That fright the maidens of the villagery; Skim milk; and sometimes labor in the quern,1 And bootless make the breathless housewife churn; And sometime make the drink to bear no barm; 2 Mislead 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? Puck. Thou speak'st aright; And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl, 4 3 And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob, And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe But room, fairy: here comes Oberon. 1 Hand-mill. 4 A lip flaccid with age. 2 Yeast. 3 Wild apple. 5 He that slips beside his chair falls as a tailor squats on his board hence the custom of crying 'tailor' at a sudden fall backwards. 6 Increase. Fai. And here my mistress.-Would that he were gone! SCENE II. Enter OBERON, at one door, with his train, ana Obe. Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. Tit. What, jealous Oberon? Fairy, skip hence. I have forsworn his bed and company. Obe. Tarry, rash wanton. Am not I thy lord? Tit. Then I must be thy lady: but I know 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 night From Perigenia, whom he ravished? And make him with fair Ægle break his faith, With Ariadne, and Antiopa? Tit. These are the forgeries of jealousy: And never, since the middle summer's spring,1 By paved fountain, or by rushy brook, To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind, The human mortals want their winter here; 5 The beginning of the middle summer, or Midsummer. 2 Petty. 3 Banks that contain them. A game played by shepherds in the midland counties of England. 5 Those sports with which country people are accustomed to beguile a winter's evening.'-Malone. And, thorough this distemperature,1 we see Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer. 2 Their wonted liveries; and the 'mazed world. From our debate, from our dissension : 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.4 Set your heart at rest: Tit. The fairy land buys not the child of me. His mother was a votaress 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) 1 'Perturbation of the elements.'-Steevens. 2 Teeming. 3 Produce. 4 Page of honor. |