_"I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass, a patched fool. 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!"_ The vast audience laughed heartily at the befuddled language of Bottom, the weaver, and imagined themselves under the like spell of fantastic fairies. The fifth and last act opens up with Theseus and his Amazonian Queen in the palace, prepared for the nuptial rites, and also the marriage of Lysander and Demetrius to their choice. [Illustration] Theseus speaking of the strange conduct of lovers, delivers this great bit of philosophy: _"More strange than true, I never may believe These antique fables, nor these fairy toys. Lovers and madmen have such seething brains-- Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends. The lunatic, the lover and the poet, Are of imagination all compact; One sees more devils than vast hell can hold; That is the madman; the lover all as frantic, Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt; The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name!"_ The play of Pyramus and Thisby is then introduced to the palace audience, when Bottom and his Athenian mechanics amuse Theseus and Hippolyta with their crude, rustic conception of love-making. As the play proceeds Hippolyta remarks: _"This is the silliest stuff that I ever heard."_ And Theseus says: _"The best in this kind are but shadows; And the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them!"_ Pyramus appeals to the moon thus: _"Sweet moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams, I thank thee, moon, for shining now so bright, I trust to taste of truest Thisby's sight!"_ Pyramus and Thisby commit suicide, for disappointment in love, in the climax scene, and waking again Bottom wishes to know if the Duke wants any more of the burlesque play. Theseus replies: "_Your play needs no excuse; for when the players are all dead, There need none to be blamed!_ * * * * * _The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve. Lovers to bed; 'tis almost fairy time, I fear we shall outsleep the coming morn, As much as we this night have overwatched. This palpable, gross play hath well beguiled The heavy gait of night--sweet friends, to bed; A fortnight hold we this solemnity In nightly revels and new jollity!"_ The forest scene is filled with fairies, led by Puck, Oberon and Titania, all fantastically dressed, rehearsing and singing in their mystic revels. Puck leading, says: