THE YALE 
 SHAKESPEARE 
 
 NIGHT'S 
 
 Edited by 
 Willard H. Durham 
 
 \a,e University 
 Press 
 
Book. A^ Jg 
 GopigtoW. 
 
 CQKRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
THE YALE SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Edited by 
 Wilbur L. Cross Tucker Brooke 
 
 WlLLARD HlGLEY DURHAM 
 
 Published under the Direction 
 
 of THE 
 
 Department of English, Yale University, 
 
 on the Fund 
 
 Given to the Yale University Press in 1917 
 
 by the Members of the 
 
 Kingsley Trust Association 
 
 To Commemorate the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary 
 
 of the Founding of the Society 
 
•: The Yale Shakespeare '.• 
 
 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S 
 DREAM 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 WILLARD HIGLEY DURHAM 
 
 P§535^ 
 
 NEW HAVEN • YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 LONDON • HUMPHREY MILFORD 
 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS • MCMXVIII 
 
4 
 
 ** 
 
 K 
 
 i< 
 
 Copyright, 1918 
 By Yale University Press 
 
 First published, September, 1918 
 
 OCT I4i9i8 
 
 ©CU506180 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 
 
 page 
 
 The Text 
 
 . 
 
 1 
 
 Notes 
 
 . 
 
 80 
 
 Appendix A. 
 
 Sources of the Play 
 
 88 
 
 Appendix B. 
 
 The History of the Play 
 
 89 
 
 Appendix C. 
 
 The Text of the Present Edi- 
 
 
 
 tion .... 
 
 91 
 
 Appendix D. 
 
 Suggestions for Collateral 
 
 
 
 Reading 
 
 92 
 
 Index of Words Glossed . 
 
 93 
 
The facsimile opposite represents the unusually handsome 
 title-page of the genuine edition of 1600. The photograph is 
 made from the Elizabethan Club copy, which was formerly in 
 the Heber, Daniel, and Huth libraries. Seven other copies of 
 this edition are known. 
 
Midfommer nights 
 dreamc 
 
 As it hath beene fundry times pub- 
 lic^ely aBed, by the%igk honoura- 
 ble > the Lord Chasibcrlamc his 
 feruants. 
 
 Written by William Shakespeare % 
 
 f Imprinted at London, foiTbomAs Ftfher^ and arc to 
 
 be foiilde at his (hoppe,at the Signeof the White Hart # 
 W Fleetejlreete. i 6 o o, 
 
[DRAMATIS PERSONS 
 
 Theseus, Duke of Athens 
 Egeus, Father to Hermia 
 Lysander, 
 
 } ii 
 
 in love with Hermia 
 Demetrius, 
 
 Philostrate, Master of the Revels to Theseus 
 
 Quince, a Carpenter 
 
 Snug, a Joiner 
 
 Bottom, a Weaver 
 
 Flute, a Bellows-mender 
 
 Snout, a Tinker 
 
 Starveling, a Tailor 
 
 Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, betrothed to 
 
 Theseus 
 
 Hermia, Daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander 
 
 Helena, in love with Demetrius 
 
 Oberon, King of the Fairies 
 
 Titania, Queen of the Fairies 
 
 Puck, or Robin Goodfellow 
 
 Pease-Blossom, 
 
 Fairies 
 
 Cobweb, 
 
 Moth, 
 
 Mustard-seed, 
 
 Other Fairies attending their King and Queen 
 Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta 
 
 Scene: Athens, and a Wood near it.] 
 
A Midsummer Night's Dream 
 
 ACT FIRST 
 
 Scene One 
 
 [Athens. The Palace of Theseus'] 
 
 Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, with [Philostrate and] 
 others. 
 
 The. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour 
 Draws on apace : four happy days bring in 
 Another moon ; but O ! methinks how slow 
 This old moon wanes; she lingers my desires, 4 
 
 Like to a step-dame, or a dowager 
 Long withering out a young man's revenue. 
 —*~-*Hip. Four days will quickly steep themselves in 
 night; 
 Four nights will quickly dream away the time ; 8 
 
 And then the moon, like to a silver bow 
 New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night 
 Of our solemnities. 
 
 The. Go, Philostrate, 
 
 Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments ; 12 
 
 Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth; 
 Turn melancholy forth to funerals ; 
 The pale companion is not for our pomp. 
 
 [Exit Philostrate.] 
 Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword, 16 
 
 And won thy love doing thee injuries; 
 But I will wed thee in another key, 
 With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling. 
 
 4 lingers: delays fulfillment of 5,6 Cf.n. 13 pert: lively 
 
 15 pomp: ceremonial procession 19 triumph: festive entertainment 
 
A Midsummer 
 
 Enter Egeus and his daughter Hermia, Lysander, 
 and Demetrius. 
 
 Ege. Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke! 
 
 The. Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with 
 thee? 
 
 Ege. Full of vexation come I, with complaint 
 Against my child, my daughter Hermia. 
 Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord, 24 
 
 This man hath my consent to marry her. 
 Stand forth, Lysander: and, my gracious duke, 
 This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child: 
 Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rimes, 
 And interchang'd love-tokens with my child; 29 
 
 Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung, 
 With feigning voice, verses of feigning love ; 
 And stol'n the impression of her fantasy 32 
 
 With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits, 
 Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers 
 Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth; 
 With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's 
 heart ; 36 
 
 Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me, 
 To stubborn harshness. And, my gracious duke, 
 Be it so she will not here before your Grace 
 Consent to marry with Demetrius, 40 
 
 I beg the ancient privilege of Athens, 
 As she is mine, I may dispose of her ; 
 Which shall be either to this gentleman, 
 Or to her death, according to our law 44 
 
 Immediately provided in that case. 
 
 The. What say you, Hermia ? be advis'd, fair maid. 
 To you your father should be as a god; 
 
 31 feigning; cf. n. 32 fantasy: imagination; cf. n. 
 
 33 gawds: gewgaws conceits: fancy articles 
 
 34 Knacks: knickknacks 45 Immediately: expressly 
 
Nights Dream, I. i 
 
 One that compos'd your beauties, yea, and one 
 
 To whom you are but as a form in wax 49 
 
 By him imprinted, and within his power 
 
 To leave the figure or disfigure it. 
 
 Demetrius is a worthy gentleman. 52 
 
 Her. So is Lysander. 
 
 The. In himself he is ; 
 
 But, in this kind, wanting your father's voice, 
 The other must be held the worthier. 
 
 Her. I would my father look'd but with my 
 eyes. 56 
 
 The. Rather your eyes must with his judgment 
 look. 
 
 Her. I do entreat your Grace to pardon me. 
 I know not by what power I am made bold, 
 Nor how it may concern my modesty 60 
 
 In such a presence here to plead my thoughts ; 
 But I beseech your Grace that I may know 
 The worst that may befall me in this case, 
 If I refuse to wed Demetrius. 64 
 
 The. Either to die the death, or to abjure 
 For ever the society of men. 
 
 Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires; 
 Know of your youth, examine well your blood, 68 
 
 Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice, 
 You can endure the livery of a nun, 
 For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd, 
 To live a barren sister all your life, 72 
 
 Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. 
 Thrice blessed they that master so their blood, 
 To undergo such maiden pilgrimage; 
 But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd, 76 
 
 51 disfigure: destroy 54 kind: respect, i.e., as husband 
 
 60 concern: befit 71 mew'd: shut up 
 
 75 pilgrimage: the journey of life 76 distill'd: reduced to essence 
 
A Midsummer 
 
 Than that which withering on the virgin thorn 
 Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness. 
 
 Her. So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord, 
 Ere I will yield my virgin patent up 80 
 
 Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke 
 My soul consents not to give sovereignty. 
 
 The. Take time to pause; and, by the next new 
 moon, — 
 The sealing-day betwixt my love and me 84 
 
 For everlasting bond of fellowship,—- 
 Upon that day either prepare to die 
 For disobedience to your father's will, 
 Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would; 88 
 
 Or on Diana's altar to protest 
 For aye austerity and single life. 
 
 Dem. Relent, sweet Hermia; and Lysander, yield 
 Thy crazed title to my certain right. 92 
 
 Lys. You have her father's love, Demetrius; 
 Let me have Hermia's : do you marry him. 
 
 Ege. Scornful Lysander ! true, he hath my love, 
 And what is mine my love shall render him; 96 
 
 And she is mine, and all my right of her 
 I do estate unto Demetrius. 
 
 Lys. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he, 
 As well possess'd ; my love is more than his ; 100 
 
 My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd, 
 If not with vantage, as Demetrius' ; 
 And, which is more than all these boasts can be, 
 I am belov'd of beauteous Hermia. 104 
 
 Why should not I then prosecute my right? 
 Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head, 
 Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena, 
 
 80 virgin patent : privilege of virginity 
 
 89 protest: vow 92 crazed: unsound 
 
 98 estate unto : bestow upon 100 possess'd: endowed 
 
Nightfs Dream, I. i 
 
 And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes, 
 Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry, 109 
 
 Upon this spotted and inconstant man. 
 
 The. I must confess that I have heard so much, 
 And with Demetrius thought to have spoke there- 
 of; 112 
 But, being over-full of self-affairs, 
 My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come; 
 And come, Egeus ; you shall go with me, 
 I have some private schooling for you both. 116 
 For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself 
 To fit your fancies to your father's will, 
 Or else the law of Athens yields you up, 
 Which by no means we may extenuate, 120 
 To death, or to a vow of single life. 
 Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love? 
 Demetrius and Egeus, go along: 
 
 I must employ you in some business 124 
 
 Against our nuptial, and confer with you 
 Of something nearly that concerns yourselves. 
 
 Ege. With duty and desire we follow you. 
 
 Exeunt. Manet Lysander and Hermia. 
 
 Lys. How now, my love ! Why is your cheek so 
 pale ? 128 
 
 How chance the roses there do fade so fast? 
 
 Her. Belike for want of rain, which I could well 
 Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes. 
 
 Lys. Ay me ! for aught that ever I could read, 132 
 Could ever hear by tale or history, 
 The course of true love never did run smooth ; 
 But, either it was different in blood, — 
 
 113 self-affairs: my own concerns 125 Against: in preparation for 
 
 126 nearly that: that closely 
 
 127 S. d. Manet: (i.e., manent) remain 131 Beteem: grant 
 
6 A Midsummer 
 
 Her. O cross ! too high to be enthrall' d to low. 136 
 Lys. Or else misgraffed in respect of years, — 
 Her. O spite ! too old to be engag'd to young. 
 Lys. Or else it stood upon the choice of friends, — 
 Her. O hell ! to choose love by another's eye. 140 
 Lys. Or, if there were a sympathy in choice, 
 War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it, 
 Making it momentany as a sound, 
 
 Swift as a shadow, short as any dream, 144 
 
 Brief as the lightning in the collied night, 
 That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, 
 And ere a man hath power to say, 'Behold!' 
 The jaws of darkness do devour it up: 148 
 
 So quick bright things come to confusion. 
 
 Her. If then true lovers have been ever cross'd, 
 It stands as an edict in destiny: 
 
 Then let us teach our trial patience, 152 
 
 Because it is a customary cross, 
 As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs, 
 Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers. 
 
 Lys. A good persuasion: therefore, hear me, 
 Hermia. 156 
 
 I have a widow aunt, a dowager 
 Of great revenue, and she hath no child: 
 From Athens is her house remote seven leagues ; 
 And she respects me as her only son. 160 
 
 There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee, 
 And to that place the sharp Athenian law 
 Cannot pursue us. If thou lov'st me then, 
 Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night, 
 And in the wood, a league without the town, 165 
 
 Where I did meet thee once with Helena, 
 
 137 misgraffed: badly matched 143 momentany: momentary 
 
 145 collied: blackened 146 spleen: sudden fit of passion 
 
 149 confusion : ruin 150 ever: always 
 
 155 fancy's: love's 160 respects: looks upon 
 
Night's Dream, I. i 
 
 To do observance to a morn of May, 
 
 There will I stay for thee. 
 
 -\Her. IVJy good Lysander ! 168 
 
 I swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow, 
 
 By his best arrow with the golden head, 
 
 By the simplicity of Venus' doves, 
 
 By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves, 
 
 And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage 
 
 queen, 173 
 
 When the false Troyan under sail was seen, 
 By all the vows that ever men have broke, — 
 In number more than ever women spoke, — 176 
 
 In that same place thou hast appointed me, 
 To-morrow truly will I meet with thee. 
 
 Lys. Keep promise, love. Look, here comes 
 
 Helena. 
 
 Enter Helena. 
 
 Her. God speed fair Helena! Whither away? 180 
 Hel. Call you me fair? that fair again unsay. 
 Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair! 
 Your eyes are lode-stars ! and your tongue's sweet air 
 More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear, 184 
 
 When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear. 
 Sickness is catching: O! were favour so, 
 Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go; 
 My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye, 
 My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet 
 melody. 189 
 
 Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated, 
 The rest I'll give to be to you translated. 
 O ! teach me how you look, and with what art 
 
 173 Carthage queen : Di do 174 Troyan: JEneas 
 
 182 fair: beauty 183 lode-stars : guiding-stars 
 184 tuneable: tuneful 186 favour: charm 
 
 190 bated: excepted 191 translated: transformed 
 
8 A Midsummer 
 
 You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart. 193 
 
 Her. I frown upon him, yet he loves me still. 
 
 Hel. O! that your frowns would teach my smiles 
 such skill. 
 
 Her. I give him curses, yet he gives me love. 
 
 Hel. O ! that my prayers could such affection 
 move. 197 
 
 Her. The more I hate, the more he follows me. 
 
 Hel. The more I love, the more he hateth me. 
 
 Her. His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine. 
 
 Hel. None, but your beauty: would that fault were 
 mine ! 201 
 
 Her. Take comfort: he no more shall see my face; 
 Lysander and myself will fly this place. 
 Before the time I did Lysander see, 204 
 
 Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me: 
 O ! then, what graces in my love do dwell, 
 That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell. 
 
 Lys. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold. 
 To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold 209 
 
 Her silver visage in the wat'ry glass, 
 Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass, — 
 A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal, — 
 Through Athens' gates have we devis'd to steal. 
 
 Her. And in the wood, where often you and I 
 Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie, 
 Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet, 216 
 
 There my Lysander and myself shall meet; 
 And thence from Athens turn away our eyes, 
 To seek new friends and stranger companies. 
 Farewell, sweet playfellow: pray thou for us; 
 And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius ! 221 
 
 206,207 Cf.n. 209 Phoebe: the moon 
 
 212 still: always 215 faint: pale (?), faintly perfumed (>) 
 
 216 counsel: inmost thought 
 
Nighfs Drearn, I. i 
 
 Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight 
 From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight. 
 
 Exit Hermia. 
 
 Lys. I will, my Hermia. — Helena, adieu: 224 
 
 As you on him, Demetrius dote on you ! 
 
 Exit Lysander, 
 
 Hel. How happy some o'er other some can be ! 
 Through Athens I am thought as fair as she ; 
 But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so; 228 
 
 He will not know what all but he do know; 
 And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes, 
 „So I, admiring of his qualities. 
 
 Things base and vile, holding no quantity, 232 
 
 Love can transpose to form and dignity. 
 Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, 
 And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind. 
 Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste; 
 Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste: 237 
 
 And therefore is Love said to be a child, 
 Because in choice he is so oft beguil'd. 
 As waggish boys in game themselves forswear, 
 So the boy Love is perjur'd everywhere; 241 
 
 For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne, 
 He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine; 
 And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt, 
 So he dissolv'd, and showers of oaths did melt. 
 I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight: 246 
 
 Then to the wood will he to-morrow night 
 Pursue her ; and for this intelligence 
 If I have thanks, it is a dear expense: 
 But herein mean I to enrich my pain, 250 
 
 To have his sight thither and back again. Exit. 
 
 232,233 Cf.n. 240 game:/*** 242 eyne: eyes 
 
 248 intelligence: information 249 dear expense; cf. n. 
 
io A Midsummer 
 
 Scene Two 
 [A Room in Quince's House'] 
 
 Enter Quince the Carpenter, Snug the Joiner, Bottom 
 the Weaver, Flute the Bellows-mender, Snout the 
 Tinker, and Starveling the Tailor. 
 
 Quin. Is all our company here? 
 
 Bot. You were best to call them generally, 
 man by man, according to the scrip. 3 
 
 Quin. Here is the scroll of every man's name, 
 which is thought fit, through all Athens, to play 
 in our interlude before the duke and the duchess 
 on his wedding-day at night. 7 
 
 Bot. First, good Peter Quince, say what the 
 play treats on; then read the names of the 
 actors, and so grow to a point. 10 
 
 Quin. Marry, our play is, The most lament- 
 able comedy, and most cruel death of, Pyramus 
 and Thisby. 13 
 
 Bot. A very good piece of work, I assure you, 
 and a merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call 
 forth your actors by the scroll. Masters, spread 
 yourselves. 17 
 
 Quin. Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, 
 the weaver. 
 
 Bot. Ready. Name what part I am for, and 
 proceed. 21 
 
 Quin. You, Nick Bottom, are set down for 
 Pyramus. 
 
 Bot. What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant? 
 
 Quin. A lover, that kills himself most gal- 
 lantly for love. 26 
 
 2 generally; cf. n. 3 scrip: written paper 
 
 1 1 Marry : an oath from the name of the Virgin Mary 
 
Night's Dream, I. ii n 
 
 Bot. That will ask some tears in the true per- 
 forming of it: if I do it, let the audience look to 
 their eyes; I will move storms, I will condole 
 in some measure. To the rest: yet my chief 
 humour is for a tyrant. I could play Ercles 
 rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all 
 split. 33 
 
 'The raging rocks 
 And shivering shocks 
 Shall break the locks 36 
 
 Of prison gates: 
 And Phibbus' car 
 Shall shine from far 
 And make and mar 40 
 
 The foolish Fates/ 
 This was lofty! Now name the rest of the 
 players. This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a 
 lover is more condoling. 44 
 
 Quin. Francis Flute, the bellows-mender. 
 Flu. Here, Peter Quince. 
 Quin. You must take Thisby on you. 
 Flu. What is Thisby ? a wandering knight ? 
 Quin. It is the lady that Pyramus must love. 
 Flu. Nay, faith, let not me play a woman; I 
 have a beard coming. 51 
 
 Quin. That's all one: you shall play it in a 
 mask, and you may speak as small as you will. 
 Bot. An I may hide my face, let me play 
 Thisby too. I'll speak in a monstrous little 
 voice, 'Thisne, Thisne!' 'Ah, Pyramus, my lover 
 dear ; thy Thisby dear, and lady dear !' 57 
 
 31 Ercles: Hercules 32 tear a cat: rant 
 
 38 Phibbus* : Phoebus', the sun-god's 
 
 54 An: if 56 Thisne; cf. n. 
 
12 A Midsummer 
 
 Quin. No, no; you must play Pyramus; and 
 Flute, you Thisby. 
 
