The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, William Shakespeare [book recommendations based on other books txt] 📗

>How low am I, thou painted maypole? Speak.

How low am I? I am not yet so low

But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.

HELENA. I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen, Let her not hurt me. I was never curst; I have no gift at all in shrewishness; I am a right maid for my cowardice;

Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think, Because she is something lower than myself, That I can match her.

HERMIA. ‘Lower’ hark, again.

HELENA. Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.

I evermore did love you, Hermia,

Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong’d you; Save that, in love unto Demetrius,

I told him of your stealth unto this wood.

He followed you; for love I followed him; But he hath chid me hence, and threat’ned me To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too; And now, so you will let me quiet go, To Athens will I bear my folly back,

And follow you no further. Let me go.

You see how simple and how fond I am.

HERMIA. Why, get you gone! Who is’t that hinders you?

HELENA. A foolish heart that I leave here behind.

HERMIA. What! with Lysander?

HELENA. With Demetrius.

LYSANDER. Be not afraid; she shall not harm thee, Helena.

DEMETRIUS. No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.

HELENA. O, when she is angry, she is keen and shrewd; She was a vixen when she went to school; And, though she be but little, she is fierce.

HERMIA. ‘Little’ again! Nothing but ‘low’ and ‘little’!

Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?

Let me come to her.

LYSANDER. Get you gone, you dwarf;

You minimus, of hind’ring knot-grass made; You bead, you acorn.

DEMETRIUS. You are too officious

In her behalf that scorns your services.

Let her alone; speak not of Helena;

Take not her part; for if thou dost intend Never so little show of love to her,

Thou shalt aby it.

LYSANDER. Now she holds me not.

Now follow, if thou dar’st, to try whose right, Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.

DEMETRIUS. Follow! Nay, I’ll go with thee, cheek by jowl.

Exeunt LYSANDER and DEMETRIUS

HERMIA. You, mistress, all this coil is long of you.

Nay, go not back.

HELENA. I will not trust you, I;

Nor longer stay in your curst company.

Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray; My legs are longer though, to run away. Exit HERMIA. I am amaz’d, and know not what to say. Exit OBERON. This is thy negligence. Still thou mistak’st, Or else committ’st thy knaveries wilfully.

PUCK. Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.

Did not you tell me I should know the man By the Athenian garments he 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 sort,

As this their jangling I esteem a sport.

OBERON. Thou seest these lovers seek a place to fight.

Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night; The starry welkin cover thou anon

With drooping fog as black as Acheron, And lead these testy rivals so astray As one come not within another’s way.

Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue, Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong; And sometime rail thou like Demetrius; And from each other look thou lead them thus, Till o’er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep.

Then crush this herb into Lysander’s eye; Whose liquor hath this virtuous property, To take from thence all error with his might And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.

When they next wake, all this derision Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision; And back to Athens shall the lovers wend With league whose date till death shall never end.

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 release From monster’s view, and all things shall be peace.

PUCK. 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, wand’ring here and there, Troop home to churchyards. Damned spirits all That in cross-ways and floods have burial, Already to their wormy beds are gone, For fear lest day should look their shames upon; They wilfully themselves exil’d from light, And must for aye consort with black-brow’d night.

OBERON. But we are spirits of another sort: I with the Morning’s love have oft made sport; And, like a forester, the groves may tread Even till the eastern gate, all fiery red, 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. Exit OBERON

PUCK. 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.

 

Enter LYSANDER

 

LYSANDER. Where art thou, proud Demetrius? Speak thou now.

PUCK. Here, villain, drawn and ready. Where art thou?

LYSANDER. I will be with thee straight.

PUCK. Follow me, then,

To plainer ground. Exit LYSANDER as following the voice Enter DEMETRIUS

 

DEMETRIUS. Lysander, speak again.

Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?

Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?

PUCK. 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 defil’d That draws a sword on thee.

DEMETRIUS. Yea, art thou there?

PUCK. Follow my voice; we’ll try no manhood here. Exeunt Re-enter LYSANDER

 

LYSANDER. He goes before me, and still dares me on; When I come where he calls, then he is gone.

The villain is much lighter heel’d than I.

I followed fast, but faster he did fly, That fallen am I in dark uneven way,

And here will rest me. [Lies down] Come, thou gentle day.

For if but once thou show me thy grey light, I’ll find Demetrius, and revenge this spite. [Sleeps]

 

Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS

 

PUCK. Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why com’st thou not?

DEMETRIUS. Abide me, if thou dar’st; for well I wot Thou run’st before me, shifting every place, And dar’st not stand, nor look me in the face.

Where art thou now?

PUCK. Come hither; I am here.

DEMETRIUS. Nay, then, thou mock’st me. Thou shalt buy this dear, If ever I thy face by daylight see;

Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me To measure out my length on this cold bed.

By day’s approach look to be visited.

[Lies down and sleeps]

 

Enter HELENA

 

HELENA. O weary night, O long and tedious night, Abate thy hours! Shine comforts from the east, 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. [Sleeps]

PUCK. Yet but three? Come one more; Two of both kinds makes up four.

Here she comes, curst and sad.

Cupid is a knavish lad,

Thus to make poor females mad.

 

Enter HERMIA

 

HERMIA. Never so weary, never so in woe, Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briers, 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!

[Lies down and sleeps]

PUCK. On the ground

Sleep sound;

I’ll apply

To your eye,

Gentle lover, remedy.

[Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER’S eyes]

When thou wak’st,

Thou tak’st

True delight

In the sight

Of 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

 

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ACT IV. SCENE I.

The wood. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA, lying asleep Enter TITANIA and Bottom; PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARDSEED, and other FAIRIES attending;

OBERON behind, unseen TITANIA. Come, sit thee down upon this flow’ry 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.

BOTTOM. Where’s Peaseblossom?

PEASEBLOSSOM. Ready.

BOTTOM. Scratch my head, Peaseblossom.

Where’s Mounsieur Cobweb?

COBWEB. Ready.

BOTTOM. Mounsieur Cobweb; good mounsieur, get you your weapons in your hand and kill me a red-hipp’d 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, mounsieur; 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 Mustardseed?

MUSTARDSEED. Ready.

BOTTOM. Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray you, leave your curtsy, good mounsieur.

MUSTARDSEED. What’s your will?

BOTTOM. Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber’s, mounsieur; for methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face; and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me I must scratch.

TITANIA. What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love?

BOTTOM. I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let’s have the tongs and the bones.

TITANIA. Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat.

BOTTOM. 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.

TITANIA. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek The squirrel’s hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.

BOTTOM. I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas. But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me; I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.

TITANIA. 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 honeysuckle 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 PUCK

 

OBERON. [Advancing] Welcome, good Robin. Seest thou this sweet sight?

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.

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 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, 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 undo

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

May all to Athens back again