| Act 2 Scene 1First line | How now, spirit! whither wander you? |
| Act 2 Scene 1After (Fairy)I must go seek some dewdrops hereAnd hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear.Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I’ll be gone:Our queen and all our elves come here anon. | The king doth keep his revels here to-night:Take heed the queen come not within his sight;For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,Because that she as her attendant hathA lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king;She never had so sweet a changeling;And jealous Oberon would have the childKnight of his train, to trace the forests wild;But she perforce withholds the loved boy,Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy:And now they never meet in grove or green,By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,But, they do square, that all their elves for fearCreep into acorn-cups and hide them there. |
| Act 2 Scene 1After (Fairy)Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,You do their work, and they shall have good luck:Are not you he? | Thou speak’st aright;I am that merry wanderer of the night.I jest to Oberon and make him smileWhen I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:And sometime lurk I in a gossip’s bowl,In very likeness of a roasted crab,And when she drinks, against her lips I bobAnd on her wither’d dewlap pour the ale.The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,And ‘tailor’ cries, and falls into a cough;And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swearA merrier hour was never wasted there.But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon. |
| Act 2 Scene 1After (Oberon)Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breathThat the rude sea grew civil at her songAnd certain stars shot madly from their spheres,To hear the sea-maid’s music. | I remember. |
| Act 2 Scene 1After (Oberon)Will make or man or woman madly doteUpon the next live creature that it sees.Fetch me this herb; and be thou here againEre the leviathan can swim a league. | I’ll put a girdle round about the earthIn forty minutes.(Exit) |
| Act 2 Scene 1After (Oberon)Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove,Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love.(Puck re-enters)Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer. | Ay, there it is. |
| Act 2 Scene 1After (Oberon)By the Athenian garments he hath on.Effect it with some care, that he may proveMore fond on her than she upon her love:And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow. | Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so. |
| Act 2 Scene 2After (Titania)With half that wish the wisher’s eyes be press’d!(They sleep) | (Enter)Through the forest have I gone.But Athenian found I none,On whose eyes I might approveThis flower’s force in stirring love.Night and silence.–Who is here?Weeds of Athens he doth wear:This is he, my master said,Despised the Athenian maid;And here the maiden, sleeping sound,On the dank and dirty ground.Pretty soul! she durst not lieNear this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.Churl, upon thy eyes I throwAll the power this charm doth owe.When thou wakest, let love forbidSleep his seat on thy eyelid:So awake when I am gone;For I must now to Oberon.(Exit) |
| Act 3 Scene 1After (Quince)If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down,every mother’s son, and rehearse your parts.Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken yourspeech, enter into that brake: and so every oneaccording to his cue. | What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here,So near the cradle of the fairy queen?What, a play toward! I’ll be an auditor;An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause. |
| Act 3 Scene 1After (Bottom)–odours savours sweet: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.(He exits) | A stranger Pyramus than e’er played here.(He exits) |
| Act 3 Scene 1After (Quince)O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted. Pray,masters! fly, masters! Help!(Bottom’s friends leave) | I’ll follow you, I’ll lead you about a round,Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier:Sometime a horse I’ll be, sometime a hound,A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire;And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.(He exits) |
| Act 3 Scene 2After (Oberon)I wonder if Titania be awaked;Then, what it was that next came in her eye,Which she must dote on in extremity.(Puck enters)Here comes my messenger.How now, mad spirit!What night-rule now about this haunted grove?) | My mistress with a monster is in love.Near to her close and consecrated bower,While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,Were met together to rehearse a playIntended for great Theseus’ nuptial-day.The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort,Who Pyramus presented, in their sportForsook his scene and enter’d in a brakeWhen I did him at this advantage take,An ass’s nole I fixed on his head:Anon his Thisbe must be answered,And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy,As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort,Rising and cawing at the gun’s report,Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky,So, at his sight, away his fellows fly;And, at our stamp, here o’er and o’er one falls;He murder cries and help from Athens calls.Their sense thus weak, lost with their fearsthus strong,Made senseless things begin to do them wrong;For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch;Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders allthings catch.I led them on in this distracted fear,And left sweet Pyramus translated there:When in that moment, so it came to pass,Titania waked and straightway loved an ass. |
| Act 3 Scene 2After (Oberon)This falls out better than I could devise.But hast thou yet latch’d the Athenian’s eyesWith the love-juice, as I did bid thee do? | I took him sleeping,–that is finish’d too,–And the Athenian woman by his side:That, when he waked, of force she must be eyed. |
| Act 3 Scene 2After (Oberon)Stand close: this is the same Athenian. | This is the woman, but not this the man. |
| Act 3 Scene 2After (Oberon)What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quiteAnd laid the love-juice on some true-love’s sight:Of thy misprision must perforce ensueSome true love turn’d and not a false turn’d true. | Then fate o’er-rules, that, one man holding troth,A million fail, confounding oath on oath. |
