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.

He drops the juice on Titania’s eyelids

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 blessed power.

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

TITANIA (awaking)

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 a while.—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.

⌈Still musica⌉

ROBIN (taking the ass-head off Bottom)

Now when thou wak’st with thine own fool’s eyes peep.

OBERON

Sound music.

⌈The music changes⌉

Come, my queen, take hands with me,

And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.

Oberon and Titania 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.

ROBIN

Fairy King, attend and mark.

I do hear the morning lark.

OBERON

Then, my queen, in silence sad

Trip we after nightës 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 Oberon, Titania, and Robin. The sleepers lie still Wind horns within. Enter Theseus with Egeus, Hippolyta, and all his train

THESEUS

Go, one of you, find out the forester,

For now our observation is performed;

And since we have the vanguard 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 one

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 dewlapped 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.

⌈Exit one⌉

Shout within: wind horns. The lovers all start up

Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past.

Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?

LYSANDER

Pardon, my lord.

The lovers kneel

THESEUS I pray you all stand up.

The lovers stand

(To Demetrius and Lysander) 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 amazèdly,

Half sleep, 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 the Athenian law—

EGEUS (to Theseus)

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 (to Theseus)

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—