Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

Act 2 - Scene 2

Another part of the wood.

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

Fairy : Hence, away! now all is well: [p]One aloof stand sentinel.

Oberon : What thou seest when thou dost wake, [p]Do it for thy true-love
take, [p]Love and languish for his sake: [p]Be it ounce, or cat, or
bear, [p]Pard, or boar with bristled hair, [p]In thy eye that shall
appear [p]When thou wakest, it is thy dear: [p]Wake when some vile
thing is near.

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

Hermia : Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed; [p]For I upon this bank will
rest my head.

Lysander : One turf shall serve as pillow for us both; [p]One heart, one bed, two
bosoms and one troth.

Hermia : Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear, [p]Lie further off yet, do
not lie so near.

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

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

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

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

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

Helena : Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.

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

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

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

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

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

Helena : Do not say so, Lysander; say not so [p]What though he love your
Hermia? Lord, what though? [p]Yet Hermia still loves you: then be
content.

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

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

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

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

Previous: Act 2 - Scene 1

Next: Act 3 - Scene 1