How comes this gentle concord in the world, I came with Hermia hither: our intent Ege. Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough : 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; Of my consent that she should be your wife. Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth, But, my good lord, I wot not by what power, The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met : For in the temple, by and by with us, And, for the morning now is something worn, [2] Fancy is here taken for love or affection,and is opposed to fury, as before: "Sighs and tears, poor Fancy's followers." Some now call that which a man takes particular delight in, his fancy. Flower-fancier, for a florist, and bird-fancier, for a lover and feeder of birds, are colloquial words. JOHNSON. Our purpos'd hunting shall be set aside.- Come, Hippolyta. [Exe. THE. HIP. EGE. and train. Dem. These things seem small, and undistinguishable, Like far-off mountains turned into clouds. Her. Methinks, I see these things with parted eye, When every thing seems double. Hel. So methinks: And I have found Demetrius like a jewel, Mine own, and not mine own. Dem. It seems to me, That yet we sleep, we dream.-Do not you think, 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 ; And, by the way, let us recount our dreams. [Exeunt. As they go out, BOTTOM awakes. Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer: -my next is, Most fair Pyramus.-Hey, 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 a dream,-past the wit of man to say what dream it was: Man is but an ass, if he go about to expound 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, 3 if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man 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. [Exit. [3] patched fool,] That is, a fool in a particolour'd coat. JOHN. [4] He means the death of Thisbe, which his head is at present full of. STEEVENS. SCENE II. Athens. 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. 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. Flu. No; he hath simply the best wit of any handycraft man in Athens. Quin. Yea, and the best person too: and he is a very paramour, for a sweet voice. Flu. You must say, paragon: a paramour is, God bless us, a thing of nought. Enter SNUG. 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. Flu. O sweetbully Bottom! Thus hath he lost six pence a-day during his life; he could not have 'scaped six pence a-day: an the duke had not given him six pence a-day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged; he would have deserved it: six pence a-day, in Pyramus, or nothing. Enter BOTTOM. Bot. Where are these lads? where are these hearts? Quin. Bottom!-O most courageous day! O most happy hour. 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 every thing, right as it fell out. 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 apparel 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. In any case, let Thisby have clean linen; and [5] i. e. to prevent the false beards, which they wear, from falling off. MALONE. 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 garlick, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I do not doubt, but to hear them say, it is a sweet comedy. No more words; away; go, away. [Exeunt. ACT V. SCENE I.-The same. An Apartment in the Palace of THEEnter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, SEUS. Lords, and Attendants. Hippolyta 'TIS strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of. More than cool reason ever comprehends. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, Are of imagination all compact: One sees more devils than vast hell can hold ; That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic, Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt: The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; And, as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing Such tricks hath strong imagination; That, if it would but apprehend some joy, It comprehends some bringer of that joy; How easy is a bush suppos'd a bear ? Hip. But all the story of the night told over, And all their minds transfigur'd so together, More witnesseth than fancy's images, And grows to something of great constancy; Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and HELENA. -Joy, gentle friends! joy, and fresh days of love, Lys. More than to us Wait on your royal walks, your board, your bed! Th. Come now; what masks, what dances shall we have, To wear away this long age of three hours, Between our after-supper, and bed-time? Where is our usual manager of mirth? What revels are in hand? Is there no play, To ease the anguish of a torturing hour? Call Philostrate. Phil. Here, mighty Theseus. The. Say, what abridgments have you for this evening? What mask? what music? How shall we beguile The lazy time, if not with some delight? Phil. There is a brief," how many sports are ripe ; We'll none of that: that have I told my love, The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals, Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage. A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus, How shall we find the concord of this discord? Phil. A play there is, my lord, some ten words long; Which is as brief as I have known a play; But by ten words, my lord, it is too long; Which makes it tedious: for in all the play STEEVENS. [6] By abridgment our author may mean a dramatic performance, which crowds the events of years into a few hours. [7] i. e. a short account or enumeration. [8] Critical here means criticising, censuring. "O, I am nothing if not critical." So, in Othello: |