William Shakespeare

“ If I refuse to wed Demetrius.⁠64
The. Either to die the death, or to abjure
For ever the society of men.
Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires;
Know of your youth, examine well your blood,⁠68
Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun,
For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd,
To live a barren sister all your life,⁠72
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. ”

“ The pale companion is not for our pomp.
[Exit Philostrate.] Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,⁠16
And won thy love doing thee injuries;
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling.
Enter Egeus and his daughter Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius.
Ege. Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!
The. Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with thee?
Ege. Full of vexation come I, with complaint
Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,⁠24
This man hath my consent to marry her. ”

“ What though he love your Hermia? Lord! what though?
Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content.
Lys. Content with Hermia! No: I do repent
The tedious minutes I with her have spent.112
Not Hermia, but Helena I love:
Who will not change a raven for a dove?
The will of man is by his reason sway'd,
And reason says you are the worthier maid.116
Things growing are not ripe until their season ”

“ Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!
Your eyes are lode-stars! and your tongue's sweet air
More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,⁠184
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
Sickness is catching: O! were favour so,
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;
My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,
My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.⁠189
Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
The rest I'll give to be to you translated.
O! teach me how you look, and with what art
You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.⁠193
Her. ”

“ If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied.
But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy56
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.
Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end!61
Lys. Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I;
And then end life when I end loyalty!
[Retires a little distance.] Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest!
Her. With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd!They sleep. ”

“ Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:256
And 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 love260
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.264
Effect it with some care, that he may prove
More fond on her than she upon her love. ”

“ And ere a man hath power to say, 'Behold!'
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:⁠148
So quick bright things come to confusion.
Her. If then true lovers have been ever cross'd,
It stands as an edict in destiny:
Then let us teach our trial patience,⁠152
Because it is a customary cross,
As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,
Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers.
Lys. A good persuasion: therefore, hear me, Hermia.⁠156
I have a widow aunt, a dowager
Of great revenue, and she hath no child:
From Athens is her house remote seven leagues ”

“ Quench'd in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon,
And the imperial votaress passed on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.164
Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
And maidens call it Love-in-idleness.168
Fetch me that flower; the herb I show'd thee once:
The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.172
Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again
Ere the leviathan can swim a league. ”

“ Whether the performance which Pepys saw in 1662 and thought 'the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life' was a representation of the play as Shakespeare wrote it is not certain, but in 1692 at any rate the original was displaced by an operatic version with music by Purcell, and from then until well on in the nineteenth century the records show only such perversions and adaptations as that produced by David Garrick in 1755, in which some very stupid songs replaced much of Shakespeare's text and in which the parts of Lysander and Hermia were given to Italian singers. ”

“ Puck. That must needs be sport alone;
Puck. And those things do best please me120
Puck. That befall preposterously.
Enter Lysander and Helena.
Lys. 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,
In their nativity all truth appears.125
How can these things in me seem scorn to you,
Bearing the badge of faith to prove them true?
Hel. You do advance your cunning more and more.128
When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray!
These vows are Hermia's: will you give her o'er? ”

“ This whole earth may be bor'd, and that the moon
May through the centre creep, and so displease
Her brother's noontide with the Antipodes.
It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him;56
So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim. ”

“ So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear.
But hark, a voice! stay thou but here awhile,
And by and by I will to thee appear.— Exit.
Puck. —A stranger Pyramus than e'er play'd here!
[Exit.] Flu. Must I speak now?
Quin. Ay, marry, must you; for you must
understand, he goes but to see a noise that he
heard, and is to come again.97
Flu. Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue,
Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier,
Most brisky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew,
As true as truest horse that yet would never tire,101
I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb. ”

“ Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,
Did whisper often very secretly.
This loam, this rough-cast, and this stone doth show
That I am that same wall; the truth is so;164
And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.
The. Would you desire lime and hair to speak
better?168
Dem. It is the wittiest partition that ever I
heard discourse, my lord.
The. Pyramus draws near the wall: silence!
Enter Pyramus.
Pyr. O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black!172
O night, which ever art when day is not! ”

“ Although the reading of the Folio can be interpreted as a pun on the senses 'moral obstacle' and 'wall all' (i.e., mure all) , it still seems unlikely to be what Shakespeare wrote. In despair most editors have taken refuge in the emendation of Pope here adopted, despite the fact that it is open to serious objection both on literary grounds and because the noun 'mural' does not elsewhere appear as part of Shakespeare's vocabulary. The true reading seems irretrievably lost. ”

“ There is some doubt as to the extent to which Shakespeare here pushes his allusion to heraldry, but the following note is satisfactory enough: 'Helen exemplifies her position by a simile,—"we had two of the first, i.e., bodies, like the double coats [of arms] in heraldry that belong to man and wife as one person, but which, like our single heart, have but one crest."' (Douce.) ”

“ Egeus, I will overbear your will,
For in the temple, by and by, with us,
These couples shall eternally be knit:
And, for the morning now is something worn,
Our purpos'd hunting shall be set aside.189
Away with us, to Athens: three and three,
We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.
Come, Hippolyta.192
Exit Duke [with Hippolyta] and Lords.
Dem. These things seem small and undistinguishable,
Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.
Her. Methinks I see these things with parted eye,
When everything seems double. ”

“ Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush suppos'd a bear! ”

“ to choose love by another's eye.⁠140
Lys. ”

“ why rebuke you him that loves you so?
Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.44
Her. ”

