But you must flout my insufficiency?
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.
O, that a lady of one man refus'd
Should of another
therefore be abus'd! Exit
LYSANDER. She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there;
And never mayst thou come Lysander near!
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,
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
HERMIA. [Starting] Help me, Lysander, help me; do thy best
To pluck this crawling
serpent from my breast.
Ay 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;
Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.
No? Then I well
perceive you are not nigh.
Either death or you I'll find immediately. Exit
ACT III. SCENE I.
The wood. TITANIA lying asleep
Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT,
and STARVELING
BOTTOM. Are we all met?
QUINCE. Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous
convenient place for our
rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn
brake our tiring-house; and we will do it in action, as we will
do it before the Duke.
BOTTOM. Peter Quince!
QUINCE. What sayest thou, bully Bottom?
BOTTOM. 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'r lakin, a parlous fear.
STARVELING. I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is
done.
BOTTOM. 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 kill'd 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.
QUINCE. Well, we will have such a
prologue; and it shall be written
in eight and six.
BOTTOM. No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight.
SNOUT. Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?
STARVELING. I fear it, I promise you.
BOTTOM. Masters, you ought to consider with yourself 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't.
SNOUT. Therefore another
prologue must tell he is not a lion.
BOTTOM. 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 '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, indeed, let him
name his name, and tell them
plainly he is Snug the joiner.
QUINCE. 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.
SNOUT. Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?
BOTTOM. A
calendar, a
calendar! Look in the almanack; find out
moonshine, find out moonshine.
QUINCE. Yes, it doth shine that night.
BOTTOM. Why, then may you leave a
casement of the great
chamberwindow, where we play, open; and the moon may shine in at the
casement.
QUINCE. 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 Moonshine. 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.
SNOUT. You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom?
BOTTOM. 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.
QUINCE. 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
spoken your speech, enter into that brake; and so every
one according to his cue.
Enter PUCK behind
PUCK. What hempen homespuns have we swagg'ring 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.
QUINCE. Speak, Pyramus. Thisby, stand forth.
BOTTOM. Thisby, the flowers of
odious savours sweet-
QUINCE. 'Odious'- odorous!
BOTTOM. -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 played here! Exit
FLUTE. Must I speak now?
QUINCE. Ay, marry, must you; for you must understand he goes but to
see a noise that he heard, and is to come again.
FLUTE. 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 would never tire,
I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb.
QUINCE. 'Ninus' tomb,' man! Why, you must not speak that yet; that
you answer to Pyramus. You speak all your part at once, cues, and
all. Pyramus enter: your cue is past; it is 'never tire.'
FLUTE. O- As true as truest horse, that y et would never tire.
Re-enter PUCK, and BOTTOM with an ass's head
BOTTOM. If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine.
QUINCE. O monstrous! O strange! We are
haunted. Pray, masters! fly,
masters! Help!
Exeunt all but BOTTOM and PUCK
PUCK. I'll follow you; I'll lead you about a round,
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,
Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.
Exit
BOTTOM. Why do they run away? This is a knavery of them to make me
afeard.
Re-enter SNOUT
SNOUT. O Bottom, thou art chang'd! What do I see on thee?
BOTTOM. What do you see? You see an ass-head of your own, do you?
Exit SNOUT
Re-enter QUINCE
QUINCE. Bless thee, Bottom, bless thee! Thou art translated.
Exit
BOTTOM. I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me; to
fright me, if they could. But I will not stir from this place, do
what they can; I will walk up and down here, and will sing, that
they shall hear I am not afraid. [Sings]
The ousel cock, so black of hue,
With orange-tawny bill,
The throstle with his note so true,
The wren with little quill.
TITANIA. What angel wakes me from my flow'ry bed?
BOTTOM. [Sings]
The finch, the
sparrow, and the lark,
The plain-song
cuckoo grey,
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 he, though he cry '
cuckoo' never so?
TITANIA. I pray thee, gentle
mortal, sing again.
Mine ear is much enamoured 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.
BOTTOM. Methinks,
mistress, you should have 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.
TITANIA. Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.
BOTTOM. Not so, neither; but if I had wit enough to get out of this
wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.
TITANIA. 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 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;
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.
Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed!
Enter PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, and MUSTARDSEED
PEASEBLOSSOM. Ready.
COBWEB. And I.
MOTH. And I.
MUSTARDSEED. And I.
ALL. Where shall we go?
TITANIA. 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;
And pluck the wings from painted butterflies,
To fan the moonbeams from his
sleeping eyes.
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.
PEASEBLOSSOM. Hail,
mortal!
COBWEB. Hail!
MOTH. Hail!
MUSTARDSEED. Hail!
BOTTOM. I cry your worships mercy,
heartily; I
beseech your