1    Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;
2    Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;
3    Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,
4    Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,
5    To make my small elves coats, and some keep back
6    The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders
7    At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
8    Then to your offices and let me rest.
The Fairies sing
9    You spotted snakes with double tongue,
10   Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
11   Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
12   Come not near our fairy queen.
13   Philomel, with melody
14   Sing in our sweet lullaby;
15   Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:
16   Never harm,
17   Nor spell nor charm,
18   Come our lovely lady nigh;
19   So, good night, with lullaby.
20   Weaving spiders, come not here;
21   Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!
22   Beetles black, approach not near;
23   Worm nor snail, do no offence.
24   Philomel, with melody, &c.

25   Hence, away! now all is well:
26   One aloof stand sentinel.

27   What thou seest when thou dost wake,
28   Do it for thy true-love take,
29   Love and languish for his sake:
30   Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
31   Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
32   In thy eye that shall appear
33   When thou wakest, it is thy dear:
34   Wake when some vile thing is near.

35   Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood;
36   And to speak troth, I have forgot our way:
37   We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,
38   And tarry for the comfort of the day.

39   Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed;
40   For I upon this bank will rest my head.

41   One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;
42   One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth.

43   Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear,
44   Lie further off yet, do not lie so near.

45   O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!
46   Love takes the meaning in love's conference.
47   I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit
48   So that but one heart we can make of it;
49   Two bosoms interchained with an oath;
50   So then two bosoms and a single troth.
51   Then by your side no bed-room me deny;
52   For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.

53   Lysander riddles very prettily:
54   Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,
55   If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied.
56   But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy
57   Lie further off; in human modesty,
58   Such separation as may well be said
59   Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid,
60   So far be distant; and, good night, sweet friend:
61   Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end!

62   Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I;
63   And then end life when I end loyalty!
64   Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest!

65   With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd!

66   Through the forest have I gone.
67   But Athenian found I none,
68   On whose eyes I might approve
69   This flower's force in stirring love.
70   Night and silence.--Who is here?
71   Weeds of Athens he doth wear:
72   This is he, my master said,
73   Despised the Athenian maid;
74   And here the maiden, sleeping sound,
75   On the dank and dirty ground.
76   Pretty soul! she durst not lie
77   Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.
78   Churl, upon thy eyes I throw
79   All the power this charm doth owe.
80   When thou wakest, let love forbid
81   Sleep his seat on thy eyelid:
82   So awake when I am gone;
83   For I must now to Oberon.

84   Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.

85   I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.

86   O, wilt thou darkling leave me? do not so.

87   Stay, on thy peril: I alone will go.

88   O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!
89   The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.
90   Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies;
91   For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.
92   How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears:
93   If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers.
94   No, no, I am as ugly as a bear;
95   For beasts that meet me run away for fear:
96   Therefore no marvel though Demetrius
97   Do, as a monster fly my presence thus.
98   What wicked and dissembling glass of mine
99   Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne?
100  But who is here? Lysander! on the ground!
101  Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.
102  Lysander if you live, good sir, awake.

Awaking
103   And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake.
104  Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,
105  That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.
106  Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word
107  Is that vile name to perish on my sword!

108  Do not say so, Lysander; say not so
109  What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?
110  Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content.

111  Content with Hermia! No; I do repent
112  The tedious minutes I with her have spent.
113  Not Hermia but Helena I love:
114  Who will not change a raven for a dove?
115  The will of man is by his reason sway'd;
116  And reason says you are the worthier maid.
117  Things growing are not ripe until their season
118  So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;
119  And touching now the point of human skill,
120  Reason becomes the marshal to my will
121  And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook
122  Love's stories written in love's richest book.

123  Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?
124  When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?
125  Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man,
126  That I did never, no, nor never can,
127  Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye,
128  But you must flout my insufficiency?
129  Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do,
130  In such disdainful manner me to woo.
131  But fare you well: perforce I must confess
132  I thought you lord of more true gentleness.
133  O, that a lady, of one man refused.
134  Should of another therefore be abused!

135  She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there:
136  And never mayst thou come Lysander near!
137  For as a surfeit of the sweetest things
138  The deepest loathing to the stomach brings,
139  Or as tie heresies that men do leave
140  Are hated most of those they did deceive,
141  So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,
142  Of all be hated, but the most of me!
143  And, all my powers, address your love and might
144  To honour Helen and to be her knight!

Awaking
145   Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best
146  To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!
147  Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here!
148  Lysander, look how I do quake with fear:
149  Methought a serpent eat my heart away,
150  And you sat smiling at his cruel pray.
151  Lysander! what, removed? Lysander! lord!
152  What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word?
153  Alack, where are you speak, an if you hear;
154  Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.
155  No? then I well perceive you all not nigh
156  Either death or you I'll find immediately.