A Midsummer Night's Dream - IPFW Department of Theatre

[acting troupe members singing] The woosel cock so black of hue,

With orange-tawny bill,

The throstle with his note so true,

The wren with little quill,

The finch, the sparrow and the lark,

The plain-song cuckoo gray,

Whose note full many a man doth mark,

And dares not answer nay.

The woosel cock so black of hue,

With orange-tawny bill,

The throstle with his note so true,

The wren with little quill,

The finch, the sparrow and the lark,

The plain-song cuckoo gray,

Whose note full many a man doth mark,

And dares not answer nay.

The woosel cock so black of hue,

With orange-tawny bill,

The throstle with his note so true,

The wren with little quill,

The finch, the sparrow and the lark,

The plain-song cuckoo gray,

Whose note full many a man doth mark,

And dares not answer nay.

[blows note]

[Bottom] Are we all met?

[Quince] Pat, pat.

And here is a marvelous convenient place for our rehearsal.

This green plot shall be our stage,

this hawthorn brake our tiring house,

and we will do it in action

as we will do it before the Duke.

[Bottom] Peter Quince?

[Quince] What sayest thou, bully Bottom?

[Bottom] There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisby

that will never please.

First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill himself;

which the ladies cannot abide.

How answer you that?

[Snout] By 'r Larkin, a parlous fear.

[Starveling] I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.

[Bottom] Not a whit.

I have a device to make all well.

Write me a prologue,

and let the prologue seem to say,

we will do no harm,

and that Pyramus is not killed indeed;

and, for the more better assurance,

tell them that I Pyramus am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver.

This will put them out of fear.

[Quince] Well, there will be such a prologue,

and it will be written in eight and six.

[Bottom] No, no, no. Let it be in two more. Let it be in eight and eight.

[Snout] Will not the ladies be afeared of the lion?

[Starveling] I fear it, I promise you!

[Bottom] Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves.

To bring in -- God shield us! -- a lion among ladies

Is a most dreadful thing.

For there is not a more fearful, wild fowl

than your lion living;

and we ought to look to it.

[Snout] Therefore, another prologue must be written

to say he is not a lion.

[Bottom] Nay, nay, you must name his name,

and half his face must be seen through the lion's neck,

and he must say thus, or to the same defect --

"Ladies", or,

"Fair ladies, I would wish you", or,

"I would request you", or

"I would entreat you --

"--not to fear, not to tremble;

"my life for yours.

"If you think I come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life. --

"No, it is not so. I am a man, as other men are. "

And there indeed let him name his name,

and tell them plainly, he is...

Snug the joiner.

[Quince] Well, it shall be so.

But there is still two hard things;

that is, to bring moonlight into a chamber,

for Pyramus and Thisbe, as you know,
did meet by moonlight.

[Snout] Doth the moon shine the night we play our play?

[Quince] I don't know.

[Snout] Well doth it??

[Bottom] A calendar, a calendar!

[all exclaiming]

[Quince] YES! It doth shine that night.

[Bottom] Why, then leave a window in the great chamber where we play, open,

and the moon may shine in at the casement.

[Quince] Ay, or else

one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lantern,

and say that he is to disfigure, or,

to present...

the person of Moonshine.

And there's another thing:

We must bring a wall into the great chamber.

For Pyramus and Thisbe,

so says the story,

did talk through the chink of a wall.

[Snout] You can never bring in a wall.

What say you, Bottom?

[Bottom] That some man

or other

must present Wall:

and let him have about him some, some loam

or some roughcast, or some plaster,

to signify Wall;

And let him hold his fingers thus,

through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisbe whisper.

[Quince] Well, if that may be, then all is well.

Come, every mother's son sit down and rehearse your parts.

Pyramus, you begin.

When you have spoken your speech,

enter through that brake;

and so everyone according to his cue.

[Puck, off-stage] What hempen homespuns have we swaggering here?

And so nearer the cradle of the Fairy Queen?

[Bottom] Thisbe, the flowers of odious savors sweet --

[Puck] What, a play toward? I'll be an auditor.

