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 overflowen with a honey-bag, 
	signor. 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 go to the barber's, mounsieur, 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 desir'st 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 pease. 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, be gone, 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. Seest thou this sweet sight?
	Her dotage now I do begin to pity,
	For, meeting her of late behind the wood
	Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool,
	I did upbraid her and fall out with her;
	For she his hairy temples then had rounded
	With 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 begged 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 Fairyland.
	And now I have the boy I will undo
	This hateful imperfection of her eyes.
	And, gentle Puck, take this transformd scalp
	From of 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 blessd power.

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

Titania	My Oberon, what visions have I seen!
	Methought I was enamoured 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.

Puck	[Removing the ass's head.]
	Now, when thou wak'st with thine own fool's eyes peep.

Oberon	Sound, music!
											[Music.
					Come, my queen, take hands with me,
	And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.
											[They dance.
	Now thou and I are new in amity,
	And will tomorrow 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 night's shade.
	We the globe can compass soon,
	Swifter than the wand'ring 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 performed,
	And since we have the 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 bayed the bear
	With hounds of Sparta. Never did I hear
	Such gallant chiding, for, besides the groves,
	The skies, the fountains, every region near
	Seemed 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 flewed, so sanded; and their heads are hung
	With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
	Crook-kneed, and dew-lapped like Thessalian bulls;
	Slow in pursuit, but matched in mouth like bells,
	Each under each. A cry more tuneable
	Was never holla'd to nor cheered 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 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.
											[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.
											[They all kneel.

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 amazdly,
	Half asleep, 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 I do 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 Athenian law-

Egeus	Enough, enough, my lord, you have enough.
	I beg the law, the law, upon his head.
	They would have stol'n 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 followed 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 betrothed 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,
	Like far-off mountains turnd into clouds.

Hermia	Methinks I see these things with parted eye,
	When everything 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	[Waking.] 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.
											[Exit.
