Puck. The king doth keep his revels here tonight;

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, stol'n 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 star-light sheen,3
But they do square; that all their elves, for fear,
Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there.

4

Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quite,

Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite,
Call'd Robin Good-fellow: are you not he,
That fright 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,7
You do their work, and they shall have good
luck:

Are not you he?

3

sheen,] Shining, bright, gay. JOHNSON.

* But they do square;] To square here is to quarrel.

5

6

2

in the quern,] Quern is a hand-mill: kuerna, mola.
no barm;] Barme is a name for yeast.

sweet Puck,] The epithet is by no means superfluous; as Puck alone was far from being an endearing appellation. It signified nothing better than fiend, or devil. It seems that in the fairy mythology, Puck, or Hobgoblin, was the trusty servant of Oberon, and always employed to watch or detect the intrigues of Queen Mab, called by Shakspeare, Titania.

Puck.

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 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;8
And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob,
And on her wither'd dew-lap 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 tailor cries, and falls into a cough;

And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe;
And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear
A merrier hour was never wasted there.-

But room, Faery, here comes Oberon.

Fai. And here my mistress:-'Would that he were gone!

SCENE II.

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

Obe. Il met by moon-light, proud Titania. Tita. What, jealous Oberon? Fairy, skip hence; I have forsworn his bed and company.

8

Obe. Tarry, rash wanton; Am not I thy lord? Tita. Then I must be thy lady: But I know

a roasted crab;] i. e. a wild apple of that name.

He that

9 And tailor cries,] The custom of crying tailor at a sudden fall backwards, I think I remember to have observed. slips beside his chair, falls as a tailor squats upon his board.

hold their hips, and loffe;] i. e. laugh.

2 And waxen -] And encrease, as the moon wares.

JOHNSON.

When thou hast stol'n 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,
Your buskin'd mistress, and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded; and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.

Obe. How canst thou thus, for shame, Titania, Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,

Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?

Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night3

From Perigenia, whom he ravished?

And make him with fair Æglé break his faith,
With Ariadne, and Antiopa?

Tita. 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 on 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,
Have every pelting river made so proud,
That they have overborne their continents :"

3

stars.

5

the glimmering night-] the night faintly illuminated by

* And never, since the middle summer's spring, &c.] The middle summer's spring, is, I apprehend, the season when trees put forth their second, or, as they are frequently called, their midsummer shoots. HENLEY.

5

-pelting-] This word is always used as a word of contempt. 6 overborne their continents:] Borne down the banks that contain them.

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 murrain flock;"
The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud;8
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,"
For lack of tread, are undistinguishable:
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 rheumatick diseases do abound:2
And thorough this distemperature, we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose;
And on old Hyems' chin, and icy crown,
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds

7

murrain flock;] The murrain is the plague in cattle. 8 The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud;] Nine men's morris is a game still played by the shepherds, cowkeepers, &c. in the midland counties, as follows:

A figure is made on the ground by cutting out the turf; and two persons take each nine stones, which they place by turns in the angles, and afterwards move alternately, as at chess or draughts. He who can place three in a straight line, may then take off any one of his adversary's, where he pleases, till one, having lost all his men, loses the game.

9

the quaint mazes in the wanton green,] This alludes to a sport still followed by boys; i. e. what is now called running the figure of eight. STEEVENS.

The human mortals-] Shakspeare might have employed this epithet, which, at first sight, appears redundant, to mark the difference between men and fairies. Fairies were not human, but they were yet subject to mortality.

2 That rheumatick diseases do abound:] Rheumatick diseases signified in Shakspeare's time, not what we now call rheumatism, but distillations from the head, catarrhs, &c.

3

this distemperature,] Is either this perturbation of the elements, or the perturbed state in which the king and queen had lived for some time past.

4

Is, as in mockery, set: The spring, the summer, The childing autumn, angry winter, change Their wonted liveries; and the 'mazed world,

5

By their increase, now knows not which is which:
And this same progeny of evils comes
From our debate, from our dissention;
We are their parents and original.

Obe. 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."

Tita.
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 the 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,
(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 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.
Obe. How long within this wood intend you stay?
Tita. Perchance, till after Theseus' wedding-day.

5

The childing autumn,] Is the pregnant autumn.

By their increase,] That is, By their produce.

6 henchman.] Page of honour. This office was abolished at court by Queen Elizabeth, but probably remained in the city. Henchmen were a certain number of youths, the sons of gentlemen, who stood or walked near the person of the monarch on all public occasions.