A Midsummer Night's Dream — Act 4, Scene 1

original text and modern English, side by side

The Wood · Titania, Bottom, Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mustardseed, Oberon, Puck, Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, Helena

Titania fusses over Bottom in her bower until they fall asleep together, and Oberon — having got the Indian boy from her while she was besotted — takes pity and lifts the spell. The reconciled fairy king and queen depart before dawn, and Theseus's hunting party finds the four lovers asleep on the ground; Demetrius now loves Helena, so Theseus overrules Egeus and declares that both couples will be married alongside him that day. Bottom wakes alone with his ass's head gone and resolves to have Peter Quince turn his half-remembered night into a ballad.

Lysander, Demetrius, Helena and Hermia still asleep.

Enter Titania and Bottom; Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, Mustardseed and other Fairies attending; Oberon behind, unseen.

Titania

Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,

While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,

And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,

And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.

Come and sit down on this bed of flowers while I stroke your lovely cheeks, and stick musk-roses in your sleek, smooth head, and kiss your beautiful big ears, my gentle darling.

Bottom

Where’s Peaseblossom?

Where's Peaseblossom?

Peaseblossom

Ready.

Bottom

Scratch my head, Peaseblossom.

Where’s Monsieur Cobweb?

Where's Monsieur Cobweb?

Cobweb

Ready.

Bottom

Monsieur Cobweb; good monsieur, get you your weapons in your hand and

kill me a red-hipped humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good

monsieur, bring me the honey-bag.

Monsieur Cobweb — good monsieur, take your weapon in hand and kill me a red-hipped bumblebee on top of a thistle, and then, good monsieur, bring me the honey-bag.

Do not fret yourself too much in the

action, monsieur;

Don't overexert yourself in the operation, monsieur.

and, good monsieur, have a care the honey-bag break

not;

And good monsieur, take care the honey-bag doesn't burst;

I would be loath to have you overflown with a honey-bag, signior.

I'd hate to see you flooded with a honey-bag, signor.

Where’s Monsieur Mustardseed?

Where's Monsieur Mustardseed?

Mustardseed

Ready.

Bottom

Give me your neaf, Monsieur Mustardseed.

Give me your fist, Monsieur Mustardseed.

Pray you, leave your courtesy,

good monsieur.

Please, no need to bow, good monsieur.

Mustardseed

What’s your will?

What would you like?

Bottom

Nothing, good monsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb to scratch.

Nothing, good monsieur, except to help Cavalry Cobweb with the scratching.

I must

to the barber’s, monsieur, for methinks I am marvellous hairy about the

face;

I ought to visit the barber, monsieur — it seems to me I've gone marvellously hairy about the face.

and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must

scratch.

And I'm such a delicate ass that if a hair so much as tickles me, I have to scratch.

Titania

What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love?

Well, sweet love, would you like some music?

Bottom

I have a reasonable good ear in music.

I've got a reasonably good ear for music.

Let us have the tongs and the

bones.

Let's have the tongs and bones.

Titania

Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat.

Or tell me, sweet love, what you'd like to eat.

Bottom

Truly, a peck of provender;

Honestly, a bushel of fodder.

I could munch your good dry oats.

I could munch some of your good dry oats.

Methinks

I have a great desire to a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no

fellow.

In fact I have a great craving for a bundle of hay — good hay, sweet hay, there's nothing like it.

Titania

I have a venturous fairy that shall seek

The squirrel’s hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.

I have an adventurous fairy who'll raid a squirrel's store and fetch you fresh nuts.

Bottom

I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas.

I'd rather have a handful or two of dried peas.

But, I pray you, let

none of your people stir me;

But please, don't let any of your people disturb me

I have an exposition of sleep come upon

me.

— I feel an exposition of sleep coming over me.

Titania

Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.

Sleep, then, and I'll wrap you in my arms.

Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.

Fairies, be off, scatter in all directions.

