SCENE I. The Wood
Lysander, Demetrius, Helena and Hermia still 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 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 with a honey-bag, signior.
Where’s Monsieur Mustardseed?
MUSTARDSEED.
Ready.
BOTTOM.
Give me your neaf, Monsieur Mustardseed. Pray you, leave your courtesy,
good monsieur.
MUSTARDSEED.
What’s your will?
BOTTOM.
Nothing, good monsieur, 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 us 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, be gone, and be all ways away.
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._]
Oberon advances. Enter Puck.
OBERON.
Welcome, good Robin. Seest thou this sweet sight?
Her dotage now I do begin to pity.
For, meeting her of late behind the wood,
Seeking sweet favours 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 on the buds
Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flouriets’ 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 fairyland.
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,
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.
[_Touching her eyes with an herb._]
Be as thou wast wont to be;
See as thou was 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.
PUCK.
Now when thou wak’st, with thine own fool’s eyes peep.
OBERON.
Sound, music.
[_Still 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 tomorrow 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 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.
[_Exeunt. Horns sound 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 dewlap’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 of 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. Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia and Helena wake
and start up.
Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past.
Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
LYSANDER.
Pardon, my lord.
He and the rest kneel to Theseus.
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 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 stol’n 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 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 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 purpos’d 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,
Like far-off mountains turnèd into clouds.
HERMIA.
Methinks I see these things with parted eye,
When everything 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.
[_Waking._] 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! Stol’n 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. A Room in 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 not true Athenian. I will tell you everything, 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 Thisbe have clean linen; and let not him that plays the
lion pare his nails, for they shall hang out for the lion’s claws. And
most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlick, 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. An Apartment in 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 a 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 transfigur’d so together,
More witnesseth than fancy’s images,
And grows to something of great constancy;
But, howsoever, strange and admirable.
Enter lovers: Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia and Helena.
THESEUS.
Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.
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 abridgment 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.
‘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.
‘The thrice three Muses mourning for the death
Of learning, late deceas’d in beggary.’
That is some satire, keen and critical,
Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.
‘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 rehears’d, 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 unbreath’d 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’ercharged,
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 practis’d 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.
Enter Philostrate.
PHILOSTRATE.
So please your grace, the Prologue is address’d.
THESEUS.
Let him approach.
Flourish of trumpets. Enter 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 content 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 this 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 as in dumb show.
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 Thisbe 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 lantern, 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 Thisbe, 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 Thisbe’s mantle slain;
Whereat with blade, with bloody blameful blade,
He bravely broach’d his boiling bloody breast;
And Thisbe, 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, Pyramus, 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 Thisbe,
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.
THESEUS.
Pyramus draws near the wall; silence.
Enter Pyramus.
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 Thisbe’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 Thisbe do I see.
O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss,
Curs’d 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 Thisbe’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 Thisbe’s face.
Thisbe?
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.
WALL.
Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so;
And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.
[_Exeunt Wall, Pyramus and Thisbe._]
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, and 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 hornèd 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 hornèd 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 lantern. 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.
MOON.
All that I have to say, is to tell you that the lantern is the moon; I
the man i’ the moon; this thorn-bush my thorn-bush; and this dog my
dog.
DEMETRIUS.
Why, all these should be in the lantern, 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.
Oh!
[_The Lion roars, 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 tears Thisbe’s mantle, and exit._]
THESEUS.
Well moused, Lion.
DEMETRIUS.
And then came Pyramus.
LYSANDER.
And so the lion vanished.
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 Thisbe 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, stained with blood?
Approach, ye Furies fell!
O Fates, come, come;
Cut thread and thrum;
Quail, rush, 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 liv’d, that lov’d, that lik’d, that look’d with cheer.
Come, tears, confound!
Out, sword, and wound
The pap of Pyramus;
Ay, that left pap,
Where heart doth hop:
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!
Now die, die, die, die, die.
[_Dies. Exit Moonshine._]
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.
Enter Thisbe.
Here she comes, and her passion ends the play.
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 lily 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;
And farewell, friends.
Thus Thisbe ends.
Adieu, adieu, adieu.
[_Dies._]
THESEUS.
Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead.
DEMETRIUS.
Ay, and Wall too.
BOTTOM.
No, I 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 need 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.
[_Here a dance of Clowns._]
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve.
Lovers, to bed; ’tis almost fairy time.
I fear we shall outsleep the coming morn
As much as we this night have overwatch’d.
This palpable-gross play hath well beguil’d
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 glimmering 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 blessèd 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 it 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 unearnèd 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.
[_Exit._]