node10-libxslt/deps/libxslt/tests/XSLTMark/xslbenchdream.xml

[Fork] Node.js bindings for libxslt compatible with libxmljs

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<PLAY>
<TITLE>A Midsummer Night's Dream</TITLE>

<FM>
<P>ASCII text placed in the public domain by Moby Lexical Tools, 1992.</P>
<P>SGML markup by Jon Bosak, 1992-1994.</P>
<P>XML version by Jon Bosak, 1996-1999.</P>
<P>The XML markup in this version is Copyright &#169; 1999 Jon Bosak.
This work may freely be distributed on condition that it not be
modified or altered in any way.</P>
</FM>

<PERSONAE>
<TITLE>Dramatis Personae</TITLE>

<PERSONA>THESEUS, Duke of Athens.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>EGEUS, father to Hermia.</PERSONA>

<PGROUP>
<PERSONA>LYSANDER</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>DEMETRIUS</PERSONA>
<GRPDESCR>in love with Hermia.</GRPDESCR>
</PGROUP>

<PERSONA>PHILOSTRATE, master of the revels to Theseus.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>QUINCE, a carpenter.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>SNUG, a joiner.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>BOTTOM, a weaver.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>FLUTE, a bellows-mender.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>SNOUT, a tinker.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>STARVELING, a tailor.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>HIPPOLYTA, queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>HERMIA, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>HELENA, in love with Demetrius.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>OBERON, king of the fairies.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>TITANIA, queen of the fairies.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>PUCK, or Robin Goodfellow.</PERSONA>

<PGROUP>
<PERSONA>PEASEBLOSSOM</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>COBWEB</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>MOTH</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>MUSTARDSEED</PERSONA>
<GRPDESCR>fairies.</GRPDESCR>
</PGROUP>

<PERSONA>Other fairies attending their King and Queen.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta.</PERSONA>
</PERSONAE>

