A Midsummer Night’s Dream

1 Enter Titania with her Train.
2 TITANIA.
3 Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;
4 Then for the third part of a minute, hence;
5 Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds;
6 Some war with reremice for their leathern wings,
7 To make my small elves coats; and some keep back
8 The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots and wonders
9 At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
10 Then to your offices, and let me rest.
11 Fairies sing.
12 FIRST FAIRY.
13 You spotted snakes with double tongue,
14 Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
15 Newts and blind-worms do no wrong,
16 Come not near our Fairy Queen:
17 CHORUS.
18 Philomel, with melody,
19 Sing in our sweet lullaby:
20 Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby.
21 Never harm, nor spell, nor charm,
22 Come our lovely lady nigh;
23 So good night, with lullaby.
24 FIRST FAIRY.
25 Weaving spiders, come not here;
26 Hence, you long-legg’d spinners, hence.
27 Beetles black, approach not near;
28 Worm nor snail do no offence.
29 CHORUS.
30 Philomel with melody, &c.
31 SECOND FAIRY.
32 Hence away! Now all is well.
33 One aloof stand sentinel.
34 [_Exeunt Fairies. Titania sleeps._]
35 Enter Oberon.
36 OBERON.
37 What thou seest when thou dost wake,
38 [_Squeezes the flower on Titania’s eyelids._]
39 Do it for thy true love take;
40 Love and languish for his sake.
41 Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
42 Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
43 In thy eye that shall appear
44 When thou wak’st, it is thy dear.
45 Wake when some vile thing is near.
46 [_Exit._]
47 Enter Lysander and Hermia.
48 LYSANDER.
49 Fair love, you faint with wand’ring in the wood.
50 And, to speak troth, I have forgot our way.
51 We’ll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,
52 And tarry for the comfort of the day.
53 HERMIA.
54 Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed,
55 For I upon this bank will rest my head.
56 LYSANDER.
57 One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;
58 One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth.
59 HERMIA.
60 Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear,
61 Lie further off yet, do not lie so near.
62 LYSANDER.
63 O take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!
64 Love takes the meaning in love’s conference.
65 I mean that my heart unto yours is knit,
66 So that but one heart we can make of it:
67 Two bosoms interchainèd with an oath,
68 So then two bosoms and a single troth.
69 Then by your side no bed-room me deny;
70 For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.
71 HERMIA.
72 Lysander riddles very prettily.
73 Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,
74 If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied!
75 But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy
76 Lie further off, in human modesty,
77 Such separation as may well be said
78 Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid,
79 So far be distant; and good night, sweet friend:
80 Thy love ne’er alter till thy sweet life end!
81 LYSANDER.
82 Amen, amen, to that fair prayer say I;
83 And then end life when I end loyalty!
84 Here is my bed. Sleep give thee all his rest!
85 HERMIA.
86 With half that wish the wisher’s eyes be pressed!
87 [_They sleep._]
88 Enter Puck.
89 PUCK.
90 Through the forest have I gone,
91 But Athenian found I none,
92 On whose eyes I might approve
93 This flower’s force in stirring love.
94 Night and silence! Who is here?
95 Weeds of Athens he doth wear:
96 This is he, my master said,
97 Despisèd the Athenian maid;
98 And here the maiden, sleeping sound,
99 On the dank and dirty ground.
100 Pretty soul, she durst not lie
101 Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.
102 Churl, upon thy eyes I throw
103 All the power this charm doth owe;
104 When thou wak’st let love forbid
105 Sleep his seat on thy eyelid.
106 So awake when I am gone;
107 For I must now to Oberon.
108 [_Exit._]
109 Enter Demetrius and Helena, running.
110 HELENA.
111 Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.
112 DEMETRIUS.
113 I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.
114 HELENA.
115 O, wilt thou darkling leave me? Do not so.
116 DEMETRIUS.
117 Stay, on thy peril; I alone will go.
118 [_Exit Demetrius._]
119 HELENA.
120 O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!
121 The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.
122 Happy is Hermia, wheresoe’er she lies,
123 For she hath blessèd and attractive eyes.
124 How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears.
125 If so, my eyes are oftener wash’d than hers.
126 No, no, I am as ugly as a bear,
127 For beasts that meet me run away for fear:
128 Therefore no marvel though Demetrius
129 Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus.
130 What wicked and dissembling glass of mine
131 Made me compare with Hermia’s sphery eyne?
132 But who is here? Lysander, on the ground!
133 Dead or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.
134 Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake.
135 LYSANDER.
136 [_Waking._] And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake.
137 Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,
138 That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.
139 Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word
140 Is that vile name to perish on my sword!
141 HELENA.
142 Do not say so, Lysander, say not so.
143 What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?
144 Yet Hermia still loves you. Then be content.
145 LYSANDER.
146 Content with Hermia? No, I do repent
147 The tedious minutes I with her have spent.
148 Not Hermia, but Helena I love.
149 Who will not change a raven for a dove?
150 The will of man is by his reason sway’d,
151 And reason says you are the worthier maid.
152 Things growing are not ripe until their season;
153 So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;
154 And touching now the point of human skill,
155 Reason becomes the marshal to my will,
156 And leads me to your eyes, where I o’erlook
157 Love’s stories, written in love’s richest book.
158 HELENA.
159 Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?
160 When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?
161 Is’t not enough, is’t not enough, young man,
162 That I did never, no, nor never can
163 Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius’ eye,
164 But you must flout my insufficiency?
165 Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do,
166 In such disdainful manner me to woo.
167 But fare you well; perforce I must confess,
168 I thought you lord of more true gentleness.
169 O, that a lady of one man refus’d,
170 Should of another therefore be abus’d!
171 [_Exit._]
172 LYSANDER.
173 She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there,
174 And never mayst thou come Lysander near!
175 For, as a surfeit of the sweetest things
176 The deepest loathing to the stomach brings;
177 Or as the heresies that men do leave
178 Are hated most of those they did deceive;
179 So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,
180 Of all be hated, but the most of me!
181 And, all my powers, address your love and might
182 To honour Helen, and to be her knight!
183 [_Exit._]
184 HERMIA.
185 [_Starting._] Help me, Lysander, help me! Do thy best
186 To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!
187 Ay me, for pity! What a dream was here!
188 Lysander, look how I do quake with fear.
189 Methought a serpent eat my heart away,
190 And you sat smiling at his cruel prey.
191 Lysander! What, removed? Lysander! lord!
192 What, out of hearing? Gone? No sound, no word?
193 Alack, where are you? Speak, and if you hear;
194 Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.
195 No? Then I well perceive you are not nigh.
196 Either death or you I’ll find immediately.
197 [_Exit._]