Prev
| Next
| Contents
SCENE II. Another part of the wood.
[Enter OBERON.]
OBERON I wonder if Titania be awak'd; Then, what it was that next came in her
eye, Which she must dote on in extremity.
[Enter PUCK.]
Here comes my messenger.--How now, mad spirit? What night-rule now about this
haunted grove?
PUCK My mistress with a monster is in love. Near to her close and consecrated
bower, While she was in her dull and sleeping hour, A crew of patches, rude
mechanicals, That work for bread upon Athenian stalls, Were met together to rehearse a
play Intended for great Theseus' nuptial day. The shallowest thickskin of that barren
sort Who Pyramus presented in their sport, Forsook his scene and enter'd in a
brake; When I did him at this advantage take, An ass's nowl I fixed on his head; Anon,
his Thisbe must be answered, And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy, As wild geese
that the creeping fowler eye, Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort, Rising and cawing
at the gun's report, Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky, So at his sight away his
fellows fly: And at our stamp here, o'er and o'er one falls; He murder cries, and help
from Athens calls. Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears, thus strong, Made
senseless things begin to do them wrong; For briers and thorns at their apparel
snatch; Some sleeves, some hats: from yielders all things catch. I led them on in this
distracted fear, And left sweet Pyramus translated there: When in that moment,--so it
came to pass,-- Titania wak'd, and straightway lov'd an ass.
OBERON This falls out better than I could devise. But hast thou yet latch'd the
Athenian's eyes With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?
PUCK I took him sleeping,--that is finish'd too,-- And the Athenian woman by his
side; That, when he wak'd, of force she must be ey'd.
[Enter DEMETRIUS and HERMIA.]
OBERON Stand close; this is the same Athenian.
PUCK This is the woman, but not this the man.
DEMETRIUS O, why rebuke you him that loves you so? Lay breath so bitter on your
bitter foe.
HERMIA Now I but chide, but I should use thee worse; For thou, I fear, hast given
me cause to curse. If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep, Being o'er shoes in blood,
plunge in the deep, And kill me too. The sun was not so true unto the day As he to me:
would he have stol'n away From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon This whole earth
may be bor'd; and that the moon May through the centre creep and so displease Her
brother's noontide with the antipodes. It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him; So
should a murderer look; so dead, so grim.
DEMETRIUS So should the murder'd look; and so should I, Pierc'd through the heart
with your stern cruelty: Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear, As yonder
Venus in her glimmering sphere.
HERMIA What's this to my Lysander? where is he? Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give
him me?
DEMETRIUS I had rather give his carcass to my hounds.
HERMIA Out, dog! out, cur! thou driv'st me past the bounds Of maiden's patience.
Hast thou slain him, then? Henceforth be never number'd among men! Oh! once tell true;
tell true, even for my sake; Durst thou have look'd upon him, being awake, And hast thou
kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch! Could not a worm, an adder, do so much? An adder did
it; for with doubler tongue Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.
DEMETRIUS You spend your passion on a mispris'd mood: I am not guilty of Lysander's
blood; Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.
HERMIA I pray thee, tell me, then, that he is well.
DEMETRIUS An if I could, what should I get therefore?
HERMIA A privilege never to see me more.-- And from thy hated presence part I
so: See me no more whether he be dead or no.
[Exit.]
DEMETRIUS There is no following her in this fierce vein: Here, therefore, for a
while I will remain. So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow For debt that bankrupt
sleep doth sorrow owe; Which now in some slight measure it will pay, If for his tender
here I make some stay.
[Lies down.]
OBERON What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite, And laid the love-juice on
some true-love's sight: Of thy misprision must perforce ensue Some true love turn'd, and
not a false turn'd true.
PUCK Then fate o'er-rules, that, one man holding troth, A million fail, confounding
oath on oath.
OBERON About the wood go, swifter than the wind, And Helena of Athens look thou
find: All fancy-sick she is, and pale of cheer, With sighs of love, that costs the fresh
blood dear. By some illusion see thou bring her here; I'll charm his eyes against she do
appear.
PUCK I go, I go; look how I go,-- Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow.
[Exit.]
OBERON Flower of this purple dye, Hit with Cupid's archery, Sink in apple of
his eye! When his love he doth espy, Let her shine as gloriously As the Venus of
the sky.-- When thou wak'st, if she be by, Beg of her for remedy.