<SCNDESCR>SCENE  Athens, and a wood near it.</SCNDESCR>

<PLAYSUBT>A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM</PLAYSUBT>

<ACT><TITLE>ACT I</TITLE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE I.  Athens. The palace of THESEUS.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and
Attendants</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>THESEUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour</LINE>
<LINE>Draws on apace; four happy days bring in</LINE>
<LINE>Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow</LINE>
<LINE>This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,</LINE>
<LINE>Like to a step-dame or a dowager</LINE>
<LINE>Long withering out a young man revenue.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HIPPOLYTA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;</LINE>
<LINE>Four nights will quickly dream away the time;</LINE>
<LINE>And then the moon, like to a silver bow</LINE>
<LINE>New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night</LINE>
<LINE>Of our solemnities.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>THESEUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Go, Philostrate,</LINE>
<LINE>Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;</LINE>
<LINE>Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;</LINE>
<LINE>Turn melancholy forth to funerals;</LINE>
<LINE>The pale companion is not for our pomp.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit PHILOSTRATE</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,</LINE>
<LINE>And won thy love, doing thee injuries;</LINE>
<LINE>But I will wed thee in another key,</LINE>
<LINE>With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>EGEUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>THESEUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with thee?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>EGEUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Full of vexation come I, with complaint</LINE>
<LINE>Against my child, my daughter Hermia.</LINE>
<LINE>Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,</LINE>
<LINE>This man hath my consent to marry her.</LINE>
<LINE>Stand forth, Lysander: and my gracious duke,</LINE>
<LINE>This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child;</LINE>
<LINE>Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,</LINE>
<LINE>And interchanged love-tokens with my child:</LINE>
<LINE>Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,</LINE>
<LINE>With feigning voice verses of feigning love,</LINE>
<LINE>And stolen the impression of her fantasy</LINE>
<LINE>With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,</LINE>
<LINE>Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers</LINE>
<LINE>Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth:</LINE>
<LINE>With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart,</LINE>
<LINE>Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,</LINE>
<LINE>To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke,</LINE>
<LINE>Be it so she; will not here before your grace</LINE>
<LINE>Consent to marry with Demetrius,</LINE>
<LINE>I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,</LINE>
<LINE>As she is mine, I may dispose of her:</LINE>
<LINE>Which shall be either to this gentleman</LINE>
<LINE>Or to her death, according to our law</LINE>
<LINE>Immediately provided in that case.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>THESEUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What say you, Hermia? be advised fair maid:</LINE>
<LINE>To you your father should be as a god;</LINE>
<LINE>One that composed your beauties, yea, and one</LINE>
<LINE>To whom you are but as a form in wax</LINE>
<LINE>By him imprinted and within his power</LINE>
<LINE>To leave the figure or disfigure it.</LINE>
<LINE>Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So is Lysander.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>THESEUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>In himself he is;</LINE>
<LINE>But in this kind, wanting your father's voice,</LINE>
<LINE>The other must be held the worthier.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I would my father look'd but with my eyes.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>THESEUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I do entreat your grace to pardon me.</LINE>
<LINE>I know not by what power I am made bold,</LINE>
<LINE>Nor how it may concern my modesty,</LINE>
<LINE>In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;</LINE>
<LINE>But I beseech your grace that I may know</LINE>
<LINE>The worst that may befall me in this case,</LINE>
<LINE>If I refuse to wed Demetrius.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>THESEUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Either to die the death or to abjure</LINE>
<LINE>For ever the society of men.</LINE>
<LINE>Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires;</LINE>
<LINE>Know of your youth, examine well your blood,</LINE>
<LINE>Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,</LINE>
<LINE>You can endure the livery of a nun,</LINE>
<LINE>For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd,</LINE>
<LINE>To live a barren sister all your life,</LINE>
<LINE>Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.</LINE>
<LINE>Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood,</LINE>
<LINE>To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;</LINE>
<LINE>But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,</LINE>
<LINE>Than that which withering on the virgin thorn</LINE>
<LINE>Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,</LINE>
<LINE>Ere I will my virgin patent up</LINE>
<LINE>Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke</LINE>
<LINE>My soul consents not to give sovereignty.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>THESEUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Take time to pause; and, by the nest new moon--</LINE>
<LINE>The sealing-day betwixt my love and me,</LINE>
<LINE>For everlasting bond of fellowship--</LINE>
<LINE>Upon that day either prepare to die</LINE>
<LINE>For disobedience to your father's will,</LINE>
<LINE>Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would;</LINE>
<LINE>Or on Diana's altar to protest</LINE>
