A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream

ACT III SCENE II	Another part of the wood.
	Enter OBERON
OBERON	I wonder if Titania be awaked;
	Then, what it was that next came in her eye,
	Which she must dote on in extremity.
	Enter PUCK
	Here comes my messenger.	5
	How now, mad spirit!
	What night-rule now about this haunted grove?
PUCK	My mistress with a monster is in love.
	Near to her close and consecrated bower,
	While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,	10
	A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,
	That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,
	Were met together to rehearse a play
	Intended for great Theseus' nuptial-day.
	The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort,	15
	Who Pyramus presented, in their sport
	Forsook his scene and enter'd in a brake
	When I did him at this advantage take,
	An ass's nole I fixed on his head:
	Anon his Thisbe must be answered,	20
	And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy,
	As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,
	Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort,
	Rising and cawing at the gun's report,
	Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky,	25
	So, at his sight, away his fellows fly;
	And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls;
	He murder cries and help from Athens calls.
	Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears
	thus strong,	30
	Made senseless things begin to do them wrong;
	For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch;
	Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all
	things catch.
	I led them on in this distracted fear,	35
	And left sweet Pyramus translated there:
	When in that moment, so it came to pass,
	Titania waked and straightway loved an ass.
OBERON	This falls out better than I could devise.
	But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes	40
	With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?
PUCK	I took him sleeping,--that is finish'd too,--
	And the Athenian woman by his side:
	That, when he waked, of force she must be eyed.
	Enter HERMIA and DEMETRIUS
OBERON	Stand close: this is the same Athenian.	45
PUCK	This is the woman, but not this the man.
DEMETRIUS	O, why rebuke you him that loves you so?
	Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.
HERMIA	Now I but chide; but I should use thee worse,
	For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse,	50
	If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,
	Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep,
	And kill me too.
	The sun was not so true unto the day
	As he to me: would he have stolen away	55
	From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon
	This whole earth may be bored and that the moon
	May through the centre creep and so displease
	Her brother's noontide with Antipodes.
	It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him;	60
	So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim.
DEMETRIUS	So should the murder'd look, and so should I,
	Pierced through the heart with your stern cruelty:
	Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear,
	As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere.	65
HERMIA	What's this to my Lysander? where is he?
	Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me?
DEMETRIUS	I had rather give his carcass to my hounds.
HERMIA	Out, dog! out, cur! thou drivest me past the bounds
	Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him, then?	70
	Henceforth be never number'd among men!
	O, once tell true, tell true, even for my sake!
	Durst thou have look'd upon him being awake,
	And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch!
	Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?	75
	An adder did it; for with doubler tongue
	Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.
DEMETRIUS	You spend your passion on a misprised mood:
	I am not guilty of Lysander's blood;
	Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.	80
HERMIA	I pray thee, tell me then that he is well.
DEMETRIUS	An if I could, what should I get therefore?
HERMIA	A privilege never to see me more.
	And from thy hated presence part I so:
	See me no more, whether he be dead or no.	85
	Exit
DEMETRIUS	There is no following her in this fierce vein:
	Here therefore for a while I will remain.
	So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow
	For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe:
	Which now in some slight measure it will pay,	90
	If for his tender here I make some stay.
	Lies down and sleeps
OBERON	What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite
	And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight:
	Of thy misprision must perforce ensue
	Some true love turn'd and not a false turn'd true.	95
PUCK	Then fate o'er-rules, that, one man holding troth,
	A million fail, confounding oath on oath.
OBERON	About the wood go swifter than the wind,
	And Helena of Athens look thou find:
	All fancy-sick she is and pale of cheer,	100
	With sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear:
	By some illusion see thou bring her here:
	I'll charm his eyes against she do appear.
PUCK	I go, I go; look how I go,
	Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow.	105
	Exit
OBERON	Flower of this purple dye,
	Hit with Cupid's archery,
	Sink in apple of his eye.
	When his love he doth espy,
	Let her shine as gloriously	110
	As the Venus of the sky.
