You, of your wife; and me, of my confent;
Of my confent, that she should be your wife.
Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
Of this their purpofe hither to this wood;
And I in fury hither follow'd them;
Fair Helena in fancy following me,

But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,
But by fome power it is, my love to Hermia
Is melted as the fnow; feems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gaude,
Which in my childhood I did doat upon:
And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,
The object and the pleasure of mine eye,
Is only Helena. To her, my lord,
Was I betrothed ere I Hermia faw;
But like a fickness did I loath this food;
But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
Now do I wish it, love it, long for it;
And will for ever more be true to it.

Thef. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
Of this difcourfe we fhall hear more anon.
Egeus, I will over-bear your will;
For in the temple, by and by with us,
These couples fhall eternally be knit ;
And for the morning now is fomething worn,
Our purpos'd hunting shall be set aside.
Away, with us to Athens; three and three,
We'll hold a feast in great folemnity.

Come, Hippolita. [Exeunt Duke, Hippol. and Train.
Dem. These things feem fmall and undistinguishable,
Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.

Her. Methinks, I fee these things with parted Eye; When every thing feems double.

Hel. So, methinks;

6 Gaude or bawble.

Mr. Pope.

7 And I have found Demetrius like a Gemell, Mine own, and not mine own.

Dem. It seems to me,

That yet we fleep, we dream. Do not you think,
The Duke was here, and bid us follow him?
Her. Yea, and my father.

Hel. And Hippolita.

Lys. And he did bid us follow to the temple. Dem. Why then, we are awake; let's follow him; And, by the way, let us recount our dreams. [Exeunt.

SCENE

III.

As they go out, Bottom wakes.

Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will anfwer. My next is, Moft fair Pyramus hey, ho, Peter Quince, Flute the bellows-mender! Snout the tinker! Starveling! god's my life! ftoll'n hence, and left me afleep? I have had a moft rare vision. I had a dream, paft the wit of man to fay what dream it was:

7 And I have found Demetrius like a JEWEL,

Mine own, and not mine own] Hermia had obferved that things appeared double to her. Helena replies, fo methinks; and then fubjoins, that Demetrius was like a jewel, her own and not her own. He is here, then, compared to fome thing which had the property of appearing to be one thing when it was another, Not the property fure of a Jewel: or, if you will, of none but a falfe one. We fhould read,

And I have found Demetrius like a GEMELL,

Mine own, and not my own. From Gemellus a Twin. For Demetrius had that night acted two fuch different parts, that fhe could hardly think them both played by one and the fame Demetrius; but that there were twin Demetrius's like the two Socia's in the Farce. From Gemellus comes the French, Gemeau or Jumeau, and in the feminine, Gemelle or Fumelle: So in Maçon's tranflation of the Decameron of Bocace Il avoit trois filles plus aage' es que les males, des quelles les deux qui eftoient J UMELLES avoient quinze ans. Quatrieme Jour. Nov. 3.

man

man is but an afs, if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was, there is no man can tell what. Methought I was, and methought I had, But man is but a patch'd fool, if he will offer to fay what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not feen; man's hand is not able to tafte, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream; it fhall be call'd Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom; and I will fing it in the latter end of a play before the Duke; peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I fhall fing it (a) after Death. [Exit.

S

CENE

Changes to the Town.

IV.

Enter Quince, Flute, Snout, and Starveling.

Quin. H come home yet?

AVE you fent to Bottom's houfe? is he

Star. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt, he is transported.

Flu. If he come not, then the play is marr'd. It goes not forward, doth it?

Quin. It is not poffible; you have not a man, in all Athens, able to discharge Pyramus, but he.

Flu. No, he hath fimply the beft wit of any handycraft man in Athens.

Quin. Yea, and the best person too; and he is a very paramour for a fweet voice.

Flu. You must fay, paragon; a paramour is (God blefs us!) a thing of naught.

Enter Snug.

Snug. Mafters, the Duke is coming from the temple, and there is two or three lords and ladies more

[(a) after Death, Mr. Theobald, -Vulg. at her Death.]

married;

married; if our sport had gone forward, we had all been made men.

Flu. O fweet bully Bottom! thus hath he loft fixpence a-day during his life; he could not have 'scap'd fix-pence a-day; an the Duke had not given him fixpence a-day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hang'd: he would have deferv'd it. Six-pence a-day, in Pyramus, or nothing.

Enter Bottom.

Bot. Where are thefe lads? where are these hearts? Quin. Bottom!O moft courageous day! O most happy hour!

Bot. Mafters, I am to discourse wonders, but ask me not what; for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I will tell you every thing as it fell out.

Quin. Let us hear, fweet Bottom.

Bot. Not a word of me; all I will tell you is, that the Duke hath dined. Get your apparel together, good strings to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the palace, every man look o'er his part; for the fhort and the long is, our play is preferr'd: in any case, let Thisby have clean linnen; and let not him, that plays the lion, pare his nails, for they fhall hang out for the lion's claws; and, most dear actors! eat no onions, nor garlick, for we are to utter fweet breath; and I do not doubt to hear them fay, it is a most sweet comedy. No more words; away; go away.

[Exeunt.

ACT

ACT V. SCENE I

The PALACE.

Enter Thefeus, Hippolita, Egeus, and his Lords.

'T'

HIPPOL IT A.

IS ftrange, my Thefeus, what these lovers speak of. Thef. More ftrange than true. I never may believe

These antick fables, nor these fairy toys;

Lovers and madmen have such feething brains,
Such fhaping fantafies, that apprehend
More than cool reafon ever comprehends.
"The lunatick, the lover, and the poet,
"Are of imagination all compact:

"One fees more devils than vaft hell can hold;
"The madman. While the lover, all as frantick,

"Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt.

"The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rowling, "Doth glance from heav'n to earth, from earth to heav'n;

"And, as imagination bodies forth

"The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen "Turns them to shape, and gives to aiery nothing "A local habitation and a name.

Such tricks hath ftrong imagination, "That if it would but apprehend fome joy, "It comprehends fome bringer of that joy; Or in the night imagining fome fear, How easy is a bufh fuppos'd a bear?

Hip. But all the story of the night told over,

1 That if HE would but apprehend-] The Quarto of 1600 reads, That if I r the imagination; and this is right.

i. e.

And