<LINE>For aye austerity and single life.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DEMETRIUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Relent, sweet Hermia: and, Lysander, yield</LINE>
<LINE>Thy crazed title to my certain right.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LYSANDER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You have her father's love, Demetrius;</LINE>
<LINE>Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>EGEUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love,</LINE>
<LINE>And what is mine my love shall render him.</LINE>
<LINE>And she is mine, and all my right of her</LINE>
<LINE>I do estate unto Demetrius.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LYSANDER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am, my lord, as well derived as he,</LINE>
<LINE>As well possess'd; my love is more than his;</LINE>
<LINE>My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,</LINE>
<LINE>If not with vantage, as Demetrius';</LINE>
<LINE>And, which is more than all these boasts can be,</LINE>
<LINE>I am beloved of beauteous Hermia:</LINE>
<LINE>Why should not I then prosecute my right?</LINE>
<LINE>Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,</LINE>
<LINE>Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,</LINE>
<LINE>And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,</LINE>
<LINE>Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,</LINE>
<LINE>Upon this spotted and inconstant man.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>THESEUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I must confess that I have heard so much,</LINE>
<LINE>And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof;</LINE>
<LINE>But, being over-full of self-affairs,</LINE>
<LINE>My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come;</LINE>
<LINE>And come, Egeus; you shall go with me,</LINE>
<LINE>I have some private schooling for you both.</LINE>
<LINE>For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself</LINE>
<LINE>To fit your fancies to your father's will;</LINE>
<LINE>Or else the law of Athens yields you up--</LINE>
<LINE>Which by no means we may extenuate--</LINE>
<LINE>To death, or to a vow of single life.</LINE>
<LINE>Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love?</LINE>
<LINE>Demetrius and Egeus, go along:</LINE>
<LINE>I must employ you in some business</LINE>
<LINE>Against our nuptial and confer with you</LINE>
<LINE>Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>EGEUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>With duty and desire we follow you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt all but LYSANDER and HERMIA</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LYSANDER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale?</LINE>
<LINE>How chance the roses there do fade so fast?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Belike for want of rain, which I could well</LINE>
<LINE>Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LYSANDER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay me! for aught that I could ever read,</LINE>
<LINE>Could ever hear by tale or history,</LINE>
<LINE>The course of true love never did run smooth;</LINE>
<LINE>But, either it was different in blood,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LYSANDER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Or else misgraffed in respect of years,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O spite! too old to be engaged to young.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LYSANDER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O hell! to choose love by another's eyes.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LYSANDER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,</LINE>
<LINE>War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,</LINE>
<LINE>Making it momentany as a sound,</LINE>
<LINE>Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;</LINE>
<LINE>Brief as the lightning in the collied night,</LINE>
<LINE>That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,</LINE>
<LINE>And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!'</LINE>
<LINE>The jaws of darkness do devour it up:</LINE>
<LINE>So quick bright things come to confusion.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If then true lovers have been ever cross'd,</LINE>
<LINE>It stands as an edict in destiny:</LINE>
<LINE>Then let us teach our trial patience,</LINE>
<LINE>Because it is a customary cross,</LINE>
<LINE>As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,</LINE>
<LINE>Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LYSANDER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A good persuasion: therefore, hear me, Hermia.</LINE>
<LINE>I have a widow aunt, a dowager</LINE>
<LINE>Of great revenue, and she hath no child:</LINE>
<LINE>From Athens is her house remote seven leagues;</LINE>
<LINE>And she respects me as her only son.</LINE>
<LINE>There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;</LINE>
<LINE>And to that place the sharp Athenian law</LINE>
<LINE>Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,</LINE>
<LINE>Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night;</LINE>
<LINE>And in the wood, a league without the town,</LINE>
<LINE>Where I did meet thee once with Helena,</LINE>
<LINE>To do observance to a morn of May,</LINE>
<LINE>There will I stay for thee.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My good Lysander!</LINE>
<LINE>I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow,</LINE>
<LINE>By his best arrow with the golden head,</LINE>
<LINE>By the simplicity of Venus' doves,</LINE>
<LINE>By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,</LINE>
<LINE>And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen,</LINE>
<LINE>When the false Troyan under sail was seen,</LINE>
<LINE>By all the vows that ever men have broke,</LINE>
<LINE>In number more than ever women spoke,</LINE>
<LINE>In that same place thou hast appointed me,</LINE>
<LINE>To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LYSANDER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter HELENA</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>God speed fair Helena! whither away?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

