A Midsummer Night's Dream

ACT I

SCENE I. Athens. The palace of THESEUS.

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Attendants

THESEUS:

1.1.1

Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour

1.1.2

Draws on apace, four happy days bring in

This reference to the moon is both a literal way in which the time is marked and a metaphorical way in which to establish the imagery of passage into the dream stage. The beginning of the play takes place prior to the new moon, but by the end of the events, after all of the confusion and intrigue is past, a new phase is in effect and sees the celebration of a blessed new marriage taking place under its celestial canopy.

1.1.3

Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow

1.1.4

This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires

1.1.5

Like to a step-dame or a dowager

1.1.6

Long withering out a young man revenue.

HIPPOLYTA:

1.1.7

Four days will quickly steep themselves in night,

1.1.8

Four nights will quickly dream away the time,

You must read this pdf to learn more.

1.1.9

And then the moon, like to a silver bow

1.1.10

New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night

1.1.11

Of our solemnities.

THESEUS:

1.1.12

Go, Philostrate,

1.1.13

Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments,

1.1.14

Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth,

1.1.15

Turn melancholy forth to funerals,

1.1.16

The pale companion is not for our pomp.

Exit PHILOSTRATE

THESEUS:

1.1.17

Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,

These lines are in reference to Theseus overwhelming the Amazons in battle and subsequently marrying Hippolyta

1.1.18

And won thy love, doing thee injuries,

1.1.19

But I will wed thee in another key,

1.1.20

With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.

Ryan McKinny as Theseus, Tamara Mumford as Hippolyta Metropolitan Opera, 1996

Ryan McKinny as Theseus and Tamara Mumford as Hippolyta

Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS

EGEUS:

1.1.21

Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!

THESEUS:

1.1.22

Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with thee?

EGEUS:

1.1.23

Full of vexation come I, with complaint

1.1.24

Against my child, my daughter Hermia.

1.1.25

Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,

1.1.26

This man hath my consent to marry her.

1.1.27

Stand forth, Lysander: and my gracious duke,

1.1.28

This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child,

1.1.29

Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,

1.1.30

And interchanged love-tokens with my child:

1.1.31

Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,

1.1.32

With feigning voice verses of feigning love,

1.1.33

And stolen the impression of her fantasy

1.1.34

With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,

A gawd is an ornament or a trinket.

1.1.35

Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers

Sweetmeats are foods rich in sugar such as candied or crystalized fruits.

1.1.36

Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth:

1.1.37

With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart,

1.1.38

Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,

1.1.39

To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke,

1.1.40

Be it so she, will not here before your grace

1.1.41

Consent to marry with Demetrius,

As Hermia’s father, the ancient privilege of Athens states that she may be put to death if she does not obey her father’s wishes for her marriage.

1.1.42

I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,

1.1.43

As she is mine, I may dispose of her:

1.1.44

Which shall be either to this gentleman

1.1.45

Or to her death, according to our law

1.1.46

Immediately provided in that case.

THESEUS:

1.1.47

What say you, Hermia? be advised fair maid:

1.1.48

To you your father should be as a god,

1.1.49

One that composed your beauties, yea, and one

1.1.50

To whom you are but as a form in wax

A wax form may refer here to a pattern of wax that, when invested and burned out or otherwise eliminated, will produce a mold in which a casting may be made.

1.1.51

By him imprinted and within his power

Thesus here tells Hermia that she must think of her father as a god who has the power to give and take away her beauty as a wax molding creates a form of an image and can easily be changed or disfigured

1.1.52

To leave the figure or disfigure it.

1.1.53

Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.

HERMIA:

1.1.54

So is Lysander.

THESEUS:

1.1.55

In himself he is,

1.1.56

But in this kind, wanting your father's voice,

1.1.57

The other must be held the worthier.

HERMIA:

1.1.58

I would my father look'd but with my eyes.

THESEUS:

1.1.59

Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.

Thesus argues to Hermia that she must look more objectively and see the men as her father does.

HERMIA:

1.1.60

I do entreat your grace to pardon me.

1.1.61

I know not by what power I am made bold,

1.1.62

Nor how it may concern my modesty,

1.1.63

In such a presence here to plead my thoughts,

1.1.64

But I beseech your grace that I may know

1.1.65

The worst that may befall me in this case,

1.1.66

If I refuse to wed Demetrius.

THESEUS:

1.1.67

Either to die the death or to abjure

1.1.68

For ever the society of men.

1.1.69

Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires,

1.1.70

Know of your youth, examine well your blood,

1.1.71

Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,

This script generates a number of usually pronounceable and frequently amusing fake words loosely based on a specific language. They can be used, for example, to name characters in games and whatnot. Maybe you need to name a town or an NPC in your next campaign?

1.1.72

You can endure the livery of a nun,

A livery being literally defined as a distinctive dress as that of a nun or servant (Mirriam-Webster) in this context is in reference to the chaste life of abstinence that Theseus will subject Hermia to should she not marry Demetrius as he wishes.

1.1.73

For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd,

Mew’d in this context means to be shut up or confined.

1.1.74

To live a barren sister all your life,

1.1.75

Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.

1.1.76

Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood,

1.1.77

To undergo such maiden pilgrimage,

1.1.78

But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,

1.1.79

Than that which withering on the virgin thorn

1.1.80

Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness.

HERMIA:

1.1.81

So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,

1.1.82

Ere I will my virgin patent up

Here, Hermia speaks of her virgin patent as a priviledge or license to be given up. She does not want to lose her virginity to someone she does not care for.

1.1.83

Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke

1.1.84

My soul consents not to give sovereignty.

THESEUS:

1.1.85

Take time to pause, and, by the nest new moon--

1.1.86

The sealing-day betwixt my love and me,

The sealing-day spoken of here is in reference to marriage.

1.1.87

For everlasting bond of fellowship--

1.1.88

Upon that day either prepare to die

1.1.89

For disobedience to your father's will,

1.1.90

Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would,

1.1.91

Or on Diana's altar to protest

Diana is the “goddess of the hunt” and presides over the woodland, nature, and the moon.

1.1.92

For aye austerity and single life.

DEMETRIUS:

1.1.93

Relent, sweet Hermia: and, Lysander, yield

1.1.94

Thy crazed title to my certain right.

LYSANDER:

1.1.95

You have her father's love, Demetrius,

1.1.96

Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him.

EGEUS:

1.1.97

Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love,

1.1.98

And what is mine my love shall render him.

1.1.99

And she is mine, and all my right of her

1.1.100

I do estate unto Demetrius.

LYSANDER:

1.1.101

I am, my lord, as well derived as he,

1.1.102

As well possess'd, my love is more than his,

1.1.103

My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,

1.1.104

If not with vantage, as Demetrius',

1.1.105

And, which is more than all these boasts can be,

1.1.106

I am beloved of beauteous Hermia:

1.1.107

Why should not I then prosecute my right?

1.1.108

Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,

Avouch means here to vouch for, to confess, or to avow.

1.1.109

Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,

There is much debate about the true identity of Nedar, the father of Helena. However, prominent Shakespeare scholar Terence Hawkes speculates that it could be an anagram for Arden, a noble family name linked to Shakespeare’s mother’s family. Others believe that the name originates from a Hebrew derivitive meaning “missing” or “absent” which would account for the character Nedar’s glaring absence in the play.

1.1.110

And won her soul, and she, sweet lady, dotes,

1.1.111

Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,

1.1.112

Upon this spotted and inconstant man.

THESEUS:

1.1.113

I must confess that I have heard so much,

1.1.114

And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof,

1.1.115

But, being over-full of self-affairs,

1.1.116

My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come,

1.1.117

And come, Egeus, you shall go with me,

1.1.118

I have some private schooling for you both.

1.1.119

For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself

1.1.120

To fit your fancies to your father's will,

1.1.121

Or else the law of Athens yields you up--

1.1.122

Which by no means we may extenuate--

1.1.123

To death, or to a vow of single life.

1.1.124

Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love?

1.1.125

Demetrius and Egeus, go along:

1.1.126

I must employ you in some business

1.1.127

Against our nuptial and confer with you

1.1.128

Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.

EGEUS:

1.1.129

With duty and desire we follow you.

Exeunt all but LYSANDER and HERMIA

LYSANDER:

1.1.130

How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale?

1.1.131

How chance the roses there do fade so fast?

HERMIA:

1.1.132

Belike for want of rain, which I could well

The archaic term belike, circa 1500, was most-likely used to mean “probably.”

1.1.133

Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.

To *beteem here means to allow or to permit.

LYSANDER:

1.1.134

Ay me! for aught that I could ever read,

1.1.135

Could ever hear by tale or history,

1.1.136

The course of true love never did run smooth,

1.1.137

But, either it was different in blood,--

HERMIA:

1.1.138

O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low.

LYSANDER:

1.1.139

Or else misgraffed in respect of years,--

Misgraffed here means that which is wrongly grafted or badly matched.

HERMIA:

1.1.140

O spite! too old to be engaged to young.

LYSANDER:

1.1.141

Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,--

HERMIA:

1.1.142

O hell! to choose love by another's eyes.

LYSANDER:

1.1.143

Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,

1.1.144

War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,

1.1.145

Making it momentany as a sound,

Momentany is an obsolete use of “momentary.”

1.1.146

Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,

1.1.147

Brief as the lightning in the collied night,

1.1.148

That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,

Spleen here is in reference to a sudden impulse or whim.

1.1.149

And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!'

1.1.150

The jaws of darkness do devour it up:

1.1.151

So quick bright things come to confusion.

HERMIA:

1.1.152

If then true lovers have been ever cross'd,

1.1.153

It stands as an edict in destiny:

1.1.154

Then let us teach our trial patience,

1.1.155

Because it is a customary cross,

1.1.156

As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,

1.1.157

Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers.

LYSANDER:

1.1.158

A good persuasion: therefore, hear me, Hermia.

1.1.159

I have a widow aunt, a dowager

Lysander has a well thought out plan for his escape with Hermia. Not only will they receive a friendly greeting upon arrival, they will be provided for once they settle there.

1.1.160

Of great revenue, and she hath no child:

1.1.161

From Athens is her house remote seven leagues,

1.1.162

And she respects me as her only son.

1.1.163

There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee,

1.1.164

And to that place the sharp Athenian law

1.1.165

Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,

1.1.166

Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night,

1.1.167

And in the wood, a league without the town,

1.1.168

Where I did meet thee once with Helena,

1.1.169

To do observance to a morn of May,

1.1.170

There will I stay for thee.

HERMIA:

1.1.171

My good Lysander!

1.1.172

I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow,

Cupid is the mythological son of Venus, the mischievous young nymph who manipulates situations of love and passion as described by Helena

1.1.173

By his best arrow with the golden head,

1.1.174

By the simplicity of Venus' doves,

Venus is the goddess of love and the mother of Cupid

1.1.175

By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,

1.1.176

And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen,

This line is in reference to Dido, queen of Carthage, who committed suicide after being abandoned by Aneas.

1.1.177

When the false Troyan under sail was seen,

This line is in reference to the Trojan horse, a lengthy account of which is given in Virgil’s Aneid.

The Procession of the Trojan Horse in Troy

1.1.178

By all the vows that ever men have broke,

1.1.179

In number more than ever women spoke,

1.1.180

In that same place thou hast appointed me,

1.1.181

To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.

LYSANDER:

1.1.182

Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.

Enter HELENA

HERMIA:

1.1.183

God speed fair Helena! whither away?

HELENA:

1.1.184

Call you me fair? that fair again unsay.

1.1.185

Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!

1.1.186

Your eyes are lode-stars, and your tongue's sweet air

A lode-star is an archaic term for a star that leads or guides, specifically the North Star.

1.1.187

More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,

1.1.188

When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.

1.1.189

Sickness is catching: O, were favour so,

1.1.190

Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go,

1.1.191

My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,

1.1.192

My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.

1.1.193

Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,

Bated is an obsolete verb meaning here to diminish or decrease.

1.1.194

The rest I'd give to be to you translated.

1.1.195

O, teach me how you look, and with what art

1.1.196

You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.

HERMIA:

1.1.197

I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.

HELENA:

1.1.198

O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!

HERMIA:

1.1.199

I give him curses, yet he gives me love.

HELENA:

1.1.200

O that my prayers could such affection move!

HERMIA:

1.1.201

The more I hate, the more he follows me.

HELENA:

1.1.202

The more I love, the more he hateth me.

HERMIA:

1.1.203

His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.

HELENA:

1.1.204

None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine!

HERMIA:

1.1.205

Take comfort: he no more shall see my face,

1.1.206

Lysander and myself will fly this place.

1.1.207

Before the time I did Lysander see,

1.1.208

Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me:

1.1.209

O, then, what graces in my love do dwell,

1.1.210

That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell!

LYSANDER:

1.1.211

Helen, to you our minds we will unfold:

1.1.212

To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold

Phoebe, better known by her more formal title Diana, is the “goddess of the hunt” and presides over the woodland, nature, and the moon. (See Diana)

1.1.213

Her silver visage in the watery glass,

1.1.214

Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,

“Liquid pearl” here references the dew on the grass.

1.1.215

A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,

1.1.216

Through Athens' gates have we devised to steal.

HERMIA:

1.1.217

And in the wood, where often you and I

1.1.218

Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,

1.1.219

Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,

1.1.220

There my Lysander and myself shall meet,

1.1.221

And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,

1.1.222

To seek new friends and stranger companies.

1.1.223

Farewell, sweet playfellow: pray thou for us,

1.1.224

And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!

1.1.225

Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight

1.1.226

From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.

“Lovers’ food” may here be in reference to feasting their eyes on one another until a later time when they are able to meet again.

LYSANDER:

1.1.227

I will, my Hermia.

Exit HERMIA

LYSANDER:

1.1.228

Helena, adieu:

1.1.229

As you on him, Demetrius dote on you!

To dote means to be lavish or excessive in one’s attention, fondness, or affection.

Exit

HELENA:

1.1.230

How happy some o'er other some can be!

1.1.231

Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.

1.1.232

But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so,

1.1.233

He will not know what all but he do know:

1.1.234

And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,

1.1.235

So I, admiring of his qualities:

1.1.236

Things base and vile, folding no quantity,

1.1.237

Love can transpose to form and dignity:

1.1.238

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,

1.1.239

And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:

Cupid is the mythological son of Venus, the mischievous young nymph who manipulates situations of love and passion as described by Helena

1.1.240

Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste,

1.1.241

Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:

1.1.242

And therefore is Love said to be a child,

1.1.243

Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.

1.1.244

As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,

A wag is a young man or a chap; To forswear means here to reject or renounce under oath.

1.1.245

So the boy Love is perjured every where:

To be purjured means to make a perjurer of (oneself), which is one guilty of false swearing.

1.1.246

For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,

Here, the term eyne refers to her eyes.

1.1.247

He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine,

1.1.248

And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,

1.1.249

So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.

1.1.250

I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:

1.1.251

Then to the wood will he to-morrow night

1.1.252

Pursue her, and for this intelligence

1.1.253

If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:

1.1.254

But herein mean I to enrich my pain,

1.1.255

To have his sight thither and back again.

Thither here means being on the other and farther side.

Exit

SCENE II. Athens. QUINCE'S house.

Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING

QUINCE:

1.2.1

Is all our company here?

Carpenter not just buildings and houses, they had a knowledge of wood in general. Known as an elite tradesman.

BOTTOM:

1.2.2

You were best to call them generally, man by man,

1.2.3

according to the scrip.

Scrip meaning a text or a script.

QUINCE:

1.2.4

Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is

1.2.5

thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our

1.2.6

interlude before the duke and the duchess, on his

1.2.7

wedding-day at night.

BOTTOM:

1.2.8

First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats

1.2.9

on, then read the names of the actors, and so grow

1.2.10

to a point.

QUINCE:

1.2.11

Marry, our play is, The most lamentable comedy, and

Marry meaning an expression of (real or playful) impatience.

1.2.12

most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby.

Pyramus and Thisbe The story of Pyramus and Thisbe, the story that set the stage for Romeo and Juliet.

BOTTOM:

1.2.13

A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a

1.2.14

merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your

Merry meaning hilarious, uproarious, or hysterical.

1.2.15

actors by the scroll. Masters, spread yourselves.

QUINCE:

1.2.16

Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver.

Weaver notorious for giving short measure, and cheating the customer.

BOTTOM:

1.2.17

Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.

QUINCE:

1.2.18

You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.

BOTTOM:

1.2.19

What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant?

QUINCE:

1.2.20

A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love.

Gallant meaning showy, ostentacious, or fancy.

