Chapter: 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 repair,
    And think no more of this night's accidents
    But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
    But first I will release the Fairy Queen.
                                             [Touching her eyes]
           Be as thou wast wont to be;
           See as thou was wont to see.
           Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower
           Hath such force and blessed power.
    Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.
  TITANIA. My Oberon! What visions have I seen!
    Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.
  OBERON. There lies your love.
  TITANIA. How came these things to pass?
    O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!
  OBERON. Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head.
    Titania, music call; and strike more dead
    Than common sleep of all these five the sense.
  TITANIA. Music, ho, music, such as charmeth sleep!
  PUCK. Now when thou wak'st with thine own fool's eyes peep.
  OBERON. Sound, music. Come, my Queen, take hands with me,
                                                         [Music]
    And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.
    Now thou and I are new in amity,
    And will to-morrow midnight solemnly
    Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly,
    And bless it to all fair prosperity.
    There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be
    Wedded, with Theseus, an in jollity.
  PUCK.       Fairy King, attend and mark;
              I do hear the morning lark.
  OBERON.     Then, my Queen, in silence sad,
              Trip we after night's shade.
              We the globe can compass soon,
              Swifter than the wand'ring moon.
  TITANIA.    Come, my lord; and in our flight,
              Tell me how it came this night
              That I sleeping here was found
              With these mortals on the ground.           Exeunt

        To the winding of horns, enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA,
                      EGEUS, and train

  THESEUS. Go, one of you, find out the forester;
    For now our observation is perform'd,
    And since we have the vaward of the day,
    My love shall hear the music of my hounds.
    Uncouple in the western valley; let them go.
    Dispatch, I say, and find the forester.    Exit an ATTENDANT
    We will, fair Queen, up to the mountain's top,
    And mark the musical confusion
    Of hounds and echo in conjunction.
  HIPPOLYTA. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once
    When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear
    With hounds of Sparta; never did I hear
    Such gallant chiding, for, besides the groves,
    The skies, the fountains, every region near
    Seem'd all one mutual cry. I never heard
    So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.
  THESEUS. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
    So flew'd, so sanded; and their heads are hung
    With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
    Crook-knee'd and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls;
    Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
    Each under each. A cry more tuneable
    Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
    In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly.
    Judge when you hear. But, soft, what nymphs are these?
  EGEUS. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep,
    And this Lysander, this Demetrius is,
    This Helena, old Nedar's Helena.
    I wonder of their being here together.
  THESEUS. No doubt they rose up early to observe
    The rite of May; and, hearing our intent,
    Came here in grace of our solemnity.
    But speak, Egeus; is not this the day
    That Hermia should give answer of her choice?
  EGEUS. It is, my lord.
  THESEUS. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.
                           [Horns and shout within. The sleepers
                                     awake and kneel to THESEUS]
    Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past;
    Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
  LYSANDER. Pardon, my lord.
  THESEUS. I pray you all, stand up.
    I know you two are rival enemies;
    How comes this gentle concord in the world
    That hatred is so far from jealousy
    To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?
  LYSANDER. My lord, I shall reply amazedly,
    Half sleep, half waking; but as yet, I swear,
    I cannot truly say how I came here,
    But, as I think- for truly would I speak,
    And now I do bethink me, so it is-
    I came with Hermia hither. Our intent
    Was to be gone from Athens, where we might,
    Without the peril of the Athenian law-
  EGEUS. 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.
  DEMETRIUS. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
    Of this their purpose hither to this wood;
    And I in fury hither followed them,
    Fair Helena in fancy following me.
    But, my good lord, I wot not by what power-
    But by some power it is- my love to Hermia,
    Melted as the snow, seems to me now
    As the remembrance of an idle gaud
    Which in my childhood I did dote upon;
    And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,
    The object and the pleasure of mine eye,
    Is only Helena. To her, my lord,
    Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia.
    But, like a sickness, did I loathe this food;
    But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
    Now I do wish it, love it, long for it,
    And will for evermore be true to it.
  THESEUS. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met;
    Of this discourse we more will hear anon.
    Egeus, I will overbear your will;
    For in the temple, by and by, with us
    These couples shall eternally be knit.
    And, for the morning now is something worn,
    Our purpos'd hunting shall be set aside.
    Away with us to Athens, three and three;
    We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.
    Come, Hippolyta.
                     Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train
  DEMETRIUS. These things seem small and undistinguishable,
    Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.
  HERMIA. Methinks I see these things with parted eye,
    When every thing seems double.
  HELENA. So methinks;
    And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,
    Mine own, and not mine own.
  DEMETRIUS. Are you sure
    That we are awake? It seems to me
    That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think
    The Duke was here, and bid us follow him?
  HERMIA. Yea, and my father.
  HELENA. And Hippolyta.
  LYSANDER. And he did bid us follow to the temple.
  DEMETRIUS. Why, then, we are awake; let's follow him;
    And by the way let us recount our dreams.             Exeunt
  BOTTOM. [Awaking] When my cue comes, call me, and I will
answer. My
    next is 'Most fair Pyramus.' Heigh-ho! Peter Quince! Flute,
the
    bellows-mender! Snout, the tinker! Starveling! God's my life,
    stol'n 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 patch'd fool, 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 call'd '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





