Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest! Enter PUCK. Puck. Through the forest have I gone, And here the maiden, sleeping sound, All the power this charm doth owe." So awake when I am gone; [Exit. Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running. Hel. Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius. Dead? or asleep?—I see no blood, no wound.— Lys. [Awaking.] And run through fire I will, Transparent Helena! Nature here shows art, Is that vile name to perish on my sword! 75 Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content. pent The tedious minutes I with her have spent. Dem. I charge thee, hence; and do not haunt When, at your hands, did I deserve this scorn? me thus. Hel. Oh, wilt thou darkling 72 leave me? do not so. Dem. Stay, on thy peril: I alone will go. [Exit DEM. Hel. Oh, I am out of breath in this fond chase! The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.73 For she hath blessed and attractive eyes. Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man, 78 In such disdainful manner me to woo. But fare you well: perforce I must confess I thought you lord of more true gentleness.79 How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt Should of another therefore be abus'd! 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: But who is here?-Lysander! on the ground! 68. Weeds of Athens. Athenian garments. 69. Dank. Damp, moist, humid. 70 Churl. Originally, a rustic, a boor; afterwards used for a rude, rough, harsh, surly, or ill-bred person. 71. Owe. Own, possess, contain. 72 Darkling. In the dark. An expression chiefly used in poetry. 73 Grace. Here used for 'favour gained,' 'kindness accorded.' 74 Eyne. An old form of 'eyes.' See Note 38, Act i. [Exit. VOL. 1. 43 [Exit. To honour Helen, and to be her knight! Her. [Awaking.] 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! Lysander, look how I do quake with fear: Methought a serpent eat my heart away, 80 And you sat smiling at his cruel prey.R ACT III. 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 a sword to kill himself; which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that ? Snout. By'r lakin, a parlous fear.2 selves 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 Star. I believe we must leave the killing out, hard things-that is, to bring the moonlight into a when all is done. eight and eight." chamber; for, you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moonlight. Snug. Doth the moon shine that night we play our play? Bot. A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanac; find out moonshine, find out moonshine. Quin. Yes, it doth shine that night. Bot. 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. Quin. Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lantern, and say he comes to 6 Snout. Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion? disfigure, or to present, the person of moonshine. Star. I fear it,.I promise you. Bot. Masters, you ought to consider with your 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. Snug. You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom? Bot. 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. Quin. 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;7-and so every one according to his cue.8 Enter PUCK behind. Puck. What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here, So near the cradle of the fairy queen ? Quin. Speak, Pyramus.-Thisby, stand forth. Pyr. odours savours sweet: So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear. But hark! a voice; stay thou but here awhile, [Exit. derstand, he goes but to see a noise that he heard, 12 translated.14 and is to come again. 1 Brake. A thorny thicket. In this scene the sentences, "This hawthorn-brake our 'tiring-house," and "Enter into that brake," show it to mean a thorn-enclosed space in the wood. See Note Act ii., 9, "Measure for Measure." 8. Cue. A theatrical term for the concluding words of a speech; which gives warning to the next speaker that his turn is come to speak. A little farther on, we find how Flute jumbles his cues and speeches together, and causes Bottom to miss the cue for his re-entrance. 9 What, a play toward! In this idiomatic phrase, "toward" has the force of going forward,' in course of preparation. 10. The flowers of odious savours sweet. Pottom blunders "of" for "have,' as he does "odious" for 'odours.' 11. Than e'er play'd here! Puck uses "here" in this passage as Titania uses the word in the line-" The human mortals want their winter here; as a kind of expletive, to fill up or round off the sentence: though it has, moreover, a good effect in the fairy-faik's mouths, as conveying an impression of their looking on at humanity and its doings, in the character of creatures apart from its nature. [Exit. Bot. 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, 15 The ousel-cock 16 so black of hue, The throstle 17 with his note so true, [Sings. 12. He goes but to see a noise that he heard. Shakespeare is fond of this kind of jest. A similar one occurs in Act iv., sc. 1., and in Act v., sc. 1., of the present play. "Juvenal" 13. Brisky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew. means 'youth.' See Note 42, Act 1, "Love's Labour's Lost." "Eke" is also,' 'likewise,'' moreover." " Jew" is here used as a term of endearment. See Note 27, Act iii., "Love's Labour's Lost.' 14 Translated. Used for 'transformed.' See Note 32, Act i. 15. I will sing, that they shall hear I am not afraid. It is pleasant to notify similitudes of thinking in the two greatest masters of comic drama that ever wrote-Shakespeare and Molière. Sosia, in “Amphitryon," watching through the dark night, and seeing somebody coming, says-"I'll sing a little, that I may seem at ease." In the same way, Master Slender's "I'll rather be unmannerly than troublesome" ("Merry Wives of Windsor," Act i., sc. 1), has an exact parallel in Mons. Jourdain's "I'd rather be uncivil than tiresome " 16. The ousel-cock. A name used in Shakespeare's time for the black bird. 17. The throstle. The missel-thrush. Quin. Oh, monstrous! Oh, strange! we are haunted.-Pray, masters! fly, masters!-Help! Act III. Scene 1. Tita. [Awaking.] What angel wakes me from | On the first view, to say, to swear, I love thee. my flowery bed? Bot. [Sings.] Bot. 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 19 upon occasion. Tita. Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful. Bot. Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn. Tita. 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, 19. Gleek. To joke, to jest. Bottom alludes to his playing on the expression, "Keep little company," by adding that some people should make them friends." 20. Wit. Used in the sense of wisdom,' 'intelligence.' |