BOTTOM        Where’s Monsieur Mustardseed? MUSTARDSEED         Ready. BOTTOM        Give me your neaf, Monsieur Mustardseed. Pray you, leave your courtesy, good Monsieur. MUSTARDSEED         What’s your will? BOTTOM        Nothing, good Monsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber’s, Monsieur, for methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face; and I am such a […]

BOTTOM        Monsieur Cobweb, good Monsieur, get you your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and good Monsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, Monsieur; and good Monsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not. I would be loath […]

Enter [TITANIA, BOTTOM] and FAIRIES, and [OBERON] behind them. TITANIA         Come sit thee down upon this flowery bed While I thy amiable cheeks do coy, And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head, And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy. BOTTOM        Where’s Peaseblossom? PEASEBLOSSOM        Ready. BOTTOM        Scratch my head, Peaseblossom. Where’s Monsieur Cobweb? COBWEB        Ready. (4.1.1-9) Bottom and Titania may have been in her bower at […]

PUCK                  On the ground                               Sleep sound.                               I’ll apply                               To your eye,                     Gentle lover, remedy.                               When thou wak’st,                               Thou tak’st                               True delight                               In the sight                     Of thy former lady’s eye;           And the country proverb known,           That every man should take his own,           In your waking shall be shown.                               Jack shall have Jill,                               Nought shall go ill, The man […]

Enter HERMIA. HERMIA         Never so weary, never so in woe, Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briers, I can no further crawl, no further go; My legs can keep no pace with my desires. Here will I rest me till the break of day. Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray.     [Sleeps.] (3.2.442-447) Hermia speaks six […]

HELENA         O weary night, O long and tedious night, Abate thy hours. Shine, comforts, from the east, That I may back to Athens by daylight From these that my poor company detest; And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow’s eye, Steal me a while from mine own company. ([Lies down and] sleep[s].) PUCK  Yet but three? Come one more. Two of both kinds makes up four. […]

Enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS. PUCK  Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why com’st thou not? DEMETRIUS   Abide me, if thou dar’st. For well I wot, Thou run’st before me, shifting every place, And dar’st not stand nor look me in the face. Where art thou now? PUCK                          Come hither. I am here. DEMETRIUS   Nay then, thou mockst me. Thou shalt buy this dear If ever I […]

[Enter LYSANDER.] LYSANDER     He goes before me, and still dares me on; When I come where he calls, then he is gone. The villain is much lighter heeled than I: I followed fast, but faster he did fly, That fallen am I in dark uneven way, And here will rest me. Come, thou gentle day, For if but once thou […]

PUCK  Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars, Telling the bushes that thou look’st for wars, And wilt not come? Come, recreant, come, thou child. I’ll whip thee with a rod: he is defiled That draws a sword on thee. DEMETRIUS               Yea, art thou there? PUCK  Follow my voice. We’ll try no manhood here. (Exeunt.)    (3.2.407-412) Puck imitates Lysander’s […]

PUCK  Up and down, up and down, I will lead them up and down. I am feared in field and town. Goblin, lead them up and down. Here comes one. Enter LYSANDER. LYSANDER     Where art thou, proud Demetrius? Speak thou now. PUCK  Here, villain, drawn and ready. Where art thou? LYSANDER     I will be with thee straight. PUCK                          […]