 Bot. Well, proceed. 60 
 
 Quin. Robin Starveling, the tailor. 
 
 Star. Here, Peter Quince. 
 
 Quin. Robin Starveling, you must play This- 
 by's mother. Tom Snout, the tinker. 64 
 
 Snout. Here, Peter Quince. 
 
 Quin. You, Pyramus's father; myself, This- 
 by's father ; Snug, the j oiner, you the lion's part : 
 and, I hope, here is a play fitted. 68 
 
 Snug. Have you the lion's part written? pray 
 you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study. 
 
 Quin. You may do it extempore, for it is no- 
 thing but roaring. 72 
 
 Bot. Let me play the lion too. I will roar, 
 that I will do any man's heart good to hear me; 
 I will roar, that I will make the duke say, 'Let 
 him roar again, let him roar again.' 76 
 
 Quin. An you should do it too terribly, you 
 would fright the duchess and the ladies, that 
 they would shriek; and that were enough to 
 hang us all. 80 
 
 All. That would hang us, every mother's son. 
 
 Bot. I grant you, friends, if that you should 
 fright the ladies out of their wits, they would 
 have no more discretion but to hang us ; but I 
 will aggravate my voice so that I will roar you 
 as gently as any sucking dove; I will roar you 
 an 'twere any nightingale. 87 
 
 Quin. You can play no part but Pyramus; 
 for Pyramus is a sweet-faced man; a proper 
 man, as one shall see in a summer's day; a 
 
 87 an 'twere : as if it were 89 proper: fine, handsome 
 
Night's Dream, I. ii 13 
 
 most lovely, gentleman-like man; therefore, you 
 must needs play Pyramus. 92 
 
 Bot. Well, I will undertake it. What beard 
 were I best to play it in? 
 
 Quin. Why, what you will. 95 
 
 Bot. I will discharge it in either your straw- 
 colour beard, your orange-tawny beard, your 
 purple-in-grain beard, or your French-crown 
 colour beard, your perfect yellow. 99 
 
 Quin. Some of your French crowns have no 
 hair at all, and then you will play bare-faced. 
 But masters, here are your parts; and I am to 
 entreat you, request you, and desire you, to con 
 them by to-morrow night, and meet me in the 105 
 palace wood, a mile without the town, by moon- 
 light: there will we rehearse; for if we meet in 
 the city, we shall be dogged with company, and 
 our devices known. In the meantime I will draw 
 a bill of properties, such as our play wants. I 
 pray you, fail me not. 110 
 
 Bot. We will meet; and there we may re- 
 hearse more obscenely and courageously. Take 
 pains; be perfect; adieu. 
 
 Quin. At the duke's oak we meet. 
 
 Bot. Enough; hold, or cut bow-strings. 115 
 
 Exeunt. 
 
 96 discharge: perform 
 
 98 purple-in-grain: fast-dyed purple French-crown colour: color of 
 
 a gold coin 104 con: learn by heart 
 
 109 bill: list 115 Cf. n. 
 
14 A Midsummer 
 
 ACT SECOND 
 
 Scene One 
 
 [A Wood near Athens'] 
 
 Enter a Fairy at one door, and Robin Goodfellow at 
 another. 
 
 Puck. How now, spirit! whither wander you? 
 Fai. Over hill, over dale, 
 
 j Thorough bush, thorough brier, 
 Over park, over pale, 4 
 
 Thorough flood, thorough fire, 
 I do wander everywhere, 
 Swifter than the moon's sphere; 
 And I serve the fairy queen, S 
 
 To dew her orbs upon the green: 
 The cowslips tall her pensioners be; 
 In their gold coats spots you see; 
 Those be rubies, fairy favours, 12 
 
 In their freckles live their savours: 
 I must go seek some dew-drops here, 
 And hang a pearl in every cowslip^s ear. 
 Farewell, thou lob of spirits: 111 be gone; 16 
 
 Our queen and all her elves come here anon. 
 
 PucJc. The king doth keep his revels here to-night. 
 Take heed the queen come not within his sight; 
 For Oberon is passing fell and wrath, 20 
 
 Because that she as her attendant hath 
 A lovely boy, stol'n from an Indian king; 
 She never had so sweet a changeling; 
 
 Scene One S. d. at one door; cf. n. Robin Goodfellow; cf. n. 
 
 3 Thorough: through 4 pale: fence 7 moon's sphere; cf. n. 
 
 9 orbs; cf. n. 10 pensioners; cf. n. 12 favours: love-tokens 
 
 16 lob: bumpkin 17 anon: presently 
 
 20 passing fell: exceedingly angry wrath: wroth 
 
 23 changeling; cf. n. _ 
 
Night's Dream, II. i l^ 
 
 And jealous Oberon would have the child 24 
 
 Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild; 
 But she, perforce, withholds the loved boy, 
 Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy. 
 And .now they never meet in grove, or green, 28 
 
 By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen, 
 But they do square; that all their elves, for fear, 
 Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there. 
 
 Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making 
 quite, 32 
 
 Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite 
 Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are you not he 
 That frights the maidens of the villagery; 
 Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern, 
 And bootless make the breathless housewife churn ; 37 
 And sometime make the drink to bear no barm; 
 Mislead night wanderers, laughing at their harm? 
 Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck, 
 You do their work, and they shall have good luck: 41 
 Are you not he? 
 
 Puck. Fairy, thou speak' st aright; 
 
 I am that merry wanderer of the night. 
 I jest to Oberon, and make him smile 44 
 
 When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile^ 
 Neighing in likeness of a filly foal; 
 And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl, 
 In very likeness of a roasted crab; 48 
 
 And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob 
 And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale. 
 The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale, 
 
 25 trace: traverse 29 sheen: bright 
 
 30 square: quarrel that: so that 32 making: form 
 33 shrewd: malicious, mischievous 
 
 36 quern: hand-mill for grinding grain 
 
 37 bootless : fruitlessly 38 barm: froth 
 47 gossip's bowl; cf. n. 48 crab: crab-apple 51 saddest: soberest 
 
16 A Midsummer 
 
 Sometime for three- foot stool mistaketh me; 52 
 
 Then slip I from her bum, down topples she, 
 
 And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough; 
 
 And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh; 
 
 And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear 56 
 
 A merrier hour was never wasted there. 
 
 But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon.' 
 
 Fai. And here my mistress. Would that he were 
 gone! 
 
 Enter the King of Fairies [Oberon] at one door with 
 his train; and the Queen [Titania] at another 
 with hers. 
 
 Obe. Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. 60 
 
 Tita. What! jealous Oberon. Fairies, skip hence: 
 I have forsworn his bed and company. 
 
 Obe. Tarry, rash wanton! am not I thy lord? 
 
 Tita. Then, I must be thy lady ; but I know 
 When thou hast stol'n away from fairy land, 65 
 
 And in the shape of Corin sat all day, 
 Playing on pipes of corn, and versing love 
 To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here, 68 
 
 Come from the furthest steep of India? 
 But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, 
 Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love, 
 To Theseus must be wedded, and you come 72 
 
 To give their bed joy and prosperity. 
 
 Obe. How canst thou thus for shame, Titania, 
 Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, 
 Knowing I know thy love to Theseus? 76 
 
 Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night 
 
 54 tailor; cf. n. 55 quire: company 
 
 56 waxen : increase _ neeze: sneeze 66 Corin; cf. n. 
 
 67 versing love: making love-verses 69 steep: mountain range 
 
 71 buskin'd: wearing a buskin, a high-heeled hunter's boot 
 75 Glance : hint maliciously 
 
i 
 
 Nighfs Dream, II. i 1 7 
 
 From Perigenia, whom he ravished? 
 
 And make him with fair iEgle break his faith, 
 
 With Ariadne, and Antiopa? 80 
 
 * Tita. These are the forgeries of jealousy: 
 And never, since the middle summer's spring, 
 Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead, 
 By paved fountain, or by rushy brook, 84 
 
 Or in the beached margent of the sea, 
 To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind, 
 But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport. 
 Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain, 88 
 
 As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea 
 Contagious fogs ; which, falling in the land, 
 ITatn every pelting river made so proud 
 That they have overborne their continent s: 92 
 
 The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain, 
 The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn 
 Hath rotted ere his youth attain' d a beard: 
 The fold stands empty in the drowned field, 96 
 
 And crows are fatted with the murrion flock; 
 The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud, 
 And the quaint mazes in the wanton green 
 For lack of tread are undistinguishable : 100 
 
 The human mortals want their winter here: 
 No night is now with hymn or carol blest: 
 Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, 
 Pale in her anger, washes all the air, 104 
 
 That rheumatic diseases do abound: 
 
 78 Perigeniahc/. n. 79, 80 iEgle . . . Antiopa; cf.n. 
 
 81 forgeries : idle invention s 82 spring: beginning 
 
 84 paved fountain: spring with pebble-covered bottom 
 
 85 margent: margin 86 ringlets: circular dances 
 90 Contagious: noxious 91 pelting: petty 
 92 continents: boundaries 97 murrion: diseased 
 98 nine men's morris; cf. n. 99 wanton: luxuriant 
 101-103 Cf.n. 105 rheumatic diseases: colds, etc. 
 
18 A Midsummer 
 
 And thorough this distemperature we see 
 
 The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts 
 
 Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose, 108 
 
 And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown 
 
 An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds 
 
 Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer, 
 
 The childing autumn, angry winter, change 112 
 
 Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world, 
 
 By their increase, now knows not which is which. 
 
 And this same progeny of evil comes 
 
 From our debate, from our dissension: 116 
 
 We are their parents and original. 
 
 Obe. Do you amend it then; it lies in you. 
 Why should Titania cross her Oberon? 
 I do but beg a little changeling boy, 120 
 
 To be my henchman. 
 
 Tita. Set your heart at rest; 
 
 The fairy land buys not the child of me. 
 His mother was a votaress of my order: 
 And, in the spiced Indian air, by night, 124 
 
 Full often hath she gossip'd by my side, 
 And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands, 
 Marking the embarked traders on the flood; 
 When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive 
 And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind; 
 Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait 
 Following, — her womb then rich with my young 
 
 squire, — 
 Would imitate, and sail upon the land, 132 
 
 To fetch me trifles, and return again, 
 As from a voyage, rich with merchandise. 
 
 106 distemperature: disorder of the winds and moon (?), ill 
 
 humor (?) 109 Hiems': winter's 
 
 112 childing : fruitful 113 mazed: bewildered 
 
 114 increase: produce 121 henchman: page of honor 
 123 votaress: woman under vows 
 
Night's Dream, II A 19 
 
 But she, being mortal, of that boy did die; 
 
 And for her sake I do rear up her boy, 136 
 
 And for her sake I will not part with him. 
 
 Obe. How long within this wood intend you stay? 
 
 Tita. Perchance, till after Theseus' wedding-day. 
 If you will patiently dance in our round, 140 
 
 And see our moonlight revels, go with us; 
 If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts. 
 
 Obe. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee. 
 
 Tita. Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, 
 away ! 144 
 
 We shall chide downright, if I longer stay. 
 
 Exeunt [Titania and her train]. 
 
 Obe. Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this 
 grove 
 Till I torment thee for this injury. 
 My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou remember'st 
 Since once I sat upon a promontory, 149 
 
 And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back 
 Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, 
 That the rude sea grew civil at her song, 152 
 
 And certain stars shot madly from their spheres 
 To hear the sea-maid's music. 
 
 PucJc. I remember. 
 
 Obe. That very time I saw, but thou couldst not, 
 Flying between the cold moon and the earth, 156 
 
 Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took 
 At a fair vestal throned by the west, 
 And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow, 
 As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts ; 
 But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft 161 
 
 Quench'd in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon, 
 
 145 chide: quarrel 147 injury: affront 
 
 148-169 Cf. n. 149 Since: when 
 
20 A Midsummer 
 
 And the imperial votaress passed on, 
 
 In maiden meditation, fancy-free. 164 
 
 Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell: 
 
 It fell upon a little western flower, 
 
 Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound, 
 
 And maidens call it Love-in-idleness. 168 
 
 Fetch me that flower; the herb I show'd thee once: 
 
 The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid 
 
 Will make or man or woman madly dote 
 
 Upon the next live creature that it sees. 172 
 
 Fetch me this herb ; and be thou here again 
 
 Ere the leviathan can swim a league. 
 
 Puck. I'll put a girdle round about the earth 
 In forty minutes. Exit. 
 
 Obe. Having once this juice, 176 
 
 I'll watch Titania when she is asleep, 
 And drop the liquor of it in her eyes : 
 The next thing then she waking looks upon, 
 Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull, 180 
 
 On meddling monkey, or on busy ape, 
 She shall pursue it with the soul of love: 
 And ere I take this charm off from her sight, 
 As I can take it with another herb, 184 
 
 I'll make her render up her page to me. 
 But who comes here? I am invisible, 
 And I will overhear their conference. 
 
 Enter Demetrius, Helena following him. 
 
 Dem. I love thee not, therefore pursue me not. 188 
 Where is Lysander and fair Hermia? 
 The one I'll slay, the other siayeth me. 
 Thou told'st me they were stol'n into this wood; 
 And here am I, and wood within this wood, 192 
 
 168 Love-in-idleness : the pansy 171 or . . . or: either . . . or 
 
 174 leviathan: whale 192 wood . . . wood: mad . . . wood 
 
Night's Dream, II. i 21 
 
 Because I cannot meet my Hermia. 
 
 Hence ! get thee gone, and follow me no more. 
 
 Hel. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant: 
 But yet you draw not iron, for my heart 196 
 
 Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw, 
 And I shall have no power to follow you. 
 
 Dem. Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair? 
 Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth 200 
 
 Tell you I do not nor I cannot love you ? 
 
 Hel. And even for that do I love you the more. 
 I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, 
 The more you beat me, I will fawn on you : 204 
 
 Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, 
 Neglect me, lose me ; only give me leave, 
 Unworthy as I am, to follow you. 
 What worser place can I beg in your love, 208 
 
 And yet a place of high respect with me, 
 Than to be used as you use your dog? 
 
 Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit, 
 For I am sick when I do look on you. 212 
 
 Hel. And I am sick when I look not on you. 
 
 Dem. You do impeach your modesty too much, 
 To leave the city, and commit yourself 
 Into the hands of one that loves you not; 216 
 
 To trust the opportunity of night 
 And the ill counsel of a desert place 
 With the rich worth of your virginity. 
 
 Hel. Your virtue is my privilege: for that 220 
 
 It is not night when I do see your face, 
 Therefore I think I am not in the night; 
 Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company, 
 For you in my respect are all the world: 224 
 
 195 adamant: hard stone with magnetic power 
 
 214 impeach: call in question 
 
 220 for that: because 224 respect: reg ard 
 
22 A Midsummer 
 
 Then how can it be said I am alone, 
 When all the world is here to look on me ? 
 
 Dem. I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes, 
 And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts. 228 
 
 Hel. The wildest hath not such a heart as you. 
 Run when you will, the story shall be chang'd; 
 Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase; 
 The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind 232 
 
 Makes speed to catch the tiger : bootless speed, 
 When cowardice pursues and valour flies. 
 
 Dem. I will not stay thy questions: let me go; 
 Or, if thou follow me, do not believe 236 
 
 But I shall do thee mischief in the wood. 
 
 Hel. Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field, 
 You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius ! 
 Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex. 240 
 
 We cannot fight for love, as men may do; 
 We should be woo'd and were not made to woo. 
 
 [Exit Demetrius.'] 
 I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell, 
 To die upon the hand I love so well. Exit. 
 
 Obe. Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this 
 grove, 245 
 
 Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love. 
 
 Enter Puck. 
 
 Hast thou the flower there ? Welcome, wanderer. 
 
 Puck. Ay, there it is. 
 
 Obe. I pray thee, give it me. 248 
 
 I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, 
 Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows 
 Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, 
 
 227 brakes: thickets 231 Cf. n. 
 
 232 griffin: fabulous monster, half lion, half eagle 
 
 235 stay . . . questions: listen to thy talk 249 blows: blooms 
 
Night's Dream, II. ii 23 
 
 With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine: 252 
 
 There sleeps Titania some time of the night, 
 
 Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight; 
 
 And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin, 
 
 Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in: 256 
 
 And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes, 
 
 And make her full of hateful fantasies. 
 
 Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove: 
 
 A sweet Athenian lady is in love 260 
 
 With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes; 
 
 But do it when the next thing he espies 
 
 May be the lady. Thou shalt know the man 
 
 By the Athenian garments he hath on. 264 
 
 Effect it with some care, that he may prove 
 
 More fond on her than she upon her love. 
 
 And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow. 
 
 Puck. Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so. 
 
 Exeunt. 
 
 Scene Two 
 [Another Part of the Wood] 
 
 Enter Queen of Fairies, with her train. 
 
 Tita. Come, now a roundel and a fairy song; 
 Then, for the third part of a minute, hence ; 
 Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds, 
 Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings, 4 
 To make my small elves coats, and some keep back 
 The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, and wonders 
 At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep; 
 Then to your offices, and let me rest. 8 
 
 252 eglantine: sweetbriar 256 Weed: garment 
 
 257 streak: stroke 1 roundel : dance in a circle 
 
 4 rere-mice : bats 7 quaint: pretty, dainty 8 offices: duties 
 
24 A Midsummer 
 
 Fairies sing. 
 
 I. 
 
 'You spotted snakes with double tongue, 
 
 Thorny hedge-hogs, be not seen; 
 Newts, and blind-worms, do no wrong ; 
 
 Come not near our fairy queen.' 12 
 
 'Philomel, with melody, 
 Sing in our sweet lullaby; 
 Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby: 
 
 Never harm, 16 
 
 Nor spell, nor charm, 
 Come our lovely lady nigh; 
 So, good night, with lullaby/ 
 
 II. 
 
 'Weaving spiders come not here; 20 
 
 Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence ! 
 
 Beetles black, approach not near; 
 Worm nor snail, do no offence. 
 
 Philomel, with melody, &c.' 24 
 
 Fai. Hence, away ! now all is well. 
 One aloof stand sentinel. 
 
 She sleeps. [Exeunt Fairies."] 
 
