A Midsummer Night's Dream (12 page)

TITANIA
    Come, sit thee down upon this flow'ry bed,

While I thy
amiable
cheeks do
coy
²
,

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 Monsieur

Cobweb?

COBWEB
    Ready.

BOTTOM
    Monsieur Cobweb, good monsieur, get you your

weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped humble-bee on

the top of a thistle; and, good monsieur, bring me the honey-bag.

Do not fret yourself too much in the action, monsieur;

and, good monsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not. I

would be loath to have you
overflown
¹⁵
with a honey-bag,

signior. Where's Monsieur Mustardseed?

MUSTARDSEED
    Ready.

BOTTOM
    Give me your
neaf
¹⁸
, Monsieur Mustardseed. Pray

you
leave your courtesy
¹⁹
, good monsieur.

MUSTARDSEED
    What's your will?

BOTTOM
    Nothing, good monsieur, but to help
Cavalery
²¹

Cobweb
²²
to scratch. I must to the barber's, monsieur, for

methinks I am
marvellous
²³
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 us have

the
tongs
and the
bones
²⁷
.

TITANIA
    Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat.

BOTTOM
    Truly, a
peck
²⁹
of provender; I could munch your

good dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a
bottle
³⁰
of

hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no
fellow
³¹
.

TITANIA
    I have a
vent'rous
³²
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
³⁵
me. I have an

exposition of
³⁶
sleep come upon me.

TITANIA
    Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.

Fairies, begone, and be
all ways away
³⁸
.

So doth the
woodbine
³⁹
the sweet honeysuckle

Gently entwist; the female ivy so

Enrings
⁴¹
the barky fingers of the elm.

O, how I love thee! How I dote on thee!

OBERON
    Welcome, good Robin.

See'st thou this sweet sight?

Her
dotage
⁴⁵
now I do begin to pity.

For, meeting her of late behind the wood,

Seeking sweet
favours
⁴⁷
for this hateful fool,

I did upbraid her and fall out with her.

For she his hairy temples then had rounded

With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers.

And that same dew, which
sometime
⁵¹
on the buds

Was wont to swell like round and
orient
⁵²
pearls,

Stood now within the pretty
flowerets'
⁵³
eyes

Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail.

When I had at my pleasure taunted her,

And she in mild terms begged 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 transformèd scalp

From off the head of this Athenian
swain
⁶³
;

That, he awaking when the
other
⁶⁴
do,

May all to Athens back again
repair
⁶⁵
,

And think no more of this night's
accidents
⁶⁶

But as the fierce vexation of a dream.

But first I will release the fairy queen.

Be thou as thou wast wont to be;

See as thou wast wont to see.

Dian's bud
⁷¹
o'er Cupid's flower

Hath such force and blessèd power.

Now, my Titania, wake you, my sweet queen.

TITANIA
    My Oberon! What visions have I seen!

Methought I was enamoured 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
⁸¹
the sense.

TITANIA
    
Music
, ho! Music, such as
charmeth
⁸²
sleep!

ROBIN
    Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own fool's eyes peep.

OBERON
    Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands with me,

Oberon and Titania may dance

And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.

Now thou and I are new in amity,

And will tomorrow midnight
solemnly
⁸⁷

Dance in Duke Theseus' house
triumphantly
⁸⁸
,

And bless it to all fair prosperity.

There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be

Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.

ROBIN
    Fairy king,
attend
⁹²
, and mark:

I do hear the morning lark.

OBERON
    Then, my queen, in silence
sad
⁹⁴
,

Trip
⁹⁵
we after the night's shade;

We the globe can compass soon,

Swifter than the wand'ring 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.

THESEUS
    Go, one of you, find out the forester,

For now our
observation
¹⁰³
is performed;

And since we have the
vaward
¹⁰⁴
of the day,

My love shall hear the music of my hounds.

Uncouple
¹⁰⁶
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
¹¹¹
once,

When in a wood of Crete they
bayed
¹¹²
the bear

With
hounds of Sparta
¹¹³
; never did I hear

Such gallant
chiding
¹¹⁴
, 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.

THESEUS
    My hounds are bred out of the Spartan
kind
¹¹⁸
,

So flewed
, so
sanded
¹¹⁹
, and their heads are hung

With ears that sweep away the morning dew,

Crook-kneed and
dewlapped
like
Thessalian
¹²¹
bulls,

Slow in pursuit, but
matched in mouth
¹²²
like bells,

Each under each. A cry more
tuneable
¹²³

Was never
hallowed to
, nor
cheered
¹²⁴
with horn,

In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly;

Judge when you hear. But,
soft
¹²⁶
! 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
¹³⁰
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 of
our
solemnity
¹³³
.

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 they wake. Shout within, they all start up
.

Good morrow, friends.
Saint Valentine
¹³⁸
is past.

Begin these woodbirds but to
couple
¹³⁹
now?

LYSANDER
    Pardon, my lord.

THESEUS
    I pray you all stand up.

They stand

I know you two are rival enemies.

How comes this gentle concord in the world,

That hatred is so far from
jealousy
¹⁴⁴
,

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 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.

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
¹⁵⁷
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 followed them;

Fair Helena in
fancy
¹⁶³
followed 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
¹⁶⁷

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 a 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 shall hear more anon.

Egeus, I will
overbear
¹⁷⁹
your will;

For in the temple,
by and by
¹⁸⁰
with us,

These couples shall eternally be knit.

And,
for
the morning now is
something worn
¹⁸²
,

Our
purposed
¹⁸³
hunting shall be set aside.

Away with us to Athens; three and three,

We'll hold a feast
in
great
solemnity
¹⁸⁵
.—