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

 Titania is still under the spell and very much in love with Bottom, who continues to be the bully and enjoys the attention he gets. Oberon, who has been watching the pair from behind, comes forward, followed shortly afterwards by Puck. Oberon tells Puck that after taunting Titania about Bottom, he has asked for the boy and gotten him; "and now I have the boy I will undo / This hateful imperfections of her eyes." Oberon is determined to right all the wrongs done by the fairies, including himself. As a result, he also directs Puck to remove the ass's head from Bottom and let him go back to Athens. When everything is returned to normal, Oberon hopes that everyone will consider the night's incidents as "the fierce vexation of a dream." When Oberon removes the spell from Titania, she wakes and says, "What visions have I seen! / Methought I was enamoured of an ass. " Puck carefully removes the ass's head from Bottom so that Titania will not see it. Oberon calls for music and starts dancing with Titania. Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and the others enter the woods to start the celebrations prior to the wedding. Theseus spots the four "lovers," who are asleep. Egeus recognizes them and wonders what brings the four of them together. Theseus, in his happiness, cannot see anything amiss and so concludes that they must have arrived early to join the revelries. He also remembers that this is the day when Hermia is to give her answer about marrying Demetrius. The horns are sounded to wake the lovers. Upon rising, Lysander confesses that he and Hermia had planned to escape "the perils of the Athenian Law" and marry. Egeus is angry and again demands that Hermia marry Demetrius. He then tries to rouse Demetrius against Lysander, who is trying to steal his future wife. Demetrius says that a change has come over him. He is no longer in love with Hermia; Helena is now the object and pleasure of his eye. In the climatic moment of the plot, Theseus tells Egeus, "I will overbear your will" and adds that on the ramp, along with him, "these couples shall eternally be knit. " With the unknown help of the fairies, Theseus rights the wrongs between the two couples so that true love can flourish. When Theseus and his entourage depart for Athens, the two couples are left behind to decipher what has happened the previous night. They are totally confused and not certain whether they are still dreaming or whether the duke and his followers have really been in the woods. They decide to follow the Duke to Athens, and on the way the try to figure last night's "dreams." Bottom, now free of Puck's prank, enters and thinks he has had a strange dream as well. He then remembers the play about Pyramus and decides to request that Peter Quince write a ballad and call it "Bottom's Dream," to be sung at the end of the play.

