Are of imagination all compact:8
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
That is the madman; the lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,12
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And, as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing16
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That, if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy;20
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush suppos'd a bear!
Hip. But all the story of the night told over,
And all their minds transfigur'd so together,24
More witnesseth than fancy's images,
And grows to something of great constancy,
But, howsoever, strange and admirable.
Enter lovers, Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena.
The. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.28
Joy, gentle friends! joy, and fresh days of love
Accompany your hearts!
Lys.More than to us
Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed!
The. Come now; what masques, what dances shall we have,32
8 compact: composed
11 Helen: Helen of Troy
brow of Egypt: gypsy's face
19, 20 Cf. n.
25 More witnesseth: is evidence of more
26 constancy: consistency
27 admirable: to be wondered at
