So flew'd, so sanded; and their heads are hung Ege. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep: I wonder of their being here together. The. No doubt they rose up early, to observe The. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns. Horns and shouts within. DEMETRIUS, LYSANDER, Begin these wood-birds but to couple now? "He and the rest kneel to THESEUS. Lys. My lord, I shall reply amazedly, Half sleep, half waking: But as yet, I swear But, as I think, (for truly would I speak,- I came with Hermia hither: our intent Was, to be gone from Athens, where we might be Dem. - It seems to me, Do not you think, Lys. And he did bid us follow to the temple. him; And, by the way, let us recount our dreams. As they go out, BOTTOM awakes. [Exeunt. Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will SCENE II.-Athens. A Room in Quince's House. Star. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt, he is transported. Flu. If he come not, then the play is marred; It Ege. Enough, enough, my lord; you have goes not forward, doth it? I beg the law, the law, upon his head.- trius, Quin. It is not possible: you have not a man in Thereby to have defeated you and me: The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met: [Exeunt THE., HIP., EGE., and train. able, Like far-off mountains turned into clouds. The flews are the large chaps of a hound. a Love. Quin. Yea, and the best person too: and he is Enter SNUG. Snug. Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, an 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 lost six-pence a day during his life; he could not have 'scaped sixpence a-day: an the duke had not given him sixpence a-day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged; he would have deserved it: sixpence a-day, in Pyramus, or nothing. Enter BOTTOM. Bot. Where are these lads? where are these hearts? Quin. Bottom!-0 most courageous day! O most happy hour! Bot. 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, sweet Bottom. All that I will tell you, Bot. Not a word of me. is, that the duke hath dined: Get your apparel together; good strings 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 preferred. In any case 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 garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and, I do not doubt, but to hear them say, it is a sweet comedy. No more words; away; go, [Exeunt. away ACT V. SCENE I.-An Apartment in the Palace of Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, Hip. "Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of. The. More strange than true, I never may believe Are of imagination all compact: One sees more devils than vast hell can hold; Which makes it tedious: for in all the play Which never labor'd in their minds till now; No, my noble lord, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain, heaven, And, as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen A local habitation and a name. Such tricks hath strong imagination; Hip. But all the story of the night told over, Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and The. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth,- Lys. To wear away this long age of three hours, to be sung, By an Athenian eunuch to the harp. The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals, The thrice three Muses mourning for the death A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus, Which is as brief as I have known a play: • Compacted, made. Pastime. Short account. To do you service, The. Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such Hip. He says, they can do nothing in this kind. ing. Our sport shall be, to take what they mistake: Noble respect takes it in might, not merit. I read as much, as from the rattling tongue Enter PHILOSTRATE. Philost. So please your grace, the prologue is addrest. The. Let him approach. [Flourish of trumpets. Enter Prologue. Prol. If we offend, it is with our good-will. you. The actors are at hand; and by their show, The. This fellow doth not stand upon points. Hip. Indeed he hath played on this prologue, like a child on a recorder; a sound, but not in government. The. His speech was like a tangled chain; nothing impaired but all disordered. Who is next? Enter PIRAMUS and THISBE, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion, as in dumb show. Prol. "Gentles, perchance, you wonder at this A musical instrument. "To whisper; at the which let no man wonder. "This man with lantern, dog, and bush of thorn, "Presenteth moon-shine: for, if you will know, "By moon-shine did these lovers think no scorn "To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo. "This grisly beast, which by name lion hight, "The trusty Thisby, coming first by night, Did scare away, or rather did affright: And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall; "Which lion vile with bloody mouth did stain: "Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth, and tall, "And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain: "Whereat with blade, with bloody blameful blade, "He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breast; "And, Thisby tarrying in mulberry shade, "His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest, "Let lion, moonshine, wall, and lovers twain, "At large discourse, while here they do remain." [Ex. Prol., PYR., THISBE, Lion, and Moonshine. The. I wonder if the lion be to speak. Dem. No wonder, my lord: one lion may, many asses do. Pyr. "Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?" This." Tide life, tide death, I come without delay." Wal!." Thus have 1, wall, my part discharged so; "And, being done, thus wall away doth go." [Exeunt Wall, PYRAMUS, and THISBE. The. Now is the mural down between the two neighbors. Dem. No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear without warning. Hip. This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard. The. The best in this kind are but shadows: and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them. Hip. It must be your imagination then, and not theirs. The. If we imagine no worse of them, than they of themselves, they may pass for excellent men. Here come two noble beasts in, a moon, and a lion. Enter Lion and Moonshine. Lion. "You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear "The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor, "May now, perchance, both quake and tremble here, "When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar. "Then know, that I, one Snug the joiner, am "A lion fell, nor else no lion's dam: 64 when Wall. "In this same interlude, it doth befall, "That I, one Snout by name, present a wall: "And such a wall, as I would have you think, "That had in it a cranny'd hole, or chink, "Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby, "Did whisper often very secretly. "This loam, this rough-cast, and this stone, doth show, "That I am that same wall; the truth is so: "And this the cranny is, right and sinister, "Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper." The. Would