A Midsummer Night’s Dream - William Shakespeare (best classic novels txt) 📗

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

By William Shakespeare.

Table of Contents Titlepage Imprint Dramatis Personae A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act I Scene I Scene II Act II Scene I Scene II Act III Scene I Scene II Act IV Scene I Scene II Act V Scene I Colophon Uncopyright Imprint

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Dramatis Personae

Theseus, Duke of Athens

Egeus, father to Hermia

Lysander, in love with Hermia

Demetrius, in love with Hermia

Philostrate, master of the revels to Theseus

Quince, a carpenter

Snug, a joiner

Bottom, a weaver

Flute, a bellows-mender

Snout, a tinker

Starveling, a tailor

Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, bethrothed to Theseus

Hermia, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander

Helena, in love with Demetrius

Oberon, king of the fairies

Titania, queen of the fairies

Puck, or Robin Goodfellow

Peaseblossom, fairy

Cobweb, fairy

Moth, fairy

Mustardseed, fairy

Other fairies attending their king and queen. Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta

Scene: Athens, and a wood near it

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act I Scene I

Athens. The palace of Theseus.

Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate, and Attendants. Theseus

Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
Draws on apace; four happy days bring in
Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow
This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,
Like to a step-dame or a dowager
Long withering out a young man’s revenue.

Hippolyta

Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;
Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
And then the moon, like to a silver bow
New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night
Of our solemnities.

Theseus

Go, Philostrate,
Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth:
Turn melancholy forth to funerals;
The pale companion is not for our pomp. Exit Philostrate.
Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword,
And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.

Enter Egeus, Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius. Egeus Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke! Theseus Thanks, good Egeus: what’s the news with thee? Egeus

Full of vexation come I, with complaint
Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,
This man hath my consent to marry her.
Stand forth, Lysander: and, my gracious duke,
This man hath bewitch’d the bosom of my child:
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes
And interchanged love-tokens with my child:
Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung
With feigning voice verses of feigning love,
And stolen the impression of her fantasy
With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gauds, conceits,
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers
Of strong prevailment in unharden’d youth:
With cunning hast thou filch’d my daughter’s heart,
Turn’d her obedience, which is due to me,
To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke,
Be it so she will not here before your grace
Consent to marry with Demetrius,
I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,
As she is mine, I may dispose of her:
Which shall be either to this gentleman
Or to her death, according to our law
Immediately provided in that case.

Theseus

What say you, Hermia? be advised, fair maid:
To you your father should be as a god;
One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax
By him imprinted and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it.
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.

Hermia So is Lysander. Theseus

In himself he is;
But in this kind, wanting your father’s voice,
The other must be held the worthier.

Hermia I would my father look’d but with my eyes. Theseus Rather your eyes must with his judgment look. Hermia

I do entreat your grace to pardon me.
I know not by what power I am made bold,
Nor how it may concern my modesty,
In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
But I beseech your grace that I may know
The worst that may befall me in this case,
If I refuse to wed Demetrius.

Theseus

Either to die the death or to abjure
Forever the society of men.
Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires;
Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
Whether, if you yield not to your father’s choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun,
For aye to be in shady cloister mew’d,
To live a barren sister all your life,
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood,
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
But earthlier happy is the rose distill’d,
Than that which withering on the virgin thorn
Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness.

Hermia

So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
Ere I will yield my virgin patent up
Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke
My soul consents not to give sovereignty.

Theseus

Take time to pause; and, by the next new moon⁠—
The sealing-day betwixt my love and me,
For everlasting bond of fellowship⁠—
Upon that day either prepare to die
For disobedience to your father’s will,
Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would;
Or on Diana’s altar to protest
For aye austerity and single life.

Demetrius

Relent, sweet Hermia: and, Lysander, yield
Thy crazed title to my certain right.

Lysander

You have her father’s love, Demetrius;
Let me have Hermia’s: do you marry him.

Egeus

Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love,
And what is mine my love shall render