Text placed in the public domain by Moby Lexical Tools, 1992.
+
SGML markup by Jon Bosak, 1992-1994.
+
XML version by Jon Bosak, 1996-1998.
+
This work may be freely copied and distributed worldwide.
+
+
+
+
+Dramatis Personae
+
+THESEUS, Duke of Athens.
+EGEUS, father to Hermia.
+
+
+LYSANDER
+DEMETRIUS
+in love with Hermia.
+
+
+PHILOSTRATE, master of the revels to Theseus.
+QUINCE, a carpenter.
+SNUG, a joiner.
+BOTTOM, a weaver.
+FLUTE, a bellows-mender.
+SNOUT, a tinker.
+STARVELING, a tailor.
+HIPPOLYTA, queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus.
+HERMIA, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander.
+HELENA, in love with Demetrius.
+OBERON, king of the fairies.
+TITANIA, queen of the fairies.
+PUCK, or Robin Goodfellow.
+
+
+PEASEBLOSSOM
+COBWEB
+MOTH
+MUSTARDSEED
+fairies.
+
+
+Other fairies attending their King and Queen.
+Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta.
+
+
+SCENE Athens, and a wood near it.
+
+A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
+
+ACT I
+
+SCENE I. Athens. The palace of THESEUS.
+Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and
+Attendants
+
+
+THESEUS
+Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
+Draws on apace; four happy days bring in
+Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow
+This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,
+Like to a step-dame or a dowager
+Long withering out a young man revenue.
+
+
+
+HIPPOLYTA
+Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;
+Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
+And then the moon, like to a silver bow
+New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night
+Of our solemnities.
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+Go, Philostrate,
+Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
+Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;
+Turn melancholy forth to funerals;
+The pale companion is not for our pomp.
+Exit PHILOSTRATE
+Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,
+And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
+But I will wed thee in another key,
+With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.
+
+
+
+Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS
+
+
+EGEUS
+Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with thee?
+
+
+
+EGEUS
+Full of vexation come I, with complaint
+Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
+Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,
+This man hath my consent to marry her.
+Stand forth, Lysander: and my gracious duke,
+This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child;
+Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
+And interchanged love-tokens with my child:
+Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,
+With feigning voice verses of feigning love,
+And stolen the impression of her fantasy
+With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
+Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers
+Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth:
+With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart,
+Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,
+To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke,
+Be it so she; will not here before your grace
+Consent to marry with Demetrius,
+I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,
+As she is mine, I may dispose of her:
+Which shall be either to this gentleman
+Or to her death, according to our law
+Immediately provided in that case.
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+What say you, Hermia? be advised fair maid:
+To you your father should be as a god;
+One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
+To whom you are but as a form in wax
+By him imprinted and within his power
+To leave the figure or disfigure it.
+Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+So is Lysander.
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+In himself he is;
+But in this kind, wanting your father's voice,
+The other must be held the worthier.
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+I would my father look'd but with my eyes.
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+I do entreat your grace to pardon me.
+I know not by what power I am made bold,
+Nor how it may concern my modesty,
+In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
+But I beseech your grace that I may know
+The worst that may befall me in this case,
+If I refuse to wed Demetrius.
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+Either to die the death or to abjure
+For ever the society of men.
+Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires;
+Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
+Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
+You can endure the livery of a nun,
+For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd,
+To live a barren sister all your life,
+Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
+Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood,
+To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
+But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,
+Than that which withering on the virgin thorn
+Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness.
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
+Ere I will my virgin patent up
+Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke
+My soul consents not to give sovereignty.
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+Take time to pause; and, by the nest new moon--
+The sealing-day betwixt my love and me,
+For everlasting bond of fellowship--
+Upon that day either prepare to die
+For disobedience to your father's will,
+Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would;
+Or on Diana's altar to protest
+For aye austerity and single life.
+
+
+
+DEMETRIUS
+Relent, sweet Hermia: and, Lysander, yield
+Thy crazed title to my certain right.
+
+
+
+LYSANDER
+You have her father's love, Demetrius;
+Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him.
+
+
+
+EGEUS
+Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love,
+And what is mine my love shall render him.
+And she is mine, and all my right of her
+I do estate unto Demetrius.
+
+
+
+LYSANDER
+I am, my lord, as well derived as he,
+As well possess'd; my love is more than his;
+My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,
+If not with vantage, as Demetrius';
+And, which is more than all these boasts can be,
+I am beloved of beauteous Hermia:
+Why should not I then prosecute my right?
+Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,
+Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,
+And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
+Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
+Upon this spotted and inconstant man.
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+I must confess that I have heard so much,
+And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof;
+But, being over-full of self-affairs,
+My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come;
+And come, Egeus; you shall go with me,
+I have some private schooling for you both.
+For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself
+To fit your fancies to your father's will;
+Or else the law of Athens yields you up--
+Which by no means we may extenuate--
+To death, or to a vow of single life.
+Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love?
+Demetrius and Egeus, go along:
+I must employ you in some business
+Against our nuptial and confer with you
+Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.
+
+
+
+EGEUS
+With duty and desire we follow you.
+
+
+
+Exeunt all but LYSANDER and HERMIA
+
+
+LYSANDER
+How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale?
+How chance the roses there do fade so fast?
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+Belike for want of rain, which I could well
+Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.
+
+
+
+LYSANDER
+Ay me! for aught that I could ever read,
+Could ever hear by tale or history,
+The course of true love never did run smooth;
+But, either it was different in blood,--
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low.
+
+
+
+LYSANDER
+Or else misgraffed in respect of years,--
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+O spite! too old to be engaged to young.
+
+
+
+LYSANDER
+Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,--
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+O hell! to choose love by another's eyes.
+
+
+
+LYSANDER
+Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
+War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
+Making it momentany as a sound,
+Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;
+Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
+That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
+And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!'
+The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
+So quick bright things come to confusion.
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+If then true lovers have been ever cross'd,
+It stands as an edict in destiny:
+Then let us teach our trial patience,
+Because it is a customary cross,
+As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,
+Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers.
