Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, and PHILOSTRATE, LORDS, and ATTENDANTS.

HIPPOLYTA. ‘Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of.

 THESEUS. More strange than true. I never may believe 12

These antic fables, nor these fairy toys.

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, 5 Such shaping fantasies,3 that apprehend

More than cool reason ever comprehends. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet

4

One sees more devils than vast hell can hold; 10 That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic,

5

15 The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to aery6 nothing A local habitation and a name.

Such tricks hath strong imagination,

That if it would but apprehend some joy,

20 It comprehends some bringer of that joy;7 Or in the night, imagining some fear, How easy is a bush suppos’d a bear!

HIPPOLYTA. But all the story of the night told over,

And all their minds transfigur’d so together, 25 More witnesseth than fancy’s images,8