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: But I know
When thou hast stol'n away from fairy land,
And in the shape of Corin sate 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.
Ob.
How can'st thou thus, for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolita,
-- 32 --
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night2note
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 vain6note
,
As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea
Contagious fogs; which falling in the land,
Have every 7note
,
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 murrain flock9note
:
The nine-mens' morris is fill'd up with mud1note
[unresolved image link]
;
-- 35 --
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread, are undistinguishable.
The human mortals2note want their winter here3note
,
-- 36 --
No night is now with hymn, or carol blest:—
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
-- 37 --
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatick diseases do abound:
-- 38 --
And, thorough this distemperature4note, we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose5note
note should be rather for thin, i. e. thin-hair'd.
Tyrwhitt.
, and icy crown,
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set: The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn7note
, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries; and the 'mazed world,
-- 39 --
By their increase, now knows not which is which8note:
And this same progeny of evils, 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 changeling boy,
To be my henchman9note
.
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 hath she gossip'd by my side;
-- 40 --
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 gate,
(Following her womb then rich with my young 'squire1note
)
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.
-- 41 --
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 will go with thee.
Queen.
Not for thy fairy kingdom.—Fairies, away:
We shall chide down-right, if I longer stay. [Exeunt Queen, and her train.
Ob.
Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove,
'Till I torment thee for this injury.—
My gentle Puck, come hither: Thou remember'st2note
-- 42 --
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back,
-- 43 --
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 musick.
Puck.
I remember.
Ob.
That very time I saw, (but thou could'st not)
Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
3note
“There lives a virgin, one without compare,
“Who of all graces hath her heavenly share;
“In whose renown, and for whose happy days,
“Let us record this Pæan of her praise.”
Cantant.Steevens.;
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 votress 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-idleness5note
.
-- 45 --
Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once;
The juice of it, on sleeping eye-lids laid,
Will make or man or woman madly doat
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 earth6note
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 eyes:
The next thing when 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 off from 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 invisible7note;
And I will over-hear their conference.
-- 46 --
Enter Demetrius, Helena following him.
Dem.
I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
Where is Lysander, and fair Hermia?
The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me8note.
Thou told'st me, they were stoln unto this wood;
And here am I, and wood within this wood9note
,
Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
Hel.
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.
-- 47 --
Dem.
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?
Hel.
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?
Dem.
Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;
For I am sick, when I do look on thee.
Hel.
And I am sick, when I look not on you.
Dem.
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.
,
Therefore I think I am not in the night:
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company3note
;
For you, in my respect, are all the world:
-- 48 --
Then how can it be said, I am alone,
When all the world is here to look on me?
Dem.
I'll run from thee, and hide me in the brakes,
And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.
Hel.
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 tyger: Bootless speed!
When cowardice pursues, and valour flies.
Dem.
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.
Hel.
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 shou'd 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.
Ob.
Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove,
Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love.—
Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer. Re-enter Puck.
Puck.
Ay, there it is.
Ob.
I pray thee, give it me.
I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,
Where ox-lips4note
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania, some time of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamel'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.
