A Midsummer Night’s Dream

1 Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate, Lords and Attendants.
2 HIPPOLYTA.
3 ’Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of.
4 THESEUS.
5 More strange than true. I never may believe
6 These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
7 Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
8 Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
9 More than cool reason ever comprehends.
10 The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
11 Are of imagination all compact:
12 One sees more devils than vast hell can hold;
13 That is the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
14 Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt:
15 The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
16 Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
17 And as imagination bodies forth
18 The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
19 Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
20 A local habitation and a name.
21 Such tricks hath strong imagination,
22 That if it would but apprehend some joy,
23 It comprehends some bringer of that joy.
24 Or in the night, imagining some fear,
25 How easy is a bush supposed a bear?
26 HIPPOLYTA.
27 But all the story of the night told over,
28 And all their minds transfigur’d so together,
29 More witnesseth than fancy’s images,
30 And grows to something of great constancy;
31 But, howsoever, strange and admirable.
32 Enter lovers: Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia and Helena.
33 THESEUS.
34 Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.
35 Joy, gentle friends, joy and fresh days of love
36 Accompany your hearts!
37 LYSANDER.
38 More than to us
39 Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed!
40 THESEUS.
41 Come now; what masques, what dances shall we have,
42 To wear away this long age of three hours
43 Between our after-supper and bed-time?
44 Where is our usual manager of mirth?
45 What revels are in hand? Is there no play
46 To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
47 Call Philostrate.
48 PHILOSTRATE.
49 Here, mighty Theseus.
50 THESEUS.
51 Say, what abridgment have you for this evening?
52 What masque? What music? How shall we beguile
53 The lazy time, if not with some delight?
54 PHILOSTRATE.
55 There is a brief how many sports are ripe.
56 Make choice of which your Highness will see first.
57 [_Giving a paper._]
58 THESEUS.
59 [_Reads_] ‘The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung
60 By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.’
61 We’ll none of that. That have I told my love
62 In glory of my kinsman Hercules.
63 ‘The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,
64 Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage?’
65 That is an old device, and it was play’d
66 When I from Thebes came last a conqueror.
67 ‘The thrice three Muses mourning for the death
68 Of learning, late deceas’d in beggary.’
69 That is some satire, keen and critical,
70 Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.
71 ‘A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
72 And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.’
73 Merry and tragical? Tedious and brief?
74 That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow.
75 How shall we find the concord of this discord?
76 PHILOSTRATE.
77 A play there is, my lord, some ten words long,
78 Which is as brief as I have known a play;
79 But by ten words, my lord, it is too long,
80 Which makes it tedious. For in all the play
81 There is not one word apt, one player fitted.
82 And tragical, my noble lord, it is.
83 For Pyramus therein doth kill himself,
84 Which, when I saw rehears’d, I must confess,
85 Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears
86 The passion of loud laughter never shed.
87 THESEUS.
88 What are they that do play it?
89 PHILOSTRATE.
90 Hard-handed men that work in Athens here,
91 Which never labour’d in their minds till now;
92 And now have toil’d their unbreath’d memories
93 With this same play against your nuptial.
94 THESEUS.
95 And we will hear it.
96 PHILOSTRATE.
97 No, my noble lord,
98 It is not for you: I have heard it over,
99 And it is nothing, nothing in the world;
100 Unless you can find sport in their intents,
101 Extremely stretch’d and conn’d with cruel pain
102 To do you service.
103 THESEUS.
104 I will hear that play;
105 For never anything can be amiss
106 When simpleness and duty tender it.
107 Go, bring them in: and take your places, ladies.
108 [_Exit Philostrate._]
109 HIPPOLYTA.
110 I love not to see wretchedness o’ercharged,
111 And duty in his service perishing.
112 THESEUS.
113 Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing.
114 HIPPOLYTA.
115 He says they can do nothing in this kind.
116 THESEUS.
117 The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.
118 Our sport shall be to take what they mistake:
119 And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect
120 Takes it in might, not merit.
121 Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
122 To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
123 Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
124 Make periods in the midst of sentences,
125 Throttle their practis’d accent in their fears,
126 And, in conclusion, dumbly have broke off,
127 Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,
128 Out of this silence yet I pick’d a welcome;
129 And in the modesty of fearful duty
130 I read as much as from the rattling tongue
131 Of saucy and audacious eloquence.
132 Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity
133 In least speak most to my capacity.
134 Enter Philostrate.
135 PHILOSTRATE.
136 So please your grace, the Prologue is address’d.
137 THESEUS.
138 Let him approach.
139 Flourish of trumpets. Enter the Prologue.
140 PROLOGUE
141 If we offend, it is with our good will.
142 That you should think, we come not to offend,
143 But with good will. To show our simple skill,
144 That is the true beginning of our end.
145 Consider then, we come but in despite.
146 We do not come, as minding to content you,
147 Our true intent is. All for your delight
148 We are not here. That you should here repent you,
149 The actors are at hand, and, by their show,
150 You shall know all that you are like to know.
151 THESEUS.
152 This fellow doth not stand upon points.
153 LYSANDER.
154 He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows not the stop. A
155 good moral, my lord: it is not enough to speak, but to speak true.
