SCENE I.
A Wood.
Enter a Fairy at one door, and Puck (or Robin-goodfellow) at another.
Puck.
How now, spirit! whither wander you?
Fai.
Over hill, over dale5 note
,
Thorough bush, thorough briar,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire,
I do wander every where,
Swifter than the moones sphere6 note
;
And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs7 note
upon the green:
The cowslips tall her pensioners be8 note
;
-- 25 --
9 note
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 ear1 note
.
Farewel, thou 2 note
lob of spirits, I'll be gone;
Our queen and all her elves come here anon.
-- 26 --
Puck.
The king doth keep his revels here to night;
Take heed, the queen 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 changeling3 note:
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild:
But she, per-force, 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 sheen4 note
,
But they do square5 note
; that all their elves, for fear,
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-fellow6 note
: Are you not he,
-- 27 --
That frights the maidens of the villag'ry;
Skim milk; and sometimes labour in the quern7 note
,
And bootless make the breathless huswife churn;
-- 28 --
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm8 note
;
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck1 note
note
,
-- 29 --
You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
Are not you he?
Puck.
Thou speak'st aright2 note
;
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 silly foal:
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
-- 30 --
In very likeness of a roasted crab3 note
;
And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob,
And on her wither'd dew-lap pour the ale.
The wisest aunt4 note, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And taylor cries, and falls into a cough5 note:
And then the whole quire hold their hips6 note
, and loffe,
7 noteAnd waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear
A merrier hour was never wasted there.—
But8 note room, Faery, here comes Oberon.
Fai.
And here my mistress:—'Would that he were gone!
-- 31 --
Samuel Johnson [1778], The plays of William Shakspeare. In ten volumes. With the corrections and illustrations of various commentators; to which are added notes by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. The second edition, Revised and Augmented (Printed for C. Bathurst [and] W. Strahan [etc.], London) [word count] [S10901].
