A Midsummer Night's Dream

Please see the bottom of the page for commentary.

ACT I SCENE I	Athens. The palace of THESEUS.
	Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Attendants.
THESEUS	Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
	Draws on apace; four happy days bring in
	Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow
	This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,
	Like to a step-dame or a dowager	5
	Long withering out a young man revenue.
HIPPOLYTA	Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;
	Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
	And then the moon, like to a silver bow
	New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night	10
	Of our solemnities.
THESEUS	Go, Philostrate,
	Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
	Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;
	Turn melancholy forth to funerals;
	The pale companion is not for our pomp.
	Exit PHILOSTRATE.
	Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,
	And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
	But I will wed thee in another key,
	With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.
	Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS.
EGEUS	Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!	20
THESEUS	Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with thee?
EGEUS	Full of vexation come I, with complaint
	Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
	Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,
	This man hath my consent to marry her.
	Stand forth, Lysander: and my gracious duke,
	This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child;
	Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
	And interchanged love-tokens with my child:
	Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,	30
	With feigning voice verses of feigning love,
	And stolen the impression of her fantasy
	With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
	Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers
	Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth:
	With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart,
	Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,
	To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke,
	Be it so she; will not here before your grace
	Consent to marry with Demetrius,	40
	I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,
	As she is mine, I may dispose of her:
	Which shall be either to this gentleman
	Or to her death, according to our law
	Immediately provided in that case.
THESEUS	What say you, Hermia? be advised fair maid:
	To you your father should be as a god;
	One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
	To whom you are but as a form in wax
	By him imprinted and within his power	50
	To leave the figure or disfigure it.
	Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
HERMIA	So is Lysander.
THESEUS	In himself he is;
	But in this kind, wanting your father's voice,
	The other must be held the worthier.
HERMIA	I would my father look'd but with my eyes.
THESEUS	Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.
HERMIA	I do entreat your grace to pardon me.
	I know not by what power I am made bold,
	Nor how it may concern my modesty,	60
	In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
	But I beseech your grace that I may know
	The worst that may befall me in this case,
	If I refuse to wed Demetrius.
THESEUS	Either to die the death or to abjure
	For ever the society of men.
	Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires;
	Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
	Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
	You can endure the livery of a nun,	70
	For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd,
	To live a barren sister all your life,
	Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
	Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood,
	To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
	But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,
	Than that which withering on the virgin thorn
	Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness.
HERMIA	So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
	Ere I will my virgin patent up	80
	Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke
	My soul consents not to give sovereignty.
THESEUS	Take time to pause; and, by the nest new moon--
	The sealing-day betwixt my love and me,
	For everlasting bond of fellowship--
	Upon that day either prepare to die
	For disobedience to your father's will,
	Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would;
	Or on Diana's altar to protest
	For aye austerity and single life.	90
DEMETRIUS	Relent, sweet Hermia: and, Lysander, yield
	Thy crazed title to my certain right.
LYSANDER	You have her father's love, Demetrius;
	Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him.
EGEUS	Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love,
	And what is mine my love shall render him.
	And she is mine, and all my right of her
	I do estate unto Demetrius.
LYSANDER	I am, my lord, as well derived as he,
	As well possess'd; my love is more than his;	100
	My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,
	If not with vantage, as Demetrius';
	And, which is more than all these boasts can be,
	I am beloved of beauteous Hermia:
	Why should not I then prosecute my right?
	Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,
	Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,
	And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
	Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
	Upon this spotted and inconstant man.	110
THESEUS	I must confess that I have heard so much,
	And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof;
	But, being over-full of self-affairs,
	My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come;
	And come, Egeus; you shall go with me,
	I have some private schooling for you both.
	For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself
	To fit your fancies to your father's will;
	Or else the law of Athens yields you up--
	Which by no means we may extenuate--	120
	To death, or to a vow of single life.
	Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love?
	Demetrius and Egeus, go along:
	I must employ you in some business
	Against our nuptial and confer with you
	Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.
EGEUS	With duty and desire we follow you.