| Act 3 Scene 2After (Oberon)All fancy-sick she is and pale of cheer,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. | I go, I go; look how I go,Swifter than arrow from the Tartar’s bow.(He exits) |
| Act 3 Scene 2After (Oberon)Let her shine as gloriouslyAs the Venus of the sky.When thou wakest, if she be by,Beg of her for remedy. | (Puck enters)Captain of our fairy band,Helena is here at hand;And the youth, mistook by me,Pleading for a lover’s fee.Shall we their fond pageant see?Lord, what fools these mortals be! |
| Act 3 Scene 2After (Oberon)Stand aside: the noise they makeWill cause Demetrius to awake. | Then will two at once woo one;That must needs be sport alone;And those things do best please meThat befal preposterously. |
| Act 3 Scene 2After (Oberon)This is thy negligence: still thou mistakest,Or else committ’st thy knaveries wilfully. | Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.Did not you tell me I should know the manBy the Athenian garment be had on?And so far blameless proves my enterprise,That I have ‘nointed an Athenian’s eyes;And so far am I glad it so did sortAs this their jangling I esteem a sport. |
| Act 3 Scene 2After (Oberon)Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,I’ll to my queen and beg her Indian boy;And then I will her charmed eye releaseFrom monster’s view, and all things shall be peace. | My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,For night’s swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,And yonder shines Aurora’s harbinger;At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there,Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all,That in crossways and floods have burial,Already to their wormy beds are gone;For fear lest day should look their shames upon,They willfully themselves exile from lightAnd must for aye consort with black-brow’d night. |
| Act 3 Scene 2After (Oberon)Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams.But, notwithstanding, haste; make no delay:We may effect this business yet ere day.(He exits) | Up and down, up and down,I will lead them up and down:I am fear’d in field and town:Goblin, lead them up and down.Here comes one. |
| Act 3 Scene 2After (Lysander)Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now. | Here, villain; drawn and ready. Where art thou? |
| Act 3 Scene 2After (Lysander)I will be with thee straight. | Follow me, then,To plainer ground. |
| Act 3 Scene 2After (Demetrius)Lysander! speak again:Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head? | Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars,Telling the bushes that thou look’st for wars,And wilt not come? Come, recreant; come, thou child;I’ll whip thee with a rod: he is defiledThat draws a sword on thee. |
| Act 3 Scene 2After (Demetrius)Yea, art thou there? | Follow my voice: we’ll try no manhood here.(Exit) |
| Act 3 Scene 2After (Lysander)I follow’d fast, but faster he did fly;That fallen am I in dark uneven way,And here will rest me.(He lies down)Come, thou gentle day!For if but once thou show me thy grey light,I’ll find Demetrius and revenge this spite.(He sleeps) | (Puck re-enters)Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why comest thou not? |
| Act 3 Scene 2After (Demetrius)Abide me, if thou darest; for well I wotThou runn’st before me, shifting every place,And darest not stand, nor look me in the face.Where art thou now? | Come hither: I am here. |
| Act 3 Scene 2After (Helena)That I may back to Athens by daylight,From these that my poor company detest:And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow’s eye,Steal me awhile from mine own company.(She sleeps) | Yet but three? Come one more;Two of both kinds make up four.Here she comes, curst and sad:Cupid is a knavish lad,Thus to make poor females mad. |
| Act 3 Scene 2After (Hermia)I can no further crawl, no further go;My legs can keep no pace with my desires.Here will I rest me till the break of day.Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray! | On the groundSleep sound:I’ll applyTo your eye,Gentle lover, remedy.(Puts flower on Lysander)When thou wakest,Thou takestTrue delightIn the sightOf thy former lady’s eye:And the country proverb known,That every man should take his own,In your waking shall be shown:Jack shall have Jill;Nought shall go ill;The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.(Exit) |
| Act 4 Scene 1After (Titania)Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep!(Music) | Now, when thou wakest, with thineown fool’s eyes peep. |
| Act 4 Scene 1After (Oberon)Dance in Duke Theseus’ house triumphantly,And bless it to all fair prosperity:There shall the pairs of faithful lovers beWedded, with Theseus, all in jollity. | Fairy king, attend, and mark:I do hear the morning lark. |
| Act 5 Scene 1After (Theseus)This palpable-gross play hath well beguiledThe heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed.A fortnight hold we this solemnity,In nightly revels and new jollity.(He exits) | (Enter)Now the hungry lion roars,And the wolf behowls the moon;Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,All with weary task fordone.Now the wasted brands do glow,Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud,Puts the wretch that lies in woeIn remembrance of a shroud.Now it is the time of nightThat the graves all gaping wide,Every one lets forth his sprite,In the church-way paths to glide:And we fairies, that do runBy the triple Hecate’s team,From the presence of the sun,Following darkness like a dream,Now are frolic: not a mouseShall disturb this hallow’d house:I am sent with broom before,To sweep the dust behind the door. |
| Act 5 Scene 1After (Oberon)And the owner of it blestEver shall in safety rest.Trip away; make no stay;Meet me all by break of day.(Everyone but Puck exits) | If we shadows have offended,Think but this, and all is mended,That you have but slumber’d hereWhile these visions did appear.And this weak and idle theme,No more yielding but a dream,Gentles, do not reprehend:if you pardon, we will mend:And, as I am an honest Puck,If we have unearned luckNow to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue,We will make amends ere long;Else the Puck a liar call;So, good night unto you all.Give me your hands, if we be friends,And Robin shall restore amends.(Play ends) |
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Puck Lines
August 6, 2019