"The course of true love never did run smooth." "'And never did it stumble worse than on one summer's day 'when all Athens was bright with expectancy 'for the wedding of Duke Theseus and Hippolyta." "'But love was not so simple for others in the town." "'Hermia loved Lysander and Lysander loved Hermia." "'And what could have been better than that?" "'At the same time, Helena loved Demetrius." "'But Demetrius did not love Helena." "'Instead, he loved Hermia." "What could have been worse than that?" "'Only Hermia's father." "'Although there was nothing to choose between the two young men," "'Hermia's father had chosen, and he had chosen Demetrius.'" "So quick bright things come to confusion." "'And such was the law of Athens that if Hermia disobeyed her father, 'she would be shut up in a nunnery for the rest of her life." "'The lovers were in despair, but despair leads to desperation, 'and desperation to desperate measures." "'The very next night, first Hermia then Lysander crept from the town." "'At midnight, they were to meet in a wood not far from Athens, and from there, to ﬂy away together to some distant place, 'where the cruel law could not touch them." "'And all might have turned out well 'had not Hermia confided in Helena, who was her best friend." "'For Helena, hoping for no more than a grateful smile, told Demetrius." "'Outraged, Demetrius rushed after the runaways 'meaning to win Hermia's heart by plunging his sword in Lysander's." "'And after him stumbled Helena, 'still hoping for a kindness to be ﬂung over his shoulder, 'like a bone to a slewing dog." "'And so, the four lovers hastened to the wood." "'But they were not the only ones to leave the town that night 'for the secrecy of the wood." "'Peter Quince, the carpenter and scholar of the company." "'Nick Bottom, the weaver, a great man and a tower of strength in any enterprise, 'which not even he would deny." "'Flute the bellows mender, Snug the joiner," "'Snout the tinker and Starveling the tailor.'" "Is all our company here?" "'Six good men of Athens," "'It was the most lamentable tragedy 'and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe." "'Nick Bottom, of course, was to play Pyramus, 'although he could have taken any or all the other parts with equal success.'" "Let me play Thisbe, too." "No, no." "You must play Pyramus." "Let me play the Lion, too." "I will roar." "Then I will make the Duke say, 'Let him roar again.'" "'It was a strange wood, huge, mysterious, and haunted by more than spinning spiders, 'beetles, hedgehogs and sotly gliding spolted snakes." "'Oberon, dread king of the night-time world, with Puck, his wild henchman, 'and all his gobbling train.'" "I'll met by moonlight, proud Titania." "'Titania, his queen.'" " What?" "Jealous Oberon." "Fairies, skip hence." "I have forsworn his bed and company." "Tarry, rash wanton!" "Why should Titania cross her Oberon?" "I do but beg a little changeling boy to be my henchman." "Set your heart at rest:" "the fairy land buys not the child of me" "His mother was a votaress of my order." "Give me that boy!" " Not for thy fairy kingdom." "Fairies, away!" "Well, go thy way." "Thou shalt not from this grove till I torment thee for this injury" "My gentle Puck, me hither." "'Even the seasons were disturbed, for, as among the mortal lovers, 'there was discord between the spirit king and queen, 'and so dangerous a quarrel made a sickness in nature.'" "Fetch me this herb." "I'll put a girdle round about the Earth in 40 minutes." "'The herb that Puck had gone to fetch grew far away in the west." "'It was a certain purple ﬂower possessed of strange powers." "'If the juice of it mas dropped on sleeping eyes, 'then the moment they awoke, 'the sleeper would fall wildly, madly in love 'with the very first living creature their magically anointed eyes beheld, 'no matter who or what it was.'" "I love thee not, therefore pursue me not." "I am your spaniel!" "And Demetrius, the more you beat me, I will fawn on you" "Spum me, strike me, neglect me, lose me" "Only give me leave, unworthy as I am, to follow you." "I am sick when I do look on thee." "And I am sick when I look not on you." "Let me go!" "Or if thou follow me, do not believe" "But I shall do thee mischief in the wood." "We should be woo'd, and were not made to woo." "Fare thee well, nymph;" "Ere he do leave this grove, thou shalt ﬂy him" "And he shall seek thy love." "I know a bank where the wild thyme blows" "Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows" "Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine" "With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine" "There