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

Dem. It seems to me,

That yet we fleep, we dream.

Do not you think,

The Duke was here, and bid us follow him?

Her. Yea, and my father.

Hel. And Hippolita.

Lys. And he did bid us follow to the temple. Dem. Why then, we are awake; let's follow him; And, by the way, let us recount our dreams. Exeunt.

Bot.

WHE

HEN my cue comes, call me, and I will anfwer. My next is, Moft fair Pyramus hey, ho,-Peter Quince, Flute the bellows-mender! Snowt the tinker! Sterveling! god's my life! ftoll'n hence, and left me afleep? I have had a most rare vifion. I had a dream, past the wit of man to fay 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, and methought I had,-But man is but a patch'd fool, if he will offer to fay what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not

*And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,

Mine own, and not mine own.] Hermia had obferved that Things appeared double to her. Helena replies, fo methinks; and then fubjoins, that Demetrius was like a Jewel, her own and not her own. He is here, then, compared to fomething which had the Property of appearing to be one Thing when it was another. Not the Property fure of a Jewel: Or, if you will, of none but a falfe one: Therefore we should read,

And I have found Demetrius like a Gemell,

Mine own, and not mine own. n.] --- From Gemellus a Twin. For Demetrius had that Night acted two fuch different Parts, that she could hardly think them both played by one and the fame Demetrius; but that there were Twin Demetrius's like the two Socia's in the Farce.

feen; man's hand is not able to tafte, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream; it fhall be call'd Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom; and I will fing it in the latter end of a play before the Duke; peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I fhall fing it * after death.

Enter Quince, Flute, Snowt, and Sterveling.
AVE you fent to Bottom's house? is he

Quin. H come home yet?

Star. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt, he is tranfported.

Flu. If he come not, then the play is marr`d. It goes not forward, doth it?

Quin. It is not poffible; you have not a man, in all Athens, able to discharge Pyramus, but he.

Flu. No, he hath fimply the beft wit of any handycraft man in Athens.

Quin. Yea, and the best perfon too; and he is a very paramour for a sweet voice.

Flu. You must fay, paragon; a paramour is (God blefs us!) a thing of naught.

--

I fhall fing it at her death.] At her Death? At whofe? In all Bottom's Speech there is not the leaft Mention of any She-creature, to whom this Relative can be coupled: Therefore it cannot be fcrupled, but Bottom, for the Sake of a Jeft, and to render his Voluntary, as we may call it, the more gracious and extraordinary, faid; I fhall fing it after Death. He, as Pyramus, is killed upon the Scene; and so might promise to rise again at the Conclufion of the Interlude, and give the Duke his Dream by way of Song. ---The Source of the Corruption of the Text is very obvious. ---The ƒ in after · being funk by the vulgar Pronunciation, the Copyift might write it from the Sound--a'ter: which fome Editors not understanding, concluded, two Words were erroneously got together; fo, splitting them, and clapping in an h, produced this Reading, at her.

-

Enter

Enter Snug.

Snug. Mafters, the Duke is coming from the temple, and there is two or three lords and ladies more married; if our fport had gone forward, we had all been made men.

Flu. O fweet bully Bottom! thus hath he loft fixpence a-day during his life; he could not have 'scap'd fix-pence a-day; an the Duke had not given him fix-pence a-day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hang'd: he would have deferv'd it. Six-pence a-day, in Pyramus, or nothing.

Enter Bottom.

Bot. Where are thefe lads? where are these hearts?
Quin. Bottom!- -O most courageous day! O moft

happy hour!

Bot. Mafters, I am to difcourfe wonders, but ask me not what; for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I will tell you every thing as it fell out.

Quin. Let us hear, fweet Bottom.

Bot. Not a word of me; all I will tell you is, that the Duke hath dined. Get your apparel together, good frings to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the palace, every man look o'er his part; for the fhort and the long is, our play is preferr'd: in any cafe, let Thisby have clean linen; and let not him, that plays the lion, pare his nails, for thy fhall hang out for the lion's claws; and, moft dear actors! eat no onions, nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I do not doubt to hear them fay, it is a moft fweet comedy. No more words; away; go away.

Exeunt.

ACT

ACT V. SCENE I.

The PALACE.

Enter Thefeus, Hippolita, Egeus, and his Lords.

HIPPOLIT A.

"TIS frange, my Thefeus, what these lovers speak of. Thef. More ftrange than true. I never may

believe

These antic fables, nor these fairy toys;
Lovers and madmen have fuch feething brains,
Such fhaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reafon ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,
Are of imagination all compact:

One fees more devils than vast hell can hold;

The madman. While the lover, all as frantic,

Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt.
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rowling,

Doth glance from heav'n to earth, from earth to heav'n;

And, as imagination bodies forth.

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shape, and gives to aiery nothing
A local habitation and a name.

Such tricks hath ftrong imagination,

That if it would but apprehend fome joy,
It comprehends fome bringer of that joy;
Or in the night imagining fome fear,
How easy is a bush suppos'd a bear?

Hip. But all the ftory of the night told over,
And all their minds transfigur'd fo together,
More witneffeth than fancy's images,
And grows to fomething of great conftancy;
But, howfoever, ftrange and admirable.

Enter

Enter Lyfander, Demetrius, Hermia and Helena. Thef. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth. Joy, gentle friends; joy and fresh days of love Accompany your hearts.

Lyf. More than to us,

Wait on your royal walks, your board, your bed. Thef. Come now, what masks, what dances fhall we have,

To wear away this long age of three hours,
Between our after-fupper and bed-time?
Where is our usual manager of mirth?
What revels are in hand? is there no play,
To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
Call Philoftrate.

Enter Philoftrate.

Philoft. Here, mighty Thefeus.

Thef. Say, what abridgment have you for this evening?

What mafque? what mufic? how shall we beguile The lazy time, if not with some delight?

Philoft. There is a brief, how many fports are ripe: Make choice of which your Highness will see first. [Giving a Paper.

Thef. reads.] The battle with the Centaurs, to be fung By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.

We'll none of that That I have told my love,
In glory of my kinsman Hercules.
The riot of the tipfy Bacchanals,

Tearing the Thracian finger in their rage.
That is an old device; and it was plaid,
When I from Thebes came laft a conqueror.
The thrice three Mufes mourning for the death ·
Of learning, late deceas'd in beggary.
That is fome fatyr, keen and critical;
Not forting with a nuptial ceremony.
A tedious brief fcene of young Pyramus,

And