Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show
Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!
That pure congealéd white, high Taurus' snow,
Fanned with the eastern wind, turns to a crow,
When thou hold'st up thy hand: O, let me kiss
This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!

Hel. O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent
To set against me, for your merriment.
If you were civil, and knew courtesy,
You would not do me thus much injury.
Can you not hate me, as I know you do,
But you must join in souls to mock me too?
If you were men, as men you are in show,
You would not use a gentle lady so;

To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts,
When I am sure you hate me with your hearts.
You both are rivals, and love Hermia;
And now both rivals, to mock Helena:
A trim exploit, a manly enterprise,
To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes,
With your derision; none of noble sort
Would so offend a virgin; and extort

A

poor soul's patience, all to make you sport. Lys. You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so; For you love Hermia this you know I know : And here, with all good will, with all my heart, In Hermia's love I yield you up my part; And yours of Helena to me bequeath, Whom I do love, and will do to my death.

Hel. Never did mockers waste more idle breath. Dem. Lysander, keep thy Hermia: I will none: If e'er I loved her, all that love is gone. My heart with her but as guest-wise sojourned; And now to Helen is it home returned, There to remain.

The ear more quick of apprehension makes;
Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense,
It pays the hearing double recompense:
Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found;
Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound.
But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?

Lys. Why should he stay whom love doth press to go?

Her. What love could press Lysander from my side?

Lys. Lysander's love, that would not let him bide; Fair Helena; who more engilds the night Than all yon fiery oes and eyes of light.

Why seek'st thou me? could not this make thee know,

The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so?
Her. You speak not as you think; it cannot be.
Hel. Lo, she is one of this confederacy!
Now I perceive they have conjoined, all three,
To fashion this false sport in spite of me.
Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid!
Have you conspired, have you with these contrived,
To bait me with this foul derision?

Is all the counsel that we two have shared,
The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent
When we have chid the hasty-footed time
For parting us,-O, and is all forgot?
All school-day's friendship, childhood innocence?
We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,
Have with our neelds created both one flower,
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
Both warbling of one song, both in one key;
As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds,
Had been incorporate. So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted;
But yet a union in partition;

Two lovely berries moulded on one stem:
So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart:
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,
Due but to one, and crownéd with one crest.
And will you rend our ancient love asunder,
To join with men in scorning your poor friend?
It is not friendly, 't is not maidenly :
Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it;
Though I alone do feel the injury.

Her. I am amazed at your passionate words:
I scorn you not; it seems that you scorn me.
Hel. Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn,
To follow me, and praise my eyes and face?
And made your other love, Demetrius
(Who even but now did spurn me with his foot),
To call me goddess, nymph, divine, and rare,
Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this
To her he hates; and wherefore doth Lysander
Deny your love, so rich within his soul,
And tender me, forsooth, affection;
But by your setting on, by your consent?
What though I be not so in grace as you,
So hung upon with love, so fortunate,
But miserable most, to love unloved;
This you should pity, rather than despise.
Her. I understand not what you mean by this.
Hel. Ay, do, perséver, counterfeit sad looks,
Make mows upon me when I turn my back;
Wink at each other; hold the sweet jest up:
This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.

If
you have any pity, grace, or manners,
You would not make me such an argument.
But fare ye well: 't is partly mine own fault;
Which death, or absence, soon shall remedy.

Thy love? out, tawny Tartar, out! Out, loathed medicine! hated poison hence! Her. Do you not jest?

Hel.

Yes, sooth; and so do you.

Lys. Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee. Dem. I would I had your bond; for I perceive, A weak bond holds you; I'll not trust your word.

Lys. What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead?

Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so.

Her. What, can you do me greater harm than hate?

Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my love?
Am not I Hermia?-are not you Lysander?
I am as fair now as I was erewhile.

Since night you loved me; yet since night you

And never did desire to see thee more.
Therefore, be out of hope, of question, doubt,
Be certain, nothing truer, 't is no jest,
That I do hate thee, and love Helena.

Her. O me! you juggler! you canker-blossom!
You thief of love! what, have you come by night,
And stolen my love's heart from him?
Fine, i' faith!

Hel. Have you no modesty, no maiden shame, No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear

Impatient answers from my gentle tongue?
Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet, you!
Her. Puppet!-why so? Ay, that way goes
the game.

Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures: she hath urged her height;
And with her personage, her tall personage,
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevailed with him.
And are you grown so high in his esteem,
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak;
How low am I? I am not yet so low,
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.
Hel. I pray you, though you mock me, gentle-

Hel. Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me. I evermore did love you, Hermia;

Did ever keep your counsels, never wronged you;
Save that, in love unto Demetrius,

I told him of your stealth unto this wood:
He followed you; for love I followed him,
But he hath chid me hence; and threatened me
To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too :
And now, so you will let me quiet go,
To Athens will I bear my folly back,
And follow you no further. Let me go:
You see how simple and how fond I am.
Her. Why, get you gone: who is 't that hin-

ders you?

Hel. A foolish heart that I leave here behind.
Her. What, with Lysander?
Hel. With Demetrius.

Lys. Be not afraid; she shall not harm thee,
Helena.

Dem. No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.

Hel. O, when she's angry, she is keen and

shrewd :

She was a vixen when she went to school;
And though she be but little, she is fierce.
Her. Little again? nothing but low and little?
Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?
Let me come to her.

Never so little show of love to her,

Thou shalt aby it.

Lys. Now follow, if thou dar'st, to try whose right, Or thine or mine, is most in Helena.

Now she holds me not;

Dem. Follow? nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by

jole. [Exeunt LYSANDER & DEMETRIUS. Her. You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you: Nay, go not back.

I will not trust you, I;

Hel. Nor longer stay in your curst company. Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray; My legs are longer though, to run away. [Exit. Her. I am amazed, and know not what to say. [Exit, pursuing HELENA.

Obe. This is thy negligence: still thou mistak’st, Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully.

Puck. Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook. Did not you tell me, I should know the man By the Athenian garments he had on? And so far blameless proves my enterprise, That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes: And so far am I glad it so did sort, As this their jangling I esteem a sport.

Obe. Thou seest these lovers seek a place to
fight:

Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night;
The starry welkin cover thou anon
With drooping fog, as black as Acheron;
And lead these testy rivals so astray,
As one come not within another's way.
Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,
Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong;
And sometime rail thou like Demetrius;
And from each other look thou lead them thus,
Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep
With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep:
Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye;
Whose liquor hath this virtuous property,
To take from thence all error, with his might,
And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.
When they next wake, all this derision
Shall seem a dream, and fruitless vision;
And back to Athens shall the lovers wend,
With league, whose date till death shall never end.
Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,
I'll to my queen, and beg her Indian boy;
And then I will her charmed eye release
From monster's view, and all things shall be
Puck. My fairy lord, this must be done with
haste;

peace.

For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,
And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger;
At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and

there,

Troop home to churchyards: damnéd spirits all, That in cross-ways and floods have burial,

Already to their wormy beds are gone;
For fear lest day should look their shames upon,
They wilfully themselves exíle from light,
And must for aye consort with black-browed
night.

Obe. But we are spirits of another sort:
I with the morning's love have oft made sport;
And, like a forester, the groves may tread,
Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red,
Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,
Turns into yellow gold his salt-green streams.
But, notwithstanding, haste; make no delay:
We may effect this business yet ere day.

[Exit OBERON. Puck. Up and down, up and down; I will lead them up and down:

I am feared in field and town;
Goblin, lead them up and down.

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. Enter PUCK. Seest thou this

OBERON advances. Obe. Welcome, good Robin. 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 flowerets' eyes,