 Enter Oberon [and squeezes the flower on 
 Titania's eyelids]. 
 
 Obe. What thou seest when thou dost wake, 
 Do it for thy true-love take; 28 
 
 Love and languish for his sake: 
 Be it ounce, or cat, or bear, 
 Pard, or boar with bristled hair, 
 
 13 Philomel : the nightingale 
 
 30 ounce: lynx cat: wildcat 31 Pard: leopard 
 
Night's Dream, II. ii 25 
 
 In thy eye that shall appear 32 
 
 When thou wak'st, it is thy dear. 
 
 Wake when some vile thing is near. [Exit.'] 
 
 Enter Lysander and Hermia. 
 
 Lys. Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood ; 
 
 And to speak troth, I have forgot our way: 36 
 
 We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good, 
 
 And tarry for the comfort of the day. 
 
 Her. Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed, 
 For I upon this bank will rest my head. 40 
 
 Lys. One turf shall serve as pillow for us both; 
 One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth. 
 
 Her. Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear, 
 Lie further off yet, do not lie so near. 44 
 
 Lys. O ! take the sense, sweet, of my innocence, 
 Love takes the meaning in love's conference. 
 I mean that my heart unto yours is knit, 
 So that but one heart we can make of it; 48 
 
 Two bosoms interchained with an oath; 
 So then two bosoms and a single troth. 
 Then by your side no bed-room me deny, 
 For, lying so, Hermia, I do not lie. 52 
 
 Her. Lysander riddles very prettily: 
 Now much beshrew my manners and my pride, 
 If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied. 
 But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy 56 
 
 Lie further off; in human modesty, 
 Such separation as may well be said 
 Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid, 
 So far be distant; and, good night, sweet friend. 
 Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end ! 61 
 
 Lys. Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I ; 
 
 36 troth: truth 54 beshrew: 'mischief on' 
 
26 A Midsummer 
 
 And then end life when I end loyalty ! 
 
 [Retires a little distance.] 
 Here is my bed : sleep give thee all his rest ! 
 
 Her. With half that wish the wisher's eyes be 
 press'd ! They sleep. 
 
 Enter Puck. 
 
 Puck. Through the forest have I gone, 
 But Athenian found I none, 
 On whose eyes I might approve 68 
 
 This flower's force in stirring love. 
 Night and silence ! who is here ? 
 Weeds of Athens he doth wear: 
 This is he, my master said, 72 
 
 Despised the Athenian maid: 
 And here the maiden, sleeping sound, 
 On the dank and dirty ground. 
 Pretty soul ! she durst not lie 76 
 
 Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy. 
 Churl, upon thy eyes I throw 
 All the power this charm doth owe. 
 When thou wak'st, let love forbid 80 
 
 Sleep his seat on thy eyelid: 
 So awake when I am gone; 
 For I must now to Oberon. Exit. 
 
 Enter Demetrius and Helena, running. 
 
 Hel. Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Deme- 
 trius. 84 
 
 Dem. I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me 
 thus. 
 
 Hel. O ! wilt thou darkling leave me ? do not so. 
 
 Dem. Stay, on thy peril : I alone will go. 
 
 Exit Demetrius. 
 
 68 approve: test 79 owe: possess 86 darkling: in the dark 
 
Night's Dream, II. ii 27 
 
 Hel. O ! I am out of breath in this fond chase. 
 The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace. 89 
 
 Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies; 
 For she hath blessed and attractive eyes. 
 How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears: 
 If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers. 93 
 
 No, no, I am as ugly as a bear; 
 For beasts that meet me run away for fear; 
 Therefore no marvel though Demetrius 96 
 
 Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus. 
 What wicked and dissembling glass of mine 
 Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne? 
 But who is here ? Lysander ! on the ground ! 100 
 
 Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound. 
 Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake. 
 
 Lys. [Awaking.'] And run through fire I will for 
 thy sweet sake. 
 Transparent Helena! Nature shows art, 104 
 
 That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart. 
 Where is Demetrius ? O ! how fit a word 
 Is that vile name to perish on my sword. 
 
 Hel. Do not say so, Lysander ; say not so. 108 
 
 What though he love your Hermia? Lord! what 
 
 though ? 
 Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content. 
 
 Lys. Content with Hermia! No: I do repent 
 The tedious minutes I with her have spent. 112 
 
 Not Hermia, but Helena I love: 
 Who will not change a raven for a dove? 
 The will of man is by his reason sway'd, 
 And reason says you are the worthier maid. 116 
 
 Things growing are not ripe until their season; 
 
 88 fond: foolish; also, loving 
 
 89 grace: good fortune 99 sphery: starry 
 
28 A Midsummer 
 
 So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason ; 
 And touching now the point of human skill, 
 Reason becomes the marshal to my will, 120 
 
 And leads me to your eyes ; where I o'erlook 
 Love's stories written in love's richest book. 
 
 Hel. Wherefore was I to this keen mockery 
 born ? 123 
 
 When at your hands did I deserve this scorn? 
 Is 't not enough, is 't not enough, young man, 
 That I did never, no, nor never can, 
 Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye, 
 But you must flout my insufficiency? 128 
 
 Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do, 
 In such disdainful manner me to woo. 
 But fare you well: perforce I must confess 
 I thought you lord of more true gentleness. 132 
 
 O ! that a lady of one man refus'd, 
 Should of another therefore be abus'd. Exit. 
 
 Lys. She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou 
 there ; 
 And never mayst thou come Lysander near. 136 
 
 For, as a surfeit of the sweetest things 
 The deepest loathing to the stomach brings; 
 Or, as the heresies that men do leave 
 Are hated most of those they did deceive: 140 
 
 So thou, my surfeit and my heresy, 
 Of all be hated, but the most of me! 
 And, all my powers, address your love and might 
 To honour Helen, and to be her knight. Exit. 
 
 Her. [Awaking.] Help me, Lysander, help me! do 
 thy best 145 
 
 To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast. 
 Ay me, for pity ! what a dream was here ! 
 
 119 point: summit 
 
Night's Dream, III. i 29 
 
 Lysander, look how I do quake with fear: 148 
 
 Methought a serpent eat my heart away, 
 
 And you sat smiling at his cruel prey. 
 
 Ly sander! what! remov'd? — Lysander! lord! 
 
 What! out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word? 152 
 
 Alack! where are you? speak, an if you hear; 
 
 Speak, of all loves ! I swound almost with fear. 
 
 No ! then I well perceive you are not nigh : 
 
 Either death or you 111 find immediately. Exit. 
 
 ACT THIRD 
 
 Scene One 
 
 [The Wood. Titania lying asleep'] 
 
 Enter the Clowns [Quince, Snug, Bottom, Flute, 
 Snout, and Starveling']. 
 
 Bot. Are we all met? 
 
 Quin. Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous con- 
 venient place for our rehearsal. This green plot 
 shall be our stage, this hawthorn-brake our 4 
 tiring-house; and we will do it in action as we 
 will do it before the duke. 
 
 Bot. Peter Quince, — 
 
 Quin. What sayst thou, bully Bottom? 8 
 
 Bot. There are things in this comedy of 
 Pyramus and Thisby that will never please. 
 First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill him- 
 self, which the ladies cannot abide. How answer 
 you that? 13 
 
 150 prey: preying 154 of: for the sake of swound: swo on 
 
 Scene One S. d. Clowns: men of the lower class; also, comedians 
 
 5 tiring-house: dressing-room 
 
 8 bully: a friendly term equivalent to 'good old' 
 
30 A Midsummer 
 
 Snout. By 'r lakin, a parlous fear. 
 
 Star. I believe we must leave the killing out, 
 when all is done. 16 
 
 Bot. Not a whit: I have a device to make all 
 well. Write me a prologue; and let the prologue 
 seem to say, we will do no harm with our swords, 
 and that Pyramus is not killed indeed ; and, 20 
 for the more better assurance, tell them that I, 
 Pyramus, am not Pyramus, but Bottom the 
 weaver: this will put them out of fear. 
 
 Quin. Well, we will have such a prologue, and 
 it shall be written in eight and six. 25 
 
 Bot. No, make it two more: let it be written 
 in eight and eight. 
 
 Snout. Will not the ladies be afeard of the 
 lion? 29 
 
 Star. I fear it, I promise you. 
 
 Bot. Masters, you ought to consider with 
 yourselves : to bring in, — God shield us ! — a lion 
 among ladies, is a most dreadful thing ; for there 
 is not a more fearful wild-fowl than your lion 
 living, and we ought to look to it. 
 
 Snout. Therefore, another prologue must tell 
 he is not a lion. 37 
 
 Bot. Nay, you must name his name, and half 
 his face must be seen through the lion's neck; 
 and he himself must speak through, saying thus, 
 or to the same defect, 'Ladies,' or, 'Fair ladies/ 
 'I would wish you,' or, 'I would request you,' or, 42 
 'I would entreat you, not to fear, not to tremble: 
 my life for yours. If you think I come hither as 
 a lion, it were pity of my life: no, I am no such 
 thing: I am a man as other men are'; and there 
 
 14 By 'r lakin : By Our Lady parlous: perilous 
 
 25 eight and six: alternate verses of eight and six syllables 
 
Night's Dream, III. i 31 
 
 indeed let him name his name, and tell them 
 plainly he is Snug the joiner. 48 
 
 Quin. Well, it shall be so. But there is two 
 hard things, that is, to bring the moonlight 
 into a chamber; for, you know, Pyramus and 
 Thisby meet by moonlight. 52 
 
 Snug. Doth the moon shine that night we 
 play our play? 
 
 Bot . A calendar, a calendar ! look in the 
 almanac; find out moonshine, find out moon- 
 shine. 57 
 
 Quin. Yes, it doth shine that night. 
 
 Bot. Why, then may you leave a casement 
 of the great chamber-window, where we play, 
 open; and the moon may shine in at the case- 
 ment. 62 
 
 Quin. Ay; or else one must come in with a 
 bush of thorns and a lantern, and say he comes 
 to disfigure, or to present, the person of Moon- 
 shine. Then, there is another thing: we must 
 have a wall in the great chamber; for Pyramus 
 and Thisby, says the story, did talk through the 
 chink of a wall. 69 
 
 Snug. You can never bring in a wall. What 
 say you, Bottom? 
 
 Bot. Some man or other must present Wall; 
 and let him have some plaster, or some loam, or 
 some rough-cast about him, to signify wall; and 
 let him hold his fingers thus, and through that 
 cranny shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper. 76 
 
 Quin. If that may be, then all is well. Come, 
 sit down, every mother's son, and rehearse your 
 parts. Pyramus, you begin: when you have 
 
 64 bush of thorns; cf. n. 
 
32 A Midsummer 
 
 spoken your speech, enter into that brake; and 
 so every one according to his cue. 81 
 
 Enter Robin [behind]. 
 
 Puck. What hempen home-spuns have we swagger- 
 ing here, 
 So near the cradle of the fairy queen? 
 What ! a play toward; 111 be an auditor; 84 
 
 An actor too perhaps, if I see cause. 
 
 Quin. Speak, Pyramus. — Thisby, stand forth. 
 Bot. Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet, — 
 Quin. Odorous, odorous. 88 
 
 Bot. — odours savours sweet: 
 So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear. 
 But hark, a voice ! stay thou but here awhile, 
 
 And by and by I will to thee appear. — Exit. 
 
 Puck. — A stranger Pyramus than e'er play'd here ! 
 
 [Exit.] 
 Flu. Must I speak now? 
 
 Quin. Ay, marry, must you; for you must 
 understand, he goes but to see a noise that he 
 heard, and is to come again. 97 
 
 Flu. Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue, 
 
 Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier, 
 Most brisky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew, 
 As true as truest horse that yet would never 
 tire, 101 
 
 I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb. 
 
 Quin. 'Ninus' tomb,' man. Why, you must 
 not speak that yet;, that you answer to Pyra- 
 mus: you speak all your part at once, cues and 
 all. Pyramus, enter: your cue is past; it is 
 'never tire.' 
 
 82 hempen home-spuns: rude fellows 84 toward: in preparation 
 
 100 juvenal: an affected word for 'youth' eke: also 
 
Night's Dream, III. i 
 
 Flu. O! — As true as truest horse, that yet would 
 never tire. 108 
 
 [Enter Puck, and Bottom with an ass's head.] 
 
 y Bot. If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine. 
 Quin. O monstrous ! O strange ! we are haunted. 
 Pray, masters ! fly, masters ! — Help ! 
 
 The Clowns all exeunt. 
 Puck. I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round, 112 
 Through bog, through bush, through brake, through 
 brier : 
 Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound, 
 
 A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire; 
 And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and 
 burn, 116 
 
 Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn. 
 
 Exit. 
 Bot. Why do they run away? this is a knavery 
 of them to make me afeard. 
 
 Enter Snout. 
 
 Snout. O Bottom, thou art changed! what do 
 I see on thee? 121 
 
 Bot. What do you see? you see an ass-head 
 of your own, do you? [Exit Snout.'] 
 
 Enter Peter Quince. 
 
 Quin. Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou 
 art translated. Exit. 
 
 Bot. I see their knavery: this is to make an 
 ass of me ; to fright me, if they could. But I will 127 
 not stir from this place, do what they can: I 
 will walk up and down here, and I will sing, 
 that they shall hear I am not afraid. 
 
 115 fire: will o' the wisp 122, 123 you . . . own; cf. n. 
 
34 A Midsummer 
 
 'The ousel-cock, so black of hue, 
 
 With orange-tawny bill, 132 
 
 The throstle with his note so true, 
 The wren with little quill/ 
 
 Tita. [Awaking.'] What angel wakes me from 
 my flowery bed? 136 
 
 Bot. 'The finch, the sparrow, and the lark, 
 The plain-song cuckoo gray, 
 Whose note full many a man doth mark, 
 And dares not answer, nay;' 140 
 
 for .deed, who would set his wit to so foolish a 
 bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he 
 cry 'cuckoo' never so? 
 Tita. I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again: 
 
 Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note; 145 
 
 So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape; 
 
 And thy fair virtue's force, perforce, doth move me, 
 
 On the first view, to say, to swear, I love thee. 
 
 Bot . Methinks, mistress, you should have 149 
 little reason for that: and yet, to say the truth, 
 reason and love keep little company together 
 now-a-days. The more the pity, that some 
 honest neighbours will not make them friends. 
 Nay, I can gleek upon occasion. 154 
 
 Tita. Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful. 
 
 Bot. Not so, neither; but if I had wit enough 
 to get out of this wood, I have enough to serve 
 mine own turn. 
 Tita. Out of this wood do not desire to go: 
 
 Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no. 
 
 I am a spirit of no common rate ; 161 
 
 131 ousel-cock: male blackbird 134 quill: note 
 
 138 plain-song; cf. n. 154 gleek: jest 
 
Night's Dream, III. i 35 
 
 The summer still doth tend upon my state ; 
 
 And I do love thee: therefore, go with me; 
 
 I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee, 164 
 
 And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep, 
 
 And sing, while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep: 
 
 And I will purge thy mortal grossness so 
 
 That thou shalt like an airy spirit go. 168 
 
 Pease-blossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustard-seed! 
 
 Enter four Fairies. 
 
 Peas. Ready. 
 Cob. And I. 
 
 Moth. And I. 
 
 Mus. And I. 
 
 All Four. Where shall we go? 
 
 Tita. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman; 
 Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes ; 172 
 
 Feed him with apricocks and dewberries, 
 With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries. 
 The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees, 
 And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs, 176 
 And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes, 
 To have my love to bed, and to arise; 
 And pluck the wings from painted butterflies 
 To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes: 180 
 Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies. 
 Peas. Hail, mortal! 
 Cob. Hail! 
 
 Moth. Hail! 184 
 
 Mus. Hail! 
 
 Bot. I cry your worships mercy, heartily: I 
 beseech your worship's name. 
 
 Cob. Cobweb. 188 
 
 169 Moth; cf. n. 186 cry . . . mercy: beg . . . pardon 
 
36 A Midsummer 
 
 Bot. I shall desire you of more acquaintance, 
 good Master Cobweb: if I cut my finger, I shall 
 make bold with you. Your name, honest gen- 
 tleman ? 192 
 Peas. Pease-blossom. 
 
 Bot. I pray you, commend me to Mistress 
 Squash, your mother, and to Master Peascod, 
 your father. Good Master Pease-blossom, I 
 shall desire you of more acquaintance too. 
 Your name, I beseech you, sir? 198 
 
 Mus. Mustard-seed. 
 
 Bot. Good Master Mustard-seed, I know your 
 patience well: that same cowardly, giant-like 
 ox-beef hath devoured many a gentleman of 202 
 your house. I promise you, your kindred hath 
 made my eyes water ere now. I desire you of 
 more acquaintance, good Master Mustard-seed. 
 Tita. Come, wait upon him; lead him to my 
 bower. 206 
 
 The moon, methinks, looks with a watery eye; 
 And when she weeps, weeps every little flower, 
 Lamenting some enforced chastity. 
 Tie up my love's tongue, bring him silently. 210 
 
 Exeunt. 
 
 Scene Two 
 [Another Part of the Wood] 
 Enter King of Fairies, solus. 
 
 Obe. I wonder if Titania be awak'd; 
 Then, what it was that next came in her eye, 
 Which she must dote on in extremity. 
 
 195 Squash: unripe peapod Peascod: peapod 
 
 209 enforced: violate d 
 
Nighfs Dream, III. ii 37 
 
 Enter Puck. 
 
 Here comes my messenger. 
 
 How now, mad spirit! 4 
 What night-rule now about this haunted grove? 
 Puck. My mistress with a monster is in love. 
 Near to her close and consecrated bower, 
 While she was in her dull and sleeping hour, 8 
 
 A crew of patches, rude mechanicals, 
 That work for bread upon Athenian stalls, 
 Were met together to rehearse a play 
 Intended for great Theseus' nuptial day. ' 12 
 
 The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort, 
 Who Pyramus presented in their sport, 
 Forsook his scene, and enter'd in a brake: 
 When I did him at this advantage take, 16 
 
 An ass's nowl I fixed on his head: 
 Anon his Thisbe must be answered, 
 And forth my mimick comes. When they him spy, 
 As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye, 20 
 
 Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort, 
 Rising and cawing at the gun's report, 
 Sever themselves, and madly sweep the sky; 
 So, at his sight, away his fellows fly, 24 
 
 And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls; 
 He murder cries, and help from Athens calls. 
 Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears thus 
 strong, 27 
 
 Made senseless things begin to do them wrong; 
 For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch; 
 
 5 night-rule: diversion of the night haunted: much frequented 
 
 7 close: secret 
 
 9 patches: clowns, fools mechanicals: workingmen 
 
 13 barren sort: dull company 17 nowl: noddle, pate 
 
 21 russet-pated : grey-headed choughs: jackdaws 
 
 25 our stamp; cf. n. 
 