BOTTOM:

1.2.21

That will ask some tears in the true performing of

1.2.22

it: if I do it, let the audience look to their

1.2.23

eyes, I will move storms, I will condole in some

Condole meaning to lament, grieve, or express great sorrow

1.2.24

measure. To the rest: yet my chief humour is for a

1.2.25

tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to

1.2.26

tear a cat in, to make all split.

1.2.27

The raging rocks

The Raging Rocks Quite possibly, this speech given by Bottom was a way for Shakespeare to poke fun at translations of Seneca’s Hercules.

PERFORMANCE TIP: Strong, perfomative, and confident

1.2.28

And shivering shocks

1.2.29

Shall break the locks

1.2.30

Of prison gates,

1.2.31

And Phibbus' car

1.2.32

Shall shine from far

1.2.33

And make and mar

1.2.34

The foolish Fates.

1.2.35

This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players.

1.2.36

This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein, a lover is

1.2.37

more condoling.

QUINCE:

1.2.38

Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.

Bellows Mender a bellow was a tool used to blow air into a fire. Made from wood covered partially in leather. Francis would be the person who fixes this tool most likely.

FLUTE:

1.2.39

Here, Peter Quince.

QUINCE:

1.2.40

Flute, you must take Thisby on you.

FLUTE:

1.2.41

What is Thisby? a wandering knight?

Wandering Knight or Knight-Errant was in fact a wandering knight looking for adventures to exhibit one’s skills, prowess, and generosity.

QUINCE:

1.2.42

It is the lady that Pyramus must love.

FLUTE:

1.2.43

Nay, faith, let me not play a woman, I have a beard coming.

QUINCE:

1.2.44

That's all one: you shall play it in a mask, and

1.2.45

you may speak as small as you will.

Shakespeare and Gender During this period of time, female characters were played by men. Within this play, Flute would perform as Thisbe in a mask.

BOTTOM:

1.2.46

An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too, I'll

1.2.47

speak in a monstrous little voice. 'Thisne,

1.2.48

Thisne,' 'Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! thy Thisby dear,

1.2.49

and lady dear!'

QUINCE:

1.2.50

No, no, you must play Pyramus: and, Flute, you Thisby.

BOTTOM:

1.2.51

Well, proceed.

QUINCE:

1.2.52

Robin Starveling, the tailor.

Tailor similar to a weaver. Clearly someone who works on making a fixing garments.

STARVELING:

1.2.53

Here, Peter Quince.

QUINCE:

1.2.54

Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother.

1.2.55

Tom Snout, the tinker.

Tinker an archaic term for someone who worked as a tinsmith. Mostly mending household utensils.

SNOUT:

1.2.56

Here, Peter Quince.

QUINCE:

1.2.57

You, Pyramus' father: myself, Thisby's father:

1.2.58

Snug, the joiner, you, the lion's part: and, I

Joiner most furniture during this time was made with wood planks and nails. Once proper joints started becoming a regular part of furniture, the men who specialized in this were called joiners.

1.2.59

hope, here is a play fitted.

SNUG:

1.2.60

Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if it

1.2.61

be, give it me, for I am slow of study.

Slow of study meaning that Snug is declaring himself a person who does not learn things quickly.

QUINCE:

1.2.62

You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.

Extempore meaning without preparation, improvised, for the occasion.

BOTTOM:

1.2.63

Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I will

PERFORMANCE TIP: Bottom is a goof. Like most of his dialogue, this statement is among one of the many goofy things he says. Lean into the sillyness with a clear confidence.

1.2.64

do any man's heart good to hear me, I will roar,

1.2.65

that I will make the duke say 'Let him roar again,

1.2.66

let him roar again.'

QUINCE:

1.2.67

An you should do it too terribly, you would fright

1.2.68

the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek,

1.2.69

and that were enough to hang us all.

ALL:

1.2.70

That would hang us, every mother's son.

BOTTOM:

1.2.71

I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the

1.2.72

ladies out of their wits, they would have no more

1.2.73

discretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my

1.2.74

voice so that I will roar you as gently as any

1.2.75

sucking dove, I will roar you an 'twere any

Nighengales were birds that lived in England in the summers. They ate cucumber sandwiches and loved when the smell of rain presaged a storm.

1.2.76

nightingale.

QUINCE:

1.2.77

You can play no part but Pyramus, for Pyramus is a

1.2.78

sweet-faced man, a proper man, as one shall see in a

Nighengales were birds that lived in England in the summers. They ate cucumber sandwiches and loved when the smell of rain presaged a storm.

1.2.79

summer's day, a most lovely gentleman-like man:

1.2.80

therefore you must needs play Pyramus.

BOTTOM:

1.2.81

Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best

1.2.82

to play it in?

QUINCE:

1.2.83

Why, what you will.

BOTTOM:

1.2.84

I will discharge it in either your straw-colour

Straw coloured blonde most likely.

1.2.85

beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain

1.2.86

beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, your

French-crown-colour refering to the top of the head of a frenchman.

1.2.87

perfect yellow.

Perfect Yellow a crown was a coin that had either the king or queen stamoped on it. They were made of gold therefore the perfect yellow.

QUINCE:

1.2.88

Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and

1.2.89

then you will play bare-faced. But, masters, here

1.2.90

are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request

1.2.91

you and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night,

Con meaning to learn by heart. They are asked, as most actors are, to memorize their lines.

1.2.92

and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the

1.2.93

town, by moonlight, there will we rehearse, for if

1.2.94

we meet in the city, we shall be dogged with

Dogged possibly meaning a ferocious or fierce crowd.

1.2.95

company, and our devices known. In the meantime I

1.2.96

will draw a bill of properties, such as our play

1.2.97

wants. I pray you, fail me not.

BOTTOM:

1.2.98

We will meet, and there we may rehearse most

1.2.99

obscenely and courageously. Take pains, be perfect: adieu.

Adieu a farewell.

QUINCE:

1.2.100

At the duke's oak we meet.

The Dukes Oak

BOTTOM:

1.2.101

Enough, hold or cut bow-strings.

Bow-strings this statment could mean many things, but most likely, it is Bottom saying that the group should stick with what they have planned for Pyramus and Thisbe, or abandon the the whole thing. Quitting while they’re ahead.

Exeunt

ACT II

SCENE I. A wood near Athens.

Enter, from opposite sides, a Fairy, and PUCK

PUCK:

2.1.1

How now, spirit! whither wander you?

The term spirit is used to denote members of the fairy world, specifically referring to supernatural beings.

Fairy:

2.1.2

Over hill, over dale,

These short rhyming lines suggest a song. This text was later set to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

2.1.3

Thorough bush, thorough brier,

Thorough in Shakespeare is an old English variant meaning through.

2.1.4

Over park, over pale,

Pale here means a wooden strip forming part of a fence.

2.1.5

Thorough flood, thorough fire,

2.1.6

I do wander everywhere,

2.1.7

Swifter than the moon's sphere,

The moon serves as an image throughout the play, and in this case, the Fairy stating that she is “swifter than the moon’s sphere” may mean that she will have to work quickly to get all of her work done before the moon is gone, or perhaps may mean that she will not fall for the tricks of the moon that the mortal characters will. Read more about the symbolism of the moon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream here.

2.1.8

And I serve the fairy queen,

2.1.9

To dew her orbs upon the green.

This refers to Fairy Rings, which are rings of lush green grass that expand outward. Folklore in the time period said the rings were caused by fairies, and the servant fairy had to water them for the queen.

2.1.10

The cowslips tall her pensioners be:

Cowslips are a flower frequently found in rural England in spring. Her description of them as “tall” indicates her small stature as a fairy.

2.1.11

In their gold coats spots you see,

2.1.12

Those be rubies, fairy favours,

2.1.13

In those freckles live their savours:

2.1.14

I must go seek some dewdrops here

2.1.15

And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.

The idea that pearls were made of dew came from a widely believed, but incorrect theory from first century naturalist and philosopher Pliny.

2.1.16

Farewell, thou lob of spirits, I'll be gone:

Lob means a dull and uncouth person; a lout.

2.1.17

Our queen and all our elves come here anon.

Anon means “right away.”

PUCK:

2.1.18

The king doth keep his revels here to-night:

2.1.19

Take heed the queen come not within his sight,

2.1.20

For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,

2.1.21

Because that she as her attendant hath

2.1.22

A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king,

The Indian boy is referenced directly six times in the play, but never seen. He likely represents colonialism, with Titania and Oberon seeing the exotic boy as a commodity.

2.1.23

She never had so sweet a changeling,

Changeling would be pronounced in three syllables here. The IPA is: tʃe:InʤəlIŋ

Pivotal and Puzzling: The Indian Boy in a Midsummer Night's Dream

2.1.24

And jealous Oberon would have the child

2.1.25

Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild,

2.1.26

But she perforce withholds the loved boy,

Perforce means by force of circumstances or of necessity.

2.1.27

Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy:

2.1.28

And now they never meet in grove or green,

2.1.29

By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,

2.1.30

But, they do square, that all their elves for fear

Square means to quarrel.

2.1.31

Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there.

Fairy:

2.1.32

Either I mistake your shape and making quite,

2.1.33

Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite

Shrewd and Knavish means artful, crafty, and dishonest.

2.1.34

Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he

Robin Goodfellow is a traditional character that appears in a lot of literature. He is mischevious but not malicious.

2.1.35

That frights the maidens of the villagery,

2.1.36

Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern

Farm women in this time period had to churn milk into butter and use a stone hand mill called a quern to grind grain into flour. This line implies Puck miscievously interferes with both of these daily tasks by skimming the fat off of the milk, making it impossible to turn into butter, and by playing tricks with the quern.

2.1.37

And bootless make the breathless housewife churn,

Here, bootless means fruitlessly or unprofitably.

2.1.38

And sometime make the drink to bear no barm,

Barm is the foam on top of a fermenting liquid, such as beer.

2.1.39

Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?

2.1.40

Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,

A Hobgoblin is a house-elf with mischievous intentions.

2.1.41

You do their work, and they shall have good luck:

2.1.42

Are not you he?

PUCK:

2.1.43

Thou speak'st aright,

2.1.44

I am that merry wanderer of the night.

2.1.45

I jest to Oberon and make him smile

2.1.46

When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,

2.1.47

Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:

A filly foal is a baby female horse.

2.1.48

And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,

A gossip’s bowl usually held caudle, a drink similar to modern eggnog. The bowls may also have been used as birthing bows, getting its name from women being present in the birth room.

2.1.49

In very likeness of a roasted crab,

Crab is referring to a crab apple, that might float in the caudle found in the gossip’s bowl.

2.1.50

And when she drinks, against her lips I bob

2.1.51

And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.

Dewlap refers to a flap of skin on the throat.

2.1.52

The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,

2.1.53

Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me,

2.1.54

Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,

2.1.55

And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough,

Crying tailor may be similar to yelling “my buttocks!” and is exclaimed by someone when falling backwards.

2.1.56

And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,

2.1.57

And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear

2.1.58

A merrier hour was never wasted there.

2.1.59

But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon.

Fairy:

2.1.60

And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!

StageDirection:

2.1.60

Enter, from one side, OBERON, with his train, from the other, TITANIA, with hers

OBERON:

2.1.61

Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.

TITANIA:

2.1.62

What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence:

2.1.63

I have forsworn his bed and company.

OBERON:

2.1.64

Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?

A loose translation of Tarry, rash wanton might be “Hang on, you reckless skank!”

TITANIA:

2.1.65

Then I must be thy lady: but I know

2.1.66

When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,

2.1.67

And in the shape of Corin sat all day,

Corin and Phillida are common names for a shepherd and his shepherdess. Titania is accusing Oberon of cheating with mortal women.

2.1.68

Playing on pipes of corn and versing love

2.1.69

To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,

2.1.70

Come from the farthest Steppe of India?

2.1.71

But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,

Forsooth means “in truth” and often implies contempt or doubt

2.1.72

Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love,

Buskined refers to wearing buskins, which are extravagant hunting boots.

2.1.73

To Theseus must be wedded, and you come

2.1.74

To give their bed joy and prosperity.

OBERON:

2.1.75

How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,

2.1.76

Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,

2.1.77

Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?

2.1.78

Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night

2.1.79

From Perigenia, whom he ravished?

Perigenia is five syllables. The pronunciation audio can be found here. The phonetic transcription for pronunciation is: ,pɛ:ɚrə’dʒInijə

2.1.80

And make him with fair AEgle break his faith,

Aegle is a nymph that Theseus abandoned Ariadne for. Pronunciation of her name can be found here.

2.1.81

With Ariadne and Antiopa?

Ariadne helped Theseus in his quest to slay the Minotaur, and they fell in love and eloped. He later abandoned her for Aegle. Pronunciation of Ariadne can be found here.. Antiopa was another lover of Theseus’, with whom he had a son, but he also later abandoned. Pronunciation of Antiopa can be found here.

TITANIA:

2.1.82

These are the forgeries of jealousy:

2.1.83

And never, since the middle summer's spring,

2.1.84

Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,

2.1.85

By paved fountain or by rushy brook,

Rushy means covered with rush.

2.1.86

Or in the beached margent of the sea,

Margent is an archaic word for margin, or edge.

2.1.87

To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,

2.1.88

But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.

2.1.89

Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,

2.1.90

As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea

Titania’s description of the out-of-control weather indicates the time period in which this was written, as the period referred to as The Little Ice Age was well underway.

2.1.91

Contagious fogs, which falling in the land

2.1.92

Have every pelting river made so proud

In this instance, pelting means insignificant.

2.1.93

That they have overborne their continents:

2.1.94

The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,

2.1.95

The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn

2.1.96

Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard,

2.1.97

The fold stands empty in the drowned field,

Drowned should be pronounced in two syllables here to create regular rhythm with the iambic pentameter.

2.1.98

And crows are fatted with the murrion flock,

Murrain flock refers to the sheep that died from infectious disease.

2.1.99

The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud,

Nine Men’s Morris is a strategy game that would have had the pattern outlined in the soil.

2.1.100

And the quaint mazes in the wanton green

Wanton green here refers to luxurious grass. Oberon used the term wanton previously in this scene to negatively describe Titania, and now Titania uses it here in a positive way with the suggestion of growth and abundance.

2.1.101

For lack of tread are undistinguishable:

2.1.102

The human mortals want their winter here,

2.1.103

No night is now with hymn or carol blest:

2.1.104

Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,

2.1.105

Pale in her anger, washes all the air,

2.1.106

That rheumatic diseases do abound:

Rheumatic diseases refers to diseases with watery discharge.

2.1.107

And thorough this distemperature we see

2.1.108

The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts

Hoary-headed refers to having gray or white hair from age

2.1.109

Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,

2.1.110

And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown

This is a personification of Hiems, the coldest season of the year

2.1.111

An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds

2.1.112

Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,

2.1.113

The childing autumn, angry winter, change

2.1.114

Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,

Wonted Liveries refers to accustomed attire

2.1.115

By their increase, now knows not which is which:

2.1.116

And this same progeny of evils comes

2.1.117

From our debate, from our dissension,

Dissension would be pronounced as four syllables.

2.1.118

We are their parents and original.

OBERON:

2.1.119

Do you amend it then, it lies in you:

2.1.120

Why should Titania cross her Oberon?

2.1.121

I do but beg a little changeling boy,

2.1.122

To be my henchman.

TITANIA:

2.1.123

Set your heart at rest:

2.1.124

The fairy land buys not the child of me.

2.1.125

His mother was a votaress of my order:

Votaress would be pronounced in two syllables here, and is a woman who is a devoted follower or admirer, known as a votary

2.1.126

And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,

2.1.127

Full often hath she gossip'd by my side,

2.1.128

And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,

Neptune is the god of the sea

2.1.129

Marking the embarked traders on the flood,

2.1.130

When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive

2.1.131

And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,

2.1.132

Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait

2.1.133

Following,--her womb then rich with my young squire,--

2.1.134

Would imitate, and sail upon the land,

2.1.135

To fetch me trifles, and return again,

2.1.136

As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.

2.1.137

But she, being mortal, of that boy did die,

Approximately one percent of women died in childbirth during this time period, making death by childbirth a stadard trope for mortality.

2.1.138

And for her sake do I rear up her boy,

2.1.139

And for her sake I will not part with him.

OBERON:

2.1.140

How long within this wood intend you stay?

TITANIA:

2.1.141

Perchance till after Theseus' wedding-day.

2.1.142

If you will patiently dance in our round

2.1.143

And see our moonlight revels, go with us,

2.1.144

If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

In this occurence, spare means avoid

OBERON:

2.1.145

Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.

