Toolbox



Textual Analysis

[ Go ]

Shakespeare on Stage
SIP Editors, King Henry VIII. To Aug. 4, 2013.
Original Shakespeare Company, Comedie of Errors. To Jun. 22, 2013.
American Shakespeare Center, All's Well That Ends Well. To Nov. 29, 2013.
Original Shakespeare Company, A Midsommer Night's Dreame (Midsummer Midsommer). To Jun. 21, 2013.
American Shakespeare Center, Return to the Forbidden Planet. To Dec. 1, 2013.
More Performances…
‌

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Quarto 1, 1600)

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Suzanne Westfall
Not Peer Reviewed
A Midsommer nightes dreame.
Makes speede to catch the Tigre. Bootelesse speede,
When cowardise pursues, and valour flies.
Demet. I will not stay thy questions. Let me goe:
615Or if thou followe mee, do not beleeue,
But I shall doe thee mischiefe, in the wood.
Hel. I, in the Temple, in the towne, the fielde,
You doe me mischiefe. Fy Demetrius.
Your wrongs doe set a scandall on my sex:
620We cannot fight for loue, as men may doe:
We should be woo'd, and were not made to wooe.
Ile follow thee and make a heauen of hell,
To dy vpon the hand I loue so well.
Ob. Fare thee well Nymph. Ere he do leaue this groue,
625Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seeke thy loue.
Hast thou the flower there? Welcome wanderer.
Enter Pucke.
Puck. I, there it is.
Ob. I pray thee giue it mee.
630I know a banke where the wilde time blowes,
Where Oxlips, and the nodding Violet growes,
Quite ouercanopi'd with lushious woodbine,
With sweete muske roses, and with Eglantine:
There sleepes Tytania, sometime of the night,
635Luld in these flowers, with daunces and delight:
And there the snake throwes her enammeld skinne,
Weed wide enough to wrappe a Fairy in.
And, with the iuyce of this, Ile streake her eyes,
And make her full of hatefull phantasies.
640Take thou some of it, and seeke through this groue:
A sweete Athenian Lady is in loue,
With a disdainefull youth: annoint his eyes.
But doe it, when the next thing he espies,
May be the Ladie. Thou shalt know the man,
645By the Athenian garments he hath on.
Effect it with some care; that he may prooue
More