An actor too perhaps, if I see cause.

[Quince] Speak, Pyramus.

Thisbe, stand forth.

[Pyramus] Thisbe, the flowers of odious savors sweet --

[Quince] Odorous! Odorous!

[Bottom] Odorous savors sweet.

So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisbe dear.

But hark, a voice!

Stay thou but here awhile,

And by and by I will to thee appear.

[Puck] A stranger Pyramus than ever played here.

[Flute] Must I speak now?

[Quince] Ay, marry, must you.

For you understand he has gone away

but to see a noise he heard and is to come again.

[Flute] Most radiant Pyramus,

most lily-white of hue,

Of color like the red roses on triumph brier,

[Quince] Eh!

Most briskly juvenal

[Very high voice] and eke most lovely Jew,

as true as truest horse,

[Squeaking]

[Quince] No! "Ninus' tomb", man.

Ninus.

O, that you don't speak yet.

That you speak to Pyramus.

You say all your lines at once, cues and all.

Pyramus enter!

Your cue is past.

It was "never tire."

[Flute, squeaking] O, as true as the truest hoarse. That yet would never tire.

[Bottom] If I were fair, Thisbe, I were only thine.

[Quince] AHHHH!

O monstrous! O strange!

We are haunted.

Pray, masters! Fly, masters! Help!

[all screaming]

[theme from "Chariots of FIre" playing]

[Puck] I'll follow you,

I'll lead you about a round,

through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier.

Sometimes a horse I'll be,

sometimes a hound, a hog, a headless bear,

sometimes a FIRE!

[all screaming]

And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,

Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.

[Bottom] Why do they run away?

[all screaming]

[Bottom] This is a knavery to make me afeard.

[Snout] O Bottom, thou art changed!

What is this I see on thee?

Ahhhh!

[Bottom] What do you see?

You see an ass head of your own, do you?

[Quince] Bless thee, Bottom! Bless thee!

Thou art translated!

AHHHHH!

[Bottom] I see their knavery.

This is to make an ass of me;

to fright me, if they could.

But I will not stir from this place,

do what they can.

[Bottom] I will sing.

[Sings note]

I will walk up and down here, and I will sing,

that they shall hear I am not afraid.

[Singing] The woosel cock so black of hue,

With orange-tawny bill,

The throstle with his note so true,

The wren with little quill.

[musical note]

[Titania, off-stage] What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?

[Bottom, singing] The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,

The plain-song cuckoo gray,

Whose note full many a man doth mark,

And dares not answer nay!

[brays]

For, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a bird?

Who would give the bird the lie,

though he cry "cuckoo" ever so?

[Titania] I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again.

Mine ear is much enamored of thy note;

So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;

And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me

On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.

[Bottom] Methinks, mistress,

you should have little reason enough to do that.

And yet, to say the truth,

reason and love keep little company together nowadays;

the more the pity that some honest neighbor

will not make them friends.

Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.

[Titania] Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.

[Bottom] Not so, neither.

But, if I had wit enough to get out of this wood,

I would have enough to serve mine own turn.

[Titania] Out of this wood do not desire to go.

Thou shalt remain here,

whether thou wilt or no.

I am a spirit of no common rate.

The summer still doth tend upon my state;

And I do love thee.

Therefore, go with me.

I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,

And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,

And sing, while thou on pressed flowers do sleep:

And I shall purge thy mortal grossness so,

That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.

Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! And Mustardseed!

[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 humblebees,

And for night tapers crop their waxen thighs,

And light them at the fiery glowworm's eyes,

To have my love to bed and to arise;

[Bottom] Mwah.

[Titania] Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.

[Peaseblossom] Hail, mortal!

[Cobweb] Hail!

[Moth] Hail!

[Mustardseed] Hail!

Hail.

[Bottom] I cry your worship's mercy, heartily:

I beseech your worship's name.

[Cobweb] Cobweb.

[Bottom] I shall desire of you 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, command me to Master Peascod, your father.

