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Enter Thefeus, Egeus, Hippolita, and all his train.
The. Go one of you, find out the forester,
For now our obfervation is perform'd,
And fince we have the vaward of the day,
My love fhall hear the mufic of my hounds.
Uncouple in the western valley, go,-
Difpatch, I fay, and find the forefter.

We will, fair Queen, up to the mountain's top,
And mark the mufical confufion

Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

Hip. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Creet they bay'd the bear
With hounds of Sparta; never did I hear
Such gallant chiding. For befides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, ev'ry region near
Seem'd all one mutual cry. I never heard
So mufical a difcord, fuch fweet thunder.

The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flew'd, fo fanded, and their heads are hung
With ears that fweep away the morning-dew;
Crook-knee'd, and dew-lap'd, like Theffalian bulls;
Slow in purfuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tuneable

Was never hallo'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
In Creet, in Sparta, nor in Theffaly:

Judge, when you hear. But foft, what nymphs are

thefe ?

Ege. My Lord, this is my daughter here asleep, And this Lyfander, this Demetrius is,

This Helena, old Nedar's Helena;

I wonder at their being here together.

The. No doubt, they rofe up early to obferve

The rite of May; and, hearing our intent,

Came here in grace of our folemnity.

But fpeak, Egeus, is not this the day,

That Hermia should give anfwer of her choice?

Ege. It is, my Lord.

The. Go bid the huntfmen wake them with their

horns.

*Meaning the obfervance of the time prefcribed for their nuptials.

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Horns, and fhout within; Demetrius, Lyfander, Her-
mia, and Helena, wake and start up.

The. Good morrow, friends; Saint Valentine is past;
Begin these wood birds but to couple now?
Lyf. Pardon, my Lord.

The. I pray you, all stand up:
I know, you two are rival enemies.

How comes this gentle concord in the world,
That hatred is so far from jealoufy,
To fleep by hate, and fear no enmity?

Lyf. My Lord, I fhall reply amazedly,
Half-fleep, half-waking. But as yet, I fwear,
I cannot truly fay how I came here:
But as I think, (for truly would I speak),
And now I do bethink me, fo it is;

I came with Hermia hither. Our intent
Was to be gone from Athens, where we might be
Without the peril of th' Athenian law.

Ege. Enough, enough; my Lord, you have enough;
I beg the law, the law upon this head :

They would have ftol'n away, they would, Demetrius,
Thereby to have defeated you and me;

You, of your wife; and me, of my confent;
Of my confent, that the fhould be your wife.

Dem My Lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
Of this their purpose hither to this wood;
And I in fury hither follow'd them;
Fair Helena in fancy following me:

But, my good Lord, I wot not by what power,
But by fome power it is, my Love to Hermia
Is melted as the fnow; feems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gaude,
Which in my childhood I did doat upon:
And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,
The object and the pleasure of mine eye,
Is only Helena. To her, my Lord,
Was I betrothed ere I Hermia faw;
But like a fickness did I loath this food:
But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
Now do I wish it, love it, long for it;
And will for evermore be true to it.

VOL. I.

The.

The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
Of this difcourfe we fhall hear more anon.
Egeus, I will over-bear your will;
For in the temple, by and by with us,
Thefe coup les fhall eternally be knit ;
And for the morning now is fomething worn,
Our purpos'd hunting fhall be set aside.
Away with us to Athens; three and three,
We'll hold a feast in great folemnity.

Come, Hippolita. [Exeunt Duke, Hippol. and train. Dem. These things feem fmall and undiftinguishable, Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.

Her. Wethinks I fee these things with parted eye, When every thing feems double.

Hel So methinks;

And I have found Demetrius like a gemell,
Mine own, and not mine own.

Dem. It feems to me,

That yet we fleep, we dream. Do not you think,
The Duke was here, and bid us follow him?

Her. Yea, and my father.

Hel. And Hippolita.

Lyf. And he did bid us follow to the temple. Dem. Why then, we are awake; let's follow him; And, by the way, let us recount our dreams. [Exeunt. SCENE III. As they go out, Bottom wakes.

Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will anfwer. My next is, Moft fair Pyramus - hey, ho,Peter Quince, Flute the bellows-mender! Snowt the tinker! Starveling! god's my life! ftol'n hence, and left me asleep? I have had a most rare vifion. I had a dream, past the wit of man to fay what dream it was: man is but an afs, if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was, there is no man can tell what. Methought I was, and methought I had,- But man is but a patch'd fool, if he will offer to fay what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the er of man hath not feen; man's hand is not able to taite, 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

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Dream, because it hath no bottom; and will fing it in the latter end of the play before the Duke. peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I fhall fing it after death. [Exit.

SCENE IV. Changes to the town.

Enter Quince, Flute, Snowt, and Starveling.

Quin. Have you fent to Bottom's house is he come home yet?

Star He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is transported.

Flu. If he come not, then the play is marr'd. It goes not forward, doth it?

Quin. It is not poffible; you have not a man in all Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he.

Flu No, he hath fimply the beft wit of any handycraft man in Athens.

Quin. Yea, and the best person too; and he is a very paramour for a sweet voice.

Flu You must say, paragon; a paramour is (God bless us!) a thing of naught.

Enter Snug.

Snug Mafters, the Duke is coming from the temple, and there is two or three Lords and Ladies more married; if our fport had gone forward, we had all been made men.

Flu. O fweet bully Bottom! thus hath he loft fixpence a-day during his life; he could not have 'fcap'd fixpence a-day; an the Duke had not given him fixpence a-day for playing Fyramus, I'll be hang'd: he would have deferv'd it. Sixpence a-day, in Pyramus, or nothing.

Enter Bottom.

Bot. Where are thefe lads' where are these hearts? Quin. Bottom!-O most courageous day! O most happy hour!

Bot. Mafters, I am to difcourfe wonders, but ask me not what for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I will tell you every thing as it fell out.

Q 2

Quin.

Quin. Let us hear, fweet Bottom.

Bot. Not a word of me; all I will tell you is, that the Duke hath dined. Get your apparel together, good ftrings to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps; meet prefently at the palace, every man look o'er his part; for the fhort and the long is, our play is preferr'd; in any cafe, let Thisby have clean linen; and let not him that plays the lion pare his nails, for they fhall hang out for the lion's claws; and, most dear actors! eat no onions, nor garlick, for we are to utter fweet breath; and I do not doubt to hear them say, it is a moft fweet comedy. No more words; away; go [Exeunt.

away.

A C T V.

SCENE I.

The palace.

Enter Thefeus, Hippolita, Egeus, and his Lords.

Hip."

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IS ftrange, my Thefeus, what these lovers fpeak of.

The. More ftrange than true. I never may believe These antic fables, nor these fairy toys;

Lovers and madmen have fuch feething brains,
Such fhaping fantafies, that apprehend
More than cool reafon ever comprehends.
"The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,
"Are of imagination all compact:

"One fees more devils than vast hell can hold;
"The madman. While the lover, all as frantic,
"Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt.
"The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rowling,

"Doth glance from heav'n to earth, from earth to

"And, as imagination bodies forth

[heav'n; "The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen "Turns them to fhape, and gives to aiery nothing "A local habitation and a name.

Such tricks hath ftrong imagination, "That if it would but apprehend fome joy, "It comprehends fome bringer of that joy; Or in the night imagining fome fear, How eafy is a bufh fuppos'd a bear?

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