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 others 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 thou as thou wast wont to be;

[Touching her eyes with an herb.

See as thou wast wont to see.
Dian's bud1 o'er Cupid's flower
Hath such force and blessed power.
Now, my Titania, wake you, my sweet queen.
Tita. My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamored of an ass.

Obe. There lies your love.

Tita.

How came these things to pass?

O, how mine eyes do loath his visage now!

Obe. Silence, awhile.-Robin, take off this head.Titania, music call; and strike more dead

Than common sleep, of all these five the sense.
Tita. Music, ho! music; such as charmeth sleep.
Puck. Now when thou wak'st, with thine own
fool's eyes peep.

Obe. Sound, music. [Still music.]

queen, take hands with me,

Come, my

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 posterity.

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.

1 Dian's bud is the bud of the Agnus Castus.

Obe. Then, my queen, in silence sad,1
Trip we after the night's shade.

We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wandering moon.

Tita. 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 sound within

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and Train.

;

The. Go, one of you, find out the forester ;—
For now our observation is performed,2
And since we have the vaward of the day,
My love shall hear the music of my hounds.--
Uncouple in the western valley; go:
Despatch, I say, and find the forester.-
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,
And mark the musical confusion

Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

3

Hip. I was with Hercules, and Cadmus, once,
When in a wood of Crete they bayed the bear
With hounds of Sparta. Never did I hear
Such gallant chiding; for, besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, every region near
Seemed all one mutual cry. I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.

4

The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, So flewed, so sanded; 5 and their heads are hung With ears that sweep away the morning dew; Crook-kneed, and dew-lapped like Thessalian bulls; Slow in pursuit, but matched in mouth like bells, Each under each. A cry more tunable

1 Sad here signifies only grave, serious.

2 i. e. the honors due to the morning of May.

3 Chiding means here the cry of hounds. To chide is used sometimes

ior to sound, or make a noise, without any reference to scolding.

4 The flews are the large chaps of a deep-mouthed hound.

5 Sanded means of a sandy color, which is one of the true denotements of a blood-hound.

Was never hollaed to, nor cheered with horn,
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly.

Judge, when you hear.-But soft; what nymphs are these?

Ege. 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.

The. No doubt, they rose up early, to observe
The rite of May; and, hearing our intent,
Came here in grace of our solemnity.-
But speak, Egeus; is not this the day

That Hermia should give answer of her choice?
Ege. It is, my

lord.

The. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.

Horns and shout within.

DEMETRIUS, LYSANDER,

HERMIA, and HELENA, wake and start up.

The. Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is

past;

Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?

Lys. Pardon, my lord.

The.

[He and the rest kneel to THESEUS

I

pray you

all stand up.

I know you are two 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?
Lys. My lord, I shall reply amazedly,

Half 'sleep, half waking. But as yet, I swear,
I cannot truly say how I came here;
But, as I think, (for truly would I speak,
And now I do bethink me, so it is,)

I came with Hermia hither. Our intent

Was to be gone from Athens, where we might be
Without the peril of the Athenian law.

Ege. 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 and me;

you

You, of your wife; and me, of my consent;

Of my consent that she should be your wife.

Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
Of this their purpose hither, to this wood;
And I in fury hither followed them;
Fair Helena in fancy1 following me.

But, my good lord, I wot not by what power
(But by some power it is) my love to Hermia,
Melted as doth the snow, seems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gawd,
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 betrothed ere I saw Hermia;
But, like in sickness, did I loath this food;
But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
Now do I wish it, love it, long for it,
And will for evermore be true to it.

The. 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 THE., HIP., EGE. and Train
Dem. These things seem small and undistinguishable
Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.

Her. Methinks I see these things with parted eye, When every thing seems double.

Hel.

So methinks;

And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,
Mine own, and not mine own.

Fancy is here love or affection, and is opposed to fury.

Dem.

It seems to me,

That yet we sleep, we dream.-Do not you think,
The duke was here, and bid us follow him?

Her. Yea, and my father.
Hel.

And Hippolyta.

Lys. And he did bid us follow to the temple.

Dem. Why, then we are awake. Let's follow him, And, by the way, let us recount our dreams. [Exeunt.

As they go out, BoттOм awakes.

Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer. My next is, Most fair Pyramus.-Hey, 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.1 [Exit.

SCENE II. Athens. A Room in Quince's House.

Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING. Quin. Have you sent to Bottom's house? Is he come home yet?