	Exeunt all but LYSANDER and HERMIA
LYSANDER	How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale?
	How chance the roses there do fade so fast?
HERMIA	Belike for want of rain, which I could well	130
	Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.
LYSANDER	Ay me! for aught that I could ever read,
	Could ever hear by tale or history,
	The course of true love never did run smooth;
	But, either it was different in blood,--
HERMIA	O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low.
LYSANDER	Or else misgraffed in respect of years,--
HERMIA	O spite! too old to be engaged to young.
LYSANDER	Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,--
HERMIA	O hell! to choose love by another's eyes!	140
LYSANDER	Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
	War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
	Making it momentany as a sound,
	Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;
	Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
	That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
	And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!'
	The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
	So quick bright things come to confusion.
HERMIA	If then true lovers have been ever cross'd,	150
	It stands as an edict in destiny:
	Then let us teach our trial patience,
	Because it is a customary cross,
	As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,
	Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers.
LYSANDER	A good persuasion: therefore, hear me, Hermia.
	I have a widow aunt, a dowager
	Of great revenue, and she hath no child:
	From Athens is her house remov'd seven leagues;
	And she respects me as her only son.	160
	There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;
	And to that place the sharp Athenian law
	Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,
	Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night;
	And in the wood, a league without the town,
	Where I did meet thee once with Helena,
	To do observance to a morn of May,
	There will I stay for thee.
HERMIA	My good Lysander!
	I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow,
	By his best arrow with the golden head,	170
	By the simplicity of Venus' doves,
	By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,
	And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen,
	When the false Troyan under sail was seen,
	By all the vows that ever men have broke,
	In number more than ever women spoke,
	In that same place thou hast appointed me,
	To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.
LYSANDER	Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.
	Enter HELENA.
HERMIA	God speed fair Helena! whither away?
HELENA	Call you me fair? that fair again unsay.
	Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!	182
	Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's sweet air
	More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,
	When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
	Sickness is catching: O, were favour so,
	Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;
	My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,
	My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.
	Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,	190
	The rest I'd give to be to you translated.
	O, teach me how you look, and with what art
	You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.
HERMIA	I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.
HELENA	O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!
HERMIA	I give him curses, yet he gives me love.
HELENA	O that my prayers could such affection move!
HERMIA	The more I hate, the more he follows me.
HELENA	The more I love, the more he hateth me.
HERMIA	His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.	200
HELENA	None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine!
HERMIA	Take comfort: he no more shall see my face;
	Lysander and myself will fly this place.
	Before the time I did Lysander see,
	Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me:
	O, then, what graces in my love do dwell,
	That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell!
LYSANDER	Helen, to you our minds we will unfold:
	To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold
	Her silver visage in the watery glass,	210
	Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,
	A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,
	Through Athens' gates have we devised to steal.
HERMIA	And in the wood, where often you and I
	Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,
	Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,
	There my Lysander and myself shall meet;
	And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,
	To seek new friends and stranger companies.
	Farewell, sweet playfellow: pray thou for us;	220
	And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!
	Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight
	From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.
LYSANDER	I will, my Hermia.
	Exit HERMIA.
	Helena, adieu:
	As you on him, Demetrius dote on you!
	Exit
HELENA	How happy some o'er other some can be!
	Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
	But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
	He will not know what all but he do know:
	And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,	230
	So I, admiring of his qualities:
	Things base and vile, folding no quantity,
	Love can transpose to form and dignity:
	Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
	And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:
	Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;
	Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:
	And therefore is Love said to be a child,
	Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
	As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,	240
	So the boy Love is perjured every where:
	For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,
	He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;
	And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
	So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.
	I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:
	Then to the wood will he to-morrow night
	Pursue her; and for this intelligence
	If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:
	But herein mean I to enrich my pain,	250
	To have his sight thither and back again.
	Exit

