Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine, And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes, Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove: With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes; Tita. Come, now a roundel,† and a fairy song; SONG. 1 Fai. You spotted snakes, with double tongue, Newts, and blind-worms,¶ do no wrong; CHORUS. Philomel, with melody, Sing in our sweet lullaby; Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby: Come our lovely lady nigh: So, good night, with lullaby. [Exeunt. + Bats. Slow-worms. 1 Fai. Hence, away; now all is well: [Exeunt Fairies.-TITANIA sleeps. Enter OBERON. Obe. What thou seest, when thou dost wake, [Squeezes the flower on TITANIA's eyelids. Do it for thy true love take; Wake, when some vile thing is near. Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA. Lys. Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood; Lys. One turf shall serve as pillow for us both. Lys. O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence; Her. Lysander riddles very prettily:- So far be distant; and good night, sweet friend: Lys. 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! Her. With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd! Enter PUCK. Puck. Through the forest have I gone, But Athenian found I none, The small tiger. [Exit. [They sleep. On whose eyes I might approve Churl, upon thy eyes I throw All the power this charm doth owe:* When thou wak'st, let love forbid Sleep his seat on thy eyelid. So awake, when I am gone; For I must now to Oberon. Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running. [Exit. [Exit DEMETRIUS. Hel. Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius. How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears: For beasts that meet me, run away for fear: Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne?- Lys. And run through fire I will, for thy sweet sake. Transparent Helena! Nature here shows art, That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart. Is that vile name, to perish on my sword! Hel. Do not say so, Lysander; say not so: [Waking. What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though? Lys. Content with Hermia? No: I do repent Not Hermia, but Helena I love: Who will not change a raven for a dove? * Possess. In the dark. Things growing are not ripe until their season: Hel. Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born? 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! Lys. 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 the 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. [Exit. Her. [starting]. Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best, To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast! Ah me, for pity!-what a dream was here? [Exit. ACT III. SCENE I-The same. The Queen of Fairies lying asleep. Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING. Bot. Are we all met? Quin. Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place for By all that is dear. our rehearsal: This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn brake our tyring-house; and we will do it in action, as we will do it before the duke. Bot. Peter Quince, Quin. What say'st thou, bully Bottom? Bot. There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisby, that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw his sword to kill himself; which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that ? Snout. By'r lakin,* a parloust fear. Star. I believe, we must leave the killing out, when all is done. Bot. 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. Quin. Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall be written in eight and six. Bot. No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight. Snout. Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion? Star. I fear it, I promise you. Bot. 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 it. Snout. Therefore, another prologue must tell, he is not a lion. Bot. 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. Quin. Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard things; that is, to bring the moon-light into a chamber: for you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moon-light. Snug. Doth the moon shine, that night we play our play? Bot. A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanack; find out moon-shine, find out moon-shine. Quin. Yes, it doth shine that night. Bot. Why, then you may leave a casement of the great chamber window, where we play, open; and the moon may shine in at the casement. Quin. Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lantern, and say, he comes to disfigure, or to present, the person of moon-shine. Then, there is another thing: we must By our ladykin. + Dangerous. + Terrible. |