375Rob. How now spirit, whether wander you?

376Fai. Ouer hil, ouer dale, through bush, through briar,

377Ouer parke, ouer pale, through flood, through fire,

378I do wander euerie where, swifter then y^e Moons sphere;

379And I serue the Fairy Queene, to dew her orbs vpon the (green.

380The Cowslips tall, her pensioners bee,

381In their gold coats, spots you see,

382Those be Rubies, Fairie fauors,

383In those freckles, liue their sauors,

384I must go seeke some dew drops heere,

385And hang a pearle in euery cowslips eare.

386Farewell thou Lob of spirits, Ile be gon,

387Our Queene and all her Elues come heere anon.

388Rob. The King doth keepe his Reuels here to night,

389Take heed the Queene come not within his sight,

390For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,

391Because that she, as her attendant, hath

392A louely boy stolne from an Indian King,

393She neuer had so sweet a changeling,

394And iealous Oberon would haue the childe

395Knight of his traine, to trace the Forrests wilde.

396But she (perforce) with-holds the loued boy,

397Crownes him with flowers, and makes him all her ioy.

398And now they neuer meete in groue, or greene,

399By fountaine cleere, or spangled star-light sheene,

400But they do square, that all their Elues for feare

401Creepe into Acorne cups and hide them there.

402Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quite,

403Or else you are that shrew'd and knauish spirit

404Cal'd Robin Good-fellow. Are you not hee,

405That frights the maidens of the Villagree,

406Skim milke, and sometimes labour in the querne,

407And bootlesse make the breathlesse huswife cherne,

408And sometime make the drinke to beare no barme,

409Misleade night-wanderers, laughing at their harme,

410Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Pucke,

411You do their worke, and they shall haue good lucke.

412Are not you he?

413Rob. Thou speak'st aright;

414I am that merrie wanderer of the night:

415I iest to Oberon, and make him smile,

416When I a fat and beane-fed horse beguile,

417Neighing in likenesse of a silly foale,

418And sometime lurke I in a Gossips bole,

419In very likenesse of a roasted crab:

420And when she drinkes, against her lips I bob,

421And on her withered dewlop poure the Ale.

422The wisest Aunt telling the saddest tale,

423Sometime for three-foot stoole, mistaketh me,

424Then slip I from her bum, downe topples she,

425And tailour cries, and fals into a coffe.

426And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe,

427And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and sweare,

428A merrier houre vvas neuer wasted there.

429But roome Fairy, heere comes Oberon.

430Fair. And heere my Mistris:

431Would that he vvere gone.

434Ob. Ill met by Moone-light.

435Proud Tytania.

436Qu. What, iealous Oberon? Fairy skip hence.

437I haue forsworne his bed and companie.

438Ob. Tarrie rash Wanton; am not I thy Lord?

439Qu. Then I must be thy Lady: but I know

440When thou vvast stolne away from Fairy Land,

441And in the shape of Corin, sate all day,

442Playing on pipes of Corne, and versing loue

443To amorous Phillida. Why art thou heere

444Come from the farthest steepe of India?

445But that forsooth the bouncing Amazon

446Your buskin'd Mistresse, and your Warrior loue,

447To Theseus must be Wedded; and you come,

448To giue their bed ioy and prosperitie.

449Ob. How canst thou thus for shame Tytania,

450Glance at my credite, vvith Hippolita?

451Knowing I knovv thy loue to Theseus?

452Didst thou not leade him through the glimmering night

453From Peregenia, whom he rauished?

454And make him vvith faire Eagles breake his faith

455With Ariadne, and Atiopa?

456Que. These are the forgeries of iealousie,

457And neuer since the middle Summers spring

458Met vve on hil, in dale, forrest, or mead,

459By paued fountaine, or by rushie brooke,

460Or in the beached margent of the sea,

461To dance our ringlets to the whistling Winde,

462But vvith thy braules thou hast disturb'd our sport.

463Therefore the Windes, piping to vs in vaine,

464As in reuenge, haue suck'd vp from the sea

465Contagious fogges: Which falling in the Land,

466Hath euerie petty Riuer made so proud,

467That they haue ouer-borne their Continents.