Next: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 1, Scene 2

_________

Explanatory Notes for Act 1, Scene 1

From Shakespeare's Comedy of A Midsummer-Night's Dream. Ed. Katharine Lee Bates. Boston: Leach, Shewell, & Sanborn.

Athens. Why did Shakespeare lay the scene of a fairy play at Athens?

Theseus. What is the classic story of Theseus? How does his opening speech strike the keynote of the drama? What word does he use that is to recur again and again? What word also prophetic of the play is found in the first speech of Hippolyta?

7. Q1 has night. Which is better?

8. Q2 has Foure daies. Which is right?

10. Rowe proposed the reading New bent, — to which Dyce contributed a hyphen, — for the Now bent of the original texts. Search out the various references to moonlight through the play ("find out moonshine, find out moonshine"), and, by comparison of these, determine whether the moon was crescent or full, "now bent" or presently to be "new-bent," at this opening of the action.

27. Original texts read bewitch'd (F.) or bewitcht (Qq). To give smoothness to the verse, some editors have written witch'd; and others have omitted man. If the reading of the first folio be retained, hath in pronunciation should be reduced to 'th.

47-51. How pleasing would these sentiments naturally be to the Queen of the Amazons?

53. What characteristic of Hermia appears in this reply?

53-55. What characteristic of Theseus is made evident here? Paraphrase his answer.

56-67. Is this playful, or half-playful, or fully serious?

58-64. What characteristics of Hermia are manifest in this address? Does she stand or kneel?

84-85. What letter does much toward making these verses so musical? What is the figure? What is the beauty of thought and feeling?

86-90. Is Theseus in earnest? What word in the passage is out of harmony with the conception of a mediaeval nun? What is the finest word in poetic effect?

132. F. gives a defective verse, —

"For ought that ever I could reade."

136. Original texts read love, where Theobald, followed by the long line of editors, substituted low. Defend this emendation. Cf. :-

"Sorrow on love hereafter shall attend:
It shall be waited on with jealousy,
Find sweet beginning, but unsavoury end,
Ne'er settled equally, but high or low.
That all love's pleasure shall not match his woe."
Venus and Adonus, 1136-1140.

143. The quartos have momentany, apparently an earlier form of the word. "Momentany and momentary were each indifferently used in Shakespeare's time. We prefer the reading of the Folio, because momentary occurs in four other passages of our poet's dramas; and this is a solitary example of the use of momentany, and that only in the Quartos. The reading of the Folio is invariably momentary.'" — Knight.

159. Qq read remote. Which is better?

159-160. Johnson and other editors transpose these lines. Why? On what grounds may the original reading be defended?

167. The quarto reading is here retained. Ff. have for a morne. Compare Chaucer, "Knightes Tale," line 1500, —

"And for to doon his observance to May."

187. Original texts have Your words I catch. Hanmer amended to Yours would I catch, — a reading reluctantly adopted here. Yet compare Knight, — "It is in the repetition of the word fair that Helena catches the words of Hermia; but she would also catch her voice, her intonation, and her expression as well as her words."

188. Lettsom proposed as emendation:—

"My hair should catch your hair."

"My fair should catch your fair."

200. The reading of the first quarto, preferred here to the folio reading, —

"His folly Helena is none of mine."

207. Again the reading of the first quarto in place of the folio reading into hell. Why is the quarto phrase preferred?

216. Original texts have sweld. Theobald's emendation.

219. Original texts have strange companions. This emendation, too, is due to Theobald.

225. Folio reading is dotes. How is the quarto reading, given in the present text, better?

229. Folio reads doth in place of the quarto reading do.

239. Quarto reading, he is so oft begail'd, preferred to folio reading, he is often beguil'd. Why?

How to cite the explanatory notes:

Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare's Comedy of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Ed. Katharine Lee Bates. Boston: Leach, Shewell, & Sanborn, 1895. Shakespeare Online. 20 Dec. 2009. (date when you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/mids_1_1.html >.

Related Articles

 A True Gentleman: Examining Shakespeare's Theseus
 Shakespeare's Fairies: The Triumph of Dramatic Art
 A Midsummer Night's Dream: Plot Summary
 Shakespeare's Language
 Shakespeare's Metaphors and Similes
 Shakespeare's Reputation in Elizabethan England
 Shakespeare's Impact on Other Writers
 Why Study Shakespeare?

 Quotations About William Shakespeare
 Shakespeare's Boss