University of Virginia Library

THE FAIRIES. AN OPERA.

ACT I.

SCENE I.

Enter Theseus and Hippolita with Attendants.
THESEUS.
Now, fair Hippolita, our nuptial hour
Draws on apace, four happy days bring in
Another moon: but oh, methinks, how slow
This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires.
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth:
Turn melancholy forth to funerals;
The pale companion is not for our pomp.
Hippolita, I woo'd thee with my sword,
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling.
AIR.

SCENE II.

Enter Egeus, Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius.
EGEUS.
Happy be Theseus, our renowned Duke.

THESEUS.
Thanks, good Egeus.

EGEUS.
Full of vexation, come I with complaint
Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
Stand forth, Demetrius; my noble lord,
This man hath my consent to marry her.
Stand forth, Lysander: and my gracious duke,
This man hath witch'd the bosom of my child;
With cunning hath he filch'd my daughter's heart,
Turn'd her obedience, to stubborn harshness.
Therefore do I claim the Athenian law.
As she is mine I may dispose of her:
Which shall be either to Demetrius,
Or to her grave.

THESEUS.
What say you, Hermia? be advis'd, fair maid,
To you your father should be as a God;
One that compos'd your beauties.

HERMIA.
I would my father look'd but with my eyes.

THESEUS.
Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.

HERMIA.
I do beseech your grace, that I may know
The worst of it if I refuse Demetrius.

THESEUS.
Either to die the death, or to abjure
For ever the society of men.
For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd,
To live a barren sister all your life,
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
Thrice blessed they that master so their blood,
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage!
But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,
Than that, which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.

HERMIA.
So will I grow, so live, so die, my Lord,
Ere I will yield my virgin patent up
Unto his lordship, to whose unwish'd yoke
My soul consents not to give sovereignty.
AIR.

THESEUS.
Take time to pause, and by the next new moon,
The sealing day betwixt my love and me,
Upon that day either prepare to die,
For disobedience to your father's will;
Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would;
Or on Diana's altar to protest,
For aye, austerity, and single life.

EGEUS.
Hermia is mine, and all my right of her
I do estate unto Demetrius.

LYSANDER.
Demetrius (I'll avouch it to his head,)
Made love to Nedar's daughter Helena,
And won her soul, and she, sweet lady, doats,
Devoutly doats, doats in idolatry,
Upon this spotted and inconstant man.

THESEUS.
I must confess that I have heard so much—
But come, Egeus, and Demetrius come,
I have some private schooling for you both:
Of this no more—Let not these jars untune
Our hearts, high-strung to harmony and love.

AIR and CHORUS.
Joy alone shall employ us,
No griefs shall annoy us,
No sighs the sad heart shall betray;
Let the vaulted roof ring,
Let the full chorus sing,
Blest Theseus and Hippolita!

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Manent LYSANDER and HERMIA.
LYSANDER.
How now, my love? why is your cheek so pale?
How chance the roses there do fade so fast?

HERMIA.
Belike for want of rain, which I could well
Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes.

LYSANDER.
Hermia, for ought that ever I could read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth,
But either it was different in blood,
Strangely misgrafted in respect of years,
Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,
Or if there were a sympathy of choice;
War, death, or sickness, did lay siege to it,
Making it momentary as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as is a dream.

HERMIA.
If then true lovers have been ever crost,
It stands as an edict in destiny:
Then let us teach our trial patience:
Because it is a customary cross,
As due to love, as thoughts and dreams and sighs,
Wishes and tears, poor Fancy's followers!

LYSANDER.
A good persuasion, therefore hear me, Hermia:
Steal forth thy Father's house to-morrow night,
And in the wood, a league without the town,
There will I stay for thee, there marry thee,
And fly from Athens and her rigorous laws.
Thou know'st the place, where I did meet thee once
To do observance to the morn of May.
AIR.

HERMIA.
My good Lysander,
I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow,
By his best arrow with the golden head,
By the simplicity of Venus' doves,
By that which knitteth souls, and prospers loves,
By all the vows that men have ever broke,
In number more than ever woman spoke,
Hermia to-morrow in the depth of night
Will meet Lysander, and attempt her flight.

SCENE IV.

Enter HELENA.
HERMIA.
Good speed, fair Helena, whither away?

HELENA.
Call you me fair? that fair again unsay,
Demetrius loves you,
AIR.

HERMIA.
I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.

HELENA.
Oh that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!

HERMIA.
Take comfort; he no more shall see my face,
Lysander and myself will fly this place.
AIR.

LYSANDER.
Helen, to you our minds we will unfold;
To-morrow night, when Phœbe doth behold
Her silver visage in the wat'ry glass,
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,
(A time that lovers flights doth still conceal)
Through Athens' gate have we devis'd to steal.

HERMIA.
And in the wood, where often you and I
Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lie,
Emptying our bosoms of their counsels sweet;
There my Lysander and myself shall meet,
And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,
To seek new friends and strange companions.
Farewel, sweet play-fellow.

LYSANDER.
Helen adieu,
As you on him, Demetrius doat on you.

[Exeunt Lys. and Her.

SCENE V.

HELENA.
I'll tell Demetrius of fair Hermia's flight;
Then to the wood will he to-morrow night
Pursue her; I'll at distance steal behind,
His fight alone will ease my tortur'd mind.
How happy some o'er other some can be?
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that, Demetrius thinks not so.
AIR.

SCENE VI.

Changes to a Forest.
Enter a FAIRY at one Door, and PUCK at another.
PUCK.
How now, Spirit, whither wander you?

FAIRY.
Over hill, over dale,
Through bush, through briar,
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.

PUCK.
I must go seek some dew-drops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
AIR.
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, and he would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild.
But make room, Fairy, here comes Oberon.

FAIRY.
And here my mistress; would that we were gone.

SCENE VII.

Enter Oberon and his Train at one door. Queen and her Train at another.
OBERON.
Ill met by moon-light, proud Titania.

QUEEN.
What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence,
I have forsworn his bed and company.

OBERON.
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy.

QUEEN.
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;
But she being mortal, of that boy did die,
And for her sake I do rear up her child,
And for her sake I will not part with him.

OBERON.
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.

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

QUEEN.
Not for thy Fairy kingdom. Elves away.
AIR.
[Exeunt Queen and train.

OBERON.
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
I shew'd thee once a flow'r, fetch me that herb.
The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid,
Will make a man or woman madly doat
Upon the next live creature that it sees.

PUCK.
I'll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes.
[Exit Puck.

OBERON.
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,
She shall pursue it with the soul of love;
And ere I take this charm from off her sight
(As I can take it with another herb)
I'll make her render up her page to me.
AIR.

[Exit.