Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Suzanne Westfall
Not Peer Reviewed

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

A Midsommer nightes dreame.
Pard, or Boare with bristled haire,
In thy eye that shall appeare,
When thou wak'st, it is thy deare:
685Wake, when some vile thing is neere.
Enter Lysander: and Hermia.
Lys. Faire loue, you fainte, with wandring in the wood:
And to speake troth I haue forgot our way.
Weele rest vs Hermia, if you thinke it good,
690And tarry for the comfor of the day.
Her. Bet it so Lysander: finde you out a bedde:
For I, vpon this banke, will rest my head.
Lys. One turfe shall serue, as pillow, for vs both,
One heart, one bedde, two bosomes, and one troth.
695Her. Nay god Lysander: for my sake, my deere
Ly further off, yet; doe not lye so neere.
Lys. O take the sense, sweete, of my innocence.
Loue takes the meaning, in loues conference,
I meane that my heart vnto yours it knit;
700So that but one heart wee can make of it:
Two bosomes interchained with an oath:
So then two bosomes, and a single troth.
Then, by your side, no bed-roome me deny:
For lying so, Hermia, I doe not lye.
705Her. Lysander riddles very prettily.
Now much beshrewe my manners, and my pride,
If Hermia meant to say, Lysander lyed.
But gentle friend, for loue and curtesie,
Ly further off, in humane modesty:
710Such separation, as may well be said
Becomes a vertuous batcheler, and a maide,
So farre be distant, and good night sweete friend:
Thy loue nere alter till thy sweete life end.
Lys. Amen, amen, to that faire prayer, say I,
715And then end life, when I end loyalty.
Heere is my bed: sleepe giue thee all his rest.
VVith