 
38 A Midsummer 
 
 Some sleeves j some hats, from yielders all things 
 
 catch. 
 I led them on in this distracted fear, 
 And left sweet Pyramus translated there; 32 
 
 When in that moment, so it came to pass, 
 Titania wak'd and straightway lov'd an ass. 
 
 Obe. This falls out better than I could devise. 
 But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes 36 
 
 With the love- juice, as I did bid thee do? 
 
 PucJc. I took him sleeping, — that is finish'd too, — 
 And the Athenian woman by his side; 
 That, when he wak'd, of force she must be ey'd. 40 
 
 Enter Demetrius and Hermia. 
 
 Obe. Stand close: this is the same Athenian. 
 
 Puck. This is the woman; but not this the man. 
 
 Dem. O ! why rebuke you him that loves you so? 
 Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe. 44 
 
 Her. Now I but chide ; but I should use thee worse, 
 For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse. 
 If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep, 
 Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep, 
 And kill me too. 49 
 
 The sun was not so true unto the day 
 As he to me. Would he have stol'n away 
 From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon 52 
 
 This whole earth may be bor'd, and that the moon 
 May through the centre creep, and so displease 
 Her brother's noontide with the Antipodes. 
 It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him; 56 
 
 So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim. 
 
 Dem. So should the murder'd look, and so should I, 
 Pierc'd through the heart with your stern cruelty; 
 
 36 latch'd: moistened (f) 40 force: necessity 55 with: among 
 
Night's Dream, III. ii 39 
 
 Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear, 
 
 As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere. 61 
 
 Her. What's this to my Lysander? where is he? 
 Ah ! good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me ? 
 
 Dem. I had rather give his carcass to my 
 hounds. 64 
 
 Her. Out, dog! out, cur! thou driv'st me past the 
 bounds 
 Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him then? 
 Henceforth be never number'd among men ! 
 O ! once tell true, tell true, e'en for my sake ; 68 
 
 Durst thou have look'd upon him being awake, 
 And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch ! 
 Could not a worm, an adder, do so much ? 
 An adder did it; for with doubler tongue 72 
 
 Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung. 
 
 Dem. You spend your passion on a mispris'd mood: 
 I am not guilty of Lysander's blood, 
 Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell. 76 
 
 Her. I pray thee, tell me then that he is well. 
 
 Dem. An if I could, what should I get therefore ? 
 
 Her. A privilege never to see me more. 
 And from thy hated presence part I so ; 80 
 
 See me no more, whether he be dead or no. Exit. 
 
 Dem. There is no following her in this fierce vein: 
 Here therefore for awhile I will remain. 
 So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow 84 
 
 For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe; 
 Which now in some slight measure it will pay, 
 If for his tender here I make some stay. Lie down. 
 
 Obe. What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken 
 quite, 88 
 
 And laid the love- juice on some true-love's sight: 
 
 70 touch: exploit 71 worm: snake 
 
 74 on a mispris'd mood: in a mistaken anger (f) 87 tender: offer 
 
40 A Midsummer 
 
 Of thy misprision must perforce ensue 
 Some true-love turn'd, and not a false turn'd true. 
 Puck. Then fate o'er-rules, that, one man holding 
 troth, 92 
 
 A million fail, confounding oath on oath. 
 
 Obe. About the wood go swifter than the wind, 
 And Helena of Athens look thou find: 
 All fancy-sick she is, and pale of cheer 96 
 
 With sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear. 
 By some illusion see thou bring her here: 
 I'll charm his eyes against she do appear. 
 
 Puck. I go, I go; look how I go; 100 
 
 Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow. Exit. 
 Obe. Flower of this purple dye, 
 Hit with Cupid's archery, 
 Sink in apple of his eye. 104 
 
 When his love he doth espy, 
 Let her shine as gloriously 
 As the Venus of the sky. 
 When thou wak'st, if she be by, 108 
 
 Beg of her for remedy. 
 
 Enter Puck. 
 
 Puck. Captain of our fairy band, 
 
 Helena is here at hand, 
 
 And the youth, mistook by me, 112 
 
 Pleading for a lover's fee. 
 
 Shall we their fond pageant see? 
 
 Lord, what fools these mortals be ! 
 Obe. Stand aside: the noise they make 116 
 
 Will cause Demetrius to awake. 
 Puck. Then will two at once woo one ; 
 
 90 misprision : mistake 96 cheer: face 
 
 97 costs . . . dear; cf. n. 
 
 99 against: in expectation of the time when 
 
Night's Dream, III. ii 41 
 
 That must needs be sport alone; 
 
 And those things do best please me 120 
 
 That befall preposterously. 
 
 Enter Lysander and Helena. 
 
 ™|pP| 
 
 A »„ „ 
 
 W scorn ? 
 
 m Scorn and derision never come in tears: 
 Xook, when I vow, I weep ; and vows so born, 
 
 In their nativity all truth appears. 125 
 
 How can these things in me seem scorn to you, 
 Bearing the badge of faith to prove them true ? 
 Hel. You do advance your cunning more and 
 more. 128 
 
 When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray! 
 These vows are Hermia's : will you give her o'er ? 
 
 Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh: 
 Your vows, to her and me, put in two scales, 132 
 
 Will even weigh, and both as light as tales. 
 
 Lys. I had no judgment when to her I swore. 
 
 Hel. Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er. 
 
 Lys. Demetrius loves her, and he loves not 
 you. 136 
 
 Dem. [Awaking.] O Helen! goddess, nymph, per- 
 fect, divine! 
 To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne ? 
 Crystal is muddy. O ! how ripe in show 139 
 
 Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow; 
 This pure congealed white, high Taurus' snow, 
 Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow 
 When thou hold'st up thy hand. O ! let me kiss 
 This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss. 144 
 
 119 alone: having no equal 
 
 125 By their birth appear wholly true 129 Cf. n. 
 
 141 Taurus': lofty mountain range in Asiatic Turkey 
 
42 A Midsummer 
 
 Hel. O spite ! O hell ! I see you all are bent 
 To set against me for your merriment: 
 If you were civil and knew courtesy, 
 You would not do me thus much injury. 148 
 
 Can you not hate me, as I know you do, 
 But you must join in souls to mock me too? 
 If you were men, as men you are in show, 
 You would not use a gentle lady so ; 152 
 
 To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts, 
 When I am sure you hate me with your hearts. 
 You both are rivals, and love Hermia, 
 And now both rivals, to mock Helena: 156 
 
 A trim exploit, a manly enterprise, 
 To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes 
 With your derision ! none of noble sort 
 Would so offend a virgin, and extort 160 
 
 A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport. 
 
 Lys. You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so; 
 For you love Hermia; this you know I know: 
 And here, with all good will, with all my heart, 
 In Hermia's love I yield you up my part: 165 
 
 And yours of Helena to me bequeath, 
 Whom I do love, and will do to my death. 
 
 Hel. Never did mockers waste more idle breath. 
 
 Dem. Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none: 
 If e'er I lov'd her, all that love is gone. 
 My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd, 
 And now to Helen it is home return'd, 172 
 
 There to remain. 
 
 Lys. Helen, it is not so. 
 
 Dem. Disparage not the faith thou dost not know, 
 Lest to thy peril thou aby it dear. 
 Look! where thy love comes: yonder is thy dear. 
 
 157 trim: fine 160 extort : wrest away 
 
 175 aby: pay a penalty for 
 
Night's Dream, III. ii 43 
 
 Enter Hermia. 
 
 Her. Dark night, that from the eye his function 
 takes, 177 
 
 The ear more quick of apprehension makes; 
 Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense, 
 It pays the hearing double recompense. 180 
 
 Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found; 
 Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound. 
 But why unkindly didst thou leave me so? 
 
 Lys. Why should he stay, whom love doth press 
 to go? 184 
 
 Her. What love could press Lysander from my 
 side ? 
 
 Lys. Lysander's love, that would not let him bide, 
 Fair Helena, who more engilds the night 
 Than all yon fiery oes and eyes of light. 188 
 
 Why seek'st thou me ? could not this make thee know, 
 The hate I bare thee made me leave thee so? 
 
 Her. You speak not as you think: it cannot be. 
 
 Hel. Lo ! she is one of this confederacy. 192 
 
 Now I perceive they have conj oin'd all three 
 To fashion this false sport in spite of me. 
 Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid! 
 Have you conspir'd, have you with these con- 
 triv'd 196 
 
 To bait me with this foul derision ? 
 Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd, 
 The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent, 
 When we have chid the hasty-footed time 200 
 
 For parting us, O! is all forgot? 
 All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence? 
 We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, 
 
 188 oes: small circular spangles; also, o's 194 spite: contempt 
 
 195 Injurious: insulting 203 artificial: skilled in constructive art 
 
44 A Midsummer 
 
 Have with our needles created both one flower, 204 
 
 Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion, 
 
 Both warbling of one song, both in one key, 
 
 As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds, 
 
 Had been incorporate. So we grew together, 208 
 
 Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, 
 
 But yet an union in partition; 
 
 Two lovely berries moulded on one stem; 
 
 So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart; 212 
 
 Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, 
 
 Due but to one, and crowned with one crest. 
 
 And will you rent our ancient love asunder, 
 
 To join with men in scorning your poor friend? 
 
 It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly: 217 
 
 Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it, 
 
 Though I alone do feel the injury. 
 
 Her. I am amazed at your passionate words. 
 I scorn you not: it seems that you scorn me. 
 
 Hel. Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn, 
 To follow me and praise my eyes and face, 
 And made your other love, Demetrius, — 224 
 
 Who even but now did spurn me with his foot, — 
 To call me goddess, nymph, divine and rare, 
 Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this 
 To her he hates ? and wherefore doth Lysander 
 Deny your love, so rich within his soul, 229 
 
 And tender me, forsooth, affection, 
 But by your setting on, by your consent? 
 What though I be not so in grace as you, 232 
 
 So hung upon with love, so fortunate, 
 But miserable most, to love unlov'd? 
 This you should pity rather than despise. 
 
 Her. I understand not what you mean by this. 236 
 
 211 lovely: loving 213, 214 Cf. n. 215 rent: rend 
 
Night's Dream, III. ii 45 
 
 Hel. Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks, 
 Make mouths upon me when I turn my back; 
 Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up: 
 This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled. 240 
 
 If you have any pity, grace, or manners, 
 You would not make me such an argument. 
 But, fare ye well: 'tis partly mine own fault, 
 Which death or absence soon shall remedy. 244 
 
 Lys. Stay, gentle Helena ! hear my excuse : 
 My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena ! 
 
 Hel. O excellent! 
 
 Her. Sweet, do not scorn her so. 
 
 Dem. If she cannot entreat, I can compel. 248 
 
 Lys. Thou canst compel no more than she entreat: 
 Thy threats have no more strength than her weak 
 
 prayers. 
 Helen, I love thee; by my life, I do: 
 I swear by that which I will lose for thee, 252 
 
 To prove him false that says I love thee not. 
 
 Dem. I say I love thee more than he can do. 
 
 Lys. If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too. 
 
 Dem. Quick, come ! 
 
 Her. Lysander, whereto tends all this? 
 
 Lys. Away, you Ethiop ! 
 
 Dem. No, no, he'll . . . 257 
 
 Seem to break loose; take on, as you would follow, 
 But yet come not: you are a tame man, go! 
 
 Lys. [To Hermia.] Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! 
 vile thing, let loose, 260 
 
 Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent. 
 
 Her. Why are you grown so rude? what change 
 is this? 
 Sweet love, — 
 
 237 sad: serious 239 hold ... up: carry . . . on 
 
 242 argument: subject (of merriment) 257 Cf. n. 
 
46 A Midsummer 
 
 Lys. Thy love ! out, tawny Tartar, out ! 
 
 Out, loathed medicine ! hated potion, hence ! 264 
 
 Her. Do you not jest? 
 
 He I. Yes, sooth ; and so do you. 
 
 Lys. Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee. 
 
 Dem. I would I had your bond, for I perceive 
 A weak bond holds you: I'll not trust your word. 
 
 Lys. What ! should I hurt her, strike her, kill her 
 dead ? 269 
 
 Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so. 
 
 Her. What ! can you do me greater harm than hate ? 
 Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my 
 love ? 272 
 
 Am not I Hermia? Are not you Lysander? 
 I am as fair now as I was erewhile. 
 Since night you lov'd me ; yet, since night you left me : 
 Why, then you left me, — O, the gods forbid! — 
 In earnest, shall I say? 
 
 Lys. Ay, by my life; 277 
 
 And never did desire to see thee more. 
 Therefore be out of hope, of question, doubt; 
 Be certain, nothing truer: 'tis no jest, 280 
 
 That I do hate thee and love Helena. 
 
 Her. O me! you juggler! you canker-blossom! 
 You thief of love ! what ! have you come by night 
 And stol'n my love's heart from him? 
 
 Hel. Fine, i' faith ! 
 
 Have you no modesty, no maiden shame, 285 
 
 No touch of bashfulness ? What ! will you tear 
 Impatient answers from my gentle tongue? 
 Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet you! 288 
 
 Her. Puppet ! why, so : ay, that way goes the game. 
 Now I perceive that she hath made compare 
 
 282 canker-blossom: worm that destroys the blossom 
 
Night's Dream, III. ii 47 
 
 Between our statures: she hath urg'd her height; 
 And with her personage, her tall personage, 292 
 
 Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him. 
 And are you grown so high in his esteem, 
 Because I am so dwarfish and so low? 
 How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak; 
 How low am I ? I am not yet so low 297 
 
 But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes. 
 
 Hel. I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen, 
 Let her not hurt me: I was never curst; 300 
 
 I have no gift at all in shrewishness; 
 I am a right maid for my cowardice: 
 Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think, 
 Because she is something lower than myself, 304 
 
 That I can match her. 
 
 Her. Lower! hark, again. 
 
 Hel. Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me. 
 I evermore did love you, Hermia, 
 Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong' d you; 
 Save that, in love unto Demetrius, 309 
 
 I told him of your stealth unto this wood. 
 He follow'd you; for love I follow'd him; 
 But he hath chid me hence, and threaten'd me 
 To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too: 313 
 
 And now, so you will let me quiet go, 
 To Athens will I bear my folly back, 
 And follow you no further : let me go : 316 
 
 You see how simple and how fond I am. 
 
 Her. Why, get you gone. Who is 't that hinders 
 you? 
 
 Hel. A foolish heart, that I leave here behind. 
 
 Her. What! with Lysander? 
 
 292 personage: figure 300 curst: savage 
 
 302 right: real 304 something: somewhat 
 
48 A Midsummer 
 
 Hel. With Demetrius. 
 
 Lys. Be not afraid: she shall not harm thee, 
 Helena. 321 
 
 Dem. No, sir; she shall not, though you take her 
 part. 
 
 Hel. O ! when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd. 
 She was a vixen when she went to school : 324 
 
 And though she be but little, she is fierce. 
 
 Her. 'Little' again ! nothing but low' and 'little' ! 
 Why will you suffer her to flout me thus ? 
 Let me come to her. 
 
 Lys. Get you gone, you dwarf; 328 
 
 You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made; 
 You bead, you acorn! 
 
 Dem. You are too officious 
 
 In her behalf that scorns your services. 
 Let her alone; speak not of Helena; 332 
 
 Take not her part, for, if thou dost intend 
 Never so little show of love to her, 
 Thou shalt aby it. 
 
 Lys. Now she holds me not; 
 
 Now follow, if thou dar'st, to try whose right, 
 Or thine or mine, is most in Helena. 337 
 
 Dem. Follow! nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jole. 
 Exeunt Lysander and Demetrius. 
 
 Her. You, mistress, all this coil is long of you: 
 Nay, go not back. 
 
 Hel. I will not trust you, I, 340 
 
 Nor longer stay in your curst company. 
 Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray, 
 My legs are longer though, to run away. [Exit."] 
 
 329 minimus: diminutive creature hindering knot-grass; cf. n. 
 
 333 intend: pretend. 338 jole: /aw 
 
 339 coil: turmoil long of: because of 
 
Night's Dream, III, ii 49 
 
 Her. I am amaz'd, and know not what to say. 
 
 [Exit.] 
 
 Obe. This is thy negligence: still thou mis- 
 tak'st, 345 
 
 Or else commit' st thy knaveries wilfully. 
 
 Puck. Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook. 
 Did not you tell me I should know the man 348 
 
 By the Athenian garments he had on? 
 And so far blameless proves my enterprise, 
 That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes; 
 And so far am I glad it so did sort, 352 
 
 As this their jangling I esteem a sport, 
 
 Obe. Thou see'st these lovers seek a place to fight: 
 Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night; 
 The starry welkin cover thou anon 356 
 
 With drooping fog as black as Acheron; 
 And lead these testy rivals so astray, 
 As one come not within another's way. 
 Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue, 
 Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong; 361 
 
 And sometime rail thou like Demetrius; 
 And from each other look thou lead them thus, 
 Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep 
 With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep: 
 Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye; 
 Whose liquor hath this virtuous property, 
 To take from thence all error with his might, 368 
 And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight. 
 When they next wake, all this derision 
 Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision; 
 And back to Athens shall the lovers wend, 372 
 
 With league whose date till death shall never end. 
 
 352 sort: turn out 357 Acheron: one of the rivers of Hades 
 
 361 wrong: insult 367 virtuous: powerful 
 
 368 with his might: by its efficacy 
 
t 
 
 50 \l/ A Midsummer 
 
 Whiles I in this affair do thee employ, 
 
 I'll to my queen and beg her Indian boy ; 
 
 And then I will her charmed eye release 376 
 
 From monster's view, and all things shall be peace. 
 
 Puck. My fairy lord, this must be done with haste, 
 For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast, 
 And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger ; 380 
 
 At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there, 
 Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all, 
 That in cross-ways and floods have burial, 
 Already to their wormy beds are gone; 384 
 
 For fear lest day should look their shames upon, 
 They wilfully themselves exile from light, 
 And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night. 
 
 Obe. But we are spirits of another sort. 388 
 
 I with the morning's love have oft made sport; 
 And, like a forester, the groves may tread, 
 Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red, 
 Opening on Neptune, with fair blessed beams 392 
 Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams. 
 But, notwithstanding, haste; make no delay: 
 We may effect this business yet ere day. 
 
