Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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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. | Now we're back to Titania and Bottom, who are lounging around on a bed of flowers while Titania's fairies wait on them. Titania lavishes Bottom with her affection, twiddling his cheeks and kissing his large donkey ears. |
BOTTOM Where’s Peaseblossom? 5 PEASEBLOSSOM Ready. BOTTOM Scratch my head, Peaseblossom. Where’s
Monsieur Cobweb? COBWEB Ready. BOTTOM Monsieur Cobweb, good monsieur, get you 10
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 15
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. 20
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 25
the face. And I am such a tender ass, if my hair do
but tickle me, I must scratch. | Bottom still doesn't know his head has been transformed into that of an ass. He calls for Peaseblossom to scratch his head and for Cobweb to go kill him a bee and bring back its honey. Then Bottom announces he needs to go to the barber because he's feeling kind of hairy, and when he's hairy, he feels itchy all over. |
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. 30 | Titania distracts Bottom from these worldly concerns, and asks him if he'd like to hear some music. Bottom says he has a good ear for music, and calls for "tongs and bones." (These are old rural musical instruments—the tongs were struck like a triangle, and the bones rattled in the hands, like clappers.) |
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. 35 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. 40 | Titania asks Bottom if he'd like something to eat, and he asks for oats and hay. She offers to have a fairy steal some nuts from a squirrel, but Bottom says he'd rather have a couple handfuls of dried peas. None of it matters, though, because Bottom is feeling very sleepy. |
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. 45
O, how I love thee! How I dote on thee!
Bottom and Titania sleep. | Titania tells him to go to sleep and she'll snuggle with him. Titania sends all of the fairies away and compares her strange pairing with Bottom to the relationship between the gentle ivy that twists around the ugly, barky elm. (She doesn't say it, but we can assume she's the pretty and delicate half of that metaphor.) |
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, 50
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, 55
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, 60
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 transformèd scalp 65
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. 70
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 blessèd power. 75
Now, my Titania, wake you, my sweet queen. | Robin shows up to join Oberon, who's been hanging out, invisible style. Oberon says that earlier, when he found lovesick Titania snuggling with Bottom, he took the opportunity to ask her for the "changeling child. Titania, who was busy decorating Bottom's head with flowers, agreed to give him up. Since Oberon's now got what he wanted all along, he decides to release Titania from her spell. He tells Robin to remove the ass head from Bottom and make it so that when Bottom wakes up, he'll think the whole experience has been nothing but a dream. Oberon releases Titania from the spell by touching her eyes with a thing he calls "Dian's bud," which he says is more potent than even Cupid's power. |
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? 80
O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now! | Titania wakes up immediately and tells him she has had an insane dream that she was in love with a donkey. Oberon points her in the direction of Bottom. She asks how on earth this happened, especially being that she hates the sight of Bottom 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. | Oberon tells Titania to relax; Robin will change Bottom's head back, and he instructs Titania to call up music that will make the five Athenians sleep more soundly than normal. |
TITANIA
Music, ho, music such as charmeth sleep! 85 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. 90
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 95
Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity. | Robin fixes Bottom's head, and Oberon takes Titania's hands. They'll rock the young Athenian lovers to sleep on the ground and celebrate their regained friendship tomorrow night, when they'll dance at Duke Theseus's house and bless all the pairs of lovers that will be happily wedded at that time. |
ROBIN
Fairy king, attend and mark.
I do hear the morning lark. | Robin announces that he hears the lark—a.k.a. a bird—announcing the morning. |
OBERON
Then, my queen, in silence sad
Trip we after night’s shade. 100
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 105
With these mortals on the ground.
Oberon, Robin, and Titania exit. | Oberon and Titania will follow the night as it crosses around the world. During that trip, Titania wants Oberon to explain the whole thing, especially why she was caught sleeping with a donkey-faced man. |
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. 110
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. 115 | Theseus & Co. enter, and Theseus declares it's time for the big hunt (a popular hobby for royals and nobles). He tells Hippolyta they'll go up to the mountaintop to listen to the sound of all the hounds barking and baying. The way it echoes makes it seem musical. |
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 120
Seemed all one mutual cry. I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder. | Hippolyta recalls a time she heard a similar thing when she was in Crete with Hercules and Cadmus, and yes, the sound was pretty amazing. |
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; 125
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. 130
Judge when you hear.—But soft! What nymphs are
these? | Theseus brags about his awesome hunting hounds. In the midst of praising his dogs, he spots Helena and Hermia sleeping a little ways off, and wonders aloud who the young ladies could be. |
EGEUS
My lord, this is my daughter here asleep,
And this Lysander; this Demetrius is,
This Helena, old Nedar’s Helena. 135
I wonder of their being here together. | Egeus identifies all four of the sleeping youths and wonders what they're doing out 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 140
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 assumes they woke up early to observe the Rites of May, a.k.a., Maying, or May Day. (For more about May Day, head over to "What's Up With the Title?") Theseus then remembers this is the day Hermia should give her answer about marrying Demetrius or becoming a nun, so he has some huntsmen blow their horns to wake up the youngsters. |
THESEUS
Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past.