[Re-enter PUCK.]
PUCK Captain of our fairy band, Helena is here at hand, And the youth
mistook by me Pleading for a lover's fee; Shall we their fond pageant see? Lord,
what fools these mortals be!
OBERON Stand aside: the noise they make Will cause Demetrius to awake.
PUCK Then will two at once woo one,-- That must needs be sport alone; And
those things do best please me That befall preposterously.
[Enter LYSANDER and HELENA.]
LYSANDER Why should you think that I should woo in scorn? Scorn and derision
never come in tears. Look when I vow, I weep; and vows so born, In their nativity all
truth appears. How can these things in me seem scorn to you, Bearing the badge of faith,
to prove them true?
HELENA You do advance your cunning more and more. When truth kills truth, O
devilish-holy fray! These vows are Hermia's: will you give her o'er? Weigh oath with
oath, and you will nothing weigh: Your vows to her and me, put in two scales, Will even
weigh; and both as light as tales.
LYSANDER I had no judgment when to her I swore.
HELENA Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er.
LYSANDER Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.
DEMETRIUS [Awaking.] O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine! To what, my love,
shall I compare thine eyne? Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show Thy lips, those
kissing cherries, tempting grow! That pure congealed white, high Taurus' snow, Fann'd
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!
HELENA 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.
LYSANDER 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 till my
death.
HELENA Never did mockers waste more idle breath.
DEMETRIUS Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none: If e'er I lov'd her, all that
love is gone. My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd; And now to Helen is it home
return'd, There to remain.
LYSANDER Helen, it is not so.
DEMETRIUS Disparage not the faith thou dost not know, Lest, to thy peril, thou aby
it dear.-- Look where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear.
[Enter HERMIA.]
HERMIA Dark night, that from the eye his function takes, 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?
LYSANDER Why should he stay whom love doth press to go?
HERMIA What love could press Lysander from my side?
LYSANDER 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 bare thee made me leave thee so?
HERMIA You speak not as you think; it cannot be.
HELENA Lo, she is one of this confederacy! Now I perceive they have conjoin'd all
three To fashion this false sport in spite of me. Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful
maid! Have you conspir'd, have you with these contriv'd, To bait me with this foul
derision? Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd, The sisters' vows, the hours that
we have spent, When we have chid the hasty-footed time For parting us,--O, is all
forgot? All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence? We, Hermia, like two
artificial gods, Have with our needles 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 crowned with one crest. And will you rent our ancient love
asunder, To join with men in scorning your poor friend? It is not friendly, 'tis not
maidenly: Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it, Though I alone do feel the
injury.
HERMIA I am amazed at your passionate words: I scorn you not; it seems that you
scorn me.
HELENA 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 unlov'd? This you should pity rather than
despise.
HERMIA I understand not what you mean by this.
HELENA Ay, do persever, counterfeit sad looks, Make mows upon me when I turn my
back; Wink each at 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: 'tis partly my own fault; Which death, or absence, soon
shall remedy.
LYSANDER Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse; My love, my life, my soul, fair
Helena!
HELENA O excellent!
HERMIA Sweet, do not scorn her so.
DEMETRIUS If she cannot entreat, I can compel.
LYSANDER Thou canst compel no more than she entreat; Thy threats have no more
strength than her weak prayers.-- Helen, I love thee; by my life I do; I swear by that
which I will lose for thee To prove him false that says I love thee not.
DEMETRIUS I say I love thee more than he can do.
LYSANDER If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.
DEMETRIUS Quick, come,--
HERMIA Lysander, whereto tends all this?
LYSANDER Away, you Ethiope!
DEMETRIUS No, no, sir:--he will Seem to break loose; take on as you would
follow: But yet come not. You are a tame man; go!
LYSANDER Hang off, thou cat, thou burr: vile thing, let loose, Or I will shake thee
from me like a serpent.
HERMIA Why are you grown so rude? what change is this, Sweet love?
LYSANDER Thy love! out, tawny Tartar, out! Out, loathed medicine! hated potion,
hence!
HERMIA Do you not jest?
HELENA Yes, sooth; and so do you.
LYSANDER Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee.
DEMETRIUS I would I had your bond; for I perceive A weak bond holds you; I'll not
trust your word.
LYSANDER What! should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead? Although I hate her,
I'll not harm her so.