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

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I give him curses, yet he gives me love.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O that my prayers could such affection move!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The more I hate, the more he follows me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The more I love, the more he hateth me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Take comfort: he no more shall see my face;</LINE>
<LINE>Lysander and myself will fly this place.</LINE>
<LINE>Before the time I did Lysander see,</LINE>
<LINE>Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me:</LINE>
<LINE>O, then, what graces in my love do dwell,</LINE>
<LINE>That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LYSANDER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Helen, to you our minds we will unfold:</LINE>
<LINE>To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold</LINE>
<LINE>Her silver visage in the watery glass,</LINE>
<LINE>Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,</LINE>
<LINE>A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,</LINE>
<LINE>Through Athens' gates have we devised to steal.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And in the wood, where often you and I</LINE>
<LINE>Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,</LINE>
<LINE>Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,</LINE>
<LINE>There my Lysander and myself shall meet;</LINE>
<LINE>And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,</LINE>
<LINE>To seek new friends and stranger companies.</LINE>
<LINE>Farewell, sweet playfellow: pray thou for us;</LINE>
<LINE>And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!</LINE>
<LINE>Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight</LINE>
<LINE>From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LYSANDER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I will, my Hermia.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit HERMIA</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Helena, adieu:</LINE>
<LINE>As you on him, Demetrius dote on you!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How happy some o'er other some can be!</LINE>
<LINE>Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.</LINE>
<LINE>But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;</LINE>
<LINE>He will not know what all but he do know:</LINE>
<LINE>And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,</LINE>
<LINE>So I, admiring of his qualities:</LINE>
<LINE>Things base and vile, folding no quantity,</LINE>
<LINE>Love can transpose to form and dignity:</LINE>
<LINE>Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;</LINE>
<LINE>And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:</LINE>
<LINE>Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;</LINE>
<LINE>Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:</LINE>
<LINE>And therefore is Love said to be a child,</LINE>
<LINE>Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.</LINE>
<LINE>As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,</LINE>
<LINE>So the boy Love is perjured every where:</LINE>
<LINE>For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,</LINE>
<LINE>He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;</LINE>
<LINE>And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,</LINE>
<LINE>So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.</LINE>
<LINE>I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:</LINE>
<LINE>Then to the wood will he to-morrow night</LINE>
<LINE>Pursue her; and for this intelligence</LINE>
<LINE>If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:</LINE>
<LINE>But herein mean I to enrich my pain,</LINE>
<LINE>To have his sight thither and back again.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE II.  Athens. QUINCE'S house.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and
STARVELING</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Is all our company here?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BOTTOM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You were best to call them generally, man by man,</LINE>
<LINE>according to the scrip.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is</LINE>
<LINE>thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our</LINE>
<LINE>interlude before the duke and the duchess, on his</LINE>
<LINE>wedding-day at night.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BOTTOM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats</LINE>
<LINE>on, then read the names of the actors, and so grow</LINE>
<LINE>to a point.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Marry, our play is, The most lamentable comedy, and</LINE>
<LINE>most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BOTTOM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a</LINE>
<LINE>merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your</LINE>
<LINE>actors by the scroll. Masters, spread yourselves.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BOTTOM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BOTTOM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BOTTOM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That will ask some tears in the true performing of</LINE>
<LINE>it: if I do it, let the audience look to their</LINE>
<LINE>eyes; I will move storms, I will condole in some</LINE>
<LINE>measure. To the rest: yet my chief humour is for a</LINE>
<LINE>tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to</LINE>
<LINE>tear a cat in, to make all split.</LINE>
<LINE>The raging rocks</LINE>
<LINE>And shivering shocks</LINE>
<LINE>Shall break the locks</LINE>
<LINE>Of prison gates;</LINE>
<LINE>And Phibbus' car</LINE>
<LINE>Shall shine from far</LINE>
<LINE>And make and mar</LINE>
<LINE>The foolish Fates.</LINE>
<LINE>This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players.</LINE>
<LINE>This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is</LINE>
<LINE>more condoling.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FLUTE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Here, Peter Quince.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Flute, you must take Thisby on you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FLUTE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What is Thisby? a wandering knight?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It is the lady that Pyramus must love.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FLUTE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That's all one: you shall play it in a mask, and</LINE>
<LINE>you may speak as small as you will.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BOTTOM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too, I'll</LINE>
<LINE>speak in a monstrous little voice. 'Thisne,</LINE>
<LINE>Thisne;' 'Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! thy Thisby dear,</LINE>
<LINE>and lady dear!'</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, no; you must play Pyramus: and, Flute, you Thisby.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BOTTOM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, proceed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Robin Starveling, the tailor.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>STARVELING</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Here, Peter Quince.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother.</LINE>
<LINE>Tom Snout, the tinker.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>SNOUT</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Here, Peter Quince.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You, Pyramus' father: myself, Thisby's father:</LINE>
<LINE>Snug, the joiner; you, the lion's part: and, I</LINE>
<LINE>hope, here is a play fitted.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>SNUG</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if it</LINE>
<LINE>be, give it me, for I am slow of study.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BOTTOM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I will</LINE>
<LINE>do any man's heart good to hear me; I will roar,</LINE>
<LINE>that I will make the duke say 'Let him roar again,</LINE>
<LINE>let him roar again.'</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>An you should do it too terribly, you would fright</LINE>
<LINE>the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek;</LINE>
<LINE>and that were enough to hang us all.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ALL</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That would hang us, every mother's son.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BOTTOM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the</LINE>
<LINE>ladies out of their wits, they would have no more</LINE>
<LINE>discretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my</LINE>
<LINE>voice so that I will roar you as gently as any</LINE>
<LINE>sucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any</LINE>
<LINE>nightingale.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a</LINE>
<LINE>sweet-faced man; a proper man, as one shall see in a</LINE>
<LINE>summer's day; a most lovely gentleman-like man:</LINE>
<LINE>therefore you must needs play Pyramus.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BOTTOM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best</LINE>
<LINE>to play it in?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, what you will.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BOTTOM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I will discharge it in either your straw-colour</LINE>
<LINE>beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain</LINE>
<LINE>beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, your</LINE>
<LINE>perfect yellow.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and</LINE>
<LINE>then you will play bare-faced. But, masters, here</LINE>
<LINE>are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request</LINE>
<LINE>you and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night;</LINE>
<LINE>and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the</LINE>
<LINE>town, by moonlight; there will we rehearse, for if</LINE>
<LINE>we meet in the city, we shall be dogged with</LINE>
<LINE>company, and our devices known. In the meantime I</LINE>
<LINE>will draw a bill of properties, such as our play</LINE>
<LINE>wants. I pray you, fail me not.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BOTTOM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>We will meet; and there we may rehearse most</LINE>
<LINE>obscenely and courageously. Take pains; be perfect: adieu.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>QUINCE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>At the duke's oak we meet.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BOTTOM</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Enough; hold or cut bow-strings.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

