Chapter 23 act four

The first forest.Enter Lysander, Demetrius, Helena, and Hermia, fast asleep Titania and Bolton, attended by the fairies; Oberon follows. Come Titania, sit down on this bed of flowers.I will caress your lovely cheeks; I will put musk roses on your soft and smooth head; I will kiss your beautiful big ears, my tender darling! What about Bolton bean curd? There are tofu curds. Bolton scratches his head for us, Douhuaer.Where is Mr. Web? There are spider webs. Mr. Bolton's Web, good sir, take your knife, and kill for us the red-humped bumble-bee on the tip of the thistle; then, good sir, bring us the honey-sac.Don't be too hasty in that, sir; and, good sir, take care not to burst the honey-sac; and if you're drowned in the honey-sac, we'd be sorry, sir.Where is Mr. Mustard?

There are mustard seeds. Bolton Give me your little hand, Mr. Mustard.Please don't be too polite, good sir. Mustard, what are your orders? Bolton is nothing, good sir, just scratching the web knight's itch for us.We must get a haircut, sir, because we think our faces are very hairy.We are a very sensitive ass, and if a hair tickles us, we must scratch it. Titania, would you like some music, my good man? Burton knows a little music well.Let's hit the drums for a while. Good Titania, what would you like to eat? Bolton Seriously, bring a pile of hay; if you have good dry straw, you can munch us too.We thought, We want to eat such a bale of hay; good hay, good hay, nothing like it.

Titania, I have an adventurous fairy, I can bring you some fresh hazelnuts from the squirrel's barn. Bolton, I'd rather have a handful or two of dried peas.But thank you, tell your people not to disturb us, we want to get a fucking sleep. Sleep Titania, I will take you in my arms.Immortals, spread out everywhere. (Exit the fairies) So dodders cling tenderly to the fragrant honeysuckle; so do dills cling to the wrinkled arms of elms.Ah, how I love you!How I love you! (Go to bed together.) Enter Puck. Oberon (coming forward) Welcome, good Robin!Have you ever seen such a lovely scene?I'm starting to get a little impatient with her obsession.Just now I met her behind the woods Looking for love's gift for this hideous fool, and I condemned and quarreled with her, because she made a garland of fragrant flowers around his shaggy brow; The dew on the tender core is crystal clear and full, like an oriental pearl, but now it is contained in the eyes of the beautiful little flowers, like tears full of tears, grieving the shame they have suffered.After I had ridiculed her to my heart's content, she humbly begged me to appease me, and I took the opportunity to ask her for the exchange; she gave it to me at once, and sent him to my chambers by her squire.Now that I have the child in my hands, I will remove the hideous confusion from her eyes.Good Puck, go and take off the deformed head of this Athenian villager, when he wakes up with the rest, so that he can go back to Athens and take all the events of the night as one Nightmare.But first let me unenchant the fairy queen. (touches her eyes with grass)

Restore your original nature, undo the vision before your eyes; this privet flower from the moon sister's garden, it will make the little flower of love useless. O my Titania, wake up, my good queen! Titania, my Oberon!What a vision I beheld!As if I fell in love with a donkey. Oberon is your lover. Titania How did all this happen?Ah, how exasperating I see him now! Oberon was silent for a moment.Robin, take off his head.Tell them to play music, Titania, and put these five to sleep utterly unconscious. Come, Titania, soft hypnotic music! (music.) Puck Wait till you wake up, fool, look with your stupid eyes.

Oberon Go on, music!Come, my queen, let us walk hand in hand, and let our dance shake the ground where these men sleep.Now that we have reconciled, we will go to the residence of Duke Theseus to dance a solemn dance together at midnight tomorrow, wishing his family prosperity and prosperity.The two faithful lovers will also marry Theseus at the same time there, and everyone's hearts are full of joy. Immortal King Puck, Immortal King, listen carefully, I hear the lark singing. Queen Oberon, let us silently follow the shadows of the night; we round the earth faster than the light stream of the moon.

Lord Titania, please tell me all the reasons together, where these people came from, while I was asleep. (The same below. The horn sounded in the curtain.) Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and attendants. Theseus One of you, call the slave hunters.We have observed the May Day rites, it is only morning, my love should hear the music of the hounds.Put them in the valley to the west; go and fetch the slave hunters.Fair queen, let us go to the top of the hill, and hear the barking of the hounds and the echo of the valley. Hippolyta I once hunted in the forest of Crete with Hercules and Cadmus⒁. They used Spartan hounds to chase the giant bear. This is the first time I have heard such a majestic bark. Heard; the sky and the mountains, and all the vicinity except the jungle, seemed to mingle into one reciprocal cry.Never have I heard such a beautiful noise, such a melodious thunder.

THESEUS My hounds are also of the Spartan breed, with the same drooping cheeks, and the same sandy coat color; on their heads hang two ears waving the morning dew; their knees are bent, and like Bulls of the Thessaly breed had dewlaps on their throats.They are not very swift in the chase, but their barks respond to each other as in tune as bells.Never in Crete, nor in Sparta, nor in Thessaly, did such a company of hounds bark so sweetly to the hunter's horn and call; and judge for yourself when you hear it.But wait!What are these fairies? My lord, Egeus, here lies my daughter; here is Lysander; here is Demetrius; here is Helena, daughter of old Nida.I don't know how they are all here.

