Table of Contents
ACT 2 SCENE 2 Setting: Another part of the wood.
Enter TITANIA, with her train
| TITANIA | Come, now a roundel and a fairy song; | |
| Then, for the third part of a minute, hence; | ||
| Some to kill cankers in the musk–rose buds, | ||
| Some war with rere–mice for their leathern wings, | ||
| To make my small elves coats, and some keep back | ||
| The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders | ||
| At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep; | ||
| Then to your offices and let me rest. | ||
| FAIRIES' SONG | ||
| You spotted snakes with double tongue, | ||
| Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen; | 10 | |
| Newts and blind–worms, do no wrong, | ||
| Come not near our fairy queen.' | ||
| Philomel, with melody | ||
| Sing in our sweet lullaby; | ||
| Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby: | ||
| Never harm, | ||
| Nor spell nor charm, | ||
| Come our lovely lady nigh; | ||
| So, good night, with lullaby.' | ||
| II. | ||
| Weaving spiders, come not here; | 20 | |
| Hence, you long–legg'd spinners, hence! | ||
| Beetles black, approach not near; | ||
| Worm nor snail, do no offence. | ||
| Philomel, with melody, &c.' | ||
| Fairy | Hence, away! now all is well: | |
| One aloof stand sentinel. | ||
| Exeunt Fairies. TITANIA sleeps. |
Enter OBERON and squeezes the flower on TITANIA's eyelids
| OBERON | What thou seest when thou dost wake, | |
| Do it for thy true–love take, | ||
| Love and languish for his sake: | ||
| Be it ounce, or cat, or bear, | 30 | |
| Pard, or boar with bristled hair, | ||
| In thy eye that shall appear | ||
| When thou wakest, it is thy dear: | ||
| Wake when some vile thing is near. | ||
| Exit | ||
| Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA | ||
| LYSANDER | Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood; | |
| And to speak troth, I have forgot our way: | ||
| We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good, | ||
| And tarry for the comfort of the day. | ||
| HERMIA | Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed; | |
| For I upon this bank will rest my head. | 40 | |
| LYSANDER | One turf shall serve as pillow for us both; | |
| One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth. | ||
| HERMIA | Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear, | |
| Lie further off yet, do not lie so near. | ||
| LYSANDER | O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence! | |
| Love takes the meaning in love's conference. | ||
| I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit | ||
| So that but one heart we can make of it; | ||
| Two bosoms interchained with an oath; | ||
| So then two bosoms and a single troth. | 50 | |
| Then by your side no bed–room me deny; | ||
| For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie. | ||
| HERMIA | Lysander riddles very prettily: | |
| Now much beshrew my manners and my pride, | ||
| If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied. | ||
| But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy | ||
| Lie further off; in human modesty, | ||
| Such separation as may well be said | ||
| Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid, | ||
| So far be distant; and, good night, sweet friend: | 60 | |
| Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end! | ||
| LYSANDER | Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I; | |
| And then end life when I end loyalty! | ||
| Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest! | ||
| HERMIA | With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd! | |
| They sleep. | ||
| Enter PUCK. | ||
| PUCK | Through the forest have I gone. | |
| But Athenian found I none, | ||
| On whose eyes I might approve | ||
| This flower's force in stirring love. | ||
| Night and silence.––Who is here? | 70 | |
| Weeds of Athens he doth wear: | ||
| This is he, my master said, | ||
| Despised the Athenian maid; | ||
| And here the maiden, sleeping sound, | ||
| On the dank and dirty ground. | ||
| Pretty soul! she durst not lie | ||
| Near this lack–love, this kill–courtesy. | ||
| Churl, upon thy eyes I throw | ||
| All the power this charm doth owe. | ||
| When thou wakest, let love forbid | 80 | |
| Sleep his seat on thy eyelid: | ||
| So awake when I am gone; | ||
| For I must now to Oberon. | ||
| Exit |
Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running.
| HELENA | Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius. | |
| DEMETRIUS | I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus. | |
| HELENA | O, wilt thou darkling leave me? do not so. | |
| DEMETRIUS | Stay, on thy peril: I alone will go. | |
| Exit | ||
| HELENA | O, I am out of breath in this fond chase! | |
| The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace. | ||
| Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies; | 90 | |
| For she hath blessed and attractive eyes. | ||
| How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears: | ||
| If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers. | ||
| No, no, I am as ugly as a bear; | ||
| For beasts that meet me run away for fear: | ||
| Therefore no marvel though Demetrius | ||
| Do, as a monster fly my presence thus. | ||
| What wicked and dissembling glass of mine | ||
| Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne? | ||
| But who is here? Lysander! on the ground! | 100 | |
| Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound. | ||
| Lysander if you live, good sir, awake. | ||
| LYSANDER | Awaking. | |
| Transparent Helena! Nature shows art, | ||
| That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart. | ||
| Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word | ||
| Is that vile name to perish on my sword! | ||
| HELENA | Do not say so, Lysander; say not so | |
| What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though? | ||
| Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content. | 110 | |
| LYSANDER | Content with Hermia! No; I do repent | |
| The tedious minutes I with her have spent. | ||
| Not Hermia but Helena I love: | ||
| Who will not change a raven for a dove? | ||
| The will of man is by his reason sway'd; | ||
| And reason says you are the worthier maid. | ||
| Things growing are not ripe until their season | ||
| So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason; | ||
| And touching now the point of human skill, | ||
| Reason becomes the marshal to my will | 120 | |
| And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook | ||
| Love's stories written in love's richest book. | ||
| HELENA | Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born? | |
| When at your hands did I deserve this scorn? | ||
| Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man, | ||
| That I did never, no, nor never can, | ||
| Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye, | ||
| But you must flout my insufficiency? | ||
| Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do, | ||
| In such disdainful manner me to woo. | 130 | |
| But fare you well: perforce I must confess | ||
| I thought you lord of more true gentleness. | ||
| O, that a lady, of one man refused. | ||
| Should of another therefore be abused! | ||
| Exit | ||
| LYSANDER | She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there: | |
| And never mayst thou come Lysander near! | ||
| For as a surfeit of the sweetest things | ||
| The deepest loathing to the stomach brings, | ||
| Or as tie heresies that men do leave | ||
| Are hated most of those they did deceive, | 140 | |
| So thou, my surfeit and my heresy, | ||
| Of all be hated, but the most of me! | ||
| And, all my powers, address your love and might | ||
| To honour Helen and to be her knight! | ||
| Exit | ||
| HERMIA | Awaking. | |
| To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast! | ||
| Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here! | ||
| Lysander, look how I do quake with fear: | ||
| Methought a serpent eat my heart away, | ||
| And you sat smiling at his cruel prey. | ||
| Lysander! what, removed? Lysander! lord! | 151 | |
| What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word? | ||
| Alack, where are you speak, an if you hear; | ||
| Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear. | ||
| No? then I well perceive you all not nigh | ||
| Either death or you I'll find immediately. | ||
| Exit |