Act III, Scene II

A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Act III, Scene II

[Another part of the wood]

Enter The King of Fairies [Oberon]

OBERON:: I wonder if Titania be awaked;
Then, what it was that next came in her eye,
Which she must dote on in extremity.

Enter Puck
Here comes my messenger.
How now, mad spirit!(5)
What night-rule now about this haunted grove?

PUCK:: My mistress with a monster is in love.
Near to her close and consecrated bower,
While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,
A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,(10)
That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,
Were met together to rehearse a play,
Intended for great Theseus' nuptial-day.
The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort,
Who Pyramus presented, in their sport(15)
Forsook his scene and ent'red in a brake;
When I did him at this advantage take,
An ass's nole I fixed on his head.
Anon his Thisbe must be answered,
And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy,(20)
As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,
Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort,
Rising and cawing at the gun's report,
Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky,
So, at his sight, away his fellows fly;(25)
And at our stamp here, o'er and o'er one falls;
He murder cries, and help from Athens calls.
Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears thus strong,
Made senseless things begin to do them wrong,
For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch;(30)
Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all things catch.
I led them on in this distracted fear,
And left sweet Pyramus translated there;
When in that moment, so it came to pass,
Titania waked, and straightway loved an ass.(35)

OBERON:: This falls out better than I could devise.
But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes
With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?

PUCK:: I took him sleeping,—that is finish'd too,—
And the Athenian woman by his side;(40)
That, when he waked, of force she must be eyed.

Enter Demetrius and Hermia

DEMETRIUS:: O, why rebuke you him that loves you so?
Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.(45)

HERMIA:: Now I but chide, but I should use thee worse,
For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse.
If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,
Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep,
And kill me too.(50)
The sun was not so true unto the day
As he to me. Would he have stolen away
From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon
This whole earth may be bored, and that the moon
May through the centre creep and so displease(55)
Her brother's noontide with the Antipodes.
It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him;
So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim.

DEMETRIUS:: So should the murdered look; and so should I,
Pierced through the heart with your stern cruelty;(60)
Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear,
As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere.

HERMIA:: What's this to my Lysander? Where is he?
Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me?

HERMIA:: Out, dog! out, cur! Thou drivest me past the bounds
Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him, then?
Henceforth be never number'd among men!
O, once tell true; tell true, even for my sake!
Durst thou have look'd upon him being awake,(70)
And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch!
Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?
An adder did it; for with doubler tongue
Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.

DEMETRIUS:: You spend your passion on a misprised mood:(75)
I am not guilty of Lysander's blood;
Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.

HERMIA:: A privilege, never to see me more.(80)
And from thy hated presence part I so;
See me no more, whether he be dead or no.

Exit

DEMETRIUS:: There is no following her in this fierce vein;
Here, therefore, for a while I will remain.
So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow(85)
For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe;
Which now in some slight measure it will pay,
If for his tender here I make some stay.

Lie[s] down [and sleeps]

OBERON:: What hast thou done? Thou hast mistaken quite,
And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight.(90)
Of thy misprision must perforce ensue
Some true love turn'd, and not a false turn'd true.

PUCK:: Then fate o'er-rules, that, one man holding troth,
A million fail, confounding oath on oath.

OBERON:: About the wood go swifter than the wind,(95)
And Helena of Athens look thou find;
All fancy-sick she is and pale of cheer,
With sighs of love that costs the fresh blood dear.
By some illusion see thou bring her here;
I'll charm his eyes against she do appear.(100)

Exit

OBERON:: Flower of this purple dye,
Hit with Cupid's archery,
Sink in apple of his eye.(105)
When his love he doth espy,
Let her shine as gloriously
As the Venus of the sky.
When thou wakest, if she be by,
Beg of her for remedy.(110)

[Re-]enter Puck

PUCK:: Captain of our fairy band,
Helena is here at hand,
And the youth, mistook by me
Pleading for a lover's fee;
Shall we their fond pageant see?(115)
Lord, what fools these mortals be!

PUCK:: Then will two at once woo one.
That must needs be sport alone;(120)
And those things do best please me
That befall preposterously.

Enter Lysander and Helena

LYSANDER:: Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?
Scorn and derision never come in tears.
Look when I vow, I weep; and vows so born,(125)
In their nativity all truth appears.
How can these things in me seem scorn to you,
Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true?

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