	When thou wakest, if she be by,
	Beg of her for remedy.
	Re-enter PUCK
PUCK	Captain of our fairy band,
	Helena is here at hand;	115
	And the youth, mistook by me,
	Pleading for a lover's fee.
	Shall we their fond pageant see?
	Lord, what fools these mortals be!
OBERON	Stand aside: the noise they make	120
	Will cause Demetrius to awake.
PUCK	Then will two at once woo one;
	That must needs be sport alone;
	And those things do best please me
	That befal preposterously.	125
	Enter LYSANDER and HELENA
LYSANDER	Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?
	Scorn and derision never come in tears:
	Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows so born,
	In their nativity all truth appears.
	How can these things in me seem scorn to you,	130
	Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true?
HELENA	You do advance your cunning more and more.
	When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray!
	These vows are Hermia's: will you give her o'er?
	Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh:	135
	Your vows to her and me, put in two scales,
	Will even weigh, and both as light as tales.
LYSANDER	I had no judgment when to her I swore.
HELENA	Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er.
LYSANDER	Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.	140
DEMETRIUS	Awaking
	To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne?
	Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show
	Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!
	That pure congealed white, high Taurus snow,
	Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow	145
	When thou hold'st up thy hand: O, let me kiss
	This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!
HELENA	O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent
	To set against me for your merriment:
	If you we re civil and knew courtesy,	150
	You would not do me thus much injury.
	Can you not hate me, as I know you do,
	But you must join in souls to mock me too?
	If you were men, as men you are in show,
	You would not use a gentle lady so;	155
	To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts,
	When I am sure you hate me with your hearts.
	You both are rivals, and love Hermia;
	And now both rivals, to mock Helena:
	A trim exploit, a manly enterprise,	160
	To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes
	With your derision! none of noble sort
	Would so offend a virgin, and extort
	A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport.
LYSANDER	You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so;	165
	For you love Hermia; this you know I know:
	And here, with all good will, with all my heart,
	In Hermia's love I yield you up my part;
	And yours of Helena to me bequeath,
	Whom I do love and will do till my death.	170
HELENA	Never did mockers waste more idle breath.
DEMETRIUS	Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none:
	If e'er I loved her, all that love is gone.
	My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd,
	And now to Helen is it home return'd,	175
	There to remain.
LYSANDER	Helen, it is not so.
DEMETRIUS	Disparage not the faith thou dost not know,
	Lest, to thy peril, thou aby it dear.
	Look, where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear.	180
	Re-enter HERMIA
HERMIA	Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,
	The ear more quick of apprehension makes;
	Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense,
	It pays the hearing double recompense.
	Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found;	185
	Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound
	But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?
LYSANDER	Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go?
HERMIA	What love could press Lysander from my side?
LYSANDER	Lysander's love, that would not let him bide,	190
	Fair Helena, who more engilds the night
	Than all you fiery oes and eyes of light.
	Why seek'st thou me? could not this make thee know,
	The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so?
HERMIA	You speak not as you think: it cannot be.	195
HELENA	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 conspired, have you with these contrived	200
	To bait me with this foul derision?
	Is all the counsel that we two have shared,
	The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent,
	When we have chid the hasty-footed time
	For parting us,--O, is it all forgot?	205
	All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence?
	We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,
	Have with our needles created both one flower,
	Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
	Both warbling of one song, both in one key,	210
	As if our hands, our sides, voices and minds,
	Had been incorporate. So we grow together,
	Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
	But yet an union in partition;
	Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;	215
	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?	220
	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.
HERMIA	I am amazed at your passionate words.
	I scorn you not: it seems that you scorn me.	225
HELENA	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,	230
	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?	235
	What thought I be not so in grace as you,
	So hung upon with love, so fortunate,
	But miserable most, to love unloved?
	This you should pity rather than despise.
HERNIA	I understand not what you mean by this.	240
HELENA	Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks,
	Make mouths upon me when I turn my back;
	Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up:
	This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.
