University of Virginia Library

ACT II.

SCENE I.

SCENE, a Wood.
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.
AIR.
Farewel thou lob of spirits, I'll begone;
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 losse.

AIR.
1st Fai.

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 baskin'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.

AIR. DUET.
Queen.
Away, away,
I will not slay,
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.

[Exeunt 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 eyes:
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.
But who comes here? I am invisible,
And I will over-hear their conference.

Enter Demetrius, Helena following him.
Dem.
I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
Hence, get thee gone! and follow me no more.

Hel.
You draw me on, I cannot help but follow.

Dem.
Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair?
Or rather do I not in plainest truth
Tell you I do not, and I cannot love you?
AIR.

Hel.
Scorn me, spurn me,
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.

Dem.
You do impeach your modesty too much,
To trust the opportunity of night,
And the ill counsel of a desart place.

Hel.
Your virtue is my privilege; for that
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.

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.

Dem.
I will not stay thy questions; let me go:
Or if you follow me, do not believe
But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.

[Exit.
Hel.
Ay, in the temple, in the town and field
You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex.
AIR.

[Exit.
Ob.
Fare thee well, nymph! Ere he doth leave this grove
Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love.
Enter Puck.
Hast thou the flow'r there? Welcome wanderer!

Puck.
Ay, there it is.

Ob.
I pray thee give it me;
I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,
Where oxslip and the nodding violet grows;
There sleeps Titania, sometime of the night,
Lull'd in these flow'rs, 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 th' Athenian garments he hath on.
And look you, meet me ere the first cock crow.

Puck.
Fear not, my Lord, your servant shall do so.

[Exit.
Ob.
Now, with all speed, to charm Titania.
[Exit King.

Enter Second Fairy, with a troop of Fairies.
AIR.
Come, follow, follow me,
Ye fairy Elves that be;
O'er tops of dewy grass,
So nimbly do we pass;
The young and tender stalk
Ne'er bends where we do walk.

[Exeunt.