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  • Title: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Quarto 1, 1600)
  • Editor: Suzanne Westfall
  • ISBN: 978-1-55058-465-3

    Copyright Suzanne Westfall. This text may be freely used for educational, non-profit purposes; for all other uses contact the Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Editor: Suzanne Westfall
    Not Peer Reviewed

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

    A Midsommer nightes dreame.
    Dem. Well roard, Lyon.
    Duke. Well runne, Thisby.
    Dutchesse. Well shone Moone. Truly, the Moone shines,
    with a good grace.
    2070Duk. Well mouz'd, Lyon.
    Dem. And then came Pyramus.
    Lys. And so the Lyon vanisht.
    Enter Pyramus.
    Pyr. Sweete Moone, I thanke thee, for thy sunny beams.
    2075I thanke thee, Moone, for shining now so bright.
    For by thy gratious, golden, glittering beames,
    I trust to take of truest Thisby sight.
    But stay: ? spight! but marke, poore knight,
    What dreadfull dole is here?
    2080Eyes do you see! How can it bee!
    O dainty duck, o deare!
    Thy mantle good, what, staind with blood?
    Approach ye Furies fell,
    O fates come, come, cut thread and thrumme,
    2085Quaile, crush, conclude, and quell.
    Duke. This passion, & the death of a deare friend would
    goe neere to make a man looke sad.
    Dutch. Beshrewe my heart, but I pitty the man.
    Pyr. O, wherefore, Nature, didst thou Lyons frame?
    2090Since Lyon vilde hath here deflour'd my deare.
    Which is, no, no: which was the fairest dame
    That liu'd, that lou'd, that lik't, that look't with cheere.
    Come teares, confound, out sword, and wound
    The pappe of Pyramus:
    2095I, that left pappe, where heart doth hoppe.
    Thus dy I, thus, thus, thus.
    Now am I dead, now am I fled, my soule is in the sky.
    Tongue loose thy light, Moone take thy flight,
    Now dy, dy, dy, dy, dy.
    2100Dem. No Die, but an ace for him. For he is but one.
    Lys.