ACT III



SCENE I	The wood. TITANIA lying asleep.


	[Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and
	STARVELING]

BOTTOM	Are we all met?

QUINCE	Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place
	for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our
	stage, this hawthorn-brake our tiring-house; and we
	will do it in action as we will do it before the duke.

BOTTOM	Peter Quince,--

QUINCE	What sayest thou, bully Bottom?

BOTTOM	There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and
	Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must
	draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies
	cannot abide. How answer you that?

SNOUT	By'r lakin, a parlous fear.

STARVELING	I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.

BOTTOM	Not a whit: I have a device to make all well.
	Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to
	say, we will do no harm with our swords, and that
	Pyramus is not killed indeed; and, for the more
	better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not
	Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put them
	out of fear.

QUINCE	Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall be
	written in eight and six.

BOTTOM	No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight.

SNOUT	Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?

STARVELING	I fear it, I promise you.

BOTTOM	Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves: to
	bring in--God shield us!--a lion among ladies, is a
	most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful
	wild-fowl than your lion living; and we ought to
	look to 't.

SNOUT	Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion.

BOTTOM	Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must
	be seen through the lion's neck: and he himself
	must speak through, saying thus, or to the same
	defect,--'Ladies,'--or 'Fair-ladies--I would wish
	You,'--or 'I would request you,'--or 'I would
	entreat you,--not to fear, not to tremble: my life
	for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it
	were pity of my life: no I am no such thing; I am a
	man as other men are;' and there indeed let him name
	his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner.

QUINCE	Well it shall be so. But there is two hard things;
	that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber; for,
	you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moonlight.

SNOUT	Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?

BOTTOM	A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanac; find
	out moonshine, find out moonshine.

QUINCE	Yes, it doth shine that night.

BOTTOM	Why, then may you leave a casement of the great
	chamber window, where we play, open, and the moon
	may shine in at the casement.

QUINCE	Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns
	and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure, or to
	present, the person of Moonshine. Then, there is
	another thing: we must have a wall in the great
	chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby says the story, did
	talk through the chink of a wall.

SNOUT	You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom?

BOTTOM	Some man or other must present Wall: and let him
	have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast
	about him, to signify wall; and let him hold his
	fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus
	and Thisby whisper.

QUINCE	If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down,
	every mother's son, and rehearse your parts.
	Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken your
	speech, enter into that brake: and so every one
	according to his cue.

	[Enter PUCK behind]

PUCK	What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here,
	So near the cradle of the fairy queen?
	What, a play toward! I'll be an auditor;
	An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause.

QUINCE	Speak, Pyramus. Thisby, stand forth.

BOTTOM	Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet,--

QUINCE	Odours, odours.

BOTTOM	--odours savours sweet:
	So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear.
	But hark, a voice! stay thou but here awhile,
	And by and by I will to thee appear.

	[Exit]

PUCK	A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here.

	[Exit]

FLUTE	Must I speak now?

QUINCE	Ay, marry, must you; for you must understand he goes
	but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again.

FLUTE	Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue,
	Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier,
	Most brisky juvenal and eke most lovely Jew,
	As true as truest horse that yet would never tire,
	I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb.

QUINCE	'Ninus' tomb,' man: why, you must not speak that
	yet; that you answer to Pyramus: you speak all your
	part at once, cues and all Pyramus enter: your cue
	is past; it is, 'never tire.'

FLUTE	O,--As true as truest horse, that yet would
	never tire.

	[Re-enter PUCK, and BOTTOM with an ass's head]

BOTTOM	If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine.

QUINCE	O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted. Pray,
	masters! fly, masters! Help!

	[Exeunt QUINCE, SNUG, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING]

PUCK	I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round,
	Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier:
	Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound,
	A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire;
	And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,
	Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.

	[Exit]

BOTTOM	Why do they run away? this is a knavery of them to
	make me afeard.

