Fai.
How now, spirit! whither wander you?

SONG.

2nd Fai.
  Over hill, over dale,
    Thorough bush, thorough briar,
  Over park, over pale,
    Thorough flood, thorough fire,
  I do wander every where,
  Swifter than the moones sphere;
  And I serve the fairy queen,
  To dew her orbs upon the green:^{1 note}
  The cowslips tall, her pensioners be,
  In their gold coats spots you see.
Farewell, thou dainty spirit, I'll be gone;
Our queen and all our elves come here anon.

Fai.
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 changeling:^{2 note}

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 star-light sheen,^{3 note}
But they do square;^{4 note} that all their elves, for fear,
Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there.

2nd Fai.
Either I mistake his shape and making quite,
Or hither comes that shrewd and knavish sprite,
Call'd Robin Good-fellow;(A)8Q0195 [Puck rises on a mushroom—Music.
Are you not he,
That fright the maidens of the villagery;
And sometimes make the drink to bear no barm;^{5 note}
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,(B)8Q0196
You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
Are not you he?

Puck.
Fairy; thou speak'st aright:
I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon, and make him smile,
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab;^{6 note}
And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob,
And, on her wither'd dew-lap pour the ale.
Sometime for three-foot stool she taketh me;
Then slip I from her seat, down topples she,
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh;
But room, Fairy, here comes Oberon.

2nd Fai.
And here my mistress:—'Would that he were gone! [Music.

Enter Oberon(C)8Q0197, with his train, and Titania(D)8Q0198, with hers, at opposite sides.

Obe.
Ill met by moon-light, proud Titania.

Tit.
What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence;
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 them both joy and prosperity.

Obe.
How canst thou thus, for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?

Tit.
These are the forgeries of jealousy;
And never, since the middle summer's spring,^{7 note}
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.

Obe.
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy,
To be my henchman.(E)8Q0199

Tit.
Set your heart at rest,
Thy 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.
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.

Obe.
How long within this wood intend you stay?

Tit.
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.

Obe.
Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.

Tit.
Not for thy Fairy kingdom.—Fairies, away:
We shall chide down-right, if I longer stay. [Music. [Exeunt Titania, and her train.

Obe.
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,^{8 note}

Puck.
I remember.

Obe.
That very time I saw (but thou could'st 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;^{9 note}
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 wat'ry moon;
And the imperial votress passed on,

In maiden meditation, fancy-free.^{10 note}
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 show'd thee once;
The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid,
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that is seen.
Fetch me this herb: and be thou here again,
Ere the leviathan can swim a league.

Puck.
I'd put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes. [Music—Exit Puck.

Obe.
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,
She shall pursue it with the soul of love.
And ere I take this charm off from her sight,
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.

Dem.
Where is Lysander, and fair Hermia?
Thou told'st me, they were stol'n into this wood;
Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
You do impeach your modesty^{11 note} too much
To leave the city, and commit yourself
Into the hands of one that loves you not.

Hel.
Your virtue is my privilege for that.^{12 note}
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?

Dem.
I will not stay thy question;^{13 note} let me go:
Or, if thou follow me, do not believe
But I shall do thee mischief in the wood. [Exit.

Hel.
Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
You do me mischief. Demetrius!
I'll follow thee, and
Die upon the hand^{14 note} I love so well. [Exit Helena.

Obe.
Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove,
Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love. [Music. Re-enter Puck.
Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.

Puck.
Ay there it is.

Obe.

I pray thee, give it me.

I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,
Where ox-lips^{15 note} and the nodding violet grows;^{16 note}
There sleeps the Fairy Queen, some time of the night,
Lull'd in these bowers with dances and delight;

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. [Music. Oberon glides away.

Next section