Prev
| Next
| Contents
SCENE I. A wood near Athens.
[Enter a FAIRY at One door, and PUCK at another.]
PUCK How now, spirit! whither wander you?
FAIRY Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough brier, Over
park, over pale, Thorough flood, thorough fire, I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moon's sphere; And I serve the fairy queen, To dew her
orbs upon the green. The cowslips tall her pensioners be: In their gold coats
spots you see; Those be rubies, fairy favours, In those freckles live their
savours; I must go seek some dew-drops here, And hang a pearl in every cowslip's
ear. Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone: Our queen and all her elves come here
anon.
PUCK The king doth keep his revels here to-night; Take heed theqQueen come not
within his sight. For Oberon is passing fell and wrath, Because that she, as her
attendant, hath A lovely boy, stol'n from an Indian king; She never had so sweet a
changeling: And jealous Oberon would have the child Knight of his train, to trace the
forests wild: But she perforce withholds the loved boy, Crowns him with flowers, and
makes him all her joy: And now they never meet in grove or green, By fountain clear, or
spangled starlight sheen, But they do square; that all their elves for fear Creep into
acorn cups, and hide them there.
FAIRY Either I mistake your shape and making quite, Or else you are that shrewd and
knavish sprite Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he That frights the maidens of the
villagery; Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern, And bootless make the
breathless housewife churn; And sometime make the drink to bear no barm; Mislead
night-wanderers, laughing at their harm? Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet
Puck, You do their work, and they shall have good luck: Are not you he?
PUCK Thou speak'st aright; I am that merry wanderer of the night. I jest to
Oberon, and make him smile, When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, Neighing in
likeness of a filly foal; And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl, In very likeness of a
roasted crab; And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob, And on her withered dewlap
pour the ale. The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale, Sometime for three-foot stool
mistaketh me; Then slip I from her bum, down topples she, And 'tailor' cries, and falls
into a cough; And then the whole quire hold their hips and loffe, And waxen in their
mirth, and neeze, and swear A merrier hour was never wasted there.-- But room, fairy,
here comes Oberon.
FAIRY And here my mistress.--Would that he were gone!
[Enter OBERON at one door, with his Train, and TITANIA, at another, with hers.]
OBERON Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.
TITANIA What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence; I have forsworn his bed and
company.
OBERON Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?
TITANIA Then I must be thy lady; but I know When thou hast stol'n away from
fairy-land, And in the shape of Corin sat all day, Playing on pipes of corn, and versing
love To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here, Come from the farthest steep of India, But
that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love, To
Theseus must be wedded; and you come To give their bed joy and prosperity.
OBERON How canst thou thus, for shame, Titania, Glance at my credit with
Hippolyta, Knowing I know thy love to Theseus? Didst not thou lead him through the
glimmering night From Perigenia, whom he ravish'd? And make him with fair Aegle break
his faith, With Ariadne and Antiopa?
TITANIA These are the forgeries of jealousy: And never, since the middle summer's
spring, Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead, By paved fountain, or by rushy
brook, Or on the beached margent of the sea, To dance our ringlets to the whistling
wind, But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport. Therefore the winds, piping to
us in vain, As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea Contagious fogs; which, falling
in the land, Hath every pelting river made so proud That they have overborne their
continents: The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain, The ploughman lost his
sweat; and the green corn Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard: The fold stands
empty in the drowned field, And crows are fatted with the murrion flock; The nine men's
morris is fill'd up with mud; And the quaint mazes in the wanton green, For lack of
tread, are undistinguishable: The human mortals want their winter here; No night is now
with hymn or carol blest:-- Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, Pale in her
anger, washes all the air, That rheumatic diseases do abound: And thorough this
distemperature we see The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts Fall in the fresh lap of
the crimson rose; And on old Hyem's chin and icy crown An odorous chaplet of sweet
summer buds Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer, The childing autumn, angry
winter, change Their wonted liveries; and the maz'd world, By their increase, now knows
not which is which: And this same progeny of evils comes From our debate, from our
dissension: We are their parents and original.
OBERON Do you amend it, then: it lies in you: Why should Titania cross her
Oberon? I do but beg a little changeling boy To be my henchman.
TITANIA Set your heart at rest; The fairy-land buys not the child of me. His
mother was a vot'ress of my order: And, in the spiced Indian air, by night, Full often
hath she gossip'd by my side; And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands, Marking the
embarked traders on the flood; When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive, And grow
big-bellied with the wanton wind; Which she, with pretty and with swimming
gait Following,--her womb then rich with my young squire,-- Would imitate; and sail upon
the land, To fetch me trifles, and return again, As from a voyage, rich with
merchandise. But she, being mortal, of that boy did die; And for her sake do I rear up
her boy: And for her sake I will not part with him.
OBERON How long within this wood intend you stay?