TITANIA:

2.1.146

Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away!

2.1.147

We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.

Exit TITANIA with her train

OBERON:

2.1.148

Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove

2.1.149

Till I torment thee for this injury.

2.1.150

My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest

2.1.151

Since once I sat upon a promontory,

2.1.152

And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back

2.1.153

Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath

2.1.154

That the rude sea grew civil at her song

2.1.155

And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,

2.1.156

To hear the sea-maid's music.

PUCK:

2.1.157

I remember.

OBERON:

2.1.158

That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,

2.1.159

Flying between the cold moon and the earth,

2.1.160

Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took

2.1.161

At a fair vestal throned by the west,

Vestal means virgin, and in this instance is likely an allusion to Queen Elizabeth.

2.1.162

And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,

2.1.163

As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts,

2.1.164

But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft

2.1.165

Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon,

Watery should be pronounced in two syllables. The watery moon is a reference to the goddess of the moon, Diana.

2.1.166

And the imperial votaress passed on,

2.1.167

In maiden meditation, fancy-free.

2.1.168

Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:

2.1.169

It fell upon a little western flower,

2.1.170

Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,

2.1.171

And maidens call it love-in-idleness.

Love in idleness refers to the pansy.

2.1.172

Fetch me that flower, the herb I shew'd thee once:

2.1.173

The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid

2.1.174

Will make or man or woman madly dote

2.1.175

Upon the next live creature that it sees.

2.1.176

Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again

2.1.177

Ere the leviathan can swim a league.

The leviathan is a biblical sea serpent, depicted in a drawing here.

PUCK:

2.1.178

I'll put a girdle round about the earth

2.1.179

In forty minutes.

Exit

OBERON:

2.1.180

Having once this juice,

2.1.181

I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,

2.1.182

And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.

2.1.183

The next thing then she waking looks upon,

2.1.184

Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,

2.1.185

On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,

2.1.186

She shall pursue it with the soul of love:

Soul of love refers to the deepest or purest love, by using soul to mean the quintessence

2.1.187

And ere I take this charm from off her sight,

2.1.188

As I can take it with another herb,

2.1.189

I'll make her render up her page to me.

2.1.190

But who comes here? I am invisible,

2.1.191

And I will overhear their conference.

Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA, following him

DEMETRIUS:

2.1.192

I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.

2.1.193

Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?

2.1.194

The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.

Stay means cause to stop or pause, so he is saying he’ll cause Lysander to stop because Demetrius believes he is in love with Hermia, and Hermia causes him to stop in order to woo her.

2.1.195

Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood,

2.1.196

And here am I, and wode within this wood,

2.1.197

Because I cannot meet my Hermia.

2.1.198

Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.

HELENA:

2.1.199

You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant,

Adamant is referring to a naturally occurring magnet. Helena is pointing out her attraction to Demetrius like a piece of metal to a magnet.

2.1.200

But yet you draw not iron, for my heart

Steel is stronger and more trustworthy than iron.

2.1.201

Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw,

2.1.202

And I shall have no power to follow you.

DEMETRIUS:

2.1.203

Do I entice you? do I speak you fair?

Speak you fair means speak with kindness.

2.1.204

Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth

2.1.205

Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?

HELENA:

2.1.206

And even for that do I love you the more.

2.1.207

I am your spaniel, and, Demetrius,

This is Helena’s lowest point of groveling, asking Demetrius to treat her like a dog that he beats, and telling him that the more he beats her, the more she will love him.. Staging often includes Helena crawling on the floor after Demetrius.

2.1.208

The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:

2.1.209

Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,

2.1.210

Neglect me, lose me, only give me leave,

Loose and Lose in this time period were interchangable spelling variants for both meanings that are distinguished by the spelling difference now. Either definition works here.

2.1.211

Unworthy as I am, to follow you.

2.1.212

What worser place can I beg in your love,--

2.1.213

And yet a place of high respect with me,--

2.1.214

Than to be used as you use your dog?

DEMETRIUS:

2.1.215

Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit,

2.1.216

For I am sick when I do look on thee.

HELENA:

2.1.217

And I am sick when I look not on you.

DEMETRIUS:

2.1.218

You do impeach your modesty too much,

Impeach means to call into question.

2.1.219

To leave the city and commit yourself

2.1.220

Into the hands of one that loves you not,

2.1.221

To trust the opportunity of night

2.1.222

And the ill counsel of a desert place

Ill counsel of a desert place refers to the temptation of being alone.

2.1.223

With the rich worth of your virginity.

HELENA:

2.1.224

Your virtue is my privilege: for that

2.1.225

It is not night when I do see your face,

2.1.226

Therefore I think I am not in the night,

2.1.227

Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,

2.1.228

For you in my respect are all the world:

2.1.229

Then how can it be said I am alone,

2.1.230

When all the world is here to look on me?

DEMETRIUS:

2.1.231

I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,

2.1.232

And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.

HELENA:

2.1.233

The wildest hath not such a heart as you.

2.1.234

Run when you will, the story shall be changed:

2.1.235

Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase,

A suggestion of reversal of the Greek myth of Apollo and Daphne, a story in which the nymph Daphne asked to be turned into a tree to escape the god Apollo, who insistently pursued her.

2.1.236

The dove pursues the griffin, the mild hind

The Griffin is a mythological creature that is half lion, half eagle, as seen in this painting.

2.1.237

Makes speed to catch the tiger, bootless speed,

Bootless speed refers to futile speed that cannot reach its target.

2.1.238

When cowardice pursues and valour flies.

DEMETRIUS:

2.1.239

I will not stay thy questions, let me go:

2.1.240

Or, if thou follow me, do not believe

2.1.241

But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.

Mischeif here means serious harm or injury.

HELENA:

2.1.242

Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,

2.1.243

You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!

2.1.244

Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:

2.1.245

We cannot fight for love, as men may do,

2.1.246

We should be wood and were not made to woo.

Exit DEMETRIUS

HELENA:

2.1.247

I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,

2.1.248

To die upon the hand I love so well.

Exit

OBERON:

2.1.249

Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove,

2.1.250

Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love.

Re-enter PUCK

OBERON:

2.1.251

Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.

PUCK:

2.1.252

Ay, there it is.

OBERON:

2.1.253

I pray thee, give it me.

There is no need to attempt to regulate the iambic pentameter here. The short and irregular lines suggest a song. The rhythm returns to iambic pentameter after the first five lines of this soliloquy.

2.1.254

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

This text was set to music for SATB choir by Richard Ewer in 2020.

2.1.255

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

2.1.256

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

Woodbineis a type of climbing plant. Sometimes it is honeysuckle, or other times it is convolvulus woodbine.

2.1.257

With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:

Eglantine is a wild rose.

2.1.258

There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,

2.1.259

Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight,

2.1.260

And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,

2.1.261

Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:

2.1.262

And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,

2.1.263

And make her full of hateful fantasies.

2.1.264

Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:

2.1.265

A sweet Athenian lady is in love

2.1.266

With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes,

2.1.267

But do it when the next thing he espies

2.1.268

May be the lady: thou shalt know the man

2.1.269

By the Athenian garments he hath on.

2.1.270

Effect it with some care, that he may prove

2.1.271

More fond on her than she upon her love:

2.1.272

And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.

PUCK:

2.1.273

Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.

Exeunt

SCENE II. Another part of the wood.

Enter TITANIA, with her train

TITANIA:

2.2.1

Come, now a roundel and a fairy song,

2.2.2

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

2.2.3

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.

2.2.4

Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,

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

2.2.5

To make my small elves coats, and some keep back

2.2.6

The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders

2.2.7

At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep,

2.2.8

Then to your offices and let me rest.

The Fairies sing

TITANIA:

2.2.9

You spotted snakes with double tongue,

2.2.10

Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen,

2.2.11

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.

2.2.12

Come not near our fairy queen.

2.2.13

Philomel, with melody

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

2.2.14

Sing in our sweet lullaby,

2.2.15

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

2.2.16

Never harm,

2.2.17

Nor spell nor charm,

2.2.18

Come our lovely lady nigh,

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

2.2.19

So, good night, with lullaby.

2.2.20

Weaving spiders, come not here,

2.2.21

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

Spinners here in reference to spiders.

2.2.22

Beetles black, approach not near,

2.2.23

Worm nor snail, do no offence.

2.2.24

Philomel, with melody, and c.

Fairy:

2.2.25

Hence, away! now all is well:

2.2.26

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:

2.2.27

What thou seest when thou dost wake,

2.2.28

Do it for thy true-love take,

2.2.29

Love and languish for his sake:

2.2.30

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.)

2.2.31

Pard, or boar with bristled hair,

A pard is an arhaic term for a leopard.

2.2.32

In thy eye that shall appear

2.2.33

When thou wakest, it is thy dear:

2.2.34

Wake when some vile thing is near.

Exit

Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA

LYSANDER:

2.2.35

Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood,

2.2.36

And to speak troth, I have forgot our way:

2.2.37

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

2.2.38

And tarry for the comfort of the day.

HERMIA:

2.2.39

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

2.2.40

For I upon this bank will rest my head.

LYSANDER:

2.2.41

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.

2.2.42

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

HERMIA:

2.2.43

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

2.2.44

Lie further off yet, do not lie so near.

LYSANDER:

2.2.45

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

2.2.46

Love takes the meaning in love's conference.

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

2.2.47

I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit

2.2.48

So that but one heart we can make of it,

2.2.49

Two bosoms interchained with an oath,

2.2.50

So then two bosoms and a single troth.

A troth is loyal or pledged faithfulness.

2.2.51

Then by your side no bed-room me deny,

2.2.52

For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.

HERMIA:

2.2.53

Lysander riddles very prettily:

2.2.54

Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,

2.2.55

If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied.

2.2.56

But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy

2.2.57

Lie further off, in human modesty,

2.2.58

Such separation as may well be said

2.2.59

Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid,

2.2.60

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

2.2.61

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

LYSANDER:

2.2.62

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

2.2.63

And then end life when I end loyalty!

2.2.64

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

HERMIA:

2.2.65

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

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

They sleep

Enter PUCK

PUCK:

2.2.66

Through the forest have I gone.

2.2.67

But Athenian found I none,

2.2.68

On whose eyes I might approve

2.2.69

This flower's force in stirring love.

2.2.70

Night and silence.--Who is here?

2.2.71

Weeds of Athens he doth wear:

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

2.2.72

This is he, my master said,

2.2.73

Despised the Athenian maid,

2.2.74

And here the maiden, sleeping sound,

2.2.75

On the dank and dirty ground.

2.2.76

Pretty soul! she durst not lie

2.2.77

Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.

2.2.78

Churl, upon thy eyes I throw

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

2.2.79

All the power this charm doth owe.

2.2.80

When thou wakest, let love forbid

2.2.81

Sleep his seat on thy eyelid:

2.2.82

So awake when I am gone,

2.2.83

For I must now to Oberon.

Exit

Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running

HELENA:

2.2.84

Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.

DEMETRIUS:

2.2.85

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

HELENA:

2.2.86

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

Darkling is an adverb meaning in darkness.

DEMETRIUS:

2.2.87

Stay, on thy peril: I alone will go.

Exit

HELENA:

2.2.88

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

2.2.89

The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.

2.2.90

Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies,

2.2.91

For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.

2.2.92

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

2.2.93

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

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

2.2.94

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

2.2.95

For beasts that meet me run away for fear:

2.2.96

Therefore no marvel though Demetrius

2.2.97

Do, as a monster fly my presence thus.

2.2.98

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.

2.2.99

Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne?

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

2.2.100

But who is here? Lysander! on the ground!

2.2.101

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

2.2.102

Lysander if you live, good sir, awake.

LYSANDER:

2.2.103

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

2.2.104

Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,

2.2.105

That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.

2.2.106

Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word

2.2.107

Is that vile name to perish on my sword!

HELENA:

2.2.108

Do not say so, Lysander, say not so

2.2.109

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

2.2.110

Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content.

LYSANDER:

2.2.111

Content with Hermia! No, I do repent

2.2.112

The tedious minutes I with her have spent.

2.2.113

Not Hermia but Helena I love:

2.2.114

Who will not change a raven for a dove?

2.2.115

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

2.2.116

And reason says you are the worthier maid.

2.2.117

Things growing are not ripe until their season

2.2.118

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

2.2.119

And touching now the point of human skill,

2.2.120

Reason becomes the marshal to my will

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

2.2.121

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

2.2.122

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

HELENA:

2.2.123

Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?

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

2.2.124

When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?

2.2.125

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

2.2.126

That I did never, no, nor never can,

2.2.127

Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye,

2.2.128

But you must flout my insufficiency?

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

2.2.129

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

2.2.130

In such disdainful manner me to woo.

2.2.131

But fare you well: perforce I must confess

Perforce here means by force of circumstances or of necessity.

2.2.132

I thought you lord of more true gentleness.

2.2.133

O, that a lady, of one man refused.

2.2.134

Should of another therefore be abused!

Exit

LYSANDER:

2.2.135

She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there:

2.2.136

And never mayst thou come Lysander near!

2.2.137

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.

2.2.138

The deepest loathing to the stomach brings,

2.2.139

Or as tie heresies that men do leave

2.2.140

Are hated most of those they did deceive,

2.2.141

So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,

2.2.142

Of all be hated, but the most of me!

2.2.143

And, all my powers, address your love and might

2.2.144

To honour Helen and to be her knight!

Exit

HERMIA:

2.2.145

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

2.2.146

To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!

2.2.147

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

2.2.148

Lysander, look how I do quake with fear:

2.2.149

Methought a serpent eat my heart away,

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

2.2.150

And you sat smiling at his cruel pray.

2.2.151

Lysander! what, removed? Lysander! lord!

2.2.152

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

2.2.153

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

2.2.154

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

2.2.155

No? then I well perceive you all not nigh

2.2.156

Either death or you I'll find immediately.

Exit

ACT III

SCENE I. The wood. TITANIA lying asleep.

Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING

BOTTOM:

3.1.1

Are we all met?

QUINCE:

3.1.2

Pat, pat, and here's a marvellous convenient place

3.1.3

for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our

3.1.4

stage, this hawthorn-brake our tiring-house, and we

3.1.5

will do it in action as we will do it before the duke.

BOTTOM:

3.1.6

Peter Quince,--

QUINCE:

3.1.7

What sayest thou, bully Bottom?

BOTTOM:

3.1.8

There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and

3.1.9

Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must

3.1.10

draw a sword to kill himself, which the ladies

3.1.11

cannot abide. How answer you that?

SNOUT:

3.1.12

By'r lakin, a parlous fear.

STARVELING:

3.1.13

I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.

BOTTOM:

3.1.14

Not a whit: I have a device to make all well.

3.1.15

Write me a prologue, and let the prologue seem to

3.1.16

say, we will do no harm with our swords, and that

3.1.17

Pyramus is not killed indeed, and, for the more

3.1.18

better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not

3.1.19

Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put them

3.1.20

out of fear.

QUINCE:

3.1.21

Well, we will have such a prologue, and it shall be

3.1.22

written in eight and six.

BOTTOM:

3.1.23

No, make it two more, let it be written in eight and eight.

SNOUT:

3.1.24

Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?

STARVELING:

3.1.25

I fear it, I promise you.

BOTTOM:

3.1.26

Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves: to

3.1.27

bring in--God shield us!--a lion among ladies, is a

3.1.28

most dreadful thing, for there is not a more fearful

3.1.29

wild-fowl than your lion living, and we ought to

3.1.30

look to 't.

SNOUT:

3.1.31

Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion.

BOTTOM:

3.1.32

Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must

3.1.33

be seen through the lion's neck: and he himself

3.1.34

must speak through, saying thus, or to the same

3.1.35

defect,--'Ladies,'--or 'Fair-ladies--I would wish

3.1.36

You,'--or 'I would request you,'--or 'I would

3.1.37

entreat you,--not to fear, not to tremble: my life

3.1.38

for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it

3.1.39

were pity of my life: no I am no such thing, I am a

3.1.40

man as other men are,' and there indeed let him name

3.1.41

his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner.

QUINCE:

3.1.42

Well it shall be so. But there is two hard things,

3.1.43

that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber, for,

3.1.44

you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moonlight.

SNOUT:

3.1.45

Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?

BOTTOM:

3.1.46

A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanac, find

3.1.47

out moonshine, find out moonshine.

QUINCE:

3.1.48

Yes, it doth shine that night.

BOTTOM:

3.1.49

Why, then may you leave a casement of the great

3.1.50

chamber window, where we play, open, and the moon

3.1.51

may shine in at the casement.