sleeps Titania some time of the night" "With the juice of this I'll streak her eyes" "And make her full of hateful fantasies" "Take thou some of it and seek through this grove" "A sweet Athenian lady is in love" "With a disdainful youth; anoint his eyes" "But do it when the next thing he espies" "May be the lady; thou shalt know the man" "By the Athenian garments he hath on." "Fear not, my lord." "Your servant shall do so." "Oh, me now" "A roundel and a fairy song." "♪ You spolted snakes with double tongue" "♪ Thorny hedgehogs be not seen" "♪ Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong" "♪ Come not near our fairy queen" "♪ Weaving spiders, me not here" "♪ Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence" "♪ Beetles black, approach not near" "♪ Worm nor snail, do no offence ♪" "What thou seest when thou dost wake," "Do it for thy true-love talus" "Wake when something vile is near." "We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good." "Be it so, Lysander." "Find you out a bed, for I upon this bank will rest my head." "One turf shall serve as pillow for us both." "Nay, good Lysander" "For my sake, my dear, lie further off yet" "Lie further off in human modesty." "Such separation, as may well be said" "Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid." "So far be distant, and good night, sweet friend." "This is he, my master said, despised the Athenian maid" "And here the maiden, sleeping sound on the dank and dirty ground." "Pretty soul!" "She durst not lie near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy" "Churl, upon thine eyes I throw all the power this charm doth owe." "Hence!" "Hence!" "I charge thee hence and do not haunt me thus." "O, wilt thou darkling leave me?" "But who is here?" "Lysander!" "On the ground!" "Dead?" "Or asleep?" "I see no blood, no wound" "Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake!" "Not Hermia but Helena I love!" "Who will not change a raven for a dove?" "Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do" "Fare you well." "Hermia, sleep thou there, and never mayst thou me Lysander near" "All my powers address your love and might" "To honour Helen and to be her knight." "Lysander." "Lysander?" "Lord?" "Alackl Where are you?" "From love In earnest to love In play The six good men of Athens.'" "Are we all met?" "Here is a marvellous, convenient place for our rehearsal." "'So their parts were allotted." "'Pyramus the lover to Bottom," "'Thisbe the lady to Flute.'" "Let me not play a woman I have a beard coming." "'Thisbe the lady to Flute.'" "Oh!" "'Snug to play the lion.'" "'Starveling to represent the moon." "'And Snout to be the wall that cruelly separated the lovers one from another." "'And Peter Quin, the scholar, to direct the play.'" "'But though they had chosen the time and place for rehearsing with re 'so as to be quite secret, they had an audience, though they knew it not.'" "What hempen homespuns have we swaggering here" "So near the cradle of the fairy queen?" "Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue" "I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb." "At Ninus' tomb, man!" "Why. you must not speak that yet" "That you must answer to Pyramus." "You speak all your part at once, cues and all!" "Pyramus!" "Enter" "Your cue is past!" "Pyramus!" "Enter!" "If I were fair, fair Thisbe..." "O, monstrous!" "O, strange!" "We are haunted." "Pray, masters!" "Fly, masters!" "Help!" "Help!" "Why do they run away?" "Bless thee, Bottom!" "Bless thee!" "Thou art translated!" "I see their knavery" "This is to males an ass of me, to fright me, if they could" "I will sing that they shall hear I am not afraid." "♪ The ousel cock, so black of hue" "♪ With orange tawny bill" "♪ The throstle with his note so true" "♪ The wren with little quill" "♪ The throstle with his note so true" "♪ The wren with the little qui-i-ill, i-i-i-ill ♪" "What angel wakes me from my ﬂowery bed?" "Gentle mortal, sing again!" "Mine ear is much enamoured of thy note" "So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape" "On the first view to say, to swear" "I love thee." "Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that." "I am a spirit of no common rate" "And I do love thee" "Therefore, go with me;" "I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee." "This falls out better than I could devise" "But has thou yet lashed the Athenian's eyes with the love juice?" "I took him sleeping." " Stand close." "This is the same Athenian." "This