Tita. What, wilt thou heare fome mufick, my fweet loue? Clowne. I haue a reasonable good eare in muficke. Let vs haue the tongs and the bones.

Tita. Or fay sweete loue, what thou desirest to eate.

Clow. Truely a pecke of prouender; I could mounch your good dry oates. Me-thinkes I haue a great defire to a bottle of hay good hay, fweete hay hath no fellow.

Tita. I haue a venturous fairy,

That fhall feeke the fquirrels hoard,

And fetch thee new nuts.

Clou. I had rather haue a handfull or two of dried pease. But I pray you let none of your people stir me, I haue an expofition of fleepe come vpon me.

Tyta. Sleepe thou, and I will winde thee in my armes, Fairies be gone, and be alwaies away.

So doth the woodbine, the fweet honifuckle,

Gently entwift; the female iuy fo

Enrings the barky fingers of the elme.

O how I loue thee how I dote on thee!

Enter Robin Goodfellow.

Ob. Welcome good Robin: feest thou this sweet fight?

Her dotage now I do begin to pitty.

For meeting her of late behinde the wood,
Seeking fweete fauors for this hatefull foole,

I did vpbraid her, and fall out with her.
For fhe his hairy temples then had rounded.
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers.
And that fame dew which fometime on the buds,
Was wont to fwell like round and orient pearles;
Stood now within the pretty flouriets eies,
Like teares that did their owne difgrace bewaile.
When I had at my pleasure taunted her,
And fhe in mild tearmes begd my patience,

I then did afke of her, her changeling childe,
Which straight fhe gaue me, and her fairy fent
To beare him to my bower in Fairy land.
And now I haue the boy, I will vndoe.
This hatefull imperfection of her eies.
And gentle Pucke, take this transformed scalpe,
From off the head of this Athenian swaine;
That he awaking when the other do,
May all to Athens backe againe repaire,
And thinke no more of this nights accidents,
But as the fierce vexation of a dreame.
But first I will releafe the fairy queene.

Be as thou waft wont to be;
See as thou waft wont to fee.
Dians bud, or Cupids flower;

Hath fuch force and blessed power.

Now my Titania wake you, my fweete queene.
Tita. My Oberon, what vifions haue I feene!
Me-thought I was enamored of an affe.

Ob. There lies your loue.

Tita. How came these things to paffe?

*

Oh, how mine eies doth loathe this vifage now!

Ob. Silence a while. Robin take of this head;

Titania, musicke call, and strike more dead

Then common fleepe; of all thefe, fine the sense.

Tita. Muficke, ho muficke, fuch as charmeth fleepe. Rob. When thou wak'ft, with thine owne fooles eies peep. Ob. Sound mufick; come my queen, take hands with me And rocke the ground whereon these fleepers be.

Now thou and I are new in amity,

And will to morrow midnight, folemnly
Dance in duke Thefeus houfe triumphantly.

VOL. I.

*His.

D

And

And bleffe it to all faire posterity.

There shall the paires of faithfull louers be
Wedded, with Thefeus, all in iollity.
Rob. Fairy king, attend and marke,
I do heare the morning larke.

Ob. Then my queene in filence fad,
Trip we after the nights fhade;
We the globe can compaffe foone,
Swifter then the wandring moone.

Tita. Come my lord, and in our flight.
Tell me how it came this night,

That I fleeping heere was found,
With these mortals on the ground.

Exeunt.

Enter Thefeus and all his traine.

Thef. Goe one of you, finde out the forrefter,
For now our obferuation is perform'd;
And fince we haue the vaward of the day,
My loue shall heare the muficke of my hounds.
Vncouple in the westerne valley, let them go;
Dispatch I fay, and finde the forrefter.

We will faire queene, vp to the mountaines top,
And marke the muficall confufion

Of hounds and eccho in coniunction.

Hip. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Creete they bayed the beare
With hounds of Sparta; neuer did I heare
Such gallant chiding. For befides the groues,
The skies, the fountaines, euery region neere,
Seeme all one mutuall cry. I neuer heard
So muficall a difcord, fuch fweete thunder.

Winde hornes.

Thef. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kinde,
So flew'd, fo fanded, and their heads are hung
With eares that fweepe away the morning dew,

Crooke

Crooke kneed, and dew-lapt, like Theffalian buls,
Slow in pursuite, but matcht in mouth like bels,
Each vnder each. A cry more tuneable

Was neuer hollow'd to, nor cheer'd with horne,

In Creete, in Sparta, nor in Theffaly;

Iudge when you heare. But soft, what nimphs are these?
Egeus. My lord, this is my daughter heere asleepe,
And this Lyfander, this Demetrius is,

This Helena, oldé Nedars Helena,

I wonder of this being heere together.

The. No doubt they rofe vp early, to obferue

The right of May; and hearing our intent,
Came heere in grace of our folemnity.

But fpeake Egeus, is not this the day

That Hermia fhould giue anfwer of her choyse?

Egeus. It is, my lord.

Th. Go bid the huntsmen wake them with their hornes.

Shout within, they all start up. Winde hornes.

Thef. Good morrow friends: Saint Valentine is past,

Begin these wood birds but to couple now?

Lyf. Pardón, my lord.

Thef. I pray you all stand vp.

I know you two are riuall enemies.

How comes this gentle concord in the world,

That hatred is fo farre from iealoufie,

To fleepe by hate, and feare no enmity.

Lyf. My lord, I fhall reply amazedly,

Halfe sleepe, halfe waking. But as yet, I sweare,
I cannot truely say how I came here.

But as I thinke (for truely would I fpeake)

And now I do bethinke me, fo it is;

I came with Hermia hither.

Our intent

Was to be gone from Athens, where we might be
Without the perill of the Athenian law.

Ege. Enough, enough my lord: you haue enough;
I beg the law, the law, vpon his head :

They would haue ftolne away, they would, Demetrius,
Thereby to haue defeated you and me :

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

Dem. My lord, faire Helen told me of their stealth,

Of this their purpose hither, to this wood,

And I in fury hither followed them;
Faire Helena, in fancy followed me.

But my good lord, I wot not by what power

(But by fome power it is) my loue

To Hermia (melted as the fnow)

Seemes to me now as the remembrance of an idle gaude,

Which in my childehood I did dote vpon :

And all the faith, the vertue of my heart,
The obiect and the pleasure of mine eie,
Is onely Helena. To her, my lord,
Was I betroth'd, ere I fee Hermia,
But like a ficknesse, did I loathe this food,
But as in health, come to my naturall taste,
Now do I wish it, loue it, long for it,
And will for euermore be true to it.

Thef. Faire louers, you are fortunately met ;
Of this difcourfe, we will heare more anon.
Egeus, I will ouerbeare your will;
For in the temple, by and by with vs,
These couples fhall eternally be knit.

And for the morning now is fomething worne,
Our purpos'd hunting shall be set aside.
Away, with vs to Athens; three and three,

* Following.

Wee'l