</ACT>

<ACT><TITLE>ACT II</TITLE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE I.  A wood near Athens.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter, from opposite sides, a Fairy, and PUCK</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PUCK</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How now, spirit! whither wander you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Fairy</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Over hill, over dale,</LINE>
<LINE>Thorough bush, thorough brier,</LINE>
<LINE>Over park, over pale,</LINE>
<LINE>Thorough flood, thorough fire,</LINE>
<LINE>I do wander everywhere,</LINE>
<LINE>Swifter than the moon's sphere;</LINE>
<LINE>And I serve the fairy queen,</LINE>
<LINE>To dew her orbs upon the green.</LINE>
<LINE>The cowslips tall her pensioners be:</LINE>
<LINE>In their gold coats spots you see;</LINE>
<LINE>Those be rubies, fairy favours,</LINE>
<LINE>In those freckles live their savours:</LINE>
<LINE>I must go seek some dewdrops here</LINE>
<LINE>And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.</LINE>
<LINE>Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone:</LINE>
<LINE>Our queen and all our elves come here anon.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PUCK</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The king doth keep his revels here to-night:</LINE>
<LINE>Take heed the queen come not within his sight;</LINE>
<LINE>For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,</LINE>
<LINE>Because that she as her attendant hath</LINE>
<LINE>A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king;</LINE>
<LINE>She never had so sweet a changeling;</LINE>
<LINE>And jealous Oberon would have the child</LINE>
<LINE>Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;</LINE>
<LINE>But she perforce withholds the loved boy,</LINE>
<LINE>Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy:</LINE>
<LINE>And now they never meet in grove or green,</LINE>
<LINE>By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,</LINE>
<LINE>But, they do square, that all their elves for fear</LINE>
<LINE>Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Fairy</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Either I mistake your shape and making quite,</LINE>
<LINE>Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite</LINE>
<LINE>Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he</LINE>
<LINE>That frights the maidens of the villagery;</LINE>
<LINE>Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern</LINE>
<LINE>And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;</LINE>
<LINE>And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;</LINE>
<LINE>Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?</LINE>
<LINE>Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,</LINE>
<LINE>You do their work, and they shall have good luck:</LINE>
<LINE>Are not you he?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PUCK</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thou speak'st aright;</LINE>
<LINE>I am that merry wanderer of the night.</LINE>
<LINE>I jest to Oberon and make him smile</LINE>
<LINE>When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,</LINE>
<LINE>Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:</LINE>
<LINE>And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,</LINE>
<LINE>In very likeness of a roasted crab,</LINE>
<LINE>And when she drinks, against her lips I bob</LINE>
<LINE>And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.</LINE>
<LINE>The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,</LINE>
<LINE>Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;</LINE>
<LINE>Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,</LINE>
<LINE>And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;</LINE>
<LINE>And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,</LINE>
<LINE>And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear</LINE>
<LINE>A merrier hour was never wasted there.</LINE>
<LINE>But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Fairy</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter, from one side, OBERON, with his train;
from the other, TITANIA, with hers</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>OBERON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>TITANIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence:</LINE>
<LINE>I have forsworn his bed and company.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>OBERON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>TITANIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Then I must be thy lady: but I know</LINE>
<LINE>When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,</LINE>
<LINE>And in the shape of Corin sat all day,</LINE>
<LINE>Playing on pipes of corn and versing love</LINE>
<LINE>To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,</LINE>
<LINE>Come from the farthest Steppe of India?</LINE>
<LINE>But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,</LINE>
<LINE>Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love,</LINE>
<LINE>To Theseus must be wedded, and you come</LINE>
<LINE>To give their bed joy and prosperity.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>OBERON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,</LINE>
<LINE>Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,</LINE>
<LINE>Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?</LINE>
<LINE>Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night</LINE>
<LINE>From Perigenia, whom he ravished?</LINE>
<LINE>And make him with fair AEgle break his faith,</LINE>
<LINE>With Ariadne and Antiopa?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>TITANIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>These are the forgeries of jealousy:</LINE>
<LINE>And never, since the middle summer's spring,</LINE>
<LINE>Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,</LINE>
<LINE>By paved fountain or by rushy brook,</LINE>
<LINE>Or in the beached margent of the sea,</LINE>
<LINE>To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,</LINE>
<LINE>But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.</LINE>
<LINE>Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,</LINE>
