A Midsummer Night's Dream/ Ein Sommernachtstraum/ Ein St. Johannis Nachts-Traum E-Book

William Shakespeare

• Herausgeber: Seltzer Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Deutsch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 260

Beschreibung

Bilingual, English and German. Shakespeare comedy in English with line numbers and translated to German. According to Wikipedia: "A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of 6 amateur actors, who are manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world."

Zweisprachig, Englisch und Deutsch. Shakespeare-Komödie in Englisch mit Zeilennummern und ins Deutsche übersetzt. Laut Wikipedia: "Ein Sommernachtstraum ist ein Stück, das von William Shakespeare geschrieben wurde. Es soll zwischen 1590 und 1596 geschrieben worden sein. Es zeigt die Ereignisse um die Hochzeit des Herzogs von Athen, Theseus und der Königin von die Amazonen, Hippolyta.Sie schließen die Abenteuer von vier jungen athenischen Liebhabern und einer Gruppe von 6 Laiendarstellern ein, die von den Feen, die den Wald bewohnen, in dem das meiste Stück spielt, manipuliert werden.Das Stück ist eines von Shakespeares beliebtesten Werken für die Bühne und wird auf der ganzen Welt weit verbreitet. "

Leseprobe

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM/ EIN SOMMERNACHTSTRAUM/ EIN ST. JOHANNIS NACHTS-TRAUM, BILINGUAL EDITION (IN ENGLISH WITH LINE NUMBERS AND IN GERMAN)

published by Samizdat Express, Orange, CT, USA

established in 1974, offering over 14,000 books

Other Shakespeare plays in German translation:

Wie Es Euch Gefaellt (Schlegel)

Die Irrunngen (Wieland)

Maas fuer Maas (Wieland)

Der Kaufman von Venedig (Schlegel)

Ein Sommernachtstraum (Schlegel)

Ein St. Johannis Nachts-Traum (Wieland)

Johann (Wieland)

Richard II (Wieland)

Heinrich IV erste theil (Wieland)

Heinrich IV zweyte theil (Wieland)

Der Sturm (Wieland)

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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

EIN SOMMERNACHTSTRAUM VON WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, ÜBERSETZT VON AUGUST WILHELM VON SCHLEGEL

EIN ST. JOHANNIS NACHTS-TRAUM, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, ÜBERSETZT VON CHRISTOPH MARTIN WIELAND

_______________

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I

SCENE I Athens. The palace of THESEUS.

SCENE II Athens. QUINCE'S house.

ACT II

SCENE I A wood near Athens.

SCENE II Another part of the wood.

ACT III

SCENE I The wood. TITANIA lying asleep.

SCENE II Another part of the wood.

ACT IV

SCENE I The same. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA lying asleep.

SCENE II Athens. QUINCE'S house.

ACT V

SCENE I Athens. The palace of THESEUS.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Theseus, Duke Of Athens.

Egeus, Father To Hermia.

In Love With Hermia

Lysander

Demetrius

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, Betrothed 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.

Fairies

Peaseblossom

Cobweb

Moth

Mustardseed

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]

(1) 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 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

(10) 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]

(20) 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:

(30) 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, gawds, 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

(40) 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

(50) 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,

(60) 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

 For ever 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,

(70) 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,

(80) Ere I will 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 nest 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

(90) 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 him.

 And she is mine, and all my right of her

 I do estate unto Demetrius.

LYSANDER I am, my lord, as well derived as he,

(100) As well possess'd; my love is more than his;

 My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,

 If not with vantage, as Demetrius';

 And, which is more than all these boasts can be,

 I am beloved of beauteous Hermia:

 Why should not I then prosecute my right?

 Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,

 Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,

 And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,

 Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,

(110) Upon this spotted and inconstant man.

THESEUS I must confess that I have heard so much,

 And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof;

 But, being over-full of self-affairs,

 My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come;

 And come, Egeus; you shall go with me,

 I have some private schooling for you both.

 For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself

 To fit your fancies to your father's will;

 Or else the law of Athens yields you up--

(120) Which by no means we may extenuate--

 To death, or to a vow of single life.

 Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love?

 Demetrius and Egeus, go along:

 I must employ you in some business

 Against our nuptial and confer with you

 Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.

EGEUS With duty and desire we follow you.

[Exeunt all but LYSANDER and HERMIA]

LYSANDER How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale?

 How chance the roses there do fade so fast?

(130) HERMIA Belike for want of rain, which I could well

 Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.

LYSANDER Ay me! for aught that I could ever read,

 Could ever hear by tale or history,

 The course of true love never did run smooth;

 But, either it was different in blood,--

HERMIA O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low.

LYSANDER Or else misgraffed in respect of years,--

HERMIA O spite! too old to be engaged to young.

