleep of all these five the fenfe. Queen. Mufic, ho! mufic; fuch as charmeth fleep.

Still Mufic.

Puck. When thou awak'ft, with thine own fool's eyes peep.

Ob. Sound, Mufic; come, my Queen, take hand with me,

And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.
Now thou and I are new in amity;

And will to-morrow midnight folemnly
Dance in Duke Thefeus' houfe triumphantly,
And bless it to all far pofterity:

There fhall these pairs of faithful lovers be

G 4

Wedded,

Wedded, with Thefeus, all in jollity.
Puck. Fairy King, attend and mark ;
I do hear the morning lark.

Ob. Then, my Queen, in filence fad;
Trip we after the night's fhade;
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wand'ring moon.

Queen. Come, my lord, and in our flight
Tell me how it came this night,
That I fleeping here was found,

With thefe mortals on the ground.

[Sleepers lie ftill. [Exeunt.

[Wind horns within.

Enter Thefeus, Egeus, Hippolita, and all his Train.

O one of

find out the forester,

The.Gr For now our obfervation is perform'd,
Ꮐ

And fince we have the vaward of the day,
My love fhall hear the music of my hounds.
Uncouple in the western valley, go,
Difpatch, I fay, and find the forefter.

We will, fair Queen, up to the mountain's top,
And mark the musical confufion

Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

Hip. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Creet they bay'd the bear
With hounds of Sparta; never did I hear
Such gallant chiding. For befides the groves,
*The fkies, the fountains, ev'ry region near
Seem'd all one mutual cry. I never heard
So mufical a difcord, fuch fweet thunder.

Thef. 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;

The skies, the Fountains,]----Tis believed the true Reading is Mountains.

Crook

Crook-knee'd, and dew-lap'd, like Theffalian bulls ;
Slow in purfuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tuneable

Was never hallo'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
In Creet, in Sparta, nor in Theffaly:

Judge, when you hear. But foft, what nymphs are

these?

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

I wonder at their being here together.

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

That Hermia fhould give answer of her choice?
Ege. It is, my lord.

Thef. Go bid the huntsmen wake them with their
horns.

Horns, and fhout within; Demetrius, Lyfander, Hermia, and Helena, wake and start up.

Thef. Good morrow, friends; Saint Valentine is pafl: Begin thefe wood-birds but to couple now? Lyf. Pardon, my lord.

Thef. I pray you all, ftand up:

I know, you two are rival enemies.
How comes this gentle concord in the world,
That hatred is so far from jealousy,

To fleep by hate, and fear no enmity?
Lyf. My lord, I fhall reply amazedly,
Half fleep, half waking. But as yet, I fwear,
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 th' Athenian law.
G 5

Ege.

Ege. Enough, enough; my lord, you have enough; I beg the law, the law upon his head:

They would have ftoll'n away, they would, Demetrius,
Thereby to have defeated you and me;

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
Is melted as the fnow; feems to me now
As the remembance of an idle gaude,
Which in my childhood I did doat 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 betrothed ere I Hermia faw;
But like a fickness did I loath this food;
But, as in health, come to my natural tafte,
Now do I wish it, love it, long for it;
And will for ever more be true to it.

Thef. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
Of this difcourfe we fhall hear more anon.
Egeus, I will over-bear your will;
For in the temple, by and by with us,
These couples fhall eternally be knit ;
And for the morning now is fomething worn,
Our purpos'd hunting fhall be set aside.
Away, with us to Athens; three and three,
We'll hold a feaft in great folemnity.

Come, Hippolita. [Exeunt Duke, Hippolita and Train.
Dem.Thefe things feem fmall and undistinguishable,

Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.

Her. Methinks, I fee these things with parted Eye; When every thing feems double.

Hel. So methinks;

And