So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle

Gently entwist, the female ivy so

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.

O, how I love thee! How I dote on thee!

Just as the bindweed twines gently around the sweet honeysuckle, and the clinging ivy rings the elm's rough fingers — oh, how I love you! How I adore you!

They sleep.

Titania

Oberon advances. Enter Puck.

Oberon comes forward. Puck enters.

Oberon

Welcome, good Robin.

Seest thou this sweet sight?

Do you see this charming sight?

Her dotage now I do begin to pity.

I'm actually starting to pity her infatuation.

For, meeting her of late behind the wood,

Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool,

I did upbraid her and fall out with her:

I met her a while ago behind the wood, out gathering presents for this hateful fool, and I told her off and quarrelled with her.

For she his hairy temples then had rounded

With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;

She'd ringed his hairy temples with a crown of fresh, fragrant flowers,

And that same dew, which sometime on the buds

Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls,

Stood now within the pretty flouriets’ eyes,

Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail.

and the same dew that used to swell on the buds like round eastern pearls now stood in the eyes of those pretty little flowers like tears weeping over their own disgrace.

When I had at my pleasure taunted her,

And she in mild terms begg’d my patience,

I then did ask of her her changeling child;

Once I'd taunted her as long as I liked, and she'd meekly begged me to be patient, I asked her for the stolen child

Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent

To bear him to my bower in fairyland.

— and she handed him over at once and sent her fairy to carry him to my bower in fairyland.

And now I have the boy, I will undo

This hateful imperfection of her eyes.

Now that I have the boy, I'll undo this hateful defect in her sight.

And, gentle Puck, take this transformèd scalp

From off the head of this Athenian swain,

That he awaking when the other do,

May all to Athens back again repair,

And think no more of this night’s accidents

But as the fierce vexation of a dream.

And, gentle Puck, take that transformed head off this Athenian workman, so that when he wakes with the others he can go back to Athens and remember nothing of tonight's events except as the wild irritation of a dream.

But first I will release the Fairy Queen.

But first I'll release the Fairy Queen.

Touching her eyes with an herb.

Oberon

Be as thou wast wont to be;

See as thou was wont to see.

Be as you used to be; see as you used to see.

Dian’s bud o’er Cupid’s flower

Hath such force and blessed power.

Diana's bud has this much power over Cupid's flower, and this much blessing in it.

Now, my Titania, wake you, my sweet queen.

Now, my Titania, wake up, my sweet queen.

Titania

My Oberon, what visions have I seen!

My Oberon — what visions I've had!

Methought I was enamour’d of an ass.

I dreamed I was in love with an ass.

Oberon

There lies your love.

Titania

How came these things to pass?

How did all this happen?

O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!

Oh, how my eyes loathe the sight of his face now.

Oberon

Silence awhile.

Quiet for a moment.

—Robin, take off this head.

Robin, take off that head.

Titania, music call; and strike more dead

Than common sleep, of all these five the sense.

Titania, call for music, and let it strike all five of these sleepers senseless, deeper than ordinary sleep.

Titania

Music, ho, music, such as charmeth sleep.

Music, there — music that charms people to sleep.

Puck

Now when thou wak’st, with thine own fool’s eyes peep.

Now when you wake up, look out through your own fool's eyes.

Oberon

Sound, music.

Play, music.

Still music.

Oberon

Come, my queen, take hands with me,

And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.

Come, my queen, take my hand and let's set the ground rocking under these sleepers.

Now thou and I are new in amity,

And will tomorrow midnight solemnly

Dance in Duke Theseus’ house triumphantly,

And bless it to all fair prosperity:

Now you and I are freshly reconciled, and tomorrow at midnight we'll dance in ceremony and triumph in Duke Theseus's house and bless it with every good fortune.

There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be

Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.

That's where these pairs of faithful lovers will be married alongside Theseus, in the middle of the celebrations.

Puck

Fairy king, attend and mark.