 [Exit Oberon.~] 
 
 Puck. Up and down, up and down ; 396 
 
 I will lead them up and down: 
 I am fear'd in field and town; 
 Goblin, lead them up and down. 
 Here comes one. 400 
 
 Enter Lysander. 
 
 Lys. Where art thou, proud Demetrius ? speak thou 
 
 now. 
 Puck. Here, villain ! drawn and ready. Where art 
 
 thou? 
 
 389 the morning's love; cf. n. 402 drawn: with drawn sword 
 
Night's Dream, III, ii 51 
 
 Lys. I will be with thee straight. 
 Puck. Follow me, then, 
 
 To plainer ground. 
 
 [Exit Ly sander as following the voice. ~\ 
 
 Enter Demetrius. 
 
 Dem. Lysander! speak again. 404 
 
 Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled? 
 Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy 
 head ? 
 Puck. Thou coward ! art thou bragging to the stars, 
 Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars, 
 And wilt not come? Come, recreant; come, thou 
 child; 409 
 
 I'll whip thee with a rod: he is defil'd 
 That draws a sword on thee. 
 
 Dem. Yea, art thou there? 
 
 Puck. Follow my voice: we'll try no manhood here. 
 
 Exeunt. 
 
 [Enter Lysander."] 
 
 Lys. He goes before me and still dares me on: 
 When I come where he calls, then he is gone. 
 The villain is much lighter-heel'd than I : 
 I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly; 416 
 
 That fallen am I in dark uneven way, 
 And here will rest me. Lie down. 
 
 Come, thou gentle day! 
 For if but once thou show me thy grey light, 
 I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite. 420 
 
 [Sleeps.] 
 
 Enter Robin and Demetrius. 
 
 Puck. Ho! ho! ho! Coward, why com'st thou not? 
 Dem. Abide me, if thou dar'st; for well I wot 
 
52 A Midsummer 
 
 Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place, 
 And dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face. 
 Where art thou now ? 
 
 Puck. Come hither: I am here. 
 
 Dem. Nay then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy 
 this dear, 
 If ever I thy face by daylight see: 
 Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me 428 
 To measure out my length on this cold bed: 
 By day's approach look to be visited. 
 
 [Lies down and sleeps.] 
 
 Enter Helena. 
 
 Hel. O weary night ! O long and tedious night, 
 
 Abate thy hours ! shine, comforts, from the 
 east ! 432 
 
 That I may back to Athens by daylight, 
 
 From these that my poor company detest: 
 And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye, 
 Steal me awhile from mine own company. 436 
 
 Sleep. 
 Puck. Yet but three? Come one more; 
 Two of both kinds make up four. 
 Here she comes, curst and sad: 
 Cupid is a knavish lad, 440 
 
 Thus to make poor females mad. 
 
 Enter Hermia. 
 
 Her. Never so weary, never so in woe, 
 
 Bedabbled with the dew and torn with briers, 
 
 I can no further crawl, no further go; 444 
 
 My legs can keep no pace with my desires. 
 
 Here will I rest me till the break of day. 
 
 432 Abate: shorten 
 
Night's Dream, IV. i 53 
 
 Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray! 
 
 [Lies down and sleeps."] 
 Puck. On the ground 448 
 
 Sleep sound: 
 I'll apply 
 To your eye, 
 Gentle lover, remedy. 452 
 
 [Squeezing the juice on Lysander's eyes.] 
 When thou wak'st, 
 Thou tak'st 
 True delight 
 
 In the sight 456 
 
 Of thy former lady's eye: 
 And the country proverb known, 
 That every man should take his own, 
 In your waking shall be shown : 460 
 
 Jack shall have Jill; 
 Nought shall go ill; 
 The man shall have his mare again, 
 And all shall be well. [Exit Puck.] 
 
 They sleep all the Act. 
 
 ACT FOURTH 
 
 Scene One 
 
 [The Same] 
 
 Enter Queen of Fairies and Clown and Fairies, and 
 the King behind them [unseen]. 
 
 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, 
 
 464 S. d. Act: intermission 2 amiable: lovely coy: caress 
 
54 A Midsummer 
 
 And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy. 4 
 
 Bot. Where's Pease-blossom? 
 
 Peas. Ready. 
 
 Bot. Scratch my head, Pease-blossom. Where's 
 Mounsieur Cobweb? 8 
 
 Cob. Ready. 
 
 Bot. Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get 
 your 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 fn the action, moun- 
 sieur; and, good mounsieur, have a care the 
 honey-bag break not; I would be loath to have 
 you overflown with a honey-bag, signior. Where's 
 Mounsieur Mustard-seed? 18 
 
 Must. Ready. 
 
 Bot. Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustard- 
 seed. Pray you, leave your courtesy, good 
 mounsieur. 
 
 Must. What's your will? 23 
 
 Bot. Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help 
 Cavalery Cobweb to scratch. I must to the 
 barber's, mounsieur, for methinks I am marvel- 
 lous hairy about the face; and I am such a 
 tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must 
 scratch. 29 
 
 Tita. What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet 
 
 love? 
 
 Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in music: 
 let us have the tongs and the bones. 33 
 
 Tita. Or say, sweet love, what thou desir'st to eat. 
 
 Bot. Truly, a peck of provender: I could 
 
 20 neaf : fist 21 leave your courtesy : omit formality 
 
 25 Cavalery: i.e., cavalier 
 
 33 the tongs and the bones: rude musical instruments 
 
Night's Dream, IV. i 55 
 
 munch your good dry oats. Methinks I have 
 a great desire to a bottle of hay : good hay, sweet 
 hay, hath no fellow. 39 
 
 Tita. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek 
 
 The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee thence 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. 45 
 
 Tita. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. 
 
 Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away. 
 
 [Exeunt Fairies.] 
 
 So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle 48 
 
 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 Robin Goodfellow. 
 
 Obe. [Advancing.] Welcome, good Robin. See'st 
 thou this sweet sight? 52 
 
 Her dotage now I do begin to pity: 
 For, meeting her of late behind the wood, 
 Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool, 
 I did upbraid her and fall out with her; 56 
 
 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, 60 
 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, 64 
 
 38 bottle: bundle 55 favours: flowers as gifts 
 
 60 orient: lustrous 
 
56 A Midsummer 
 
 I then did ask of her her changeling child; 
 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 68 
 
 This hateful imperfection of her eyes: 
 And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp 
 From off the head of this Athenian swain, 
 That, he awaking when the other do, 72 
 
 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. 76 
 
 [Touching her eyes with an herb.~\ 
 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. 80 
 
 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 loathe his visage now. 85 
 
 Obe. Silence a while. Robin, take off this head. 
 Titania, music call; and strike more dead 
 Than common sleep of all these five the sense. 
 Tit a. Music, ho ! music ! such as charmeth sleep. 
 
 Music, still. 
 Puck. When thou wak'st, with thine own fool's 
 
 eyes peep. 
 Obe. Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands 
 with me, 
 
 72 other: others 73 repair: return 
 
 75 fierce: extravagant 89 S. d. cf. n- 
 
Night's Dream, IV. i 57 
 
 And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be. 
 Now thou and I are new in amity, 93 
 
 And will to-morrow midnight solemnly 
 Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly, 
 And bless it to all fair prosperity. 96 
 
 There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be 
 Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity. 
 Puck. Fairy king, attend, and mark: 
 
 I do hear the morning lark. 100 
 
 Obe. Then, my queen, in silence sad, 
 Trip we after the night's shade; 
 We the globe can compass soon, 
 Swifter than the wandering moon. 104 
 
 Tita. 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. 108 
 
 Sleepers lie still. Exeunt [Fairies']. Wind Horns. 
 
 Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and all his 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. 112 
 
 Uncouple in the western valley; let them go: 
 Dispatch, I say, and find the forester. 
 We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top, 
 And mark the musical confusion 116 
 
 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 
 With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear 120 
 
 95 triumphantly: festively 108 S. d. Wind: blow 
 
 110 observation: observance of the rites of May Day 
 
 111 vaward : early part 113 Uncouple : unleash them 
 114 Dispatch : make haste 119 bay'd: brought to bay 
 
58 A Midsummer 
 
 Such gallant chiding; 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. 124 
 
 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; 127 
 
 Crook-knee' d, and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian 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: 132 
 
 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: 136 
 
 I wonder of 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. 140 
 
 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. 144 
 
 Horns and they wake. Shout within. 
 
 They all start up. 
 
 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. 
 
 121 chiding: noise (of hounds) 
 
 126 flew'd: having large chaps sanded: of a sandy color 
 
 129 mouth: voice bells: i.e., a chime of bells 133 soft: stop 
 
 140 in grace of: i.e., to grace 145 Saint Valentine; cf. n. 
 
Night's Dream, IV. i 59 
 
 I know you two are rival enemies: 148 
 
 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, 152 
 
 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, — 156 
 
 I came with Hermia hither: our intent 
 Was to be gone from Athens, where we might, 
 Without the peril of the Athenian law — 
 
 Ege. Enough, enough, my lord; you have 
 enough : 160 
 
 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, 164 
 
 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, 168 
 
 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 172 
 
 As the remembrance of an idle gawd 
 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, 176 
 
 Is only Helena. To her, my lord, 
 Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia: 
 But, like a sickness, did I loathe this food ; 
 
 150 jealousy: suspicion 159 Without: beyond 
 
60 A Midsummer 
 
 But, as in health, come to my natural taste, 
 
 Now do I wish it, love it, long for it, 181 
 
 And will for evermore be true to it. 
 
 The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met: 
 Of this discourse we more will hear anon. 184 
 
 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 purpos'd hunting shall be set aside. 189 
 
 Away with us, to Athens : three and three, 
 We'll hold a feast in great solemnity. 
 Come, Hippolyta. 192 
 
 Exit Duke [with Hippolyta] and Lords, 
 
 Dem. These things seem small and undistinguish- 
 able, 
 Like far-off mountains turned into clouds. 
 
 Her. Methinks I see these things with parted eye^ 
 When everything seems double. 
 
 Hel. So methinks: 
 
 And I have found Demetrius, like a j ewel, 197 
 
 Mine own, and not mine own. 
 
 Dem. Are you sure 
 
 That we are awake? It seems to me 
 That yet we sleep, we dream. Do you not think 
 The duke was here, and bid us follow him ? 201 
 
 Her. Yea: and my father. 
 
 Hel. And Hippolyta. 
 
 Lys. And he did bid us follow to the temple. 
 
 Dem. Why then, we are awake. Let's follow 
 him ; 204 
 
 And by the way let us recount our dreams. 
 
 Exeunt Lovers. 
 
 195 parted eye: i.e., the two eyes not in focus 197, 198 Cf. n. 
 
Night's Dream, IV. ii 61 
 
 Bottom wakes. 
 Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and 
 I will answer: my next is, 'Most fair Pyra- 
 mus.' 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 211 
 dream, past the wit of man to say what dream 
 it was: man is but an ass, if he go about to ex- 
 pound 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 he will offer to say what methought I had. 
 The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man 218 
 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, 
 before the duke: peradventure, to make it the 
 more gracious, I shall sing it at her death. 226 
 
 Exit. 
 
 Scene Two 
 
 [A Room in Quince's House'] 
 
 Enter Quince, Flute, Snout, and Starveling. 
 
 Quin. Have you sent to Bottom's house? is 
 he come home yet? 
 
 216 patched: motley 
 
 226 gracious: acceptabfe at her death; cf. n. 
 
62 A Midsummer 
 
 Star. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt 
 he is transported. 4 
 
 Flu. If he come not, then the play is marred: 
 it goes not forward, doth it? 
 
 Quin. It is not possible: you have not a man 
 in all Athens able to discharge Pyramus but 
 he. 9 
 
 Flu. No; he hath simply the best wit of any 
 handicraft man in Athens. 
 
 Quin. Yea, and the best person too; and he 
 is a very paramour for a sweet voice. 13 
 
 Flu. You must say, 'paragon': a paramour 
 is, God bless us ! a thing of naught. 
 
 Enter Snug the Joiner. 
 
 Snug. Masters, the duke is coming from the 
 temple, and there is two or three lords and ladies 
 more married: if our sport had gone forward, 
 we had all been made men. 19 
 
 Flu. O sweet bully Bottom ! Thus hath he lost 
 sixpence a day during his life; he could not have 
 'scaped sixpence a day: an the duke had not 
 given him sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, 
 I'll be hanged; he would have deserved it: six- 
 pence a day in Pyramus, or nothing. 25 
 
 Enter Bottom. 
 
 Bot. Where are these lads? where are these 
 hearts ? 
 
 Quin. Bottom! O most courageous day! O 
 most happy hour ! 29 
 
 Bot. Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but 
 ask me not what; for if I tell you, I am no true 
 
 4 transported: transformed (?) 
 
 15 a thing of naught: something wicked 27 hearts: good fellows 
 
Night's Dream, V. i 
 
 Athenian. I will tell you everything, right as it 
 fell out. 33 
 
 Quin. Let us hear, sweet Bottom. 
 
 Bot. Not a word of me. All that I will tell 
 you is, that the duke hath dined. Get your ap- 
 parel together, good strings to your beards, new 
 ribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the 
 palace; every man look o'er his part; for the 
 short and the long is, our play is preferred. In 40 
 any case, let Thisby have clean linen; and let 
 not him that plays the lion pare his nails, for 
 they shall hang out for the lion's claws. And, 
 most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for 
 we are to utter sweet breath, and I do not doubt 
 but to hear them say, it is a sweet comedy. No 46 
 more words: away! go; away! Exeunt. 
 
 ACT FIFTH 
 
 Scene One 
 
 [The Palace of Theseus'] 
 
 Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, [Philostrate,'] and Lords. 
 
 Hip. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers 
 speak of. 
 
 The. More strange than true. I never may believe 
 These antic fables, nor these fairy toys. 
 Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, 
 Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend 5 
 
 More than cool reason ever comprehends. 
 The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, 
 
 40 preferred: accepted (?), offered for acceptance (by the duke) (?) 
 3 antic: fantastic toys: trifling tales 5 apprehend : perceive 
 
64 A Midsummer 
 
 Are of imagination all compact: 8 
 
 One sees more devils than vast hell can hold, 
 That is the madman; the lover, all as frantic, 
 Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt: 
 The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, 12 
 
 Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to 
 
 heaven ; 
 And, as imagination bodies forth 
 The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen 
 Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing 16 
 A local habitation and a name. 
 Such tricks hath strong imagination, 
 That, if it would but apprehend some joy, 
 It comprehends some bringer of that joy; 20 
 
 Or in the night, imagining some fear, 
 How easy is a bush suppos'd a bear ! 
 
 Hip. But all the story of the night told over, 
 And all their minds transfigur'd so together, 24 
 
 More witnesseth than fancy's images, 
 And grows to something of great constancy, 
 But, howsoever, strange and admirable. 
 
 Enter lovers, Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and 
 Helena. 
 
 The. Here come the lovers, full of joy and 
 mirth. 28 
 
 Joy, gentle friends! joy, and fresh days of love 
 Accompany your hearts ! 
 
 Lys. More than to us 
 
 Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed! 
 The. Come now; what masques, what dances shall 
 we have, 32 
 
 8 compact: composed 
 
 11 Helen: Helen of Troy brow of Egypt: gypsy's face 
 
 19, 20 Cf. ft. 25 More witnesseth: is evidence of more 
 
 26 constancy: consistency 27 admirable: to be wondered at 
 
Night's Dream, V. i 65 
 
 To wear away this long age of three hours 
 
 Between our after-supper and bed-time? 
 
 Where is our usual manager of mirth? 
 
 What revels are in hand? Is there no play, 36 
 
 To ease the anguish of a torturing hour ? 
 
 Call Philostrate. 
 
 Philost. Here, mighty Theseus. 
 
 The. Say, what abridgment have you for this even- 
 ing? 
 What masque ? what music ? How shall we beguile 40 
 The lazy time, if not with some delight? 
 
 Philost. There is a brief how many sports are ripe ; 
 Make choice of which your highness will see first. 
 
 [Gives a paper. ,] 
 
 The. 'The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung 44 
 By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.' 
 We'll none of that: that have I told my love, 
 In glory of my kinsman Hercules. 
 'The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals, 48 
 
 Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage/ 
 That is an old device ; and it was play'd 
 When I from Thebes came last a conqueror. 
 'The thrice three Muses mourning for the death 
 Of Learning, late deceas'd in beggary.' 53 
 
 That is some satire keen and critical, 
 Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony. 
 'A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus 56 
 
 And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.' 
 Merry and tragical ! tedious and brief ! 
 That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow. 
 How shall we find the concord of this discord? 
 
 34 after-supper: dessert 39 abridgment: pastime 
 
 49 Thracian singer : Orpheus 
 
 50 device: something devised for dramatic representation 
 
 54 critical: censorious 55 sorting with : befitting 
 
66 A Midsummer 
 
 Philost. A play there is, my lord, some ten words 
 long, 61 
 
 Which is as brief as I have known a play; 
 But by ten words, my lord, it is too long, 
 Which makes it tedious; for in all the play 64 
 
 There is not one word apt, one player fitted. 
 And tragical, my noble lord, it is ; 
 For Pyramus therein doth kill himself. 
 Which when I saw rehears'd, I must confess, 68 
 
 Made mine eyes water ; but more merry tears 
 The passion of loud laughter never shed. 
 
 The. What are they that do play it? 
 
 Philost. Hard-handed men, that work in Athens 
 here, 72 
 
 Which never labour'd in their minds till now, 
 And now have toil'd their unbreath'd memories 
 With this same play, against your nuptial. 
 
 The. And we will hear it. 
 
 Philost. No, my noble lord; 
 
 It is not for you: I have heard it over, 77 
 
 And it is nothing, nothing in the world; 
 Unless you can find sport in their intents, 
 Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain, 
 To do you service. 
 
 The. I will hear that play; 81 
 
 For never anything can be amiss, 
 When simpleness and duty tender it. 
 Go, bring them in: and take your places, ladies. 
 
 [Exit Philostrate."] 
 
 Hip. I love not to see wretchedness o'er- 
 charg'd, 85 
 
 And duty in his service perishing. 
 
 74 unbreath'd: unpractise d 79,80 intents . . . conn'd; cf. n. 
 
