Come, now a roundel and a fairy song
Titania
Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;
Then, for the third part of a minute,
Midsummer's Night Dream
Written: 1595; Texts: Quartos 1600, 1619, First Folio 1623 (Comedy)
Source: Perhaps influenced by: Theseus and Hippolyta; Plutarch (c.46-120). Lives (Thomas North’s translation in 1579); Chaucer, Geoffrey (c.1340-1400). The Canterbury Tales “The Knight’s Tale” (1400); The story of “Pyramus and Thisbe” and the name of Titania; Ovid (43 BC- AD18). Metamorphoses (Arthur Golding’s English translation in 1567); Oberon; Huon of Bordeau, a 13th-century French adventure tale translated by Lord Berners (1534)
Characters: Helena, Oberon, Theseus Duke of Athens, Puck, Lysander, Hermia, Titania, Demetrius, Bottom, Quince, Flute, Egeus
Setting: Athens
Time: Undetermined
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Featured Quotes
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve
Theseus
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve.
Lovers, to bed! ’Tis almost fairy time.
I fear we shall outsleep the coming morn
As much as we this night have overwatched.
How now, spirit? Whither wander you?
Robin
How now, spirit? Whither wander you?
Fairy
Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush,
These are the forgeries of jealousy
These are the forgeries of jealousy:
And never, since the middle summer’s spring,
Met we on hill, in dale,
How happy some o’er other some can be!
How happy some o’er other some can be!
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that?
Lo! She is one of this confederacy
Lo! She is one of this confederacy.
Now I perceive, they have conjoin’d all three
To fashion this false sport,
Joy, gentle friends, joy and fresh days of love
Joy, gentle friends, joy and fresh days of love
Accompany your hearts!
More strange than true
More strange than true. I never may believe
These antic fables, nor these fairy toys.
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
The eye of man hath not heard
The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste,
Dark night, that from the eye his function takes
Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,
The ear more quick of apprehension makes;
Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense,
Lord, what fools these mortals be
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
When in that moment (so it came to pass)
When in that moment (so it came to pass)
Titania wak’d, and straightway lov’d an ass.
And yet, to say the truth
And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together now-a-days.
And this same progeny of evils comes
And this same progeny of evils comes
From our debate, from our dissension;
We are their parents and original.
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread, are undistinguishable.
Things base and vile, holding no quantity
Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity.
Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind;
Ay me! For aught that I could ever read
Ay me! For aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth.
And thorough this distemperature
And thorough this distemperature, we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,