With the four lovers still asleep onstage, enter

Titania, Queen of Fairies, and Bottom and Fairies,

and Oberon, the King, behind them unseen by those

onstage.

TITANIA

Come, sit thee down upon this flow’ry bed,

While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,

And stick muskroses 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

Monsieur Cobweb?

COBWEB Ready.

BOTTOM Monsieur Cobweb, good monsieur, get you

your weapons in your hand and kill me a red-hipped

humble-bee on the top of a thistle, and, good

monsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret

yourself too much in the action, monsieur, and,

good monsieur, have a care the honey-bag break

not; I would be loath to have you overflown with a

honey-bag, signior. Cobweb exits. Where’s Monsieur

Mustardseed?

MUSTARDSEED Ready.

BOTTOM Give me your neaf, Monsieur Mustardseed.

Pray you, leave your courtesy, good monsieur.

MUSTARDSEED What’s your will?

BOTTOM Nothing, good monsieur, but to help Cavalery

Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber’s,

monsieur, for methinks I am marvels 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, begone, and be all ways away.

Fairies exit.

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!

Bottom and Titania sleep.

Enter Robin Goodfellow.

OBERON

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 favors 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 flouriets’ eyes,

Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail.

When I had at my pleasure taunted her,

And she in mild terms begged 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 Fairyland.

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.

He applies the nectar to her eyes.

Be as thou wast wont to be.

See as thou wast 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, waking

My Oberon, what visions have I seen!

Methought I was enamored 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!

ROBIN, removing the ass-head from Bottom

Now, when thou wak’st, with thine own fool’s eyes

peep.

OBERON

Sound music.      Music.

Come, my queen, take hands with me,

And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.

Titania and Oberon dance.

Now thou and I are new in amity,

And will tomorrow 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, all in jollity.

ROBIN

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.

Oberon, Robin, and Titania exit.

Wind horn. Enter Theseus and all his train,

Hippolyta, Egeus.

THESEUS

Go, one of you, find out the Forester.

For now our observation is performed,

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.

A Servant exits.

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 bayed the bear

With hounds of Sparta. Never did I hear

Such gallant chiding, for, besides the groves,

The skies, the fountains, every region near

Seemed 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 flewed, so sanded; and their heads are hung

With ears that sweep away the morning dew;

Crook-kneed, and dewlapped like Thessalian bulls;

Slow in pursuit, but matched in mouth like bells,

Each under each. A cry more tunable

Was never holloed to, nor cheered 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.

A Servant exits.

Shout within. Wind horns. They all start up.

THESEUS

Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past.

Begin these woodbirds but to couple now?

Demetrius, Helena, Hermia, and Lysander kneel.

LYSANDER