SCENE II. Another part of the wood.

Enter TITANIA, with her train

TITANIA:

1

Come, now a roundel and a fairy song,

2

Then, for the third part of a minute, hence,

3

Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,

Cankers are a caterpillar destructive to plants; First known to be use in 1559 in the following meaning, a Muskrose is a rose of the Mediterranean region with white flowers having a musky odor.

4

Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,

rere-mice are bats, the word “rere-mice” literally being the plural of “rere-mouse.”

5

To make my small elves coats, and some keep back

6

The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders

7

At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep,

8

Then to your offices and let me rest.

The Fairies sing

TITANIA:

9

You spotted snakes with double tongue,

10

Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen,

11

Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,

Newts are any of various small salamanders (family Salamandridae) that are usually semiaquatic as adults; The *blindworm, also called a slow worm, is a burrowing limbless European lizard (Anguis fragilis) with small eyes.

12

Come not near our fairy queen.

13

Philomel, with melody

A Philomel is a nightingale, an Old World thrush noted for the sweet usually nocturnal song.

14

Sing in our sweet lullaby,

15

Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:

16

Never harm,

17

Nor spell nor charm,

18

Come our lovely lady nigh,

Nigh here means near in place, time, or relationship.

19

So, good night, with lullaby.

20

Weaving spiders, come not here,

21

Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!

Spinners here in reference to spiders.

22

Beetles black, approach not near,

23

Worm nor snail, do no offence.

24

Philomel, with melody, and c.

Fairy:

25

Hence, away! now all is well:

26

One aloof stand sentinel.

A sentinel is a sentry, a soldier standing guard at a point of passage (such as a gate).

Exeunt Fairies. TITANIA sleeps

Enter OBERON and squeezes the flower on TITANIA's eyelids

OBERON:

27

What thou seest when thou dost wake,

28

Do it for thy true-love take,

29

Love and languish for his sake:

30

Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,

An ounce is understood in Shakespearean vernacular as a lynx. It is also known as a form of snow leopard in later historical contexts. (Middle English unce lynx.)

31

Pard, or boar with bristled hair,

A pard is an arhaic term for a leopard.

32

In thy eye that shall appear

33

When thou wakest, it is thy dear:

34

Wake when some vile thing is near.

Exit

Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA

LYSANDER:

35

Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood,

36

And to speak troth, I have forgot our way:

37

We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,

38

And tarry for the comfort of the day.

HERMIA:

39

Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed,

40

For I upon this bank will rest my head.

LYSANDER:

41

One turf shall serve as pillow for us both,

A turf is a piece of soil bound by grass and plant roots into a thick mat.

42

One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth.

HERMIA:

43

Nay, good Lysander, for my sake, my dear,

44

Lie further off yet, do not lie so near.

LYSANDER:

45

O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!

46

Love takes the meaning in love's conference.

“Love’s conference” here means the meeting of two in love.

47

I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit

48

So that but one heart we can make of it,

49

Two bosoms interchained with an oath,

50

So then two bosoms and a single troth.

A troth is loyal or pledged faithfulness.

51

Then by your side no bed-room me deny,

52

For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.

HERMIA:

53

Lysander riddles very prettily:

54

Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,

55

If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied.

56

But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy

57

Lie further off, in human modesty,

58

Such separation as may well be said

59

Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid,

60

So far be distant, and, good night, sweet friend:

61

Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end!

LYSANDER:

62

Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I,

63

And then end life when I end loyalty!

64

Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest!

HERMIA:

65

With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd!

“Press’d” here means pressed together in sleep.

They sleep

Enter PUCK

PUCK:

66

Through the forest have I gone.

67

But Athenian found I none,

68

On whose eyes I might approve

69

This flower's force in stirring love.

70

Night and silence.--Who is here?

71

Weeds of Athens he doth wear:

This line refers to Lysander’s Athenian garb (weeds being his garments).

72

This is he, my master said,

73

Despised the Athenian maid,

74

And here the maiden, sleeping sound,

75

On the dank and dirty ground.

76

Pretty soul! she durst not lie

77

Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.

78

Churl, upon thy eyes I throw

A churl was a medieval peasant, or may have also refered to a rude, ill-bred person.

79

All the power this charm doth owe.

80

When thou wakest, let love forbid

81

Sleep his seat on thy eyelid:

82

So awake when I am gone,

83

For I must now to Oberon.

Exit

Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running

HELENA:

84

Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.

DEMETRIUS:

85

I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.

HELENA:

86

O, wilt thou darkling leave me? do not so.

Darkling is an adverb meaning in darkness.

DEMETRIUS:

87

Stay, on thy peril: I alone will go.

Exit

HELENA:

88

O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!

89

The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.

90

Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies,

91

For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.

92

How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears:

93

If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers.

Helena says here that she certainly cries more often than Hermia.

94

No, no, I am as ugly as a bear,

95

For beasts that meet me run away for fear:

96

Therefore no marvel though Demetrius

97

Do, as a monster fly my presence thus.

98

What wicked and dissembling glass of mine

In this context, “glass” refers to a mirror, “dissembling” meaning that which hides under a false appearance or puts on another appearance.

99

Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne?

sphery in this context is widely thought to reference to Hermia’s “starlike” eyes.

100

But who is here? Lysander! on the ground!

101

Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.

102

Lysander if you live, good sir, awake.

LYSANDER:

103

[Awaking] And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake.

104

Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,

105

That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.

106

Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word

107

Is that vile name to perish on my sword!

HELENA:

108

Do not say so, Lysander, say not so

109

What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?

110

Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content.

LYSANDER:

111

Content with Hermia! No, I do repent

112

The tedious minutes I with her have spent.

113

Not Hermia but Helena I love:

114

Who will not change a raven for a dove?

115

The will of man is by his reason sway'd,

116

And reason says you are the worthier maid.

117

Things growing are not ripe until their season

118

So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason,

119

And touching now the point of human skill,

120

Reason becomes the marshal to my will

Here, Lysander explains that his reasoning takes precedence over his will and leads him to Helena.

121

And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook

122

Love's stories written in love's richest book.

HELENA:

123

Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?

Keen here means affecting one as if by cutting; sharp; shrewd.

124

When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?

125

Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man,

126

That I did never, no, nor never can,

127

Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye,

128

But you must flout my insufficiency?

To flout means to scorn or to treat with contemptuous disregard.

129

Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do,

130

In such disdainful manner me to woo.

131

But fare you well: perforce I must confess

Perforce here means by force of circumstances or of necessity.

132

I thought you lord of more true gentleness.

133

O, that a lady, of one man refused.

134

Should of another therefore be abused!

Exit

LYSANDER:

135

She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there:

136

And never mayst thou come Lysander near!

137

For as a surfeit of the sweetest things

Surfeit is an intemperate or immoderate indulgence in something (such as food or drink). It may also be in reference to disgust caused by excess.

138

The deepest loathing to the stomach brings,

139

Or as tie heresies that men do leave

140

Are hated most of those they did deceive,

141

So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,

142

Of all be hated, but the most of me!

143

And, all my powers, address your love and might

144

To honour Helen and to be her knight!

Exit

HERMIA:

145

[Awaking] Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best

146

To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!

147

Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here!

148

Lysander, look how I do quake with fear:

149

Methought a serpent eat my heart away,

This may be interpreted as a metaphor for Hermia’s broken heart.

150

And you sat smiling at his cruel pray.

151

Lysander! what, removed? Lysander! lord!

152

What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word?

153

Alack, where are you speak, an if you hear,

154

Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.

155

No? then I well perceive you all not nigh

156

Either death or you I'll find immediately.

Exit