SCENE I. The same. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA A Midsummer Night's Dream  Shakespeare homepage  |  Midsummer Night's Dream  | Act 4, Scene 1 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE I. The same. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA  lying asleep. 



 Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM; PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH,  MUSTARDSEED, and other Fairies attending; OBERON behind unseen  TITANIA  Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed, 

 While I thy amiable cheeks do coy, 

 And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head, 

 And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy. 

 BOTTOM  Where's Peaseblossom? 

 PEASEBLOSSOM  Ready. 

 BOTTOM  Scratch my head Peaseblossom. Where's Mounsieur Cobweb? 

 COBWEB  Ready. 

 BOTTOM  Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get you your 

 weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped 

 humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good 

 mounsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret 

 yourself too much in the action, mounsieur; and, 

 good mounsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not; 

 I would be loath to have you overflown with a 

 honey-bag, signior. Where's Mounsieur Mustardseed? 

 MUSTARDSEED  Ready. 

 BOTTOM  Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray you, 

 leave your courtesy, good mounsieur. 

 MUSTARDSEED  What's your Will? 

 BOTTOM  Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb 

 to scratch. I must to the barber's, monsieur; for 

 methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face; and I 

 am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, 

 I must scratch. 

 TITANIA  What, wilt thou hear some music, 

 my sweet love? 

 BOTTOM  I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let's have 

 the tongs and the bones. 

 TITANIA  Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat. 

 BOTTOM  Truly, a peck of provender: I could munch your good 

 dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle 

 of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow. 

 TITANIA  I have a venturous fairy that shall seek 

 The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts. 

 BOTTOM  I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas. 

 But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me: I 

 have an exposition of sleep come upon me. 

 TITANIA  Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. 

 Fairies, begone, and be all ways away. 



 Exeunt fairies  So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle 

 Gently entwist; the female ivy so 

 Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. 

 O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee! 



 They sleep 

 Enter PUCK  OBERON  [Advancing]  Welcome, good Robin. 

 See'st thou this sweet sight? 

 Her dotage now I do begin to pity: 

 For, meeting her of late behind the wood, 

 Seeking sweet favours from this hateful fool, 

 I did upbraid her and fall out with her; 

 For she his hairy temples then had rounded 

 With a coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers; 

 And that same dew, which sometime on the buds 

 Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls, 

 Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes 

 Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail. 

 When I had at my pleasure taunted her 

 And she in mild terms begg'd my patience, 

 I then did ask of her her changeling child; 

 Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent 

 To bear him to my bower in fairy land. 

 And now I have the boy, I will undo 

 This hateful imperfection of her eyes: 

 And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp 

 From off the head of this Athenian swain; 

 That, he awaking when the other do, 

 May all to Athens back again repair 

 And think no more of this night's accidents 

 But as the fierce vexation of a dream. 

 But first I will release the fairy queen. 

 Be as thou wast wont to be; 

 See as thou wast wont to see: 

 Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower 

 Hath such force and blessed power. 

 Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen. 

 TITANIA  My Oberon! what visions have I seen! 

 Methought I was enamour'd of an ass. 

 OBERON  There lies your love. 

 TITANIA  How came these things to pass? 

 O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now! 

 OBERON  Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head. 

 Titania, music call; and strike more dead 

 Than common sleep of all these five the sense. 

 TITANIA  Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep! 



 Music, still  PUCK  Now, when thou wakest, with thine 

 own fool's eyes peep. 

 OBERON  Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands with me, 

 And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be. 

 Now thou and I are new in amity, 

 And will to-morrow midnight solemnly 

 Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly, 

 And bless it to all fair prosperity: 

 There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be 

 Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity. 

 PUCK  Fairy king, attend, and mark: 

 I do hear the morning lark. 

 OBERON  Then, my queen, in silence sad, 

 Trip we after the night's shade: 

 We the globe can compass soon, 

 Swifter than the wandering moon. 

 TITANIA  Come, my lord, and in our flight 

 Tell me how it came this night 

 That I sleeping here was found 

 With these mortals on the ground. 



 Exeunt 

 Horns winded within 

 Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train  THESEUS  Go, one of you, find out the forester; 

 For now our observation is perform'd; 

 And since we have the vaward of the day, 

 My love shall hear the music of my hounds. 

 Uncouple in the western valley; let them go: 

 Dispatch, I say, and find the forester. 



 Exit an Attendant  We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top, 

 And mark the musical confusion 

 Of hounds and echo in conjunction. 