	If you have any pity, grace, or manners,	245
	You would not make me such an argument.
	But fare ye well: 'tis partly my own fault;
	Which death or absence soon shall remedy.
LYSANDER	Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse:
	My love, my life my soul, fair Helena!	250
HELENA	O excellent!
HERMIA	Sweet, do not scorn her so.
DEMETRIUS	If she cannot entreat, I can compel.
LYSANDER	Thou canst compel no more than she entreat:
	Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers.	255
	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.
DEMETRIUS	I say I love thee more than he can do.
LYSANDER	If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.	260
DEMETRIUS	Quick, come!
HERMIA	Lysander, whereto tends all this?
LYSANDER	Away, you Ethiope!
DEMETRIUS	No, no; he'll [ ]
	Seem to break loose; take on as you would follow,	265
	But yet come not: you are a tame man, go!
LYSANDER	Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! vile thing, let loose,
	Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent!
HERMIA	Why are you grown so rude? what change is this?
	Sweet love,--	270
LYSANDER	Thy love! out, tawny Tartar, out!
	Out, loathed medicine! hated potion, hence!
HERMIA	Do you not jest?
HELENA	Yes, sooth; and so do you.
LYSANDER	Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee.	275
DEMETRIUS	I would I had your bond, for I perceive
	A weak bond holds you: I'll not trust your word.
LYSANDER	What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead?
	Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so.
HERMIA	What, can you do me greater harm than hate?	280
	Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my love!
	Am not I Hermia? are not you Lysander?
	I am as fair now as I was erewhile.
	Since night you loved me; yet since night you left
	me:	285
	Why, then you left me--O, the gods forbid!--
	In earnest, shall I say?
LYSANDER	Ay, by my life;
	And never did desire to see thee more.
	Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt;	290
	Be certain, nothing truer; 'tis no jest
	That I do hate thee and love Helena.
HERMIA	O me! you juggler! you canker-blossom!
	You thief of love! what, have you come by night
	And stolen my love's heart from him?	295
HELENA	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!	300
HERMIA	Puppet? why so? ay, that way goes the game.
	Now I perceive that she hath made compare
	Between our statures; she hath urged her height;
	And with her personage, her tall personage,
	Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him.	305
	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.	310
HELENA	I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen,
	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:
	Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think,	315
	Because she is something lower than myself,
	That I can match her.
HERMIA	Lower! hark, again.
HELENA	Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.
	I evermore did love you, Hermia,	320
	Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you;
	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 me	325
	To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too:
	And now, so you will let me quiet go,
	To Athens will I bear my folly back
	And follow you no further: let me go:
	You see how simple and how fond I am.	330
HERMIA	Why, get you gone: who is't that hinders you?
HELENA	A foolish heart, that I leave here behind.
HERMIA	What, with Lysander?
HELENA	With Demetrius.
LYSANDER	Be not afraid; she shall not harm thee, Helena.	335
DEMETRIUS	No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.
HELENA	O, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd!
	She was a vixen when she went to school;
	And though she be but little, she is fierce.
HERMIA	'Little' again! nothing but 'low' and 'little'!	340
	Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?
	Let me come to her.
LYSANDER	Get you gone, you dwarf;
	You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made;
	You bead, you acorn.	345
DEMETRIUS	You are too officious
	In her behalf that scorns your services.
	Let her alone: speak not of Helena;
	Take not her part; for, if thou dost intend
	Never so little show of love to her,	350
	Thou shalt aby it.
LYSANDER	Now she holds me not;
	Now follow, if thou darest, to try whose right,
	Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.
DEMETRIUS	Follow! nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jole.	355
	Exeunt LYSANDER and DEMETRIUS
HERMIA	You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you:
	Nay, go not back.
HELENA	I will not trust you, I,
	Nor longer stay in your curst company.
	Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray,	360
	My legs are longer though, to run away.
	Exit
HERMIA	I am amazed, and know not what to say.
	Exit
OBERON	This is thy negligence: still thou mistakest,
	Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully.