SCENE II.
Athens. QUINCE'S house

Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING

  QUINCE. Have you sent to Bottom's house? Is he come home yet?
  STARVELING. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is
transported.
  FLUTE. If he come not, then the play is marr'd; it goes not
    forward, doth it?
  QUINCE. It is not possible. You have not a man in all Athens
able
    to discharge Pyramus but he.
  FLUTE. No; he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft man in
    Athens.
  QUINCE. Yea, and the best person too; and he is a very paramour
for
    a sweet voice.
  FLUTE. You must say 'paragon.' A paramour is- God bless us!- A
    thing of naught.

                           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.
  FLUTE. O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a day
    during his life; he could not have scaped sixpence a day. An
the
    Duke had not given him sixpence a day for playing Pyramus,
I'll
    be hanged. He would have deserved it: sixpence a day in
Pyramus,
    or nothing.

                           Enter BOTTOM

  BOTTOM. Where are these lads? Where are these hearts?
  QUINCE. Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour!
  BOTTOM. Masters, I am to discourse wonders; but ask me not
what;
    for if I tell you, I am not true Athenian. I will tell you
    everything, right as it fell out.
  QUINCE. Let us hear, sweet Bottom.
  BOTTOM. 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 preferr'd. In any case, let Thisby have clean linen;
and
    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 garlic, 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

 Scene One Titania and Bottom, still with an asses head, enter the stage followed by Titania's fairies. Bottom asks the fairies to scratch his head, and is hungry for some hay. Titania, completely in love with him, orders the fairies to find him food. Together they soon fall asleep. Oberon enters and looks at his sleeping Queen. He tells the puck that Titania gave him her young boy earlier in the woods, and so it is time for him to remove the spell from her eyes. He orders Robin to change Bottom back to normal, but first he wakes up Titania. She at first thinks she dreamed about being in love with an ass, but then sees Bottom still asleep by her side. Oberon helps her off the ground and tells her that tomorrow they will dance at the weddings of Theseus and the other two couples. Theseus, Hippolyta and Egeus arrive where the lovers are sleeping. They are in the woods to celebrate the May morning with hunting hounds in preparation of the day's ceremonies. Theseus sees the lovers and has them woken by sounding the hunting horns. The lovers tell Theseus what they remember from the night before, and Lysander declares his love for Hermia while Demetrius speaks of his love for Helena. Theseus decides to override Egeus' will and have all three of them get married in Athens that day. They eventually all depart for Athens. Bottom wakes up and realizes that he has been abandoned in the woods by his friends. He recalls what happened to him only as a dream, a dream about which he says, "I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream. It shall be called 'Bottom's Dream' . Bottom then returns to Athens. Act Four, Scene Two The artisans are lamenting the fact that the Duke Theseus is already married, as well as the other noblemen, which means they missed their chance to perform Pyramus and Thisbe at the wedding. Bottom finally arrives and tells the men to hurry to the festivities since there is still enough time to perform the play.

