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 a 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 purpos’d 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 turnèd 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! Stol’n 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._]
SCENE II. Athens. A Room in Quince’s House
Enter Quince, Flute, Snout and Starveling.
QUINCE.
Have you sent to Bottom’s house? Is he come home yet?
STARVELING.
He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is transported.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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