SCENE I.
A Wood near Athens.
Enter a Fairy at one door, and Puck at another.
Puck.
How now, spirit! whither wander you?
Fai.
Over hill, over dale2 note
,
Thorough* note bush, thorough* note briar,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire,
I do wander every where,
Swifter than the moones sphere3 note
;
-- 200 --
And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green4 note
:
The cowslips tall her pensioners be5 note
;
In their gold coats spots you see6 note
;
-- 201 --
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 ear7 note
.
Farewell, thou lob of spirits8 note
, I'll be gone;
Our queen and all her elves come here anon.
Puck.
The king doth keep his revels here tonight;
Take heed, the queen come not within his sight.
For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,
-- 202 --
Because that she, as her attendant, hath
A lovely boy, stol'n from an Indian king;
She never had so sweet a changeling9 note
:
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild1 note
:
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 star-light sheen2 note
,
But they do square3 note
; that all their elves, for fear,
-- 203 --
Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there.
Fai.
Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite,
Call'd Robin Good-fellow4 note
: are you not he,
That fright5 note the maidens of the villagery;
Skim milk; and sometimes labour in the quern,
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn6 note
;
-- 204 --
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm7 note
;
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
-- 205 --
Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,
You do their work8 note
, and they shall have good luck:
-- 206 --
Are not you he?
Puck.
Thou speak'st aright9 note
;
-- 207 --
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 crab1 note
;
-- 208 --
And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob,
And on her wither'd dew-lap pour the ale.
The wisest aunt2 note
, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And tailor cries3 note, and falls into a cough;
And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe4 note
;
And waxen5 note
in their mirth, and neeze, and swear
-- 209 --
A merrier hour was never wasted there.—
But room, Faery6 note, here comes Oberon.
Fai.
And here my mistress:—'Would that he were gone!
James Boswell [1821], The plays and poems of William Shakspeare, with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators: comprehending A Life of the Poet, and an enlarged history of the stage, by the late Edmond Malone. With a new glossarial index (J. Deighton and Sons, Cambridge) [word count] [S10201].