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.
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
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
But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.

Hel. Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
You do me mischief. Fye, Demetrius!
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex
We cannot fight for love, as men may do
We should be woo'd, and were not made to woo.
I'll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell,
To die upon the hand I love so well.

[Exeunt DEM. and HEL. Obe. Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave

SCENE III. Another part of the Wood.

TITANIA, with her train.
Tita. Come, now a roundel," and a fairy song;

Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;

For I am sick, when I do look on thee.

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;
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.
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:"

1 Exempt from the power of love.

2 The tricolored violet, commonly called pansies, or heartsease, is here meant; one or two of its petals are of a purple colour. It has other fanciful and expressive names, such as-Cuddle me to you; Three faces under a hood; Herb trinity, &c.

4 There is now a dayes a kind of adamant which draweth unto it fleshe, and the same so strongly, that it hath power to knit and tie together two mouthes of con trary persons, and draw the heart of a man out of his bodie without offending any part of him.' Certaine Secrete Wonders of Nature, by Edward Fenton, 1569.

Lys. Fair love, you faint with wandering in the Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound:

178

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

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,
[Exit.
To honour Helen, and to be her knight!
Her. [starting.] Help me, Lysander, help me!
do thy best,

my

breast!

To pluck this crawling serpent from
Ah me, for pity!-what a dream was here?
Lysander, look, how I do quake with fear:
Methought a serpent eat my heart away,
And you sat smiling at his cruel prey :-
Lysander! what, remov'd? Lysander! lord!
What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word?
Alack, where are you? speak, an if you hear;
swoon almost with fear.
Speak, of all loves;1
No?-then I well perceive you are not nigh:
Either death, or you, I'll find immediately. [Exit.

ACT III.

SCENE I. The same. The Queen of Fairies ly-
ing asleep. Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM,
FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING,
Bot. Are we all met?

Quin. Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place for our rehearsal: This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn brake out tyring house; and we will do it in action, as we will do it before

the duke.

Bot. Peter Quince,

Quin. What say'st thou, bully Bottom?

Bot. There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisby, that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that?

Snout. By'rlakin, a parlous fear.

Star. I believe, we must leave the killing out, when all is done.

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 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.4

Bot. No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight.

Snout. Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?
Star. I fear it, I promise you.

Bot. Masters, you ought to consider with your-
selves: 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.

and

Quin. Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard things; that is, to bring the moon-light into a chamber: for you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moon-light.

Snug. Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?

Bot. Nay, you must name his name, and half
his face must be seen through the lion's neck;
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, I would en-
treat you, not to fear, not to tremble: my life for
think I come hither as a lion, it were
yours. If you
pity of my life: No, I am no such thing; I am a
man as other men are:-and there, indeed, let him
name his name; and tell them plainly he is Snug
the joiner.

Bot. A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanack; find out moon-shine, find out moonshine.

6 Shakspeare may here allude to an incident said to have occurred in his time, which is recorded in a collec tion of anecdotes, stories, &c. entitled 'Mery Passages and Jeasts,' MS. Harl. 6395. There was a spectacle presented to Queen Elizabeth upon the water, and

Quin. Yes, it doth shine that night.

Bot. Why, then you may leave a casement of the great chamber window, where we play, open; and the moon may shine in at the casement.

he comes

Quin, Ay; or else one must come in with a say, bush of thorns and a lanthorn, and 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. Snug. You never can 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; or let him hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper.

Come,

Quin. If that may be, then all is well. sit down, every mother's son, and rehearse your parts. Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken your speech, enter into that brake," and so every one according to his cue.

Enter Puck behind.

Puck. What hempen home-spuns have we swag-
gering here,
So near the cradle of the fairy queen?
What, a play toward? I'll be an auditor;
An actor, too, perhaps, if I see cause.

Quin. Speak, Pyramus:-Thisby, stand forth.
Pyr. Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet,—
Quin. Odours, odours.

Pyr. odours savours sweet :

So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear.But, hark, a voice! stay thou but here a while, [Eri And by and by I will to thee appear. Puck. A stanger Pyramus than e'er play'd here [Aside.-E.

This. 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.

This. Most radiant Pyramus,most lilly-white of hut.
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,
I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb.

Quin. Ninus' tomb, man: Why you must not
speak that yet; that you answer to Pyramus: yon
speak all your part at once, cues and all.-Pyra-
mus, enter; your cue is past; it is, never tire.
Re-enter PUCK, and BOTTOM with an ass's head.
This. O,-As true as truest horse, that yet would

never tire.

Pyr. If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine.Quin. O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted. Pray, masters! fly, masters! help!

[Exeunt Clowns. Puck. I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round, Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier;

among others Harry Goldingham was to repres
Arion upon the Dolphin's backe; but finding his ve
to be verye hoarse and unpleasant when he cane to p
form it, he tears off his disguise, and swears he wasS
none of Arion, not he, but even honest Harry Golding
ham; which blunt discoverie pleased the
than if he had gone through in the right way:-ye
could order his voice to an instrument exceeding well'
7 Thicket.

hear I am not afraid.

The ousel-cock, so black of hue,
With orange-tawney bill,
The throstle with his note so true,
The wren with little quill.

bed?

Tita. What angel wakes me from my flowery
[Waking.
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 ;—

for, indeed, 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, 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 little reason for that: And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays: The more the pity, that some honest neighbours will not make them friends. Nay, I can gleek2 upon occasion.

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;

The sunimer still doth tend upon my state,
And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;

I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee;

And

And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep:
sing, while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep:
And I will purge thy mortal grossness so
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.
Peas-blossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustard-seed!
Enter four Fairies.

1 Fai. Ready.

2 Fai.

3 Fai.

4 Fai.

And I.

And I.

And I.

All. Where shall we go?

1 The cuckoo, having no variety of note, sings in plain song (plano cantu), by which expression the uniform modulation or simplicity of the chaunt was anciently distinguished in opposition to prick-song, or vatiated music sung by note.

2 i. e. jest or scoff.

3 The fruit of a bramble called Rubus cæsius: times called also the blue-berry.

Tita. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes;
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,
And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,
To have my love to bed, and to arise;
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:
And pluck the wings from painted butterflies,
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.
1 Fai. Hail, mortal!

2 Fai. Hail!

3 Fai. Hail!

4 Fai. Hail!

Here comes my messenger.-How now, mad spirit?
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,
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.
The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort,"
Who Pyramus presented, in their sport
Forsook his scene, and entered in a brake:
When I did him at this advantage take,
An ass's now110 I fixed on his head;
Anon, his Thisbe must be answered,

And forth my mimic comes: When they him spy,
As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,
Or russet-pated choughs,12 many in sort,15

ken ironically, as it was the prevailing opinion in Shak-
speare's time, that mustard excited choler.
7 Revelry.

8 A patch sometimes means a fool, or simpleton; but
it was a common contemptuous term, and may be either
a corruption of the Italian pazzo, or derived from the
patch'd clothes sometimes worn by persons of low con-
some-dition. Tooke gives a different origin from the Saxon
verb pæcan, to deceive by false appearances.
9 Barren is dull, unpregnant.
Sort is company.

This

4 'I shall desire you of more acquaintance. kind of phraseology was not uncommon. 5A squash is an immature peascod. So in Twelfth Night, Act i. Sc. 5:

'As a squash is before 'tis a peascod.' 6 Mason proposes to read 'passing well,' which is plausible if change be necessary. The words are spo

Rising and cawing at the gun's report,
Sever themselves, and madly sweep the sky;
So, at his sight, away his fellows fly:
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,

Made senseless things begin to do them wrong:
For briars and thorns at their apparel snatch;
Some, sleeves; some, hats; from yielders all things
catch.

I led them on in this distracted fear,

And left sweet Pyramus translated there:
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
With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?

Puck. 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.

pure congealed white, high Taurus's snow,
When thou hold'st up thy hand: O let me kiss
Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow,
This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!
To set against me,
Hel. O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent
If you were civil, and knew courtesy,
for your merriment.
You would not do me thus much injury.
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,

signifying the face, visage, sight, or countenance, look
or cheere of a man or woman. The old French chere
had the same meaning.

blood-drinking,' and 'blood-sucking sighs. All allud 6 So in K. Henry VI. we have 'blood-consuming,' ing to the ancient supposition, that every sigh was indulged at the expense of a drop of blood. 7 So in Antony and Cleopatra:

My playfellow, your hand; this kingly seal, And plighter of high hearts.'

Si. e. join heartily, unite in the same mind.