A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Act 4 Scene 1
The same.
The scene continues directly on from the end of 3.2, with the lovers asleep on the stage, suggesting continuous action rather than a break.
LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA lying asleep.
Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM [with ass' head]; PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB,
MOTH, MUSTARDSEED, and other Fairies attending; [OBERON behind unseen]
TITANIA
Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,
And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.
BOTTOM
Where's Peaseblossom?
PEASEBLOSSOM
Ready.
Bottom has moved a step up in his pretension, now peppering his speech with French and Italian terms.
BOTTOM
Scratch my head Peaseblossom. Where's Mounsieur
Cobweb?
COBWEB
Ready.
In 3.1, Bottom was polite and cordial with the fairies; now he is presumptuous and commanding, taking full advantage of having servants.
BOTTOM
Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get you your
weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped
humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good
mounsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret
yourself too much in the action, mounsieur; and,
good mounsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not;
I would be loath to have you overflown with a
honey-bag, signior. Where's Mounsieur Mustardseed?
MUSTARDSEED
Ready.
Bottom acts as a generous lord, allowing Mustardseed a handshake rather than requiring a bow or curtsy.
BOTTOM
Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray you,
leave your courtesy, good mounsieur.
MUSTARDSEED
What's your will?
BOTTOM
Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb
to scratch. I must to the barber's, monsieur; for
methinks I am marvellous 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 may agree to Bottom's request, in which case some kind of music would begin here; alternatively, her line may attempt to shift Bottom away from uncouth music by bringing up food.
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.
Though Bottom remains steadfastly unaware, his tastes and habits are changing to those of an ass.
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 always away.
Exeunt fairies
Titania's imagines hugging Bottom the way a vine hugs a tree, a conventional image of the roles of husband and wife.
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!
They sleep
Enter PUCK
The scene Oberon describes takes place offstage, outside the play. The audience is told of the resolution of the changeling plot, rather than seeing it firsthand.
Puck does not leave at this point, and remains on stage throughout Oberon and Titania's reconciliation, making the intimate conversation a public one.
Oberon's antidote is a flower sacred to Diana, goddess of chastity and the moon. The contest between Diana and Venus, chastity and love, was a common theme in myth and poetry.
OBERON
[Advancing]
Welcome, good Robin. See'st thou this sweet sight?
Her dotage now I do begin to pity.
For, meeting her of late behind the wood,
Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool,
I did upbraid her and fall out with her;
For she his hairy temples then had rounded
With a 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 flowerets' 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 fairy land.
And now I have the boy, I will undo
This hateful imperfection of her eyes.
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
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
But first I will release the Fairy Queen.
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.
Now, my Titania, wake you, my sweet queen.
TITANIA
My Oberon! What visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamoured of an ass.
OBERON
There lies your love.
TITANIA
How came these things to pass?
O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!
Puck removes the ass' head from Bottom on-stage, so that the transformation happens in front of the audience, though it may be out of view.
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!
[Music, still]
PUCK
Now, when thou wak’st, with thine own fool's eyes peep.
Oberon's lines indicate that he and Titania dance around the "sleepers." The music for their dance may be the "still" music used to keep the humans asleep, or it may become more lively. The music would have probably come from the musicians in the gallery, though fairy-musicians may enter at this point as well.
OBERON
Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands with me,
And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.
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.
PUCK
Fairy King, attend, and mark:
I do hear the morning lark.
OBERON
Then, my queen, in silence sad,
Trip we after the 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.
Exeunt
The music from Oberon and Titania's dance may still be playing here, to fade out as they leave and be replaced by the sound of hunting horns.
This entrance can be another procession, echoing the fairies' newfound harmony in the unity of Theseus and Hippolyta. Since they enter from the rites of May, in preparation for a morning's hunt, their arrival can also be boisterous, energetic, and somewhat chaotic.
Horns winded within
Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train
THESEUS
Go, one of you, find out the forester,
For now our observation is performed;
And since we have the vanguard 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.
Exit an Attendant
We will, Fair Queen, up to the mountain's top,
And mark the musical confusion
Of hounds and echo in conjunction.
The lengthy discussion of hunting-hounds keeps up suspense, as Theseus' party do not yet see the sleeping lovers. It also highlights Hippolyta's history, making her a companion of legendary heroes, rather than just Theseus' bride.
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.
The comparison of hounds' barking to music was a commonplace in the period, as hunting was a standard activity for the aristocracy.
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 dew-lapped like Thessalian bulls,
Slow in pursuit, but matched in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tuneable
Was never holla’d 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' explanation may be sound, and it attempts to prevent Egeus' rage by suggesting that the lovers arose early to travel to the forest innocently, rather than having scandalously spent the night together in the woods.
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.
It seems odd (and, perhaps, cruel) for Theseus to wake the lovers with horns and shouts, rather than gently rousing them himself. It can make for some comic business, and leave the lovers shaken and embarrassed as Theseus questions them.
THESEUS
Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.
Horns and shout within. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA,
and HERMIA wake and start up
Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past.
Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
LYSANDER
Pardon, my lord.
The lovers presumably kneel before the Duke, in a gesture of obedience and submission, until he gives them permission to rise.
THESEUS
I pray you all, stand up.
I know you two are rival enemies.
How comes this gentle concord in the world,
That hatred is so far from jealousy,
To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?
While Lysander responds, the others may be listening, checking in with one another, still waking up, or taking in the situation.
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,
And now do I 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' rambling and repetitive speech here may indicate the passionate rage of the character, suggesting an explosive, sputtering delivery.
EGEUS
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,
Thereby to have defeated you and me,
You of your wife and me of my consent,
Of my consent that she should be your wife.
Demetrius' speech and behaviour here may be different from the others, to indicate that he is still enchanted. Alternatively, he may be lucid and grounded, suggesting that his love for Helena is real and durable.
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.
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 betrothed 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.
Egeus is prevented from responding, either to agree or disagree. He may reconcile himself to Lysander, or he may leave still fuming, left out of the "three and three."
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.
Away with us to Athens, three and three,
We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.
Come, Hippolyta.
Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train
DEMETRIUS
These things seem small and undistinguishable,
Like far off mountains turnèd into clouds.
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.
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.
Exeunt
Bottom's "heigh-ho" is often performed as a yawn that sounds like a donkey's bray, showing his transition both out of sleep and out of his transformation.
Bottom's mixed-up report of the senses references and parodies 1 Corinthians 2:9, but it also aptly describes the night Bottom has had and, perhaps, the experience of falling in love.
The promised ballad never appears in the play, except perhaps as the "epilogue" which is discarded in favour of a dance.
BOTTOM
[Awaking]
When my cue comes, call me, and I will
answer. My next is, 'Most fair Pyramus.' Heigh-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 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 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 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.
Exit