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:5
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;
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:
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,

4 Petty.

5 Banks which contain them. • A game played by boys.

An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds

Is, as in mockery, set: The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change

7

Their wonted liveries; and the 'mazed world,

8

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

Tita.

henchman."

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.

Autumn producing flowers unseasonably.

Obe. How long within this wood intend you stay? Tita. Perchance, till after Theseus' wedding-day. If you will patiently dance in our round, And see our moon-light revels, go with us; If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts. Obe. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee. Tita. Not for thy kingdom.-Fairies, away: We shall chide down-right, if I longer stay.

[Exeunt TITANIA, and her train. Obe. 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 sat 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 song;

And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear the sea-maid's musick.

Puck.

I remember.

Obe. That very time I saw, (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 see young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quench'd in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moo;
And the imperial vot'ress passed on,

In maiden meditation, fancy-free.'

Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:

1 Exempt from love.

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 flower; the herb I show'd thee once :

The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid,
Will make or man or woman madly dote

Upon the next live creature that it sees.

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.

Having once this juice,

T

1

[Exit Pud

Obe.

U

And drop the liquor of it in her eyes :

U

The next thing then she waking looks upon,

W

(Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,

On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,)

T

She shall pursue it with the soul of love.
And ere I take this charm off from her sight,
(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.

Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA following him.

Dem. I love thee not, therefore pursue me not." Where is Lysander, and fair Hermia?

The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.

Thou told'st me, they were stol'n into this wood, And here am I, and wood within this wood, Because I cannot meet with Hermia.

2 Mad, raving.

T

T

Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
Hel. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;
my heart
But yet you draw not iron, for

Is true as steel: Leave you your power to draw,
And I shall have no power to follow

you.
Dem. Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair?
C, rather, do I not in plainest truth

ell you-I do not, nor I cannot love you? Hel. And even for that do I love

am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,

you

the more.

he more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
se me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
Teglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
nworthy as I am, to follow you.

What worser 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 spirit;

For I am sick, when I do look on thee.

Hel. And I am sick, when I look not on you. Dem. You do impeach3 your modesty too much, › leave the city, and commit yourself

to the hands of one that loves you not; o trust the opportunity of night,

nd the ill counsel of a desert place, With the rich worth of your virginity.

Hel. Your virtue is my privilege for that. It is not night, when I do see 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 :

3 Bring in question.