you desire lime and hair to speak better? Dem. It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard discourse, my lord. The. Pyramus draws near the wall: silence! Pyr. "O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black! "O night, which ever art, when day is not! "O night, Ó night, alack, alack, alack, "I fear my Thisby's promise is forgot! "And, thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall, "That stand'st between her father's ground and mine! "Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall, "Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne. [Wall holds up his fingers. "Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this! "But what see I? No Thisby do I see. "O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss; "Curst be thy stones for thus deceiving me!" The. The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again. Pyr. No, in truth, sir, he should not. Deceiving me, is Thisby's cue: she is to enter now, and I am to spy her through the wall. You shall see, it will fall pat as I told you:- Yonder she comes. Enter THISBE. This."O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans, "For parting my fair Pyramus and me: "My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones; "Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee." Pyr. "I see a voice: now will I to the chink, "To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face. "Thisby!" This. "My love, thou art my love, I think." Pyr."Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace; "And like Limander am I trusty still." This. "And I like Helen, till the fates me kill." This. "I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all." • Called. For if I should as lion come in strife "Into this place, 'twere pity on my life." The. A very gentle beast and of a good conscience. Dem. The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I saw. Lys. This lion is a very fox for his valor. The. True; and a goose for his discretion. Dem. Not so, my lord: for his valor cannot carry his discretion; and the fox carries the goose. The. His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valor; for the goose carries not the fox. It is well: leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to the moon. Moon. "This lantern doth the horned moon present:-" Dem. He should have worn the horns on his head. The. He is no crescent, and his horns are invisible within the circumference. Moon. This lantern doth the horned moon present; Myself the man i'the moon do seem to be." The. This is the greatest error of all the rest: the man should be put into the lantern: How is it else the man i'the moon? Dem. He dares not come there for the candle: for you see, it is already in snuff.1 Hip. I am aweary of this moon: Would, he would change! The. It appears, by his small light of discretion, that he is in the wane: but yet, in courtesy, in all reason, we must stay the time. Lys. Proceed, moon. Moon. All that I have to say, is, to tell you, that the lantern is the moon: I, the man in the moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, iny dog. Dem. Why all these should be in the lantern; for they are in the moon. But, silence; here comes Thisbe. "What dreadful dole is here? "Eyes, do you see? "How can it be? "O dainty duck! O dear! "Thy mantle good, "What, stain'd with blood? "Approach, ye furies fell! O fates! come, come; 46 Cut thread and thrum;2 "Quail, crush, conclude, and quell!" The. This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad. Hip. Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man. Pyr. "O, wherefore, nature, didst thou lions frame? "Since lion vile hath here deflour'd my dear: "Which is no, no-which was the fairest dame, "That liv'd, that lov'd, that lik'd, that look'd "with cheer." "Come, tears, confound; "Out, sword, and wound "The pap of Pyramus: 66 Ay, that left pap, "Where heart doth hop: "Thus die I, thus, thus, thus. Now am I dead, "Now am I fled, "My soul is in the sky: Tongue, lose thy light! "Moon, take thy flight! "Now die, die, die, die, die." [Dies-Exit Moonshine. Dem. No die, but an ace, for him; for he is but one. Lys. Less than an ace, man; for he is dead; he is nothing. The. With the help of a surgeon, he might yet recover, and prove an ass. Hip. How chance moonshine is gone, before Thisbe comes back and finds her lover? The. She will find him by star-light.-Here she comes; and her passion ends the play. . Enter THIS BE. Hip. Methinks, she should not use a long one, for such a Pyramus: I hope she will be brief. Lys. She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes. Dem. And thus she moans, videlicet. This." Asleep, my love? "O Pyramus, arise, "Speak, speak. Quite dumb? "Come, come, to me, "With shears, his thread of silk. "Come, blade, my breast imbrue: "And farewell, friends; The. Moonshine and lion are left to bury the dead. Dem. Ay, and wall too. Bot. No, I assure you; the wall is down that parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance, between two of our company? The. No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse. Never excuse; for when the players are all dead, there need none to be blamed. Marry, if he that writ it, had play'd Pyramus, and hanged himself in Thisbe's garter, it would have been a fine tragedy: and so it is truly; and very notably discharged. But come, your Bergomask: let your epilogue alone. [Here a dance of Clowns. • Countenance. a Coarse yarn. Puck. Now the hungry lion roars, In remembrance of a shroud. That the graves all gaping wide, In the church-way paths to glide: By the triple of Hecate's team, Following darkness like a dream, To sweep the dust behind the door. Enter OBERON and TITANIA, with their Train. Hop as light as bird from brier; Sing, and dance it trippingly. Tita. First, rehearse this song by rote: SONG, AND DANCE. Obe. Now, until the break of day, Shall upon their children be.- And each several chamber bless, And the owner of it blest. Trip away; Make no stay; Meet me all by break of day. Exeunt OBERON, TITANIA, and Train. Puck. If we shadows have offended, So, good night unto you all. And not to be seen to wink of all the day; King. Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives, O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep; And then grace us in the disgrace of death Therefore, brave conquerors:-for so you are, Biron. I can but say their protestation over, Not to see ladies, study, fast, not sleep. King. Your oath is pass'd to pass away from these. Biron. Things hid and barr'd, you mean, from King. Ay, that is study's god-like recompense. King. These be the stops that hinder study quite, Biron. Why, all delights are vain; but that most Which with pain purchas'd, doth inherit pain: To seck the light of truth; while truth the while Light, seeking light, both light of light beguile By fixing it upon a fairer eye; Study is like the heaven's glorious sun, That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks; |