 85 o'ercharg'd: overburdened 
 
Night's Dream, V. i 67 
 
 The. Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such 
 
 thing. 
 Hip. He says they can do nothing in this kind. 88 
 The. The kinder we, to give them thanks for noth- 
 ing. 
 Our sport shall be to take what they mistake: 
 And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect 
 Takes it in might, not merit. 92 
 
 Where I have come, great clerks have purposed 
 To greet me with premeditated welcomes ; 
 Where I have seen them shiver and look pale, 
 Make periods in the midst of sentences, 96 
 
 Throttle their practis'd accent in their fears, 
 And, in conclusion, dumbly have broke off, 
 Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet, 
 Out of this silence yet I pick'd a welcome ; 100 
 
 And in the modesty of fearful duty 
 I read as much as from the rattling tongue 
 Of saucy and audacious eloquence. 
 Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity 104 
 
 In least speak most, to my capacity. 
 
 [Enter Philostrate.~\ 
 
 Philost. So please your Grace, the Prologue is 
 
 address'd. 
 The. Let him approach. 
 
 Flour[ish of] Trum[pets']. 
 
 Enter the Prologue (Quince). 
 
 Prol. If we offend, it is with our good will. 
 
 That you should think, we come not to offend, 109 
 But with good will. To show our simple skill, 
 
 That is the true beginning of our end. 
 
 92 I.e., takes the will for the deed 93 clerks: scholars 
 
 105 capacity: understanding 106 address'd: ready 
 
 107 S. d. Flourish: blast 
 
68 A Midsummer 
 
 Consider then we come but in despite. 112 
 
 We do not come as minding to content you, 
 
 Our true intent is. All for your delight, 
 
 We are not here. That you should here repent you, 
 
 The actors are at hand; and, by their show, 116 
 
 You shall know all that you are like to know. 
 
 The. This fellow doth not stand upon points. 
 
 Lys. He hath rid his prologue like a rough 
 
 colt ; he knows not the stop. A good moral, my 
 
 lord: it is not enough to speak, but to speak 
 
 true. 122 
 
 — — -Hip. Indeed he hath played on his prologue 
 like a child on a recorder; a sound, but not in 
 government. 
 
 The. His speech was like a tangled chain; 
 nothing impaired, but all disordered. Who is 
 next ? 128 
 
 Enter Pyramus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, and 
 Lion, Tawyer with a trumpet before them. 
 
 Prol. Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show; 
 
 But wonder on, till truth make all things plain. 
 This man is Pyramus, if you would know; 
 
 This beauteous lady Thisby is, certain. 132 
 
 This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present 
 
 Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder; 
 And through Wall's chink, poor souls, they are con- 
 tent 135 
 
 To whisper, at the which let no man wonder. 
 This man, with lantern, dog, and bush of thorn, 
 
 Presenteth Moonshine; for, if you will know, 
 By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn 
 
 118 stand upon points: pun on senses 'mind punctuation' and 'be 
 
 over-careful' 
 120 stop: both 'period' and 'method of stopping a horse' 
 124 recorder: wind instrument of flute type 128 S. d. Tawyer; cf. n. 
 
Night's Dream, V. i 69 
 
 To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo. 140 
 This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name, 
 The trusty Thisby, coming first by night, 
 Did scare away, or rather did affright; 
 And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall, 144 
 
 Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain. 
 Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall, 
 
 And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain: 
 Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade, 148 
 
 He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breast; 
 And Thisby, tarrying in mulberry shade, 
 
 His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest, 
 Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain, 152 
 At large discourse, while here they do remain. 
 
 Exeunt all but Wall. 
 The. I wonder, if the lion be to speak. 
 Dem. No wonder, my lord: one lion may, 
 
 when many asses do. 156 
 
 Wall. In this same interlude it doth befall 
 That I, one Snout by name, present a wall; 
 And such a wall, as I would have you think, 
 That had in it a crannied hole or chink, 160 
 
 Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby, 
 Did whisper often very secretly. 
 This loam, this rough-cast, and this stone doth show 
 That I am that same wall; the truth is so; 164 
 
 And this the cranny is, right and sinister, 
 Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper. 
 The. Would you desire lime and hair to speak 
 
 better ? 168 
 
 Dem. It is the wittiest partition that ever I 
 
 heard discourse, my lord. 
 
 The. Pyramus draws near the wall : silence ! 
 
 141 hight: is called 144 fall: let fall 
 
 146 tall: goodly 165 sinister:/*?/* 
 
70 A Midsummer 
 
 Enter Pyramus. 
 
 Pyr. O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so 
 black ! 172 
 
 night, which ever art when day is not! 
 O night! O night! alack, alack, alack! 
 
 1 fear my Thisby's promise is forgot. 
 
 And thou, O wall ! O sweet, O lovely wall ! 176 
 
 That stand' st between her father's ground and 
 mine; 
 Thou wall, O wall ! O sweet, and lovely wall ! 
 
 Show me thy chink to blink through with mine eyne. 
 [Wall holds up his fingers.] 
 Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for 
 this ! 180 
 
 But what see I ? No Thisby do I see. 
 O wicked wall ! through whom I see no bliss ; 
 Curs'd be thy stones for thus deceiving me ! 
 
 The. The wall, methinks, being sensible, 
 should curse again. 185 
 
 Pyr. No, in truth, sir, he should not. 'De- 
 ceiving me,' is Thisby's cue: she is to enter now, 
 and I am to spy her through the wall. You 
 shall see, it will fall pat as I told you. Yonder 
 she comes. 
 
 Enter Thisbe. 
 
 This. O wall ! full often hast thou heard my moans, 
 For parting my fair Pyramus and me: 192 
 
 My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones, 
 Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee. 
 
 Pyr. I see a voice : now will I to the chink, 
 
 To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face. 196 
 
 Thisby ! 
 
 184 sensible: capable of perception 189 fall: happen 
 
Night's Dream, V.i 71 
 
 This. My love ! thou art my love, I think. 
 
 Pyr. Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace; 
 
 And, like Limander, am I trusty still. 200 
 
 This. And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill. 
 
 Pyr. Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true. 
 
 This. As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you. 
 
 Pyr. O! kiss me through the hole of this vile 
 
 wall. 
 This. I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all. 
 Pyr. Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway? 
 This. 'Tide life, 'tide death, I come without delay. 
 Wall. Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so; 208 
 And, being done, thus Wall away doth go. 
 
 Exeunt Clowns. 
 The. Now is the mural down between the two 
 neighbours. 
 
 Bern. No remedy, my lord, when walls are so 
 wilful to hear without warning. 213 
 
 —Hip. This is the silliest stun 7 that ever I heard. 
 The. The best in this kind are but shadows, 
 and the worst are no worse, if imagination 
 amend them. 217 
 
 Hip. It must be your imagination then, and 
 not theirs. 
 
 The. If we imagine no worse of them than 
 they of themselves, they may pass for excellent 
 men. Here come two noble beasts in, a man 
 and a lion. 
 
 Enter Lion and Moonshine. 
 
 Lion. You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do 
 
 fear 224 
 
 The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor, 
 
 207 ^Yde-clmT U " l ° Ver 200 Lender; <f. n. 
 
 JU7 lide. come 2 \0 mural: wall; cf. n. 
 
72 A Midsummer 
 
 May now perchance both quake and tremble here, 
 
 When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar. 
 Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am 228 
 
 A lion- fell, nor else no lion's dam: 
 For, if I should as lion come in strife 
 Into this place, 'twere pity on my life. 
 
 The. A very gentle beast, and of a good con- 
 science. 233 
 
 Dem. The very best at a beast, my lord, that 
 e'er I saw. 
 
 Lys. This lion is a very fox for his valour. 
 
 The. True; and a goose for his discretion. 237 
 
 Dem. Not so, my lord; for his valour cannot 
 carry his discretion, and the fox carries the 
 goose. 240 
 
 The. His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry 
 his valour, for the goose carries not the fox. It 
 is well: leave it to his discretion, and let us 
 listen to the moon. 244 
 
 Moon. This lanthorn doth the horned moon 
 
 present ; — 
 
 Dem. He should have worn the horns on his 
 head. 
 
 The. He is no crescent, and his horns are in- 
 visible within the circumference. 249 
 Moon. This lanthorn doth the horned moon 
 
 present ; 
 Myself the man i' the moon do seem to be. 
 
 The. This is the greatest error of all the rest. 
 The man should be put into the lantern: how 
 is it else the man i' the moon? 
 
 Dem. He dares not come there for the candle; 
 for, you see, it is already in snuff. 256 
 
 229 lion-fell: lion's skin 246 horns; cf. n. 255 for: because of 
 
 256 in snuff: with a pun on the sense 'in hasty anger' 
 
Night's Dream, V. i 73 
 
 Hip. I am aweary of this moon: would he 
 would change! 
 
 The. It appears, by his small light of discre- 
 tion, that he is in the wane ; but yet, in courtesy, 
 in all reason, we must stay the time. 261 
 
 Lys. Proceed, Moon. 
 
 Moon. All that I have to say, is, to tell you 
 that the lanthorn is the moon; I, the man in 
 the moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and 
 this dog, my dog. 
 
 Dem. Why, all these should be in the lan- 
 tern; for all these are in the moon. But, 
 silence! here comes Thisbe. 269 
 
 Enter Thisbe. 
 
 This. This is old Ninny's tomb. Where is my love ? 
 
 Lion. Oh — . The Lion roars; Thisbe runs off. 
 
