I do wander every where,
Swifter than the moones sphere;
And I ferve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green :
The cowflips tall her penfioners be;
In their gold coats fpots you fee;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,

In those freckles live their favours :
I must go feek fome dew-drops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowflip's ear.
Farewel, thou lob of fpirits, 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 fight.
For Oberon is paffing fell and wrath,
Because that she, as her attendant, hath
A lovely boy, ftol'n from an Indian king;
She never had fo fweet a changeling:
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild:
But fhe, 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 fpangled ftar-light fheen,
But they do fquare; that all their elves, for fear,
Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there.

Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quite, Or elfe you are that fhrewd and knavish fprite, Call'd Robin Good-fellow: are you not he, That fright the maidens of the villagery; Skim milk; and fometimes labour in the quern, And bootlefs make the breathlefs housewife churn; And fometime make the drink to bear no barm; Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?

B 2

Thofe

t

Thofe that Hobgoblin call you, and fweet Puck, You do their work, and they shall have good luck: Are not you he?

Puck. Thou fpeak'ft 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 fometime lurk I in a goflip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roafted crab;
And, when the drinks, against her lips I bob,
And on her wither'd dew-lap pour the ale.
The wifeft aunt, telling the faddeft tale,
Sometime for three-foot ftool mistaketh me;
Then flip 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 fwear
A merrier hour was never wafted there.—

But room, Faery, here comes Oberon.

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

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

Ob. Il met by moon-light, proud Titania.

Tita. What, jealous Oberon? Fairy, skip hence; I have forfworn his bed and company.

Ob. Tarry, rash wanton; Am not I thy lord? Tita. Then I must be thy lady: But I know When thou haft ftol'n away from fairy land, And in the shape of Corin fate all day, Playing on pipes of corn, and verfing love To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,

Come

Come from the fartheft fteep of India?
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 canft 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 Perigenia, whom he ravished?

And make him with fair Ægle break his faith,

With Ariadne, and Antiopa?

Tita. These are the forgeries of jealoufy: And never, fince the middle fummer's fpring, Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead, By paved fountain, or by rufhy brook, Or on the beached margent of the fea, To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind, But with thy brawls thou haft 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 overborne their continents: The ox hath therefore ftretch'd his yoke in vain, The ploughman loft his fweat; and the green corn 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-men's morris is fill'd 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 blest :Therefore

B 3

Therefore the moon, the governefs of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic difeafes do abound:
And, thorough this deftemperature, we fee
The feafons alter: hoary-headed frofts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson-rose;
And on old Hyems' chin, and icy crown,
An odorous chaplet of fweet fummer buds
Is, as in mockery, fet: The fpring, the fummer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries, and the 'mazed world,
By their increafe, now knows not which is which:
And this fame progeny of evils comes

From our debate, from our diffention;
We are their parents and original.

Ob. Do you amend it then; it lies in you:
Why fhould Titania crofs her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy,
To be my henchman.

Tita. Set your heart at reft,

The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a vot'refs of my order:
And, in the fpiced Indian air, by night,
Full often hath the goffipp'd by my fide;
And fat with me on Neptune's yellow fands,
Marking the 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 gait
(Following her womb then rich with my young'fquire),
Would imitate; and fail upon the land,

To fetch me trifles, and return again,
As from a voyage, rich with merchandize.
But fhe, being mortal, of that boy did die;

And,

And, for her fake, do I rear up her boy:

And, for her fake, I will not part with him.

If

Ob. How long within this wood intend you stay? Tita. Perchance, 'till after Thefeus wedding-day. you will patiently dance in our round, And fee our moon-light revels, go with us; If not, fhun me, and I will fpare your haunts. Ob. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee. Tita. Not for thy fairy kingdom.-Fairies, away: We fhall chide downright, if I longer ftay.

[Exeunt TITA. and her Train. Ob. Well, go thyway: thou shalt not from this grove, 'Till I torment thee for this injury.

My gentle Puck, come hither: Thou remember'it
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 ftars fhot madly from their spheres,
To hear the fea-maid's mufic.

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 veftal, throned by the west;

And loos'd his love-shaft fmartly from his bow,
As it fhould pierce a hundred thousand hearts :
But I might fee young Cupid's fiery fhaft
Quench'd in the chafte beams of the watery moon;
And the imperial vot'refs paffed 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