QUINCE:

3.1.52

Ay, or else one must come in with a bush of thorns

3.1.53

and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure, or to

3.1.54

present, the person of Moonshine. Then, there is

3.1.55

another thing: we must have a wall in the great

3.1.56

chamber, for Pyramus and Thisby says the story, did

3.1.57

talk through the chink of a wall.

SNOUT:

3.1.58

You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom?

BOTTOM:

3.1.59

Some man or other must present Wall: and let him

3.1.60

have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast

3.1.61

about him, to signify wall, and let him hold his

3.1.62

fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus

3.1.63

and Thisby whisper.

QUINCE:

3.1.64

If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down,

3.1.65

every mother's son, and rehearse your parts.

3.1.66

Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken your

3.1.67

speech, enter into that brake: and so every one

3.1.68

according to his cue.

Enter PUCK behind

PUCK:

3.1.69

What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here,

3.1.70

So near the cradle of the fairy queen?

3.1.71

What, a play toward! I'll be an auditor,

3.1.72

An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause.

QUINCE:

3.1.73

Speak, Pyramus. Thisby, stand forth.

BOTTOM:

3.1.74

Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet,--

QUINCE:

3.1.75

Odours, odours.

BOTTOM:

3.1.76

--odours savours sweet:

3.1.77

So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear.

3.1.78

But hark, a voice! stay thou but here awhile,

3.1.79

And by and by I will to thee appear.

Exit

PUCK:

3.1.80

A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here.

Exit

FLUTE:

3.1.81

Must I speak now?

QUINCE:

3.1.82

Ay, marry, must you, for you must understand he goes

3.1.83

but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again.

FLUTE:

3.1.84

Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue,

3.1.85

Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier,

3.1.86

Most brisky juvenal and eke most lovely Jew,

3.1.87

As true as truest horse that yet would never tire,

3.1.88

I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb.

QUINCE:

3.1.89

Ninus' tomb,' man: why, you must not speak that

3.1.90

yet, that you answer to Pyramus: you speak all your

3.1.91

part at once, cues and all Pyramus enter: your cue

3.1.92

is past, it is, 'never tire.'

FLUTE:

3.1.93

O,--As true as truest horse, that yet would

3.1.94

never tire.

Re-enter PUCK, and BOTTOM with an ass's head

BOTTOM:

3.1.95

If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine.

QUINCE:

3.1.96

O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted. Pray,

3.1.97

masters! fly, masters! Help!

Exeunt QUINCE, SNUG, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING

PUCK:

3.1.98

I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round,

3.1.99

Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier:

3.1.100

Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound,

3.1.101

A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire,

3.1.102

And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,

3.1.103

Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.

Exit

BOTTOM:

3.1.104

Why do they run away? this is a knavery of them to

3.1.105

make me afeard.

Re-enter SNOUT

SNOUT:

3.1.106

O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on thee?

BOTTOM:

3.1.107

What do you see? you see an asshead of your own, do

3.1.108

you?

Exit SNOUT

Re-enter QUINCE

QUINCE:

3.1.109

Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art

3.1.110

translated.

Exit

BOTTOM:

3.1.111

I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me,

3.1.112

to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir

3.1.113

from this place, do what they can: I will walk up

3.1.114

and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear

3.1.115

I am not afraid.

Sings

BOTTOM:

3.1.116

The ousel cock so black of hue,

3.1.117

With orange-tawny bill,

3.1.118

The throstle with his note so true,

3.1.119

The wren with little quill,--

TITANIA:

3.1.120

[Awaking] What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?

BOTTOM:

3.1.121

[Sings]

3.1.122

The finch, the sparrow and the lark,

3.1.123

The plain-song cuckoo gray,

3.1.124

Whose note full many a man doth mark,

3.1.125

And dares not answer nay,--

3.1.126

for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish

3.1.127

a bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry

3.1.128

cuckoo' never so?

TITANIA:

3.1.129

I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:

3.1.130

Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note,

3.1.131

So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape,

3.1.132

And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me

3.1.133

On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.

BOTTOM:

3.1.134

Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason

3.1.135

for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and

3.1.136

love keep little company together now-a-days, the

3.1.137

more the pity that some honest neighbours will not

3.1.138

make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.

TITANIA:

3.1.139

Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.

BOTTOM:

3.1.140

Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get out

3.1.141

of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.

TITANIA:

3.1.142

Out of this wood do not desire to go:

3.1.143

Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.

3.1.144

I am a spirit of no common rate,

3.1.145

The summer still doth tend upon my state,

3.1.146

And I do love thee: therefore, go with me,

3.1.147

I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,

3.1.148

And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,

3.1.149

And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep,

3.1.150

And I will purge thy mortal grossness so

3.1.151

That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.

3.1.152

Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed!

Enter PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, and MUSTARDSEED

PEASEBLOSSOM:

3.1.153

Ready.

COBWEB:

3.1.154

And I.

MOTH:

3.1.155

And I.

MUSTARDSEED:

3.1.156

And I.

ALL:

3.1.157

Where shall we go?

TITANIA:

3.1.158

Be kind and courteous to this gentleman,

3.1.159

Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes,

3.1.160

Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,

3.1.161

With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries,

3.1.162

The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees,

3.1.163

And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs

3.1.164

And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,

3.1.165

To have my love to bed and to arise,

3.1.166

And pluck the wings from Painted butterflies

3.1.167

To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:

3.1.168

Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.

PEASEBLOSSOM:

3.1.169

Hail, mortal!

COBWEB:

3.1.170

Hail!

MOTH:

3.1.171

Hail!

MUSTARDSEED:

3.1.172

Hail!

BOTTOM:

3.1.173

I cry your worship's mercy, heartily: I beseech your

3.1.174

worship's name.

COBWEB:

3.1.175

Cobweb.

BOTTOM:

3.1.176

I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master

3.1.177

Cobweb: if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with

3.1.178

you. Your name, honest gentleman?

PEASEBLOSSOM:

3.1.179

Peaseblossom.

BOTTOM:

3.1.180

I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your

3.1.181

mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. Good

3.1.182

Master Peaseblossom, I shall desire you of more

3.1.183

acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you, sir?

MUSTARDSEED:

3.1.184

Mustardseed.

BOTTOM:

3.1.185

Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience well:

3.1.186

that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath

3.1.187

devoured many a gentleman of your house: I promise

3.1.188

you your kindred had made my eyes water ere now. I

3.1.189

desire your more acquaintance, good Master

3.1.190

Mustardseed.

TITANIA:

3.1.191

Come, wait upon him, lead him to my bower.

3.1.192

The moon methinks looks with a watery eye,

3.1.193

And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,

3.1.194

Lamenting some enforced chastity.

3.1.195

Tie up my love's tongue bring him silently.

Exeunt

SCENE II. Another part of the wood.

Enter OBERON

OBERON:

3.2.1

I wonder if Titania be awaked,

3.2.2

Then, what it was that next came in her eye,

3.2.3

Which she must dote on in extremity.

She must love to the highest degree.

Enter PUCK

OBERON:

3.2.4

Here comes my messenger.

3.2.5

How now, mad spirit!

3.2.6

What night-rule now about this haunted grove?

Night-rule: chaos or lack of order. This is part of the theme that in Shakespeare’s time, deviation from the prescribed social order creates disorder on the large and small scale. Haunted, in this case, means regularly visited rather than ghostly.

Enter a rabble of plebeians! Social disorder in Shakespeare's England

PUCK:

3.2.7

My mistress with a monster is in love.

PERFORMANCE TIP: What is Puck’s attitude when delivering this line? Is he horrified? Amused? Make a strong choice and play it! Look to the rest of the speech for clues.

3.2.8

Near to her close and consecrated bower,

Close in this case means hidden. A bower is a shady clearing in a garden or forest.

3.2.9

While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,

While she was asleep.

3.2.10

A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,

patches: simple (not smart) people; rude: unsophisticated; mechanicals: workers

3.2.11

That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,

They earn their livings in shops or booths (stalls.)

3.2.12

Were met together to rehearse a play

3.2.13

Intended for great Theseus' nuptial-day.

nuptial day wedding day

3.2.14

The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort,

The one who played Pyramus who was the stupidest of them, sat in the bushes after finishing his scene to wait for his next cue.

3.2.15

Who Pyramus presented, in their sport

3.2.16

Forsook his scene and enter'd in a brake

3.2.17

When I did him at this advantage take,

3.2.18

An ass's nole I fixed on his head:

ass’s nole: donkey’s head

3.2.19

Anon his Thisbe must be answered,

Anon: Soon; mimic: An actor; fowler: a bird hunter; russet-pated choughs: an antiquated term for brown-headed jackdaws or crows; sever themselves: go in seperate directions Soon after, he had to go back on stage to answer Thisbe, so he went back on stage. When the other actors saw him, they ran away like a bunch of geese frightened by a gunshot.

3.2.20

And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy,

3.2.21

As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,

3.2.22

Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort,

3.2.23

Rising and cawing at the gun's report,

3.2.24

Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky,

3.2.25

So, at his sight, away his fellows fly,

3.2.26

And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls,

In folk stories, Puck has can shake the ground by stomping (stamping) his foot. According to the Folger edition of the play: “his use of ‘our’ is puzzling. It has been suggested that ‘at our stamp’ is a misprint of ‘at a stump.’” This line can be interpreted as: When one of them heard my footsteps, he fell over (frightened) OR One of them fell over a tree stump (as he was running). Both fit the meter of the line, so either version can be used.

Robin Goodfellow, His Mad Pranks and Merry Jests

3.2.27

He murder cries and help from Athens calls.

He (the one who fell) yelled “murder” and called for help from Athens.

3.2.28

Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears

With their common sense weakened by the strength of their fear, they believed that inanimate objects were trying to harm them.

3.2.29

thus strong,

3.2.30

Made senseless things begin to do them wrong,

3.2.31

For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch,

yielders: cowards Briars and thorns snagged their clothing, including sleeves and hats. Everything seems to be on the attack to a coward*

3.2.32

Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all

3.2.33

things catch.

3.2.34

I led them on in this distracted fear,

3.2.35

And left sweet Pyramus translated there:

translated: transformed

3.2.36

When in that moment, so it came to pass,

At that moment, Titania woke up and fell in love with Bottom (with his donkey’s head)

3.2.37

Titania waked and straightway loved an ass.

OBERON:

3.2.38

This falls out better than I could devise.

falls out: happened or turned out

3.2.39

But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes

latch’d: caught

3.2.40

With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?

PUCK:

3.2.41

I took him sleeping,--that is finish'd too,--

3.2.42

And the Athenian woman by his side:

3.2.43

That, when he waked, of force she must be eyed.

of force: will have to; eyed: seen

Enter HERMIA and DEMETRIUS

OBERON:

3.2.44

Stand close: this is the same Athenian.

Stand close: Hide

PUCK:

3.2.45

This is the woman, but not this the man.

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.46

O, why rebuke you him that loves you so?

3.2.47

Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.

HERMIA:

3.2.48

Now I but chide, but I should use thee worse,

chide - to scold

3.2.49

For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse,

3.2.50

If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,

3.2.51

Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep,

3.2.52

And kill me too.

3.2.53

The sun was not so true unto the day

3.2.54

As he to me: would he have stolen away

In this context, stolen away means “snuck away”.

3.2.55

From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon

3.2.56

This whole earth may be bored and that the moon

3.2.57

May through the centre creep and so displease

3.2.58

Her brother's noontide with Antipodes.

noontide with Antipodes

3.2.59

It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him,

3.2.60

So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim.

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.61

So should the murder'd look, and so should I,

3.2.62

Pierced through the heart with your stern cruelty:

3.2.63

Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear,

3.2.64

As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere.

This reference is in regards to Venus, the goddess of love. In 1593, Shakespeare’s poem [Venus and Adonis] was published. (http://www.shakespeare-w.com/english/shakespeare/w_venus.html)

HERMIA:

3.2.65

What's this to my Lysander? where is he?

3.2.66

Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me?

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.67

I had rather give his carcass to my hounds.

HERMIA:

3.2.68

Out, dog! out, cur! thou drivest me past the bounds

3.2.69

Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him, then?

3.2.70

Henceforth be never number'd among men!

3.2.71

O, once tell true, tell true, even for my sake!

3.2.72

Durst thou have look'd upon him being awake,

durst - an archaic past tense of dare.

3.2.73

And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch!

3.2.74

Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?

An [adder] is an Old English term for serpent. (https://www.livescience.com/54227-adder-facts.html)

3.2.75

An adder did it, for with doubler tongue

3.2.76

Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.77

You spend your passion on a misprised mood:

In this context, misprised means mistaken.

3.2.78

I am not guilty of Lysander's blood,

3.2.79

Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.

HERMIA:

3.2.80

I pray thee, tell me then that he is well.

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.81

An if I could, what should I get therefore?

HERMIA:

3.2.82

A privilege never to see me more.

3.2.83

And from thy hated presence part I so:

3.2.84

See me no more, whether he be dead or no.

Exit

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.85

There is no following her in this fierce vein:

3.2.86

Here therefore for a while I will remain.

3.2.87

So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow

3.2.88

For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe:

3.2.89

Which now in some slight measure it will pay,

3.2.90

If for his tender here I make some stay.

Lies down and sleeps

OBERON:

3.2.91

What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite

PERFORMANCE TIP: What is Oberon’s attitude here? Is he angry? Disappointed? What would cause this feeling in such an alien and powerful creature?

3.2.92

And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight:

you’ve put the potion on the eyes of someone who was in true love

3.2.93

Of thy misprision must perforce ensue

misprision: mistake; perforce: inevitably Your mistake has caused this guy’s true love for someone else to fail instead of making his false love turn to true love.

3.2.94

Some true love turn'd and not a false turn'd true.

PUCK:

3.2.95

Then fate o'er-rules, that, one man holding troth,

holding troth: keeping an oath Puck is blaming his mistake on fate and making the case that for every one person who keeps their oath, there are a miollion others who do not.

PERFORMANCE TIP: What is Puck trying to do here? He’s in trouble with Oberon for making a mistake. How is he reacting to Oberon’s criticism?

3.2.96

A million fail, confounding oath on oath.

OBERON:

3.2.97

About the wood go swifter than the wind,

3.2.98

And Helena of Athens look thou find:

3.2.99

All fancy-sick she is and pale of cheer,

fancy-sick: love-sick; *cheer:** face

3.2.100

With sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear:

In Shakespeare’s time, scientists and doctors believed that the body was ruled by the four humours (blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm). Each was connected to an element. Blood is connected to air, so sighing or exhaling is depleting the blood humour.

And There's the Humor of it: Shakespeare and the Four Humors

3.2.101

By some illusion see thou bring her here:

3.2.102

I'll charm his eyes against she do appear.

PUCK:

3.2.103

I go, I go, look how I go,

3.2.104

Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow.

Tartar’s bow: (archaic spelling) a bow of the Tatar people. This bow is more powerful and more accurate than the English bow.

Exit

OBERON:

3.2.105

Flower of this purple dye,

PERFORMANCE TIP: Oberon is casting a spell here. How might that differ from dialogue or a regular monologue? Might this be set to music to set it apart from regular dialogue?

3.2.106

Hit with Cupid's archery,

3.2.107

Sink in apple of his eye.

3.2.108

When his love he doth espy,

3.2.109

Let her shine as gloriously

3.2.110

As the Venus of the sky.

3.2.111

When thou wakest, if she be by,

3.2.112

Beg of her for remedy.

Re-enter PUCK

PUCK:

3.2.113

Captain of our fairy band,

3.2.114

Helena is here at hand,

3.2.115

And the youth, mistook by me,

3.2.116

Pleading for a lover's fee.

3.2.117

Shall we their fond pageant see?

fond pageant: silly scene or spectacle

3.2.118

Lord, what fools these mortals be!

OBERON:

3.2.119

Stand aside: the noise they make

*Stand aside:** hide

3.2.120

Will cause Demetrius to awake.

PUCK:

3.2.121

Then will two at once woo one,

Both of them will woo the same woman

3.2.122

That must needs be sport alone,

sport: entertainment

3.2.123

And those things do best please me

3.2.124

That befal preposterously.

Enter LYSANDER and HELENA

LYSANDER:

3.2.125

Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?

3.2.126

Scorn and derision never come in tears:

3.2.127

Look, when I vow, I weep, and vows so born,

3.2.128

In their nativity all truth appears.

