A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream

ACT IV SCENE I	The same. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA
	lying asleep.
	Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM; PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH,MUSTARDSEED, and other Fairies attending; OBERONbehind unseen
TITANIA	Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,
	While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,
	And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,	5
	And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.
BOTTOM	Where's Peaseblossom?
PEASEBLOSSOM	Ready.
BOTTOM	Scratch my head Peaseblossom. Where's Mounsieur Cobweb?
COBWEB	Ready.	10
BOTTOM	Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get you your
	weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped
	humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good
	mounsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret
	yourself too much in the action, mounsieur; and,	15
	good mounsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not;
	I would be loath to have you overflown with a
	honey-bag, signior. Where's Mounsieur Mustardseed?
MUSTARDSEED	Ready.
BOTTOM	Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray you,	20
	leave your courtesy, good mounsieur.
MUSTARDSEED	What's your Will?
BOTTOM	Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb
	to scratch. I must to the barber's, monsieur; for
	methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face; and I	25
	am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me,
	I must scratch.
TITANIA	What, wilt thou hear some music,
	my sweet love?
BOTTOM	I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let's have	30
	the tongs and the bones.
TITANIA	Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat.
BOTTOM	Truly, a peck of provender: I could munch your good
	dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle
	of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.	35
TITANIA	I have a venturous fairy that shall seek
	The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.
BOTTOM	I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas.
	But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me: I
	have an exposition of sleep come upon me.	40
TITANIA	Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.
	Fairies, begone, and be all ways away.
	Exeunt fairies
	So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle
	Gently entwist; the female ivy so
	Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.	45
	O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!
	They sleep
	Enter PUCK
OBERON	Advancing
	See'st thou this sweet sight?
	Her dotage now I do begin to pity:
	For, meeting her of late behind the wood,
	Seeking sweet favours from this hateful fool,	50
	I did upbraid her and fall out with her;
	For she his hairy temples then had rounded
	With a coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
	And that same dew, which sometime on the buds
	Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls,	55
	Stood now within the pretty flowerets' 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;	60
	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	65
	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.	70
	But first I will release the fairy queen.
	Be as thou wast wont to be;
	See as thou wast wont to see:
	Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower
	Hath such force and blessed power.	75
	Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.
TITANIA	My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
	Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.
OBERON	There lies your love.
TITANIA	How came these things to pass?	80
	O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!
OBERON	Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head.
	Titania, music call; and strike more dead
	Than common sleep of all these five the sense.
TITANIA	Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep!	85
	Music, still
PUCK	Now, when thou wakest, with thine
	own fool's eyes peep.
OBERON	Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands with me,
	And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.
	Now thou and I are new in amity,	90
	And will to-morrow midnight solemnly
	Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly,
	And bless it to all fair prosperity:
	There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be
	Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.	95
PUCK	Fairy king, attend, and mark:
	I do hear the morning lark.
OBERON	Then, my queen, in silence sad,
	Trip we after the night's shade:
	We the globe can compass soon,	100
	Swifter than the wandering moon.
TITANIA	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.	105
	Exeunt
	Horns winded within
	Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train
THESEUS	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; let them go:	110
	Dispatch, I say, and find the forester.
	Exit an Attendant
	We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,
	And mark the musical confusion
	Of hounds and echo in conjunction.
HIPPOLYTA	I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,	115
	When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear
	With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear
	Such gallant chiding: for, besides the groves,
	The skies, the fountains, every region near
	Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard	120
	So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.
THESEUS	My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
	So flew'd, so sanded, and their heads are hung
	With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
	Crook-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls;	125
	Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
	Each under each. A cry more tuneable
	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?	130
EGEUS	My lord, this is my daughter here asleep;
	And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is;
	This Helena, old Nedar's Helena:
	I wonder of their being here together.
THESEUS	No doubt they rose up early to observe	135
	The rite of May, and hearing our intent,
	Came here in grace our solemnity.
	But speak, Egeus; is not this the day
	That Hermia should give answer of her choice?
EGEUS	It is, my lord.	140
THESEUS	Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.
	Horns and shout within. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS,HELENA, and HERMIA wake and start up
	Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past:
	Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
LYSANDER	Pardon, my lord.
THESEUS	I pray you all, stand up.	145
	I know you two are 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?
LYSANDER	My lord, I shall reply amazedly,	150
	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 do I bethink me, so it is,--
	I came with Hermia hither: our intent	155
	Was to be gone from Athens, where we might,
	Without the peril of the Athenian law.
EGEUS	Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough:
	I beg the law, the law, upon his head.
	They would have stolen away; they would, Demetrius,	160
	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.
DEMETRIUS	My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
	Of this their purpose hither to this wood;	165
	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 some power it is,--my love to Hermia,
	Melted as the snow, seems to me now	170
	As the remembrance of an idle gaud
	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,	175
	Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia:
	But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food;
	But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
	Now I do wish it, love it, long for it,
	And will for evermore be true to it.	180
THESEUS	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:	185
	And, for the morning now is something worn,
	Our purposed hunting shall be set aside.
	Away with us to Athens; three and three,
	We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.
	Come, Hippolyta.	190
	Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train
DEMETRIUS	These things seem small and undistinguishable,
HERMIA	Methinks I see these things with parted eye,
	When every thing seems double.
HELENA	So methinks:
	And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,	195
	Mine own, and not mine own.
DEMETRIUS	Are you sure
	That we are awake? It seems to me
	That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think
	The duke was here, and bid us follow him?	200
HERMIA	Yea; and my father.
HELENA	And Hippolyta.
LYSANDER	And he did bid us follow to the temple.
DEMETRIUS	Why, then, we are awake: let's follow him
	And by the way let us recount our dreams.	205
	Exeunt
BOTTOM	Awaking
	answer: my next is, 'Most fair Pyramus.' Heigh-ho!
	Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout,
	the tinker! Starveling! God's my life, stolen
	hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare
	vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to	210
	say 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 patched fool, if
	he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye	215
	of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not
	seen, man's hand is not able to taste, 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 shall be called Bottom's Dream,	220
	because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the
	latter end of a play, before the duke:
	peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall
	sing it at her death.
	Exit