Read Complete Plays, The Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
Complete Plays, The (385 page)
Bassanio
Sweet doctor, you shall be my bed-fellow:
When I am absent, then lie with my wife.
Antonio
Sweet lady, you have given me life and living;
For here I read for certain that my ships
Are safely come to road.
Portia
How now, Lorenzo!
My clerk hath some good comforts too for you.
Nerissa
Ay, and I’ll give them him without a fee.
There do I give to you and Jessica,
From the rich Jew, a special deed of gift,
After his death, of all he dies possess’d of.
Lorenzo
Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way
Of starved people.
Portia
It is almost morning,
And yet I am sure you are not satisfied
Of these events at full. Let us go in;
And charge us there upon inter’gatories,
And we will answer all things faithfully.
Gratiano
Let it be so: the first inter’gatory
That my Nerissa shall be sworn on is,
Whether till the next night she had rather stay,
Or go to bed now, being two hours to day:
But were the day come, I should wish it dark,
That I were couching with the doctor’s clerk.
Well, while I live I’ll fear no other thing
So sore as keeping safe Nerissa’s ring.
Exeunt
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
T
ABLE
OF
C
ONTENTS
S
CENE
I. A
THENS
. T
HE
PALACE
OF
T
HESEUS
.
S
CENE
II. A
THENS
. Q
UINCE
’
S
HOUSE
.
S
CENE
II. A
NOTHER
PART
OF
THE
WOOD
.
S
CENE
I. T
HE
WOOD
. T
ITANIA
LYING
ASLEEP
.
S
CENE
II. A
NOTHER
PART
OF
THE
WOOD
.
S
CENE
II. A
THENS
. Q
UINCE
’
S
HOUSE
.
S
CENE
I. A
THENS
. T
HE
PALACE
OF
T
HESEUS
.
C
HARACTERS
OF
THE
P
LAY
Theseus
, Duke of Athens.
Egeus
, father to Hermia.
Lysander
,
Demetrius
, in love with Hermia.
Philostrate
, master of the revels to Theseus.
Quince
, a carpenter.
Snug
, a joiner.
Bottom
, a weaver.
Flute
, a bellows-mender.
Snout
, a tinker.
Starveling
, a tailor.
Hippolyta
, queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus.
Hermia
, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander.
Helena
, in love with Demetrius.
Oberon
, king of the fairies.
Titania
, queen of the fairies.
Puck
, or Robin Goodfellow.
Peaseblossom
,
Cobweb
,
Moth
,
Mustardseed
, fairies.
Other fairies attending their King and Queen.
Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta.
SCENE: Athens, and a wood near it.
A
CT
I
S
CENE
I. A
THENS
. T
HE
PALACE
OF
T
HESEUS
.
Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate, and Attendants
Theseus
Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
Draws on apace; four happy days bring in
Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow
This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,
Like to a step-dame or a dowager
Long withering out a young man’s revenue.
Hippolyta
Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;
Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
And then the moon, like to a silver bow
New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night
Of our solemnities.
Theseus
Go, Philostrate,
Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;
Turn melancholy forth to funerals;
The pale companion is not for our pomp.
Exit Philostrate
Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword,
And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.
Enter Egeus, Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius
Egeus
Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!
Theseus
Thanks, good Egeus: what’s the news with thee?
Egeus
Full of vexation come I, with complaint
Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,
This man hath my consent to marry her.
Stand forth, Lysander: and my gracious duke,
This man hath bewitch’d the bosom of my child;
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
And interchanged love-tokens with my child:
Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,
With feigning voice verses of feigning love,
And stolen the impression of her fantasy
With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers
Of strong prevailment in unharden’d youth:
With cunning hast thou filch’d my daughter’s heart,
Turn’d her obedience, which is due to me,
To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke,
Be it so she will not here before your grace
Consent to marry with Demetrius,
I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,
As she is mine, I may dispose of her:
Which shall be either to this gentleman
Or to her death, according to our law
Immediately provided in that case.