+
+
+
+LYSANDER
+A good persuasion: therefore, hear me, Hermia.
+I have a widow aunt, a dowager
+Of great revenue, and she hath no child:
+From Athens is her house remote seven leagues;
+And she respects me as her only son.
+There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;
+And to that place the sharp Athenian law
+Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,
+Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night;
+And in the wood, a league without the town,
+Where I did meet thee once with Helena,
+To do observance to a morn of May,
+There will I stay for thee.
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+My good Lysander!
+I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow,
+By his best arrow with the golden head,
+By the simplicity of Venus' doves,
+By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,
+And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen,
+When the false Troyan under sail was seen,
+By all the vows that ever men have broke,
+In number more than ever women spoke,
+In that same place thou hast appointed me,
+To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.
+
+
+
+LYSANDER
+Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.
+
+
+
+Enter HELENA
+
+
+HERMIA
+God speed fair Helena! whither away?
+
+
+
+HELENA
+Call you me fair? that fair again unsay.
+Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!
+Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's sweet air
+More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,
+When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
+Sickness is catching: O, were favour so,
+Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;
+My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,
+My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.
+Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
+The rest I'd give to be to you translated.
+O, teach me how you look, and with what art
+You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.
+
+
+
+HELENA
+O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+I give him curses, yet he gives me love.
+
+
+
+HELENA
+O that my prayers could such affection move!
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+The more I hate, the more he follows me.
+
+
+
+HELENA
+The more I love, the more he hateth me.
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.
+
+
+
+HELENA
+None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine!
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+Take comfort: he no more shall see my face;
+Lysander and myself will fly this place.
+Before the time I did Lysander see,
+Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me:
+O, then, what graces in my love do dwell,
+That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell!
+
+
+
+LYSANDER
+Helen, to you our minds we will unfold:
+To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold
+Her silver visage in the watery glass,
+Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,
+A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,
+Through Athens' gates have we devised to steal.
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+And in the wood, where often you and I
+Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,
+Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,
+There my Lysander and myself shall meet;
+And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,
+To seek new friends and stranger companies.
+Farewell, sweet playfellow: pray thou for us;
+And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!
+Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight
+From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.
+
+
+
+LYSANDER
+I will, my Hermia.
+Exit HERMIA
+Helena, adieu:
+As you on him, Demetrius dote on you!
+
+
+
+Exit
+
+
+HELENA
+How happy some o'er other some can be!
+Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
+But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
+He will not know what all but he do know:
+And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,
+So I, admiring of his qualities:
+Things base and vile, folding no quantity,
+Love can transpose to form and dignity:
+Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
+And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:
+Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;
+Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:
+And therefore is Love said to be a child,
+Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
+As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
+So the boy Love is perjured every where:
+For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,
+He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;
+And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
+So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.
+I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:
+Then to the wood will he to-morrow night
+Pursue her; and for this intelligence
+If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:
+But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
+To have his sight thither and back again.
+
+
+
+Exit
+
+
+SCENE II. Athens. QUINCE'S house.
+Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and
+STARVELING
+
+
+QUINCE
+Is all our company here?
+
+
+
+BOTTOM
+You were best to call them generally, man by man,
+according to the scrip.
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is
+thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our
+interlude before the duke and the duchess, on his
+wedding-day at night.
+
+
+
+BOTTOM
+First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats
+on, then read the names of the actors, and so grow
+to a point.
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+Marry, our play is, The most lamentable comedy, and
+most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby.
+
+
+
+BOTTOM
+A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a
+merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your
+actors by the scroll. Masters, spread yourselves.
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver.
+
+
+
+BOTTOM
+Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.
+
+
+
+BOTTOM
+What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant?
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love.
+
+
+
+BOTTOM
+That will ask some tears in the true performing of
+it: if I do it, let the audience look to their
+eyes; I will move storms, I will condole in some
+measure. To the rest: yet my chief humour is for a
+tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to
+tear a cat in, to make all split.
+The raging rocks
+And shivering shocks
+Shall break the locks
+Of prison gates;
+And Phibbus' car
+Shall shine from far
+And make and mar
+The foolish Fates.
+This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players.
+This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is
+more condoling.
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.
+
+
+
+FLUTE
+Here, Peter Quince.
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+Flute, you must take Thisby on you.
+
+
+
+FLUTE
+What is Thisby? a wandering knight?
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+It is the lady that Pyramus must love.
+
+
+
+FLUTE
+Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming.
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+That's all one: you shall play it in a mask, and
+you may speak as small as you will.
+
+
+
+BOTTOM
+An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too, I'll
+speak in a monstrous little voice. 'Thisne,
+Thisne;' 'Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! thy Thisby dear,
+and lady dear!'
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+No, no; you must play Pyramus: and, Flute, you Thisby.
+
+
+
+BOTTOM
+Well, proceed.
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+Robin Starveling, the tailor.
+
+
+
+STARVELING
+Here, Peter Quince.
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother.
+Tom Snout, the tinker.
+
+
+
+SNOUT
+Here, Peter Quince.
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+You, Pyramus' father: myself, Thisby's father:
+Snug, the joiner; you, the lion's part: and, I
+hope, here is a play fitted.
+
+
+
+SNUG
+Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if it
+be, give it me, for I am slow of study.
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
+
+
+
+BOTTOM
+Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I will
+do any man's heart good to hear me; I will roar,
+that I will make the duke say 'Let him roar again,
+let him roar again.'
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+An you should do it too terribly, you would fright
+the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek;
+and that were enough to hang us all.
+
+
+
+ALL
+That would hang us, every mother's son.
+
+
+
+BOTTOM
+I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the
+ladies out of their wits, they would have no more
+discretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my
+voice so that I will roar you as gently as any
+sucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any
+nightingale.
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a
+sweet-faced man; a proper man, as one shall see in a
+summer's day; a most lovely gentleman-like man:
+therefore you must needs play Pyramus.
+
+
+
+BOTTOM
+Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best
+to play it in?
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+Why, what you will.
