That fallen am I in dark uneven way,

And here will rest me.

He lies down

Come, thou gentle day;

For if but once thou show me thy grey light,

I’ll find Demetrius, and revenge this spite. He sleeps

Enter Robin Goodfellow and Demetrius

ROBIN ⌈shifting place⌉

Ho, ho, ho, coward, why com’st thou not?

DEMETRIUS

Abide me if thou dar‘st, for well I wot

Thou runn’st before me, shifting every place,

And dar’st not stand nor look me in the face.

Where art thou now?

ROBIN ⌈shifting place⌉ Come hither, I am here.

DEMETRIUS

Nay, then 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.

He lies down

By day’s approach look to be visited. He sleeps

Enter Helena

HELENA

O weary night, O long and tedious night,

Abate thy hours; shine comforts from the east

That I may back to Athens by daylight

From these that my poor company detest;

And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow’s eye,

Steal me a while from mine own company.

She lies down and sleeps

ROBIN

Yet but three? Come one more,

Two of both kinds makes up four.

⌈Enter Hermia⌉

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 the dew, and torn with briers,

I can no further crawl, no further go.

My legs can keep no pace with my desires.

Here will I rest me till the break of day.

She lies down

Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray.

She sleeps

ROBIN On the ground sleep sound.

I’ll apply to your eye,

Gentle lover, remedy.

He drops the juice on Lysander’s eyelids

When thou wak‘st thou tak’st

True delight in the sight

Of thy former lady’s eye,

And the country proverb known,

That ‘every man should take his own’,

In your waking shall be shown.

Jack shall have Jill,

Naught shall go ill,

the man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well. Exit

4.1 Enter Titania, Queen of Fairies, and Bottom the clown with the ass-head, and fairies: Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseed

TITANIA (to Bottom)

Come, sit thee down upon this flow’ry 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 Monsieur Cobweb?

COBWEB Ready.

BOTTOM Monsieur Cobweb, good monsieur, get you your weapons in your hand and kill me a red-hipped humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good monsieur, bring me the honeybag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, monsieur; and, good monsieur, have a care the honeybag break not. I would be loath to have you overflowen with a honeybag, signor. ⌈Exit Cobweb⌉ Where’s Monsieur Mustardseed?

MUSTARDSEED Ready.

BOTTOM Give me your neaf, Monsieur Mustardseed. Pray you, leave your courtesy, good monsieur.

MUSTARDSEED What’s your will?

BOTTOM Nothing, good monsieur, but to help Cavaliery Peaseblossom to scratch. I must to the barber’s, monsieur, 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.

⌈Rural music⌉

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 off new nuts.

Bottom 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.

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 Robin Goodfellow ⌈and Oberon, meeting⌉

OBERON

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 flow’rets’ 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 transformed scalp

From off the head of this Athenian swain,