Read Brick Shakespeare: The Comedies—A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Taming of the Shrew for Free Online

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 in 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 purposed hunting shall be set aside.

    THESEUS (cont.)
    Away with us to Athens; three and three,
    We’ll hold a feast in great solemnity.
    Come, Hippolyta.

    DEMETRIUS
    These things seem small and undistinguishable,
    Like far-off mountains turn’d 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.

ACT V. Scene I (39–84).

    T he couples are wed with joy and celebration! Oberon and Titania have reconciled, and Bottom is returned to normal, although moved by the remarkable dream he had in the forest. Now that each Jack has his Jill, Theseus requests some entertainment for his lovely bride and his honored guests. Luckily Bottom and his companions are happy to oblige.

THESEUS
    Say, what abridgement have you for this evening?
    What masque? what music? How shall we beguile
    The lazy time, if not with some delight?

    PHILOSTRATE
    There is a brief how many sports are ripe:
    Make choice of which your highness will see first.

    THESEUS
    “The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung
    By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.”
    We’ll none of that: that have I told my love,
    In glory of my kinsman Hercules.
    “The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,
    Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.”

    THESEUS (cont.)
    That is an old device; and it was play’d
    When I from Thebes came last a conqueror.
    “The thrice three Muses mourning for the death
    Of Learning, late deceased in beggary.”
    That is some satire, keen and critical,
    Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.

    THESEUS (cont.)
    “A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
    And his love thisby; very tragical mirth.”
    Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!
    That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow.
    How shall we find the concord of this discord?

    PHILOSTRATE
    A play there is, my lord, some ten words long,
    Which is as brief as I have known a play;
    But by ten words, my lord, it is too long,
    Which makes it tedious; for in all the play
    There is not one word apt, one player fitted:
    And tragical, my noble lord, it is;
    For Pyramus therein doth kill himself.
    Which, when I saw rehearsed, I must confess,
    Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears
    The passion of loud laughter never shed.
    THESEUS
    What are they that do play it?
    PHILOSTRATE
    Hard-handed men that work in Athens here,
    Which never labour’d in their minds till now,
    And now have toil’d their unbreathed memories
    With this same play, against your nuptial.

    THESEUS
    And we will hear it.

    PHILOSTRATE
    No, my noble lord;
    It is not for you: I have heard it over,
    And it is nothing, nothing in the world;
    Unless you can find sport in their intents,
    Extremely stretch’d and conn’d with cruel pain,
    To do you service.

    THESEUS
    I will