LYSANDER.He goes before me, and still dares me on;When I come where he calls, then he is gone.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. Come, thou gentle day![_Lies down._] For if but once thou show me thy grey light,I’ll find Demetrius, and revenge this spite.
[_Sleeps._]
Enter Puck and Demetrius.
PUCK.Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why com’st thou not?
DEMETRIUS.Abide me, if thou dar’st; for well I wotThou runn’st before me, shifting every place,And dar’st not stand, nor look me in the face.Where art thou?
PUCK.Come hither; I am here.
DEMETRIUS.Nay, then, thou mock’st me. Thou shalt buy this dearIf ever I thy face by daylight see:Now go thy way. Faintness constraineth meTo measure out my length on this cold bed.By day’s approach look to be visited.
[_Lies down and sleeps._]
Enter Helena.
HELENA.O weary night, O long and tedious night,Abate thy hours! Shine, comforts, from the east,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.
[_Sleeps._]
PUCK.Yet but three? Come one more.Two of both kinds makes up four.Here she comes, curst and sad.Cupid is a knavish ladThus to make poor females mad.
Enter Hermia.
HERMIA.Never so weary, never so in woe,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!
[_Lies down._]
PUCK.On the groundSleep sound.I’ll applyTo your eye,Gentle lover, remedy.
[_Squeezing the juice on Lysander’s eye._]
When thou wak’st,Thou tak’stTrue delightIn the sightOf thy former lady’s eye.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;The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.
[_Exit Puck._]
ACT IV
SCENE I. The Wood
Lysander, Demetrius, Helena and Hermia still asleep.
Enter Titania and Bottom; Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, Mustardseed andother Fairies attending; Oberon behind, 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,And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.
BOTTOM.Where’s Peaseblossom?
PEASEBLOSSOM.Ready.
BOTTOM.Scratch my head, Peaseblossom. Where’s Monsieur Cobweb?
COBWEB.Ready.
BOTTOM.Monsieur Cobweb; good monsieur, get you your weapons in your hand andkill me a red-hipped humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, goodmonsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret yourself too much in theaction, monsieur; and, good monsieur, have a care the honey-bag breaknot; I would be loath to have you overflown with a honey-bag, signior.Where’s Monsieur Mustardseed?
MUSTARDSEED.Ready.
BOTTOM.Give me your neaf, Monsieur Mustardseed. Pray you, leave your courtesy,good monsieur.
MUSTARDSEED.What’s your will?
BOTTOM.Nothing, good monsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb to scratch. I mustto the barber’s, monsieur, for methinks I am marvellous hairy about theface; and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I mustscratch.
TITANIA.What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love?
BOTTOM.I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let us have the tongs and thebones.
TITANIA.Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat.
BOTTOM.Truly, a peck of provender; I could munch your good dry oats. MethinksI have a great desire to a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath nofellow.
TITANIA.I have a venturous fairy that shall seekThe squirrel’s hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.
BOTTOM.I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas. But, I pray you, letnone of your people stir me; I have an exposition of sleep come uponme.
TITANIA.Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckleGently entwist, the female ivy soEnrings the barky fingers of the elm.O, how I love thee! How I dote on thee!
[_They sleep._]
Oberon advances. Enter Puck.
OBERON.Welcome, good Robin. Seest thou this sweet sight?Her dotage now I do begin to pity.For, meeting her of late behind the wood,Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool,I did upbraid her and fall out with her:For she his hairy temples then had roundedWith coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;And that same dew, which sometime on the budsWas wont to swell like round and orient pearls,Stood now within the pretty flouriets’ 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;Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sentTo bear him to my bower in fairyland.And now I have the boy, I will undoThis hateful imperfection of her eyes.And, gentle Puck, take this transformèd scalpFrom 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 accidentsBut as the fierce vexation of a dream.But first I will release the Fairy Queen.
[_Touching her eyes with an herb._]
Be as thou wast wont to be;See as thou was wont to see.Dian’s bud o’er Cupid’s flowerHath such force and blessed power.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?O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!
OBERON.Silence awhile.—Robin, take off this head.Titania, music call; and strike more deadThan common sleep, of all these five the sense.