 Dem. Well roared, Lion. 272 
 
 The. Well run, Thisbe. 
 ~~~Hip. Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon 
 shines with a good grace. 
 
 [The Lion tears Thisbe' s mantle, and exit.] 
 
 The. Well moused, Lion. 276 
 
 Dem. And then came Pyramus. 
 
 Lys. And so the lion vanished. 
 
 Enter Pyramus. 
 
 Pyr. Sweet moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams; 
 
 I thank thee, moon, for shining now so bright, 
 For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering beams, 
 I trust to taste of truest Thisby's sight. 
 But stay, O spite! 
 
 But mark, poor knight, 284 
 
 What dreadful dole is here! 
 
 261 stay: await 276 moused: torn (as a cat tears a mouse') 
 
74 A Midsummer 
 
 Eyes, do you see? 
 How can it be? 
 O dainty duck! O dear! 288 
 
 Thy mantle good, 
 What ! stain' d with blood ! 
 Approach, ye Furies fell! 
 O Fates, come, come, 
 Cut thread and thrum; 
 Quail, crush, conclude, and quell ! 294 
 
 The. This passion, and the death of a dear 
 friend, would go near to make a man look sad. 
 ^^—Hip. Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man. 
 Pyr. O ! wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame ? 
 
 Since lion vile hath here deflower'd my dear? 
 Which is — no, no — which was the fairest dame 
 
 That liv'd, that lov'd, that lik'd, that look'd with 
 cheer. 301 
 
 Come tears, confound; 
 Out, sword, and wound 
 The pap of Pyramus: 304 
 
 Ay, that left pap, 
 Where heart doth hop: 
 Thus die I, thus, thus, thus. 
 
 [Stabs himself.'] 
 Now am I dead, 308 
 
 Now am I fled; 
 My soul is in the sky : 
 
 Tongue, lose thy light! 
 Moon, take thy flight ! 312 
 
 [Exit Moonshine.] 
 Now die, die, die, die, die. 
 
 293 thread and thrum: the warp and its fastening, i.e., everything 
 
 294 Quail : overpower quell : kill 
 
 295 passion: violent expression of sorrow 
 
Nighfs Dream, V. i 75 
 
 Dem. No die, but an ace, for him; for he is 
 but one. 
 
 Lys. Less than an ace, man, for he is dead; 
 he is nothing. 317 
 
 The. With the help of a surgeon, he might 
 yet recover, and prove an ass. 
 _— — Hip. How chance Moonshine is gone before 
 Thisbe comes back and finds her lover? 321 
 
 The. She will find him by starlight. Here 
 she comes; and her passion ends the play. 
 
 Enter Thisbe. 
 
 Hip. Methinks she should not use a long one 
 for such a Pyramus: I hope she will be brief. 325 
 
 Dem. A mote will turn the balance, which Pyra- 
 mus, which Thisbe, is the better: he for a man, 
 God warrant us ; she for a woman, God bless us. 
 Lys. She hath spied him already with those 
 sweet eyes. 330 
 
 Dem. And thus she moans, videlicet: — 
 This. Asleep, my love? 
 
 What, dead, my dove? 
 O Pyramus, arise! 
 
 Speak, speak! Quite dumb? 
 Dead, dead! A tomb 336 
 
 Must cover thy sweet eyes. 
 These lily lips, 
 This cherry nose, 
 These yellow cowslip cheeks, 340 
 
 Are gone, are gone: 
 Lovers, make moan ! 
 His eyes were green as leeks. 
 
 314 No . . . ace; cf. n. 
 
 326, 327 which . . . which: whether . . . or 
 
 328 warrant: defend 
 
76 A Midsummer 
 
 O, Sisters Three, 344 
 
 Come, come to me, 
 With hands as pale as milk; 
 Lay them in gore, 
 
 Since you have shore 348 
 
 With shears his thread of silk. 
 Tongue, not a word: 
 Come, trusty sword: 
 Come, blade, my breast imbrue: 352 
 
 [Stabs herself.] 
 And farewell, friends; 
 Thus Thisby ends: 
 Adieu, adieu, adieu. 
 The. Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the 
 dead. 357 
 
 Dem. Ay, and Wall too. 
 
 Bot. No, I assure you; the wall is down that 
 parted their fathers. Will it please you to see 
 the epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance 
 between two of our company? 362 
 
 The. No epilogue, I pray you; for your play 
 needs no excuse. Never excuse; for when the 
 players are all dead, there need none to be 
 blamed. Marry, if he that writ it had played 
 Py ramus, and hanged himself in Thisbe's gar- 
 ter, it would have been a fine tragedy : and 
 so it is, truly, and very notably discharged. 
 But come, your Bergomask: let your epilogue 
 alone. [Here a dance of clowns."] 
 
 The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve ; 
 Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time. 373 
 
 I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn, 
 
 344 Sisters Three: the three Fates 352 imbrue: stain with blood 
 
 361 Bergomask dance: a rustic dance originating in Italy 
 
Nighfs Dream, V. i 77 
 
 As much as we this night have overwatch'd. 
 
 This palpable-gross play hath well begun" d 376 
 
 The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed. 
 
 A fortnight hold we this solemnity, 
 
 In nightly revels, and new jollity. [Exeunt.] 
 
 Enter Puck. 
 Puck. Now the hungry lion roars, 380 
 
 And the wolf behowls the moon ; 
 Whilst the heavy ploughman snores, 
 
 All with weary task fordone. 
 Now the wasted brands do glow, 384 
 
 Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud, 
 Puts the wretch that lies in woe 
 
 In remembrance of a shroud. 
 Now it is the time of night 388 
 
 That the graves, all gaping wide, 
 Every one lets forth his sprite, 
 
 In the church-way paths to glide: 
 And we fairies, that do run 392 
 
 By the triple Hecate's team, 
 From the presence of the sun, 
 
 Following darkness like a dream, 
 Now are frolic; not a mouse 396 
 
 Shall disturb this hallow'd house: 
 I am sent with broom before, 
 To sweep the dust behind the door. 
 
 Enter King and Queen of Fairies, with their train. 
 
 Obe. Through the house give glimmering light 
 
 By the dead and drowsy fire; 401 
 
 Every elf and fairy sprite 
 
 Hop as light as bird from brier; 
 
 375 overwatch'd: overwaked 376 palpable-gross:^/.^ 
 
 383 fordone: exhausted 393 Cf.n. 396 frolic: merry 
 
78 A Midsummer 
 
 And this ditty after me 404 
 
 Sing and dance it trippingly. 
 Tita. First, rehearse your song by rote, 
 To each word a warbling note: 
 Hand in hand, with fairy grace, 408 
 
 Will we sing, and bless this place. 
 
 [Song and dance.] 
 Obe. Now, until the break of day, 
 
 Through this house each fairy stray. 
 
 To the best bride-bed will we, 412 
 
 Which by us shall blessed be ; 
 
 And the issue there create 
 
 Ever shall be fortunate. 
 
 So shall all the couples three 416 
 
 Ever true in loving be ; 
 
 And the blots of Nature's hand 
 
 Shall not in their issue stand: 
 
 Never mole, hare-lip, nor scar, 420 
 
 Nor mark prodigious, such as are 
 
 Despised in nativity, 
 
 Shall upon their children be. 
 
 With this field-dew consecrate, 424 
 
 Every fairy take his gait, 
 
 And each several chamber bless, 
 
 Through this palace, with sweet peace; 
 
 Ever shall in safety rest, 428 
 
 And the owner of it blest. 
 
 Trip away; 
 
 Make no stay; 
 Meet me all by break of day. 432 
 
 [Exeunt King, Queen, and train.'] 
 Puck. If we shadows have offended, 
 
 414 create: created 424 field-dew consecrate: i.e., fairy holy water 
 
 428 Ever shall: i.e., ever shall it; cf. n. 
 
Night's Dream, V. i 79 
 
 Think but this, and all is mended. 
 
 That you have but slumber'd here 
 
 While these visions did appear. 436 
 
 And this weak and idle theme, 
 
 No more yielding but a dream, 
 
 Gentles, do not reprehend: 
 
 If you pardon, we will mend. 440 
 
 And, as I'm an honest Puck, 
 
 If we have unearned luck 
 
 Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue, 
 
 We will make amends ere long; 444 
 
 Else the Puck a liar call: 
 
 So, good night unto you all. 
 
 Give me your hands, if we be friends, 
 
 And Robin shall restore amends. [Exit] 
 
 447 hands: applause 
 
 FINIS. 
 
NOTES 
 
 I. i. 5, 6. The passage of time seems as slow to 
 Theseus as to a young man under the guardianship 
 of a stepmother or to one who is kept from the en- 
 joyment of his estate by his father's widow who 
 lingers on in possession of a life-interest therein. 
 
 I. i. 31. feigning . . . feigning. The two words 
 'fain' and 'feign' were often spelled alike in the six- 
 teenth century. Hence 'feigning' may have here its 
 modern sense or it may mean 'love-sick/ 'yearning/ 
 A third possibility, which I am inclined to accept, is 
 that by 'feigning voice' Egeus means 'a repressed 
 voice/ i.e., that Lysander sang softly so as to avoid 
 unwelcome attention. 
 
 I. i. 32. stol'n . . . fantasy. 'Secretly and with- 
 out permission stamped your image upon her imagi- 
 nation.' 
 
 I. i. 206, 207. 'How powerful must be the graces 
 of my beloved one, seeing that they have made Athens 
 a place of torture for me; i.e., since so long as she 
 remained in it she could not marry Lysander.' 
 (D eight on.) 
 
 I. i. 232, 233. 'Love, forgetting proportionate 
 values, can so transform things base and vile that 
 they take on form and dignity.' 
 
 I. i. 249. dear expense. Helena seems to mean 
 that she will pay dearly for Demetrius' thanks — if 
 indeed she receives them — because she will be assist- 
 ing him to pursue her rival. 
 
 I. ii. 2. generally. Bottom obviously means just 
 the opposite of this, i.e., separately. His intended 
 meaning is usually fairly clear, but it would be a 
 foolhardy editor who should attempt to translate 
 'Bottomese' too precisely. Cf. 'obscenely' in line 112 
 of this scene. 
 
A Midsummer Night's Dream si 
 
 I. ii. 56. Thisne. This word may mean 'in this 
 way' (in which case it should be written without a 
 capital), or it may represent Bottom's first attempt 
 to say Thisbe in a 'monstrous little voice.' 
 
 I. ii. 115. hold, or cut bow-strings. 'This phrase 
 is of the proverbial kind, and was born in the days of 
 archery: when a party was made at butts [archery], 
 assurance of meeting was given in the words of that 
 phrase ; the sense of the person using them being that 
 he would "hold" or keep promise, or they might 
 "cut his bowstrings," demolish him for an archer.' 
 (Capell.) This explanation is not certain, but the 
 phrase undoubtedly means, 'Be there without fail.' 
 
 II. i. S. d. at one door. This refers to one of the 
 side doors on the Elizabethan stage, and not, of 
 course, to the imagined locality. 
 
 Robin Goodfellow. This is the proper name of 
 the character referred to indiscriminately in the old 
 copies as Robin or Puck. The latter was often used 
 in the sixteenth century as a generic name for a kind 
 of sprite or goblin. Nash, in his Terrors of the 
 Night (1594), says that such mischievous beings 'did 
 most of their merry prankes in the Night. Then 
 ground they malt, and had hempen shirts for their 
 labours, daunst in greene meadowes, pincht maids in 
 their sleep that swept not their houses cleane, and led 
 poor Trauellers out of their way notoriously.' 
 
 II. i. 7. moon's sphere. According to the Ptole- 
 maic system of astronomy accepted in Shakespeare's 
 day, the sun, moon, and stars revolved about the earth 
 fixed in transparent spheres. 
 
 II. i. 9. orbs. The circles of dark green grass 
 often seen in old pastures, once supposed to be pro- 
 duced by the care of fairies in watering such spots. 
 
 II. i. 10. pensioners. Queen Elizabeth had a body- 
 guard of tall and handsome gentlemen, many of them 
 noble, who were called her pensioners. 
 
82 A Midsummer 
 
 II. i. 23. changeling. Fairies were supposed 
 sometimes to steal a mortal child and to leave a sub- 
 stitute, usually of inferior intelligence, in its place. 
 This substituted being was called a changeling; but 
 here the word is used in reference to the stolen child. 
 
 II. i. 47. gossip's bowl. A drink, often called 
 Lamb's-wool, made of ale, nutmeg, sugar, and roasted 
 crab-apples. Originally served to the sponsors (gos- 
 sips) at christenings, it was often used on other social 
 occasions. 
 
 II. i. 54. tailor. This exclamation has called forth 
 much learned discussion, the most amusing result of 
 which has been Furness's suggestion that there is here 
 a pun upon a word the reverse of 'header.' 
 
 II. i. 66. Covin. Corin and Phillida (Phyllis) 
 were conventional names for a shepherd and shep- 
 herdess. 
 
 II. i. 78. Perigenia. 'This Sinnis had a goodly 
 fair daughter called Perigouna, which fled away when 
 she saw her father slain. . . . But Theseus finding 
 her, called her, and sware by his faith he would use 
 her gently, and do her no hurt, nor displeasure at all.' 
 (North's Plutarch, ed. Skeat, p. 279.) 
 
 II. i. 79, 80. Mgle . . . Antiopa. 'For some say 
 that Ariadne hung herself for sorrow, when she saw 
 that Theseus had cast her off. Other . . . think that 
 Theseus left her, because he was in love with another, 
 as by these verses should appear: iEgles, the nymph, 
 was loved of Theseus, Who was the daughter of 
 Panopeus. . . . Philochorus, and some other hold 
 opinion, that [Theseus] went thither with Hercules 
 against the Amazons: and that to honour his valiant- 
 ness, Hercules gave him Antiopa the Amazon. . . . 
 Bion . . . saith, that he brought her away by deceit 
 and stealth . . . and that Theseus enticed her to 
 come into his ship . . . and so soon as she was 
 aboard, he hoised his sail, and so carried her away.' 
 (North's Plutarch, ed. Skeat, pp. 284-286.) 
 
Night's Dream 83 
 
 II. i. 98. nine men's morris. A game played upon 
 a sort of chessboard dug in the turf. 
 
 II. i. 101-103. No interpretation of this puzzling 
 passage is entirely satisfactory. E. K. Chambers 
 paraphrases it thus: 'The summer is so bad that men 
 wish it were winter. Not only have we offended the 
 winds, but we have neglected the hymns and carols 
 due from us to the moon. Therefore she too is wrath- 
 ful, and does her part to spoil the weather.' Fur- 
 ness, on the other hand, explains it as follows: 'Here 
 in Warwickshire, says Titania, in effect (for of course 
 she and Oberon are in the Forest of Arden, with 
 never a thought of Athens; who ever heard of the 
 nine mens morris on the slopes of Pentelicus?), "here 
 the poor human mortals have no summer with its 
 sports, and now they have had no winter with its 
 hymns and carols." : If the latter be the meaning, 
 'therefore' is to be understood as 'because of our 
 quarrel/ 
 
 II. i. 148-169. There is general agreement that 
 this passage contains some allegory; but as to the 
 extent and interpretation of this there is great diver- 
 sity of opinion. It is fairly certain that the 'fair 
 vestal throned by the west' is Queen Elizabeth. 
 The imagery of the whole passage was very likely 
 suggested by the allegorical figures which appeared 
 in the pageants and 'triumphs' of the day, and it is 
 not impossible that there is specific reference to the 
 'Princely Pleasures' with which the Earl of Leicester 
 entertained Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth in 1575. 
 
 II. i. 231. The story here 'changed,' i.e., reversed, 
 is that of Apollo's pursuit of the nymph Daphne, who 
 was transformed into a laurel tree and thus escaped. 
 
 III. i. 64. bush of thorns. English peasants saw 
 'the man in the moon' as bearing a bundle of sticks on 
 his back. 
 
 III. i. 122, 123. you see an ass-head of your own. 
 
84 A Midsummer 
 
 A popular retort which is flung out by Bottom with 
 no consciousness of its special appropriateness. 
 
 III. i. 138. plain-song. Just what characteriza- 
 tion of the cuckoo's song is intended is not clear. 
 Perhaps the comparison is between the simple musical 
 interval of the cuckoo's song and that which often 
 occurs at the end of a phrase in the chanting of the 
 psalms. The bird's cry of 'Cuckoo' gives rise in the 
 following lines to one of the common Elizabethan 
 jokes about cuckolds. 
 
 III. i. 169. Moth. The meaning of this name 
 appears when it is given its Elizabethan pronuncia- 
 tion, 'mote/ i.e., a minute particle, as of dust in a 
 sunbeam. 
 
 III. ii. 25. our stamp. Those who are puzzled by 
 the unexpected 'our' instead of 'my/ or who fail to see 
 the alarming effect of the stamping of so diminutive 
 a being, may escape the difficulty by adopting the 
 emendation (first suggested by Allen) at one stamp, 
 i.e., 'in one rush.' But cf. IV. i. 91, 92. 
 
 III. ii. 97. costs the fresh blood dear. An allusion 
 to the once popular belief that sighing lowers vitality. 
 
 III. ii. 129. 'If Lysander's present protestations 
 are true, they destroy the truth of his former vows 
 to Hermia, and the contest between these two truths, 
 which in themselves are holy, must in the issue be 
 devilish and end in the destruction of both.' (W. A. 
 Wright.) 
 
 III. ii. 213, 214. There is some doubt as to the 
 extent to which Shakespeare here pushes his allusion 
 to heraldry, but the following note is satisfactory 
 enough: 'Helen exemplifies her position by a simile, — 
 "we had two of the first, i.e., bodies, like the double 
 coats [of arms] in heraldry that belong to man and 
 wife as one person, but which, like our single heart, 
 have but one crest/' ' (Douce.) 
 
 III. ii. 257. The punctuation adopted in the text 
 is the result of an attempt to make sense out of the 
 
Night's Dream 85 
 
 reading of the First Quarto : No, no; heele Seeme. As 
 the speech stands Demetrius must be supposed to ad- 
 dress Hermia, and then, breaking off, to taunt Lysan- 
 der. There is almost certainly some corruption of 
 the text, and it might be better to read with the First 
 Folio: No, no, Sir, seeme to breaJce loose. Then the 
 No, no, Sir ! would have the force of the modern col- 
 loquialism, 'No you don't !' 
 
 III. ii. 329. hindering knot-grass. The knot- 
 grass, a low, tough weed, hinders growth in gardens, 
 and was popularly supposed to be a means of stunt- 
 ing a child's growth. 
 
 III. ii. 389. the morning's love. It is not certain 
 whether this phrase refers to Cephalus, according to 
 classical mythology a mighty hunter and the lover of 
 Aurora, the dawn, or whether it is a figurative de- 
 scription of Aurora herself, or whether it means 
 simply the sun. It is clear, however, that Oberon is 
 contrasting his freedom to sport by day with the fate 
 of those spirits which are exiled from the sunshine. 
 
 IV. i. 89 S. d. Music, still. This stage direction 
 of the Folio is puzzling. Since Oberon later directs 
 the music to sound, this may be a direction to the 
 musicians to be ready, but not to play. Another 
 possibility is that the meaning is simply 'soft music' 
 
 IV. i. 145. Saint Valentine. An allusion to the 
 old belief that the birds began to mate on St. Valen- 
 tine's day. Cf. Chaucer, The Parlement of Foules: 
 
 'For this was on seynt Valentynys day, 
 
 Whan every bryd comyth there to chese his make . . .' 
 
 IV. i. 197, 198. 'Helena, I think, means to say 
 that having found Demetrius unexpectedly, she con- 
 sidered her property in him as insecure as that which 
 a person has in a jewel that he has found by accident; 
 which he knows not whether he shall retain, and 
 
86 A Midsummer 
 
 which, therefore, may properly enough be called his 
 own and not his own.' (Malone.) 
 
 IV. i. 226. at her death. Does Bottom here mean 
 Thisbe's death? But he is speaking, not of the play, 
 but of a play. And why 'more gracious' after 
 Thisbe's death? Theobald was very likely right in 
 reading 'after death.' Were Bottom to rise, after 
 dying a heroic death, and sing his 'ballad,' that would 
 be gracious indeed. 
 
 V. i. 19, 20. 'The mere idea of a joy is enough 
 incentive to a strong imagination to conjure up and 
 believe in the actual presence of a something which 
 causes that joy.' (Chambers.) 
 
 V. i. 79, 80. intents . . . conn'd. 'Intents' is here 
