SCENE II.

Enter Oberon King of Fairies at one door with his
train, and the Queen at another with hers.

Ob. Ill met by moon-light, proud Titania.
Queen. What, jealous Oberon? fairy, skip hence,
I have forsworn his bed and company.

Ob. Tarry rafh wanton, am not I thy lord?
Queen. Then I must be thy lady; but I know
When thou wast stoll'n away from fairy land,
And in the shape of Corin fate all day,
Playing on pipes of corn, and versing love
To am'rous Phillida. Why art thou here,
Come from the farthest steep of India?
But that forfooth 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 profperity.

Ob. How can'st thou thus for shame, Titania,

Glance at my credit with Hippolita,
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
Didft thou not lead him through the glimmering night
From Perigune, whom he ravished,
And make him with fair Ægle break his faith,
With Ariadne, and Antiopa?

Queen. These are the forgeries of jealoufie:
And never fince the middle fummer'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 fea,
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 fuck'd up from the fea
Contagious fogs; which falling in the land,
Have every pelting river made so proud,
That they have over-boru their continents,

Perigenia. Vid. Plut. vit. Thessi.

The

The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoak in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted, ere its youth attain'd a beard.
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;
The nine-mens morris is fill'd up with mud,
And the queint 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 bleft;
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods....
Pale in her anger, washes all the air;
That rheumatick diseases do abound.
And thorough this distemperature, we fee
The seasons alter; hoary-headed frofts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimfon rose;
And on old Hyem's chin and icy crown
An od'rous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is as in mockery set. The spring, the fummer,
The chiding 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
From our debate, from our diffention,
We are their parents and original.

Ob. Do you amend it then, it lyes in you..
Why should Titania cross her Oberon ?
I do but beg a little changeling boy,
To be my † henchman,

Queen. Set your heart at rest,
The fairy-land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votress of my order,
And in the spiced Indian air by night.
Full often she hath goffipt by my fide;
And fat with me on Neptune's yellow. fands,
Marking th' embarked traders of the flood,
When we have laught to fee the fails conceive,
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind:
Which the with pretty and with swimming gate

† Or Usher,

Following

Following (her womb then rich with my young squire)
Would imitate, and fail upon the land,
To fetch me trifles, and return again,
As from a voyage age rich with merchandize.
But she being mortal, of that boy did die,
And for her fake I do rear up her boy,
And for her fake I will not part with him.

Ob. How long within this wood intend you stay?
Queen. Perchance 'till after Theseus' wedding-day.
If you will patiently dance in our round,
And fee our moon-light revels, go with us;
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.
Ob. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.
Queen. Not for thy fairy kingdom. Elves away:
We shall chide downright, if I longer stay. [Exeunt.
Ob. Well, go thy way; thou shalt not from this

grove,

'Till I torment thee for this injury-
My gentle Puck come hither; thou remember'st
Since once I fat upon a promontory,
And heard a Mermaid on a Dolphin's back
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her fong,
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear the fea-maid's musick,

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 † Vestal, throned by the west,
And loos'd his love-shaft 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,

:

† A compliment to Queen Elizabeth,

And

And maidens call it, love in idleness.
Fetch me that flow'r; the herb I shew'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 which the waking looks upon,
(Be it on lyon, bear, or wolf, or bull,
Or medling monkey, or on busie 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 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.

SCENE III.

Enter Demetrius, Helena following him.

[Exit.

Dem. I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
Where is Lyfander, and fair Hermia?
The one I'll stay, the other stayeth me.
Thou told'ft me they were stol'n into 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.

Hel. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant,
But yet you draw not iron; for my heart
Is true as steel. Leave you your pow'r to draw,
And I shall have no pow'r to follow you.

Dem. Do 1 entice you? do I speak you fair?
Or rather do I not in plainest truth
Tell you I do not and I cannot love you?

† wood, or mad, wild, raving,

Ho

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 spaniel, spurn me, strike me, Neglect me, lose 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 respect with me) Than to be used as you use your dog?

Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my fpirit For I am fick when I do look on thee.

Hel. And I am fick when I look not on you.
Dem. You do impeach your modesty too much,
To leave the city and commit your felf
Into the hands of one that loves you not,
To truft the opportunity of night,
And the ill counsel of a desart 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,
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 faid I am alone,
When all the world is here to look on me?

Dem. I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes, And leave thee to the mercy of wild beafts.

Hel. The wildest hath not such a heart as you;
Run when you will, the story shall be chang'd:
Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chafe;
The dove pursues the griffin, the mild hind
Makes speed to catch the tyger. Bootless speed!
When cowardise pursues, and valour flies.

Dem. I will not stay thy questions; let me go:
Or if you follow me, do not believe
But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.

Hel. Ay, in the temple, in the town and field

You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius,
Your wrongs do fet a scandal on my fex:

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