Tita.
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.

Bot.

Where's Peaseblossom?

Peas.

Ready.

Bot.

Scratch my head, Peaseblossom. Where's Mounsieur ^note Cobweb?

Cob.

Ready.

Bot.

Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get you ^note your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped humblebee on the top of a thistle; and, good mounsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, mounsieur; and, good mounsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not; I would be loth to have you overflown with a honey-bag, signior. Where's Mounsieur Mustardseed.

Mus.

Ready.

Bot.

Give me your ^note neaf ^note, Mounsieur Mustardseed ^note. Pray you, leave your courtesy, good mounsieur.

Mus.

What's your will?

Bot.

Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery ^note Cobweb ^note to scratch. I must to the barber's, mounsieur; for

methinks I am marvellous ^note hairy about the face; and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do ^note but tickle me, I must scratch.

Tita.

What, wilt thou hear some ^note music, my sweet love?

Bot.

I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let's ^{note note}have the tongs ^note and the bones.

Tita.

Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest 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.

Tita.
I have a venturous fairy that shall seek
The squirrel's hoard ^note, and fetch thee ^note new nuts.

Bot.

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.

Tita.
Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.
Fairies, be gone, and be all ways ^note away ^note. [Exeunt Fairies. ^note
So doth the woodbine ^note the sweet honeysuckle
Gently entwist; the female ^note ivy so
Enrings ^note the barky fingers of the elm.
O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee! [They sleep. Enter Puck.

Obe. [Advancing]
Welcome, good Robin. See'st thou this sweet sight?
Her dotage now I do begin to pity:
For, meeting her of late behind the wood,
Seeking sweet favours ^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 flowerets' ^note 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 ^note 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 this ^note Athenian swain;
That, he awaking when the other ^note 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.

Be ^note as thou wast wont to be;
See as thou wast wont to see:
Dian's bud o'er ^note Cupid's flower
Hath such force and blessed power.
Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.

Tita.
My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.

Obe.
There lies your love.

Tita.
How came these things to pass?
O, how mine eyes do ^note loathe his ^note visage now!

Obe.
Silence awhile. Robin, take off this ^note head.
Titania, music call; and strike more dead

Than common sleep of all these five ^note the sense.

Tita.
Music, ho! ^note music, such as charmeth sleep! [Music, still.]

Puck.
Now, when thou wakest ^note, with thine own fool's eyes peep.

Obe.
Sound, 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 to-morrow midnight solemnly
Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly,
And bless it to all fair prosperity ^note:
There shall the ^note pairs of faithful lovers be
Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.

Puck.
Fairy ^note king, attend, and mark:
I do hear the morning lark.

Obe.
Then, my queen, in silence sad ^note,
Trip we after the night's ^note shade:
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wandering moon.

Tita.
Come, my lord; and in our flight,
Tell me how it came this night, ^note
That I sleeping here was found
With these mortals on the ground. [Exeunt. [Horns winded within. ^{note note}Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and train.

The.
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 ^note go:
Dispatch, I say, and find the forester. [Exit an Attend.
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 bear ^note
With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear
Such gallant chiding; for, besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains ^note, every region near
Seem'd ^note all one mutual cry: I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.

The.
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 dew-lapp'd like Thessalian ^note 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?

Ege.
My lord, this is ^note my daughter here asleep;
And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is;
This Helena, old Nedar's ^note Helena:
I wonder of their ^note being here together.

The.
No doubt they rose up early to observe
The rite ^note 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. [Horns and shout within. Lys., Dem., Hel., and Her., wake and start up.

^note
Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past:
Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?

Lys.
Pardon, my lord.

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 ^note 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,
Without the peril of the Athenian law. ^note

Ege.
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 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 ^note me.
But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,—
But by some power it is,—my love to Hermia,
Melted as ^note the snow, seems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gaud, ^note
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 ^note:
But, like in sickness ^note, did I loathe this food;
But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
Now I do ^note 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 more will hear ^note 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 purposed hunting shall be set aside.
Away with us to Athens! three and three,
We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.
Come, Hippolyta ^note. [Exeunt ^note The., Hip., Ege., and train.

Dem. ^note
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.

Hel.
So methinks:
And I have found Demetrius like ^note a jewel ^note,
Mine own, and not mine own.

Dem.
Are you sure
That we are awake? ^note 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 Hippolyta.

Lys.
And he did bid ^note us follow to the temple. ^note

Dem.
Why, then, we are awake: let's follow him;
And by the way let us ^note recount our dreams. [Exeunt. ^note

Bot. [Awaking ^note]

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, stolen hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream ^note, past the wit of man to say what dream it was: man is but an ass, if he go about to ^note 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 ^note 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 ^note, before the Duke: peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it at her ^note death.