1 No, he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft man in Athens.
2 You have not a man in all Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he.
3 Before the time I did Lysander see, Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me.
4 About the wood go swifter than the wind, And Helena of Athens look thou find.
5 From Athens is her house remote seven leagues, And she respects me as her only son.
6 Our intent Was to be gone from Athens, where we might be, Without the peril of the Athenian law.
7 Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is thought fit through all Athens, to play in our interlude before the Duke and Duchess, on his wedding-day at night.
8 When they next wake, all this derision Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision; And back to Athens shall the lovers wend, With league whose date till death shall never end.
9 Hard-handed men that work in Athens here, Which never labour'd in their minds till now; And now have toil'd their unbreath'd memories With this same play against your nuptial.
10 He follow'd you; for love I follow'd him; But he hath chid me hence, and threaten'd me To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too: And now, so you will let me quiet go, To Athens will I bear my folly back, And follow you no further.
11 And in the wood where often you and I Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lie, Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet, There my Lysander and myself shall meet, And thence from Athens turn away our eyes, To seek new friends and stranger companies.
12 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.
13 When they him spy, As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye, Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort, Rising and cawing at the gun's report, Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky, So at his sight away his fellows fly, And at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls; He murder cries, and help from Athens calls.