Thes.
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 musick of my hounds.
Uncouple in the western valley, go,
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 Creet they bay'd the bear
With hounds of Sparta; never did I hear
Such gallant chiding. For besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, ev'ry region near
Seem'd all one mutual cry. I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.

Thes.
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-lap'd, like Thessalian bulls,
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tuneable
Was never hollow'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
In Creet, 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.

Thes.
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.

Thes.
Go bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns. Horns, and they wake. Shout within, they all start up.

Thes.
Good morrow friends; Saint Valentine is past:

Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?

Lys.
Pardon, my lord.

Thes.
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 jealousie,
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 methink 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 th' Athenian law.

Ege.
Enough, enough, my lord, you have enough;
I beg the law, the law upon his head:
They would have stoll'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 follow'd me:
But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,
But by some power it is, my love to Hermia
Is melted as the snow, seems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle † ^notegaude
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 betrothed ere I Hermia saw;
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.

Thes.
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. Duke and lords.

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.

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

Dem.
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 bid us to follow to the temple.

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

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