TITANIA.Music, ho, music, such as charmeth sleep.
PUCK.Now when thou wak’st, with thine own fool’s eyes peep.
OBERON.Sound, music.
[_Still music._]
Come, my queen, take hands with me,And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.Now thou and I are new in amity,And will tomorrow midnight solemnlyDance in Duke Theseus’ house triumphantly,And bless it to all fair prosperity:There shall the pairs of faithful lovers beWedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.
PUCK.Fairy king, attend and mark.I do hear the morning lark.
OBERON.Then, my queen, in silence sad,Trip we after night’s shade.We the globe can compass soon,Swifter than the wand’ring moon.
TITANIA.Come, my lord, and in our flight,Tell me how it came this nightThat I sleeping here was foundWith these mortals on the ground.
[_Exeunt. Horns sound 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.Dispatch I say, and find the forester.
[_Exit an Attendant._]
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain’s top,And mark the musical confusionOf hounds and echo in conjunction.
HIPPOLYTA.I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,When in a wood of Crete they bay’d the bearWith hounds of Sparta. Never did I hearSuch gallant chiding; for, besides the groves,The skies, the fountains, every region nearSeem’d all one mutual cry. I never heardSo 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 hungWith ears that sweep away the morning dew;Crook-knee’d and dewlap’d like Thessalian bulls;Slow in pursuit, but match’d in mouth like bells,Each under each. A cry more tuneableWas 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?
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 observeThe rite of May; and, hearing our intent,Came here in grace of our solemnity.But speak, Egeus; is not this the dayThat Hermia should give answer of her choice?
EGEUS.It is, my lord.
THESEUS.Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.
Horns, and shout within. Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia and Helena wakeand start up.
Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past.Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
LYSANDER.Pardon, my lord.
He and the rest kneel to Theseus.
THESEUS.I pray you all, stand up.I know you two are rival enemies.How comes this gentle concord in the world,That hatred is so far from jealousyTo sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?
LYSANDER.My lord, I shall reply amazedly,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 I do bethink me, so it is:I came with Hermia hither. Our intentWas to be gone from Athens, where we might beWithout 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 stol’n away, they would, Demetrius,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;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 nowAs the remembrance of an idle gaudWhich 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,Was I betroth’d ere I saw Hermia.But like a 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.
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.And, for the morning now is something worn,Our purpos’d hunting shall be set aside.Away with us to Athens. Three and three,We’ll hold a feast in great solemnity.Come, Hippolyta.
[_Exeunt Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus and Train._]
DEMETRIUS.These things seem small and undistinguishable,Like far-off mountains turnèd into clouds.
HERMIA.Methinks I see these things with parted eye,When everything seems double.
HELENA.So methinks.And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,Mine own, and not mine own.
DEMETRIUS.Are you sureThat we are awake? It seems to meThat yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you thinkThe Duke was here, and bid us follow him?
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.
[_Exeunt._]
BOTTOM.[_Waking._] When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer. My next is‘Most fair Pyramus.’ Heigh-ho! Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender!Snout, the tinker! Starveling! God’s my life! Stol’n hence, and left measleep! I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the witof man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about toexpound 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 ifhe will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath notheard, 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. Iwill get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream: it shall becalled ‘Bottom’s Dream’, because it hath no bottom; and I will sing itin the latter end of a play, before the Duke. Peradventure, to make itthe more gracious, I shall sing it at her death.
[_Exit._]
SCENE II. Athens. A Room in Quince’s House
Enter Quince, Flute, Snout and Starveling.
QUINCE.Have you sent to Bottom’s house? Is he come home yet?
STARVELING.He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is transported.
FLUTE.If he come not, then the play is marred. It goes not forward, doth it?
QUINCE.It is not possible. You have not a man in all Athens able to dischargePyramus but he.
FLUTE.No, he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft man in Athens.
QUINCE.Yea, and the best person too, and he is a very paramour for a sweetvoice.
FLUTE.You must say paragon. A paramour is, God bless us, a thing of naught.
Enter Snug.
SNUGMasters, the Duke is coming from the temple, and there is two or threelords and ladies more married. If our sport had gone forward, we hadall been made men.