<LINE>As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea</LINE>
<LINE>Contagious fogs; which falling in the land</LINE>
<LINE>Have every pelting river made so proud</LINE>
<LINE>That they have overborne their continents:</LINE>
<LINE>The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,</LINE>
<LINE>The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn</LINE>
<LINE>Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard;</LINE>
<LINE>The fold stands empty in the drowned field,</LINE>
<LINE>And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;</LINE>
<LINE>The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud,</LINE>
<LINE>And the quaint mazes in the wanton green</LINE>
<LINE>For lack of tread are undistinguishable:</LINE>
<LINE>The human mortals want their winter here;</LINE>
<LINE>No night is now with hymn or carol blest:</LINE>
<LINE>Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,</LINE>
<LINE>Pale in her anger, washes all the air,</LINE>
<LINE>That rheumatic diseases do abound:</LINE>
<LINE>And thorough this distemperature we see</LINE>
<LINE>The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts</LINE>
<LINE>Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,</LINE>
<LINE>And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown</LINE>
<LINE>An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds</LINE>
<LINE>Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,</LINE>
<LINE>The childing autumn, angry winter, change</LINE>
<LINE>Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,</LINE>
<LINE>By their increase, now knows not which is which:</LINE>
<LINE>And this same progeny of evils comes</LINE>
<LINE>From our debate, from our dissension;</LINE>
<LINE>We are their parents and original.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>OBERON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Do you amend it then; it lies in you:</LINE>
<LINE>Why should Titania cross her Oberon?</LINE>
<LINE>I do but beg a little changeling boy,</LINE>
<LINE>To be my henchman.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>TITANIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Set your heart at rest:</LINE>
<LINE>The fairy land buys not the child of me.</LINE>
<LINE>His mother was a votaress of my order:</LINE>
<LINE>And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,</LINE>
<LINE>Full often hath she gossip'd by my side,</LINE>
<LINE>And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,</LINE>
<LINE>Marking the embarked traders on the flood,</LINE>
<LINE>When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive</LINE>
<LINE>And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;</LINE>
<LINE>Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait</LINE>
<LINE>Following,--her womb then rich with my young squire,--</LINE>
<LINE>Would imitate, and sail upon the land,</LINE>
<LINE>To fetch me trifles, and return again,</LINE>
<LINE>As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.</LINE>
<LINE>But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;</LINE>
<LINE>And for her sake do I rear up her boy,</LINE>
<LINE>And for her sake I will not part with him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>OBERON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How long within this wood intend you stay?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>TITANIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Perchance till after Theseus' wedding-day.</LINE>
<LINE>If you will patiently dance in our round</LINE>
<LINE>And see our moonlight revels, go with us;</LINE>
<LINE>If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>OBERON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>TITANIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away!</LINE>
<LINE>We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit TITANIA with her train</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>OBERON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove</LINE>
<LINE>Till I torment thee for this injury.</LINE>
<LINE>My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest</LINE>
<LINE>Since once I sat upon a promontory,</LINE>
<LINE>And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back</LINE>
<LINE>Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath</LINE>
<LINE>That the rude sea grew civil at her song</LINE>
<LINE>And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,</LINE>
<LINE>To hear the sea-maid's music.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PUCK</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I remember.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>OBERON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,</LINE>
<LINE>Flying between the cold moon and the earth,</LINE>
<LINE>Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took</LINE>
<LINE>At a fair vestal throned by the west,</LINE>
<LINE>And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,</LINE>
<LINE>As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;</LINE>
<LINE>But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft</LINE>
<LINE>Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon,</LINE>
<LINE>And the imperial votaress passed on,</LINE>
<LINE>In maiden meditation, fancy-free.</LINE>
<LINE>Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:</LINE>
<LINE>It fell upon a little western flower,</LINE>
<LINE>Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,</LINE>
<LINE>And maidens call it love-in-idleness.</LINE>
<LINE>Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once:</LINE>
<LINE>The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid</LINE>
<LINE>Will make or man or woman madly dote</LINE>
<LINE>Upon the next live creature that it sees.</LINE>
<LINE>Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again</LINE>
<LINE>Ere the leviathan can swim a league.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PUCK</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I'll put a girdle round about the earth</LINE>
<LINE>In forty minutes.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>OBERON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Having once this juice,</LINE>