Theseus
What say you, Hermia? be advised fair maid:
To you your father should be as a god;
One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax
By him imprinted and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it.
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
Hermia
So is Lysander.
Theseus
In himself he is;
But in this kind, wanting your father’s voice,
The other must be held the worthier.
Hermia
I would my father look’d but with my eyes.
Theseus
Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.
Hermia
I do entreat your grace to pardon me.
I know not by what power I am made bold,
Nor how it may concern my modesty,
In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
But I beseech your grace that I may know
The worst that may befall me in this case,
If I refuse to wed Demetrius.
Theseus
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,
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,
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood,
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
But earthlier happy is the rose distill’d,
Than that which withering on the virgin thorn
Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness.
Hermia
So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
Ere I will yield my virgin patent up
Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke
My soul consents not to give sovereignty.
Theseus
Take time to pause; and, by the next new moon —
The sealing-day betwixt my love and me,
For everlasting bond of fellowship —
Upon that day either prepare to die
For disobedience to your father’s will,
Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would;
Or on Diana’s altar to protest
For aye austerity and single life.
Demetrius
Relent, sweet Hermia: and, Lysander, yield
Thy crazed title to my certain right.
Lysander
You have her father’s love, Demetrius;
Let me have Hermia’s: do you marry him.
Egeus
Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love,
And what is mine my love shall render him.
And she is mine, and all my right of her
I do estate unto Demetrius.
Lysander
I am, my lord, as well derived as he,
As well possess’d; my love is more than his;
My fortunes every way as fairly rank’d,
If not with vantage, as Demetrius’;
And, which is more than all these boasts can be,
I am beloved of beauteous Hermia:
Why should not I then prosecute my right?
Demetrius, I’ll avouch it to his head,
Made love to Nedar’s daughter, Helena,
And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
Upon this spotted and inconstant man.
Theseus
I must confess that I have heard so much,
And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof;
But, being over-full of self-affairs,
My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come;
And come, Egeus; you shall go with me,
I have some private schooling for you both.
For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself
To fit your fancies to your father’s will;
Or else the law of Athens yields you up —
Which by no means we may extenuate —
To death, or to a vow of single life.
Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love?
Demetrius and Egeus, go along:
I must employ you in some business
Against our nuptial and confer with you
Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.
Egeus
With duty and desire we follow you.
Exeunt all but Lysander and Hermia
Lysander
How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale?
How chance the roses there do fade so fast?
Hermia
Belike for want of rain, which I could well
Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.
Lysander
Ay me! for aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth;
But, either it was different in blood,—
Hermia
O cross! too high to be enthrall’d to low.
Lysander
Or else misgraffed in respect of years,—
Hermia
O spite! too old to be engaged to young.
Lysander
Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,—
Hermia
O hell! to choose love by another’s eyes.
Lysander
Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
Making it momentary as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say ‘Behold!’
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion.
Hermia
If then true lovers have been ever cross’d,
It stands as an edict in destiny:
Then let us teach our trial patience,
Because it is a customary cross,
As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,
Wishes and tears, poor fancy’s followers.
Lysander
A good persuasion: therefore, hear me, Hermia.
I have a widow aunt, a dowager
Of great revenue, and she hath no child:
From Athens is her house remote seven leagues;
And she respects me as her only son.
There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;
And to that place the sharp Athenian law
Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,
Steal forth thy father’s house to-morrow night;
And in the wood, a league without the town,
Where I did meet thee once with Helena,
To do observance to a morn of May,
There will I stay for thee.
Hermia
My good Lysander!
I swear to thee, by Cupid’s strongest bow,
By his best arrow with the golden head,
By the simplicity of Venus’ doves,
By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,
And by that fire which burn’d the Carthage queen,
When the false Troyan under sail was seen,
By all the vows that ever men have broke,
In number more than ever women spoke,
In that same place thou hast appointed me,
To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.