And, like a forester, the groves may tread,
Even till the eastern gate, all fiery red,
Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,
Turns into yellow gold his salt-green streams.
But, notwithstanding, haste; make no delay:
e may effect this business yet ere day.

We

Puck. Up and down, up and down;
I will lead them up and down:
I am fear'd in field and town;
Goblin, lead them up and down.

Here comes one.

Enter LYSANDER.

[Exit OBERON.

Lys. Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now,
Puck. Here villain; drawn and ready. Where art thou?
Lys. I will be with thee straight.

Puck. Follow me then

To plainer ground.

[Exit Lys, as following the voice.

Enter DEMETRIUS.

Dem. Lysander! speak again.

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;
I'll whip thee with a rod: He is defiled,

That draws a sword on thee.

Dem. Yea; art thou there?

Puck. Follow my voice; we'll try no manhood here. [Exeunt.

Re-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;
That fallen am I in dark uneven way,

And here will rest me. Come, thou gentle day!
For if but once thou show me thy grey light,

I'll find Demetrius, and revenge this spite.

Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS.

[Lies down

Puck. Ho, ho! ho, ho! Coward, why com'st thou not?
Dem. Abide me, if thou dar'st; for well I wot,

Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place;
And dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face.

Where art thou?

Puck. Come hither; I am here.

[Sleeps.

If ever I thy face by daylight see:

Dem. Nay, then thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this dear,

Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me

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; 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.

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,

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;

My legs can keep no pace with my desires. Here will I rest me, till the break of day.

Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!

Puck. On the ground.

Sleep sound:

I'll apply

To your eye,

Gentle lover, remedy.

[Sleeps.

[Lies down.

[Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER's eye.

When thou wak'st,

Thou tak❜st

True delight

In the sight

Of thy former lady's eye:

And the country proverb known,

That every man should take his own,
In your waking shall be shown:

Jack shall have Jill;
Nought shall go ill;

The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.

[Exit PUCK.-DEM. HEL. &c. sleep.

ACT IV.

SCENE I-The same.

Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM, FAIRIES attending; OBERON

behind 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,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.
Bot. Where's Peas-blossom?

* Stroke.

Bot. Scratch my head, Peas-blossom.-Where's monsieur Cobweb?

Peas. Ready.

Cob. Ready.

Bot. Monsieur Cobweb; good monsieur, get your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good monsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, monsieur; and, good monsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not; I would be loath to have you overflown with a honey-bag, signior.-Where's monsieur Mustard-seed?

Must. Ready.

Bot. Give me your neif,* monsieur Mustard-seed. Pray you leave your courtesy, good monsieur.

Must. What's your will?

Bot. Nothing, good monsieur, but to help cavalero Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber's, monsieur; for methinks, I am marvellous hairy about the face: and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch.

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.

Tita. Or, say, sweet love, what thou desir'st to eat.

Bot. Truly, a peck of provender; I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks, I have a great desire to a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.

Tita. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek

The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.

Bot. I had rather have a handful, or two, of dried peas. But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me; I have an exposition

of sleep come upon me.

Tita. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.

So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle,

Gently entwist,-the female ivy so

Enrings the barky fingers of the eim.

O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!

OBERON advances. Enter PUCK.

[They sleep.

Obe. Welcome, good Robin. Seest thou this sweet sight? Her dotage now I do begin to pity. For meeting her of late, behind the wood, Seeking sweet savours for this hateful fool, I did upbraid her and fall out with her: 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, Stood now within the pretty flourets' 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,

* Fist.

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
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,
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.

Be, as thou wast wont to be; [Touching her eyes with an herb
See, as thou wast wont to see:

Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower

Hath such force and blessed power.

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 loath his visage now!

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.

Tita. Music, oh! music; such as charmeth sleep.

Puck. Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own fool's eyes peep. Obe. Sound, music. [Still Music.] Come, my queen, take hands

with me,

And rock the ground whereon those sleepers be.

Now thou and I are new in amity;

And will, to-morrow midnight, solemnly,

Dance in duke Theseus' house triumphantly,

And bless it to all fair posterity:

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.

Obe. Then, my queen, in silence sad,
Trip we after the night's shade:

We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wand'ring moon.

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.

[Exeunt.

[Horns sound within.

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and 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,

* Forepart.

My love shall hear the music of my hounds.-
Uncouple in the western valley; go:
Despatch, I say, and find the forester.-
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,
And mark the musical confusion

Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

Hip. I was with Hercules, and Cadmus, once,
When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear
With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear
Such gallant chiding; for, besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, every region near
Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.
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;
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 tunable
Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly:

Judge, when you hear. But, soft; what nymphs are these?
Ege. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep:
And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is;

This Helena, old Nedar's Helena:

I wonder of their being here together.

The. No doubt, they rose up early to observe
The rite of May; and, hearing our intent,
Came here in grace of our solemnity.-
But, speak, Egeus; is not this the day

That Hermia should give answer of her choice.
Ege. It is, my lord.

The. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns. Horns and shout within. DEMETRIUS, LYSANDER, HERMIA, and HELENA, wake and start up.

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

Lys. Pardon, my lord.

[He and the rest kneel to THESEUS.

The. I pray you all, stand up.

I know, you are two rival enemies;

How comes this gentle concord in the world,
That hatred is so far from jealousy,
To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?
Lys. My lord, I shall reply amazedly,

Half 'sleep, half waking: But as yet, I swear,
I cannot truly say how I came here:
But, as I think (for truly would I speak,-
And now I do bethink me, so it is);

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

* Sound.

†The flews are the large chaps of a hound.