University of Virginia Library

ACT III.

SCENE I.

A FORREST.
Enter Oberon and Puck.
OBERON.
How now, mad spright,
What night-rule now about this haunted grove?

PUCK.
My Mistress with a patch'd fool, is in love.
Near to her close and consecrated bower,
This clown with others had rehears'd a play,
Intended for great Theseus' nuptial day.
When, starting from her bank of mossy-down,
Titania wak'd, and straightway lov'd the clown.

OBERON.
This falls out better than I could devise.
But hast thou latched the Athenian's eyes?

PUCK.
That is finish'd too; I took him sleeping;
And the Athenian woman by his side,
That when he wakes, of force she must be ey'd.

SCENE II.

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?

HERMIA.
If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,
Then kill me too—
The sun was not so true unto the day,
As he to me. Would he have stolen away
From sleeping Hermia?
It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him,
So should a murderer look, so dread, so grim—

DEMETRIUS.
So should the murder'd look, and so should I,
Pierc'd thro' the heart, with your stern cruelty:
Yet you, the murderer, look as bright and clear,
As yonder Venus, in her glimmering sphere.

AIR.
HERMIA.
How calm's the sky, how undisturb'd the deep,
Nature is husht, the very tempests sleep;
The drowsy winds breathe gently thro' the trees,
And silent on the beach repose the seas:
Love only wakes, the storm that tears my breast
For ever rages, and distracts my rest.
O love, relentless love, tyrant accurst,
In desarts bred, by cruel tigers nurst.
[Exit. Hermia.

DEMETRIUS.
There is no following her in this fierce vein,
Here, brooding o'er my thoughts, I will remain,

[Lies down.

SCENE III.

OBERON.
What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite,
And laid thy love-juice on some true love's sight,
About the wood go swifter than the wind,
And Helena of Athens see thou find.
By some illusion, see thou bring her here;
I'll charm his eyes against she doth appear.

PUCK.
Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow,
I go, I go, look how I go.
[Exit Puck.

OBERON.
Let soothing sound, his senses chain,
And spread oblivion o'er his brain.
[Anoints Demetrius's eyes.
AIR.

Enter Puck.
PUCK.
Captain of our Fairy band,
Helena is near at hand
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover's fee.

OBERON.
Stand aside: the noise they make
Will cause Demetrius to awake.

SCENE IV.

Enter Lysander and Helena.
LYSANDER.
Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?
Scorn and derision never came in tears.
Look, when I vow I weep; and vows so born,
In their nativity all truth appears.

HELENA.
These vows are Hermia's.

AIR.
LYSANDER.
Do not call it sin in me,
That I am forsworn for thee:
Thou for whom even Jove would swear,
Juno but an Æthiop were,
And deny himself for Jove,
Turning mortal for thy love.

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!

HELENA.
Can you not hate me, as I know you do,
But you must join in flouts to mock me too?

LYSANDER.
You love Hermia, therefore with all my heart,
In Hermia's love, I yield you up my part;
And yours in Helena to me bequeath.

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.
And now to Helen it is home returned.

SCENE V.

Enter Hermia.
HERMIA.
Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,
The ear more quick of apprehension makes:
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, fair Helena.

HERMIA.
You speak not as you think: it cannot be.

HELENA.
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 sister's vows, the hours that we have spent,
When we have chid the hasty footed time,
For parting us: O! and is all forgot.
But fare ye well, 'tis partly mine own fault,
Which death or absence soon shall remedy.
AIR.
[Exit Helena.

LYSANDER.
Stay, gentle Helena, hear my excuse;
My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena.

DEMETRIUS.
I say I love her more than thou, Lysander.

LYSANDER.
If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.

DEMETRIUS.
Quick, come.

HERMIA.
Lysander, whereto tends all this?
Am not I Hermia? are not you Lysander?

LYSANDER.
Therefore be out of hope, for it is true,
That I do hate thee, and love Helena.
[Exeunt Dem. and Lys.
AIR.
[Exit.

SCENE VI.

Enter Oberon and Puck.
AIR.
OBERON.
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever;
One foot on sea, and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.

PUCK.
Where is our Fairy Queen, my high-grac'd lord?

OBERON.
Within the wood there, on a daisy bank
Sleeping she lies, her patch'd fool by her side;
Her dotage now I do begin to pity,
And with this herb will take the charm away:
When next she wakes, all this derision
Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision.
This, this I'll infuse,
Whose sovereign dews
Shall clear each film that cloud her sight;
And you her crystal humours bright,
From noxious vapours purg'd and free,
Shall be as you were wont to be.
[Exit Oberon.

AIR.
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.

[Exit.

SCENE VII.

Enter Oberon and Queen from the wood.
QUEEN.
My Oberon! what visions have I seen!

OBERON.
Silence a-while;
Titania, musick call, and strike more dead
Than sleep, the sense of all these lovers.

QUEEN.
Musick, ho, musick; such as charmeth sleep.
AIR.

OBERON.
Sound, musick; come, my Queen, take hand with me,
And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.

[Dance, and Exeunt.

SCENE VIII.

Enter Theseus, Hippolita, 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 musick of my hounds:
Uncouple in the western valley, go,
Dispatch I say; but soft, what nymphs are these?

EGEUS.
(looking out.)
My lord, this is my daughter here asleep,
And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is,
I wonder at 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 of 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.
AIR.

[They wake.
THESEUS.
Good-morrow friends; saint Valentine is past.
Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
How comes this concord in the world
That hatred is so far from jealousy,
To sleep by hate, and not fear enmity?

LYSANDER.
My lord, I shall reply amazedly,
Half sleep, half waking; but, as I do think,
I came with Hermia hither. Our intent
Was to be gone from Athens, where we might be
Free from the peril of th' Athenian law.

EGEUS.
Enough, enough, my lord, you have enough;
I beg the law, the law upon his head:
They would have stoll'n away, they would, Demetrius,
Thereby to have defeated you and me.

DEMETRIUS.
My lord, the joy and pleasure of mine eye,
Is only Helena. To her, my lord,
Was I betrothed ere I Hermia saw;
But like a sickness did I loath this food;
But now in health come to my natural taste.

THESEUS.
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 purpos'd hunting shall be set aside.

DEMETRIUS.
These things seem small and undistinguishable,
Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.

AIR.
HELENA.
Love's a tempest, life's the ocean,
Passion crost, the deep deform;
Rude and raging tho' the motion,
Virtue fearless, braves the storm:
Storms and tempests may blow over
And subside to gentle gales;
So the poor despairing lover,
When least hoping, oft prevails.

THESEUS.
Come now (to Love and Hymen, let us pay
Our vows, and then with mirth conclude the day)
A fortnight hold we this solemnity,
In nightly revel, and new jollity.

CHORUS

Hail to love, and welcome joy!
Hail to the delicious boy!
See the sun from love returning,
Love's the flame in which he's burning:
Hail to love, the softest pleasure;
Love and beauty rein for ever.

[Exeunt.