A Midsummer Night's Dream E-Book

William Shakespeare

• Herausgeber: Passerino
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare in 1595/96. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta (the former queen of the Amazons). There include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors (the mechanicals) who are controlled and 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.

William Shakespeare (bapt. 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist.
He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard").  His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays,[c] 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

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William Shakespeare

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Table of contents

Dramatis Personæ

ACT 1

ACT 2

ACT 3

ACT 4

ACT 5

Dramatis Personæ

THESEUS, Duke of Athens

HIPPOLYTA, Queen of the Amazons, bethrothed to Theseus

EGEUS, Father to Hermia

HERMIA, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander

HELENA, in love with Demetrius

LYSANDER, in love with Hermia

DEMETRIUS, in love with Hermia

PHILOSTRATE, Master of the Revels to Theseus

QUINCE, the Carpenter

SNUG, the Joiner

BOTTOM, the Weaver

FLUTE, the Bellows-mender

SNOUT, the Tinker

STARVELING, the Tailor

OBERON, King of the Fairies

TITANIA, Queen of the Fairies

PUCK, or ROBIN GOODFELLOW, a Fairy

PEASEBLOSSOM, Fairy

COBWEB, Fairy

MOTH, Fairy

MUSTARDSEED, Fairy

PYRAMUS, THISBE, WALL, MOONSHINE, LION; Characters in the Interlude performed by the Clowns

Other Fairies attending their King and Queen

Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta

ACT 1

SCENE I. Athens. A room in 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 oh, 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 renownèd 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 interchang’d love-tokens with my child.

Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,

With feigning voice, verses of feigning love;

And stol’n 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 advis’d, fair maid.

To you your father should be as a god;

One that compos’d 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

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,

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-blessèd 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 unwishèd 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 crazèd 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 deriv’d as he,

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 belov’d 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,

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

(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?

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 misgraffèd in respect of years—

HERMIA.