SCENE I.
A Wood.
Enter Queen of the Fairies, Bottom, Fairies attending, and the King behind them.
Queen.
Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy6 note
,
-- 90 --
And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.
Bot.
Where's Pease-blossom?
Pease.
Ready.
Bot.
Scratch my head, Pease-blossom.—Where's
monsieur Cobweb?
Cob.
Ready.
Bot.
Monsieur Cobweb; good monsieur, get your
weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hip'd 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 loth to
have you over-flown with a honey-bag 9Q0297, signior.—
Where's monsieur Mustard-seed?
Must.
Ready.
Bot.
Give me your neif7 note
, monsieur Mustard-seed.
Pray you, leave your courtesy, good monsieur.
Must.
What's your will?
Bot.
Nothing, good monsieur, but to help cavalero
Cobweb8 note 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.
Queen.
What, wilt thou hear some musick, my
sweet love?
Bot.
I have a reasonable good ear in musick: let us
have the tongs9 note and the bones.
-- 91 --
Queen.
Or, say, sweet love, what thou desir'st to eat.
Bot.
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.
Queen.
I have a venturous fairy that shall seek
The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.
Bot.
I had rather have a handful, or two, of dried
pease. But, I pray you, let none of your people stir
me; I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.
Queen.
Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.
Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away1 note
.
So doth the woodbine2 note
, the sweet honey-suckle,
-- 92 --
Gently entwist,—the female ivy3 note
so
Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.
O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!
-- 93 --
Oberon advances. Enter Puck.
Ob.
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 savours5 note 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 flouret's 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 strait 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 transformed scalp
From off the head of the 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,
-- 94 --
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
But first I will release the fairy queen;
Be, as thou wast wont to be;
[Touching her eyes with an herb.
See, as thou wast wont to see:
Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower6 note
Hath such force and blessed power.
Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.
Queen.
My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
Methought, I was enamour'd of an ass.
Ob.
There lies your love.
Queen.
How came these things to pass?
Oh, how mine eye doth loath his visage now!
Ob.
Silence, a while.—Robin, take off this head.—
Titania, musick call; and strike more dead
Than common sleep, of all these five the sense7 note
.
Queen.
Musick, ho! musick; such as charmeth sleep.
Puck.
When thou awak'st, with thine own fool's eyes peep.
Ob.
Sound, musick. [Still musick.] 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, to-morrow midnight, solemnly,
Dance in duke Theseus' house triumphantly,
-- 95 --
And bless it to all fair8 note
posterity:
There shall these pairs of faithful lovers be
Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.
Puck.
Fairy king, attend, and mark;
I do hear the morning lark.
Ob.
Then my queen, in silence sad9 note
,
Trip we after the night's shade:
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wand'ring moon.
Queen.
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.
[Wind horns within.
Enter Theseus, Egeus, Hippolita, and train.
The.
Go, one of you, find out the forester;—
For now our observation is perform'd1 note
:
And since we have the vaward of the day,
-- 96 --
My love shall hear the musick of my hounds.—
Uncouple in the western valley; go 9Q0300:—
Dispatch, 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.
Hip.
I was with Hercules, and Cadmus, once,
When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear2 note
9Q0301
With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear
Such gallant chiding3 note
; 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.
The.
My hounds are bred 9Q0302 out of the Spartan kind,
So4 note
flew'd, so 5 note
sanded, and their heads are hung
-- 97 --
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook-knee'd, and dew-lap'd like Thessalian bulls;
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tuneable
Was never halloo'd to, nor cheer'd 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 at 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.
-- 98 --
Horns, and shout within; Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena, wake and start up.
The.
Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past6 note;
Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
Lys.
Pardon, my lord.
[They all kneel to Theseus.
The.
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?
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 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.
Dem.
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 me7 note
.
-- 99 --
But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,
(But by some power it is) my love to Hermia,
Melted as is the snow 9Q0303 seems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gawd8 note,
Which in my childhood I did doat 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 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 shall hear more anon.—
Egeus, I will over-bear 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 Hippolita.
[Exe. Theseus, Hippolita, 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.
-- 100 --
Hel.
So methinks:
And I have found Demetrius like a jewel9 note
,
Mine own, and not mine own. 9Q0304
Dem.
Are you sure1 note
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?
Her.
Yea; and my father.
Hel.
And Hippolita.
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.
-- 101 --
As they go out, Bottom 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! 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,—2 note But man is but a patch'd fool3 note,
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 call'd Bottom's Dream, because it hath no
bottom; and I will sing it in the latter end of a play,
before the duke4 note: Peradventure, to make it the
more gracious, I shall sing it at her death5 note.
[Exit.
-- 102 --
Samuel Johnson [1778], The plays of William Shakspeare. In ten volumes. With the corrections and illustrations of various commentators; to which are added notes by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. The second edition, Revised and Augmented (Printed for C. Bathurst [and] W. Strahan [etc.], London) [word count] [S10901].