Fairy king, listen and take note.

I do hear the morning lark.

I can hear the morning lark.

Oberon

Then, my queen, in silence sad,

Trip we after night’s shade.

Then, my queen, in solemn silence, let's follow after the retreating night.

We the globe can compass soon,

Swifter than the wand’ring moon.

We can circle the globe faster than the wandering moon.

Titania

Come, my lord, and in our flight,

Tell me how it came this night

That I sleeping here was found

With these mortals on the ground.

Come, my lord — and as we fly, tell me how it happened that I was found sleeping here on the ground with these mortals.

Exeunt. Horns sound within.

Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus and Train.

Theseus

Go, one of you, find out the forester;

One of you go and find the forester.

For now our observation is perform’d;

And since we have the vaward of the day,

My love shall hear the music of my hounds.

Our May-morning observance is over, and since we still have the early part of the day ahead of us, my love shall hear my hounds in full cry.

Uncouple in the western valley; let them go.

Unleash them in the western valley; let them run.

Dispatch I say, and find the forester.

Hurry up, I say, and find the forester.

Exit an Attendant.

Theseus

We will, fair queen, up to the mountain’s top,

And mark the musical confusion

Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

We'll go up to the mountain top, my queen, and listen to the musical confusion of the hounds and the echo answering them together.

Hippolyta

I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,

When in a wood of Crete they bay’d the bear

With hounds of Sparta.

I was out once with Hercules and Cadmus when they hunted the bear in a Cretan wood with Spartan hounds.

Never did I hear

Such gallant chiding; for, besides the groves,

The skies, the fountains, every region near

Seem’d all one mutual cry.

I've never heard such magnificent baying — besides the groves, the sky, the springs and every place nearby all seemed to be crying out together.

I never heard

So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.

I've never heard such musical discord, such sweet thunder.

Theseus

My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,

So flew’d, so sanded; and their heads are hung

With ears that sweep away the morning dew;

My hounds are bred from the Spartan strain: the same heavy jowls, the same sandy colour, with ears hanging so low they brush the morning dew off the grass.

Crook-knee’d and dewlap’d like Thessalian bulls;

Slow in pursuit, but match’d in mouth like bells,

Each under each.

Bow-legged and dewlapped like Thessalian bulls, slow in the chase but pitched like a peal of bells, one voice under another.

A cry more tuneable

Was never holla’d to, nor cheer’d with horn,

In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly.

A more tuneful pack was never cheered on with shouts or horns in Crete or Sparta or Thessaly.

Judge when you hear.

Judge for yourself when you hear them.

—But, soft, what nymphs are these?

But wait — who are these young women?

Egeus

My lord, this is my daughter here asleep,

And this Lysander; this Demetrius is;

This Helena, old Nedar’s Helena:

My lord, this one asleep here is my daughter, and this is Lysander; this is Demetrius, and this is Helena, old Nedar's Helena.

I wonder of their being here together.

I can't imagine what they're all doing here together.

Theseus

No doubt they rose up early to observe

The rite of May; and, hearing our intent,

Came here in grace of our solemnity.

They must have got up early to observe the May rites, and heard about our plans and come to honour our ceremony.

But speak, Egeus; is not this the day

That Hermia should give answer of her choice?

But tell me, Egeus, isn't this the day Hermia was to give her answer?

Egeus

It is, my lord.

Theseus

Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.

Go and tell the huntsmen to wake them with their horns.

Horns, and shout within. Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia and Helena wake

and start up.

Horns sound and there is a shout offstage; Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia and Helena wake and jump up.

Good morrow, friends.

Good morning, friends.

Saint Valentine is past.

Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?

Valentine's Day is long past — are these woodland birds only pairing off now?

Lysander

Pardon, my lord.

Forgive us, my lord.

He and the rest kneel to Theseus.

He and the others kneel to Theseus.

Theseus

I pray you all, stand up.