And Mistress Squash, your mother.

[Bottom braying]

[Bottom] Good Master Peaseblossom,

I shall desire of you more acquaintance too.

Your name, I beseech you, sir?

[Mustardseed] Mustardseed.

[Bottom] Hah! Good Master Mustardseed!

I know your patience well.

That same giantlike ox-beef hath devoured

many a gentleman of your house.

I promise you your kindred hath made my eyes water ere now.

I shall desire you of more acquaintance, too.

Okay!

[Bottom] And...

And who might you be ---

[Titania] Come, wait upon him;

Lead him to my bower.

The moon methinks looks on with a watery eye;

And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,

Lamenting some enforced chastity.

[Bottom braying.]

[Titania] Tie up my lover's tongue, bring him silently.

Yes!

[Oberon] I wonder if Titania be awaked;

Then, what it was that next came in her eye,

Which she must dote on in extremity.

Here comes my messenger.

How now, mad spirit!

What night-rule now about this haunted grove?

[Puck] My mistress with a monster is in love.

Near to her close and consecrated bower,

While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,

A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,

That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,

Were met together to rehearse a play,

Intended for great Theseus' nuptial day,

The shallowest thickskin of this barren sort,

Who Pyramus presented in their sport,

Forsook his scene, and entered in a brake.

When at this advantage did I take

An ass's nole I fixed on his head.

Anon, his Thisby must be answered,

And forth my mimic comes.

When they him spy,

sever themselves and madly sweep the sky!

["Chariots of Fire" theme music]

Ahhh! Ha ha ha ha!

I led them on in this distracted fear,

And left sweet Pyramus translated there:

When in that moment, so it came to pass,

Titania waked, and straightaway loved an ass.

[Oberon] This falls out better than I could devise.

But hast thou yet latched the Athenian's eyes

With the love juice, as I did bid thee do?

[Puck.] I took him sleeping, that is finished too,

And the Athenian woman by his side;

That, when he waked, of force, must be eyed.

[Oberon] Stand close: this is the same Athenian.

[Puck}. This is the woman, but not this the man.

[Hermia yelling]

[Demetrius] O, why rebuke you him that loves you so?

Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.

[Hermia] Now I but chide, but I should use thee worse,

For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse.

If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,

Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep

And kill me too!

It cannot be but thou hast murdered him.

So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim.

[Demetrius] So should the murdered look;

and so should I.

Pierced through the heart with your stern cruelty.

[Hermia] Lysander!

[Demetrius] Yet you, the murderer,

look as bright, as clear,

As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere.

[Hermia] WHAT?

What is this to my Lysander? Where is he?

Ah, good Demetrius.

Wilt thou give him me?

[Demetrius] I had rather give his carcass to my hounds.

[Hermia] Out, dog! Out, cur!

Thou drivest me past the bounds of maiden's patience.

Hast thou slain him then?

Henceforth be never numbered among men!

[Demetrius] No!

[Hermia] O, once tell true! Tell true even for my sake!

Durst thou have looked upon him being awake?

And hast thou killed him sleeping?

O brave touch!

Could not a worm, an adder do so much?

[Demetrius] You spend your passion on a misprised mood:

I am not guilty of Lysander's blood;

Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.

[Hermia] I pray then, tell me then that he is well.

[Demetrius] And if I could,

what should I get therefore?

[Hermia] A privilege, never to see me more.

And from thy hated presence part I so.

See me no more, whether he be dead or no!

[Demetrius] There is no following her in this fierce vein.

Here therefore for a while I will remain.

[Oberon] What hast thou done?

Thou hast mistaken quite,

And laid the love juice on some Truelove's sight.

Of thy misprision must perforce ensue

Some true love turned, and not a false turned true.

[Puck] Then fate overrules---

[Oberon] About the wood go swifter than the wind,

And Helena of Athens look thou find.

All fancy-sick she is, and pale of cheer,

With sighs of love that cost the fresh blood dear:

By some illusion see thou bring her here.

I'll charm his eyes against she do appear.