 HIPPOLYTA  I was with Hercules and Cadmus once, 

 When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear 

 With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear 

 Such gallant chiding: for, besides the groves, 

 The skies, the fountains, every region near 

 Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard 

 So musical a discord, such sweet thunder. 

 THESEUS  My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, 

 So flew'd, so sanded, and their heads are hung 

 With ears that sweep away the morning dew; 

 Crook-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls; 

 Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells, 

 Each under each. A cry more tuneable 

 Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn, 

 In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly: 

 Judge when you hear. But, soft! what nymphs are these? 

 EGEUS  My lord, this is my daughter here asleep; 

 And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is; 

 This Helena, old Nedar's Helena: 

 I wonder of their being here together. 

 THESEUS  No doubt they rose up early to observe 

 The rite of May, and hearing our intent, 

 Came here in grace our solemnity. 

 But speak, Egeus; is not this the day 

 That Hermia should give answer of her choice? 

 EGEUS  It is, my lord. 

 THESEUS  Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns. 



 Horns and shout within. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA wake and start up  Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past: 

 Begin these wood-birds but to couple now? 

 LYSANDER  Pardon, my lord. 

 THESEUS  I pray you all, stand up. 

 I know you two are rival enemies: 

 How comes this gentle concord in the world, 

 That hatred is so far from jealousy, 

 To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity? 

 LYSANDER  My lord, I shall reply amazedly, 

 Half sleep, half waking: but as yet, I swear, 

 I cannot truly say how I came here; 

 But, as I think,--for truly would I speak, 

 And now do I bethink me, so it is,-- 

 I came with Hermia hither: our intent 

 Was to be gone from Athens, where we might, 

 Without the peril of the Athenian law. 

 EGEUS  Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough: 

 I beg the law, the law, upon his head. 

 They would have stolen away; they would, Demetrius, 

 Thereby to have defeated you and me, 

 You of your wife and me of my consent, 

 Of my consent that she should be your wife. 

 DEMETRIUS  My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth, 

 Of this their purpose hither to this wood; 

 And I in fury hither follow'd them, 

 Fair Helena in fancy following me. 

 But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,-- 

 But by some power it is,--my love to Hermia, 

 Melted as the snow, seems to me now 

 As the remembrance of an idle gaud 

 Which in my childhood I did dote upon; 

 And all the faith, the virtue of my heart, 

 The object and the pleasure of mine eye, 

 Is only Helena. To her, my lord, 

 Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia: 

 But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food; 

 But, as in health, come to my natural taste, 

 Now I do wish it, love it, long for it, 

 And will for evermore be true to it. 

 THESEUS  Fair lovers, you are fortunately met: 

 Of this discourse we more will hear anon. 

 Egeus, I will overbear your will; 

 For in the temple by and by with us 

 These couples shall eternally be knit: 

 And, for the morning now is something worn, 

 Our purposed hunting shall be set aside. 

 Away with us to Athens; three and three, 

 We'll hold a feast in great solemnity. 

 Come, Hippolyta. 



 Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train  DEMETRIUS  These things seem small and undistinguishable, 

 HERMIA  Methinks I see these things with parted eye, 

 When every thing seems double. 

 HELENA  So methinks: 

 And I have found Demetrius like a jewel, 

 Mine own, and not mine own. 

 DEMETRIUS  Are you sure 

 That we are awake? It seems to me 

 That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think 

 The duke was here, and bid us follow him? 

 HERMIA  Yea; and my father. 

 HELENA  And Hippolyta. 

 LYSANDER  And he did bid us follow to the temple. 

 DEMETRIUS  Why, then, we are awake: let's follow him 

 And by the way let us recount our dreams. 



 Exeunt  BOTTOM  [Awaking]  When my cue comes, call me, and I will 

 answer: my next is, 'Most fair Pyramus.' Heigh-ho! 

 Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout, 

 the tinker! Starveling! God's my life, stolen 

 hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare 

 vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to 

 say what dream it was: man is but an ass, if he go 

 about to expound this dream. Methought I was--there 

 is no man can tell what. Methought I was,--and 

 methought I had,--but man is but a patched fool, if 

 he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye 

 of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not 

 seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue 

 to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream 

 was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of 

 this dream: it shall be called Bottom's Dream, 

 because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the 

 latter end of a play, before the duke: 

 peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall 

 sing it at her death. 



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