HERMIA 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 lov'd me; yet since night you left me: Why then, you left
me,--O, the gods forbid!-- In earnest, shall I say?
LYSANDER Ay, by my life; And never did desire to see thee more. Therefore be out
of hope, of question, doubt, Be certain, nothing truer; 'tis no jest That I do hate thee
and love Helena.
HERMIA O me! you juggler! you cankerblossom! You thief of love! What! have you come
by night, And stol'n my love's heart from him?
HELENA Fine, i' faith! 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!
HERMIA Puppet! why so? Ay, that way goes the game. Now I perceive that she hath
made compare Between our statures; she hath urg'd her height; And with her personage,
her tall personage, Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd 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.
HELENA I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen, Let her not hurt me. I was never
curst; I have no gift at all in shrewishness; I am a right maid for my cowardice; Let
her not strike me. You perhaps may think, Because she is something lower than
myself, That I can match her.
HERMIA Lower! hark, again.
HELENA Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me. I evermore did love you,
Hermia; Did ever keep your counsels; never wrong'd you; Save that, in love unto
Demetrius, I told him of your stealth unto this wood: He follow'd you; for love I
follow'd him; But he hath chid me hence, and threaten'd 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 farther. Let me go: You see how simple and how fond I am.
HERMIA Why, get you gone: who is't that hinders you?
HELENA A foolish heart that I leave here behind.
HERMIA What! with Lysander?
HELENA With Demetrius.
LYSANDER Be not afraid; she shall not harm thee, Helena.
DEMETRIUS No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.
HELENA 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.
HERMIA Little again! nothing but low and little!-- Why will you suffer her to flout
me thus? Let me come to her.
LYSANDER Get you gone, you dwarf; You minimus, of hind'ring knot-grass made; You
bead, you acorn.
DEMETRIUS You are too officious In her behalf that scorns your services. Let her
alone: speak not of Helena; Take not her part; for if thou dost intend Never so little
show of love to her, Thou shalt aby it.
LYSANDER Now she holds me not; Now follow, if thou dar'st, to try whose right, Of
thine or mine, is most in Helena.
DEMETRIUS Follow! nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jole.
[Exeunt LYSANDER and DEMETRIUS.]
HERMIA You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you: Nay, go not back.
HELENA I will not trust you, I; 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.]
HERMIA I am amaz'd, and know not what to say.
[Exit, pursuing HELENA.]
OBERON This is thy negligence: still thou mistak'st, Or else commit'st thy
knaveries willfully.
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.
OBERON 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 peace.
PUCK My fairy lord, this must be done with haste, 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: damned 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 exile themselves from light, And must
for aye consort with black-brow'd night.
OBERON 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 fear'd in
field and town. Goblin, lead them up and down. Here comes one.
[Enter LYSANDER.]
LYSANDER Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now.
PUCK Here, villain; d drawn and ready. Where art thou?
LYSANDER I will be with thee straight.
PUCK Follow me, then, To plainer ground.
[Exit LYSANDER as following the voice.]
[Enter DEMETRIUS.]
DEMETRIUS 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.
DEMETRIUS Yea, art thou there?
PUCK Follow my voice; we'll try no manhood here.
[Exeunt.]
[Re-enter LYSANDER.]
LYSANDER He goes before me, and still dares me on; When I come where he calls, then
he is gone. The villain is much lighter heeled 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 show me thy grey light, I'll find Demetrius, and
revenge this spite.
[Sleeps.]
[Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS.]
PUCK Ho, ho, ho, ho! Coward, why com'st thou not?
DEMETRIUS 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 thou?
PUCK Come hither; I am here.
DEMETRIUS Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this dear, If ever I thy face
by daylight 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.
[Lies down and sleeps.]
[Enter HELENA.]
HELENA O weary night, O long and tedious night, Abate thy hours! Shine comforts
from the east, That I may back to Athens by daylight, From these that my poor company
detest:-- And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye, Steal me awhile 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.]
HERMIA 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.]
PUCK On the ground Sleep sound: I'll apply To your eye, Gentle lover,
remedy.
[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 shown: Jack shall have Jill; Nought shall go ill; The man shall
have his mare again, and all shall be well.
[Exit PUCK.--DEMETRIUS, HELENA &c, sleep.]
Prev
| Next
| Contents
|