+
+
+
+BOTTOM
+I will discharge it in either your straw-colour
+beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain
+beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, your
+perfect yellow.
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and
+then you will play bare-faced. But, masters, here
+are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request
+you and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night;
+and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the
+town, by moonlight; there will we rehearse, for if
+we meet in the city, we shall be dogged with
+company, and our devices known. In the meantime I
+will draw a bill of properties, such as our play
+wants. I pray you, fail me not.
+
+
+
+BOTTOM
+We will meet; and there we may rehearse most
+obscenely and courageously. Take pains; be perfect: adieu.
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+At the duke's oak we meet.
+
+
+
+BOTTOM
+Enough; hold or cut bow-strings.
+
+
+
+Exeunt
+
+
+
+
+ACT II
+
+SCENE I. A wood near Athens.
+Enter, from opposite sides, a Fairy, and PUCK
+
+
+PUCK
+How now, spirit! whither wander you?
+
+
+
+Fairy
+Over hill, over dale,
+Thorough bush, thorough brier,
+Over park, over pale,
+Thorough flood, thorough fire,
+I do wander everywhere,
+Swifter than the moon's sphere;
+And I serve the fairy queen,
+To dew her orbs upon the green.
+The cowslips tall her pensioners be:
+In their gold coats spots you see;
+Those be rubies, fairy favours,
+In those freckles live their savours:
+I must go seek some dewdrops here
+And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
+Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone:
+Our queen and all our elves come here anon.
+
+
+
+PUCK
+The king doth keep his revels here to-night:
+Take heed the queen come not within his sight;
+For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,
+Because that she as her attendant hath
+A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king;
+She never had so sweet a changeling;
+And jealous Oberon would have the child
+Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;
+But she perforce withholds the loved boy,
+Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy:
+And now they never meet in grove or green,
+By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,
+But, they do square, that all their elves for fear
+Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there.
+
+
+
+Fairy
+Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
+Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
+Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he
+That frights the maidens of the villagery;
+Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern
+And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;
+And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;
+Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
+Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
+You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
+Are not you he?
+
+
+
+PUCK
+Thou speak'st aright;
+I am that merry wanderer of the night.
+I jest to Oberon and make him smile
+When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
+Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
+And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
+In very likeness of a roasted crab,
+And when she drinks, against her lips I bob
+And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.
+The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
+Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
+Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
+And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;
+And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
+And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear
+A merrier hour was never wasted there.
+But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon.
+
+
+
+Fairy
+And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!
+
+
+
+Enter, from one side, OBERON, with his train;
+from the other, TITANIA, with hers
+
+
+OBERON
+Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.
+
+
+
+TITANIA
+What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence:
+I have forsworn his bed and company.
+
+
+
+OBERON
+Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?
+
+
+
+TITANIA
+Then I must be thy lady: but I know
+When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,
+And in the shape of Corin sat all day,
+Playing on pipes of corn and versing love
+To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,
+Come from the farthest Steppe of India?
+But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,
+Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love,
+To Theseus must be wedded, and you come
+To give their bed joy and prosperity.
+
+
+
+OBERON
+How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
+Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,
+Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
+Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night
+From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
+And make him with fair AEgle break his faith,
+With Ariadne and Antiopa?
+
+
+
+TITANIA
+These are the forgeries of jealousy:
+And never, since the middle summer's spring,
+Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
+By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
+Or in the beached margent of the sea,
+To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
+But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.
+Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
+As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea
+Contagious fogs; which falling in the land
+Have every pelting river made so proud
+That they have overborne their continents:
+The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,
+The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
+Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard;
+The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
+And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;
+The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud,
+And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
+For lack of tread are undistinguishable:
+The human mortals want their winter here;
+No night is now with hymn or carol blest:
+Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
+Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
+That rheumatic diseases do abound:
+And thorough this distemperature we see
+The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
+Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
+And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown
+An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
+Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,
+The childing autumn, angry winter, change
+Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,
+By their increase, now knows not which is which:
+And this same progeny of evils comes
+From our debate, from our dissension;
+We are their parents and original.
+
+
+
+OBERON
+Do you amend it then; it lies in you:
+Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
+I do but beg a little changeling boy,
+To be my henchman.
+
+
+
+TITANIA
+Set your heart at rest:
+The fairy land buys not the child of me.
+His mother was a votaress of my order:
+And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,
+Full often hath she gossip'd by my side,
+And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,
+Marking the embarked traders on the flood,
+When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive
+And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;
+Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait
+Following,--her womb then rich with my young squire,--
+Would imitate, and sail upon the land,
+To fetch me trifles, and return again,
+As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
+But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;
+And for her sake do I rear up her boy,
+And for her sake I will not part with him.
+
+
+
+OBERON
+How long within this wood intend you stay?
+
+
+
+TITANIA
+Perchance till after Theseus' wedding-day.
+If you will patiently dance in our round
+And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
+If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.
+
+
+
+OBERON
+Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.
+
+
+
+TITANIA
+Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away!
+We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.
+
+
+
+Exit TITANIA with her train
+
+
+OBERON
+Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove
+Till I torment thee for this injury.
+My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
+Since once I sat upon a promontory,
+And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
+Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
+That the rude sea grew civil at her song
+And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
+To hear the sea-maid's music.
+
+
+
+PUCK
+I remember.
+
+
+
+OBERON
+That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,
+Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
+Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took
+At a fair vestal throned by the west,
+And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
+As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;
+But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
+Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
+And the imperial votaress passed on,
+In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
+Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
+It fell upon a little western flower,
+Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
+And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
+Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once:
+The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid
+Will make or man or woman madly dote
+Upon the next live creature that it sees.
+Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again
+Ere the leviathan can swim a league.
+
+
+
+PUCK
+I'll put a girdle round about the earth
+In forty minutes.
+
+
+
+Exit
+
+
+OBERON
+Having once this juice,
+I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,
+And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.
+The next thing then she waking looks upon,
+Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
+On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,
+She shall pursue it with the soul of love:
+And ere I take this charm from off her sight,
+As I can take it with another herb,
+I'll make her render up her page to me.
