A Midsummer Night's Dream (6 page)

ROBIN
    How now, spirit, whither wander you?

FAIRY
    Over hill, over dale,

Through bush, through brier,

Over
park
, over
pale
⁴
,

Thorough
⁵
flood, thorough fire,

I do wander everywhere,

Swifter than the moon's
sphere
⁷
;

And I serve the fairy queen,

To dew her
orbs
⁹
upon the green.

The cowslips tall her
pensioners
¹⁰
be,

In their gold coats spots you see,

Those be rubies, fairy
favours
¹²
,

In those freckles live their
savours
¹³
.

I must go seek some dewdrops here,

And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.

Farewell, thou
lob
¹⁶
of spirits, I'll be gone:

Our queen and all her elves come here
anon
¹⁷
.

ROBIN
    The king doth keep his revels here tonight:

Take heed the queen come not within his sight,

For Oberon is
passing fell
and
wrath
²⁰
,

Because that she as her attendant hath

A lovely boy, stol'n from an Indian king.

She never had so sweet a
changeling
²³
,

And jealous Oberon would have the child

Knight of his train, to
trace
²⁵
the forests wild.

But she
perforce
²⁶
withholds the lovèd 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 starlight
sheen
²⁹
,

But they do
square
³⁰
, that all their elves for fear

Creep into acorn cups and hide them there.

FAIRY
    Either I mistake your shape and
making
quite
³²
,

Or else you are that
shrewd
³³
and knavish sprite

Called Robin Goodfellow. Are not you he

That frights the maidens of the
villagery
³⁵
,

Skim
milk, and sometimes labour in the
quern
³⁶
,

And
bootless
³⁷
make the breathless housewife churn,

And sometime make the drink to bear no
barm
³⁸
,

Mislead
³⁹
night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?

Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,

You do their work and they shall have good luck.

Are not you he?

ROBIN
    Thou speak'st aright;

I am that merry wanderer of the night.

I jest to Oberon and make him smile

When I a fat and
bean-fed
⁴⁶
horse beguile,

Neighing in likeness of a
filly
⁴⁷
foal,

And sometime lurk I in a
gossip's
bowl
⁴⁸
,

In very likeness of a roasted
crab
⁴⁹
,

And when she drinks, against her lips I bob

And on her withered
dewlap
⁵¹
pour the ale.

The wisest
aunt
⁵²
, telling the saddest tale,

Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me,

Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,

And
‘tailor'
⁵⁵
cries, and falls into a cough.

And then the whole
quire
⁵⁶
hold their hips and laugh,

And
waxen
in their mirth and
neeze
⁵⁷
and swear

A merrier hour was never
wasted
⁵⁸
there.

But,
room
, fairy! Here comes
Oberon
⁵⁹
.

FAIRY
    And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!

OBERON
    Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.

TITANIA
    What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence.

I have forsworn his bed and company.

OBERON
    
Tarry
, rash
wanton
, am not I thy
lord
⁶⁴
?

TITANIA
    Then I must be thy
lady
⁶⁵
: but I know

When thou hast stol'n away from fairy land,

And in the shape of
Corin
⁶⁷
sat all day,

Playing on pipes of
corn
and
versing
⁶⁸
love

To amorous
Phillida
⁶⁹
. Why art thou here,

Come from the farthest
step
⁷⁰
of India?

But that,
forsooth
, the
bouncing
⁷¹
Amazon,

Your
buskined
⁷²
mistress and your warrior love,

To Theseus must be wedded; and you come

To give their bed joy and prosperity?

OBERON
    How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,

Glance at
my
credit
⁷⁶
with Hippolyta,

Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?

Didst not thou lead him through the
glimmering
⁷⁸
night

From
Perigenia
whom he
ravishèd
?

And make him with fair
Aegles
⁸⁰
break his faith,

With
Ariadne
and
Antiopa
⁸¹
?

TITANIA
    These are the forgeries of jealousy,

And never since the
middle summer's spring
⁸³

Met we on hill, in dale, forest or
mead
⁸⁴
,

By
pavèd
fountain or by
rushy
⁸⁵
brook,

Or
in
the
beachèd
margent
⁸⁶
of the sea,

To dance our
ringlets
⁸⁷
to the whistling wind,

But with thy
brawls
thou hast disturbed our
sport
⁸⁸
.