 used in a double sense. Philostrate speaks of the 
 clowns' endeavors to please as carried to the limit of 
 their ability and of their having learned the play, 
 the result of their endeavor, with painful toil. 
 
 V. i. 128 S. d. Tawyer. This reference in the 
 stage direction of the First Folio to one of the actors 
 in the company to which Shakespeare belonged is an 
 interesting evidence that the Folio was printed from 
 a stage-copy. 
 
 V. i. 200. Limander. Limander and Helen are 
 blunders for Leander and Hero, just as Shafalus and 
 Procrus are the closest the clowns can come to 
 Cephalus and Procris. The two pairs of lovers thus 
 referred to were typical instances of devotion. 
 
 V. i. 210. Now is the mural down. In place of this 
 the First Quarto, which is the most reliable authority 
 for the text of this play, has, Now is the moon used. 
 That this latter version is almost certainly corrupt 
 is shown, however, not only by the difficulty of find- 
 ing in it a satisfactory meaning, but also by the fact 
 that the First Folio substitutes, Now is the morall 
 downe. Although the reading of the Folio can be 
 interpreted as a pun on the senses 'moral obstacle' 
 
Night's Dream 87 
 
 and Vail all' (i.e., mure all), it still seems unlikely 
 to be what Shakespeare wrote. In despair most 
 editors have taken refuge in the emendation of Pope 
 here adopted, despite the fact that it is open to serious 
 objection both on literary grounds and because the 
 noun 'mural' does not elsewhere appear as part of 
 Shakespeare's vocabulary. The true reading seems 
 irretrievably lost. 
 
 V. i. 246. horns. Moon's lantern had sides of 
 horn instead of glass, so that there is a double signifi- 
 cance in his reference to the horned, i.e., crescent, 
 moon. Thereupon Demetrius makes the inevitable 
 Elizabethan joke about the horns which were sup- 
 posed to grow upon the head of the married man 
 whose wife was unfaithful to him. 
 
 V. i. 314. No . . . ace. Demetrius attempts to 
 make a pun on a second sense of 'die,' i.e., one of a 
 pair of dice. Some editors have attempted to help 
 out Demetrius' wit by taking the word as related to 
 'duo,' i.e., two. The Elizabethan pronunciation of 
 'ace' gives Theseus a chance for another pun. 
 
 V. i. 393. Hecate is called triple because she was 
 as Luna a heavenly goddess, as Diana an earthly one, 
 and as Hecate one of the lower world. When, as the 
 moon-goddess, she disappears at the coming of the 
 sun, the fairies accompany her car. 
 
 V. i. 428, 429. It is not improbable that these lines 
 were printed in the wrong order and should be trans- 
 posed. 
 
APPENDIX A 
 Sources of the Play 
 
 For A Midsummer Night's Dream, as for one other 
 early play, Love's Labour's Lost, and another very 
 late one, The Tempest, Shakespeare seems to have 
 devised a plot with relative independence. At any 
 rate, nothing has been found which may properly be 
 called the 'source' of A Midsummer Night's Dream. 
 The most that can be said is that there are resem- 
 blances of detail between this play and some earlier 
 narratives. 
 
 None of these, however, are of any gre* 
 tance. It is possible, for example, that ij 
 about Theseus and Hippolyta, Shakespeare 
 mind Chaucer's Knight's Tale; for there 
 'Duke of Athens' and his bride 'do observance 
 morn of May,' and there the name of Philostrate 
 pears. Shakespeare knew also North's translation o£ 
 Plutarch's Lives, which contains a 'Life of Theseus!, 
 and he very probably borrowed some details from 
 this. He could have read the story of Pyramus and 
 Thisbe in several versions, such as that in Chaucer's 
 Legend of Good Women, in Ovid's Metamorphoses, 
 or in Golding's translation of Ovid (1565). It is 
 barely possible that he derived the suggestion for 
 Oberon's magic 'love- juice' from the Spanish Diana 
 Enamorada by Jorge de Montemayor; but if he read 
 an English translation, it must have been in manu- 
 script, for none was published until 1598. He could 
 have found accounts of Robin Goodfellow in several 
 books, and he seems to have met the name Titania in 
 Ovid, where it is applied to Diana ; yet his conception 
 of the fairies and of Bottom and the other 'hempen 
 homespuns' is not derived from books, but from the 
 traditions of the countryside, from his own observa- 
 tion of simple men, and from his own imagination. 
 
APPENDIX B 
 The History of the Play 
 
 A Midsummer Night's Dream was first printed, in 
 quarto, in 1600. A second quarto bears the same date 
 on the title-page, but this was actually printed about 
 1619. The existence of the play some years before 
 1600 is proved by the fact that it is mentioned by 
 Francis Meres in his Palladis Tamia, which was pub- 
 lished in 1598. Those who seek to determine the date 
 of composition more definitely than this are obliged 
 to base their opinions upon internal evidence. Some 
 critics see in Titania's speech about the confusion of 
 the seasons (II. i. 88-114) a reference to the un- 
 usually cold, wet summer of 1594. Others, believing 
 that the play was written to honor some great wed- 
 ding, have attempted, without conspicuous success, 
 to determine whose that wedding was. The result 
 of these and other conjectures and of inferences 
 drawn from the manner in which Shakespeare here 
 handled his verse is that there is general agreement 
 that the play was written not earlier than 1593 and 
 not later than 1595. 
 
 In its original and complete form the play has been, 
 until relatively recent years, among the less popular 
 of Shakespeare's works, although in 1631 the Bishop 
 of Lincoln got into trouble with the Puritans by 
 allowing it to be performed — in whole or in part — at 
 his house on a Sunday. An abridgment of the play 
 with the title The Merry Conceited Humours of 
 Bottom the Weaver was apparently acted in private 
 during the period when the theaters were closed 
 (1642-1660). Whether the performance which Pepys 
 saw in 1662 and thought 'the most insipid ridiculous 
 play that ever I saw in my life' was a representation 
 of the play as Shakespeare wrote it is not certain, 
 but in 1692 at any rate the original was displaced by 
 
90 A Midsummer Night's Dream 
 
 an operatic version with music by Purcell, and from 
 then until well on in the nineteenth century the 
 records show only such perversions and adaptations 
 as that produced by David Garrick in 1755, in which 
 some very stupid songs replaced much of Shake- 
 speare's text and in which the parts of Lysander and 
 Hermia were given to Italian singers. 
 
 The credit for the restoration to the stage of some- 
 thing like the original play must be given to Tieck, 
 a German translator of Shakespeare, who produced 
 it at Berlin in 1827 with the incidental music by 
 Mendelssohn which has since become famous. Some 
 of the best performances of recent years have been 
 given in Germany, notably the production by Max 
 Reinhardt, which combined remarkable excellences 
 with lapses of taste characteristically German. 
 
 In England and America productions reasonably 
 faithful to the original text have been both frequent 
 and popular since the performance by Mme. Vestris 
 in 1840 at Covent Garden in London. The spectacu- 
 lar possibilities of the play and the popularity of 
 Mendelssohn's music have so appealed to managers 
 that the text has often been swamped in scenery and 
 sound, but there must have been good acting in 
 Augustin Daly's production (1888), when Theseus 
 was played by Joseph Holland, Demetrius by John 
 Drew, Lysander by Otis Skinner, and Helena by Ada 
 Rehan. In 1903 the New Amsterdam Theater in New 
 York was opened with a performance of the play 
 characterized rather by lavish expenditure of money 
 than by intelligence of acting or direction; at another 
 revival in 1906, Miss Annie Russell attempted to 
 play the part of Puck; and in 1915 Granville Barker 
 offered to New York his London production, one 
 which certainly displayed intelligence although its 
 gilded fairies and its substitution of supposedly sug- 
 gestive 'decorations' in place of realistic scenery 
 aroused much hostile criticism. 
 
APPENDIX C 
 The Text of the Present Edition 
 
 The text of the present volume is, by permission 
 of the Oxford University Press, that of the Oxford 
 Shakespeare, edited by the late W. J. Craig, except 
 for the following deviations: 
 
 1. The stage directions are those of the First 
 Folio or the First Quarto, any alterations or addi- 
 tions being enclosed in square brackets. The indica- 
 tion of a second scene in the fifth act has been 
 omitted and the lines renumbered accordingly. 
 
 2. A few minor changes in punctuation and in 
 spelling (such as almanac for almanack, gawd for 
 gaud, laugh for loff, and antic for antique) have been 
 made. The spelling lanthorn has been retained only 
 in the speeches of Moon, where it adds clearness to 
 a jest. 
 
 3. The following alterations, all reversions to the 
 readings of the First Quarto (save where otherwise 
 indicated), have been made in the text, the reading 
 of the Quarto and the present text preceding the 
 colon, and that of Craig following it: 
 
 Li. 69 
 
 Whether: Whe'r 
 
 191 
 
 I'll: I'd 
 
 ii.87 
 
 an (Q. and) : as 
 
 II. i. 7 
 
 moon's: moone's 
 
 69 
 
 78 
 91 
 
 steep (Fl): steppe 
 Perigenia: Perigouna 
 Hath: Have 
 
 249 
 
 where: whereon 
 
 ii. 2 
 III. i. 87 
 
 third part: third (misprint ?) 
 of: have 
 
 160 
 
 whether: whe'r 
 
 ii.48 
 
 the: knee 
 
 81 
 
 whether: whe'r 
 
 97 
 
 costs: cost 
 
92 A Midsummer Night's Dream 
 
 144 This: That (misprint ?) 
 
 171 to: with 
 190 bare: bear 
 
 199 sisters' vows (Q. sisters vowes) : sister- vows 
 
 201 is all: is it all 
 
 204 needles: neelds 
 
 264 potion: poison 
 
 IV. i. 21 courtesy (Fl): curtsy 
 
 86 Silence a while: Silence, awhile 
 
 172 as: as doth 
 179 a: in 
 
 V. i. 281 beams : streams 
 
 APPENDIX D 
 Suggestions for Collateral Reading 
 
 Geoffrey Chaucer, The Knight's Tale. 
 
 W. W. Skeat, Shakespeare's Plutarch (1875). The 
 Life of Theseus. 
 
 Frank Sidgwick, Sources and Analogues of 'A Mid- 
 summer-Night's Dream' (1908). This contains the 
 story of Pyramus and Thisbe as told by Ovid and 
 much Elizabethan material about Robin Goodfellow. 
 
 H. H. Furness, New Variorum Shakespeare: A 
 Midsummer Night's Dream (1895). 
 
 C. C. Clarke, Shakespeare Characters (1863). 
 
 D. J. Snider, The Shakespearian Drama (1887). 
 Midsummer Night's Dream. 
 
 G. C. D. Odeil, 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' on 
 the New York Stage, in Shaksperian Studies, ed. 
 Matthews and Thorndike, Columbia University Press 
 (1916). 
 
INDEX OF WORDS GLOSSED 
 
 (Figures in full-faced type refer to page-numbers) 
 
 abate: 52 (III. ii. 432) 
 abridgment: 65 (V. i. 39) 
 aby: 42 (III. ii. 175) 
 Acheron: 49 (III. ii. 357) 
 act: 53 (III. ii. 464 S. d.) 
 adamant: 21 (II. i. 195) 
 address'd: 67 (V. i. 106) 
 admirable: 64 (V. i. 27) 
 vEgle: 17 (II. i. 79) 
 after-supper: 65 (V. i. 34) 
 against: 5 (I. i. 125); 40 
 
 (III. ii. 99) 
 alone: 41 (III. ii. 119) 
 amiable: 53 (IV. i. 2) 
 an: 11 (I. ii. 54) 
 an 'twere: 12 (I. ii. 87) 
 anon: 14 (II. i. 17) 
 antic: 63 (V. i. 3) 
 Antiopa: 17 (II. i. 80) 
 apprehend: 63 (V. i. 5) 
 approve: 26 (II. ii. 68) 
 argument: 45 (III. ii. 242) 
 artificial: 43 (III. ii. 203) 
 
 barm: 15 (II. i. 38) 
 barren: 37 (III. ii. 13) 
 bated: 7 (I. i. 190) 
 bay'd: 57 (IV. i. 119) 
 beUs: 58 (IV. i. 129) 
 Bergomask dance: 76 (V. i. 
 
 361) 
 beshrew: 25 (II. ii. 54) 
 beteem: 5 (Li. 131) 
 biU: 13 (I. ii. 109) 
 blows: 22 (II. i. 249) 
 bootless: 15 (II. i. 37) 
 bottle: 55 (IV. i. 38) 
 brakes: 22 (II. i. 227) 
 bully: 29 (III. i. 8) 
 buskin'd: 16 (II. i. 71) 
 
 canker-blossom: 46 (III. ii. 
 
 capacity: 67 (V. i. 105) 
 Carthage queen: 7 (I. i. 173) 
 cat: 24 (II. ii. 30) 
 Cavalery: 54 (IV. i. 25) 
 changeling: 14 (II. i. 23) 
 cheer: 40 (III. ii. 96) 
 chide: 19 (II. i. 145) 
 chiding: 58 (IV. i. 121) 
 childing: 18 (II. i. 112) 
 choughs: 37 (III. ii. 21) 
 clerks: 67 (V. i. 93) 
 close: 37 (III. ii. 7) 
 clowns: 29 (III. i. S. d.) 
 coil: 48 (III. ii. 339) 
 colHed: 6 (Li. 145) 
 compact: 64 (V. i. 8) 
 con: 13 (I. ii. 104) 
 conceits: 2 (I. i. 33) 
 concern: 3 (I. i. 60) 
 confusion: 6 (I. i. 149) 
 consecrate: 78 (V. i. 424) 
 constancy: 64 (V. i. 26) 
 contagious: 17 (II. i. 90) 
 continents: 17 (II. i. 92) 
 Corin: 16 (II. i. 66) 
 counsel: 8 (Li. 216) 
 courtesy: 54 (IV. i. 21) 
 coy: 53 (IV. i. 2) 
 crab: 15 (II. i. 48) 
 crazed: 4 (I. i. 92) 
 create: 78 (V. i. 414) 
 critical: 65 (V. i. 54) 
 cry mercy: 35 (III. i. 186) 
 curst: 47 (III. ii. 300) 
 
 darkling: 26 (II. ii. 86) 
 dear: 9 (Li 249) 
 device: 65 (V. i. 50) 
 
94 
 
 A Midsummer 
 
 discharge: 13 (I. ii. 96) 
 disfigure: 3 (I. i. 51) 
 dispatch: 57 (IV. i. 114) 
 distemperature : 18 (II. i. 
 
 106) 
 distill'd: 3 (I. i. 76) 
 dowager: 1 (I. i. 5) 
 drawn: 50 (III. ii. 402) 
 
 eglantine: 23 (II. i. 252) 
 Egypt: 64 (V. i. 11) 
 eight and six: 30 (III. i. 25) 
 eke: 32 (III. i. 100) 
 enforced: 36 (III. i. 209) 
 Ercles: 11 (I. ii. 31) 
 estate unto: 4 (I. i. 98) 
 ever: 6 (I. i. 150) 
 extort: 42 (III. ii. 160) 
 eyne: 9 (I. i. 242) 
 
 faint: 8 (Li. 215) 
 fair: 7 (I. i. 182) 
 fall (let fall) : 69 (V. i. 144) 
 fall (happen): 70 (V. i. 189) 
 fancy's: 6 (I. i. 155) 
 fantasy: 2 (I. i. 32) 
 favour: 7 (Li. 186) 
 favours: 14 (II. i. 12); 55 
 
 (IV. i. 55) 
 feigning: 2 (I. i. 31) 
 fell: 14 (II. i. 20) 
 fierce: 56 (IV. i. 75) 
 fire: 33 (III. i. 115) 
 fiew'd: 58 (IV. i. 126) 
 flourish: 67 (V. i. 107 S. d.) 
 fond: 27 (II. ii. 88) 
 for: 72 (V. i. 255) 
 for that: 21 (II. i. 220) 
 force: 38 (III. ii. 40) 
 fordone: 77 (V. i. 383) 
 forgeries: 17 (II. i. 81) 
 fountain: 17 (II. i. 84) 
 French-crown colour: 13 (I. 
 
 ii. 98) 
 frolic: 77 (V. i. 396) 
 
 game: 9 (Li. 240) 
 gawds: 2 (I. i. 33) 
 glance: 16 (II. i. 75) 
 gleek: 34 (III. i. 154) 
 gossip's bowl: 15 (II. i. 47) 
 grace: 27 (II. ii. 89) 
 gracious: 61 (IV. i. 
 griffin r 22 (II. i. 232) 
 
 hands: 79 (V. i. 447) 
 haunted: 37 (III. ii. 5) 
 hearts: 62 (IV. ii. 27) 
 Helen: 64 (V. i. 11) 
 hempen home-spuns : 32 
 
 (III. i. 82) 
 henchman: 18 (II. i. 121) 
 Hiems': 18 (II. i. 109) 
 hight: 69 (V. i. 141) 
 his: 49 (III. ii. 368) 
 hold up: 45 (III. ii. 239) 
 horns: 72 (V. i. 246) 
 
 imbrue: 76 (V. i. 352) 
 immediately: 2 (I. i. 45) 
 impeach: 21 (II. i. 214) 
 increase: 18 (II. i. 114) 
 injurious: 43 (III. ii. 195) 
 injury: 19 (II. i. 147) 
 intelligence: 9 (Li. 248) 
 intend: 48 (III. ii. 333) 
 
 jealousy: 59 (IV. i. 150) 
 jole: 48 (III. ii. 338) 
 juvenal: 32 (III. i. 100) 
 
 kind: 3 (I. i. 54) 
 knacks: 2 (I. i. 34) 
 knot-grass: 48 (III. ii. 329) 
 
 lakin: 30 (III. i. 14) 
 latch'd:38 (III. ii. 36) 
 leave: 54 (IV. i. 21) 
 leviathan: 20 (II. i. 174) 
 Limander: 71 (V. i. 200) 
 lingers: 1 (I. i. 4) 
 lion-fell: 72 (V. i. ! 
 lob: 14 (II. i. 16) 
 
Night's Dream 
 
 95 
 
 lode-stars: 7 (Li. 183) 
 long: 48 (III. ii. 339) 
 love-in-idleness: 20 (II. i. 
 
 168) 
 lovely: 44 (III. ii. 211) 
 
 making: 15 (II. i. 32) 
 manet: 5 (I. i. 127) 
 margent: 17 (II. i. 85) 
 marry: 10 (I. ii. 11) 
 mazed: 18 (II. i. 113) 
 mechanicals: 37 (III. ii. 9) 
 mew'd: 3 (I. i. 71) 
 minimus: 48 (III. ii. 329) 
 misgraffed: 6 (I. i. 137) 
 mispris'd: 39 (III. ii. 74) 
 misprision: 40 (III. ii. 90) 
 momentany: 6 (I. i. 143) 
 mood: 39 (III. ii. 74) 
 Moth: 35 (III. i. 169) 
 moused: 73 (V. i. 276) 
 mouth: 58 (IV. i. 129) 
 mural: 71 (V. i. 210) 
 murrion: 17 (II. i. 97) 
 
 naught: 62 (IV. ii. 15) 
 neaf: 54 (IV. i. 20) 
 nearly: 5 (I. i. 126) 
 neeze: 16 (II. i. 56) 
 night-rule: 37 (III. ii. 5) 
 nine men's morris: 17 (II. i. 
 gg\ 
 
 nowl: 37 (III. ii. 17) 
 
 observation: 57 (IV. i. 110) 
 o'ercharg'd: 66 (V. i. 85) 
 oes: 43 (III. ii. 188) 
 of: 29 (II. ii. 154) 
 offices: 23 (II. ii. 8) 
 or: 20 (II. i. 171) 
 orbs: 14 (II. i. 9) 
 orient: 55 (IV. i. 60) 
 other: 56 (IV. i. 72) 
 ounce: 24 (II. ii. 30) 
 ousel-cock: 34 (III. i. 131) 
 overwatch'd: 77 (V. i. 375) 
 owe: 26 (II. ii. 79) 
 
 pale: 14 (II. i. 4) 
 palpable-gross: 77 (V. i. 
 
 376) 
 pard: 24 (II. ii. 31) 
 parlous: 30 (III. i. 14) 
 parted: 60 (IV. i. 195) 
 passing: 14 (II. i. 20) 
 passion: 74 (V. i. 295) 
 patched: 61 (IV. i. 216) 
 patches: 37 (III. ii. 9) 
 patent: 4 (I. i. 80) 
 paved: 17 (II. i. 84) 
 Peascod: 36 (III. i. 195) 
 pelting: 17 (II. i. 91) 
 pensioners: 14 (II. i. 10) 
 Perigenia: 17 (II. i. 78) 
 personage: 47 (III. ii. 292) 
 pert: 1 (I. i. 13) 
 Phibbus: 11 (I. ii. 38) 
 Philomel: 24 (II. ii. 13) 
 Phoebe: 8 (I. i. 209) 
 pilgrimage: 3 (I. i. 75) 
 plain-song: 34 (III. i. 138) 
 point: 28 (II. ii. 119) 
 points: 68 (V. i. 118) 
 pomp: 1 (I. i. 15) 
 possess'd: 4 (I. i. 100) 
 preferred: 63 (IV. ii. 40) 
 prey: 29 (II. ii. 150) 
 proper: 12 (I. ii. 89) 
 protest: 4 (I. i. 89) 
 purple-in-grain: 13 (I. ii 
 
 98) 
 
 quail: 74 (V. i. 294) 
 quaint: 23 (II. ii. 7) 
 quell: 74 (V. i. 294) 
 quern: 15 (II. i. 36) 
 questions: 22 (II. i. 235) 
 quill: 34 (III. i. 134) 
 quire: 16 (II. i. 55) 
 
 recorder: 68 (V. i. 124) 
 rent: 44 (III. ii. 215) 
 repair: 56 (IV. i. 73) 
 rere-mice: 23 (II. ii. 4) 
 respect: 21 (II. i. 
 
96 
 
 A Midsummer Night's Dream 
 
 respects: 6 (I. i. 160) 
 rheumatic diseases: 17 (II. 
 
 i. 105) 
 right: 47 (III. ii. 302) 
 ringlets: 17 (II. i. 86) 
 roundel: 23 (II. ii. 1) 
 russet-pated: 37 (III. ii. 21) 
 
 sad: 45 (III. ii. 237) 
 saddest: 15 (II. i. 51) 
 sanded: 58 (IV. i. 126) 
 scrip: 10 (I. ii. 3) 
 self-affairs: 5 (I. i. 113) 
 sensible: 70 (V. i. 184) 
 sheen: 15 (II. i. 29) 
 shrewd: 15 (II. i. 33) 
 since: 19 (II. i. 149) 
 sinister: 69 (V. i. 165) 
 Sisters Three: 76 (V. i. 344) 
 snuff: 72 (V. i. 256) 
 soft: 58 (IV. i. 133) 
 something: 47 (III. ii. 304) 
 sort (n.): 37 (III. ii. 13) 
 sort (vb.): 49 (III. ii. 352) 
 sorting: 65 (V. i. 55) 
 sphery: 27 (II. ii. 99) 
 spite: 43 (III. ii. 194) 
 spleen: 6 (Li. 146) 
 spring: 17 (II. i. 82) 
 square: 15 (II. i. 30) 
 Squash: 36 (III. i. 195) 
 stay: 22 (II. i. 235); 73 (V. 
 
 i. 261) 
 steep: 16 (II. i. 69) 
 stiU: 8 (I. i. 212) 
 stop: 68 (V. i. 120) 
 streak: 23 (II. i. 257) 
 swound: 29 (II. ii. 154) 
 
 tailor: 16 (II. i. 54) 
 tall: 69 (V. i. 146) 
 Taurus': 41 (III. ii. 141) 
 tear: 11 (I. ii. 32) 
 tender: 39 (III. ii. 87) 
 that: 15 (II. i. 30) 
 Thisne: 11 (I. ii. 56) 
 
 Thracian singer: 65 (V. i. 
 
 49) 
 thorough: 14 (II. i. 3) 
 thread: 74 (V. i. 293) 
 thrum: 74 (V. i. 293) 
 'tide: 71 (V. i. 207) 
 tiring-house: 29 (III. i. 5) 
 tongs: 54 (IV. i. 33) 
 touch: 39 (III. ii. 70) 
 toward: 32 (III. i. 84) 
 toys: 63 (V. i. 3) 
 trace: 15 (II. i. 25) 
 translated: 7 (I. i. 191) 
 transported: 62 (IV. ii. 4) 
 trim: 42 (III. ii. 157) 
 triple Hecate: 77 (V. i. 393) 
 triumph: 1 (I. i. 19) 
 triumphantly: 57 (IV. i. 95) 
 troth: 25 (II. ii. 36) 
 Troyan: 7 (I. i. 174) 
 tuneable: 7 (I. i. 184) 
 
 unbreath'd: 66 (V. i. 74) 
 uncouple: 57 (IV. i. 113) 
 
 vaward: 57 (IV. i. Ill) 
 versing: 16 (II. i. 67) 
 virtuous: 49 (III. ii. 367) 
 votaress: 18 (II. i. 123) 
 
 wanton: 17 (II. i. 99) 
 warrant: 75 (V. i. 328) 
 waxen: 16 (II. i. 56) 
 weed: 23 (II. i. 256) 
 which: 75 (V. i. 326) 
 wind: 57 (IV. i. 108 S. d.) 
 with: 38 (III. ii. 55) 
 withering out: 1 (I. i. 6) 
 without: 59 (IV. i. 159) 
 witnesseth: 64 (V. i. 25) 
 wood: 20 (II. i. 192) 
 worm: 39 (III. ii. 71) 
 wrath: 14 (II. i. 20) 
 wrong: 49 (III. ii. 361) 
 
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