Act 2, page 0

Table of Contents

ACT 2 SCENE 1. Setting: A wood near Athens

Enter a FAIRY at One door, and PUCK at another

PUCK	How now, spirit! whither wander you?
FAIRY	Over hill, over dale,
	Thorough bush, thorough brier,
	Over park, over pale,
	Thorough flood, thorough 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.
	The cowslips tall her pensioners be;	10
	In their gold coats spots you see;
	Those be rubies, fairy favours,
	In those freckles live their savours.
	I must go seek some dewdrops here,
	And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
	Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone.
	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 Oberon is passing fell and wrath,	20
	Because that she as her attendant hath
	A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king.
	She never had so sweet a changeling;
	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 starlight sheen,
	But they do square, that all their elves for fear	30
	Creep into acorn cups and hide them there.
FAIRY	Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
	Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
	Call'd Robin Goodfellow. Are not you he
	That frights the maidens of the villagery,
	Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern,
	And bootless make the breathless housewife churn,
	And sometime make the drink to bear no barm,
	Mislead night–wanderers, laughing at their harm?
	Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,	40
	You do their work, and they shall have good luck.
	Are not you he?
PUCK	Thou speakest aright:
	I am that merry wanderer of the night.
	I jest to Oberon, and make him smile
	When I a fat and bean–fed horse beguile,
	Neighing in likeness of a filly foal;
	And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl
	In very likeness of a roasted crab,
	And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob,
	And on her withered dewlap pour the ale.	50
	The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
	Sometime for three–foot stool mistaketh me;
	Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
	And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;
	And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
	And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear
	A merrier hour was never wasted there.
	But room, fairy, here comes Oberon.
FAIRY	And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!

Enter OBERON at one door, with his TRAIN, and TITANIA, at another, with hers

OBERON	Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.	60
TITANIA	What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence;
	I have forsworn his bed and company.
OBERON	Tarry, rash wanton; am not I thy lord?
TITANIA	Then I must be thy lady; but I know
	When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,
	And in the shape of Corin sat all day,
	Playing on pipes of corn, and versing love
	To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,
	Come from the farthest steep of India,
	But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,	70
	Your buskin'd 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 with Hippolyta,
	Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
	Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night
	From Perigouna, whom he ravished?
	And make him with fair Aegles break his faith,
	With Ariadne and Antiopa?	80
TITANIA	These are the forgeries of jealousy;
	And never, since the middle summer's spring,
	Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead,
	By paved fountain, or by rushy brook,
	Or in the beached margent of the sea,
	To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
	But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.
	Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
	As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea
	Contagious fogs; which, falling in the land,	90
	Hath every pelting river made so proud
	That they have overborne their continents.
	The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,
	The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
	Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard;
	The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
	And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;
	The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud,
	And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
	For lack of tread, are undistinguishable.	100
	The human mortals want their winter here;
	No night is now with hymn or carol blest;
	Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
	Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
	That rheumatic diseases do abound.
	And thorough this distemperature we see
	The seasons alter: hoary–headed frosts
	Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose;
	And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown
	An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds	110
	Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,
	The childing autumn, angry winter, change
	Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world,
	By their increase, now knows not which is which.
	And this same progeny of evils comes
	From our debate, from our dissension;
	We are their parents and original.
OBERON	Do you amend it, then; it lies in you.
	Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
	I do but beg a little changeling boy	120
	To be my henchman.
TITANIA	Set your heart at rest;
	The 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,
	Marking th' embarked traders on the flood;
	When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive,
	And grow big–bellied with the wanton wind;
	Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait	130
	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 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 till after Theseus' wedding–day.
	If you will patiently dance in our round,	140
	And see our moonlight 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.
TITANIA	Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away!
	We shall chide downright if I longer stay.

Exit TITANIA with her 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 rememb'rest
	Since once I sat upon a promontory,
	And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back	150
	Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
	That the rude sea grew civil at her song,
	And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
	To hear the sea–maid's music.
PUCK	I remember.
OBERON	That very time I saw, but thou couldst 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,
	And loos'd his love–shaft smartly from his bow,
	As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;	160
	But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
	Quench'd in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon;
	And the imperial vot'ress passed on,
	In maiden meditation, fancy–free.
	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 flow'r, the herb I showed thee once.
	The juice of it on sleeping eye–lids laid	170
	Will make or 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 can swim a league.
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 then she waking looks upon,
	Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,	180
	On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,
	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.
	But who comes here? I am invisible;
	And I will overhear their conference.

Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA following him

	DEMETRIUS. I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
	Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?
	The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.	190
	Thou told'st me they were stol'n unto this wood,
	And here am I, and wood within this wood,
	Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
	Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
HELENA	You draw me, you hard–hearted adamant;
	But yet you draw not iron, for my heart
	Is true as steel. Leave you your power to draw,
	And I shall have no power to follow you.
	DEMETRIUS. Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair?
	Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth	200
	Tell you I do not nor I cannot love you?
	HELENA. And even for that do I love you the more.
	I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,
	The more you beat me, I will fawn on you.
	Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
	Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
	Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
	What worser place can I beg in your love,
	And yet a place of high respect with me,
	Than to be used as you use your dog?	210
DEMETRIUS	Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;
	For I am sick when I do look on thee.
HELENA	And I am sick when I look not on you.
DEMETRIUS	You do impeach your modesty too much
	To leave the city and commit yourself
	Into the hands of one that loves you not;
	To trust the opportunity of night,
	And the ill counsel of a desert place,
	With the rich worth of your virginity.
HELENA	Your virtue is my privilege for that:	220
	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?
DEMETRIUS	I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,
	And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.
HELENA	The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
	Run when you will; the story shall be chang'd:	230
	Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
	The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
	Makes speed to catch the tiger– bootless speed,