Those be rubies, Fairy-favours: 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, stoll'n from an Indian King: She never had so sweet a changeling; And jealous Oberon would have the child Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild; But the per-force with-holds the loved boy, Crowns him with flow'rs, and makes him all her joy. And now they never meet in grove, or green, By fountain clear, or spangled star-light sheen, But they do *square, that all their elves for fear Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there. Fai. Or I mistake your shape and making quite, Puck. Thou speak'st aright; Pope In very likeness of a roasted crab, But make room, Fairy, here comes Oberon. Fai. And here my mistress: would, that he were gone! SCENE II. Enter Oberon King of Fairies at one door with his train, and the Queen at another with hers. Ob. ILL met at moon-light, proud Titania. I have forfworn his bed and company. Ob. Tarry, rash Wanton; am not I thy lord? Ob. How can'st thou thus for shame, Titania, Glance at my credit with Hippolita; *Didst thou not lead him glimmering, through the From Periguné, whom he ravish'd; And make him with fair Ægle break his faith, [night Queen. These are the forgeries of jealousy: And never since that middle summer's spring Met we on hill, in dale, foreft, or mead, By paved fountain, or by bushy 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-borne their continents. The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke 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 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 heried, 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 rheumatic diseases do abound. And thorough this distemperature, we fee The seasons alter; hoary-headed frofts Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose; And on old Hyems' chin, and icy crown, An od'rous chaplet of sweet summer-buds Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer, The childing autumn, angry winter, change * Didft thou not lead him glimmering through the night The Meaning is she conducted him in the Appearance of fire through the dark Night. Their wonted liveries; and th' amazed world, Ob. Do you amend it then, it lies in you. Queen. Set your heart at reft, Which she, with pretty and with swimming gate Ob. How long within this wood intend you stay? + Which she with pretty and with fwimming gate Following (her womb then rich with my young squire) Would imitate--] Some of the ancient Editions read as above. But following what? she did not follow the Ship, whose Motion she imitated: For that failed on the Water, she on the Land. If by following we are to understand imitating, it will be a mere Pleonafmimitating would imitate. From the Poet's Description of the Actions it plainly appears we should read follying---- i. e. wantoning in Sport and Gaiety. Queen. 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 down-right, if I longer stay. [Exeunt Queen and her train. Ob. Well, go thy way; thou shalt not from this lll I torment thee for this injury.- And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, Puck. I remember. Ob. That very time I faw, but thou cou'dst not, Flying between the cold moon and the earth, Cupid alarm'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 chaste 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; 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. *A Compliment to Queen Elizabeth. Mr. Pope. Fetch |