Bot. 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.

Queen. 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.

Queen. 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 thçe ; And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep, And fing, while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep: And I will purge thy mortal grossness so, That chou shale like an airy spirit go. Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moih! and Mustardfeed! (16)

Enter four Fairies. 1 Fair. Ready. 2 Fair. And I. 3 Fair. And I. 4 Fair. And I, where shall we go? Queen. Be kind, and courteous to this gentleman; Hop in his walks, and gambole in his eyes; Feed him with apricocks and dewberries, With purple grapes, green figs and mulberries,

Generality of the Impressions have shuffled, and confused these Verses, to the utmost degree of Obscurity and Nonsense : but I have from one of the old Quarto's reduced 'em to Clearness and Order: and as, without knowing such an Authority for it, Dr. Thirlby ingeniously hinted to Me, they should be placed.

(16) Enter Peafeblossom, Cobweb, Moth, Mustardseed, and four Fairies.] Here the common Editions have been so extravagant as to split four Fairies into eight: but the old Quarto Impressions both came into my Affiftance to reduce 'em to their right Number. The Queen calls them by their respective Names, and immediately the four Fairies enter

upon Call.

The

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 moon-beams from his sleeping eyes ;
Nod to him, elves, and do him courteles.

1 Fair. Hail, mortal, hail!
2 Fair. Hail!
3 Fair. Hail !

Bot. I cry your worship's mercy heartily, I beseech, your worthip’s name.

Cob. Cobweb.

Bot. I shall desire of you more acquaintance, good master Cobweb; if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you. Your name, honeft gentleman?

Pease. Peafeblofom.

Bot. I pray you, commend me to mistress Squafl your mother, and to master Peafcod your father. Good master Peaseblossom, I shall desire of you more acquain

Your name, I beseech you, Sir? Muf. Mustard

seed. Bot. Good master Mustardseed, I know your patience well: that same cowardly giant-like Ox-beef hath devour'd many a gentleman of your house. I promise you, your kindred hath made my eyes water ere now. I desire more of your acquaintance, good master Muftardfeed.

Queen. Come, wait upon him, lead him to my bower:

The moon, methinks, looks with a watry eye, And when she weeps, weep, ev'ry little flower,

Lamenting some enforced chaitity! Tie up my love's tongue, bring him filently. (Exeunt.

tance too.

Enter King of Fairies.
Ob. I wonder, if Titania be awak'd.:
Then what it was that next came in her eye,
Which she must doat on in extremity.

Énter

Enter Puck.
Here comes my messenger! how now, mad sprite,
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 ftalls,
Were met together to rehearse a play,
Intended for great Theseus' nuptial day.
The shallow'st thick-skin of that barren sort,
Who Pyramus presented, in their sport
Forsook his scene, and enter'd in a brake;
When I did him at this advantage take,
An Ass's nole I fixed on his head;
Anon, his Thisby must be answered,
And forth my minnack comes: when they him (py,
As wild geese, that the creeping fowler eye,
Or russet-paced choughs, many in sort,
Rising and cawing at the gun's report,
Sever themselves, and madly sweep the sky;
So, at his fight, 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 fenseless things begin to do them wrong.
For briars and thorns at their apparel snatch,
Some-fleeves, 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)
Tithria wak'd, and straitway lov’d an ass.

Ob. 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 wakes, of force she must be ey'd.

Enter

Enter Demetrius and Hermia.
Ob. Stand close, this is the same Athenian.
Puck. This is the woman, but not this the man.

Dem. O, why rebuke you him that loves you so? Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.

Her. Now I but chide, but I should use thee worse; For thou, I fear, hast giv’n me cause to curse: If thou haft slain Lysander in his sleep, Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep, And kill me too. The sun was not so true unto the day, As he to me. Would he have stol'n away From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon, This whole earth may be bor’d, and that the moon May through the center creep, and so difplease Her brother's noon-tide with th’ Antipodes. It cannot be, but thou haft murther'd him ; So should a murtherer look, so dread, fo grim.

Dem. So should the murther'd look; and so should I, Pierc'd through the heart with your stern cruelty: Yet you the murtherer look as bright, and clear, As yonder Venus in her glimm'ring sphere.

Her. What's this to my Lysander ? where is he?
Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me?

Dem. l'ad rather give his carcass to my hounds.
Her. Out, dog! out, cur! thou driv'it me past the

bounds
Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him then ?
Henceforth be never number'd among men.
O! once tell true, and even for my fake,
Durst thou have look'd upon him, being awake?
And haft thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch!
Could not a worm, an adder do so much?
An adder did it, for with doubler tongue
Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.

Dem. You spend your passion on a mispris'd mood;
I am not guilty of Lysander's blood,
Nor is he dead, for ought that I can tell.
Her. I pray thee, tell me then that he is well.

Dem.

Dream

. 113 Dem. And if I could, what should I get therefore?

Her. A privilege never to see me more; And from thy hated presence part I so: See me no more, whether he's dead or no. [Exit.

Dem. There is no following her in this fierce vein, Here, therefore, for a while I will remain : So sorrow's heaviness doch heavier grow, For debt, that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe; Which now in some slight measure it will pay, If for his Tender here I make som stay. [Lies down.

Ob. What hast thou done ? thou hast mistaken quite, And laid thy love-juice on some true love's sight: Of thy misprision must perforce ensue Some true love turn'd, and not a false turn'd true.

Puck. Then fate o'er-rules, that one man holding troth A million fail, confounding oath on oath.

Ob. About the wood go swifter than the wind, And Helena of Athens, sec, thou find. All fancy-fick she is, and pale of cheer; With sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear; By some illusion, see, thou bring her here; I'll charm his eyes, against the doth appear.

Puck. I go, I go; look, how I go;
Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow. [Exit.

Ob. Flower of this purple dye,
Hit with Cupid's archery,
Sink in apple of his eye!
When his love he doth espy,
Let her shine as gloriously
As the Venus of the sky.
When thou wak’st, if she be by,
Beg of her for remedy.

Enter Puck.
Puck. Captain of our fairy band,
Helena is here at hand,
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover's fee.
Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
VOL I,

I

Ob,