[Puck] I go, I go;

look how I go,

Swifter than an arrow from the Tartar's bow.

[Oberon] Flower of this purple dye,

Hit with Cupid's archery,

Sink in apple of his eye,

When his love he doth espy,

Let her shine as gloriously

As Venus in the sky.

When thou wakest, if she be by,

Beg of her for reme-"dye".

"Dee"? "Die."

"Dee"? "Die."

[Puck] Captain of my fairy band,

Helena is here at hand;

And the youth, mistook by me,

Pleading for a lover's fee.

Shall we their fond pageant see?

Lord, what fools these mortals be!

[Oberon] Stand aside.

The noise they make will cause Demetrius to awake.

[Puck] Then will two at once woo one;

That must needs be sport alone;

And those things do best please me

That befall preposterously.

[Lysander] I should woo in scorn?

Scorn and derision never come in tears:

Look, when I vow, I weep.

[Helena] These vows are Hermia's;

Will you give her o'er?

[Lysander] I had in judgement when to her I swore.

[Helena] Nor none in my mind, now you give her o'er.

[Lysander] Demetrius loves her and he loves not you.

[Helena] Ugh!

[musical note]

[Demetrius] 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.

[kissing]

O, let me kiss this seal of bliss.

[Lysander] Ugh!

[Helena] O spite!

O hell!

[both] Helena wait! Stop!

[Helena] O, I see you all are bent to set against me for your merriment.

If you were civil and knew courtesy,

You would not do me thus much injury.

Can you not hate me, as I know you do,

But you must join in souls to mock me too?

If you were men, as men you are in show,

You would not use a gentle lady so;

To vow, and swear,

and superpraise my parts,

When I am sure you hate me with your hearts.

You are both rivals, and love Hermia;

And now both rivals to mock Helena:

A trim exploit, a manly enterprise

to conjure up tears in a poor maid's eyes

with your derision!

All to make you sport.

[Lysander] Demetrius! You are unkind.

Be not so.

For you love Hermia, this you know I know.

And here, with all my good will,

with all my heart,

In Hermia's love I yield you up my part;

And yours of Helena to me bequeath,

Whom I do love, and will do till my death.

[Helena] Never did mockers waste more idle breath.

[Demetrius] Lysander, keep thy Hermia;

I will none!

If e'er I loved her, all that love is gone.

My heart to her but as guestwise sojourned,

And now to Helen it is home returned,

There to remain.

[Lysander] Helen, it is not so.

[Demetrius] Disparage not the faith thou dost not know,

Lest to thy peril thou aby it dear.

Look where thy love comes;

yonder is thy dear.

[Hermia] Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,

The ear more quick of apprehension makes;

By mine eye, Lysander found;

Mine ear, I thank it, 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,

O, fair Helena, who more engilds the night

than all yon fiery oilers and eyes of light.

Why seek'st thou me?

Could not this make thee know,

The hate I bare 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 conjoined 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 we two have shared,

The sister's vows,

the hours we have spent,

When we have chid the hasty-footed time for parting us.

O, is all forgot?

School day friendship,

Childhood innocence?

And will you rent our ancient love asunder,

To join with these MEN in scorning your poor friend?

It is not friendly.

'Tis not maidenly.

Our sex, as well as I may chide you for it,

Though I alone do feel the injury.

[Hermia] I am amazed at your passionate words.

I scorn you not. It seems you scorn me.

[Helena] Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn,

To follow me and praise my eyes and face?

And made your other love, Demetrius,

who even but now did spurn me with his foot,

and call me goddess,

and nymph,

divine and rare,

precious, celestial?

Wherefore speaks he this to her he hates?

And wherefore doth Lysander deny your love,

so rich within his soul,

And tender me, forsooth, affection,

But by your setting on, by your consent?

[Hermia] I understand not what you mean by this.

[Helena] Ay, do!

Persever, counterfeit sad looks,

Make mouths upon me when I turn my back;

Wink each at other;

hold the sweet jest up.

This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.