	[Re-enter SNOUT]

SNOUT	O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on thee?

BOTTOM	What do you see? you see an asshead of your own, do
	you?

	[Exit SNOUT]

	[Re-enter QUINCE]

QUINCE	Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art
	translated.

	[Exit]

BOTTOM	I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me;
	to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir
	from this place, do what they can: I will walk up
	and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear
	I am not afraid.

	[Sings]

	The ousel cock so black of hue,
	With orange-tawny bill,
	The throstle with his note so true,
	The wren with little quill,--

TITANIA	[Awaking]  What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?

BOTTOM	[Sings]

	The finch, the sparrow and the lark,
	The plain-song cuckoo gray,
	Whose note full many a man doth mark,
	And dares not answer nay;--
	for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish
	a bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry
	'cuckoo' never so?

TITANIA	I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:
	Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note;
	So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
	And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me
	On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.

BOTTOM	Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason
	for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and
	love keep little company together now-a-days; the
	more the pity that some honest neighbours will not
	make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.

TITANIA	Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.

BOTTOM	Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get out
	of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.

TITANIA	Out of this wood do not desire to go:
	Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.
	I am a spirit of no common rate;
	The summer still doth tend upon my state;
	And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;
	I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
	And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
	And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep;
	And I will purge thy mortal grossness so
	That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.
	Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed!

	[Enter PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, and MUSTARDSEED]

PEASEBLOSSOM	Ready.

COBWEB	     And I.

MOTH	          And I.

MUSTARDSEED	                  And I.

ALL	Where shall we go?

TITANIA	Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
	Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes;
	Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
	With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;
	The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees,
	And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs
	And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,
	To have my love to bed and to arise;
	And pluck the wings from Painted butterflies
	To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:
	Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.

PEASEBLOSSOM	Hail, mortal!

COBWEB	Hail!

MOTH	Hail!

MUSTARDSEED	Hail!

BOTTOM	I cry your worship's mercy, heartily: I beseech your
	worship's name.

COBWEB	Cobweb.

BOTTOM	I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master
	Cobweb: if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with
	you. Your name, honest gentleman?

PEASEBLOSSOM	Peaseblossom.

BOTTOM	I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your
	mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. Good
	Master Peaseblossom, I shall desire you of more
	acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you, sir?

MUSTARDSEED	Mustardseed.

BOTTOM	Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience well:
	that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath
	devoured many a gentleman of your house: I promise
	you your kindred had made my eyes water ere now. I
	desire your more acquaintance, good Master
	Mustardseed.

TITANIA	Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower.
	The moon methinks looks with a watery eye;
	And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,
	Lamenting some enforced chastity.
	Tie up my love's tongue bring him silently.

	[Exeunt]




	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.
		   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,
	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,
	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,
	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,
	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,
	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,
	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
	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.

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,
	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
	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;
	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.

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?
	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?
	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.

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.

	[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,
	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.

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,
	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.

	[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
	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;
	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
	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.

	[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,
	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:
	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.

DEMETRIUS	[Awaking]  O Helena, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!
	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
	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,
	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;
	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,
	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;
	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.

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,
	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.

	[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;
	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,
	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.

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
	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?
	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,
	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;
	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?
	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.

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,
	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?
	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.

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,
	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!

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.
	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.

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,
	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,--

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.

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?
	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:
	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;
	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?

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!

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.
	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.

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,
	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,
	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
	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.

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.

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'!
	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.

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,
	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.

	[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,
	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.
	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
	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,
	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;
	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,
	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,
	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.

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,
	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.

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,
	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:
	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?

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?
	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
	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.
	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!
	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,
	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:
	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,
	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;
	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,
	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 and sleeps]

PUCK	                  On the ground
	Sleep sound:
	I'll apply
	To your eye,
	Gentle lover, remedy.

	[Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER's eyes]

	When thou wakest,
	Thou takest
	True delight
	In the sight
	Of 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]

