A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Уильям Шекспир

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       DEMETRIUS

       Abide me, if thou dar’st; for well I wot

       Thou runn’st before me, shifting every place;

       And dar’st not stand, nor look me in the face.

       Where art thou?

       PUCK

       Come hither; I am here.

       DEMETRIUS

       Nay, then, thou mock’st me.

       Thou shalt buy this dear,

       If ever I thy face by daylight see:

       Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me

       To measure out my length on this cold bed.—

       By day’s approach look to be visited.

       [Lies down and sleeps.]

       [Enter HELENA.]

       HELENA

       O weary night, O long and tedious night,

       Abate thy hours! Shine comforts from the east,

       That I may back to Athens by daylight,

       From these that my poor company detest:—

       And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow’s eye,

       Steal me awhile from mine own company.

       [Sleeps.]

       PUCK

       Yet but three? Come one more;

       Two of both kinds makes up four.

       Here she comes, curst and sad:—

       Cupid is a knavish lad,

       Thus to make poor females mad.

       [Enter HERMIA.]

       HERMIA

       Never so weary, never so in woe,

       Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briers;

       I can no further crawl, no further go;

       My legs can keep no pace with my desires.

       Here will I rest me till the break of day.

       Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!

       [Lies down.]

       PUCK

       On the ground

       Sleep sound:

       I’ll apply

       To your eye,

       Gentle lover, remedy.

       [Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER’S eye.]

       When thou wak’st,

       Thou tak’st

       True delight

       In the sight

       Of thy former lady’s eye:

       And the country proverb known,

       That every man should take his own,

       In your waking shall be shown:

       Jack shall have Jill;

       Nought shall go ill;

       The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.

       [Exit PUCK.—DEMETRIUS, HELENA &c, sleep.]