LYSANDER Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,--

(140) HERMIA O hell! to choose love by another's eyes.

LYSANDER Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,

 War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,

 Making it momentany as a sound,

 Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;

 Brief as the lightning in the collied night,

 That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,

 And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!'

 The jaws of darkness do devour it up:

 So quick bright things come to confusion.

(150) HERMIA If then true lovers have been ever cross'd,

 It stands as an edict in destiny:

 Then let us teach our trial patience,

 Because it is a customary cross,

 As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,

 Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers.

LYSANDER A good persuasion: therefore, hear me, Hermia.

 I have a widow aunt, a dowager

 Of great revenue, and she hath no child:

 From Athens is her house remote seven leagues;

(160) And she respects me as her only son.

 There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;

 And to that place the sharp Athenian law

 Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,

 Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night;

 And in the wood, a league without the town,

 Where I did meet thee once with Helena,

 To do observance to a morn of May,

 There will I stay for thee.

HERMIA My good Lysander!

 I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow,

(170) By his best arrow with the golden head,

 By the simplicity of Venus' doves,

 By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,

 And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen,

 When the false Troyan under sail was seen,

 By all the vows that ever men have broke,

 In number more than ever women spoke,

 In that same place thou hast appointed me,

 To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.

LYSANDER Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.

[Enter HELENA]

(180) HERMIA God speed fair Helena! whither away?

HELENA Call you me fair? that fair again unsay.

 Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!

 Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's sweet air

 More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,

 When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.

 Sickness is catching: O, were favour so,

 Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;

 My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,

 My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.

(190) Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,

 The rest I'd give to be to you translated.

 O, teach me how you look, and with what art

 You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.

HERMIA I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.

HELENA O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!

HERMIA I give him curses, yet he gives me love.

HELENA O that my prayers could such affection move!

HERMIA The more I hate, the more he follows me.

HELENA The more I love, the more he hateth me.

(200) HERMIA His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.

HELENA None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine!

HERMIA Take comfort: he no more shall see my face;

 Lysander and myself will fly this place.

 Before the time I did Lysander see,

 Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me:

 O, then, what graces in my love do dwell,

 That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell!

LYSANDER Helen, to you our minds we will unfold:

 To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold

(210) Her silver visage in the watery glass,

 Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,

 A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,

 Through Athens' gates have we devised to steal.

HERMIA And in the wood, where often you and I

 Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,

 Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,

 There my Lysander and myself shall meet;

 And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,

 To seek new friends and stranger companies.

(220) Farewell, sweet playfellow: pray thou for us;

 And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!

 Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight

 From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.

LYSANDER I will, my Hermia.

[Exit HERMIA]

 Helena, adieu:

 As you on him, Demetrius dote on you!

[Exit]

HELENA How happy some o'er other some can be!

 Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.

 But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;

 He will not know what all but he do know:

(230) And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,

 So I, admiring of his qualities:

 Things base and vile, folding no quantity,

 Love can transpose to form and dignity:

 Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;

 And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:

 Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;

 Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:

 And therefore is Love said to be a child,

 Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.

(240) As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,

 So the boy Love is perjured every where:

 For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,

 He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;

 And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,

 So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.

 I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:

 Then to the wood will he to-morrow night

 Pursue her; and for this intelligence

 If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:

(250) But herein mean I to enrich my pain,

 To have his sight thither and back again.

[Exit]

SCENE II Athens. QUINCE'S house.

[Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING]

(1) QUINCE Is all our company here?

BOTTOM You were best to call them generally, man by man,

 according to the scrip.

QUINCE Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is

 thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our

 interlude before the duke and the duchess, on his

 wedding-day at night.

BOTTOM First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats

 on, then read the names of the actors, and so grow

(10) to a point.

QUINCE Marry, our play is, The most lamentable comedy, and

 most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby.

BOTTOM A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a

 merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your

 actors by the scroll. Masters, spread yourselves.

QUINCE Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver.

(20) BOTTOM Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.

QUINCE You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.

BOTTOM What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant?

QUINCE A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love.

BOTTOM That will ask some tears in the true performing of

 it: if I do it, let the audience look to their

 eyes; I will move storms, I will condole in some

(30) measure. To the rest: yet my chief humour is for a

 tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to

 tear a cat in, to make all split.

         The raging rocks

         And shivering shocks

         Shall break the locks

         Of prison gates;

         And Phibbus' car

         Shall shine from far

         And make and mar

(40)   The foolish Fates.

 This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players.

 This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is

 more condoling.

QUINCE Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.

FLUTE Here, Peter Quince.

QUINCE Flute, you must take Thisby on you.

FLUTE What is Thisby? a wandering knight?

QUINCE It is the lady that Pyramus must love.

(50) FLUTE Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming.

QUINCE That's all one: you shall play it in a mask, and

 you may speak as small as you will.