+But who comes here? I am invisible;
+And I will overhear their conference.
+
+
+
+Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA, following him
+
+
+DEMETRIUS
+I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
+Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?
+The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.
+Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood;
+And here am I, and wode within this wood,
+Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
+Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
+
+
+
+HELENA
+You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;
+But yet you draw not iron, for my heart
+Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw,
+And I shall have no power to follow you.
+
+
+
+DEMETRIUS
+Do I entice you? do I speak you fair?
+Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth
+Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?
+
+
+
+HELENA
+And even for that do I love you the more.
+I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,
+The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
+Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
+Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
+Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
+What worser place can I beg in your love,--
+And yet a place of high respect with me,--
+Than to be used as you use your dog?
+
+
+
+DEMETRIUS
+Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;
+For I am sick when I do look on thee.
+
+
+
+HELENA
+And I am sick when I look not on you.
+
+
+
+DEMETRIUS
+You do impeach your modesty too much,
+To leave the city and commit yourself
+Into the hands of one that loves you not;
+To trust the opportunity of night
+And the ill counsel of a desert place
+With the rich worth of your virginity.
+
+
+
+HELENA
+Your virtue is my privilege: for that
+It is not night when I do see your face,
+Therefore I think I am not in the night;
+Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
+For you in my respect are all the world:
+Then how can it be said I am alone,
+When all the world is here to look on me?
+
+
+
+DEMETRIUS
+I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,
+And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.
+
+
+
+HELENA
+The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
+Run when you will, the story shall be changed:
+Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
+The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
+Makes speed to catch the tiger; bootless speed,
+When cowardice pursues and valour flies.
+
+
+
+DEMETRIUS
+I will not stay thy questions; let me go:
+Or, if thou follow me, do not believe
+But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.
+
+
+
+HELENA
+Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
+You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!
+Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:
+We cannot fight for love, as men may do;
+We should be wood and were not made to woo.
+Exit DEMETRIUS
+I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,
+To die upon the hand I love so well.
+
+
+
+Exit
+
+
+OBERON
+Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove,
+Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love.
+Re-enter PUCK
+Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.
+
+
+
+PUCK
+Ay, there it is.
+
+
+
+OBERON
+I pray thee, give it me.
+I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
+Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
+Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
+With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
+There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
+Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
+And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,
+Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
+And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,
+And make her full of hateful fantasies.
+Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:
+A sweet Athenian lady is in love
+With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;
+But do it when the next thing he espies
+May be the lady: thou shalt know the man
+By the Athenian garments he hath on.
+Effect it with some care, that he may prove
+More fond on her than she upon her love:
+And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.
+
+
+
+PUCK
+Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.
+
+
+
+Exeunt
+
+
+SCENE II. Another part of the wood.
+Enter TITANIA, with her train
+
+
+TITANIA
+Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;
+Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;
+Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,
+Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,
+To make my small elves coats, and some keep back
+The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders
+At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
+Then to your offices and let me rest.
+The Fairies sing
+You spotted snakes with double tongue,
+Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
+Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
+Come not near our fairy queen.
+Philomel, with melody
+Sing in our sweet lullaby;
+Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:
+Never harm,
+Nor spell nor charm,
+Come our lovely lady nigh;
+So, good night, with lullaby.
+Weaving spiders, come not here;
+Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!
+Beetles black, approach not near;
+Worm nor snail, do no offence.
+Philomel, with melody, &c.
+
+
+
+Fairy
+Hence, away! now all is well:
+One aloof stand sentinel.
+
+
+Exeunt Fairies. TITANIA sleeps
+Enter OBERON and squeezes the flower on TITANIA's eyelids
+
+
+OBERON
+What thou seest when thou dost wake,
+Do it for thy true-love take,
+Love and languish for his sake:
+Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
+Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
+In thy eye that shall appear
+When thou wakest, it is thy dear:
+Wake when some vile thing is near.
+
+
+Exit
+Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA
+
+
+LYSANDER
+Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood;
+And to speak troth, I have forgot our way:
+We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,
+And tarry for the comfort of the day.
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed;
+For I upon this bank will rest my head.
+
+
+
+LYSANDER
+One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;
+One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth.
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear,
+Lie further off yet, do not lie so near.
+
+
+
+LYSANDER
+O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!
+Love takes the meaning in love's conference.
+I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit
+So that but one heart we can make of it;
+Two bosoms interchained with an oath;
+So then two bosoms and a single troth.
+Then by your side no bed-room me deny;
+For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+Lysander riddles very prettily:
+Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,
+If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied.
+But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy
+Lie further off; in human modesty,
+Such separation as may well be said
+Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid,
+So far be distant; and, good night, sweet friend:
+Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end!
+
+
+
+LYSANDER
+Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I;
+And then end life when I end loyalty!
+Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest!
+
+
+
+HERMIA
+With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd!
+
+
+They sleep
+Enter PUCK
+
+
+PUCK
+Through the forest have I gone.
+But Athenian found I none,
+On whose eyes I might approve
+This flower's force in stirring love.
+Night and silence.--Who is here?
+Weeds of Athens he doth wear:
+This is he, my master said,
+Despised the Athenian maid;
+And here the maiden, sleeping sound,
+On the dank and dirty ground.
+Pretty soul! she durst not lie
+Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.
+Churl, upon thy eyes I throw
+All the power this charm doth owe.
+When thou wakest, let love forbid
+Sleep his seat on thy eyelid:
+So awake when I am gone;
+For I must now to Oberon.
+
+
+Exit
+Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running
+
+
+HELENA
+Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.
+
+
+
+DEMETRIUS
+I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.
+
+
+
+HELENA
+O, wilt thou darkling leave me? do not so.
+
+
+
+DEMETRIUS
+Stay, on thy peril: I alone will go.
+
+
+
+Exit
+
+
+HELENA
+O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!
+The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.
+Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies;
+For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.
+How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears:
+If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers.
+No, no, I am as ugly as a bear;
+For beasts that meet me run away for fear:
+Therefore no marvel though Demetrius
+Do, as a monster fly my presence thus.