If you have any pity, grace, or manners,

You would not make me such an argument.

But fare thee well.

'Tis partly my own fault.

Which death or absence soon shall remedy.

[Lysander] Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse,

My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena!

[Hermia] Sweet, do not scorn her so.

[Demetrius] If she can not entreat, I can compel.

[Lysander] Thou canst compel no more than she can entreat.

Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers.

Helen, I love thee; by my life I do!

[Demetrius] I say I love thee more than he can do!

[Lysander] If thou say so, withdraw and prove it too.

[Hermia] Lysander!

[Demetrius] Quick, come!

[Hermia] Lysander, whereto tends all this?

[Lysander] Away, you Ethiope!

[Demetrius] No, no; he'll seek to break loose,

take on as you would follow,

But yet come not:

you are a tame man, go!

[Lysander] Hang off, thou cat, thou burr!

Vile thing, let loose or I shall shake thee from me like a serpent!

[Hermia] Why are you grown so rude!

What change is this, sweet love?

[Lysander] Thy love! Out, tawny Tartar, out!

Out, loathed medicine!

O, hated potion, hence!

[Hermia] Do you not jest?

[Helena] Yes, sooth; and so do you.

[Lysander] Demetrius I will keep my word with thee.

[Demetrius] I would I had your bond, for I perceive a weak bond holds you.

I'll not trust your word.

[Lysander] What? Should I hurt her?

Strike her? Kill her dead?

Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so.

[Hermia] What, can you do me greater harm than hate?

Hate me? Wherefore?

O, what news is this, my love?

Are you not Lysander? Am I not Hermia?

Since night you loved me;

Yet since night you left me.

Why, then you left me,

O, the gods forbid, in earnest, shall I say?

[Lysander] Ay, by my life.

And never did desire to see thee more.

Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt;

Be certain, nothing truer.

'Tis no jest that I do hate thee,

and love Helena.

[Helena] Ugh!

[Lysander laughing]

[Hermia] O me! You juggler!

You canker blossom!

You thief of love!

What, have you come by night and stolen my love's heart from him?

[Helena] Fine, i' faith!

Have you no modesty,

no maiden shame,

no touch of bashfulness?

Fie!

You counterfeit, you puppet, you!

[Hermia] Puppet? Why so?

Ay, that way goes the game.

Now I perceive that she hath made compare

Between our statures;

That she hath urged her height,

And with her personage,

her tall personage,

Her height, forsooth, she hath prevailed with him.

And are you so grown high in his esteem,

Because I am so dwarfish and so low?

How low am I?

Painted maypole!

Speak! How low am I?

I am not yet so low

But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.

[all yelling]

[Hermia] Let me go!!

Let me go!!

[Helena] I pray you, gentlemen,

though you mock me, let her not hurt me.

I was not curst;

I have no gift at all at shrewishness;

[Hermia yelling]

[Helena] Let her not strike me.

You perhaps may think,

Because she is something lower than myself,

That I can match her.

[Hermia] Lower!! Hark, again!!

[Helena] Good Hermia,

do not be so bitter with me.

I evermore did love you,

Did ever keep your counsels,

never wronged you;

Save that, in love unto Demetrius,

I told him of your stealth unto this wood.

[all yelling]

He followed you;

for love I followed him.

But he hath chid me hence,

and threatened me to strike me,

spurn me, nay, to kill me too.

And now you will let me quiet go to Athens.

will I bear my folly back, and follow you no further.

Let me go.

[Hermia] Why, get you gone.

Who is it that hinders you?

[Helena] A foolish heart, that I leave here behind.

[Hermia] What, with Lysander?

[Helena] With Demetrius.

[Lysander] Do not be afraid.

She shall not harm thee, Helena.

[Demetrius] No sir, she shall not, though you take her part.

[Helena] When she is angry, she is keen and shrewd.

She was a vixen when she went to school.

And though she be but little, she is fierce!

[Hermia] "Little", again.

Nothing but "low" and "little"!

Why will you suffer her to flout me thus? Let me come to her!

