But that, forfooth, the bouncing Amazon,
Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love,
To Thefeus must be wedded; and you come
To give their bed joy and profperity.

OB. How can'ft thou thus for fhame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolita ;

Knowing I know thy love to Thefeus?

Didft thou not lead him through the glimmering night

From Periguné, whom he ravished;

And make him with fair Ægle break his faith,

With Ariadne, and Antiopa?

QUEEN. Thefe are the forgeries of jealoufie:
And never fince the middle summer's spring
Met we on hill, in dale, foreft, 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 haft difturb'd our sport,
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge, have fuck'd up from the fea
Contagious fogs; which falling in the land,
Have every pelting river made so proud,
That they have over-borne their continents.
The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,
The ploughman loft'his fweat; and the green cora
Hath rotted, ere his youth attain'd a beard.
The fold ftands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock;
The nine-mens morris is filled up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread are undiftinguishable.
The human mortals want their winter here:

No night is now with hymn or carol bleft;
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air;
That rheumatick difeafes do abound.
And thorough this diftemperature, we see
The feafons
ns alter; hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rofe;
And on old Hyems' chin, and icy crown,
An od❜rous chaplet of sweet summer-buds

1.

Is, as in mockery, fet. The fpring, the fummer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries, and th' amazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which;
And this fame progeny of evil comes

QUEEN. Set your heart at rest, The fairy-land buys not the child of me. His mother was a votrefs of my order, And, in the spiced Indian air by night, Full often the hath goffipt by my fide; And fat with me on Neptune's yellow fands, Marking th' embarked traders on the flood. When we have laugh'd to see the fails conceive, And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind: Which the, with pretty and with fwimming gate, Following (her womb then rich with my young squire) Would imitate; and fail upon the land,

To fetch me trifles, and return again,"

rear

As from a voyage rich with merchandize.
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;
And, for her fake, I do up her boy;
And, for her fake, I will not part with him.
in this wood intend you ftay?
OB. How long within

QUEEN. Perchance, 'till after Thefeus, wedding-day.
If you will patiently dance in our round,

And see our moon-light revels, go with us;
If not, fhun me, and I will spare your haunts.oma
OB. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.
QUEEN. Not for thy fairy kingdom. Elves, away:
We fhall chided th
down-right, if I longer stay.

[Exeunt queen and her train. OB. Well, go thy way; thou shalt not from this grove,

1 ༄།།

"Till I torment thee for this injury.

My gentle Puck, come hither, thou remember'ft

Since once I fat upon a promontory,

And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back,
Uttering fuch dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude fea grew civil at her fong;
And certain stars fhot madly from their spheres,
To hear the fea-maid's mufick.

PUCK. I remember.

Ob. That very time I faw, but thou could'st not,
Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
Cupid all-arm'd a certain aim he took
At a fair veital, throned by the west,

And loos'd his love-fhaft smartly from his bow,
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;
But I might fee young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quench'd in the chafte beams of the wat❜ry moon,

And the imperial votress 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 fhew'd thee once;
The juice of it on fleeping eye-lids laid,
Will make or man, or woman, madly doat
Upon the next live creature that it fees.
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.

OB. Having once this juice,

I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,
And drop the liquor of it in her eyes:
The next thing that the waking looks upon,
Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
On medling monkey, or on busy ape,
She shall pursue it with the foul of love :
And ere I take this charm off from her fight,
(As I can take it with an another herb)
I'll make her render up her page to me.
But who comes here? I am invisible,
And I will over-hear their conference.

Enter Demetrius, Helena following him.

DEM. I love thee not, therefore purfue me not.

Where is Lyfander, and fair Hermia ?

[Exit.

The one I'll slay; the other flayeth me.

Thou told'ft me, they were ftol'n into this wood;
And here am I, and wood within this wood;

Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
HEY SUITES we 1,911d
Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
HEL. You draw me, you
hard-hearted adamant,

heart

antow 10

But yet you draw not iron; for my bears trosit
Is true as steel. Leave you your pow'r to draw,
And I fhall have no pow'er to fol
follow you.
DEM. Do I entice you? do I fpeat AKI,
Or rather do I not in plainest truth

Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot,

you fair?

love you

HEL. And ev'n for that do I love thee the more;
I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
Use me but as your fpaniel, fpurn me, ftrike me,
Neglect me, lofe me, only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
What worfer place can I beg in your love,
And yet a place of high refpect with me,
Than to be used, as you use your dog?

DEM. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit; For I am fick, when I look on you.

HEL. And I am fick, when I look not on you

DEM. You do impeach your modefty 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 defart place,
With the rich worth of your virginity..,

HEL. Your virtue is my privilege. For that

It is not night when I do fee your face,