3.2.129

How can these things in me seem scorn to you,

3.2.130

Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true?

HELENA:

3.2.131

You do advance your cunning more and more.

3.2.132

When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray!

3.2.133

These vows are Hermia's: will you give her o'er?

3.2.134

Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh:

3.2.135

Your vows to her and me, put in two scales,

3.2.136

Will even weigh, and both as light as tales.

LYSANDER:

3.2.137

I had no judgment when to her I swore.

HELENA:

3.2.138

Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er.

LYSANDER:

3.2.139

Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.140

[Awaking] O Helena, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!

In Greek mythology, a [nymph] is a minor deity often depicted as nature personified or as a beautiful maiden. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymph)

3.2.141

To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne?

3.2.142

Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show

3.2.143

Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!

3.2.144

That pure congealed white, high Taurus snow,

In this passage, Demetrius compares Helena’s hand to the beauty of the snow-capped [Taurus mountains] in Turkey. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurus_Mountains)

3.2.145

Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow

3.2.146

When thou hold'st up thy hand: O, let me kiss

3.2.147

This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!

HELENA:

3.2.148

O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent

3.2.149

To set against me for your merriment:

3.2.150

If you we re civil and knew courtesy,

3.2.151

You would not do me thus much injury.

3.2.152

Can you not hate me, as I know you do,

3.2.153

But you must join in souls to mock me too?

3.2.154

If you were men, as men you are in show,

3.2.155

You would not use a gentle lady so,

3.2.156

To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts,

3.2.157

When I am sure you hate me with your hearts.

3.2.158

You both are rivals, and love Hermia,

3.2.159

And now both rivals, to mock Helena:

3.2.160

A trim exploit, a manly enterprise,

3.2.161

To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes

3.2.162

With your derision! none of noble sort

3.2.163

Would so offend a virgin, and extort

3.2.164

A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport.

LYSANDER:

3.2.165

You are unkind, Demetrius, be not so,

3.2.166

For you love Hermia, this you know I know:

3.2.167

And here, with all good will, with all my heart,

3.2.168

In Hermia's love I yield you up my part,

3.2.169

And yours of Helena to me bequeath,

bequeath - to give or leave to one by will

3.2.170

Whom I do love and will do till my death.

HELENA:

3.2.171

Never did mockers waste more idle breath.

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.172

Lysander, keep thy Hermia, I will none:

3.2.173

If e'er I loved her, all that love is gone.

3.2.174

My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd,

The phrase “guest-wise sojourn’d” refers to how a guest resides temporarily in a place, as he says his heart similarly only temporarily resided with Hermia before returning to Helena.

3.2.175

And now to Helen is it home return'd,

3.2.176

There to remain.

LYSANDER:

3.2.177

Helen, it is not so.

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.178

Disparage not the faith thou dost not know,

3.2.179

Lest, to thy peril, thou aby it dear.

aby - to suffer a penalty

3.2.180

Look, where thy love comes, yonder is thy dear.

Re-enter HERMIA

HERMIA:

3.2.181

Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,

3.2.182

The ear more quick of apprehension makes,

3.2.183

Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense,

3.2.184

It pays the hearing double recompense.

3.2.185

Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found,

3.2.186

Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound

3.2.187

But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?

LYSANDER:

3.2.188

Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go?

HERMIA:

3.2.189

What love could press Lysander from my side?

LYSANDER:

3.2.190

Lysander's love, that would not let him bide,

3.2.191

Fair Helena, who more engilds the night

engilds - to make bright with light

3.2.192

Than all you fiery oes and eyes of light.

oes - this archaic word refers to an orb, circle or sphere, here referring to the stars.

3.2.193

Why seek'st thou me? could not this make thee know,

3.2.194

The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so?

HERMIA:

3.2.195

You speak not as you think: it cannot be.

HELENA:

3.2.196

Lo, she is one of this confederacy!

While many Americans have a certain image in mind when they think of the word “confederacy”, in this context it refers to an alliance or conspiracy.

3.2.197

Now I perceive they have conjoin'd all three

3.2.198

To fashion this false sport, in spite of me.

false sport - derision, mockery

3.2.199

Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid!

3.2.200

Have you conspired, have you with these contrived

3.2.201

To bait me with this foul derision?

3.2.202

Is all the counsel that we two have shared,

3.2.203

The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent,

3.2.204

When we have chid the hasty-footed time

chid the hasty-footed time - scold the quickly-passing time

3.2.205

For parting us,--O, is it all forgot?

3.2.206

All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence?

3.2.207

We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,

3.2.208

Have with our needles created both one flower,

3.2.209

Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,

sampler - a decorative piece of needlework

3.2.210

Both warbling of one song, both in one key,

3.2.211

As if our hands, our sides, voices and minds,

3.2.212

Had been incorporate. So we grow together,

incorporate - to make one

3.2.213

Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,

3.2.214

But yet an union in partition,

3.2.215

Two lovely berries moulded on one stem,

3.2.216

So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart,

3.2.217

Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,

This passage refers to the imagery of a coat of arms, a class distinction of English nobility. Here Helena says they were so close as to be of one lineage, one family, like sisters.

3.2.218

Due but to one and crowned with one crest.

3.2.219

And will you rent our ancient love asunder,

rent - rend, tear asunder

3.2.220

To join with men in scorning your poor friend?

3.2.221

It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly:

3.2.222

Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it,

3.2.223

Though I alone do feel the injury.

HERMIA:

3.2.224

I am amazed at your passionate words.

3.2.225

I scorn you not: it seems that you scorn me.

HELENA:

3.2.226

Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn,

3.2.227

To follow me and praise my eyes and face?

3.2.228

And made your other love, Demetrius,

3.2.229

Who even but now did spurn me with his foot,

3.2.230

To call me goddess, nymph, divine and rare,

3.2.231

Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this

3.2.232

To her he hates? and wherefore doth Lysander

3.2.233

Deny your love, so rich within his soul,

3.2.234

And tender me, forsooth, affection,

forsooth - indeed

3.2.235

But by your setting on, by your consent?

3.2.236

What thought I be not so in grace as you,

3.2.237

So hung upon with love, so fortunate,

3.2.238

But miserable most, to love unloved?

3.2.239

This you should pity rather than despise.

HERMIA:

3.2.240

I understand not what you mean by this.

HELENA:

3.2.241

Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks,

persever - an obsolete form of persevere.

3.2.242

Make mouths upon me when I turn my back,

3.2.243

Wink each at other, hold the sweet jest up:

3.2.244

This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.

3.2.245

If you have any pity, grace, or manners,

3.2.246

You would not make me such an argument.

3.2.247

But fare ye well: 'tis partly my own fault,

3.2.248

Which death or absence soon shall remedy.

LYSANDER:

3.2.249

Stay, gentle Helena, hear my excuse:

3.2.250

My love, my life my soul, fair Helena!

HELENA:

3.2.251

O excellent!

HERMIA:

3.2.252

Sweet, do not scorn her so.

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.253

If she cannot entreat, I can compel.

LYSANDER:

3.2.254

Thou canst compel no more than she entreat:

3.2.255

Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers.

3.2.256

Helen, I love thee, by my life, I do:

3.2.257

I swear by that which I will lose for thee,

3.2.258

To prove him false that says I love thee not.

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.259

I say I love thee more than he can do.

LYSANDER:

3.2.260

If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.261

Quick, come!

HERMIA:

3.2.262

Lysander, whereto tends all this?

LYSANDER:

3.2.263

Away, you Ethiope!

Ethiope is a problematic reference to a person of Ethiopian or African descent or those with a “dark countenance”. Here Lysander insults Hermia by negatively referring to her complexion. For suggestions on how to dismantle anti-blackness in Shakespeare, check out this [field guide]. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Kpq3nTAUVKwTrY_XLiH6aCr3agUMu-pSCe87fg8DYQM/mobilebasic)

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.264

No, no, he'll [ ]

3.2.265

Seem to break loose, take on as you would follow,

3.2.266

But yet come not: you are a tame man, go!

LYSANDER:

3.2.267

Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! vile thing, let loose,

In Shakespeare’s time, “hang off” meant “let go”. This line also demonstrates Shakespeare’s creativity with expressions and insults.

3.2.268

Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent!

HERMIA:

3.2.269

Why are you grown so rude? what change is this?

3.2.270

Sweet love,--

LYSANDER:

3.2.271

Thy love! out, tawny Tartar, out!

Tawny Tartar is another negative reference to skin color. Tawny meaning brown and Tartar being a reference to a Turk. This reflects the racial prejudice that existed in Elizabethan times and persists to this day. For suggestions on how to dismantle anti-blackness in Shakespeare, check out this [field guide]. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Kpq3nTAUVKwTrY_XLiH6aCr3agUMu-pSCe87fg8DYQM/mobilebasic)

3.2.272

Out, loathed medicine! hated potion, hence!

HERMIA:

3.2.273

Do you not jest?

HELENA:

3.2.274

Yes, sooth, and so do you.

LYSANDER:

3.2.275

Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee.

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.276

I would I had your bond, for I perceive

3.2.277

A weak bond holds you: I'll not trust your word.

LYSANDER:

3.2.278

What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead?

3.2.279

Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so.

HERMIA:

3.2.280

What, can you do me greater harm than hate?

3.2.281

Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my love!

3.2.282

Am not I Hermia? are not you Lysander?

3.2.283

I am as fair now as I was erewhile.

erewhile is an archaic version of formerly

3.2.284

Since night you loved me, yet since night you left

3.2.285

me:

3.2.286

Why, then you left me--O, the gods forbid!--

In Shakespeare’s time, audiences were well acquainted with Greek mythology. Authors often used these references as a shortcut to instill ideas about character or theme. Here Hermia makes reference to the idea that the gods control their fates and couldn’t have possibly approved this sudden change of heart in Lysander.

3.2.287

In earnest, shall I say?

LYSANDER:

3.2.288

Ay, by my life,

3.2.289

And never did desire to see thee more.

3.2.290

Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt,

3.2.291

Be certain, nothing truer, 'tis no jest

3.2.292

That I do hate thee and love Helena.

HERMIA:

3.2.293

O me! you juggler! you canker-blossom!

Canker-blossom is a word most likely created by Shakespeare as this is its earliest documented use. This term means “one who destroys things”. Canker meaning cancer or to infect, and blossom in reference to the blooms of a flower.

3.2.294

You thief of love! what, have you come by night

3.2.295

And stolen my love's heart from him?

HELENA:

3.2.296

Fine, i'faith!

3.2.297

Have you no modesty, no maiden shame,

3.2.298

No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear

3.2.299

Impatient answers from my gentle tongue?

3.2.300

Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet, you!

HERMIA:

3.2.301

Puppet? why so? ay, that way goes the game.

3.2.302

Now I perceive that she hath made compare

3.2.303

Between our statures, she hath urged her height,

3.2.304

And with her personage, her tall personage,

Personage refers to a person of distinction. Here she is noted for being tall.

3.2.305

Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him.

3.2.306

And are you grown so high in his esteem,

3.2.307

Because I am so dwarfish and so low?

3.2.308

How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak,

A [maypole] is a tall wooden pole erected as a part of various European folk festivals (often occuring mid-summer), around which a maypole dance often takes place. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maypole)

3.2.309

How low am I? I am not yet so low

3.2.310

But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.

HELENA:

3.2.311

I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen,

3.2.312

Let her not hurt me: I was never curst,

3.2.313

I have no gift at all in shrewishness,

shrewishness - ill-naturedness

3.2.314

I am a right maid for my cowardice:

3.2.315

Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think,

3.2.316

Because she is something lower than myself,

3.2.317

That I can match her.

HERMIA:

3.2.318

Lower! hark, again.

HELENA:

3.2.319

Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.

3.2.320

I evermore did love you, Hermia,

3.2.321

Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you,

3.2.322

Save that, in love unto Demetrius,

3.2.323

I told him of your stealth unto this wood.

3.2.324

He follow'd you, for love I follow'd him,

3.2.325

But he hath chid me hence and threaten'd me

chid - scold

3.2.326

To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too:

3.2.327

And now, so you will let me quiet go,

3.2.328

To Athens will I bear my folly back

3.2.329

And follow you no further: let me go:

3.2.330

You see how simple and how fond I am.

HERMIA:

3.2.331

Why, get you gone: who is't that hinders you?

HELENA:

3.2.332

A foolish heart, that I leave here behind.

HERMIA:

3.2.333

What, with Lysander?

HELENA:

3.2.334

With Demetrius.

LYSANDER:

3.2.335

Be not afraid, she shall not harm thee, Helena.

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.336

No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.

HELENA:

3.2.337

O, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd!

3.2.338

She was a vixen when she went to school,

3.2.339

And though she be but little, she is fierce.

One of Shakespeare’s most famous lines, it can be interepreted as an ode to Hermia’s strength and often finds welcome in [feminist circles]. Coming from Helena, Hermia interprets it as yet another insult to her height. (https://shakespearecomesalivesdsu2017.wordpress.com/group-one-cultural-topic/)

HERMIA:

3.2.340

Little' again! nothing but 'low' and 'little'!

3.2.341

Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?

3.2.342

Let me come to her.

LYSANDER:

3.2.343

Get you gone, you dwarf,

3.2.344

You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made,

Here, minimus in an obsolete form of the smallest size while hindering knot-grass refers to a common weed formerly thought to stunt growth.

3.2.345

You bead, you acorn.

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.346

You are too officious

The archaic form of officious refers to being too kind or obliging. Here he suggests that Lysander is too kind on the behalf of one who rejects his services.

3.2.347

In her behalf that scorns your services.

3.2.348

Let her alone: speak not of Helena,

3.2.349

Take not her part, for, if thou dost intend

3.2.350

Never so little show of love to her,

3.2.351

Thou shalt aby it.

aby - suffer a penalty

LYSANDER:

3.2.352

Now she holds me not,

3.2.353

Now follow, if thou darest, to try whose right,

3.2.354

Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.355

Follow! nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jole.

Often translated as “cheek by jowl”, this phrase refers to being side by side or in close proximity. It refers to one’s cheek being next to another’s jowl. Here Demetrius says he will not follow but will go equally, side by side.

Exeunt LYSANDER and DEMETRIUS

HERMIA:

3.2.356

You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you:

The use of the word coil in the 16th century is exemplified in the famous quotation from Hamlet’s soliloquoy - “shuffle off this mortal coil” meaning to leave behind this mortal trouble or to die. Here the use of coil also refers to trouble. Hermia says that all of this trouble belongs to Hermia and is therefore her fault.

3.2.357

Nay, go not back.

HELENA:

3.2.358

I will not trust you, I,

3.2.359

Nor longer stay in your curst company.

3.2.360

Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray,

3.2.361

My legs are longer though, to run away.

Exit

HERMIA:

3.2.362

I am amazed, and know not what to say.

Exit

OBERON:

3.2.363

This is thy negligence: still thou mistakest,

3.2.364

Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully.

knaveries: mischief

PUCK:

3.2.365

Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.

3.2.366

Did not you tell me I should know the man

Didn’t you tell me that I would know my target by his Athenian clothing?

3.2.367

By the Athenian garment be had on?

3.2.368

And so far blameless proves my enterprise,

I did exactly what you told me to do. I annointed and Athenian’s eyes.*

3.2.369

That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes,

3.2.370

And so far am I glad it so did sort

And I’m glad I did it! Their fighting is entertaining.

3.2.371

As this their jangling I esteem a sport.

OBERON:

3.2.372

Thou see'st these lovers seek a place to fight:

3.2.373

Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night,

3.2.374

The starry welkin cover thou anon

welkin: the sky; anon: quickly or soon

3.2.375

With drooping fog as black as Acheron,

**Acharon:** one of the rivers of the underworld.

3.2.376

And lead these testy rivals so astray

3.2.377

As one come not within another's way.

3.2.378

Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,

Imitate Lysander’s voice to egg on Demetrius

3.2.379

Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong,

3.2.380

And sometime rail thou like Demetrius,

Imitate Demetrius to egg on Lysander

3.2.381

And from each other look thou lead them thus,

Lead them away from each other until they’re so tired that they fall asleep.

3.2.382

Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep

3.2.383

With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep:

3.2.384

Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye,

3.2.385

Whose liquor hath this virtuous property,

liquor: juice; virtuous property: power

3.2.386

To take from thence all error with his might,

3.2.387

And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.

*wonted sight:** normal vision

3.2.388

When they next wake, all this derision

3.2.389

Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision,

3.2.390

And back to Athens shall the lovers wend,

3.2.391

With league whose date till death shall never end.