BOTTOM An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too, I'll

 speak in a monstrous little voice. 'Thisne,

 Thisne;' 'Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! thy Thisby dear,

 and lady dear!'

QUINCE No, no; you must play Pyramus: and, Flute, you Thisby.

BOTTOM Well, proceed.

(60) QUINCE Robin Starveling, the tailor.

STARVELING Here, Peter Quince.

QUINCE Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother.

 Tom Snout, the tinker.

SNOUT Here, Peter Quince.

QUINCE You, Pyramus' father: myself, Thisby's father:

 Snug, the joiner; you, the lion's part: and, I

 hope, here is a play fitted.

SNUG Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if it

 be, give it me, for I am slow of study.

(70) QUINCE You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.

BOTTOM Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I will

 do any man's heart good to hear me; I will roar,

 that I will make the duke say 'Let him roar again,

 let him roar again.'

QUINCE An you should do it too terribly, you would fright

 the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek;

 and that were enough to hang us all.

(80) ALL That would hang us, every mother's son.

BOTTOM I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the

 ladies out of their wits, they would have no more

 discretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my

 voice so that I will roar you as gently as any

 sucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any

 nightingale.

QUINCE You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a

 sweet-faced man; a proper man, as one shall see in a

 summer's day; a most lovely gentleman-like man:

(90) therefore you must needs play Pyramus.

BOTTOM Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best

 to play it in?

QUINCE Why, what you will.

BOTTOM I will discharge it in either your straw-colour

 beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain

 beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, your

 perfect yellow.

QUINCE Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and

(100) then you will play bare-faced. But, masters, here

 are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request

 you and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night;

 and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the

 town, by moonlight; there will we rehearse, for if

 we meet in the city, we shall be dogged with

 company, and our devices known. In the meantime I

 will draw a bill of properties, such as our play

 wants. I pray you, fail me not.

BOTTOM We will meet; and there we may rehearse most

(110) obscenely and courageously. Take pains; be perfect: adieu.

QUINCE At the duke's oak we meet.

BOTTOM Enough; hold or cut bow-strings.

[Exeunt]

ACT II

SCENE I A wood near Athens.

[Enter, from opposite sides, a FAIRY, and PUCK]

(1) PUCK How now, spirit! whither wander you?

FAIRY  Over hill, over dale,

              Thorough bush, thorough brier,

              Over park, over pale,

              Thorough flood, thorough fire,

              I do wander everywhere,

              Swifter than the moon's sphere;

              And I serve the fairy queen,

              To dew her orbs upon the green.

(10)        The cowslips tall her pensioners be:

               In their gold coats spots you see;

               Those be rubies, fairy favours,

               In those freckles live their savours:

 I must go seek some dewdrops here

 And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.

 Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone:

 Our queen and all our elves come here anon.

PUCK The king doth keep his revels here to-night:

 Take heed the queen come not within his sight;

(20) For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,

 Because that she as her attendant hath

 A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king;

 She never had so sweet a changeling;

 And jealous Oberon would have the child

 Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;

 But she perforce withholds the loved boy,

 Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy:

 And now they never meet in grove or green,

 By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,

(30) But, they do square, that all their elves for fear

 Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there.

FAIRY Either I mistake your shape and making quite,

 Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite

 Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he

 That frights the maidens of the villagery;

 Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern

 And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;

 And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;

 Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?

(40) Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,

 You do their work, and they shall have good luck:

 Are not you he?

PUCK                   Thou speak'st aright;

 I am that merry wanderer of the night.

 I jest to Oberon and make him smile

 When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,

 Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:

 And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,

 In very likeness of a roasted crab,

 And when she drinks, against her lips I bob

(50) And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.

 The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,

 Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;

 Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,

 And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;

 And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,

 And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear

 A merrier hour was never wasted there.

 But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon.

FAIRY And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!

[Enter, from one side, OBERON, with his train; from the other, TITANIA, with hers]

(60) OBERON Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.

TITANIA What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence:

 I have forsworn his bed and company.

OBERON Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?

TITANIA Then I must be thy lady: but I know

 When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,

 And in the shape of Corin sat all day,

 Playing on pipes of corn and versing love

 To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,

 Come from the farthest Steppe of India?

(70) But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,

 Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love,

 To Theseus must be wedded, and you come

 To give their bed joy and prosperity.

OBERON How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,

 Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,

 Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?

 Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night

 From Perigenia, whom he ravished?

 And make him with fair AEgle break his faith,

(80) With Ariadne and Antiopa?

TITANIA These are the forgeries of jealousy:

 And never, since the middle summer's spring,

 Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,

 By paved fountain or by rushy brook,

 Or in the beached margent of the sea,

 To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,

 But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.

 Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,

 As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea

(90) Contagious fogs; which falling in the land

 Have every pelting river made so proud

 That they have overborne their continents:

 The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,

 The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn

 Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard;

 The fold stands empty in the drowned field,

 And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;

 The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud,

 And the quaint mazes in the wanton green

(100) For lack of tread are undistinguishable:

 The human mortals want their winter here;

 No night is now with hymn or carol blest:

 Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,

 Pale in her anger, washes all the air,

 That rheumatic diseases do abound:

 And thorough this distemperature we see

 The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts

 Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,

 And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown

(110) An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds

 Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,

 The childing autumn, angry winter, change

 Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,

 By their increase, now knows not which is which:

 And this same progeny of evils comes

 From our debate, from our dissension;

 We are their parents and original.

OBERON Do you amend it then; it lies in you:

 Why should Titania cross her Oberon?

(120) I do but beg a little changeling boy,

 To be my henchman.

TITANIA                   Set your heart at rest:

 The fairy land buys not the child of me.

 His mother was a votaress of my order:

 And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,

 Full often hath she gossip'd by my side,

 And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,

 Marking the embarked traders on the flood,

 When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive

 And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;

(130) Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait

 Following,--her womb then rich with my young squire,--

 Would imitate, and sail upon the land,

 To fetch me trifles, and return again,

 As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.

 But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;

 And for her sake do I rear up her boy,

 And for her sake I will not part with him.

OBERON How long within this wood intend you stay?

TITANIA Perchance till after Theseus' wedding-day.

(140) If you will patiently dance in our round

 And see our moonlight revels, go with us;

 If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

OBERON Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.

TITANIA Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away!

 We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.

[Exit TITANIA with her train]

OBERON Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove

 Till I torment thee for this injury.

 My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest

 Since once I sat upon a promontory,

(150) And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back

 Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath

 That the rude sea grew civil at her song

 And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,

 To hear the sea-maid's music.

PUCK           I remember.

OBERON That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,

 Flying between the cold moon and the earth,

 Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took

 At a fair vestal throned by the west,

 And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,

(160) As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;

 But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft

 Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon,

 And the imperial votaress passed on,

 In maiden meditation, fancy-free.

 Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:

 It fell upon a little western flower,

 Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,

 And maidens call it love-in-idleness.

 Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once:

(170) The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid

 Will make or man or woman madly dote

 Upon the next live creature that it sees.

 Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again

 Ere the leviathan can swim a league.

PUCK I'll put a girdle round about the earth

 In forty minutes.

[Exit]

OBERON                   Having once this juice,

 I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,

 And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.

 The next thing then she waking looks upon,

(180) Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,

 On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,

 She shall pursue it with the soul of love:

 And ere I take this charm from off her sight,

 As I can take it with another herb,

 I'll make her render up her page to me.

 But who comes here? I am invisible;

 And I will overhear their conference.

[Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA, following him]

DEMETRIUS I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.

 Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?

(190) The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.

 Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood;

 And here am I, and wode within this wood,

 Because I cannot meet my Hermia.

 Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.

HELENA You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;

 But yet you draw not iron, for my heart

 Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw,

 And I shall have no power to follow you.

DEMETRIUS Do I entice you? do I speak you fair?

(200) Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth

 Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?

HELENA And even for that do I love you the more.

 I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,

 The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:

 Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,

 Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,

 Unworthy as I am, to follow you.

 What worser place can I beg in your love,--

 And yet a place of high respect with me,--

(210) Than to be used as you use your dog?

DEMETRIUS Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;

 For I am sick when I do look on thee.

HELENA And I am sick when I look not on you.

DEMETRIUS You do impeach your modesty too much,

 To leave the city and commit yourself

 Into the hands of one that loves you not;

 To trust the opportunity of night

 And the ill counsel of a desert place

 With the rich worth of your virginity.

(220) HELENA Your virtue is my privilege: for that

 It is not night when I do see your face,

 Therefore I think I am not in the night;

 Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,

 For you in my respect are all the world:

 Then how can it be said I am alone,

 When all the world is here to look on me?

DEMETRIUS I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,

 And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.

HELENA The wildest hath not such a heart as you.

(230) Run when you will, the story shall be changed:

 Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;

 The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind

 Makes speed to catch the tiger; bootless speed,

 When cowardice pursues and valour flies.

DEMETRIUS I will not stay thy questions; let me go:

 Or, if thou follow me, do not believe

 But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.

HELENA Aye, in the temple, in the town, the field,

 You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!

(240) Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:

 We cannot fight for love, as men may do;

 We should be wood and were not made to woo.

[Exit DEMETRIUS]

 I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,

 To die upon the hand I love so well.

[Exit]

OBERON Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove,

 Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love.

[Re-enter PUCK]

 Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.

PUCK Aye, there it is.

OBERON           I pray thee, give it me.

 I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

(250) Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

 Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

 With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine: