# Midsummer Night's Dream (1918) Yale/Text/Act IV

Notes originally placed at the bottom of each page appear below, following Act IV. Where these notes gloss a word in the text, the gloss can also be found by hovering over the text.
Where these notes refer to an end note (cf. n. = confer notam; "consult note"), a link to the accompanying end note is provided from the Footnotes section. The end notes accompanying Act IV begin on page 85 of the original volume.
Layout 2
ACT FOURTH
Scene One
[The Same]
Enter Queen of Fairies and Clown and Fairies, and the King behind them [unseen].
Tita. 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.4
Bot. Where's Pease-blossom?
Peas. Ready.
Bot. Scratch my head, Pease-blossom. Where's Mounsieur Cobweb?8
Cob. Ready.
Bot. Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red- hipped humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good mounsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, moun- sieur; and, good mounsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not; I would be loath to have you overflown with a honey-bag, signior. Where's Mounsieur Mustard-seed?18
Must. Ready.
Bot. Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustard- seed. Pray you, leave your courtesy, good mounsieur.
Must. What's your will?23
Bot. Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber's, mounsieur, for methinks I am marvel- lous hairy about the face; and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch.29
Tita. What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love?
Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in music: let us have the tongs and the bones.33
Tita. Or say, sweet love, what thou desir'st to eat.
Bot. 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.39
Tita. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee thence new nuts.
Bot. I had rather have a handful or two of dried pease. But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me: I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.45
Tita. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.
[Exeunt Fairies.]
So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle48 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 Robin Goodfellow.
Obe. [Advancing.] Welcome, good Robin. See'st thou this sweet sight?52 Her dotage now I do begin to pity: For, meeting her of late behind the wood, Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool, I did upbraid her and fall out with her;56 For she his hairy temples then had rounded 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,60 Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail. When I had at my pleasure taunted her, And she in mild terms begg'd my patience,64 ​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. And now I have the boy, I will undo68 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,72 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.76
[Touching her eyes with an herb.]
Be as thou wast wont to be; See as thou wast wont to see: Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower Hath such force and blessed power.80
Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.
Tita. My Oberon! what visions have I seen! Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.
Obe. There lies your love.
Tita.How came these things to pass? O! how mine eyes do loathe his visage now.85
Obe. Silence a while. Robin, take off this head. Titania, music call; and strike more dead Than common sleep of all these five the sense.
Tita. Music, ho! music! such as charmeth sleep.
Music, still.
Puck. When thou wak'st, with thine own fool's eyes peep.
Obe. Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands with me, ​And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be. Now thou and I are new in amity,93 And will to-morrow midnight solemnly Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly, And bless it to all fair prosperity.96 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.
The. Go, one of you, find out the forester; For now our observation is perform'd; And since we have the vaward of the day, My love shall hear the music of my hounds.112 Uncouple in the western valley; let them go: Dispatch, I say, and find the forester. We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top, And mark the musical confusion116 Of hounds and echo in conjunction.
Hip. 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 hear120 ​Such gallant chiding; for, besides the groves, The skies, the fountains, every region near Seem'd all one mutual cry. I never heard So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.124
The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, So flew'd, so sanded; and their heads are hung With ears that sweep away the morning dew;127 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, In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly:132 Judge, when you hear. But, soft! what nymphs are these?
Ege. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep; And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is; This Helena, old Nedar's Helena:136 I wonder of their being here together.
The. No doubt they rose up early to observe The rite of May, and, hearing our intent, Came here in grace of our solemnity.140 But speak, Egeus, is not this the day That Hermia should give answer of her choice?
Ege. It is, my lord.
The. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.144
Horns and they wake. Shout within. They all start up.
Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past: Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
Lys. Pardon, my lord.
The.I pray you all, stand up. ​I know you two are rival enemies:148 How comes this gentle concord in the world, That hatred is so far from jealousy, To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?
Lys. My lord, I shall reply amazedly,152 Half sleep, half waking: but as yet, I swear, I cannot truly say how I came here; But, as I think,—for truly would I speak, And now I do bethink me, so it is,—156 I came with Hermia hither: our intent Was to be gone from Athens, where we might, Without the peril of the Athenian law—
Ege. Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough:160 I beg the law, the law, upon his head. They would have stol'n away; they would, Demetrius, Thereby to have defeated you and me; You of your wife, and me of my consent,164 Of my consent that she should be your wife.
Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth, Of this their purpose hither, to this wood; And I in fury hither follow'd them,168 Fair Helena in fancy following me. But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,— But by some power it is,—my love to Hermia, Melted as the snow, seems to me now172 As the remembrance of an idle gawd Which in my childhood I did dote upon; And all the faith, the virtue of my heart, The object and the pleasure of mine eye,176 Is only Helena. To her, my lord, Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia: But, like a sickness, did I loathe this food; ​But, as in health, come to my natural taste, Now do I wish it, love it, long for it,181 And will for evermore be true to it.
The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met: Of this discourse we more will hear anon.184 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.
Hel.So methinks: And I have found Demetrius, like a jewel,197 Mine own, and not mine own.
Dem.Are you sure That we are awake? It seems to me That yet we sleep, we dream. Do you not think The duke was here, and bid us follow him?201
Her. Yea: and my father.
Hel.And Hippolyta.
Lys. And he did bid us follow to the temple.
Dem. Why then, we are awake. Let's follow him;204 And by the way let us recount our dreams.
Exeunt Lovers.
Bottom wakes.
Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer: my next is, 'Most fair Pyra- mus.' Heigh-ho! Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout, the tinker! Starveling! God's my life! stolen hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare vision. 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. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man218 hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream: it shall be called Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the latter end of a play, before the duke: peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it at her death.226
Exit.
Scene Two
[A Room in Quince's House]
Enter Quince, Flute, Snout, and Starveling.
Quin. Have you sent to Bottom's house? is he come home yet?
Star. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is transported.4
Flu. If he come not, then the play is marred: it goes not forward, doth it?
Quin. It is not possible: you have not a man in all Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he.9
Flu. No; he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft man in Athens.
Quin. Yea, and the best person too; and he is a very paramour for a sweet voice.13
Flu. You must say, 'paragon': a paramour is, God bless us! a thing of naught.
Enter Snug the Joiner.
Snug. Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and there is two or three lords and ladies more married: if our sport had gone forward, we had all been made men.19
Flu. O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a day during his life; he could not have 'scaped sixpence a day: an the duke had not given him sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged; he would have deserved it: six- pence a day in Pyramus, or nothing.25
Enter Bottom.
Bot. Where are these lads? where are these hearts?
Quin. Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour!29
Bot. Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask me not what; for if I tell you, I am no true ​Athenian. I will tell you everything, right as it fell out.33
Quin. Let us hear, sweet Bottom.
Bot. Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that the duke hath dined. Get your ap- parel together, good strings to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the palace; every man look o'er his part; for the short and the long is, our play is preferred. In40 any case, let Thisby have clean linen; and let not him that plays the lion pare his nails, for they shall hang out for the lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath, and I do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet comedy. No46 more words: away! go; away!
Exeunt.
Footnotes to Act IV
Scene One
​2 amiable: lovely coy: caress ​20 neaf: fist 21 leave your courtesy: omit formality 25 Cavalery: i.e., cavalier 33 the tongs and the bones: rude musical instruments ​38 bottle: bundle 55 favours: flowers as gifts 60 orient: lustrous ​72 other: others 73 repair: return 75 fierce: extravagant 89 S. d. cf. n. ​95 triumphantly: festively 108 S. d. Wind: blow 110 observation: observance of the rites of May Day 111 vaward: early part 113 Uncouple: unleash them 114 Dispatch: make haste 119 bay'd: brought to bay ​121 chiding: noise (of hounds) 126 flew'd: having large chaps sanded: of a sandy color 129 mouth: voice bells: i.e., a chime of bells 133 soft: stop 140 in grace of: i.e., to grace 145 Saint Valentine; cf. n. ​150 jealousy: suspicion 159 Without: beyond ​195 parted eye: i.e., the two eyes not in focus 197, 198 Cf. n. ​216 patched: motley 226 gracious: acceptable at her death; cf. n.
Scene Two
​4 transported: transformed (?) 15 a thing of naught: something wicked 27 hearts: good fellows ​40 preferred: accepted (?), offered for acceptance (by the duke) (?)