468The Oxe hath therefore stretch'd his yoake in vaine,

469The Ploughman lost his sweat, and the greene Corne

470Hath rotted, ere his youth attain'd a beard:

471The fold stands empty in the drowned field,

472And Crowes are fatted vvith the murrion flocke,

473The nine mens Morris is fild vp with mud,

474And the queint Mazes in the wanton greene,

475For lacke of tread are vndistinguishable.

476The humane mortals want their winter heere,

477No night is now with hymne or caroll blest;

478Therefore the Moone (the gouernesse of floods)

479Pale in her anger, washes all the aire;

480That Rheumaticke diseases doe abound.

481And through this distemperature, we see

482The seasons alter; hoared headed frosts

483Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson Rose,

484And on old Hyems chinne and Icie crowne,

485An odorous Chaplet of sweet Sommer buds

486Is as in mockry set. The Spring, the Sommer,

487The childing Autumne, angry Winter change

488Their wonted Liueries, and the mazed world,

489By their increase, now knowes not which is which;

490And this same progeny of euills,

491Comes from our debate, from our dissention,

492We are their parents and originall.

493Ober. Do you amend it then, it lies in you,

494Why should Titania crosse her Oberon?

495I do but beg a little changeling boy,

496To be my Henchman.

497Qu. Set your heart at rest,

498The Fairy land buyes not the childe of me,

499His mother was a Votresse of my Order,

500And in the spiced Indian aire, by night

501Full often hath she gossipt by my side,

502And sat with me on Neptunes yellow sands,

503Marking th'embarked traders on the flood,

504When we haue laught to see the sailes conceiue,

505And grow big bellied with the wanton winde:

506Which she with pretty and with swimming gate,

507Following (her wombe then rich with my yong squire)

508Would imitate, and saile vpon the Land,

509To fetch me trifles, and returne againe,

510As from a voyage, rich with merchandize.

511But she being mortall, of that boy did die,

512And for her sake I doe reare vp her boy,

513And for her sake I will not part with him.

514Ob. How long within this wood intend you stay?

515Qu. Perchance till after Theseus wedding day.

516If you will patiently dance in our Round,

517And see our Moone-light reuels, goe with vs;

518If not, shun me and I will spare your haunts.

519Ob. Giue me that boy, and I will goe with thee.

520Qu. Not for thy Fairy Kingdome. Fairies away:

521We shall chide downe right, if I longer stay. Exeunt.

522Ob. Wel, go thy way: thou shalt not from this groue,

523Till I torment thee for this iniury.

524My gentle Pucke come hither; thou remembrest

525Since once I sat vpon a promontory,

526And heard a Meare-maide on a Dolphins backe,

527Vttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,

528That the rude sea grew ciuill at her song,

529And certaine starres shot madly from their Spheares,

530To heare the Sea-maids musicke.

531Puc. I remember.

532Ob. That very time I say (but thou couldst not)

533Flying betweene the cold Moone and the earth,

534Cupid all arm'd; a certaine aime he tooke

535At a faire Vestall, throned by the West,

536And loos'd his loue-shaft smartly from his bow,

537As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts,

538But I might see young Cupids fiery shaft

539Quencht in the chaste beames of the watry Moone;

540And the imperiall Votresse passed on,

541In maiden meditation, fancy free.

542Yet markt I where the bolt of Cupid fell.

543It fell vpon a little westerne flower;

544Before, milke-white; now purple with loues wound,

545And maidens call it, Loue in idlenesse.

546Fetch me that flower; the hearb I shew'd thee once,

547The iuyce of it, on sleeping eye-lids laid,

548Will make or man or woman madly dote

549Vpon the next liue creature that it sees.

550Fetch me this hearbe, and be thou heere againe,

551Ere the Leuiathan can swim a league.

552Pucke. Ile put a girdle about the earth, in forty mi-

553nutes.

554Ober. Hauing once this iuyce,

555Ile watch Titania, when she is asleepe,

556And drop the liquor of it in her eyes:

557The next thing when she waking lookes vpon,

558(Be it on Lyon, Beare, or Wolfe, or Bull,

559On medling Monkey, or on busie Ape)

560Shee shall pursue it, with the soule of loue.