United in an oath (marriage) until death do they part

3.2.392

Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,

While you’re doing that, I’ll go to Titania and ask her again for thr Indian boy.

3.2.393

I'll to my queen and beg her Indian boy,

3.2.394

And then I will her charmed eye release

And then I’ll break the spell that I cast on her so she won’t be in love with the monter. Then everything will be peaceful again.

3.2.395

From monster's view, and all things shall be peace.

PUCK:

3.2.396

My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,

3.2.397

For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,

Night’s swift dragons is an allusion to Helios (god of the sun) and his dragon-drawn chariot.

3.2.398

And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger,

Aurora’s harbinger: the morning star (Venus)

3.2.399

At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there,

Ghosts have to return to their graves when the sun rises.

3.2.400

Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all,

3.2.401

That in crossways and floods have burial,

The ghosts of people who killed themselves and therefor not given burial in sacred ground are already back in their graves so that they don’t have to see their shame in daylight

3.2.402

Already to their wormy beds are gone,

3.2.403

For fear lest day should look their shames upon,

3.2.404

They willfully themselves exile from light

3.2.405

And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night.

OBERON:

3.2.406

But we are spirits of another sort:

We’re not the same kind of spirits

3.2.407

I with the morning's love have oft made sport,

3.2.408

And, like a forester, the groves may tread,

3.2.409

Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red,

eastern gate: place where the sun rises

3.2.410

Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,

Neptune is the god of the sea. In this case, the word means the ocean.

3.2.411

Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams.

3.2.412

But, notwithstanding, haste, make no delay:

Even so, hurry up! We might be able to do this before dawn

3.2.413

We may effect this business yet ere day.

Exit

PUCK:

3.2.414

Up and down, up and down,

3.2.415

I will lead them up and down:

3.2.416

I am fear'd in field and town:

3.2.417

Goblin, lead them up and down.

Goblin: in this case, it means hobgoblin. That is the kind of fairy that Puck is.

3.2.418

Here comes one.

Re-enter LYSANDER

LYSANDER:

3.2.419

Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now.

PUCK:

3.2.420

Here, villain, drawn and ready. Where art thou?

drawn: his sword is unsheathed

PERFORMANCE TIP: Puck is imitating Demetrius

LYSANDER:

3.2.421

I will be with thee straight.

*strait: straightaway, right away

PUCK:

3.2.422

Follow me, then,

3.2.423

To plainer ground.

plainer ground: flatter ground

Exit LYSANDER, as following the voice

Re-enter DEMETRIUS

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.424

Lysander! speak again:

3.2.425

Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?

3.2.426

Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?

PUCK:

3.2.427

Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars,

PERFORMANCE TIP: Puck is imitating Lysander

3.2.428

Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars,

3.2.429

And wilt not come? Come, recreant, come, thou child,

recreant: coward

3.2.430

I'll whip thee with a rod: he is defiled

I’ll whip you with a rod like a child. You’re such a coward that it would be shameful for anyone to fight you like a man

3.2.431

That draws a sword on thee.

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.432

Yea, art thou there?

PUCK:

3.2.433

Follow my voice: we'll try no manhood here.

try no manhood: we won’t test our mannhoods (courage) here

Exeunt

Re-enter LYSANDER

LYSANDER:

3.2.434

He goes before me and still dares me on:

3.2.435

When I come where he calls, then he is gone.

3.2.436

The villain is much lighter-heel'd than I:

3.2.437

I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly,

3.2.438

That fallen am I in dark uneven way,

3.2.439

And here will rest me.

Lies down

LYSANDER:

3.2.440

Come, thou gentle day!

3.2.441

For if but once thou show me thy grey light,

3.2.442

I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite.

Sleeps

Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS

PUCK:

3.2.443

Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why comest thou not?

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.444

Abide me, if thou darest, for well I wot

wot - know

3.2.445

Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place,

3.2.446

And darest not stand, nor look me in the face.

3.2.447

Where art thou now?

PUCK:

3.2.448

Come hither: I am here.

Come hither: come here

DEMETRIUS:

3.2.449

Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this dear,

3.2.450

If ever I thy face by daylight see:

3.2.451

Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me

3.2.452

To measure out my length on this cold bed.

3.2.453

By day's approach look to be visited.

Lies down and sleeps

Re-enter HELENA

HELENA:

3.2.454

O weary night, O long and tedious night,

3.2.455

Abate thy hour! Shine comforts from the east,

abate - decrease

3.2.456

That I may back to Athens by daylight,

3.2.457

From these that my poor company detest:

3.2.458

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

3.2.459

Steal me awhile from mine own company.

Lies down and sleeps

PUCK:

3.2.460

Yet but three? Come one more,

3.2.461

Two of both kinds make up four.

3.2.462

Here she comes, curst and sad:

curst: cross or angry

3.2.463

Cupid is a knavish lad,

[Cupid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupid#:~:text=In%20classical%20mythology%2C%20Cupid%20(Latin,His%20Greek%20counterpart%20is%20Eros.) is a jerk for making women crazy (with love).

3.2.464

Thus to make poor females mad.

Re-enter HERMIA

HERMIA:

3.2.465

Never so weary, never so in woe,

3.2.466

Bedabbled with the dew and torn with briers,

bedabbled - made wet by splashing

3.2.467

I can no further crawl, no further go,

3.2.468

My legs can keep no pace with my desires.

3.2.469

Here will I rest me till the break of day.

3.2.470

Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!

fray - scare

Lies down and sleeps

PUCK:

3.2.471

On the ground

3.2.472

Sleep sound:

3.2.473

I'll apply

3.2.474

To your eye,

3.2.475

Gentle lover, remedy.

Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER's eyes

PUCK:

3.2.476

When thou wakest,

3.2.477

Thou takest

3.2.478

True delight

3.2.479

In the sight

3.2.480

Of thy former lady's eye:

3.2.481

And the country proverb known,

3.2.482

That every man should take his own,

3.2.483

In your waking shall be shown:

3.2.484

Jack shall have Jill,

idiom: Every Jack has his Jill. It means that everyone will find a romantic partner

3.2.485

Nought shall go ill,

Everything will be fine

3.2.486

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

This is problematic. Man is humanized, while his female romantic partner is referred to as a mare or female horse, implying ownership.

Exit

ACT IV

SCENE I. The same. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA

PUCK:

4.1.1

lying asleep.

4.1.1

Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM, PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARDSEED, and other Fairies attending, OBERON behind unseen

TITANIA:

4.1.2

Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,

4.1.3

While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,

amiable: charming,/ coy: caress (from falconry)

4.1.4

And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,

4.1.5

And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.

BOTTOM:

4.1.6

Where's Peaseblossom?

PEASEBLOSSOM:

4.1.7

Ready.

BOTTOM:

4.1.8

Scratch my head Peaseblossom. Where's Mounsieur Cobweb?

COBWEB:

4.1.9

Ready.

BOTTOM:

4.1.10

Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get you your

4.1.11

weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped

4.1.12

humble-bee on the top of a thistle, and, good

4.1.13

mounsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret

4.1.14

yourself too much in the action, mounsieur, and,

4.1.15

good mounsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not,

4.1.16

I would be loath to have you overflown with a

overflown with: submerged in or flowed over, and perhaps suffocated

4.1.17

honey-bag, signior. Where's Mounsieur Mustardseed?

MUSTARDSEED:

4.1.18

Ready.

BOTTOM:

4.1.19

Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray you,

neaf: fist

4.1.20

leave your courtesy, good mounsieur.

leave your courtesy: perhaps means to stop bowing or Do not stand bareheaded (out of respectful good manners)

MUSTARDSEED:

4.1.21

What's your Will?

BOTTOM:

4.1.22

Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb

Cavalery: Cavalier which is defined by Johnson as a “gay sprightly military man”/ Cobweb has been sent off already, and so this referenc is considered an error by many editors. Some suggest “Peaseblossom” should be subsituted for “Cobweb” but it is impossible to know how exactly to correct the “error”

4.1.23

to scratch. I must to the barber's, monsieur, for

4.1.24

methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face, and I

4.1.25

am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me,

4.1.26

I must scratch.

TITANIA:

4.1.27

What, wilt thou hear some music,

4.1.28

my sweet love?

BOTTOM:

4.1.29

I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let's have

4.1.30

the tongs and the bones.

The tongs and bones: instruments used in burlesque or rustic music (Tongs were played by hitting pieces of metal, like a modern triangle. Bones were pieces of bones clicked together.

TITANIA:

4.1.31

Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat.

BOTTOM:

4.1.32

Truly, a peck of provender: I could munch your good

provender: hay, feed for cattle

4.1.33

dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle

bottle: bundle or truss; the amount of feed one would give a horse

4.1.34

of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.

fellow: no equal or nothing like it

TITANIA:

4.1.35

I have a venturous fairy that shall seek

4.1.36

The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.

BOTTOM:

4.1.37

I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas.

4.1.38

But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me: I

4.1.39

have an exposition of sleep come upon me.

exposition of: Bottom’s error for “disposition to”

TITANIA:

4.1.40

Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.

4.1.41

Fairies, begone, and be all ways away.

all ways: i.e., to be off in every direction

Exeunt fairies

TITANIA:

4.1.42

So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle

4.1.43

Gently entwist, the female ivy so

4.1.44

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.

4.1.45

O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!

They sleep

Enter PUCK

OBERON:

4.1.46

[Advancing] Welcome, good Robin.

4.1.47

See'st thou this sweet sight?

4.1.48

Her dotage now I do begin to pity:

dotage: infatuation

4.1.49

For, meeting her of late behind the wood,

4.1.50

Seeking sweet favours from this hateful fool,

4.1.51

I did upbraid her and fall out with her,

4.1.52

For she his hairy temples then had rounded

4.1.53

With a coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers,

4.1.54

And that same dew, which sometime on the buds

sometime: formerly

4.1.55

Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls,

orient: bright, lustrous or from the East and of the purest water

4.1.56

Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes

flowerets: i.e., little flowers

4.1.57

Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail.

4.1.58

When I had at my pleasure taunted her

4.1.59

And she in mild terms begg'd my patience,

4.1.60

I then did ask of her her changeling child,

4.1.61

Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent

straight: straightway, immediately

4.1.62

To bear him to my bower in fairy land.

4.1.63

And now I have the boy, I will undo

4.1.64

This hateful imperfection of her eyes:

4.1.65

And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp

4.1.66

From off the head of this Athenian swain,

4.1.67

That, he awaking when the other do,

other: others

4.1.68

May all to Athens back again repair

May: i.e., they may / repair: go, travel or more specifically, to return

4.1.69

And think no more of this night's accidents

incidents, events

4.1.70

But as the fierce vexation of a dream.

vexation: agitation

4.1.71

But first I will release the fairy queen.

4.1.72

Be as thou wast wont to be,

was wont to: i.e., used to

4.1.73

See as thou wast wont to see:

4.1.74

Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower

Dian’s bud…power: Oberon earlier explains (at 2.1.191 and 3.2.387-92) that he has in his possession a second flower that can undo the effect of the flower he calls “love-in-idleness” Here, as he applies the juice to Titania’s eyes, he links the curative flower to Diana (Dian’s bud), the goddess of chastity, and love-in-idleness to Cupid, god of love.

4.1.75

Hath such force and blessed power.

4.1.76

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

TITANIA:

4.1.77

My Oberon! what visions have I seen!

4.1.78

Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.

OBERON:

4.1.79

There lies your love.

TITANIA:

4.1.80

How came these things to pass?

4.1.81

O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!

visage: appearance, face

OBERON:

4.1.82

Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head.

4.1.83

Titania, music call, and strike more dead

4.1.84

Than common sleep of all these five the sense.

these five: i.e., Bottom and the four lovers

TITANIA:

4.1.85

Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep!

Music, still

PUCK:

4.1.86

Now, when thou wakest, with thine

4.1.87

own fool's eyes peep.

OBERON:

4.1.88

Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands with me,

4.1.89

And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.

4.1.90

Now thou and I are new in amity,

4.1.91

And will to-morrow midnight solemnly

solemnly: ceremoniously or in a spirit of festive ritual

4.1.92

Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly,

triumphantly: festively or as in a festive triumph

4.1.93

And bless it to all fair prosperity:

prosperity: Oberon and Titania can now fulfil the purpose which brought him to Athens: to endow Theseus and Hippolyta’s marriage with joy and prosperity

4.1.94

There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be

4.1.95

Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.

PUCK:

4.1.96

Fairy king, attend, and mark:

i.e. pay attention, notice

4.1.97

I do hear the morning lark.

OBERON:

4.1.98

Then, my queen, in silence sad,

sad: serious or sober silence

4.1.99

Trip we after the night's shade:

4.1.100

We the globe can compass soon,

4.1.101

Swifter than the wandering moon.

TITANIA:

4.1.102

Come, my lord, and in our flight

4.1.103

Tell me how it came this night

4.1.104

That I sleeping here was found

4.1.105

With these mortals on the ground.

Exeunt

Horns winded within

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train

THESEUS:

4.1.106

Go, one of you, find out the forester,

forester: the official in charge of the forest land and responsible for the wild animals of the forest

4.1.107

For now our observation is perform'd,

our observation: i.e., our observance of May Day rites

4.1.108

And since we have the vaward of the day,

since…day: i.e., since it is still early/ vaward: vanguard or command the foremost place

4.1.109

My love shall hear the music of my hounds.

music of the hounds: The cry of a pack of hounds in pursuit of hunted animals was compared to orchestral or vocal music, and its sound was much prized. At line 127, Theseus suggest that his hounds’ music is more important to him than their speed.

4.1.110

Uncouple in the western valley, let them go:

uncouple: i.e., unleash the hounds

4.1.111

Dispatch, I say, and find the forester.

Exit an Attendant

THESEUS:

4.1.112

We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,

4.1.113

And mark the musical confusion

mark…conjunction: i.e., listen to the sound created by the coming together of the cry of the hounds and its echo from the mountain

4.1.114

Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

HIPPOLYTA:

4.1.115

I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,

Hercules: a hero in Greek and Roman mythology: Cadmus: legendary founder of the city of Thebes; Shakespeare uses him even though historically he lived before Theseus and Hercules

4.1.116

When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear

bay’d: brought to bay or drove to bay with barking hounds/ Crete: where Theseus slew the Minotaur and, thanks to Ariadne’s thread, escaped from the labyrinth (see Sources essay for more info)

4.1.117

With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear

hounds of Sparta: Spartan hounds, celebrated for their hunting abilities

4.1.118

Such gallant chiding: for, besides the groves,

chiding: i.e., barking or the angry noise of hounds. This is the OED’s earliest use of this word.

4.1.119

The skies, the fountains, every region near

4.1.120

Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard

mutual: common is the most frequent definition of the word in Shakespeare

4.1.121

So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.

THESEUS:

4.1.122

My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,

kind: strain or lineage

4.1.123

So flew'd, so sanded, and their heads are hung

So: i.e., like those of Sparta / flew’d: with large folds of flesh about the mouth/ sanded: i.e., sandy-colored OED first use of this word

4.1.124

With ears that sweep away the morning dew,

4.1.125

Crook-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls,

dew-lapped: i.e., with folds of skin under their necks

4.1.126

Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,

matched…each: i.e., their cry was like a set of bells, each voice chiming in tune with the others

4.1.127

Each under each. A cry more tuneable

Each under each: i.e., like notes on a scale / cry: used to denote the pack of dogs when barking / tuneable: i.e., tuneful; harmonious; to a huntsman’s ear, melodious

4.1.128

Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,

cheer’d: encouraged, animated

4.1.129

In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly:

Hippolyta’s pack includes dogs from Crete and Sparta.

4.1.130

Judge when you hear. But, soft! what nymphs are these?

soft: i.e. stop a minute

EGEUS:

4.1.131

My lord, this is my daughter here asleep,

4.1.132

And this, Lysander, this Demetrius is,

4.1.133

This Helena, old Nedar's Helena:

4.1.134

I wonder of their being here together.

of: at

THESEUS:

4.1.135

No doubt they rose up early to observe

observe…The Rite of May: i.e., celebrate May Day

4.1.136

The rite of May, and hearing our intent,

4.1.137

Came here in grace our solemnity.

grace: to honor / solemnity: observance (i.e., of May Day rites)

4.1.138

But speak, Egeus, is not this the day

4.1.139

That Hermia should give answer of her choice?

EGEUS:

4.1.140

It is, my lord.

THESEUS:

4.1.141

Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.

