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Enter a Fairy at one Door, and Puck, or Robin-good-fellow, at another.
Puck. How now, Spirit! whither wander you?
1st Fai. Over hill, over dale,
Through bush, through brier,
Over park, over pale,
Through flood, through fire,
I do wander every where,
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the Fairy Queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green:
I must go seek some dew-drops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
Kingcup, daffodil and rose,
Shall the fairy wreath compose;
Beauty, sweetness, and delight,
Crown our revels of the night:
Lightly trip it o'er the green
Where the Fairy ring is seen;
So no step of earthly tread,
Shall of end our Lady's head.
Virtue sometimes droops her wing,
Beauties bee, may lose her sting;
Fairy land can both combine,
Roses with the eglantine:
Lightly be your measures seen,
Deftly footed o'er the green;
Nor a spectre's baleful head
Peep at our nocturnal tread.
Farewel 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 the Queen come not within his sight;
For they do square, that all their Elves for fear
Creep into acorn-cups, and hide them there.
1st Fai. But why is Oberon so fell and wrath?
Puck. Because that she, as her attendant hath
A lovely boy stol'n from an Indian King;
And she perforce with-holds the changling,
Tho' jealous Oberon wou'd have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild.
1st Fai. Or I mistake your shape and making quite, Or else you are that shrewd and knavish Sprite Call'd Robin-good-fellow.
Puck. Thou speak'st aright;
I am that merry wand'rer of the night:
I jest to Oberon, and make him smile,
Oft lurk in gossip's bowl, and her beguile
In very likeness of a roasted crab;
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob,
And on her wither'd 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 rails or cries, and falls into a cough,
And then the whole choir hold their hips and loffe.
1st Fai. Yes, yes, I know you, you are he
That frighten all the villagree;
Skim milk, and labour in the quern,
And bootless make the huswife churn;
Or make the drink to bear no barm,
Laughing at their loss and harm,
But call you Robin, and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and bring good luck.
Yes, you are that unlucky Sprite!
Like Will-a-whisp, a wandring light,
Through ditch, thro' bog, who lead astray
Benighted swains, who lose their way;
You pinch the slattern black and blue,
You silver drop in huswife's shoe;
For call you Robin and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and bring good luck.
Puck. But make room, Fairy, here comes Oberon.
1st Fai. And here my mistress: Would that he were gone!
Enter Oberon King of Fairies at one door, with his train, and the
Queen at another with hers.
Ob. Ill met by moon-light, proud Titania!
Queen. What, jealous Oberon? Fairy, skip hence,
I have forsworn his bed and Company.
Ob. Tarry, rash wanton! Am not I thy Lord?
Queen. Then I must be thy Lady: 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.
Ob. How canst thou thus, for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolita,
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night
From Perigune, whom he ravished,
And make him, with fair Egle, break his faith
With Ariadne and Antiopa?
Queen. These are the forgeries of jealousy:
And never since that middle summer's spring
Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.
The spring, the summer,
The chiding autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries; and the amazed world
By their increase now knows not which is which;
And this same progeny of evil comes
From our debate, from our dissention,
We are their parents and original.
Ob. Do you amend it then, it lies in you.
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changling boy
To be my henchman.
Queen. Set your heart at rest,
The Fairy-land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votress of my order,
And in the spiced Indian air by night
Full often she hath gossipt by my side;
And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands.
Marking th' embarked traders of the flood,
When we have laught to see the sails conceive,
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;
Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait,
Would imitate, and sail upon the land,
To fetch me trifles, and return again
As from a voyage rich with merchandize;
But she being mortal of that boy did die,
And for her sake I do rear up her boy,
And for her sake I will not part with him.
Ob. How long within this wood intend you stay?
Queen. Perchance till after Theseus' wedding-day.
If you will patiently dance in our round,
And see our moon-light revels, go with us;
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.
Ob. Give me that boy, and I'll go with thee.
Queen. Not for thy Fairy kingdom.
Queen. Away, away,
I will not stay,
But fly from rage and thee.
King. Begone, begone,
You'll feel anon
What 'tis to injure me.
Queen. Away, false man!
Do all you can,
I scorn your jealous rage!
King. We will not part;
Take you my heart!
Give me your favourite page.
Queen. I'll keep my page!
King. And I my rage!
Nor shall you injure me.
Queen. Away, away!
I will not stay,
But fly from rage and thee.
Both. Away, away, &c. [Exe. Queen, &c.
Ob. Well, go thy way; thou shalt not from this grove,
Till I torment thee for this injury—
My gentle Puck, come hither:
There is a flow'r, the herb I shew'd thee once,
The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid,
Will make a man or woman madly doat
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me that 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.
Ob. Having once this juice,
I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,
And drop the liquor of it in her eye;
The next thing which she waking looks upon,
(Be it on bear, lion, wolf, bull, ape or monkey),
She shall pursue it with the soul of love;
And ere I take this charm off from her sight,
(As I can take it with another herb),
I'll make her render up her page to me. [Exit.