is the woman, but not this the man!" "Out, dog!" "Out, curl Has!" "thou slain him, then?" "I am not guilty of Lysander's blood." "See me no more, whether he be dead or no." "There is no following her in this fierce vein." "Oh." "What hast thou done?" "Thou hast mistaken quite and laid the love juice on some true-love's sight" "About the wood go, swifter than the wind, and Helena of Athens, look thou, find!" "I go, I go!" "Look how I go, swifter than arrow from the Tartar's blow." "Flower of this purple dye, hit with Cupid's archery," "Sink in the apple of his eye when his love he doth espy." "Captain of our fairy band, Helena is here at hand" "Shall we their fond pageant see?" "O, Helen!" "Goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!" "O, spite!" "Oh, hell!" "I see." "You all are bent" "To set against me for your merriment." "You both are rivals and love Hermia." "Lysander, keep thy Hermia;" "If e'er I loved her, all that love is gone" "And now to Helen is it home returned." "Helen, it is not sol" "Look where thy love mes." "Yonder is thy dear." "You jugglerl" "You canker-blossom!" "You thief of love!" "Have you no modesty?" "No maiden's shame?" "You puppet. you!" "Puppet?" "!" "Thou painted maypolel" "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" "She was a vixen when she went to school." " Let me come to herl" "Be gone, you dwar!" "This is thine negligence; still thou mistakest" "Or else mmifsl thy knaveries wilfully." "Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook." "Thou see'st these lovers seek a place to fight" "Hie therefore, Robin." "Overcast the night." "Lead these testy rivals so astray that one mes not within another's way" "Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye." "When thou wakes!" "Thou takes!" "True delight" "In the sight" "Of thy former lady's eye" "And the country proverb known" "That every man should take his own." "'But the madness of love still lingered in another part of the wood.'" "Sweet love, what desires!" "thou to eat?" "Truly, a peck of provender;" "I could munch your good dry oats" "But I pray you, let none of your people stir me" "I have an exposition of sleep me upon me." "Sleep, thou, and I will wind thee in my arms." "Oh!" "How I love thee!" "How I dole on thee!" "Oh!" "'Oberon saw his chance to take revenge, and with it, pity followed.'" "Now I have the boy, I will undo this hateful imperfection of her eyes." "Be as thou wast wont to be" "See as thou wast wont to see." "My Oberon!" "What visions have I seen!" "Methought I was enamoured of an ass!" "There lies your love." "Come, my queen, take hands with me." "'Duke Theseus with his bride, 'up early to celebrate their wedding day with a hunt.'" "But soft, what nymphs are these?" "Go bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns." "'Amongst the party was Egeus, father of Hermia, his disobedient child.'" "I beg the law, the law upon his head." "Fair lovers, you are fortunately met." "Egeus, I will overbear your will" "For in the temple, by and by, with us" "These couples shall ertemally be knit" "Away with us to Athens, three and three" "We'll hold a feast in great solemnity." "Are you sure that we are awake?" "It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream." "'And so another dreamer, Bottom, was transformed again from ass to actor, 'and left the wood to join his anxious company in Athens, 'to celebrate, with their play, Duke Theseus' wedding day" "This man is Pyramus, if you would know" "This beauteous lady Thisbe is certain." "This man with lime and rough-cast doth present" "Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder" "This man, with lantern, dog and bush of thorn, presenteth Moonshine" "This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name." "Well run, Thisbel" "'But bully Bottom the weaver was best of all." "'He lived Pyramus, he died Pyramus.'" "Thus die I." "Thus..." "Thus... thus..." "'Now the mortals have succumbed to sleep, into the pale creep the happy spirits.'" "Through the house give glimmering light" "Sing and dance it trippingly." "Hand in hand, with fairy grace, will we sing and bless this place." "Now until the break of day, through this house each fairy stray" "To the best bride-bed will we, which by us shall blessed be" "Trip away, make no slay, meet me, all, by break of day." "'And so at last, after the madness of the midsummer night, 'the course of true love me home in smiles and laughter, 'to peace, contentment and a well-earned rest.'" "♪..." "Bride-bed will we" "♪ Which by us shall blessed be ♪"