“ Demetrius attempts to make a pun on a second sense of 'die,' i.e., one of a pair of dice. Some editors have attempted to help out Demetrius' wit by taking the word as related to 'duo,' i.e., two. The Elizabethan pronunciation of 'ace' gives Theseus a chance for another pun.
V. i. 393. Hecate is called triple because she was as Luna a heavenly goddess, as Diana an earthly one, and as Hecate one of the lower world. When, as the moon-goddess, she disappears at the coming of the sun, the fairies accompany her car. ”

“ Some true-love turn'd, and not a false turn'd true.
Puck. Then fate o'er-rules, that, one man holding troth,92
A million fail, confounding oath on oath.
Obe. About the wood go swifter than the wind,
And Helena of Athens look thou find:
All fancy-sick she is, and pale of cheer96
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.
Puck. I go, I go; look how I go;100
Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow.Exit. ”

“ The knotgrass, a low, tough weed, hinders growth in gardens, and was popularly supposed to be a means of stunting a child's growth.
III. ii. 389. the morning's love. It is not certain whether this phrase refers to Cephalus, according to classical mythology a mighty hunter and the lover of Aurora, the dawn, or whether it is a figurative description of Aurora herself, or whether it means simply the sun. It is clear, however, that Oberon is contrasting his freedom to sport by day with the fate of those spirits which are exiled from the sunshine. ”

“ To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes
With your derision! none of noble sort
Would so offend a virgin, and extort160
A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport.
Lys. You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so ”

“ Theobald was very likely right in reading 'after death.' Were Bottom to rise, after dying a heroic death, and sing his 'ballad,' that would be gracious indeed.
V. i. 19, 20. 'The mere idea of a joy is enough incentive to a strong imagination to conjure up and believe in the actual presence of a something which causes that joy.' (Chambers.) ”

“ Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne?
But who is here? Lysander! on the ground!100
Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.
Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake.
Lys. [Awaking.] And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake.
Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,104
That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart. ”

“ The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve;
Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.373
I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn,
As much as we this night have overwatch'd. ”

“ There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be
Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.
Puck. Fairy king, attend, and mark:
Puck. I do hear the morning lark.100
Obe. Then, my queen, in silence sad,
Obe. Trip we after the night's shade;
Obe. We the globe can compass soon,
Obe. Swifter than the wandering moon.104
Tita. Come, my lord; and in our flight
Tita. Tell me how it came this night
Tita. That I sleeping here was found
Tita. With these mortals on the ground.108
Sleepers lie still. Exeunt [Fairies] . Wind Horns.
Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and all his train. ”

“ Two of both kinds make up four.
Puck. Here she comes, curst and sad:
Puck. Cupid is a knavish lad,440
Puck. Thus to make poor females mad. ”

“ Hip. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of.
The. More strange than true. I never may believe
These antic fables, nor these fairy toys.
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend5
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,
Are of imagination all compact:8
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
That is the madman ”

“ And grows to something of great constancy,
But, howsoever, strange and admirable.
Enter lovers, Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena.
The. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.28
Joy, gentle friends! joy, and fresh days of love
Accompany your hearts! ”

“ According to the Ptolemaic system of astronomy accepted in Shakespeare's day, the sun, moon, and stars revolved about the earth fixed in transparent spheres.
II. i. 9. orbs. The circles of dark green grass often seen in old pastures, once supposed to be produced by the care of fairies in watering such spots.
II. i. 10. pensioners. Queen Elizabeth had a bodyguard of tall and handsome gentlemen, many of them noble, who were called her pensioners. ”

“ The passage of time seems as slow to Theseus as to a young man under the guardianship of a stepmother or to one who is kept from the enjoyment of his estate by his father's widow who lingers on in possession of a life-interest therein. ”

“ A few minor changes in punctuation and in spelling (such as almanac for almanack, gawd for gaud, laugh for loff, and antic for antique) have been made. The spelling lanthorn has been retained only in the speeches of Moon, where it adds clearness to a jest. ”

“ And, as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing16
A local habitation and a name. ”

“ The credit for the restoration to the stage of something like the original play must be given to Tieck, a German translator of Shakespeare, who produced it at Berlin in 1827 with the incidental music by Mendelssohn which has since become famous. Some of the best performances of recent years have been given in Germany, notably the production by Max Reinhardt, which combined remarkable excellences with lapses of taste characteristically German.
In England and America productions reasonably faithful to the original text have been both frequent and popular since the performance by Mme. ”

“ Quin. Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.
Flu. Here, Peter Quince.
Quin. You must take Thisby on you.
Flu. What is Thisby? a wandering knight?
Quin. It is the lady that Pyramus must love.
Flu. Nay, faith, let not me play a woman; I
have a beard coming.⁠51
Quin. That's all one: you shall play it in a
mask, and you may speak as small as you will.
Bot. An I may hide my face, let me play
Thisby too. I'll speak in a monstrous little
voice, 'Thisne, Thisne!' 'Ah, Pyramus, my lover
dear; thy Thisby dear, and lady dear!'⁠57
Quin. No, no; you must play Pyramus ”

“ I have had a211
dream, past the wit of man to say what dream
it was: man is but an ass, if he go about to ex-
pound this dream. Methought I was—there is
no man can tell what. Methought I was,—and
methought I had,—but man is but a patched
fool, if he will offer to say what methought I had. ”