And now I do bethink me, fo it is ;)

I came with Hermia hither: our intent

Was, to be gone from Athens, where we might be
Without the peril of the Athenian law.

EGE. Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough:
I beg the law, the law, upon his head.-

They would have ftol'n away, they would, Demetrius,
Thereby to have defeated you
and me:

You, of your wife; and me, of my confent;

Of

my confent that she should be your wife.

DEм. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth, Of this their purpose 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,
Melted as doth the fnow, feems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gawd,
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 faw Hermia:

But, like in fickness, did I loath this food:
But, as in health, come to my natural tafte,
Now do I wish it, love it, long for it,
And will for evermore be true to it.

THE. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
Of this difcourfe we more will hear anon.-

Egeus, I will overbear 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,

VOL. I.

4 B

Our purpos'd hunting fhall be fet afide.

Away, with us, to Athens: Three and three,
We'll hold a feaft in great folemnity.—

Come, Hippolyta.

[Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, 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:

And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,

Mine own, and not mine own.

DEM. It feems 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 Hippolyta.

Lrs. 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. As they go out, BOTTOM awakes.

Bor. When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer: -my next is, Moft fair Pyramus.Hey, ho!-Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout, the tinker! Starveling! God's my life! ftolen hence, and left me afleep! I have had a moft rare vifion. I have had a dream,-paft the wit of man to say what dream it was : 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 at her death.

[Exit.

SCENE II. Athens. A Room in QUINCE's House. Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING. QUIN. Have you fent to Bottom's house? is he come home yet?

STAR. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt, he is tranfported.

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 best wit of any handycraft man in Athens,

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

FLU. You must fay, paragon: a paramour is, God bless us! a thing of nought.

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.

FLU. O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he loft fixpence a-day during his life; he could not have 'scaped 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 fix-pence a-day, in Pyramus, or nothing.

1

Enter BOTTOM.

Bor. Where are these lads? where are these hearts? QUIN. Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour!

Bor. Masters, 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, right as it fell out.

QUIN. Let us hear, fweet Bottom. BOT. Not a word of me. All that I will tell you, is, that the duke hath dined: Get your apparel together; good ftrings 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 cafe, 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 garlick, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a fweet comedy. No more words; away; go, away. [Exeunt,

ACT V.

SCENE I. The fame. An Apartment in the Palace of THESEUS.

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, Lords, and Attendants.

HIP. 'Tis strange, my Thefeus, that these lovers speak of. THE. More ftrange than true. I never may believe These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.

Lovers, and madmen, have fuch feething brains,
Such fhaping fantasies, 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;

That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantick,

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 fhapes, and gives to airy 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 bush suppos'd a bear?

HIP. But all the ftory of the night told over,
And all their minds transfigur'd fo together,
More witneffeth than fancy's images,

And grows to fomething of great conftancy;
But, howsoever, ftrange, and admirable.

Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and
HELENA.

THE. Here come the lovers full of joy and mirth.Joy, gentle friends! joy, and fresh days of love, Accompany your hearts!

Lrs. More than to us.

Wait on your royal walks, your board, your bed!

[have,

THE. Come now; what mafks, what dances fhall we To wear away this long age of three hours, Between our after-supper, and bed-time? Where is our ufual manager of mirth? What revels are in hand? Is there no play, To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?