PUCK	Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.	365
	Did not you tell me I should know the man
	By the Athenian garment be had on?
	And so far blameless proves my enterprise,
	That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes;
	And so far am I glad it so did sort	370
	As this their jangling I esteem a sport.
OBERON	Thou see'st these lovers seek a place to fight:
	Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night;
	The starry welkin cover thou anon
	With drooping fog as black as Acheron,	375
	And lead these testy rivals so astray
	As one come not within another's way.
	Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,
	Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong;
	And sometime rail thou like Demetrius;	380
	And from each other look thou lead them thus,
	Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep
	With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep:
	Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye;
	Whose liquor hath this virtuous property,	385
	To take from thence all error with his might,
	And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.
	When they next wake, all this derision
	Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision,
	And back to Athens shall the lovers wend,	390
	With league whose date till death shall never end.
	Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,
	I'll to my queen and beg her Indian boy;
	And then I will her charmed eye release
	From monster's view, and all things shall be peace.	395
PUCK	My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,
	For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,
	And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger;
	At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there,
	Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all,	400
	That in crossways and floods have burial,
	Already to their wormy beds are gone;
	For fear lest day should look their shames upon,
	They willfully themselves exile from light
	And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night.	405
OBERON	But we are spirits of another sort:
	I with the morning's love have oft made sport,
	And, like a forester, the groves may tread,
	Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red,
	Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,	410
	Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams.
	But, notwithstanding, haste; make no delay:
	We may effect this business yet ere day.
	Exit
PUCK	Up and down, up and down,
	I will lead them up and down:	415
	I am fear'd in field and town:
	Goblin, lead them up and down.
	Here comes one.
	Re-enter LYSANDER
LYSANDER	Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now.
PUCK	Here, villain; drawn and ready. Where art thou?	420
LYSANDER	I will be with thee straight.
PUCK	Follow me, then,
	To plainer ground.
	Exit LYSANDER, as following the voice
	Re-enter DEMETRIUS
DEMETRIUS	Lysander! speak again:
	Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?	425
	Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?
PUCK	Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars,
	Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars,
	And wilt not come? Come, recreant; come, thou child;
	I'll whip thee with a rod: he is defiled	430
	That draws a sword on thee.
DEMETRIUS	Yea, art thou there?
PUCK	Follow my voice: we'll try no manhood here.
	Exeunt
	Re-enter LYSANDER
LYSANDER	He goes before me and still dares me on:
	When I come where he calls, then he is gone.	435
	The villain is much lighter-heel'd than I:
	I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly;
	That fallen am I in dark uneven way,
	And here will rest me.
	Lies down
	Come, thou gentle day!	440
	For if but once thou show me thy grey light,
	I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite.
	Sleeps
	Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS
PUCK	Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why comest thou not?
DEMETRIUS	Abide me, if thou darest; for well I wot
	Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place,	445
	And darest not stand, nor look me in the face.
	Where art thou now?
PUCK	Come hither: I am here.
DEMETRIUS	Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this dear,
	If ever I thy face by daylight see:	450
	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
	Re-enter HELENA
HELENA	O weary night, O long and tedious night,
	Abate thy hour! Shine comforts from the east,	455
	That I may back to Athens by daylight,
	From these that my poor company detest:
	And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye,
	Steal me awhile from mine own company.
	Lies down and sleeps
PUCK	Yet but three? Come one more;	460
	Two of both kinds make up four.
	Here she comes, curst and sad:
	Cupid is a knavish lad,
	Thus to make poor females mad.
	Re-enter HERMIA
HERMIA	Never so weary, never so in woe,	465
	Bedabbled with the dew and torn with 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!	470
	Lies down and sleeps
PUCK	On the ground
	Sleep sound:
	I'll apply
	To your eye,
	Gentle lover, remedy.	475
	Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER's eyes
	When thou wakest,
	Thou takest
	True delight
	In the sight
	Of thy former lady's eye:	480
	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;	485
	The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.
	Exit