All. That would hang us every mother's son.

should fright

Bot. I grant you, friends, if that you the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my voice so, that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any nightingale.

339

Quin. You can play no part but Pyramus: for Pyramus is a sweet-fac'd man; a proper man, as one shall see in a summer's-day; a most lovely gentleman-like man; therefore you must needs play Py

ramus.

Bot. Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best to play it in?

Quin. Why, what you will.

Bot. I will discharge it in either your straw-coloured beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purplein-grain beard, or your French crown-colour beard, your perfect yellow.

351

Quin. Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and then you will play bare-fac'd.-But, masters, here are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request you, and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night; and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the town, by moon-light; there will we rehearse for if we meet in the city, we shall be dog'd with company, and our devices known. In the mean time, I will draw a bill of properties, such as our play wants. I pray you, fail me not.

361 Bot.

Bot. We will meet; and there we may rehearse more obscenely, and courageously. Take pains; be perfect; adieu.

Quin. At the duke's oak we meet.

Bot. Enough; Hold, or cut bow-strings.

[Exeunt.

ACT II. SCENE I.

A Wood. Enter a Fairy at one Door, and PUCK (or ROBIN-GOODFELLOW) at another.

Puck.

How now, spirit whither wander you?

Fai. Over hill, over dale,

Thorough bush, thorough briar,
Over park, over pale,

Thorough flood, thorough fire,
I do wander every where,
Swifter than the moones sphere;
And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green :
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours:
I must go seek some dew-drops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
Cij

10

Farewel,

Farewel, thou lob of spirits, 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 sight.
For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,
Because that she, as her attendant, hath
A lovely boy, stol'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:

20

But she, per-force, 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 spangled star-light sheen,
But they do square; that all their elves, for fear, 30
Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there.

Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quite,

Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite,
Call'd Robin-Goodfellow: Are you not he,

That frights the maidens of the villagʼry ;
Skim milk; and sometimes labour in the quern,
And bootless make the breathless huswife churn;
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm ?
Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck, 40
You do their work, and they shall have good luck :
Are not you he?

Puck.

Puck. Thou speak'st 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 silly foal:
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab;
And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob,
And on her wither'd dew-lap pour the ale.
The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And taylor cries, and falls into a cough:

50

And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe,
And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear
A merrier hour was never wasted there.-

But room, Faery, here comes Oberon.

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

60

SCENE II.

Enter OBERON, King of Fairies, at one Door with his Train, and the Queen at another with hers.

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

Queen. What, jealous Oberon? Fairy, skip hence

I have forsworn his bed and company.

Ob. Tarry, rash wanton; Am not I thy lord?

Queen. Then I must be thy lady: But I know
When thou hast stol'n away from fairy land,
And in the shape of Corin sate all day,
Playing on pipes of corn, and versing love
To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,
Come from the farthest steep of India?
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,
Your buskin'd mistress, and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded; and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.

Ob. How can'st thou thus, for shame, Titania, Glance at my credit with Hippolita,

Knowing I know thy love, to Theseus?

70

Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night

From Periguné, whom he ravished?

And make him with fair Ægle break his faith,
With Ariadne, and Antiopa?

- Queen. 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 over-borne their continents.

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90

The