A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Уильям Шекспир

Чтение книги онлайн.

ACT I

       Table of Contents

      SCENE I. Athens. A room in 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, oh, methinks, how slow

       This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires,

       Like to a stepdame or a dowager,

       Long withering out a young man’s revenue.

       HIPPOLYTA

       Four days will quickly steep themselves in nights;

       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 renownèd 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 interchang’d love-tokens with my child:

       Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,

       With feigning voice, verses of feigning love;

       And stol’n 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;

       Turned 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 advis’d, fair maid:

       To you your father should be as a god;

       One that compos’d 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,

       СКАЧАТЬ