The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Part 375

Dispatch, I say, and find the forester. Exit an ATTENDANT We will, fair Queen, up to the mountain's top, And mark the musical confusion Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

HIPPOLYTA. 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.

THESEUS. 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; Crook-knee'd and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls; Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells, Each under each. A cry more tuneable Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn, In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly.

Judge when you hear. But, soft, what nymphs are these?

EGEUS. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep, And this Lysander, this Demetrius is, This Helena, old Nedar's Helena.

I wonder of their being here together.

THESEUS. No doubt they rose up early to observe The rite of May; and, hearing our intent, Came here in grace of our solemnity.

But speak, Egeus; is not this the day That Hermia should give answer of her choice?

EGEUS. It is, my lord.

THESEUS. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.

[Horns and shout within. The sleepers awake and kneel to THESEUS]

Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past; Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?

LYSANDER. Pardon, my lord.

THESEUS. I pray you all, stand up.

I know you two are rival enemies; How comes this gentle concord in the world That hatred is so far from jealousy To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?

LYSANDER. My lord, I shall reply amazedly, Half sleep, half waking; but as yet, I swear, I cannot truly say how I came here, But, as I think- for truly would I speak, And now I do bethink me, so it is- I came with Hermia hither. Our intent Was to be gone from Athens, where we might, Without the peril of the Athenian law- EGEUS. Enough, enough, my Lord; you have enough; I beg the law, the law upon his head.

They would have stol'n away, they would, Demetrius, Thereby to have defeated you and me: You of your wife, and me of my consent, Of my consent that she should be your wife.

DEMETRIUS. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth, Of this their purpose hither to this wood; And I in fury hither followed them, Fair Helena in fancy following me.

But, my good lord, I wot not by what power- But by some power it is- my love to Hermia, Melted as the snow, seems to me now As the remembrance of an idle gaud Which in my childhood I did dote 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 betroth'd ere I saw Hermia.

But, like a sickness, did I loathe this food; But, as in health, come to my natural taste, Now I do wish it, love it, long for it, And will for evermore be true to it.

THESEUS. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met; Of this discourse we more will hear anon.

Egeus, I will overbear your will; For in the temple, by and by, with us These couples shall eternally be knit.

And, for the morning now is something worn, Our purpos'd hunting shall be set aside.

Away with us to Athens, three and three; We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.

Come, Hippolyta.

Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train DEMETRIUS. These things seem small and undistinguishable, Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.

HERMIA. Methinks I see these things with parted eye, When every thing seems double.

HELENA. So methinks; And I have found Demetrius like a jewel, Mine own, and not mine own.

DEMETRIUS. Are you sure That we are awake? It seems to me That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think The Duke was here, and bid us follow him?

HERMIA. Yea, and my father.

HELENA. And Hippolyta.

LYSANDER. And he did bid us follow to the temple.

DEMETRIUS. Why, then, we are awake; let's follow him; And by the way let us recount our dreams. Exeunt BOTTOM. [Awaking] When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer. My next is 'Most fair Pyramus.' Heigh-ho! Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout, the tinker! Starveling! G.o.d's my life, stol'n hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare vision.

I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was.

Man is but an a.s.s 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 say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, 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 shall be call'd 'Bottom's Dream,' because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the latter end of a play, before the Duke.

Peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it at her death. Exit

SCENE II.

Athens. QUINCE'S house

Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING

QUINCE. Have you sent to Bottom's house? Is he come home yet?

STARVELING. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is transported.

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

QUINCE. It is not possible. You have not a man in all Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he.

FLUTE. No; he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft man in Athens.

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

FLUTE. You must say 'paragon.' A paramour is- G.o.d bless us!- A thing of naught.

Enter SNUG

SNUG. Masters, the Duke is coming from the temple; and there is two or three lords and ladies more married. If our sport had gone forward, we had all been made men.

FLUTE. O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a day during his life; he could not have scaped sixpence a day. An the Duke had not given him sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged. He would have deserved it: sixpence a day in Pyramus, or nothing.

Enter BOTTOM

BOTTOM. Where are these lads? Where are these hearts?

QUINCE. Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour!

BOTTOM. Masters, I am to discourse wonders; but ask me not what; for if I tell you, I am not true Athenian. I will tell you everything, right as it fell out.

QUINCE. Let us hear, sweet Bottom.

BOTTOM. Not a word of me. All that 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 short and the long is, our play is preferr'd. In any case, let Thisby have clean linen; and let not him that plays the lion pare his nails, for they shall hang out for the lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I do not doubt but to hear them say it is a sweet comedy. No more words.

Away, go, away! Exeunt

>

ACT V. SCENE I.

Athens. The palace of THESEUS

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, LORDS, and ATTENDANTS

HIPPOLYTA. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of.

THESEUS. More strange than true. I never may believe These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends.

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, Are of imagination all compact.

One sees more devils than vast h.e.l.l can hold; That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic, Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt.

The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name.

Such tricks hath strong imagination That, if it would but apprehend some joy, It comprehends some bringer of that joy; Or in the night, imagining some fear, How easy is a bush suppos'd a bear?

HIPPOLYTA. But all the story of the night told over, And all their minds transfigur'd so together, More witnesseth than fancy's images, And grows to something of great constancy, But howsoever strange and admirable.

Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and HELENA

THESEUS. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.

Joy, gentle friends, joy and fresh days of love Accompany your hearts!

LYSANDER. More than to us Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed!

THESEUS. Come now; what masques, what dances shall we have, To wear away this long age of three hours Between our after-supper and bed-time?

Where is our usual manager of mirth?

What revels are in hand? Is there no play To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?

Call Philostrate.

PHILOSTRATE. Here, mighty Theseus.

THESEUS. Say, what abridgment have you for this evening?

What masque? what music? How shall we beguile The lazy time, if not with some delight?