FLUTE.O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a day during his life;he could not have ’scaped sixpence a day. An the Duke had not given himsixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I’ll be hanged. He would havedeserved it: sixpence a day in Pyramus, or nothing.
Enter Bottom.
BOTTOM.Where are these lads? Where are these hearts?
QUINCE.Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour!
BOTTOM.Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask me not what; for if I tellyou, I am not true Athenian. I will tell you everything, right as itfell out.
QUINCE.Let us hear, sweet Bottom.
BOTTOM.Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that the Duke hathdined. Get your apparel together, good strings to your beards, newribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the palace; every man looko’er his part. For the short and the long is, our play is preferred. Inany case, let Thisbe have clean linen; and let not him that plays thelion pare his nails, for they shall hang out for the lion’s claws. Andmost dear actors, eat no onions nor garlick, for we are to utter sweetbreath; and I do not doubt but to hear them say it is a sweet comedy.No more words. Away! Go, away!
[_Exeunt._]
ACT V
SCENE I. Athens. An Apartment in the Palace of Theseus
Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate, Lords and Attendants.
HIPPOLYTA.’Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of.
THESEUS.More strange than true. I never may believeThese antique fables, nor these fairy toys.Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,Such shaping fantasies, that apprehendMore than cool reason ever comprehends.The lunatic, the lover, and the poetAre of imagination all compact:One sees more devils than vast hell can hold;That is the madman: the lover, all as frantic,Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt:The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;And as imagination bodies forthThe forms of things unknown, the poet’s penTurns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothingA local habitation and a name.Such tricks hath strong imagination,That if it would but apprehend some joy,It comprehends some bringer of that joy.Or in the night, imagining some fear,How easy is a bush supposed a bear?
HIPPOLYTA.But all the story of the night told over,And all their minds transfigur’d so together,More witnesseth than fancy’s images,And grows to something of great constancy;But, howsoever, strange and admirable.
Enter lovers: Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia and Helena.
THESEUS.Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.Joy, gentle friends, joy and fresh days of loveAccompany your hearts!
LYSANDER.More than to usWait in your royal walks, your board, your bed!
THESEUS.Come now; what masques, what dances shall we have,To wear away this long age of three hoursBetween our after-supper and bed-time?Where is our usual manager of mirth?What revels are in hand? Is there no playTo ease the anguish of a torturing hour?Call Philostrate.
PHILOSTRATE.Here, mighty Theseus.
THESEUS.Say, what abridgment have you for this evening?What masque? What music? How shall we beguileThe lazy time, if not with some delight?
PHILOSTRATE.There is a brief how many sports are ripe.Make choice of which your Highness will see first.
[_Giving a paper._]
THESEUS.[_Reads_] ‘The battle with the Centaurs, to be sungBy an Athenian eunuch to the harp.’We’ll none of that. That have I told my loveIn glory of my kinsman Hercules.‘The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage?’That is an old device, and it was play’dWhen I from Thebes came last a conqueror.‘The thrice three Muses mourning for the deathOf learning, late deceas’d in beggary.’That is some satire, keen and critical,Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.‘A tedious brief scene of young PyramusAnd his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.’Merry and tragical? Tedious and brief?That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow.How shall we find the concord of this discord?
PHILOSTRATE.A play there is, my lord, some ten words long,Which is as brief as I have known a play;But by ten words, my lord, it is too long,Which makes it tedious. For in all the playThere is not one word apt, one player fitted.And tragical, my noble lord, it is.For Pyramus therein doth kill himself,Which, when I saw rehears’d, I must confess,Made mine eyes water; but more merry tearsThe passion of loud laughter never shed.
THESEUS.What are they that do play it?
PHILOSTRATE.Hard-handed men that work in Athens here,Which never labour’d in their minds till now;And now have toil’d their unbreath’d memoriesWith this same play against your nuptial.
THESEUS.And we will hear it.
PHILOSTRATE.No, my noble lord,It is not for you: I have heard it over,And it is nothing, nothing in the world;Unless you can find sport in their intents,Extremely stretch’d and conn’d with cruel painTo do you service.
THESEUS.I will hear that play;For never anything can be amissWhen simpleness and duty tender it.Go, bring them in: and take your places, ladies.
