Ober. Do you amend it, then: it lies in you. Why should Titiania cross her Oberon?

I do but beg a little changeling boy

To be my henchman.

Tit.

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 th' embarked traders on the flood;
And for her sake I do rear up her boy;

[Goes up c. And for her sake I will not part with him.

Ober. How long within this wood intend you stay? Tit. Perchance, till after Theseus' wedding-day.

If you will patiently dance in our round,

And see our moonlight revels, go with us;

If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

Ober. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee. Tit. Not for thy fairy kingdom.-Fairies, away! We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.

[Music. FAIRIES dance off. Exit TITANIA. Ober. (R.) Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from

this grove,

Till I torment thee for this injury.

My gentle Puck, come hither.

[Enter PUCK, L. 2 E.

Thou rememb'rest

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 music.

Puck. (L. C.)

I remember.

Ober. 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 loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow, As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts : But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft Quenched in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon, And the imperial vot'ress passed on,

In maiden meditation, fancy-free.

Yet marked 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 flower; the herb I showed thee once:

The juice of it, on sleeping eyelids 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 carth

In forty minutes.

Ober.

[Exit PUCK, L. 2 E.

Having once this juice,

I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,

And drop the liquor of it in her eyes:

The next thing then she waking looks upon
(Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,

Or meddling monkey, or on busy ape),
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.

[Exit OBERON, L.

SCENE II-A moon-lighted wood; a mossy bank at the back c.; a large tree R.; the whole troop of FAIRIES discovered in groups. Music.

TITANIA and her Train R. U. E.

Enter

Tit. Come, now a roundel, and a fairy song;
Then, for the third part of a minute, hence:
Some, to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds;

Some, war with rear-mice for their leathern wings,
To make my small elves coats; and some keep back
The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, and wonders
At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
Then to your offices, and let me rest.

SONG.

1st Fairy. You spotted snakes, with double tongues, Thorny hedgehogs be not seen.

Newts and blind worms do no wrong;

Come not near our Fairy Queen.

CHORUS. Philomel, with melody,

Sing in our sweet lullaby ;

Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby:
Never harm, nor spell, nor charm, ·
Come our lovely lady nigh;

So, good night, with lullaby.

2d Fairy. Weaving spiders, come not here;

CHORUS.

1st Fairy.

Hence, you long-legged spinners, hence: Beetles black, approach not near ;

Worm, nor snail, do no offense.

Philomel, with melody, etc.

Hence, away! now all is well:
One, aloof stand sentinel.

[Exeunt FAIRIES, R. and L. TITANIA sleeps upon the bank, c. Enter OBERON, L. 2 E.

Ober. What thou seest when thou dost wake, [Squeezes the flower on TITANIA's eyelids.

Do it for thy true love take;

Love and languish for his sake :
Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
In thy eye that shall appear
When thou wak'st, it is thy dear.

Wake when some vile thing is near.

[Exit R. 3 E. Enter BOTTOM, singing; PUCK having clapped on him an ass's head.

Bot.

SONG.

The oosel-cock, so black of hue,

With orange-tawny bill,

The throstle with his note so true,

The wren with little quill—

Tit. (R.) What angel wakes me from my flowery

bed?

I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again;
Mine car is much enamored of thy note;
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;

[Wakes.

And thy fair virtue's force perforce, doth move me, On the first view, to say, to swear, I love thee.

Bot. (L.) Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowa-days. The more the pity, that some honest neighbors will not make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.

Tit. Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.

Bot. Not so, neither; but if I had wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.

Tit. Out of this wood do not desire to go :

Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.

I am a spirit of no common rate;

The Summer still doth tend upon my state;
And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;

I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee;

And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,

And sing, while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep: And I will purge thy mortal grossness so,

That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.

Peas-blossom! Cobweb! Mote! and Mustard-seed!

[Enter four FAIRIES.

Peas-blossom. (R.) Ready.