+What wicked and dissembling glass of mine
+Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne?
+But who is here? Lysander! on the ground!
+Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.
+Lysander if you live, good sir, awake.
+
+
+
+LYSANDER
+Awaking And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake.
+Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,
+That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.
+Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word
+Is that vile name to perish on my sword!
+
+
+
+HELENA
+Do not say so, Lysander; say not so
+What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?
+Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content.
+
+
+
+LYSANDER
+Content with Hermia! No; I do repent
+The tedious minutes I with her have spent.
+Not Hermia but Helena I love:
+Who will not change a raven for a dove?
+The will of man is by his reason sway'd;
+And reason says you are the worthier maid.
+Things growing are not ripe until their season
+So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;
+And touching now the point of human skill,
+Reason becomes the marshal to my will
+And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook
+Love's stories written in love's richest book.
+
+
+
+HELENA
+Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?
+When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?
+Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man,
+That I did never, no, nor never can,
+Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye,
+But you must flout my insufficiency?
+Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do,
+In such disdainful manner me to woo.
+But fare you well: perforce I must confess
+I thought you lord of more true gentleness.
+O, that a lady, of one man refused.
+Should of another therefore be abused!
+
+
+
+Exit
+
+
+LYSANDER
+She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there:
+And never mayst thou come Lysander near!
+For as a surfeit of the sweetest things
+The deepest loathing to the stomach brings,
+Or as tie heresies that men do leave
+Are hated most of those they did deceive,
+So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,
+Of all be hated, but the most of me!
+And, all my powers, address your love and might
+To honour Helen and to be her knight!
+
+
+
+Exit
+
+
+HERMIA
+Awaking Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best
+To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!
+Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here!
+Lysander, look how I do quake with fear:
+Methought a serpent eat my heart away,
+And you sat smiling at his cruel pray.
+Lysander! what, removed? Lysander! lord!
+What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word?
+Alack, where are you speak, an if you hear;
+Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.
+No? then I well perceive you all not nigh
+Either death or you I'll find immediately.
+
+
+
+Exit
+
+
+
+
+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
+
+
+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
+
+
+
+
+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; 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 Mounsieur Cobweb?
+
+
+
+COBWEB
+Ready.
+
+
+
+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,
+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,
+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
+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
+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.
+
+
+
+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.
+
+
+
+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.
+O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!
+
+
+They sleep
+Enter PUCK
+
+
+OBERON
+Advancing Welcome, good Robin.
+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,
+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,
+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;
+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
+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.
+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.
+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 dead
+Than common sleep of all these five the sense.
+
+
+
+TITANIA
+Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep!
+
+
+
+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,
+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.
+
+
+
+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,
+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.
+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:
+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,
+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
+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;
+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?
+
+
+
+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
+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.
+
+
+
+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.
+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,
+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
+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,
+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 now
+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,
+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.
+
+
+
+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 purposed 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,
+
+
+
+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,
+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?
+
+
+
+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
+Awaking 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, stolen
+hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare
+vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to
+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
+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,
+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
+
+
+SCENE II. Athens. 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 discharge Pyramus 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 sweet voice.
+
+
+
+FLUTE
+You must say 'paragon:' a paramour is, God bless us,
+a thing of naught.
+
+
+
+Enter SNUG
+
+
+SNUG
+Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and
+there is two or three lords and ladies more married:
+if our sport had gone forward, we had all 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 him
+sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged;
+he would have deserved 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 tell you, I am no true Athenian. I
+will tell you every thing, right as it fell out.
+
+
+
+QUINCE
+Let us hear, sweet Bottom.
+
+
+
+BOTTOM
+Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that
+the duke hath dined. Get your apparel together,
+good strings to your beards, new ribbons to your
+pumps; meet presently at the palace; every man look
+o'er his part; for the short and the long is, our
+play is preferred. In any case, let Thisby have
+clean linen; and let not him that plays the lion
+pair his nails, for they shall hang out for the
+lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onions
+nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; 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. 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 believe
+These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
+Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
+Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
+More than cool reason ever comprehends.
+The lunatic, the lover and the poet
+Are 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 fine frenzy rolling,
+Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
+And as imagination bodies forth
+The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
+Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
+A 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 transfigured so together,
+More witnesseth than fancy's images
+And grows to something of great constancy;
+But, howsoever, strange and admirable.
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.
+Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and HELENA
+Joy, gentle friends! joy and fresh days of love
+Accompany your hearts!
+
+
+
+LYSANDER
+More than to us
+Wait 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 hours
+Between our after-supper and bed-time?
+Where is our usual manager of mirth?
+What revels are in hand? Is there no play,
+To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
+Call Philostrate.
+
+
+
+PHILOSTRATE
+Here, mighty Theseus.
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+Say, what abridgement have you for this evening?
+What masque? what music? How shall we beguile
+The 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 sung
+By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.'
+We'll none of that: that have I told my love,
+In glory of my kinsman Hercules.
+Reads
+'The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,
+Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.'
+That is an old device; and it was play'd
+When I from Thebes came last a conqueror.
+Reads
+'The thrice three Muses mourning for the death
+Of Learning, late deceased in beggary.'
+That is some satire, keen and critical,
+Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.
+Reads
+'A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
+And 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 play
+There 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 rehearsed, I must confess,
+Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears
+The 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 unbreathed memories
+With 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 pain,
+To do you service.
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+I will hear that play;
+For never anything can be amiss,
+When simpleness and duty tender it.
+Go, bring them in: and take your places, ladies.
+
+
+
+Exit PHILOSTRATE
+
+
+HIPPOLYTA
+I love not to see wretchedness o'er charged
+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 respect
+Takes it in might, not merit.
+Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
+To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
+Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
+Make periods in the midst of sentences,
+Throttle their practised 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 duty
+I read as much as from the rattling tongue
+Of saucy and audacious eloquence.
+Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity
+In least speak most, to my capacity.
+
+
+
+Re-enter PHILOSTRATE
+
+
+PHILOSTRATE
+So please your grace, the Prologue is address'd.