[_Exit Philostrate._]
HIPPOLYTA.I love not to see wretchedness o’ercharged,And duty in his service perishing.
THESEUS.Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing.
HIPPOLYTA.He says they can do nothing in this kind.
THESEUS.The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.Our sport shall be to take what they mistake:And what poor duty cannot do, noble respectTakes it in might, not merit.Where I have come, great clerks have purposedTo greet me with premeditated welcomes;Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,Make periods in the midst of sentences,Throttle their practis’d accent in their fears,And, in conclusion, dumbly have broke off,Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,Out of this silence yet I pick’d a welcome;And in the modesty of fearful dutyI read as much as from the rattling tongueOf saucy and audacious eloquence.Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicityIn least speak most to my capacity.
Enter Philostrate.
PHILOSTRATE.So please your grace, the Prologue is address’d.
THESEUS.Let him approach.
Flourish of trumpets. Enter the Prologue.
PROLOGUEIf we offend, it is with our good will.That you should think, we come not to offend,But with good will. To show our simple skill,That is the true beginning of our end.Consider then, we come but in despite.We do not come, as minding to content you,Our true intent is. All for your delightWe are not here. That you should here repent you,The actors are at hand, and, by their show,You shall know all that you are like to know.
THESEUS.This fellow doth not stand upon points.
LYSANDER.He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows not the stop. Agood moral, my lord: it is not enough to speak, but to speak true.
HIPPOLYTA.Indeed he hath played on this prologue like a child on a recorder; asound, but not in government.
THESEUS.His speech was like a tangled chain; nothing impaired, but alldisordered. Who is next?
Enter Pyramus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine and Lion as in dumb show.
PROLOGUEGentles, perchance you wonder at this show;But wonder on, till truth make all things plain.This man is Pyramus, if you would know;This beauteous lady Thisbe is certain.This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth presentWall, that vile wall which did these lovers sunder;And through Wall’s chink, poor souls, they are contentTo whisper, at the which let no man wonder.This man, with lantern, dog, and bush of thorn,Presenteth Moonshine, for, if you will know,By moonshine did these lovers think no scornTo meet at Ninus’ tomb, there, there to woo.This grisly beast (which Lion hight by name)The trusty Thisbe, coming first by night,Did scare away, or rather did affright;And as she fled, her mantle she did fall;Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain.Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth, and tall,And finds his trusty Thisbe’s mantle slain;Whereat with blade, with bloody blameful blade,He bravely broach’d his boiling bloody breast;And Thisbe, tarrying in mulberry shade,His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain,At large discourse while here they do remain.
[_Exeunt Prologue, Pyramus, Thisbe, Lion and Moonshine._]
THESEUS.I wonder if the lion be to speak.
DEMETRIUS.No wonder, my lord. One lion may, when many asses do.
WALL.In this same interlude it doth befallThat I, one Snout by name, present a wall:And such a wall as I would have you thinkThat had in it a crannied hole or chink,Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe,Did whisper often very secretly.This loam, this rough-cast, and this stone, doth showThat I am that same wall; the truth is so:And this the cranny is, right and sinister,Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.
THESEUS.Would you desire lime and hair to speak better?
DEMETRIUS.It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard discourse, my lord.
THESEUS.Pyramus draws near the wall; silence.
Enter Pyramus.
PYRAMUS.O grim-look’d night! O night with hue so black!O night, which ever art when day is not!O night, O night, alack, alack, alack,I fear my Thisbe’s promise is forgot!And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,That stand’st between her father’s ground and mine;Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne.
[_Wall holds up his fingers._]
Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this!But what see I? No Thisbe do I see.O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss,Curs’d be thy stones for thus deceiving me!
THESEUS.The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again.
PYRAMUS.No, in truth, sir, he should not. ‘Deceiving me’ is Thisbe’s cue: sheis to enter now, and I am to spy her through the wall. You shall see itwill fall pat as I told you. Yonder she comes.
Enter Thisbe.
THISBE.O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans,For parting my fair Pyramus and me.My cherry lips have often kiss’d thy stones,Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.
PYRAMUS.I see a voice; now will I to the chink,To spy an I can hear my Thisbe’s face.Thisbe?