561And ere I take this charme off from her sight,

562(As I can take it with another hearbe)

563Ile make her render vp her Page to me.

564But who comes heere? I am inuisible,

565And I will ouer-heare their conference.

567Deme. I loue thee not, therefore pursue me not,

568Where is Lysander, and faire Hermia?

569The one Ile stay, the other stayeth me.

570Thou toldst me they were stolne into this wood;

571And heere am I, and wood within this wood,

572Because I cannot meet my Hermia.

573Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.

574Hel. You draw me, you hard-hearted Adamant,

575But yet you draw not Iron, for my heart

576Is true as steele. Leaue you your power to draw,

577And I shall haue no power to follow you.

578Deme. Do I entice you? do I speake you faire?

579Or rather doe I not in plainest truth,

580Tell you I doe not, nor I cannot loue you?

581Hel. And euen for that doe I loue thee the more;

582I am your spaniell, and Demetrius,

583The more you beat me, I will fawne on you.

584Vse me but as your spaniell; spurne me, strike me,

585Neglect me, lose me; onely giue me leaue

586(Vnworthy as I am) to follow you.

587What worser place can I beg in your loue,

588(And yet a place of high respect with me)

589Then to be vsed as you doe your dogge.

590Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit,

591For I am sicke when I do looke on thee.

592Hel. And I am sicke when I looke not on you.

593Dem. You doe impeach your modesty too much,

594To leaue the Citty, and commit your selfe

595Into the hands of one that loues you not,

596To trust the opportunity of night,

597And the ill counsell of a desert place,

598With the rich worth of your virginity.

599Hel. Your vertue is my priuiledge: for that

600It is not night when I doe see your face.

601Therefore I thinke I am not in the night,

602Nor doth this wood lacke worlds of company,

N3 For

603For you in my respect are nll the world.

604Then how can it be said I am alone,

605When all the world is heere to looke on me?

606Dem. Ile run from thee, and hide me in the brakes,

607And leaue thee to the mercy of wilde beasts.

608Hel. The wildest hath not such a heart as you;

609Runne when you will, the story shall be chang'd:

610Apollo flies and Daphne holds the chase;

611The Doue pursues the Griffin, the milde Hinde

612Makes speed to catch the Tyger. Bootlesse speede,

613When cowardise pursues, and valour flies.

614Demet. I will not stay thy questions, let me go;

615Or if thou follow me, doe not beleeue,

616But I shall doe thee mischiefe in the wood.

617Hel. I, in the Temple, in the Towne, and Field

618You doe me mischiefe. Fye Demetrius,

619Your wrongs doe set a scandall on my sexe:

620We cannot fight for loue, as men may doe;

621We should be woo'd, and were not made to wooe.

622I follow thee, and make a heauen of hell,

623To die vpon the hand I loue so well. Exit.

624Ob. Fare thee well Nymph, ere he do leaue this groue,

625Thou shalt flie him, and he shall seeke thy loue.

626Hast thou the flower there? Welcome wanderer.

628Puck. I, there it is.

629Ob. I pray thee giue it me.

630I know a banke where the wilde time blowes,

631Where Oxslips and the nodding Violet growes,

632Quite ouer-cannoped with luscious woodbine,

633With sweet muske roses, and with Eglantine;

634There sleepes Tytania, sometime of the night,

635Lul'd in these flowers, with dances and delight:

636And there the snake throwes her enammel'd skinne,

637Weed wide enough to rap a Fairy in.

638And with the iuyce of this Ile streake her eyes,

639And make her full of hatefull fantasies.

640Take thou some of it, and seek through this groue;

641A sweet Athenian Lady is in loue

642With a disdainefull youth: annoint his eyes,

643But doe it when the next thing he espies,

644May be the Lady. Thou shalt know the man,

645By the Athenian garments he hath on.

646Effect it with some care, that he may proue

647More fond on her, then she vpon her loue;

648And looke thou meet me ere the first Cocke crow.

649Pu. Feare not my Lord, your seruant shall do so. Exit.