Horns and shout within. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA wake and start up

THESEUS:

4.1.142

Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past:

Saint Valentine: i.e., Valentine’s Day (when birds proverbially chose their mates)

4.1.143

Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?

LYSANDER:

4.1.144

Pardon, my lord.

In some texts, there is a stage direction that precedes this line, “The lovers kneel”. Kneeling and rising were common in Elizabethan social rituals. Here it may suggest the lovers’ desire for mercy and to be given a chance to be heard.

THESEUS:

4.1.145

I pray you all, stand up.

4.1.146

I know you two are rival enemies:

4.1.147

How comes this gentle concord in the world,

4.1.148

That hatred is so far from jealousy,

jealousy: suspicion, mistrust

4.1.149

To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?

LYSANDER:

4.1.150

My lord, I shall reply amazedly,

amazedly: i.e., in a state of bewilderment (as if lost in a maze)

4.1.151

Half sleep, half waking: but as yet, I swear,

4.1.152

I cannot truly say how I came here,

4.1.153

But, as I think,--for truly would I speak,

truly…speak: i.e., I wish to speak the truth

4.1.154

And now do I bethink me, so it is,--

4.1.155

I came with Hermia hither: our intent

4.1.156

Was to be gone from Athens, where we might,

4.1.157

Without the peril of the Athenian law.

Without: outside of; beyond

EGEUS:

4.1.158

Enough, enough, my lord, you have enough:

4.1.159

I beg the law, the law, upon his head.

4.1.160

They would have stolen away, they would, Demetrius,

4.1.161

Thereby to have defeated you and me,

defeated: defrauded

4.1.162

You of your wife and me of my consent,

4.1.163

Of my consent that she should be your wife.

DEMETRIUS:

4.1.164

My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,

4.1.165

Of this their purpose hither to this wood,

hither: i.e., to come here

4.1.166

And I in fury hither follow'd them,

hither: here

4.1.167

Fair Helena in fancy following me.

in fancy: i.e., drawn by her love

4.1.168

But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,--

wot: know

4.1.169

But by some power it is,--my love to Hermia,

4.1.170

Melted as the snow, seems to me now

4.1.171

As the remembrance of an idle gaud

idle gaud: worthless trinket

4.1.172

Which in my childhood I did dote upon,

4.1.173

And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,

faith…heart: his heart’s orientation to fidelity and virtue/ virtue: power or special quality

4.1.174

The object and the pleasure of mine eye,

4.1.175

Is only Helena. To her, my lord,

4.1.176

Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia:

4.1.177

But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food,

like a sickness: i.e., like one who is sick

4.1.178

But, as in health, come to my natural taste,

4.1.179

Now I do wish it, love it, long for it,

4.1.180

And will for evermore be true to it.

THESEUS:

4.1.181

Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:

4.1.182

Of this discourse we more will hear anon.

4.1.183

Egeus, I will overbear your will,

overbear: i.e., overrule

4.1.184

For in the temple by and by with us

4.1.185

These couples shall eternally be knit:

4.1.186

And, for the morning now is something worn,

for: i.e., because / something: somewhat

4.1.187

Our purposed hunting shall be set aside.

4.1.188

Away with us to Athens, three and three,

4.1.189

We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.

in great solemnity: i.e., with great ceremony

4.1.190

Come, Hippolyta.

Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train

DEMETRIUS:

4.1.191

These things seem small and undistinguishable,

HERMIA:

4.1.192

Methinks I see these things with parted eye,

parted: divided

4.1.193

When every thing seems double.

HELENA:

4.1.194

So methinks:

4.1.195

And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,

like a jewel…own: i.e., as if I had found a jewel whom someone else might claim

4.1.196

Mine own, and not mine own.

DEMETRIUS:

4.1.197

Are you sure

4.1.198

That we are awake? It seems to me

4.1.199

That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think

4.1.200

The duke was here, and bid us follow him?

HERMIA:

4.1.201

Yea, and my father.

HELENA:

4.1.202

And Hippolyta.

LYSANDER:

4.1.203

And he did bid us follow to the temple.

DEMETRIUS:

4.1.204

Why, then, we are awake: let's follow him

4.1.205

And by the way let us recount our dreams.

Exeunt

BOTTOM:

4.1.206

[Awaking] When my cue comes, call me, and I will

4.1.207

answer: my next is, 'Most fair Pyramus.' Heigh-ho!

next: i.e., my next line / Heigh ho!: This may signal either a call or a big yawn.

4.1.208

Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout,

Some editors keep the question mark in Q1 so that Bottom is asking if Quince is present.

4.1.209

the tinker! Starveling! God's my life, stolen

God’s: i.e., perhaps, may God save or Good Lord! OED first use of this phrase

4.1.210

hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare

4.1.211

vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to

wit of man: power of the human mind

4.1.212

say what dream it was: man is but an ass, if he go

go about: i.e., try or should start trying

4.1.213

about to expound this dream. Methought I was--there

4.1.214

is no man can tell what. Methought I was,--and

4.1.215

methought I had,--but man is but a patched fool, if

patched: i.e., dressed in motley, such as a professional fool would wear; the fool usually wore a child’s full length coat that had various colors arranged in simple patterns, stripes, or checks.

4.1.216

he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye

The eye…dream was: This seems to be Bottom’s confused memory of I Corinthian 2.9, where St. Paul writes: “The eye hath not seen, and the ear hath not heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (as translated in the Bishops’ Bible [1585]).

4.1.217

of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not

4.1.218

seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue

4.1.219

to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream

4.1.220

was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of

ballad: a topical narrative set to a popular tune, like those printed as black-letter broadsides.

4.1.221

this dream: it shall be called Bottom's Dream,

4.1.222

because it hath no bottom, and I will sing it in the

because it hath no bottom: St Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians continues (I Corinthians 2:10): …the spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God,” words that again may be confusingly echoed in Bottom’s reflection on the bottomlessness of his vision.

4.1.223

latter end of a play, before the duke:

4.1.224

peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall

gracious: appealing

4.1.225

sing it at her death.

Exit

SCENE II. Athens. QUINCE'S house.

Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING

QUINCE:

4.2.1

Have you sent to Bottom's house ? is he come home yet?

STARVELING:

4.2.2

He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is

4.2.3

transported.

FLUTE:

4.2.4

If he come not, then the play is marred: it goes

Marred meaning spoiled or ruined.

4.2.5

not forward, doth it?

QUINCE:

4.2.6

It is not possible: you have not a man in all

4.2.7

Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he.

FLUTE:

4.2.8

No, he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft

4.2.9

man in Athens.

QUINCE:

4.2.10

Yea and the best person too, and he is a very

Quince here describes Bottom’s voice like that of a paramour. He doesn’t realize that he has swapped the word ‘paramour’ for ‘paragon’ which means model.

4.2.11

paramour for a sweet voice.

Paramour meaning a lover. See above annotation.

FLUTE:

4.2.12

You must say 'paragon:' a paramour is, God bless us,

Flute here is correcting Quince by providing the correct word for what was meant. Deciding it’s pointless at this stage, he moves on delclaring that it is nonsense.

4.2.13

a thing of naught.

Naught meaning nothing. In response to Quince and his nonsense statement.

Enter SNUG

SNUG:

4.2.14

Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and

4.2.15

there is two or three lords and ladies more married:

4.2.16

if our sport had gone forward, we had all been made

4.2.17

men.

FLUTE:

4.2.18

O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a

Sixpence was a british monetary unit that is no longer used. It was equivalent to six pennies

4.2.19

day during his life, he could not have 'scaped

4.2.20

sixpence a day: an the duke had not given him

4.2.21

sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged,

4.2.22

he would have deserved it: sixpence a day in

4.2.23

Pyramus, or nothing.

Enter BOTTOM

BOTTOM:

4.2.24

Where are these lads? where are these hearts?

QUINCE:

4.2.25

Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour!

BOTTOM:

4.2.26

Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask me not

Discourse meaning a verbal interchange of words. In this case, it is Bottom coming to share the experience he has just been through.

4.2.27

what, for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I

4.2.28

will tell you every thing, right as it fell out.

QUINCE:

4.2.29

Let us hear, sweet Bottom.

BOTTOM:

4.2.30

Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that

PERFORMANCE TIP: With forceful readiness and excitement. It’s truly the moment before a show when the actors gather to have one last moment together before opening. An important ritual experineced by all actors.

4.2.31

the duke hath dined. Get your apparel together,

Apparel meaning thier costumes.

4.2.32

good strings to your beards, new ribbons to your

“Good strings to your beards” meaning another element of the costume which is the fake beard held on by a string.

4.2.33

pumps, meet presently at the palace, every man look

“New ribbons to your pumps” meaning ribbons for decorating shoes.

4.2.34

o'er his part, for the short and the long is, our

4.2.35

play is preferred. In any case, let Thisby have

4.2.36

clean linen, and let not him that plays the lion

“Let Thibsy have clean linen” meaning the costume should not be dirty or soiled.

4.2.37

pair his nails, for they shall hang out for the

“Let not him that plays the lion pair his nails” meaning if the fingernails of the actor are long, leave them be and do not cut them so they have the appearance of a lion’s long nails.

4.2.38

lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onions

4.2.39

nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath, and I

4.2.40

do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet

“No onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath” Bottom exclaims to the actors. Essentially he is telling them not to eat onions or garlic before the performance for if the audience smells sweet breath, it must be a sweet comedy as well.

4.2.41

comedy. No more words: away! go, away!

Exeunt

ACT V

SCENE I. Athens. The palace of THESEUS.

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, Lords and Attendants

HIPPOLYTA:

5.1.1

Tis strange my Theseus, that these

5.1.2

lovers speak of.

THESEUS:

5.1.3

More strange than true: I never may believe

5.1.4

These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.

*antique fables, nor these fairy toys” meaning old legends and fairytales

5.1.5

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,

seething brains meaning agitated minds

5.1.6

Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend

shaping fantasies meaning creative imaginations; apprehend meaning perceive

5.1.7

More than cool reason ever comprehends.

cool meaning unemotional

5.1.8

The lunatic, the lover and the poet

5.1.9

Are of imagination all compact:

compact meaning smiliar

5.1.10

One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,

5.1.11

That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,

all as frantic meaning sees all as hallucinations

5.1.12

Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:

a brow of Egypt meaning the face of an Egyptian

5.1.13

The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,

rolling refers to rolling as if in a trance

5.1.14

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven,

5.1.15

And as imagination bodies forth

bodies forth meaning that it makes avaialbe to the mind

5.1.16

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen

5.1.17

Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing

airy nothing meaning an illusion

5.1.18

A local habitation and a name.

5.1.19

Such tricks hath strong imagination,

5.1.20

That if it would but apprehend some joy,

5.1.21

It comprehends some bringer of that joy,

5.1.22

Or in the night, imagining some fear,

5.1.23

How easy is a bush supposed a bear!

HIPPOLYTA:

5.1.24

But all the story of the night told over,

5.1.25

And all their minds transfigured so together,

transfigured meaning transformed

5.1.26

More witnesseth than fancy's images

witnesseth than fancy’s images meaning indactes more than imagination

5.1.27

And grows to something of great constancy,

constancy meaning consistency

5.1.28

But, howsoever, strange and admirable.

THESEUS:

5.1.29

Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.

Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and HELENA

THESEUS:

5.1.30

Joy, gentle friends! joy and fresh days of love

5.1.31

Accompany your hearts!

LYSANDER:

5.1.32

More than to us

Lysander is saying “May more joy await you in your royla walks, meals, and bed!”

5.1.33

Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed!

THESEUS:

5.1.34

Come now, what masques, what dances shall we have,

masques meaning performances

5.1.35

To wear away this long age of three hours

5.1.36

Between our after-supper and bed-time?

after-supper meaning dessert

5.1.37

Where is our usual manager of mirth?

mirth meaning festivities

5.1.38

What revels are in hand? Is there no play,

“What entertainment is lined up”

5.1.39

To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?

5.1.40

Call Philostrate.

PHILOSTRATE:

5.1.41

Here, mighty Theseus.

THESEUS:

5.1.42

Say, what abridgement have you for this evening?

abridgement meaning a a short entertainment

5.1.43

What masque? what music? How shall we beguile

beguile meaning to while away

5.1.44

The lazy time, if not with some delight?

PHILOSTRATE:

5.1.45

There is a brief how many sports are ripe:

“Here is a short account of all the entertainments that are ready”

5.1.46

Make choice of which your highness will see first.

Giving a paper

THESEUS:

5.1.47

[Reads] 'The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung

5.1.48

By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.'

5.1.49

We'll none of that: that have I told my love,

5.1.50

In glory of my kinsman Hercules.

Reads

THESEUS:

5.1.51

The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,

5.1.52

Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.'

5.1.53

That is an old device, and it was play'd

5.1.54

When I from Thebes came last a conqueror.

Reads

THESEUS:

5.1.55

The thrice three Muses mourning for the death

5.1.56

Of Learning, late deceased in beggary.'

late deceased in beggary meaning recently died in poverty

5.1.57

That is some satire, keen and critical,

5.1.58

Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.

not sorting meaning not appropriate for

Reads

THESEUS:

5.1.59

A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus

A scene that is both too long and too short

5.1.60

And his love Thisbe, very tragical mirth.'

tragical mirth meaning serious merriment

5.1.61

Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!

5.1.62

That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.

5.1.63

How shall we find the concord of this discord?

concord of this discord meaning resolution of this contradiction

PHILOSTRATE:

5.1.64

A play there is, my lord, some ten words long,

5.1.65

Which is as brief as I have known a play,

5.1.66

But by ten words, my lord, it is too long,

5.1.67

Which makes it tedious, for in all the play

5.1.68

There is not one word apt, one player fitted:

apt meaning appropriate; player fitted meaning suitable actor

5.1.69

And tragical, my noble lord, it is,

5.1.70

For Pyramus therein doth kill himself.

5.1.71

Which, when I saw rehearsed, I must confess,

5.1.72

Made mine eyes water, but more merry tears

5.1.73

The passion of loud laughter never shed.

THESEUS:

5.1.74

What are they that do play it?

PHILOSTRATE:

5.1.75

Hard-handed men that work in Athens here,

hard-handed meaning laborers

5.1.76

Which never labour'd in their minds till now,

5.1.77

And now have toil'd their unbreathed memories

*toil’d their unbreathed memories” meaning exhausted their inexperienced minds

5.1.78

With this same play, against your nuptial.

against your nuptial meaning for your wedding

THESEUS:

5.1.79

And we will hear it.

PHILOSTRATE:

5.1.80

No, my noble lord,

5.1.81

It is not for you: I have heard it over,

5.1.82

And it is nothing, nothing in the world,

5.1.83

Unless you can find sport in their intents,

sport meaning entertainment

5.1.84

Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain,

“memorized with great effort”

5.1.85

To do you service.

THESEUS:

5.1.86

I will hear that play,

5.1.87

For never anything can be amiss,

5.1.88

When simpleness and duty tender it.

simpleness meaning sincerity; tender meaning offer

5.1.89

Go, bring them in: and take your places, ladies.

Exit PHILOSTRATE

HIPPOLYTA:

5.1.90

I love not to see wretchedness o'er charged

She doesn’t want to see the simple people of the Duke’s kingdon over burdened.

5.1.91

And duty in his service perishing.

THESEUS:

5.1.92

Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing.

HIPPOLYTA:

5.1.93

He says they can do nothing in this kind.

THESEUS:

5.1.94

The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.

5.1.95

Our sport shall be to take what they mistake:

take meaning comprehend

5.1.96

And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect

5.1.97

Takes it in might, not merit.

“appreciate the efforts rather than the results”

5.1.98

Where I have come, great clerks have purposed

“Where I have traveled great intellectuals have intended to greet me with prepared speeches”

5.1.99

To greet me with premeditated welcomes,

5.1.100

Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,

5.1.101

Make periods in the midst of sentences,

5.1.102

Throttle their practised accent in their fears

*throttle their practised accent” meaning choked on their words

5.1.103

And in conclusion dumbly have broke off,

5.1.104

Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,

5.1.105

Out of this silence yet I pick'd a welcome,

5.1.106

And in the modesty of fearful duty

5.1.107

I read as much as from the rattling tongue

5.1.108

Of saucy and audacious eloquence.

saucy and audacious meaning elaborate and confident

5.1.109

Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity

simplicity meaning sincerity

5.1.110

In least speak most, to my capacity.

capacity meaning intelligence

Re-enter PHILOSTRATE

PHILOSTRATE:

5.1.111

So please your grace, the Prologue is address'd.