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+Let him approach.
+
+
+Flourish of trumpets
+Enter QUINCE for the Prologue
+
+
+Prologue
+If 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 contest you,
+Our true intent is. All for your delight
+We 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. A good moral, my lord: it is not
+enough to speak, but to speak true.
+
+
+
+HIPPOLYTA
+Indeed he hath played on his prologue like a child
+on a recorder; a sound, but not in government.
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+His speech, was like a tangled chain; nothing
+impaired, but all disordered. Who is next?
+
+
+
+Enter Pyramus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion
+
+
+Prologue
+Gentles, 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 Thisby is certain.
+This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present
+Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder;
+And through Wall's chink, poor souls, they are content
+To whisper. At the which let no man wonder.
+This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn,
+Presenteth Moonshine; for, if you will know,
+By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn
+To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo.
+This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name,
+The trusty Thisby, 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 Thisby's mantle slain:
+Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,
+He bravely broach'd is boiling bloody breast;
+And Thisby, 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, 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 befall
+That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;
+And such a wall, as I would have you think,
+That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
+Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,
+Did whisper often very secretly.
+This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show
+That 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.
+
+
+
+Enter Pyramus
+
+
+THESEUS
+Pyramus draws near the wall: silence!
+
+
+
+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 Thisby'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 Thisby do I see.
+O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss!
+Cursed 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 Thisby's cue: she is to enter now, and I am to
+spy her through the wall. You shall see, it will
+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 Thisby's face. Thisby!
+
+
+
+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.
+
+
+
+Exeunt Pyramus and Thisbe
+
+
+Wall
+Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so;
+And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.
+
+
+
+Exit
+
+
+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, if imagination 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 pass for 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 fear
+The 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, am
+A lion-fell, nor else no lion's dam;
+For, if I should as lion come in strife
+Into this place, 'twere pity on my life.
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+A very gentle beast, 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 the fox carries the goose.
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valour;
+for the goose carries not the fox. It is well:
+leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to the moon.
+
+
+
+Moonshine
+This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;--
+
+
+
+DEMETRIUS
+He should have worn the horns on his head.
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+He is no crescent, and his horns are
+invisible within the circumference.
+
+
+
+Moonshine
+This lanthorn doth the horned 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 into the lanthorn. How is it else the
+man i' the moon?
+
+
+
+DEMETRIUS
+He dares not come there for the candle; for, you
+see, it is already in snuff.
+
+
+
+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; but yet, in courtesy, in all
+reason, we must stay the time.
+
+
+
+LYSANDER
+Proceed, Moon.
+
+
+
+Moonshine
+All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the
+lanthorn is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this
+thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.
+
+
+
+DEMETRIUS
+Why, all these should be in the lanthorn; 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
+Roaring Oh--
+
+
+
+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 shakes Thisbe's mantle, and exit
+
+
+THESEUS
+Well moused, Lion.
+
+
+
+LYSANDER
+And so the lion vanished.
+
+
+
+DEMETRIUS
+And then came Pyramus.
+
+
+
+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 Thisby 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, stain'd with blood!
+Approach, ye Furies fell!
+O Fates, come, come,
+Cut thread and thrum;
+Quail, crush, conclude, and quell!
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would
+go near to make a man 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 dame
+That lived, that loved, that liked, that look'd
+with cheer.
+Come, tears, confound;
+Out, sword, and wound
+The pap of Pyramus;
+Ay, that left pap,
+Where heart doth hop:
+Stabs himself
+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:
+Exit Moonshine
+Now die, die, die, die, die.
+
+
+
+Dies
+
+
+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 her lover?
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+She will find him by starlight. Here she comes; and
+her passion ends the play.
+
+
+
+Re-enter Thisbe
+
+
+HIPPOLYTA
+Methinks she should not use a long one for such a
+Pyramus: I hope she will be brief.
+
+
+
+DEMETRIUS
+A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which
+Thisbe, is the better; 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 tomb
+Must cover thy sweet eyes.
+These My 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 shore
+With shears his thread of silk.
+Tongue, not a word:
+Come, trusty sword;
+Come, blade, my breast imbrue:
+Stabs herself
+And, farewell, friends;
+Thus Thisby ends:
+Adieu, adieu, adieu.
+
+
+
+Dies
+
+
+THESEUS
+Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead.
+
+
+
+DEMETRIUS
+Ay, and Wall too.
+
+
+
+BOTTOM
+Starting up No assure you; the wall is down that
+parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the
+epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two
+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 needs none to be blamed. Marry, if he
+that writ it had played Pyramus and hanged himself
+in Thisbe's garter, it would have been a fine
+tragedy: and so it is, truly; and very notably
+discharged. But come, your Bergomask: let your
+epilogue alone.
+A dance
+The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:
+Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.
+I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn
+As much as we this night have overwatch'd.
+This palpable-gross play hath well beguiled
+The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed.
+A fortnight hold we this solemnity,
+In 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 woe
+In remembrance of a shroud.
+Now it is the time of night
+That the graves all gaping wide,
+Every one lets forth his sprite,
+In the church-way paths to glide:
+And we fairies, that do run
+By the triple Hecate's team,
+From the presence of the sun,
+Following darkness like a dream,
+Now are frolic: not a mouse
+Shall 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 gathering light,
+By the dead and drowsy fire:
+Every elf and fairy sprite
+Hop 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 blessed be;
+And the issue there create
+Ever shall be fortunate.
+So shall all the couples three
+Ever true in loving be;
+And the blots of Nature's hand
+Shall not in their issue stand;
+Never mole, hare lip, nor scar,
+Nor mark prodigious, such as are
+Despised 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 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 here
+While 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 unearned luck
+Now 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.
+
+
+
+
diff --git a/tinyxml2.cpp b/tinyxml2.cpp
index 3a9b2c9..740f1f5 100644
--- a/tinyxml2.cpp
+++ b/tinyxml2.cpp
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ char* StrPair::ParseText( char* p, const char* endTag, int strFlags )
}
++p;
}
- return p;
+ return 0;
}
@@ -198,17 +198,17 @@ char* XMLDocument::Identify( char* p, XMLNode** node )
// What is this thing?
