Bot. 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. Tita. I have a venturous fairy that shall seck The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts. Bot. 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. Tita. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away. So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee! [Exeunt FAIRIES. OBERON advances. Enter PUCK. [They sleep. Obe. 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, And now I have the boy, I will undo And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp That he, awaking when the other do, May all to Athens back again repair, And think no more of this night's accidents, But first I will release the fairy queen. Be, as thou wast wont to be, [Touching her eyes with an herb. See, as thou wast wont to see : Hath such force and blessed power. Now, my Titania, wake you, my sweet queen. Obe. There lies your love. How came these things to pass? O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now! Obc. Silence a-while.-Robin, take off this head. Puck. [Removing the ass's head from BOTTOM's shoulders. Fairy king, attend, and mark, I do hear the morning lark. Obe. Come, my queen, take hands with me, And will, to-morrow midnight, solemnly, There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be [Music, as they excunt. As they go out, BOTTOM awakes. Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer:-my next is, Most fair Pyramus.-Hey ho!--[He sits up.]. Peter. Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout, the tinker! Starveling! By 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 I 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 after Thisbe's death. [Exit BOTTOM. [After a strain of music daybreak begins to appear. The sun rises. The glen and tangled wood disappear, as the mists ascend and discover the lovers asleep as before. Hunting-music is heard, and a pleasure-barge appears in the background bearing THESEUS, HIPPOLITA EGEUS, PHILOSTRATE, and others. It pauses at the C., and THESEUS and the others disembark. The. Go, one of you, find out the forester, [Exit PHILOSTrate. Hip. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once, The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, 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? Ege. [Who has discovered HERMIA and beckoned to THESEUS.] My lord, this is my daughter here asleep; And this Lysander; this Demetrius is; The. No doubt they rose up early, to observe That Hermia should give answer of her choice? The. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns. [Horns heard, and PHILOSTRATE re-enters. DEMETRIUS, LYSANDER, HERMIA, and HELENA wake and start up. The. Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past. The. [He and the rest kneel to THEseus. I pray you all, stand up. I know, you two are rival enemies; How comes this gentle concord in the world, To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity? Lys. My lord, I shall reply amazedly, Half 'sleep, half waking, I came with Hermia hither: our intent Ege. Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough : They would have stol'n away, they would, Demetrius; You of your wife, and me of my consent. Dem. 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, As the remembrance of an idle gaud, The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met: And, for the morning now is something worn, Away, with us, to Athens; three and three, We'll hold a feast in great solemnity. Come, Hippolita. [He re-enters the barge with HIPPOLITA and EGEUS, PHILOSTRATE following. 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? Her. Yea, he did bid us follow to the temple. And, by the way, let us recount our dreams. [Exeunt into the barge. [As the barge begins to move off the picture changes, showing the passage of THESEUS to his capital. CURTAIN. |