Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train
THESEUS
Go, one of you, find out the forester;
THESEUS
For now our observation is perform'd;
THESEUS
And since we have the vaward of the day,
THESEUS
My love shall hear the music of my hounds.
THESEUS
Uncouple in the western valley; let them go:
THESEUS
Dispatch, I say, and find the forester.
THESEUS
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,
THESEUS
And mark the musical confusion
THESEUS
Of hounds and echo in conjunction.
HIPPOLYTA
I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
HIPPOLYTA
When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear
HIPPOLYTA
With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear
HIPPOLYTA
Such gallant chiding: for, besides the groves,
HIPPOLYTA
The skies, the fountains, every region near
HIPPOLYTA
Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard
HIPPOLYTA
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.
THESEUS
My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
THESEUS
So flew'd, so sanded, and their heads are hung
THESEUS
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
THESEUS
Crook-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls;
THESEUS
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
THESEUS
Each under each. A cry more tuneable
THESEUS
Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
THESEUS
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly:
THESEUS
Judge when you hear. But, soft! what nymphs are these?
EGEUS
My lord, this is my daughter here asleep;
EGEUS
And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is;
EGEUS
This Helena, old Nedar's [Person 7]:
HELENA
[PERSON 3]: This Helena, old Nedar's
EGEUS
I wonder of their being here together.
THESEUS
No doubt they rose up early to observe
THESEUS
The rite of May, and hearing our intent,
THESEUS
Came here in grace our solemnity.
THESEUS
But speak, Egeus; is not this the day
THESEUS
That Hermia should give answer of her choice?
THESEUS
Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.
Horns and shout within. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA wake and start up
THESEUS
Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past:
THESEUS
Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
LYSANDER
Pardon, my lord.
THESEUS
I pray you all, stand up.
THESEUS
I know you two are rival enemies:
THESEUS
How comes this gentle concord in the world,
THESEUS
That hatred is so far from jealousy,
THESEUS
To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?
LYSANDER
My lord, I shall reply amazedly,
LYSANDER
Half sleep, half waking: but as yet, I swear,
LYSANDER
I cannot truly say how I came here;
LYSANDER
But, as I think,--for truly would I speak,
LYSANDER
And now do I bethink me, so it is,--
LYSANDER
I came with Hermia hither: our intent
LYSANDER
Was to be gone from Athens, where we might,
LYSANDER
Without the peril of the Athenian law.
EGEUS
Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough:
EGEUS
I beg the law, the law, upon his head.
EGEUS
They would have stolen away; they would, Demetrius,
EGEUS
Thereby to have defeated you and me,
EGEUS
You of your wife and me of my consent,
EGEUS
Of my consent that she should be your wife.
DEMETRIUS
My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
DEMETRIUS
Of this their purpose hither to this wood;
DEMETRIUS
And I in fury hither follow'd them,
DEMETRIUS
Fair Helena in fancy following me.
DEMETRIUS
But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,--
DEMETRIUS
But by some power it is,--my love to Hermia,
DEMETRIUS
Melted as the snow, seems to me now
DEMETRIUS
As the remembrance of an idle gaud
DEMETRIUS
Which in my childhood I did dote upon;
DEMETRIUS
And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,
DEMETRIUS
The object and the pleasure of mine eye,
DEMETRIUS
Is only Helena. To her, my lord,
HERMIA
[PERSON 5]: Was I betroth'd ere I saw
DEMETRIUS
Was I betroth'd ere I saw [Person 4]:
DEMETRIUS
But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food;
DEMETRIUS
But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
DEMETRIUS
Now I do wish it, love it, long for it,
DEMETRIUS
And will for evermore be true to it.
THESEUS
Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
THESEUS
Of this discourse we more will hear anon.
THESEUS
Egeus, I will overbear your will;
THESEUS
For in the temple by and by with us
THESEUS
These couples shall eternally be knit:
THESEUS
And, for the morning now is something worn,
THESEUS
Our purposed hunting shall be set aside.
THESEUS
Away with us to Athens; three and three,
THESEUS
We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.
Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train
DEMETRIUS
These things seem small and undistinguishable,
HERMIA
Methinks I see these things with parted eye,
HERMIA
When every thing seems double.
HELENA
And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,
HELENA
Mine own, and not mine own.
DEMETRIUS
That we are awake? It seems to me
DEMETRIUS
That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think
DEMETRIUS
The duke was here, and bid us follow him?
HERMIA
Yea; and my father.
LYSANDER
And he did bid us follow to the temple.
DEMETRIUS
Why, then, we are awake: let's follow him
DEMETRIUS
And by the way let us recount our dreams.
BOTTOM
When my cue comes, call me, and I will
BOTTOM
answer: my next is, 'Most fair Pyramus.' Heigh-ho!
BOTTOM
Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout,
BOTTOM
the tinker! Starveling! God's my life, stolen
BOTTOM
hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare
BOTTOM
vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to
BOTTOM
say what dream it was: man is but an ass, if he go
BOTTOM
about to expound this dream. Methought I was--there
BOTTOM
is no man can tell what. Methought I was,--and
BOTTOM
methought I had,--but man is but a patched fool, if
BOTTOM
he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye
BOTTOM
of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not
BOTTOM
seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue
BOTTOM
to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream
BOTTOM
was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of
BOTTOM
this dream: it shall be called Bottom's Dream,
BOTTOM
because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the
BOTTOM
latter end of a play, before the duke:
BOTTOM
peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall
BOTTOM
sing it at her death.