<LINE>I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,</LINE>
<LINE>And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.</LINE>
<LINE>The next thing then she waking looks upon,</LINE>
<LINE>Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,</LINE>
<LINE>On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,</LINE>
<LINE>She shall pursue it with the soul of love:</LINE>
<LINE>And ere I take this charm from off her sight,</LINE>
<LINE>As I can take it with another herb,</LINE>
<LINE>I'll make her render up her page to me.</LINE>
<LINE>But who comes here? I am invisible;</LINE>
<LINE>And I will overhear their conference.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA, following him</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DEMETRIUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.</LINE>
<LINE>Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?</LINE>
<LINE>The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.</LINE>
<LINE>Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood;</LINE>
<LINE>And here am I, and wode within this wood,</LINE>
<LINE>Because I cannot meet my Hermia.</LINE>
<LINE>Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;</LINE>
<LINE>But yet you draw not iron, for my heart</LINE>
<LINE>Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw,</LINE>
<LINE>And I shall have no power to follow you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DEMETRIUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Do I entice you? do I speak you fair?</LINE>
<LINE>Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth</LINE>
<LINE>Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And even for that do I love you the more.</LINE>
<LINE>I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,</LINE>
<LINE>The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:</LINE>
<LINE>Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,</LINE>
<LINE>Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,</LINE>
<LINE>Unworthy as I am, to follow you.</LINE>
<LINE>What worser place can I beg in your love,--</LINE>
<LINE>And yet a place of high respect with me,--</LINE>
<LINE>Than to be used as you use your dog?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DEMETRIUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;</LINE>
<LINE>For I am sick when I do look on thee.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And I am sick when I look not on you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DEMETRIUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You do impeach your modesty too much,</LINE>
<LINE>To leave the city and commit yourself</LINE>
<LINE>Into the hands of one that loves you not;</LINE>
<LINE>To trust the opportunity of night</LINE>
<LINE>And the ill counsel of a desert place</LINE>
<LINE>With the rich worth of your virginity.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Your virtue is my privilege: for that</LINE>
<LINE>It is not night when I do see your face,</LINE>
<LINE>Therefore I think I am not in the night;</LINE>
<LINE>Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,</LINE>
<LINE>For you in my respect are all the world:</LINE>
<LINE>Then how can it be said I am alone,</LINE>
<LINE>When all the world is here to look on me?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DEMETRIUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,</LINE>
<LINE>And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The wildest hath not such a heart as you.</LINE>
<LINE>Run when you will, the story shall be changed:</LINE>
<LINE>Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;</LINE>
<LINE>The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind</LINE>
<LINE>Makes speed to catch the tiger; bootless speed,</LINE>
<LINE>When cowardice pursues and valour flies.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DEMETRIUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I will not stay thy questions; let me go:</LINE>
<LINE>Or, if thou follow me, do not believe</LINE>
<LINE>But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,</LINE>
<LINE>You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!</LINE>
<LINE>Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:</LINE>
<LINE>We cannot fight for love, as men may do;</LINE>
<LINE>We should be wood and were not made to woo.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit DEMETRIUS</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,</LINE>
<LINE>To die upon the hand I love so well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>OBERON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove,</LINE>
<LINE>Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Re-enter PUCK</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PUCK</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, there it is.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>OBERON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I pray thee, give it me.</LINE>
<LINE>I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,</LINE>
<LINE>Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,</LINE>
<LINE>Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,</LINE>
<LINE>With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:</LINE>
<LINE>There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,</LINE>
<LINE>Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;</LINE>
<LINE>And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,</LINE>
<LINE>Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:</LINE>
<LINE>And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,</LINE>
<LINE>And make her full of hateful fantasies.</LINE>
<LINE>Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:</LINE>
<LINE>A sweet Athenian lady is in love</LINE>
<LINE>With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;</LINE>
<LINE>But do it when the next thing he espies</LINE>
<LINE>May be the lady: thou shalt know the man</LINE>
<LINE>By the Athenian garments he hath on.</LINE>
<LINE>Effect it with some care, that he may prove</LINE>
<LINE>More fond on her than she upon her love:</LINE>