// - Elements start with a letter or underscore, but xml is reserved.
// - Comments: ", StrPair::COMMENT );
+ const char* start = p;
+ p = value.ParseText( p, "-->", StrPair::COMMENT );
+ if ( p == 0 ) {
+ document->SetError( XMLDocument::ERROR_PARSING_COMMENT, start, 0 );
+ }
+ return p;
}
@@ -520,7 +526,12 @@ XMLDeclaration::~XMLDeclaration()
char* XMLDeclaration::ParseDeep( char* p )
{
// Declaration parses as text.
- return value.ParseText( p, ">", StrPair::NEEDS_NEWLINE_NORMALIZATION );
+ const char* start = p;
+ p = value.ParseText( p, "?>", StrPair::NEEDS_NEWLINE_NORMALIZATION );
+ if ( p == 0 ) {
+ document->SetError( XMLDocument::ERROR_PARSING_DECLARATION, start, 0 );
+ }
+ return p;
}
@@ -544,7 +555,13 @@ XMLUnknown::~XMLUnknown()
char* XMLUnknown::ParseDeep( char* p )
{
// Unknown parses as text.
- return value.ParseText( p, ">", StrPair::NEEDS_NEWLINE_NORMALIZATION );
+ const char* start = p;
+
+ p = value.ParseText( p, ">", StrPair::NEEDS_NEWLINE_NORMALIZATION );
+ if ( !p ) {
+ document->SetError( XMLDocument::ERROR_PARSING_UNKNOWN, start, 0 );
+ }
+ return p;
}
@@ -707,6 +724,16 @@ const XMLAttribute* XMLElement::FindAttribute( const char* name ) const
}
+const char* XMLElement::GetText() const
+{
+ if ( FirstChild() && FirstChild()->ToText() ) {
+ return FirstChild()->ToText()->Value();
+ }
+ return 0;
+}
+
+
+
XMLAttribute* XMLElement::FindOrCreateAttribute( const char* name )
{
XMLAttribute* attrib = FindAttribute( name );
@@ -916,6 +943,48 @@ XMLText* XMLDocument::NewText( const char* str )
}
+int XMLDocument::Load( const char* filename )
+{
+ ClearChildren();
+ InitDocument();
+
+ FILE* fp = fopen( filename, "rb" );
+ if ( !fp ) {
+ SetError( ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND, filename, 0 );
+ return errorID;
+ }
+ Load( fp );
+ fclose( fp );
+ return errorID;
+}
+
+
+int XMLDocument::Load( FILE* fp )
+{
+ ClearChildren();
+ InitDocument();
+
+ fseek( fp, 0, SEEK_END );
+ unsigned size = ftell( fp );
+ fseek( fp, 0, SEEK_SET );
+
+ charBuffer = new char[size+1];
+ fread( charBuffer, size, 1, fp );
+ charBuffer[size] = 0;
+
+ ParseDeep( charBuffer );
+ return errorID;
+}
+
+
+void XMLDocument::Save( const char* filename )
+{
+ FILE* fp = fopen( filename, "w" );
+ XMLStreamer stream( fp );
+ Print( &stream );
+ fclose( fp );
+}
+
int XMLDocument::Parse( const char* p )
{
@@ -928,9 +997,8 @@ int XMLDocument::Parse( const char* p )
size_t len = strlen( p );
charBuffer = new char[ len+1 ];
memcpy( charBuffer, p, len+1 );
- XMLNode* node = 0;
-
- char* q = ParseDeep( charBuffer );
+
+ ParseDeep( charBuffer );
return errorID;
}
@@ -950,16 +1018,42 @@ void XMLDocument::Print( XMLStreamer* streamer )
void XMLDocument::SetError( int error, const char* str1, const char* str2 )
{
errorID = error;
- printf( "ERROR: id=%d '%s' '%s'\n", error, str1, str2 ); // fixme: remove
errorStr1 = str1;
errorStr2 = str2;
}
-XMLStreamer::XMLStreamer( FILE* file ) : fp( file ), depth( 0 ), elementJustOpened( false ), textDepth( -1 )
+void XMLDocument::PrintError() const
+{
+ if ( errorID ) {
+ char buf1[20] = { 0 };
+ char buf2[20] = { 0 };
+
+ if ( errorStr1 ) {
+ strncpy( buf1, errorStr1, 20 );
+ buf1[19] = 0;
+ }
+ if ( errorStr2 ) {
+ strncpy( buf2, errorStr2, 20 );
+ buf2[19] = 0;
+ }
+
+ printf( "XMLDocument error id=%d str1=%s str2=%s\n",
+ errorID, buf1, buf2 );
+ }
+}
+
+
+XMLStreamer::XMLStreamer( FILE* file ) :
+ elementJustOpened( false ),
+ firstElement( true ),
+ fp( file ),
+ depth( 0 ),
+ textDepth( -1 )
{
for( int i=0; i 0) {
+ if ( textDepth < 0 && !firstElement ) {
Print( "\n" );
PrintSpace( depth );
}
Print( "<%s", name );
elementJustOpened = true;
+ firstElement = false;
++depth;
}
@@ -1066,7 +1166,7 @@ void XMLStreamer::PushAttribute( const char* name, const char* value )
{
TIXMLASSERT( elementJustOpened );
Print( " %s=\"", name );
- PrintString( value );
+ PrintString( value, false );
Print( "\"" );
}
@@ -1109,11 +1209,14 @@ void XMLStreamer::PushText( const char* text, bool cdata )
if ( elementJustOpened ) {
SealElement();
}
- if ( cdata )
+ if ( cdata ) {
Print( "" );
+ }
+ else {
+ PrintString( text, true );
+ }
}
@@ -1122,14 +1225,43 @@ void XMLStreamer::PushComment( const char* comment )
if ( elementJustOpened ) {
SealElement();
}
- if ( textDepth < 0 && depth > 0) {
+ if ( textDepth < 0 && !firstElement ) {
Print( "\n" );
PrintSpace( depth );
}
+ firstElement = false;
Print( "", comment );
}
+void XMLStreamer::PushDeclaration( const char* value )
+{
+ if ( elementJustOpened ) {
+ SealElement();
+ }
+ if ( textDepth < 0 && !firstElement) {
+ Print( "\n" );
+ PrintSpace( depth );
+ }
+ firstElement = false;
+ Print( "", value );
+}
+
+
+void XMLStreamer::PushUnknown( const char* value )
+{
+ if ( elementJustOpened ) {
+ SealElement();
+ }
+ if ( textDepth < 0 && !firstElement ) {
+ Print( "\n" );
+ PrintSpace( depth );
+ }
+ firstElement = false;
+ Print( "", value );
+}
+
+
bool XMLStreamer::VisitEnter( const XMLElement& element, const XMLAttribute* attribute )
{
OpenElement( element.Name() );
@@ -1160,3 +1292,18 @@ bool XMLStreamer::Visit( const XMLComment& comment )
PushComment( comment.Value() );
return true;
}
+
+bool XMLStreamer::Visit( const XMLDeclaration& declaration )
+{
+ PushDeclaration( declaration.Value() );
+ return true;
+}
+
+
+bool XMLStreamer::Visit( const XMLUnknown& unknown )
+{
+ PushUnknown( unknown.Value() );
+ return true;
+}
+
+
diff --git a/tinyxml2.h b/tinyxml2.h
index 2e46ba1..4792b09 100644
--- a/tinyxml2.h
+++ b/tinyxml2.h
@@ -15,14 +15,15 @@
X UTF8 support: isAlpha, etc.