Begin these woodbirds but to couple now? 145
Demetrius, Helena, Hermia, and Lysander kneel. LYSANDER
Pardon, my lord. THESEUS I pray you all, stand up.
They rise.
I know you two are rival enemies.
How comes this gentle concord in the world,
That hatred is so far from jealousy 150
To sleep by hate and fear no enmity? | The young lovers all awaken and kneel to Theseus. He teases them a little, saying that St. Valentine's Day has passed (a day when the birds were supposed to choose their mates), so he wonders why these birds (the youths) are only choosing their mates now. Also, Theseus wants to know how the heck these kids—particularly Lysander and Demetrius—ended up asleep together in the wood without killing one another. |
LYSANDER
My lord, I shall reply amazèdly,
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, 155
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— | Lysander begins to reply. He says he doesn't quite know how he got to this spot, but he can explain why they're in the wood. Lysander admits that he and Hermia fled to the wood in an attempt to get out of Athens, where they could escape Athenian law and get married. |
EGEUS
Enough, enough!—My lord, you have enough. 160
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, 165
Of my consent that she should be your wife. | Egeus cuts him off, demanding that Theseus bring the law down on Lysander's head for trying to run off with his daughter. |
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. 170
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, 175
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 betrothed ere I saw Hermia.
But like a sickness did I loathe this food. 180
But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
Now I do wish it, love it, long for it,
And will forevermore be true to it. | Demetrius pipes up and admits that Helena told him of the other pair's plan to steal away to the woods. Demetrius says he followed them into the forest in a fury, and Helena followed him in fancy. However, it seems that Demetrius's love for Hermia has melted. Instead, Helena has become the apple of his eye. Also, Demetrius finally admits that he was engaged to Helena before he left her for Hermia. |
THESEUS
Fair lovers, you are fortunately met.
Of this discourse we more will hear anon.— 185
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 purposed hunting shall be set aside. 190
Away with us to Athens. Three and three,
We’ll hold a feast in great solemnity.
Come, Hippolyta.
Theseus and his train,
including Hippolyta and Egeus, exit. | Theseus thinks everything is turning out for the best. He tells Egeus he's overriding his choice, and the couples (paired off according to their wishes) will be married in the temple at the same time as he and Hippolyta. With that, the adults all return to Athens for the weddings. |
DEMETRIUS
These things seem small and undistinguishable,
Like far-off mountains turnèd into clouds. 195 HERMIA
Methinks I see these things with parted eye,
When everything seems double. HELENA So methinks.
And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,
Mine own and not mine own. 200 | Demetrius, Lysander, Helena, and Hermia are left to sort out the night. Demetrius thinks everything is dreamlike and Hermia seems to be seeing double. Helena is just happy to have woken up to find that Demetrius loves her. |
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. 205 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.
Lovers exit. | Demetrius, still groggy, asks everyone if they're sure they're all awake. He wonders if the Duke was really just there, and if they were supposed to follow him. The others confirm that yes, the Duke was there, and yes, they're supposed to follow him. Demetrius suggests that they all recount their dreams on their way back to Athens. |
BOTTOM, waking up When my cue comes, call me, 210
and I will answer. My next is “Most fair Pyramus.”
Hey-ho! Peter Quince! Flute the bellows-mender!
Snout the tinker! Starveling! God’s my life! Stolen
hence and left me asleep! I have had a most rare
vision. I have had a dream past the wit of man to say 215
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 patched fool if
he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of 220
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 called “Bottom’s Dream” because 225
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. He exits. | Bottom awakens suddenly, thinking he's still at rehearsal. He calls out for his friends and realizes that he's been left alone in the wood. Then he says he's had a rare vision. He knows he's had a dream, but humans don't have a mind capable of describing how crazy the dream was. Still, he'll give it a try. Then he decides that since he can't properly tell the dream, he'll go to Quince and have him write the dream as a ballad. It will be called "Bottom's Dream," as it has no bottom (meaning it's all tangled up and has no narrative grounding or sense) and it's also his name. He plans to sing the ballad during the play. It will be perfect for Thisbe's death scene. Oh boy. |