156 HIPPOLYTA.
157 Indeed he hath played on this prologue like a child on a recorder; a
158 sound, but not in government.
159 THESEUS.
160 His speech was like a tangled chain; nothing impaired, but all
161 disordered. Who is next?
162 Enter Pyramus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine and Lion as in dumb show.
163 PROLOGUE
164 Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show;
165 But wonder on, till truth make all things plain.
166 This man is Pyramus, if you would know;
167 This beauteous lady Thisbe is certain.
168 This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present
169 Wall, that vile wall which did these lovers sunder;
170 And through Wall’s chink, poor souls, they are content
171 To whisper, at the which let no man wonder.
172 This man, with lantern, dog, and bush of thorn,
173 Presenteth Moonshine, for, if you will know,
174 By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn
175 To meet at Ninus’ tomb, there, there to woo.
176 This grisly beast (which Lion hight by name)
177 The trusty Thisbe, coming first by night,
178 Did scare away, or rather did affright;
179 And as she fled, her mantle she did fall;
180 Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain.
181 Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth, and tall,
182 And finds his trusty Thisbe’s mantle slain;
183 Whereat with blade, with bloody blameful blade,
184 He bravely broach’d his boiling bloody breast;
185 And Thisbe, tarrying in mulberry shade,
186 His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,
187 Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain,
188 At large discourse while here they do remain.
189 [_Exeunt Prologue, Pyramus, Thisbe, Lion and Moonshine._]
190 THESEUS.
191 I wonder if the lion be to speak.
192 DEMETRIUS.
193 No wonder, my lord. One lion may, when many asses do.
194 WALL.
195 In this same interlude it doth befall
196 That I, one Snout by name, present a wall:
197 And such a wall as I would have you think
198 That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
199 Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe,
200 Did whisper often very secretly.
201 This loam, this rough-cast, and this stone, doth show
202 That I am that same wall; the truth is so:
203 And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
204 Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.
205 THESEUS.
206 Would you desire lime and hair to speak better?
207 DEMETRIUS.
208 It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard discourse, my lord.
209 THESEUS.
210 Pyramus draws near the wall; silence.
211 Enter Pyramus.
212 PYRAMUS.
213 O grim-look’d night! O night with hue so black!
214 O night, which ever art when day is not!
215 O night, O night, alack, alack, alack,
216 I fear my Thisbe’s promise is forgot!
217 And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,
218 That stand’st between her father’s ground and mine;
219 Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,
220 Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne.
221 [_Wall holds up his fingers._]
222 Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this!
223 But what see I? No Thisbe do I see.
224 O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss,
225 Curs’d be thy stones for thus deceiving me!
226 THESEUS.
227 The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again.
228 PYRAMUS.
229 No, in truth, sir, he should not. ‘Deceiving me’ is Thisbe’s cue: she
230 is to enter now, and I am to spy her through the wall. You shall see it
231 will fall pat as I told you. Yonder she comes.
232 Enter Thisbe.
233 THISBE.
234 O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans,
235 For parting my fair Pyramus and me.
236 My cherry lips have often kiss’d thy stones,
237 Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.
238 PYRAMUS.
239 I see a voice; now will I to the chink,
240 To spy an I can hear my Thisbe’s face.
241 Thisbe?
242 THISBE.
243 My love thou art, my love I think.
244 PYRAMUS.
245 Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover’s grace;
246 And like Limander am I trusty still.
247 THISBE.
248 And I like Helen, till the fates me kill.
249 PYRAMUS.
250 Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.
251 THISBE.
252 As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.
253 PYRAMUS.
254 O kiss me through the hole of this vile wall.
255 THISBE.
256 I kiss the wall’s hole, not your lips at all.
257 PYRAMUS.
258 Wilt thou at Ninny’s tomb meet me straightway?
259 THISBE.
260 ’Tide life, ’tide death, I come without delay.
261 WALL.
262 Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so;
263 And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.
264 [_Exeunt Wall, Pyramus and Thisbe._]
265 THESEUS.
266 Now is the mural down between the two neighbours.
267 DEMETRIUS.
268 No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear without warning.
269 HIPPOLYTA.
270 This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.
271 THESEUS.
272 The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst are no worse, if
273 imagination amend them.
274 HIPPOLYTA.
275 It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.
276 THESEUS.
277 If we imagine no worse of them than they of themselves, they may pass
278 for excellent men. Here come two noble beasts in, a man and a lion.
279 Enter Lion and Moonshine.
280 LION.
281 You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear
282 The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,
283 May now, perchance, both quake and tremble here,
284 When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.
285 Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am
286 A lion fell, nor else no lion’s dam;
287 For if I should as lion come in strife
288 Into this place, ’twere pity on my life.
289 THESEUS.
290 A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience.
291 DEMETRIUS.
292 The very best at a beast, my lord, that e’er I saw.
293 LYSANDER.
294 This lion is a very fox for his valour.
295 THESEUS.
296 True; and a goose for his discretion.
297 DEMETRIUS.
298 Not so, my lord, for his valour cannot carry his discretion, and the
299 fox carries the goose.
300 THESEUS.
301 His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valour; for the goose
302 carries not the fox. It is well; leave it to his discretion, and let us
303 listen to the moon.
304 MOONSHINE.
305 This lanthorn doth the hornèd moon present.
306 DEMETRIUS.
307 He should have worn the horns on his head.
308 THESEUS.
309 He is no crescent, and his horns are invisible within the
310 circumference.
311 MOONSHINE.
312 This lanthorn doth the hornèd moon present;
313 Myself the man i’ the moon do seem to be.
314 THESEUS.
315 This is the greatest error of all the rest; the man should be put into
316 the lantern. How is it else the man i’ the moon?
317 DEMETRIUS.
318 He dares not come there for the candle, for you see, it is already in
319 snuff.
320 HIPPOLYTA.
321 I am aweary of this moon. Would he would change!
322 THESEUS.
323 It appears by his small light of discretion that he is in the wane; but
324 yet, in courtesy, in all reason, we must stay the time.
325 LYSANDER.
326 Proceed, Moon.
327 MOON.
328 All that I have to say, is to tell you that the lantern is the moon; I
329 the man i’ the moon; this thorn-bush my thorn-bush; and this dog my
330 dog.
331 DEMETRIUS.
332 Why, all these should be in the lantern, for all these are in the moon.
333 But silence; here comes Thisbe.
334 Enter Thisbe.
335 THISBE.
336 This is old Ninny’s tomb. Where is my love?
337 LION.
338 Oh!
339 [_The Lion roars, Thisbe runs off._]
340 DEMETRIUS.
341 Well roared, Lion.
342 THESEUS.
343 Well run, Thisbe.
344 HIPPOLYTA.
345 Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines with a good grace.
346 [_The Lion tears Thisbe’s mantle, and exit._]
347 THESEUS.
348 Well moused, Lion.
349 DEMETRIUS.
350 And then came Pyramus.
351 LYSANDER.
352 And so the lion vanished.
353 Enter Pyramus.
354 PYRAMUS.
355 Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams;
356 I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright;
357 For, by thy gracious golden, glittering gleams,
358 I trust to take of truest Thisbe sight.
359 But stay! O spite!
360 But mark, poor knight,
361 What dreadful dole is here!
362 Eyes, do you see?
363 How can it be?
364 O dainty duck! O dear!
365 Thy mantle good,
366 What, stained with blood?
367 Approach, ye Furies fell!
368 O Fates, come, come;
369 Cut thread and thrum;
370 Quail, rush, conclude, and quell!
371 THESEUS.
372 This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a
373 man look sad.
374 HIPPOLYTA.
375 Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man.
376 PYRAMUS.
377 O wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame,
378 Since lion vile hath here deflower’d my dear?
379 Which is—no, no—which was the fairest dame
380 That liv’d, that lov’d, that lik’d, that look’d with cheer.
381 Come, tears, confound!
382 Out, sword, and wound
383 The pap of Pyramus;
384 Ay, that left pap,
385 Where heart doth hop:
386 Thus die I, thus, thus, thus.
387 Now am I dead,
388 Now am I fled;
389 My soul is in the sky.
390 Tongue, lose thy light!
391 Moon, take thy flight!
392 Now die, die, die, die, die.
393 [_Dies. Exit Moonshine._]
394 DEMETRIUS.
395 No die, but an ace, for him; for he is but one.
396 LYSANDER.
397 Less than an ace, man; for he is dead, he is nothing.
398 THESEUS.
399 With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover and prove an ass.
400 HIPPOLYTA.
401 How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe comes back and finds her
402 lover?
403 THESEUS.
404 She will find him by starlight.
405 Enter Thisbe.
406 Here she comes, and her passion ends the play.
407 HIPPOLYTA.
408 Methinks she should not use a long one for such a Pyramus. I hope she
409 will be brief.
