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    A Midsummer Night's Dream
    A Midsummer Night's Dream
    A Midsummer Night's Dream
    Ebook129 pages1 hour

    A Midsummer Night's Dream

    By William Shakespeare

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    About this ebook

    A Midsummer Night's Dream is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, suggested by "The Knight's Tale" from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, written around 1594 to 1596. It portrays the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of amateur actors, their interactions with the Duke and Duchess of Athens, Theseus and Hippolyta, and with the fairies who inhabit a moonlit forest. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherContent 2 Connect Publisher
    Release dateDec 9, 2014
    ISBN9786155529016
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest dramatist in the English language. Shakespeare is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon.”  

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      Book preview

      A Midsummer Night's Dream - William Shakespeare

      Act I

      SCENE I. Athens. The palace of THESEUS.

      Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Attendants

      THESEUS

      Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour

      Draws on apace; four happy days bring in

      Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow

      This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,

      Like to a step-dame or a dowager

      Long withering out a young man revenue.

      HIPPOLYTA

      Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;

      Four nights will quickly dream away the time;

      And then the moon, like to a silver bow

      New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night

      Of our solemnities.

      THESEUS

      Go, Philostrate,

      Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;

      Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;

      Turn melancholy forth to funerals;

      The pale companion is not for our pomp.

      Exit PHILOSTRATE

      Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,

      And won thy love, doing thee injuries;

      But I will wed thee in another key,

      With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.

      Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS

      EGEUS

      Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!

      THESEUS

      Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with thee?

      EGEUS

      Full of vexation come I, with complaint

      Against my child, my daughter Hermia.

      Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,

      This man hath my consent to marry her.

      Stand forth, Lysander: and my gracious duke,

      This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child;

      Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,

      And interchanged love-tokens with my child:

      Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,

      With feigning voice verses of feigning love,

      And stolen the impression of her fantasy

      With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,

      Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers

      Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth:

      With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart,

      Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,

      To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke,

      Be it so she; will not here before your grace

      Consent to marry with Demetrius,

      I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,

      As she is mine, I may dispose of her:

      Which shall be either to this gentleman

      Or to her death, according to our law

      Immediately provided in that case.

      THESEUS

      What say you, Hermia? be advised fair maid:

      To you your father should be as a god;

      One that composed your beauties, yea, and one

      To whom you are but as a form in wax

      By him imprinted and within his power

      To leave the figure or disfigure it.

      Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.

      HERMIA

      So is Lysander.

      THESEUS

      In himself he is;

      But in this kind, wanting your father's voice,

      The other must be held the worthier.

      HERMIA

      I would my father look'd but with my eyes.

      THESEUS

      Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.

      HERMIA

      I do entreat your grace to pardon me.

      I know not by what power I am made bold,

      Nor how it may concern my modesty,

      In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;

      But I beseech your grace that I may know

      The worst that may befall me in this case,

      If I refuse to wed Demetrius.

      THESEUS

      Either to die the death or to abjure

      For ever the society of men.

      Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires;

      Know of your youth, examine well your blood,

      Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,

      You can endure the livery of a nun,

      For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd,

      To live a barren sister all your life,

      Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.

      Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood,

      To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;

      But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,

      Than that which withering on the virgin thorn

      Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness.

      HERMIA

      So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,

      Ere I will my virgin patent up

      Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke

      My soul consents not to give sovereignty.

      THESEUS

      Take time to pause; and, by the nest new moon—

      The sealing-day betwixt my love and me,

      For everlasting bond of fellowship—

      Upon that day either prepare to die

      For disobedience to your father's will,

      Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would;

      Or on Diana's altar to protest

      For aye austerity and single life.

      DEMETRIUS

      Relent, sweet Hermia: and, Lysander, yield

      Thy crazed title to my certain right.

      LYSANDER

      You have her father's love, Demetrius;

      Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him.

      EGEUS

      Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love,

      And what is mine my love shall render him.

      And she is mine, and all my right of her

      I do estate unto Demetrius.

      LYSANDER

      I am, my lord, as well derived as he,

      As well possess'd; my love is more than his;

      My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,

      If not with vantage, as Demetrius';

      And, which is more than all these boasts can be,

      I am beloved of beauteous Hermia:

      Why should not I then prosecute my right?

      Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,

      Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,

      And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,

      Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,

      Upon this spotted and inconstant man.

      THESEUS

      I must

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