All of you, please stand up.

I know you two are rival enemies.

I know you two are rivals and enemies.

How comes this gentle concord in the world,

That hatred is so far from jealousy

To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?

How has this peaceful harmony come about, that hatred can lie down beside hatred and sleep with no fear of an attack?

Lysander

My lord, I shall reply amazedly,

Half sleep, half waking; but as yet, I swear,

I cannot truly say how I came here.

My lord, I'll answer in a daze, half asleep and half awake — and I swear I still can't honestly say how I got here.

But, as I think (for truly would I speak)

And now I do bethink me, so it is:

But I think, and I want to tell the truth — yes, now I remember, this is how it was:

I came with Hermia hither.

I came here with Hermia.

Our intent

Was to be gone from Athens, where we might be

Without the peril of the Athenian law.

Our plan was to get away from Athens to somewhere the Athenian law couldn't reach us.

Egeus

Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough.

Enough, my lord, enough — you've heard enough.

I beg the law, the law upon his head.

I demand the law, the full weight of the law on his head.

They would have stol’n away, they would, Demetrius,

Thereby to have defeated you and me:

You of your wife, and me of my consent,

Of my consent that she should be your wife.

They meant to run off, Demetrius, and cheat both of us: you out of a wife and me out of my right to consent — my consent that she should be your wife.

Demetrius

My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,

Of this their purpose hither to this wood;

And I in fury hither follow’d them,

Fair Helena in fancy following me.

My lord, lovely Helen told me about their escape and their plan to come out to this wood, and I followed them here in a rage, with Helena following me out of infatuation.

But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,

(But by some power it is) my love to Hermia,

Melted as the snow, seems to me now

As the remembrance of an idle gaud

Which in my childhood I did dote upon;

But, my good lord — I don't know by what power, though it must be some power — my love for Hermia has melted like snow. It seems to me now like the memory of some cheap toy I was obsessed with as a child.

And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,

The object and the pleasure of mine eye,

Is only Helena.

All the loyalty and devotion of my heart, everything my eye wants and delights in, is Helena and nobody else.

To her, my lord,

Was I betroth’d ere I saw Hermia.

I was engaged to her, my lord, before I ever saw Hermia.

But like a sickness did I loathe this food.

But, as in health, come to my natural taste,

Now I do wish it, love it, long for it,

And will for evermore be true to it.

I turned against her the way a sick man turns against food — but now that I'm well and my natural appetite is back, I want her, love her, long for her, and I'll be true to her forever.

Theseus

Fair lovers, you are fortunately met.

You lovers have met at a fortunate moment.

Of this discourse we more will hear anon.

We'll hear more of this story shortly.

Egeus, I will overbear your will;

For in the temple, by and by with us,

These couples shall eternally be knit.

Egeus, I'm overruling you: in the temple, along with us, these couples will shortly be joined for life.

And, for the morning now is something worn,

Our purpos’d hunting shall be set aside.

And since the morning is getting on, we'll drop the hunt we planned.

Away with us to Athens.

Come back to Athens with us

Three and three,

We’ll hold a feast in great solemnity.

— three couples, and we'll hold a great and solemn feast.

Come, Hippolyta.

Exeunt Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus and Train.

Demetrius

These things seem small and undistinguishable,

Like far-off mountains turnèd into clouds.

All of it seems small and blurred, like distant mountains that have turned into clouds.

Hermia

Methinks I see these things with parted eye,

When everything seems double.

It's as if I'm looking at everything with crossed eyes, and everything's doubled.

Helena

So methinks.

That's how it seems to me too.

And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,

Mine own, and not mine own.

And I've found Demetrius the way you find a jewel — mine, and yet not really mine.

Demetrius

Are you sure

That we are awake?

Are you sure we're actually awake?

It seems to me

That yet we sleep, we dream.

It feels to me as though we're still asleep and dreaming.