X string buffer for sets. (Grr.)
- MS BOM
- - print to memory buffer
+ X print to memory buffer
- tests from xml1
- xml1 tests especially UTF-8
- perf test: xml1
- perf test: xenowar
- test: load(char*)
- test: load(FILE*)
-
+ - rename declaration
+ - rename streamer
*/
#include
@@ -689,9 +690,10 @@ public:
virtual XMLDocument* ToDocument() { return this; }
virtual const XMLDocument* ToDocument() const { return this; }
- int Parse( const char* );
- int Load( const char* );
+ int Parse( const char* xml );
+ int Load( const char* filename );
int Load( FILE* );
+ void Save( const char* filename );
void Print( XMLStreamer* streamer=0 );
virtual bool Accept( XMLVisitor* visitor ) const;
@@ -716,10 +718,17 @@ public:
enum {
NO_ERROR = 0,
+ ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND,
ERROR_ELEMENT_MISMATCH,
ERROR_PARSING_ELEMENT,
ERROR_PARSING_ATTRIBUTE,
- ERROR_IDENTIFYING_TAG
+ ERROR_IDENTIFYING_TAG,
+ ERROR_PARSING_TEXT,
+ ERROR_PARSING_CDATA,
+ ERROR_PARSING_COMMENT,
+ ERROR_PARSING_DECLARATION,
+ ERROR_PARSING_UNKNOWN
+
};
void SetError( int error, const char* str1, const char* str2 );
@@ -727,6 +736,7 @@ public:
int GetErrorID() const { return errorID; }
const char* GetErrorStr1() const { return errorStr1; }
const char* GetErrorStr2() const { return errorStr2; }
+ void PrintError() const;
char* Identify( char* p, XMLNode** node );
@@ -759,6 +769,8 @@ public:
void PushText( const char* text, bool cdata=false );
void PushComment( const char* comment );
+ void PushDeclaration( const char* value );
+ void PushUnknown( const char* value );
virtual bool VisitEnter( const XMLDocument& /*doc*/ ) { return true; }
virtual bool VisitExit( const XMLDocument& /*doc*/ ) { return true; }
@@ -768,24 +780,28 @@ public:
virtual bool Visit( const XMLText& text );
virtual bool Visit( const XMLComment& comment );
+ virtual bool Visit( const XMLDeclaration& declaration );
+ virtual bool Visit( const XMLUnknown& unknown );
const char* CStr() const { return buffer.Mem(); }
private:
void SealElement();
void PrintSpace( int depth );
- void PrintString( const char* ); // prints out, after detecting entities.
+ void PrintString( const char*, bool restrictedEntitySet ); // prints out, after detecting entities.
void Print( const char* format, ... );
+ bool elementJustOpened;
+ bool firstElement;
FILE* fp;
int depth;
- bool elementJustOpened;
int textDepth;
enum {
ENTITY_RANGE = 64
};
bool entityFlag[ENTITY_RANGE];
+ bool restrictedEntityFlag[ENTITY_RANGE];
DynArray< const char*, 10 > stack;
DynArray< char, 20 > buffer, accumulator;
diff --git a/xmltest.cpp b/xmltest.cpp
index f5cb241..c025841 100644
--- a/xmltest.cpp
+++ b/xmltest.cpp
@@ -14,6 +14,36 @@ using namespace tinyxml2;
int gPass = 0;
int gFail = 0;
+//#define DREAM_ONLY
+
+/*
+int gNew = 0;
+int gNewTotal = 0;
+
+void* operator new( size_t size )
+{
+ ++gNew;
+ return malloc( size );
+}
+
+void* operator new[]( size_t size )
+{
+ ++gNew;
+ return malloc( size );
+}
+
+void operator delete[]( void* mem )
+{
+ free( mem );
+}
+
+void operator delete( void* mem )
+{
+ free( mem );
+}
+*/
+
+
bool XMLTest (const char* testString, const char* expected, const char* found, bool echo=true )
{
bool pass = !strcmp( expected, found );
@@ -61,7 +91,7 @@ int main( int argc, const char* argv )
#if defined( WIN32 )
_CrtMemCheckpoint( &startMemState );
#endif
-
+#ifndef DREAM_ONLY
#if 0
{
static const char* test = "