A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Act IV, Scene I

Scene I

[The wood. Lysander, Demetrius, Helena, and Hermia, lying asleep]

Enter [Titania and Bottom; Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, Mustardseed, and] Fairies [Oberon] behind them, [unseen]

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?(5)
PEASEBLOSSOM:
Ready.
BOTTOM:
Scratch my head, Peaseblossom. Where's Monsieur
Cobweb?
COBWEB:
Ready.
BOTTOM:
Monsieur Cobweb; good monsieur, get you your(10)
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 loth to have you over-flown(15)
with a honey-bag, signior. Where's Monsieur
Mustardseed?
MUSTARDSEED:
Ready.
BOTTOM:
Give me your neaf, Monsieur Mustardseed.
Pray you, leave your courtesy, good monsieur.(20)
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 tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me I must(25)
scratch.
TITANIA:
What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love?
BOTTOM:
I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let's have
the tongs and the bones.

Rural music

TITANIA:
Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat.(30)
BOTTOM:
Truly, a peck of provender; I could munch your
good dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle
of hay. Good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.
TITANIA:
I have a venturous fairy that shall seek
The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.(35)
BOTTOM:
I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas.
But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me; I have
an exposition of sleep come upon me.
TITANIA:
Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.
Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.(40)

[Exeunt Fairies]

So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle
Gently entwist; the female ivy so
Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.
O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!

[They sleep]

Enter [Puck]

OBERON:
Welcome, good Robin. See'st thou this sweet sight?(45)
Her dotage now I do begin to pity;
For, meeting her of late behind the wood,
Seeking sweet favors for this hateful fool,
I did upbraid her and fall out with her.
For she his hairy temples then had rounded(50)
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
And that same dew which sometime on the buds
Was wont to swell, like round and orient pearls
Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes,
Like tears, that did their own disgrace bewail.(55)
When I had at my pleasure taunted her,
And she in mild terms begg'd my patience,
I then did ask of her her changeling child;
Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent
To bear him to my bower in fairy land.(60)
And now I have the boy, I will undo
This hateful imperfection of her eyes.
And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp
From off the head of this Athenian swain,
That he awaking when the other do(65)
May all to Athens back again repair,
And think no more of this night's accidents
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
But first I will release the fairy queen.

[Touching her eyes]

Be as thou wast wont to be;(70)
See as thou was wont to see.
Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower
Hath such force and blessed power.
Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.
TITANIA:
My Oberon! What visions have I seen!(75)
Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.
OBERON:
There lies your love.
TITANIA:
How came these things to pass?
O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!
OBERON:
Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head.(80)
Titania, music call; and strike more dead
Than common sleep of all these five the sense.
TITANIA:
Music, ho, music, such as charmeth sleep!

[Music]

PUCK:
Now when thou wakest with thine own fool's eyes peep.
OBERON:
Sound, music. Come, my Queen, take hands with me,(85)
And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.
Now thou and I are new in amity,
And will tomorrow midnight solemnly
Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly,
And bless it to all fair prosperity.(90)
There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be
Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.
PUCK:
Fairy king, attend and mark;
I do hear the morning lark.
OBERON:
Then, my Queen, in silence sad,(95)
Trip we after night's shade.
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wandering moon.
TITANIA:
Come, my lord; and in our flight,
Tell me how it came this night(100)
That I sleeping here was found
With these mortals on the ground.

Exeunt

Wind horns. Enter Theseus, Egeus, Hippolyta, and all his train

THESEUS:
Go, one of you, find out the forester;
For now our observation is perform'd,
And since we have the vaward of the day,(105)
My love shall hear the music of my hounds.
Uncouple in the western valley; let them go.
Dispatch, I say, and find the forester.

[Exit an Attendant]

We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,
And mark the musical confusion(110)
Of hounds and echo in conjunction.
HIPPOLYTA:
I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear
With hounds of Sparta; never did I hear
Such gallant chiding, for, besides the groves,(115)
The skies, the fountains, every region near
Seem'd all one mutual cry. I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.
THESEUS:
My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flew'd, so sanded; and their heads are hung(120)
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook-knee'd and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls;
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tuneable
Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,(125)
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly.
Judge when you hear. But, soft, what nymphs are these?
EGEUS:
My lord, this is my daughter here asleep,
And this Lysander, this Demetrius is,
This Helena, old Nedar's Helena.(130)
I wonder of their being here together.
THESEUS:
No doubt they rose up early to observe
The rite of May; and, hearing our intent,
Came here in grace of our solemnity.
But speak, Egeus; is not this the day(135)
That Hermia should give answer of her choice?
EGEUS:
It is, my lord.
THESEUS:
Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.

Horns and they wake. Shouting within, the [lovers] all start up.

Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past;
Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?(140)
  • lovable
  • caress
  • submerged
  • fist
  • “Cavalier”
  • musical triangle
  • pieces of bone used as a musical instrument
  • a quarter bushel (8 quarts)
  • hay
  • bundle
  • equal
  • “disposition”
  • a type of plant similar to honeysuckle
  • infatuation
  • to scold, reprimand
  • a garland or wreath
  • lustrous; bright like the sun in the East
  • a man who dates a woman; a suitor
  • aggravation; turmoil
  • Oberon is removing the spell (“Cupid's flower”) from Titania's eyes; the antidote Oberon is using, “Dian's bud,” is named for Diana, goddess of chastity.
  • face
  • friendship
  • orbit
  • referring to the observance of May Day
  • earliest part
  • the official responsible for the forest land
  • a Phoenician prince in Greek mythology, who founded the city of Thebes
  • a Greek island
  • chased
  • dogs famous for their hunting skills
  • barking
  • disharmony
  • having large folds of flesh around the mouth
  • sandy colored
  • referring to a region in Greece known as Thessaly
  • stop
  • ceremony
  • It was believed that birds chose their mates on St. Valentine's Day, just as Hermia is to choose hers on this day.
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