Do not you think

The Duke was here, and bid us follow him?

Don't you think the Duke was here and told us to follow him?

Hermia

Yea, and my father.

Yes — and my father.

Helena

And Hippolyta.

Lysander

And he did bid us follow to the temple.

And he did tell us to follow him to the temple.

Demetrius

Why, then, we are awake:

Well then, we're awake.

let’s follow him,

And by the way let us recount our dreams.

Let's go after him — and on the way, let's tell each other our dreams.

Exeunt.

Waking.

Bottom

When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer.

When my cue comes, call me and I'll answer.

My next is

‘Most fair Pyramus.’

My next line is "Most fair Pyramus."

Heigh-ho!

Hello?

Peter Quince!

Flute, the bellows-mender!

Snout, the tinker!

Starveling!

God’s my life!

God save me

Stol’n hence, and left me

asleep!

— they've slipped off and left me asleep!

I have had a most rare vision.

I've had the most extraordinary vision.

I have had a dream, past the wit

of man to say what dream it was.

I've had a dream beyond any man's wit to describe.

Man is but an ass if he go about to

expound this dream.

A man is nothing but an ass if he tries to explain this dream.

Methought I was—there is no man can tell what.

I thought I was — nobody can say what.

Methought I was, and methought I had—but man is but a patched fool if

he will offer to say what methought I had.

I thought I was, and I thought I had — but any man who tries to say what I thought I had is nothing but a motley fool.

The eye of man hath not

heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste,

his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was.

The eye of man has never heard, the ear of man has never seen, man's hand can't taste it, his tongue can't grasp it, nor his heart report what my dream was.

will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream:

I'll get Peter Quince to write a ballad about this dream.

it shall be

called ‘Bottom’s Dream’, because it hath no bottom;

It shall be called "Bottom's Dream", because it has no bottom,

and I will sing it

in the latter end of a play, before the Duke.

and I'll sing it near the end of a play in front of the Duke.

Peradventure, to make it

the more gracious, I shall sing it at her death.

Perhaps, to make it more affecting, I'll sing it at her death.

Exit.

A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 4, Scene 1 summary

Who appears in this scene

Titania, Bottom, Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mustardseed, Oberon, Puck, Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, Helena — The Wood.

Famous lines in A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 4, Scene 1, explained

“I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit / of man to say what dream it was.” (line 208): Waking alone and human again, Bottom gropes for words to describe the night and finds none — a moment of real wonder given to the play's biggest fool. He then garbles a famous passage from St Paul about what no eye has seen and no ear has heard, scrambling the senses in a way that accidentally captures how far the experience is beyond ordinary description. It is the play's quiet suggestion that the imagination reaches things reason cannot reach, and that it doesn't check your credentials first.
“it shall be / called ‘Bottom’s Dream’, because it hath no bottom;” (line 215): Bottom puns on his own name to say the dream is bottomless — unfathomable, with no floor to it. The joke works both ways: he is boasting about the depth of his experience and admitting he can't get to the bottom of it. Shakespeare uses the line to hand the audience the play's own title-idea, that the whole night is a dream nobody can fully account for.
“Methinks I see these things with parted eye, / When everything seems double.” (line 191): Hermia describes the strange state the four lovers wake into, where the night in the wood and the ordinary morning are both real at once, like double vision. Shakespeare gives the four of them a shared confusion rather than a clean explanation, because none of them will ever learn what actually happened. It is the moment the comedy hands its magic back to the characters as memory, uncertain and unverifiable.

Keep reading

About this translation: the original text follows the public-domain Project Gutenberg Globe edition; the modern English translation was written in-house for Polytranslator and is reviewed on an ongoing basis (last revised August 2026). Free to print and photocopy for classroom use. Cite as: “A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 4, Scene 1. Polytranslator side-by-side translation, polytranslator.com/shakespeare/midsummer-nights-dream/act-4-scene-1.”

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