TPTT A Midsummer Night's Dream: ACT IV
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
SCENE I. The same. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA lying asleep.
SCENE II. Athens. QUINCE'S house.
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE I. The same. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA lying asleep.
Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM; PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARDSEED, and other Fairies attending; OBERON behind unseen
TITANIA
      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.
BOTTOM
5     Where's Peaseblossom?
PEASEBLOSSOM
      Ready.
BOTTOM
      Scratch my head Peaseblossom. Where's Mounsieur Cobweb?
COBWEB
      Ready.
BOTTOM
      Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get you your
10    weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped
      humble-bee 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;
15    I would be loath to have you overflown with a
      honey-bag, signior. Where's Mounsieur Mustardseed?
MUSTARDSEED
      Ready.
BOTTOM
      Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray you,
      leave your courtesy, good mounsieur.
MUSTARDSEED
20    What's your Will?
BOTTOM
      Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb
      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,
25    I must scratch.
TITANIA
      What, wilt thou hear some music,
      my sweet love?
BOTTOM
      I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let's have
      the tongs and the bones.
TITANIA
30    Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat.
BOTTOM
      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.
TITANIA
      I have a venturous fairy that shall seek
35    The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.
BOTTOM
      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.
TITANIA
      Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.
40    Fairies, begone, and be all ways away.

Exeunt fairies

      So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle
      Gently entwist; the female ivy so
      Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.
      O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!
They sleep
Enter PUCK
OBERON
45    (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 from this hateful fool,
50    I did upbraid her and fall out with her;
      For she his hairy temples then had rounded
      With a coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
      And that same dew, which sometime on the buds
      Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls,
55    Stood now within the pretty flowerets' 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;
60    Which straight 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
65    From off the head of this Athenian swain;
      That, he awaking when the other 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.
70    But first I will release the fairy queen.
      Be as thou wast wont to be;
      See as thou wast wont to see:
      Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower
      Hath such force and blessed power.
75    Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.
TITANIA
      My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
      Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.
OBERON
      There lies your love.
TITANIA
      How came these things to pass?
80    O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!
OBERON
      Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head.
      Titania, music call; and strike more dead
      Than common sleep of all these five the sense.
TITANIA
      Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep!
Music, still
PUCK
85    Now, when thou wakest, with thine
      own fool's eyes peep.
OBERON
      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,
90    And will to-morrow midnight solemnly
      Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly,
      And bless it to all fair prosperity:
      There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be
      Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.
PUCK
95    Fairy king, attend, and mark:
      I do hear the morning lark.
OBERON
      Then, my queen, in silence sad,
      Trip we after the night's shade:
      We the globe can compass soon,
100   Swifter than the wandering moon.
TITANIA
      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
Horns winded within
Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train
THESEUS
105   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 go:
110   Dispatch, I say, and find the forester.

Exit an Attendant

      We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,
      And mark the musical confusion
      Of hounds and echo in conjunction.
HIPPOLYTA
      I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
115   When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear
      With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear
      Such gallant chiding: for, besides the groves,
      The skies, the fountains, every region near
      Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard
120   So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.
THESEUS
      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 bulls;
125   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?
EGEUS
130   My lord, this is my daughter here asleep;
      And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is;
      This Helena, old Nedar's Helena:
      I wonder of their being here together.
THESEUS
      No doubt they rose up early to observe
135   The rite of May, and hearing our intent,
      Came here in grace our solemnity.
      But speak, Egeus; is not this the day
      That Hermia should give answer of her choice?
EGEUS
      It is, my lord.
THESEUS
140   Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.

Horns and shout within. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA wake and start up

      Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past:
      Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
LYSANDER
      Pardon, my lord.
THESEUS
      I pray you all, stand up.
145   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?
LYSANDER
      My lord, I shall reply amazedly,
150   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 do I bethink me, so it is,--
      I came with Hermia hither: our intent
155   Was to be gone from Athens, where we might,
      Without the peril of the Athenian law.
EGEUS
      Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough:
      I beg the law, the law, upon his head.
      They would have stolen away; they would, Demetrius,
160   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.
DEMETRIUS
      My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
      Of this their purpose hither to this wood;
165   And I in fury hither follow'd them,
      Fair Helena in fancy following me.
      But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,--
      But by some power it is,--my love to Hermia,
      Melted as the snow, seems to me now
170   As the remembrance of an idle gaud
      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,
175   Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia:
      But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food;
      But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
      Now I do wish it, love it, long for it,
      And will for evermore be true to it.
THESEUS
180   Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
      Of this discourse we more will hear anon.
      Egeus, I will overbear your will;
      For in the temple by and by with us
      These couples shall eternally be knit:
185   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.
Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train
DEMETRIUS
190   These things seem small and undistinguishable,
HERMIA
      Methinks I see these things with parted eye,
      When every thing seems double.
HELENA
      So methinks:
      And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,
195   Mine own, and not mine own.
DEMETRIUS
      Are you sure
      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?
HERMIA
200   Yea; and my father.
HELENA
      And Hippolyta.
LYSANDER
      And he did bid us follow to the temple.
DEMETRIUS
      Why, then, we are awake: let's follow him
      And by the way let us recount our dreams.
Exeunt
BOTTOM
205   (Awaking) 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
210   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,--but man is but a patched fool, if
215   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
220   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, before the duke:
      peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall
      sing it at her death.
Exit
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