TITANIA Perchance till after Theseus' wedding-day. If you will patiently dance in
our round, And see our moonlight revels, go with us; If not, shun me, and I will spare
your haunts.
OBERON Give me that boy and I will go with thee.
TITANIA Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away: We shall chide downright if I
longer stay.
[Exit TITANIA with her Train.]
OBERON Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove Till I torment thee for
this injury.-- My gentle Puck, come hither: thou remember'st Since once I sat upon a
promontory, And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back, Uttering such dulcet and
harmonious breath, That the rude sea grew civil at her song, And certain stars shot
madly from their spheres To hear the sea-maid's music.
PUCK I remember.
OBERON That very time I saw,--but thou couldst not,-- Flying between the cold moon
and the earth, Cupid, all arm'd: a certain aim he took At a fair vestal, throned by the
west; And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow, As it should pierce a hundred
thousand hearts; But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft Quench'd in the chaste beams
of the watery moon; And the imperial votaress passed on, In maiden meditation,
fancy-free. Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell: It fell upon a little western
flower,-- Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,-- And maidens call it
love-in-idleness. Fetch me that flower, the herb I showed thee once: The juice of it on
sleeping eyelids laid Will make or man or woman madly dote Upon the next live creature
that it sees. Fetch me this herb: and be thou here again Ere the leviathan can swim a
league.
PUCK I'll put a girdle round about the earth In forty minutes.
[Exit PUCK.]
OBERON Having once this juice, I'll watch Titania when she is asleep, And drop the
liquor of it in her eyes: The next thing then she waking looks upon,-- Be it on lion,
bear, or wolf, or bull, On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,-- She shall pursue it with
the soul of love. And ere I take this charm from off her sight,-- As I can take it with
another herb, I'll make her render up her page to me. But who comes here? I am
invisible; And I will overhear their conference.
[Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA following him.]
DEMETRIUS I love thee not, therefore pursue me not. Where is Lysander and fair
Hermia? The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me. Thou told'st me they were stol'n into
this wood, And here am I, and wood within this wood, Because I cannot meet with
Hermia. Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
HELENA You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant; But yet you draw not iron, for my
heart Is true as steel. Leave you your power to draw, And I shall have no power to
follow you.
DEMETRIUS Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair? Or, rather, do I not in plainest
truth Tell you I do not, nor I cannot love you?
HELENA And even for that do I love you the more. I am your spaniel; and,
Demetrius, The more you beat me, I will fawn on you: Use me but as your spaniel, spurn
me, strike me, Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave, Unworthy as I am, to follow
you. What worser place can I beg in your love, And yet a place of high respect with
me,-- Than to be used as you use your dog?
DEMETRIUS Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit; For I am sick when I do look
on thee.
HELENA And I am sick when I look not on you.
DEMETRIUS You do impeach your modesty too much, To leave the city, and commit
yourself Into the hands of one that loves you not; To trust the opportunity of
night, And the ill counsel of a desert place, With the rich worth of your virginity.
HELENA Your virtue is my privilege for that. It is not night when I do see your
face, Therefore I think I am not in the night; Nor doth this wood lack worlds of
company; For you, in my respect, are all the world: Then how can it be said I am
alone When all the world is here to look on me?
DEMETRIUS I'll run from thee, and hide me in the brakes, And leave thee to the
mercy of wild beasts.
HELENA The wildest hath not such a heart as you. Run when you will, the story shall
be chang'd; Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase; The dove pursues the griffin; the
mild hind Makes speed to catch the tiger,--bootless speed, When cowardice pursues and
valour flies.
DEMETRIUS I will not stay thy questions; let me go: Or, if thou follow me, do not
believe But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.
HELENA Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field, You do me mischief. Fie,
Demetrius! Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex: We cannot fight for love as men may
do: We should be woo'd, and were not made to woo. I'll follow thee, and make a heaven of
hell, To die upon the hand I love so well.
[Exeunt DEMETRIUS and HELENA.]
OBERON Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove, Thou shalt fly him, and
he shall seek thy love.--
[Re-enter PUCK.]
Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.
PUCK Ay, there it is.
OBERON I pray thee give it me. I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, Where
ox-lips and the nodding violet grows; Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With
sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine: There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, Lulled
in these flowers with dances and delight; And there the snake throws her enamell'd
skin, Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in: And with the juice of this I'll streak her
eyes, And make her full of hateful fantasies. Take thou some of it, and seek through
this grove: A sweet Athenian lady is in love With a disdainful youth: anoint his
eyes; But do it when the next thing he espies May be the lady: thou shalt know the
man By the Athenian garments he hath on. Effect it with some care, that he may
prove More fond on her than she upon her love: And look thou meet me ere the first cock
crow.
PUCK Fear not, my lord; your servant shall do so.
[Exeunt.]
Prev
| Next
| Contents
|