Therefore the winds,
piping
⁸⁹
to us in vain,

As in revenge, have sucked up from the sea

Contagious
⁹¹
fogs, which falling in the land

Hath every
petty
river made so
proud
⁹²

That they have
overborne their continents
⁹³
.

The ox hath therefore
stretched
⁹⁴
his yoke in vain,

The ploughman
lost
⁹⁵
his sweat, and the green corn

Hath rotted
ere his youth attained a beard
⁹⁶
.

The
fold
⁹⁷
stands empty in the drownèd field,

And crows are fatted with the
murrion
⁹⁸
flock,

The
nine men's morris
⁹⁹
is filled up with mud,

And the
quaint
mazes
in the
wanton green
¹⁰⁰

For lack of tread are undistinguishable.

The human mortals
want their winter here
¹⁰²
:

No night is now with hymn or carol blessed.

Therefore
the moon, the governess of
floods
¹⁰⁴
,

Pale in her anger,
washes
¹⁰⁵
all the air,

That
rheumatic diseases
¹⁰⁶
do abound.

And through this
distemperature
¹⁰⁷
we see

The seasons alter;
hoary-headed
¹⁰⁸
frosts

Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,

And on old
Hiems'
¹¹⁰
thin and icy crown

An odorous
chaplet
¹¹¹
of sweet summer buds

Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,

The
childing
¹¹³
autumn, angry winter, change

Their
wonted
liveries, and the
mazèd
¹¹⁴
world

By their
increase
¹¹⁵
now knows not which is which;

And this same progeny of evils comes

From our
debate
, from our
dissension
¹¹⁷
:

We are their parents and
original
¹¹⁸
.

OBERON
    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
henchman
¹²²
.

TITANIA
    Set your heart at rest:

The fairy land buys not the child of me.

His mother was a
votress
¹²⁵
of my order,

And in the spicèd Indian air by night

Full
¹²⁷
often hath she gossiped by my side,

And sat with me on
Neptune's
¹²⁸
yellow sands,

Marking
th'embarkèd traders
on the
flood
¹²⁹
,

When we have laughed to see the sails conceive

And grow big-bellied with the
wanton
¹³¹
wind,

Which she, with pretty and with
swimming gait
¹³²

Following — her womb then rich with my young squire —

Would imitate, and sail upon the land,

To fetch me trifles, and return again

As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.

But she, being mortal,
of that boy
¹³⁷
did die:

And for her sake do I rear up her boy,

And for her sake I will not part with him.

OBERON
    How long within this wood intend you stay?

TITANIA
    
Perchance
¹⁴¹
till after Theseus' wedding day.

If you will
patiently
dance in our
round
¹⁴²

And see our moonlight revels, go with us;

If not, shun me, and I will
spare
¹⁴⁴
your haunts.

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

TITANIA
    Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away.

We shall
chide
downright
¹⁴⁷
, if I longer stay.

OBERON
    Well, go thy way: thou shalt not
from
¹⁴⁸
this grove

Till I torment thee for this injury.

My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememb'rest

Since
once I sat upon a
promontory
¹⁵¹
,

And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back

Uttering such
dulcet
and harmonious
breath
¹⁵³

That the
rude
¹⁵⁴
sea grew civil at her song,

And
certain
¹⁵⁵
stars shot madly from their spheres

To hear the sea-maid's music.

ROBIN
    I remember.

OBERON
    That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,

Flying between the cold moon and the earth,

Cupid
all
armed; a
certain
¹⁶⁰
aim he took

At a fair
vestal
¹⁶¹
thronèd by the west,

And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,

As
¹⁶³
it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts.

But I
might
¹⁶⁴
see young Cupid's fiery shaft

Quenched in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon;

And the imperial votress passèd on,

In maiden meditation,
fancy-free
¹⁶⁷
.

Yet marked I where the
bolt
¹⁶⁸
of Cupid fell.

It fell upon a little western flower,

Before milk-white, now
purple
¹⁷⁰
with love's wound,

And maidens call it
love-in-idleness
¹⁷¹
.

Fetch me that flower; the herb I showed thee once:

The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid

Will make
or
¹⁷⁴
man or woman madly dote

Upon the next live creature that it sees.

Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again

Ere the
leviathan
¹⁷⁷
can swim a league.

ROBIN
    I'll put a
girdle
¹⁷⁸
round about the earth

In forty minutes.

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 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 invisible,