Shakespeare: A Midsummer Nights DreamDramatis PersonaeTHESEUS Duke of Athens. EGEUS father to Hermia. LYSANDER DEMETRIUS in love with Hermia. PHILOSTRATE master of the revels to Theseus. QUINCE a carpenter. SNUG a joiner. BOTTOM a weaver. FLUTE a bellows-mender. SNOUT a tinker. STARVELING a tailor. HIPPOLYTA queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus. HERMIA daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander. HELENA in love with Demetrius. OBERON king of the fairies. TITANIA queen of the fairies. PUCK or Robin Goodfellow. PEASEBLOSSOM COBWEB MOTH MUSTARDSEED fairies. Other fairies attending their King and Queen. Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta. SCENE Athens, and a wood near it. Act 1, SCENE I. Athens. The palace of THESEUS.Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Attendants THESEUS 1Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hourDraws on apace; four happy days bring inAnother moon: but, O, methinks, how slowThis old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,Like to a step-dame or a dowagerLong withering out a young mans 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 bowNew-bent in heaven, shall behold the nightOf 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 PHILOSTRATEHippolyta, I wood 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.2Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUSEGEUS Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!THESEUS Thanks, good Egeus: whats the news with thee?EGEUS Full of vexation come I, with complaintAgainst 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 witchd 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 fantasyWith bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengersOf strong prevailment in unhardend youth:With cunning hast thou filchd my daughters heart,Turnd her obedience, which is due to me,To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke,Be it so she will not here before your graceConsent 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 gentlemanOr to her death, according to our lawImmediately 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 oneTo whom you are but as a form in waxBy him imprinted and within his powerTo 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 fathers voice,The other must be held the worthier.HERMIA I would my father lookd 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 knowThe worst that may befall me in this case,If I refuse to wed Demetrius.THESEUS Either to die the death or to abjureFor 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 fathers choice,You can endure the livery of a nun,For aye to be in shady cloister mewd,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 distilld,Than that which withering on the virgin thornGrows, lives and dies in single blessedness.HERMIA So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,Ere I will yield my virgin patent upUnto his lordship, whose unwished yokeMy soul consents not to give sovereignty.THESEUS Take time to pause; and, by the next new moon-The sealing-day betwixt my love and me,For everlasting bond of fellowship-Upon that day either prepare to dieFor disobedience to your fathers will,Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would;Or on Dianas altar to protestFor aye austerity and single life.DEMETRIUS Relent, sweet Hermia: and, Lysander, yieldThy crazed title to my certain right.LYSANDER You have her fa