THISBE.My love thou art, my love I think.
PYRAMUS.Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover’s grace;And like Limander am I trusty still.
THISBE.And I like Helen, till the fates me kill.
PYRAMUS.Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.
THISBE.As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.
PYRAMUS.O kiss me through the hole of this vile wall.
THISBE.I kiss the wall’s hole, not your lips at all.
PYRAMUS.Wilt thou at Ninny’s tomb meet me straightway?
THISBE.’Tide life, ’tide death, I come without delay.
WALL.Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so;And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.
[_Exeunt Wall, Pyramus and Thisbe._]
THESEUS.Now is the mural down between the two neighbours.
DEMETRIUS.No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear without warning.
HIPPOLYTA.This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.
THESEUS.The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst are no worse, ifimagination amend them.
HIPPOLYTA.It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.
THESEUS.If we imagine no worse of them than they of themselves, they may passfor excellent men. Here come two noble beasts in, a man and a lion.
Enter Lion and Moonshine.
LION.You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fearThe smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,May now, perchance, both quake and tremble here,When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, amA lion fell, nor else no lion’s dam;For if I should as lion come in strifeInto this place, ’twere pity on my life.
THESEUS.A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience.
DEMETRIUS.The very best at a beast, my lord, that e’er I saw.
LYSANDER.This lion is a very fox for his valour.
THESEUS.True; and a goose for his discretion.
DEMETRIUS.Not so, my lord, for his valour cannot carry his discretion, and thefox carries the goose.
THESEUS.His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valour; for the goosecarries not the fox. It is well; leave it to his discretion, and let uslisten to the moon.
MOONSHINE.This lanthorn doth the hornèd moon present.
DEMETRIUS.He should have worn the horns on his head.
THESEUS.He is no crescent, and his horns are invisible within thecircumference.
MOONSHINE.This lanthorn doth the hornèd moon present;Myself the man i’ the moon do seem to be.
THESEUS.This is the greatest error of all the rest; the man should be put intothe lantern. How is it else the man i’ the moon?
DEMETRIUS.He dares not come there for the candle, for you see, it is already insnuff.
HIPPOLYTA.I am aweary of this moon. Would he would change!
THESEUS.It appears by his small light of discretion that he is in the wane; butyet, in courtesy, in all reason, we must stay the time.
LYSANDER.Proceed, Moon.
MOON.All that I have to say, is to tell you that the lantern is the moon; Ithe man i’ the moon; this thorn-bush my thorn-bush; and this dog mydog.
DEMETRIUS.Why, all these should be in the lantern, for all these are in the moon.But silence; here comes Thisbe.
Enter Thisbe.
THISBE.This is old Ninny’s tomb. Where is my love?
LION.Oh!
[_The Lion roars, Thisbe runs off._]
DEMETRIUS.Well roared, Lion.
THESEUS.Well run, Thisbe.
HIPPOLYTA.Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines with a good grace.
[_The Lion tears Thisbe’s mantle, and exit._]
THESEUS.Well moused, Lion.
DEMETRIUS.And then came Pyramus.
LYSANDER.And so the lion vanished.
Enter Pyramus.
PYRAMUS.Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams;I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright;For, by thy gracious golden, glittering gleams,I trust to take of truest Thisbe sight.But stay! O spite!But mark, poor knight,What dreadful dole is here!Eyes, do you see?How can it be?O dainty duck! O dear!Thy mantle good,What, stained with blood?Approach, ye Furies fell!O Fates, come, come;Cut thread and thrum;Quail, rush, conclude, and quell!
THESEUS.This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make aman look sad.
HIPPOLYTA.Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man.
PYRAMUS.O wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame,Since lion vile hath here deflower’d my dear?Which is—no, no—which was the fairest dameThat liv’d, that lov’d, that lik’d, that look’d with cheer.Come, tears, confound!Out, sword, and woundThe pap of Pyramus;Ay, that left pap,Where heart doth hop:Thus die I, thus, thus, thus.Now am I dead,Now am I fled;My soul is in the sky.Tongue, lose thy light!Moon, take thy flight!Now die, die, die, die, die.
