List iconA Midsummer Night’s DreamList icon

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Act 4, scene 1

Synopsis:

Contents

Characters in the Play

Entire Play

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, residents of Athens mix with fairies from a local forest, with comic results. In the city,…

Act 1, scene 1

Theseus, duke of Athens, is planning the festivities for his upcoming wedding to the newly captured Amazon, Hippolyta. Egeus arrives…

Act 1, scene 2

Six Athenian tradesmen decide to put on a play, called “Pyramus and Thisbe,” for Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding. Pyramus will…

Act 2, scene 1

Oberon and Titania, king and queen of the fairies, quarrel over possession of a young Indian boy. Oberon orders Robin…

Act 2, scene 2

Oberon anoints Titania’s eyes as she sleeps. A weary Lysander and Hermia enter and fall asleep nearby. Robin, thinking he…

Act 3, scene 1

The tradesmen meet in the woods to rehearse. Robin Goodfellow happens upon them and transforms Bottom’s head into that of…

Act 3, scene 2

Robin Goodfellow reports to Oberon about Titania and Bottom. When Demetrius enters wooing Hermia, Oberon discovers that Robin has anointed…

Act 4, scene 1

Titania and her attendants pamper Bottom, who falls asleep with her. Oberon, watching them, tells Robin that Titania has given…

Act 4, scene 2

The tradesmen regret, for their own sakes and for Bottom’s, the loss of their opportunity to perform the play, since…

Act 5, scene 1

Theseus dismisses as imaginary the lovers’ account of their night’s experience, and then chooses “Pyramus and Thisbe” for the night’s…
JUMP TO: Line:

Include links to:

Images
Glosses
Audio
Video
Essays
Quill icon
⌜Scene 1⌝
⌜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 5Where’s Peaseblossom?
PEASEBLOSSOM Ready.
BOTTOM Scratch my head, Peaseblossom. Where’s
 Monsieur Cobweb?
COBWEB Ready.
BOTTOM 10Monsieur 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,
15 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.
121
123
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT 4. SC. 1

BOTTOM 20Give 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,
25 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
30 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
35 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
40 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
45 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?
125
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT 4. SC. 1

 Her dotage now I do begin to pity.
 For, meeting her of late behind the wood,
50 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
55 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,
60 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.
65 And, gentle Puck, take this transformèd 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
70 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
75 Hath such force and blessèd 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 80 How came these things to pass?
 O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!
127
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT 4. SC. 1

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 
85 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,
90 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.
95 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
100 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
105 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.⌝

129
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT 4. SC. 1

THESEUS 
 Go, one of you, find out the Forester.
 For now our observation is performed,
 And, since we have the vaward of the day,
110 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
115 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,
120 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
125 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,
130 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,
135 This Helena, old Nedar’s Helena.
 I wonder of their being here together.
131
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT 4. SC. 1

THESEUS 
 No doubt they rose up early to observe
 The rite of May, and hearing our intent,
 Came here in grace of our solemnity.
140 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.
145 Begin these woodbirds but to couple now?
⌜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,
150 That hatred is so far from jealousy
 To sleep by hate and fear no enmity?
LYSANDER 
 My lord, I shall reply amazèdly,
 Half sleep, half waking. But as yet, I swear,
 I cannot truly say how I came here.
155 But, as I think—for truly would I speak,
 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—
EGEUS 
160 Enough, enough!—My lord, you have enough.
 I beg the law, the law upon his head.
 They would have stol’n away.—They would,
 Demetrius,
133
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT 4. SC. 1

 Thereby to have defeated you and me:
165 You of your wife and me of my consent,
 Of my consent that she should be your wife.
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,
170 Fair Helena 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
175 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 betrothed ere I ⌜saw⌝ Hermia.
180 But like a 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 forevermore be true to it.
THESEUS 
 Fair lovers, you are fortunately met.
185 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,
190 Our purposed hunting shall be set aside.
 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.⌝
DEMETRIUS 
 These things seem small and undistinguishable,
195 Like far-off mountains turnèd into clouds.
135
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT 4. SC. 1

HERMIA 
 Methinks I see these things with parted eye,
 When everything seems double.
HELENA  So methinks.
 And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,
200 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 
205 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.
⌜Lovers exit.⌝
BOTTOM, ⌜waking up⌝ 210 When my cue comes, call me,
 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
215 vision. I have had a dream past the wit of man to say
 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
220 he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of
 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
225 dream. It shall be called “Bottom’s Dream” because
 it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the
137
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT 4. SC. 2

 latter end of a play, before the Duke. Peradventure,
 to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it at her
 death.
⌜He exits.⌝


← Back: Act 3, scene 2 Next: Act 4, scene 2→