Puck. Here, villain; drawn and ready. Where

art thou?

Lys. I will be with thee straight.

Puck. Follow me then

To plainer ground.

[Exit Lysander as following the voice.

Enter DEMETRIUS.

Dem. Lysander! Speak again.

Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled? Speak. In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?

Puck. Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars, Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars,

And wilt not come? Come, recreant; come, thou child;

I'll whip thee with a rod : he is defiled,
That draws a sword on thee.

Dem. Yea; art thou there?

Puck. Follow my voice; we'll try no manhood

here.

Re-enter LYSANDER.

[Exeunt.

Lys. He goes before me, and still dares me on; When I come where he calls, then he is gone. The villain is much lighter-heel'd, than I: I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly; That fallen am I in dark uneven way,

And here will rest me. Come, thou gentle day!

Lies down.

For if but once thou shew me thy grey light,
I'll find Demetrius, and revenge this spite

Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS.

[Sleeps.

Puck. Ho, ho! Ho, ho! Coward, why com'st

thou not?

Dem. Abide me, if thou dar'st; for well I wot, Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place; And dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face. Where art thon?

Puck. Come hither; I am here.

Dem. Nay, then thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this dear,

If ever I thy face by day-light see:

Now go thy way. Faintness constraineth me
To measure out my length on this cold bed.-
By day's approach look to be visited.

Kkk

[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 sometime shuts up sorrow's eye, Steal me a while 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!

[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 shewn:

Jack shall have Jill;

Nought shall go ill;

ง

The man shall have his mare again, and all shall

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

ACT IV.

SCENE 1-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-hipp'd 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 loth to have you overflown with a honey-bag, signior.-Where's monsieur Mustard

seed?

Must. Ready.

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

Bot. Nothing, good monsieur, but to help cavalero Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber's, monsieur; for, methinks, I 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 music, my sweet love?

Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in music : let us have the tongs and the bones.

Tita. 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 peo

• Stroke,

+ Fist.

ple 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. sweet sight?

Seest thou this

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 wast wont to be;

[Touching her eyes with an herb.

See, as thon 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, music call; and strike more dead Than common sleep, of all these five the sense. Tita. Music, ho! music; such as charmeth sleep. Puck. Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own. fool's eyes peep.

Obe. Sound, music. [Still music.] Come, my queen, take hands with me,

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 Thesens, all in jollity.

Puck. Fairy king attend and mark;

I do hear the morning lark.

Obe. Then, 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, ECEUS, 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 music 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 chiding+; 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

• Forepart.

+ Sound.

The fiews are the large chaps of a hound.