<LINE>And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PUCK</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE II.  Another part of the wood.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter TITANIA, with her train</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>TITANIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;</LINE>
<LINE>Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;</LINE>
<LINE>Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,</LINE>
<LINE>Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,</LINE>
<LINE>To make my small elves coats, and some keep back</LINE>
<LINE>The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders</LINE>
<LINE>At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;</LINE>
<LINE>Then to your offices and let me rest.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>The Fairies sing</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>You spotted snakes with double tongue,</LINE>
<LINE>Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;</LINE>
<LINE>Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,</LINE>
<LINE>Come not near our fairy queen.</LINE>
<LINE>Philomel, with melody</LINE>
<LINE>Sing in our sweet lullaby;</LINE>
<LINE>Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:</LINE>
<LINE>Never harm,</LINE>
<LINE>Nor spell nor charm,</LINE>
<LINE>Come our lovely lady nigh;</LINE>
<LINE>So, good night, with lullaby.</LINE>
<LINE>Weaving spiders, come not here;</LINE>
<LINE>Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!</LINE>
<LINE>Beetles black, approach not near;</LINE>
<LINE>Worm nor snail, do no offence.</LINE>
<LINE>Philomel, with melody, &amp;c.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Fairy</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Hence, away! now all is well:</LINE>
<LINE>One aloof stand sentinel.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt Fairies. TITANIA sleeps</STAGEDIR>
<STAGEDIR>Enter OBERON and squeezes the flower on TITANIA's eyelids</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>OBERON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What thou seest when thou dost wake,</LINE>
<LINE>Do it for thy true-love take,</LINE>
<LINE>Love and languish for his sake:</LINE>
<LINE>Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,</LINE>
<LINE>Pard, or boar with bristled hair,</LINE>
<LINE>In thy eye that shall appear</LINE>
<LINE>When thou wakest, it is thy dear:</LINE>
<LINE>Wake when some vile thing is near.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>
<STAGEDIR>Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LYSANDER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood;</LINE>
<LINE>And to speak troth, I have forgot our way:</LINE>
<LINE>We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,</LINE>
<LINE>And tarry for the comfort of the day.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed;</LINE>
<LINE>For I upon this bank will rest my head.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LYSANDER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;</LINE>
<LINE>One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear,</LINE>
<LINE>Lie further off yet, do not lie so near.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LYSANDER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!</LINE>
<LINE>Love takes the meaning in love's conference.</LINE>
<LINE>I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit</LINE>
<LINE>So that but one heart we can make of it;</LINE>
<LINE>Two bosoms interchained with an oath;</LINE>
<LINE>So then two bosoms and a single troth.</LINE>
<LINE>Then by your side no bed-room me deny;</LINE>
<LINE>For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Lysander riddles very prettily:</LINE>
<LINE>Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,</LINE>
<LINE>If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied.</LINE>
<LINE>But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy</LINE>
<LINE>Lie further off; in human modesty,</LINE>
<LINE>Such separation as may well be said</LINE>
<LINE>Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid,</LINE>
<LINE>So far be distant; and, good night, sweet friend:</LINE>
<LINE>Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LYSANDER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I;</LINE>
<LINE>And then end life when I end loyalty!</LINE>
<LINE>Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HERMIA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>They sleep</STAGEDIR>
<STAGEDIR>Enter PUCK</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>PUCK</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Through the forest have I gone.</LINE>
<LINE>But Athenian found I none,</LINE>
<LINE>On whose eyes I might approve</LINE>
<LINE>This flower's force in stirring love.</LINE>
<LINE>Night and silence.--Who is here?</LINE>
<LINE>Weeds of Athens he doth wear:</LINE>
<LINE>This is he, my master said,</LINE>
<LINE>Despised the Athenian maid;</LINE>
<LINE>And here the maiden, sleeping sound,</LINE>
<LINE>On the dank and dirty ground.</LINE>
<LINE>Pretty soul! she durst not lie</LINE>
<LINE>Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.</LINE>
<LINE>Churl, upon thy eyes I throw</LINE>
<LINE>All the power this charm doth owe.</LINE>
<LINE>When thou wakest, let love forbid</LINE>
<LINE>Sleep his seat on thy eyelid:</LINE>
<LINE>So awake when I am gone;</LINE>
<LINE>For I must now to Oberon.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>
<STAGEDIR>Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DEMETRIUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, wilt thou darkling leave me? do not so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DEMETRIUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Stay, on thy peril: I alone will go.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>HELENA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!</LINE>
<LINE>The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.</LINE>
<LINE>Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies;</LINE>
<LINE>For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.</LINE>
<LINE>How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears:</LINE>
<LINE>If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers.</LINE>
<LINE>No, no, I am as ugly as a bear;</LIN