THESEUS:

5.1.112

Let him approach.

Flourish of trumpets

Enter QUINCE for the Prologue

Prologue:

5.1.113

If we offend, it is with our good will.

5.1.114

That you should think, we come not to offend,

5.1.115

But with good will. To show our simple skill,

5.1.116

That is the true beginning of our end.

5.1.117

Consider then we come but in despite.

5.1.118

We do not come as minding to contest you,

5.1.119

Our true intent is. All for your delight

5.1.120

We are not here. That you should here repent you,

5.1.121

The actors are at hand and by their show

5.1.122

You shall know all that you are like to know.

THESEUS:

5.1.123

This fellow doth not stand upon points.

stand upon points meaning pay attention to punctuation

LYSANDER:

5.1.124

He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt, he knows

5.1.125

not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not

5.1.126

enough to speak, but to speak true.

HIPPOLYTA:

5.1.127

Indeed he hath played on his prologue like a child

5.1.128

on a recorder, a sound, but not in government.

government meaning under control

THESEUS:

5.1.129

His speech, was like a tangled chain, nothing

5.1.130

impaired, but all disordered. Who is next?

Enter Pyramus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion

Prologue:

5.1.131

Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show,

5.1.132

But wonder on, till truth make all things plain.

5.1.133

This man is Pyramus, if you would know,

5.1.134

This beauteous lady Thisby is certain.

5.1.135

This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present

5.1.136

Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder,

5.1.137

And through Wall's chink, poor souls, they are content

5.1.138

To whisper. At the which let no man wonder.

5.1.139

This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn,

5.1.140

Presenteth Moonshine, for, if you will know,

5.1.141

By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn

5.1.142

To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo.

5.1.143

This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name,

5.1.144

The trusty Thisby, coming first by night,

5.1.145

Did scare away, or rather did affright,

5.1.146

And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall,

5.1.147

Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain.

5.1.148

Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall,

5.1.149

And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain:

5.1.150

Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,

5.1.151

He bravely broach'd is boiling bloody breast,

5.1.152

And Thisby, tarrying in mulberry shade,

5.1.153

His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,

5.1.154

Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain

5.1.155

At large discourse, while here they do remain.

Exeunt Prologue, Thisbe, Lion, and Moonshine

THESEUS:

5.1.156

I wonder if the lion be to speak.

be meaning intends

DEMETRIUS:

5.1.157

No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when many asses do.

no wonder meaning no doubt

Wall:

5.1.158

In this same interlude it doth befall

5.1.159

That I, one Snout by name, present a wall,

5.1.160

And such a wall, as I would have you think,

5.1.161

That had in it a crannied hole or chink,

5.1.162

Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,

5.1.163

Did whisper often very secretly.

5.1.164

This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show

5.1.165

That I am that same wall, the truth is so:

5.1.166

And this the cranny is, right and sinister,

5.1.167

Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.

THESEUS:

5.1.168

Would you desire lime and hair to speak better?

lime meaning cement

DEMETRIUS:

5.1.169

It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard

5.1.170

discourse, my lord.

Enter Pyramus

THESEUS:

5.1.171

Pyramus draws near the wall: silence!

Pyramus:

5.1.172

O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black!

5.1.173

O night, which ever art when day is not!

5.1.174

O night, O night! alack, alack, alack,

5.1.175

I fear my Thisby's promise is forgot!

5.1.176

And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,

5.1.177

That stand'st between her father's ground and mine!

5.1.178

Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,

5.1.179

Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne!

Wall holds up his fingers

Pyramus:

5.1.180

Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this!

5.1.181

But what see I? No Thisby do I see.

5.1.182

O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss!

5.1.183

Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me!

THESEUS:

5.1.184

The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again.

sensible meaning alive

Pyramus:

5.1.185

No, in truth, sir, he should not. 'Deceiving me'

5.1.186

is Thisby's cue: she is to enter now, and I am to

5.1.187

spy her through the wall. You shall see, it will

5.1.188

fall pat as I told you. Yonder she comes.

Enter Thisbe

Thisbe:

5.1.189

O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans,

5.1.190

For parting my fair Pyramus and me!

5.1.191

My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones,

5.1.192

Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.

Pyramus:

5.1.193

I see a voice: now will I to the chink,

5.1.194

To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face. Thisby!

Thisbe:

5.1.195

My love thou art, my love I think.

Pyramus:

5.1.196

Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace,

5.1.197

And, like Limander, am I trusty still.

Thisbe:

5.1.198

And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill.

Pyramus:

5.1.199

Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.

Thisbe:

5.1.200

As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.

Pyramus:

5.1.201

O kiss me through the hole of this vile wall!

Thisbe:

5.1.202

I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all.

Pyramus:

5.1.203

Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?

Thisbe:

5.1.204

Tide life, 'tide death, I come without delay.

Exeunt Pyramus and Thisbe

Wall:

5.1.205

Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so,

5.1.206

And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.

Exit

THESEUS:

5.1.207

Now is the mural down between the two neighbours.

DEMETRIUS:

5.1.208

No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear

no remedy meaning not necessary; hear meaning speak

5.1.209

without warning.

HIPPOLYTA:

5.1.210

This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.

THESEUS:

5.1.211

The best in this kind are but shadows, and the worst

shadows meaning illusions

5.1.212

are no worse, if imagination amend them.

HIPPOLYTA:

5.1.213

It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.

THESEUS:

5.1.214

If we imagine no worse of them than they of

5.1.215

themselves, they may pass for excellent men. Here

mean meaning actors

5.1.216

come two noble beasts in, a man and a lion.

Enter Lion and Moonshine

Lion:

5.1.217

You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear

5.1.218

The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,

5.1.219

May now perchance both quake and tremble here,

5.1.220

When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.

5.1.221

Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am

5.1.222

A lion-fell, nor else no lion's dam,

5.1.223

For, if I should as lion come in strife

5.1.224

Into this place, 'twere pity on my life.

THESEUS:

5.1.225

A very gentle beast, of a good conscience.

DEMETRIUS:

5.1.226

The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I saw.

LYSANDER:

5.1.227

This lion is a very fox for his valour.

THESEUS:

5.1.228

True, and a goose for his discretion.

DEMETRIUS:

5.1.229

Not so, my lord, for his valour cannot carry his

carry meaning defeat

5.1.230

discretion, and the fox carries the goose.

THESEUS:

5.1.231

His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valour,

5.1.232

for the goose carries not the fox. It is well:

5.1.233

leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to the moon.

Moonshine:

5.1.234

This lanthorn doth the horned moon present,--

DEMETRIUS:

5.1.235

He should have worn the horns on his head.

THESEUS:

5.1.236

He is no crescent, and his horns are

5.1.237

invisible within the circumference.

Moonshine:

5.1.238

This lanthorn doth the horned moon present,

5.1.239

Myself the man i' the moon do seem to be.

THESEUS:

5.1.240

This is the greatest error of all the rest: the man

5.1.241

should be put into the lanthorn. How is it else the

5.1.242

man i' the moon?

DEMETRIUS:

5.1.243

He dares not come there for the candle, for, you

5.1.244

see, it is already in snuff.

HIPPOLYTA:

5.1.245

I am aweary of this moon: would he would change!

THESEUS:

5.1.246

It appears, by his small light of discretion, that

5.1.247

he is in the wane, but yet, in courtesy, in all

in the wane meaning decreased

5.1.248

reason, we must stay the time.

LYSANDER:

5.1.249

Proceed, Moon.

Moonshine:

5.1.250

All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the

5.1.251

lanthorn is the moon, I, the man in the moon, this

5.1.252

thorn-bush, my thorn-bush, and this dog, my dog.

DEMETRIUS:

5.1.253

Why, all these should be in the lanthorn, for all

5.1.254

these are in the moon. But, silence! here comes Thisbe.

Enter Thisbe

Thisbe:

5.1.255

This is old Ninny's tomb. Where is my love?

Lion:

5.1.256

[Roaring] Oh--

Thisbe runs off

DEMETRIUS:

5.1.257

Well roared, Lion.

THESEUS:

5.1.258

Well run, Thisbe.

HIPPOLYTA:

5.1.259

Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines with a

5.1.260

good grace.

grace meaning skill

The Lion shakes Thisbe's mantle, and exit

THESEUS:

5.1.261

Well moused, Lion.

LYSANDER:

5.1.262

And so the lion vanished.

DEMETRIUS:

5.1.263

And then came Pyramus.

Enter Pyramus

Pyramus:

5.1.264

Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams,

5.1.265

I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright,

5.1.266

For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams,

5.1.267

I trust to take of truest Thisby sight.

5.1.268

But stay, O spite!

5.1.269

But mark, poor knight,

5.1.270

What dreadful dole is here!

5.1.271

Eyes, do you see?

5.1.272

How can it be?

5.1.273

O dainty duck! O dear!

5.1.274

Thy mantle good,

5.1.275

What, stain'd with blood!

5.1.276

Approach, ye Furies fell!

5.1.277

O Fates, come, come,

5.1.278

Cut thread and thrum,

5.1.279

Quail, crush, conclude, and quell!

THESEUS:

5.1.280

This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would

5.1.281

go near to make a man look sad.

HIPPOLYTA:

5.1.282

Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man.

beshrew meaning curse

Pyramus:

5.1.283

O wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame?

5.1.284

Since lion vile hath here deflower'd my dear:

5.1.285

Which is--no, no--which was the fairest dame

5.1.286

That lived, that loved, that liked, that look'd

5.1.287

with cheer.

5.1.288

Come, tears, confound,

5.1.289

Out, sword, and wound

5.1.290

The pap of Pyramus,

5.1.291

Ay, that left pap,

5.1.292

Where heart doth hop:

Stabs himself

Pyramus:

5.1.293

Thus die I, thus, thus, thus.

5.1.294

Now am I dead,

5.1.295

Now am I fled,

5.1.296

My soul is in the sky:

5.1.297

Tongue, lose thy light,

5.1.298

Moon take thy flight:

Exit Moonshine

Pyramus:

5.1.299

Now die, die, die, die, die.

Dies

DEMETRIUS:

5.1.300

No die, but an ace, for him, for he is but one.

an ace meaning one

LYSANDER:

5.1.301

Less than an ace, man, for he is dead, he is nothing.

THESEUS:

5.1.302

With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover, and

5.1.303

prove an ass.

HIPPOLYTA:

5.1.304

How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe comes

5.1.305

back and finds her lover?

THESEUS:

5.1.306

She will find him by starlight. Here she comes, and

5.1.307

her passion ends the play.

Re-enter Thisbe

HIPPOLYTA:

5.1.308

Methinks she should not use a long one for such a

5.1.309

Pyramus: I hope she will be brief.

DEMETRIUS:

5.1.310

A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which

mote meaning a speck of dust

5.1.311

Thisbe, is the better, he for a man, God warrant us,

5.1.312

she for a woman, God bless us.

LYSANDER:

5.1.313

She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes.

DEMETRIUS:

5.1.314

And thus she means, videlicet:--

means meaning mourns; videlicit meaning namely

Thisbe:

5.1.315

Asleep, my love?

5.1.316

What, dead, my dove?

5.1.317

O Pyramus, arise!

5.1.318

Speak, speak. Quite dumb?

5.1.319

Dead, dead? A tomb

5.1.320

Must cover thy sweet eyes.

5.1.321

These My lips,

5.1.322

This cherry nose,

5.1.323

These yellow cowslip cheeks,

5.1.324

Are gone, are gone:

5.1.325

Lovers, make moan:

5.1.326

His eyes were green as leeks.

5.1.327

O Sisters Three,

5.1.328

Come, come to me,

5.1.329

With hands as pale as milk,

5.1.330

Lay them in gore,

5.1.331

Since you have shore

5.1.332

With shears his thread of silk.

5.1.333

Tongue, not a word:

5.1.334

Come, trusty sword,

5.1.335

Come, blade, my breast imbrue:

Stabs herself

Thisbe:

5.1.336

And, farewell, friends,

5.1.337

Thus Thisby ends:

5.1.338

Adieu, adieu, adieu.

Dies

THESEUS:

5.1.339

Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead.

DEMETRIUS:

5.1.340

Ay, and Wall too.

BOTTOM:

5.1.341

[Starting up] No assure you, the wall is down that

5.1.342

parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the

5.1.343

epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two

5.1.344

of our company?

THESEUS:

5.1.345

No epilogue, I pray you, for your play needs no

5.1.346

excuse. Never excuse, for when the players are all

excuse meaning explanation

5.1.347

dead, there needs none to be blamed. Marry, if he

Marry meaning well

5.1.348

that writ it had played Pyramus and hanged himself

5.1.349

in Thisbe's garter, it would have been a fine

5.1.350

tragedy: and so it is, truly, and very notably

notably discharged meaning memorably performed

5.1.351

discharged. But come, your Bergomask: let your

5.1.352

epilogue alone.

A dance

THESEUS:

5.1.353

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:

5.1.354

Lovers, to bed, 'tis almost fairy time.

5.1.355

I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn

5.1.356

As much as we this night have overwatch'd.

overwatch’d meaning stayed up late

5.1.357

This palpable-gross play hath well beguiled

palpable-gross meaning obviously clumsy; beguiled meaning fascinated or captivated

5.1.358

The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed.

heavy gait meaning slow passing

5.1.359

A fortnight hold we this solemnity,

“For two weeks we will celebrate”

5.1.360

In nightly revels and new jollity.

Exeunt

Enter PUCK

PUCK:

5.1.361

Now the hungry lion roars,

5.1.362

And the wolf behowls the moon,

5.1.363

Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,

5.1.364

All with weary task fordone.

5.1.365

Now the wasted brands do glow,

5.1.366

Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud,

5.1.367

Puts the wretch that lies in woe

5.1.368

In remembrance of a shroud.

5.1.369

Now it is the time of night

5.1.370

That the graves all gaping wide,

5.1.371

Every one lets forth his sprite,

5.1.372

In the church-way paths to glide:

5.1.373

And we fairies, that do run

5.1.374

By the triple Hecate's team,

5.1.375

From the presence of the sun,

5.1.376

Following darkness like a dream,

5.1.377

Now are frolic: not a mouse

5.1.378

Shall disturb this hallow'd house:

5.1.379

I am sent with broom before,

5.1.380

To sweep the dust behind the door.

Enter OBERON and TITANIA with their train

OBERON:

5.1.381

Through the house give gathering light,

5.1.382

By the dead and drowsy fire:

5.1.383

Every elf and fairy sprite

5.1.384

Hop as light as bird from brier,

5.1.385

And this ditty, after me,

5.1.386

Sing, and dance it trippingly.

TITANIA:

5.1.387

First, rehearse your song by rote

5.1.388

To each word a warbling note:

5.1.389

Hand in hand, with fairy grace,

5.1.390

Will we sing, and bless this place.

Song and dance

OBERON:

5.1.391

Now, until the break of day,

5.1.392

Through this house each fairy stray.

5.1.393

To the best bride-bed will we,

5.1.394

Which by us shall blessed be,

5.1.395

And the issue there create

5.1.396

Ever shall be fortunate.

5.1.397

So shall all the couples three

5.1.398

Ever true in loving be,

5.1.399

And the blots of Nature's hand

5.1.400

Shall not in their issue stand,

5.1.401

Never mole, hare lip, nor scar,

5.1.402

Nor mark prodigious, such as are

5.1.403

Despised in nativity,

5.1.404

Shall upon their children be.

5.1.405

With this field-dew consecrate,

5.1.406

Every fairy take his gait,

5.1.407

And each several chamber bless,

5.1.408

Through this palace, with sweet peace,

5.1.409

And the owner of it blest

5.1.410

Ever shall in safety rest.

5.1.411

Trip away, make no stay,

5.1.412

Meet me all by break of day.

Exeunt OBERON, TITANIA, and train

PUCK:

5.1.413

If we shadows have offended,

5.1.414

Think but this, and all is mended,

5.1.415

That you have but slumber'd here

5.1.416

While these visions did appear.

5.1.417

And this weak and idle theme,

5.1.418

No more yielding but a dream,

5.1.419

Gentles, do not reprehend:

5.1.420

if you pardon, we will mend:

5.1.421

And, as I am an honest Puck,

5.1.422

If we have unearned luck

5.1.423

Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,

5.1.424

We will make amends ere long,

5.1.425

Else the Puck a liar call,

5.1.426

So, good night unto you all.

5.1.427

Give me your hands, if we be friends,

5.1.428

And Robin shall restore amends.

Annotated Midsummer | a collaborative annotation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream

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