[_Dies. Exit Moonshine._]
DEMETRIUS.No die, but an ace, for him; for he is but one.
LYSANDER.Less than an ace, man; for he is dead, he is nothing.
THESEUS.With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover and prove an ass.
HIPPOLYTA.How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe comes back and finds herlover?
THESEUS.She will find him by starlight.
Enter Thisbe.
Here she comes, and her passion ends the play.
HIPPOLYTA.Methinks she should not use a long one for such a Pyramus. I hope shewill be brief.
DEMETRIUS.A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which Thisbe, is thebetter: he for a man, God warrant us; she for a woman, God bless us!
LYSANDER.She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes.
DEMETRIUS.And thus she means, _videlicet_—
THISBE.Asleep, my love?What, dead, my dove?O Pyramus, arise,Speak, speak. Quite dumb?Dead, dead? A tombMust cover thy sweet eyes.These lily lips,This cherry nose,These yellow cowslip cheeks,Are gone, are gone!Lovers, make moan;His eyes were green as leeks.O Sisters Three,Come, come to me,With hands as pale as milk;Lay them in gore,Since you have shoreWith shears his thread of silk.Tongue, not a word:Come, trusty sword,Come, blade, my breast imbrue;And farewell, friends.Thus Thisbe ends.Adieu, adieu, adieu.
[_Dies._]
THESEUS.Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead.
DEMETRIUS.Ay, and Wall too.
BOTTOM.No, I assure you; the wall is down that parted their fathers. Will itplease you to see the epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance betweentwo of our company?
THESEUS.No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse. Never excuse;for when the players are all dead there need none to be blamed. Marry,if he that writ it had played Pyramus, and hanged himself in Thisbe’sgarter, it would have been a fine tragedy; and so it is, truly; andvery notably discharged. But come, your Bergomask; let your epiloguealone.
[_Here a dance of Clowns._]
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve.Lovers, to bed; ’tis almost fairy time.I fear we shall outsleep the coming mornAs much as we this night have overwatch’d.This palpable-gross play hath well beguil’dThe heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed.A fortnight hold we this solemnityIn nightly revels and new jollity.
[_Exeunt._]
Enter Puck.
PUCK.Now the hungry lion roars,And the wolf behowls the moon;Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,All with weary task fordone.Now the wasted brands do glow,Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud,Puts the wretch that lies in woeIn remembrance of a shroud.Now it is the time of nightThat the graves, all gaping wide,Every one lets forth his sprite,In the church-way paths to glide.And we fairies, that do runBy the triple Hecate’s teamFrom the presence of the sun,Following darkness like a dream,Now are frolic; not a mouseShall disturb this hallow’d house.I am sent with broom before,To sweep the dust behind the door.
Enter Oberon and Titania with their Train.
OBERON.Through the house give glimmering light,By the dead and drowsy fire.Every elf and fairy spriteHop as light as bird from brier,And this ditty after me,Sing and dance it trippingly.
TITANIA.First rehearse your song by rote,To each word a warbling note;Hand in hand, with fairy grace,Will we sing, and bless this place.
[_Song and Dance._]
OBERON.Now, until the break of day,Through this house each fairy stray.To the best bride-bed will we,Which by us shall blessèd be;And the issue there createEver shall be fortunate.So shall all the couples threeEver true in loving be;And the blots of Nature’s handShall not in their issue stand:Never mole, hare-lip, nor scar,Nor mark prodigious, such as areDespised in nativity,Shall upon their children be.With this field-dew consecrate,Every fairy take his gait,And each several chamber bless,Through this palace, with sweet peace;And the owner of it blest.Ever shall it in safety rest,Trip away. Make no stay;Meet me all by break of day.
[_Exeunt Oberon, Titania and Train._]
PUCK.If we shadows have offended,Think but this, and all is mended,That you have but slumber’d hereWhile these visions did appear.And this weak and idle theme,No more yielding but a dream,Gentles, do not reprehend.If you pardon, we will mend.And, as I am an honest Puck,If we have unearnèd luckNow to ’scape the serpent’s tongue,We will make amends ere long;Else the Puck a liar call.So, good night unto you all.Give me your hands, if we be friends,And Robin shall restore amends.
[_Exit._]