[all yelling]

[Lysander] Get you gone,

you dwarf!

You minimus of hindering knotgrass made;

You bead, you acorn!

[Demetrius] You are too officious in her behalf that scorns your services.

Let her alone. Speak not of Helena.

Take not her part;

for, if thou dost intend

never so little show of love to her,

thou shalt aby it.

[Lysander] Now she holds me not.

Now follow, if thou dar'st, to try whose right,

Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.

[Demetrius] Follow!

Nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jowl.

[Hermia] You, mistress,

all this coil is 'long of you:

Nay, go not back.

[Helena] I will not trust you, I.

Nor longer stay in your curst company.

Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray,

My legs are longer, though, to run away.

[Hermia] I am amazed, and know not what to say.

[Oberon] This is thy negligence!

Still thou mistak'st,

Or else committ'st thy knaveries willfully.

[Puck] Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.

Did not you tell me I should know the man

By the Athenian garments he had on?

I have anointed an Athenian's eyes.

[Oberon] Thou see'st these lovers seek a place to fight.

Hie, therefore, Robin, overcast the night.

The starry welkin cover thou anon,

With drooping fog, as black as Acheron;

And lead these testy rivals so astray,

As one come not within another's way.

Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,

Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong;

And sometime rail thou like Demetrius.

And from each other look thou lead them thus,

Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep

With batty wings and leaden legs doth creep.

Then crush THIS herb into Lysander's eye,

Whose liquor hath such virtuous property,

To take from thence all error in his might,

And make his eyeball roll with wonted sight.

When they next wake, all this derision

Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision.

Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,

I'll to my queen and beg her Indian boy;

And her transformed eye release from monster's view,

and all things shall be peace.

[Puck] My fairy lord --

[Oberon] Haste!

Make NO delay.

We may effect this business yet ere day.

[music]

Up and down,

Up and down,

I will lead them up and down:

I am feared in field and town:

Goblin, lead them up and down.

Here comes one.

[Lysander] Where art thou, proud Demetrius?

Speak thou now.

[Puck] Here, villain; drawn and ready.

Where art thou?

[Lysander] I will be with thee straight.

[Puck] Follow me then, to plainer ground.

[Demetrius] Lysander! Speak again!

Thou runaway,

Thou coward,

art thou fled?

Speak! In some bush?

Where dost thou hide thy head?

[Puck] Thou coward!

Come recreant! Come thou child!

I'll whip thee with a rod.

[Demetrius shrieks]

[Demetrius] Art thou there?

[Puck] Follow my voice.

We'll try no manhood here.

[Lysander] He goes before me and still dares me on:

When I come where he calls, then he is gone.

This villain is much lighter-heeled than I.

I followed fast, but faster he did fly,

That fallen am I in dark uneven way,

And here will rest me.

Come, thou gentle day.

[Puck] Ho ho ho! Coward, why com'st thou not?

[Demetrius] Where art thou now?

[Demetrius] Come hither. I am here.

[Demetrius] Nay! Thou mock'st me.

Thou shalt buy this dear if ever I thy face by daylight see!

Now go thy way!

Faintness constraineth me

to measure out my length on this cold bed.

By day's approach look to be visited.

[Helena] O weary night,

O long and tedious night,

Abate thy hours! Send comforts from the east,

That I back to Athens from these my poor company detest:

And sleep.

[Puck] Yet but three?

Come one more. Two of both kinds makes up four.

Here she comes, curst and sad:

Cupid is a knavish lad,

Thus to make poor females mad.

[Hermia] Never so weary,

never so in woe;

Bedabbled with dew and torn with briers,

I can no further crawl,

no further go;

Here will I rest thee till the break of day.

Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!

[Puck] On the ground, sleep sound:

I'll apply to your eye, gentle lover, remedy.

When thou wak'st, thou tak'st true delight

In the sight of thy former lady's eye:

And the country proverb

That every man known,

In your waking shall be shown.

Jack shall have Jill;

Nought shall go ill;

The man shall have his mare again,

and all shall be well.