410 DEMETRIUS.
411 A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which Thisbe, is the
412 better: he for a man, God warrant us; she for a woman, God bless us!
413 LYSANDER.
414 She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes.
415 DEMETRIUS.
416 And thus she means, _videlicet_—
417 THISBE.
418 Asleep, my love?
419 What, dead, my dove?
420 O Pyramus, arise,
421 Speak, speak. Quite dumb?
422 Dead, dead? A tomb
423 Must cover thy sweet eyes.
424 These lily lips,
425 This cherry nose,
426 These yellow cowslip cheeks,
427 Are gone, are gone!
428 Lovers, make moan;
429 His eyes were green as leeks.
430 O Sisters Three,
431 Come, come to me,
432 With hands as pale as milk;
433 Lay them in gore,
434 Since you have shore
435 With shears his thread of silk.
436 Tongue, not a word:
437 Come, trusty sword,
438 Come, blade, my breast imbrue;
439 And farewell, friends.
440 Thus Thisbe ends.
441 Adieu, adieu, adieu.
442 [_Dies._]
443 THESEUS.
444 Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead.
445 DEMETRIUS.
446 Ay, and Wall too.
447 BOTTOM.
448 No, I assure you; the wall is down that parted their fathers. Will it
449 please you to see the epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between
450 two of our company?
451 THESEUS.
452 No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse. Never excuse;
453 for when the players are all dead there need none to be blamed. Marry,
454 if he that writ it had played Pyramus, and hanged himself in Thisbe’s
455 garter, it would have been a fine tragedy; and so it is, truly; and
456 very notably discharged. But come, your Bergomask; let your epilogue
457 alone.
458 [_Here a dance of Clowns._]
459 The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve.
460 Lovers, to bed; ’tis almost fairy time.
461 I fear we shall outsleep the coming morn
462 As much as we this night have overwatch’d.
463 This palpable-gross play hath well beguil’d
464 The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed.
465 A fortnight hold we this solemnity
466 In nightly revels and new jollity.
467 [_Exeunt._]
468 Enter Puck.
469 PUCK.
470 Now the hungry lion roars,
471 And the wolf behowls the moon;
472 Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,
473 All with weary task fordone.
474 Now the wasted brands do glow,
475 Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud,
476 Puts the wretch that lies in woe
477 In remembrance of a shroud.
478 Now it is the time of night
479 That the graves, all gaping wide,
480 Every one lets forth his sprite,
481 In the church-way paths to glide.
482 And we fairies, that do run
483 By the triple Hecate’s team
484 From the presence of the sun,
485 Following darkness like a dream,
486 Now are frolic; not a mouse
487 Shall disturb this hallow’d house.
488 I am sent with broom before,
489 To sweep the dust behind the door.
490 Enter Oberon and Titania with their Train.
491 OBERON.
492 Through the house give glimmering light,
493 By the dead and drowsy fire.
494 Every elf and fairy sprite
495 Hop as light as bird from brier,
496 And this ditty after me,
497 Sing and dance it trippingly.
498 TITANIA.
499 First rehearse your song by rote,
500 To each word a warbling note;
501 Hand in hand, with fairy grace,
502 Will we sing, and bless this place.
503 [_Song and Dance._]
504 OBERON.
505 Now, until the break of day,
506 Through this house each fairy stray.
507 To the best bride-bed will we,
508 Which by us shall blessèd be;
509 And the issue there create
510 Ever shall be fortunate.
511 So shall all the couples three
512 Ever true in loving be;
513 And the blots of Nature’s hand
514 Shall not in their issue stand:
515 Never mole, hare-lip, nor scar,
516 Nor mark prodigious, such as are
517 Despised in nativity,
518 Shall upon their children be.
519 With this field-dew consecrate,
520 Every fairy take his gait,
521 And each several chamber bless,
522 Through this palace, with sweet peace;
523 And the owner of it blest.
524 Ever shall it in safety rest,
525 Trip away. Make no stay;
526 Meet me all by break of day.
527 [_Exeunt Oberon, Titania and Train._]
528 PUCK.
529 If we shadows have offended,
530 Think but this, and all is mended,
531 That you have but slumber’d here
532 While these visions did appear.
533 And this weak and idle theme,
534 No more yielding but a dream,
535 Gentles, do not reprehend.
536 If you pardon, we will mend.
537 And, as I am an honest Puck,
538 If we have unearnèd luck
539 Now to ’scape the serpent’s tongue,
540 We will make amends ere long;
541 Else the Puck a liar call.
542 So, good night unto you all.
543 Give me your hands, if we be friends,
544 And Robin shall restore amends.
545 [_Exit._]