To measure out my length on this cold bed.
By day's approach look to be visited.

[Lies down and sleeps.

Enter Helena.

Hel. O weary night, O long and tedious night, Abate thy hours: shine, comforts, from the east; That I may back to Athens, by day-light,

From these that my poor company detest :And, sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye, Steal me awhile from mine own company. [Sleeps. Puck. Yet but three? Come one more;

Two of both kinds makes up four.

Here she comes, curst and sad :

Cupid is a knavish lad,

Thus to make poor females mad.

Enter Hermia.

Her. Never so weary, never so in woe, Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briers;

I can no further crawl, no further go;

My legs can keep no pace with my desires.

Here will I rest me, till the break of day.

Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!

Puck. Ou the ground

Sleep sound:

I'll apply

To your eye,

Gentle lover, remedy.

[Lies down.

[Squeezing the juice on Lysander's eye.

When thou wak'st,

Thou tak'st

True delight

In the sight

Of thy former lady's eye

And the country proverb known,

That every man should take his own,

In your waking shall be shown:

Jack shall have Jill;

Nought shall go ill;

The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be

well.

[Exit Puck.-Dem. Hel. &c. sleep.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. The same.

Enter Titania and Bottom, Fairies attending; Oberon behind unseen.

Tita. Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy*,

And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.
Bot. Where's Peas-blossom?

Peas. Ready.

Bot. Scratch my head, Peas-blossom.-Where's monsieur Cobweb?

Cob. Ready.

Bot. Monsieur Cobweb; good monsieur, get your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good monsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, monsieur; and good monsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not; I would be loath to have you over-flown with a honey-bag, signior. Where's monsieur Mustard-seed?

Must. Ready.

Bot. Give me your neift, monsieur Mustard-seed. Pray you, leave your courtesy, good monsieur. Must. What's your will?

Bot. Nothing, good monsieur, but to help cava. lero Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber's,

monsieur; for, methinks, I am marvellous hairy about the face: and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch.

Tita. What, wilt thou hear some musick, my sweet love?

Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in musick; let us have the tongs and the bones.

Tit. Or, say, sweet love, what thou desir'st to eat. Bot. Truly, a peck of provender; I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks, I have a great desire to a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.

Tita. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.

Bot. I had rather have a handful, or two, of dried peas. But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me; I have an exposition of sleep come upon

me.

Tita. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away. So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle, Gently entwist,-the female ivy so

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.

O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!

[They sleep.

Oberon advances. Enter Puck.

Obe. Welcome, good Robin. See'st thou this sweet sight?

Her dotage now I do begin to pity.

For meeting her of late, behind the wood,
Seeking sweet savours for this hateful fool,
I did upbraid her, and fall out with her:
For she his hairy temples then had rounded
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
And that same dew which sometime on the buds
Was wont to swell, like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flourets' eyes,
Like tears, that did their own disgrace bewail.

When I had, at my pleasure, taunted her,
And she, in mild terms, begg'd my patience,
I then did ask of her her changeling child;
Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent
To bear him to my bower in fairy land.
And now I have the boy, I will undo
This hateful imperfection of her eyes.
And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp
From off the head of this Athenian swain;
That he awaking when the other do,
May all to Athens back again repair;
And think no more of this night's accidents,
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
But first I will release the fairy queen.
Be, as thou was wont to be;

[Touching her eyes with an herb.

See, as thou wast wont to see:

Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower

Hath such force and blessed power.
Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.
Tita. My Oberon! What visions have I seen!
Methought, I was enamour'd of an ass.

Obe. There lies your love.

Tita.

How came these things to pass? O, how mine eyes do loath his visage now!

Obe. Silence, a while.-Robin, take off this head. Titania, musick call; and strike more dead

Than common sleep, of all these five the sense.

Tita. Musick, ho! musick; such as charmeth

sleep.

Puck. Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own

fool's eyes peep.

Obe. Sound, musick. [Still musick]

queen, take hands with me,

Come, my

And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.

Now thou and I are new in amity;

And will, to-morrow midnight, solemnly,
Dance in duke Theseus' house triumphantly,
And bless it to all fair posterity:

There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be
Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.

Puck. Fairy king, attend and mark;
I do hear the morning lark.

Obe. Theu, my queen, in silence sad,
Trip we after the night's shade:
We the globe can compass soon,

Swifter than the wand'ring moon.

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

That I sleeping here was found,

With these mortals, on the ground. [Exeunt.

[Horns sound within.

Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and train.

The. Go, one of you, find out the forester ;-
For now our observation is perform❜d:
And since we have the vaward* of the day,
My love shall hear the musick of my hounds.-
Uncouple in the western valley; go:
Despatch, I say, and find the forester.-
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,
And mark the musical confusion

Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

Hip. I was with Hercules, and Cadmus, once, When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear Such gallant chidingt; for, besides the groves, The skies, the fountains, every region near Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.

The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,

So flew'd, so sanded; and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;

The flews are the large chaps of a hound.