TITA. Perchance, till after Theseus' weddingday.

If you will patiently dance in our round,
And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.
OBE. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.
TITA. Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies,
away:

We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.

[Exeunt TITANIA and her Train. OBE. Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove,

Till I torment thee for this injury:

My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou remember'st
Since once I sat upon a promontory,

And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back,
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song;
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear the sea-maid's music.

OBE. That very time I saw," (but thou couldst not,)

Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took
At a fair vestal, throned by the west;
And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts:
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon;
And the imperial votaress passed on,

In maiden meditation, fancy-free.

Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:

It fell upon a little western flower,

Before, milk-white, now purple with love's wound,

And maidens call it love-in-idleness.

Fetch me that flower: the herb I shew'd thee once ;

The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid,

a That very time I saw,-] The quarto, published by Roberts, and the folio, read, "I say."

Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again,
Ere the leviathan can swim a league.

PUCK. I'll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes."
[Exit PUCK.
ОВЕ.
Having once this juice,
I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,

*

And drop the liquor of it in her eyes:
The next thing then she waking looks upon,
(Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,)
She shall pursue it with the soul of love :

And ere I take this charm from off + her sight,
(As I can take it, with another herb,)
I'll make her render up her page to me.
But who comes here? I am invisible; (5)
And I will overhear their conference.

Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA following him.

DEM. I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
Where is Lysander, and fair Hermia?
The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me."
Thou told'st me, they were stol'n unto this wood.
And here am I, and wood within this wood,
Hermia.

Because I cannot meet my
Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
HEL. You draw me, you hard-hearted ada-
mant;

But yet you draw not iron, for my heart
Is true as steel. Leave you your power to draw,
And I shall have no power to follow you.

DEM. Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair?
Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth.
Tell you-I do not, nor I cannot, love you?

HEL. And even for that do I love you § the more. I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, The more you beat me, I will fawn on you: Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave, Unworthy as I am, to follow you. What worser place can I beg in your love, (And yet a place of high respect with me,) Than to be used as you use ¶ your dog? DEM. Tempt not too much the hatred of my

[spirit,

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:

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

[Exit HEL. OBE. Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove, Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love.

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows;
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania, sometime of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantasies.
Take thou some of it, and seek through this
A sweet Athenian lady is in love
With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;
But do it when the next thing he espies
May be the lady. Thou shalt know the man
By the Athenian garments he hath on.
Effect it with some care; that he may prove
More fond on her, than she upon her love:
And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.
PUCK. Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do
[Exeunt.

So.

grove,

SCENE II.-Another part of the Wood.

Enter TITANIA, with her Train.

TITA. Come, now a roundel," and a fairy song;
Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;
Some, to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds ;
Some, war with rear-mice for their leathern wings,
To make my small elves coats; and some, keep
back

The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots and wonders
At our quaint spirits: sing me now asleep,
Then to your offices, and let me rest.

SONG.

I.

1 FAI. You spotted snakes, with double tongue, Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen ; Newts, and blind-worms, do no wrong; Come not near our fairy queen :

CHORUS.

Philomel, with melody

Sing in our •* sweet lullaby;

Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby;
Never harm, nor spell nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby.

(*) First folio, your.

a Come, now a roundel,-] A roundel, a dance, where the parties joined hands and formed a ring. This kind of dance was

Lys. Fair love, you faint with wandering in the woods,

And, to speak troth, I have forgot our way; We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,

And tarry for the comfort of the day.

HER. Be it so, Lysander, find you out a bed, For I upon this bank will rest my head.

Lys. One turf shall serve as pillow for us both; One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth. HER. Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my

dear,

Lie further off yet, do not lie so near.

Lys. O, take the sense, sweet, of my

innocence;

Love takes the meaning, in love's conference.
I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit,
So that but one heart can we* make of it:
Two bosoms interchained with an oath ;
So then, two bosoms, and a single troth.
Then, by your side no bed-room me deny,
For, lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.

HER. Lysander riddles very prettily:Now much beshrew my manners and my pride, If Hermia meant to say, Lysander lied.

But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy
Lie further off; in human modesty,
Such separation, as, may well be said,
Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid:
So far be distant, and good night, sweet friend;
Thy love ne'er alter, till thy sweet life end!

Lys. Amen, Amen, to that fair prayer say I,
And then end life, when I end loyalty!
Here is my bed: Sleep give thee all his rest!
HER. With half that wish the wisher's eyes be
press'd!

[They sleep.

HEL. O, I am out of breath in this fond chase! The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace. Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies, For she hath blessed and attractive eyes:

How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears;

If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers.
No, no, I am as ugly as a bear,

For beasts that meet me run away for fear;
Therefore, no marvel, though Demetrius
Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus.
What wicked and dissembling glass of mine
Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne?
But who is here?-Lysander! on the ground!
Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound!--
Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake.

Lys. [Waking.] And run through fire I will, for thy sweet sake:

Transparent Helena! Nature shows her art," That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.

Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word
Is that vile name to perish on my sword!

HEL. Do not say so, Lysander; say not so: What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?

Yet Hermia still loves you; then be content.
Lys. Content with Hermia ?

repent

No: I do

The tedious minutes I with her have spent.
Not Hermia, but Helena* I love:
Who will not change a raven for a dove?
The will of man is by his reason sway'd,
And reason says you are the worthier maid.
Things growing are not ripe until their season,
So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;
And touching now the point of human skill,
Reason becomes the marshal to my will,
And leads me to your eyes; where I o'erlook
Love's stories, written in love's richest book.

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!
Lys. She sees not Hermia:-Hermia, sleep
thou there;

[Exit.

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.
HER. [starting.] Help me, Lysander, help me!
do thy best,

To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!
Ah me, for pity!-what a dream was here!
Lysander, look how I do quake with fear!
Methought a serpent ate 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.

(*) First folio, now I.

a Nature shows her art,-] The quartos have,-" Nature shows art;" the folio, "Nature her shows art."

b Speak, of all loves;] This pretty imploration, with the sense of, for love's sake, is found again in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," Act II. Sc. 2:-"But Mistress Page would desire

(*) First folio, that.

(†) First folio, yet.

you to send her your little page, of all loves." And in "Othello," Act III. Sc. 1:-"But, Masters, here's money for you: and the general so likes your music, that he desires you, of all loves, to make no more noise with it."