Theseus and the others must have gotten up early to observe the May Festival, because they heard our will, so they rushed here to attend our ceremony.But, Aegis, is not this the day Hermia should decide her choice? Eggis Yes, my lord. Go, Theseus, and call the slave hunters to blow their horns to wake them up. (Horrends and shouts in the curtain; Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena wake up and jump up) Good morning, friends!Valentine's Day has long passed, and your generation of forest birds have only matched up now, right? ⒂ Lysander, Your Highness, please forgive me! (Kneel down with the others.)

Theseus please stand up.I know that the two of you are enemies, how did you become so friendly, you sleep together, there is no suspicion, and you are no longer afraid of enemies? My lord Lysander, I am still bewildered, and don't know how to answer your question; but I can swear that I really don't know how I got here; but I think--I will tell the truth, I now Remember, yes, I came here with Hermia; we would escape from Athens, escape the rigors of Athenian law, and we could - Egesis enough, enough, my lord; Enough said.I demand that he be punished according to law.They intend, they intend to flee, Demetrius, they intend to deceive us in such a way that your wife will fail, and my promise to you will also fail.

My lord Demetrius, Helena told me of their departure, and what they came to this wood; and in my rage I followed them, and Helena followed me, from madness.But, my lord, I don't know what power—but there must be a power—that made my love for Hermia melt like frost and snow, and thinking about it now is like recalling a childhood favorite. Like a plaything; all my faithfulness, all my thoughts, all my willing eyes belong to Helena alone.Before I knew Hermia, my lord, I made a covenant with her; but as a man in sickness, I loathe this delicacy, and when health recovers, I return to my normal appetite.Now I desire her, cherish her, long for her, and will always be faithful to her.

Fair lovers of Theseus, we have met by chance; We shall hear this passage from you later.Thy will must yield, Aegis; and these two youths shall soon join us in the temple for an everlasting bond.Now that the morning is coming to an end, the hunting we had planned had to be suspended.Come with us to Athens; in threes and threes, we'll feast.Come, Hippolyta. (Exeunt Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and attendants.) Demetrius These things seem subtle and impenetrable, like distant mountains in mist. Hermia I feel as if I see these things with blind eyes, and all is reduced to a layered double. Helena I think so too.I got Demetrius, like a gem, as if it were my own, and as if it wasn't my own. Demetrius Can you really judge that we are awake now?I think we are still asleep and dreaming.Do you think the duke was here just now and told us to go with him? Hermia Yes, my father is also. Helena and Hippolyta. Lysander He did bid us follow him to the temple. Demetrius Then we have really woken up.Let us follow him; and tell our dreams along the way. (same below.) Bolton (wakes up) When it's our turn to say the epilogue, please call us, and we'll say yes; our next sentence is, "Most beautiful Pyramus." Hey!Hello!Peter Koons!Fruit, bellows repairer!Snoot, mend the pot!Stavelin!damn it!Slip away quietly, leaving us here to sleep alone?We had a vision so strange that we had a dream.No one could tell what kind of dream it was; whoever tried to explain it must be a donkey.We seem to be—no one can tell what it is;Our dream, people's eyes have never heard, people's ears have never seen it, people's hands can't taste it, people's tongue can't think of it, people's heart can't say it. Come out what kind of a dream it was.We're going to get Peter Koons to write us a song about the dream, called "Bolton's Dream," because the dream has no foundation; Sing it in front of me—or better yet, after we're dead. (Down.) The second Athens.Enter Koons, Fruit, Snort, Stavelin at the Koons' house. Koons, did you send someone to Burton's house?Has he not come home yet? No news at all from Staffelin.He must have been kidnapped by goblins. Fruit If he doesn't come back, then our play's going to be put on hold; it can't go on, can it? Of course, Kunsna couldn't go on playing Luo; there was no one in the whole city of Athens who could play Pyramus except him. Fruit can play no one; he is simply the wisest of the Athenian craftsmen. Koons is right, and he's the best guy; he's got a good throat, and he's got a really good hang. Fruit, you are wrong, you should say "hang your throat".Hang your arms, for God's sake!It was an embarrassing thing. Enter Snug. Snuggle, the duke has just come out of the temple, and two or three nobles and ladies are also getting married at the same time.If our stuff can go on, we must all benefit. Fruit, oh dear Bolton!He was no longer on sixpence a day.He must get sixpence a day.We'll bet the duke will give him sixpence a day for playing Pyramus.He should get sixpence a day; for Pyramus he should get sixpence a day, and nothing less. Enter Bolton. Where are the Bolton boys?Where are the sweethearts? Queens Bolton!Oh, what a most auspicious day, an auspicious hour! Gentlemen Bolton, we shall tell you strange things, but don't ask us what; and if we tell you, we are not really Athenians.We will tell you everything without missing a word. Koons tell us, good Burton. Bolton can't tell you a word about ourselves.What we want to report to you is that the Duke has already had his dinner.Gather up your clothes, with strong strings for your beards, and new ribbons for your dancing boots; assemble at once before the palace gates; each learn his lines; in a word, our play It has been sent up.In any case, let Thisbe wear a cleaner shirt; and don't cut off the nails of the lion, for they're going to show for the lion's paws.Most importantly, bosses, don't eat onions and garlic, because we can't turn people off; we're sure to hear them say, "It's a sweet comedy." That's it, go!go! (same below.)