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of
William Shakespeare
A
Midsummer-Night’s
Dream
V
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
ACT I. SCENE 1.
Athens. The palace of Theseus.
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Enter HELENA
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ACT I. SCENE 2.
Athens. Quince’s house.
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AC T I I
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Enter, from one side, OBERON, with his train; from the other, TITANIA, with hers
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AC T I I I
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PEASEBLOSSOM. Ready.
COBWEB. And I.
MOTH. And I.
MUSTARDSEED. And I.
ALL. Where shall we go?
TITANIA. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes;
Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;
The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees,
And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs
And light them at the fiery glow-worm’s eyes,
To have my love to bed and to arise;
And pluck the wings from Painted butterflies
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.
PEASEBLOSSOM. Hail, mortal!
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COBWEB. Hail!
MOTH. Hail!
MUSTARDSEED. Hail!
BOTTOM. I cry your worship’s mercy, heartily: I beseech your
worship’s name.
COBWEB. Cobweb.
BOTTOM. I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master
Cobweb: if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with
you. Your name, honest gentleman?
PEASEBLOSSOM. Peaseblossom.
BOTTOM. I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your
mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. Good
Master Peaseblossom, I shall desire you of more
acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you, sir?
MUSTARDSEED. Mustardseed.
BOTTOM. Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience well:
that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath
devoured many a gentleman of your house: I promise
you your kindred had made my eyes water ere now. I
desire your more acquaintance, good Master
Mustardseed.
TITANIA. Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower.
The moon methinks looks with a watery eye;
And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,
Lamenting some enforced chastity.
Tie up my love’s tongue bring him silently. Exeunt
Enter OBERON
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Re-enter PUCK
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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 you fiery oes and eyes of light.
Why seek’st thou me? could not this make thee know,
The hate I bear 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 conspired, have you with these contrived
To bait me with this foul derision?
Is all the counsel that we two have shared,
The sisters’ vows, the hours that we have spent,
When we have chid the hasty-footed time
For parting us,—O, is it 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,
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AC T I V
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Horns and shout within. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA wake and start up
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AC T V
ACT V. SCENE 1.
Athens. The palace of Theseus.
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To do you service.
THESEUS. I will hear that play;
For never anything can be amiss,
When simpleness and duty tender it.
Go, bring them in: and take your places, ladies. Exit Philostrate
HIPPOLYTA. I love not to see wretchedness o’er charged
And duty in his service perishing.
THESEUS. Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing.
HIPPOLYTA. He says they can do nothing in this kind.
THESEUS. The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.
Our sport shall be to take what they mistake:
And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect
Takes it in might, not merit.
Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
Make periods in the midst of sentences,
Throttle their practised accent in their fears
And in conclusion dumbly have broke off,
Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,
Out of this silence yet I pick’d a welcome;
And in the modesty of fearful duty
I read as much as from the rattling tongue
Of saucy and audacious eloquence.
Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity
In least speak most, to my capacity.
Re-enter PHILOSTRATE
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Enter PYRAMUS
HIPPOLYTA. Methinks she should not use a long one for such a
PYRAMUS. I hope she will be brief.
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COPY R IGH T DE TA I LS
The content of Shakespeare’s works is in the public domain. This should be obvious.
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may not be sold; it may only be given away for free. For other plays, please visit http://shakespeare.acobb.com.
This electronic text was placed in the public domain by Jeremy Hylton (ten thousand thanks!) at MIT (http://
www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare), where HTML versions are available.
Plain ASCII versions of these plays, in various versions, are available at http://www.gutenberg.org.