Bot. Let mee play the Lyon too, I will roare that I will doe any mans heart good to heare me. I will roare, that I will make the Duke say, Let him roare againe, let him roare againe

Quin. If you should do it too terribly, you would fright the Dutchesse and the Ladies, that they would shrike, and that were enough to hang us all

All. That would hang vs euery mothers sonne

Bottome. I graunt you friends, if that you should fright the Ladies out of their Wittes, they would haue no more discretion but to hang vs: but I will aggrauate my voyce so, that I will roare you as gently as any sucking Doue; I will roare and 'twere any Nightingale

Quin. You can play no part but Piramus, for Piramus is a sweet-fac'd man, a proper man as one shall see in a summers day; a most louely Gentleman-like man, therfore you must needs play Piramus

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

Quin. Why, what you will

Bot. I will discharge it, in either your straw-colour beard, your orange tawnie beard, your purple in graine beard, or your French-crowne colour'd beard, your perfect yellow

Quin. Some of your French Crownes haue no haire at all, and then you will play bare-fac'd. But masters here are your parts, and I am to intreat you, request you, and desire you, to con them by too morrow night: and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the Towne, by Moone-light, there we will rehea.r.s.e: for if we meete in the Citie, we shalbe dog'd with company, and our deuises knowne. In the meane time, I wil draw a bil of properties, such as our play wants. I pray you faile me not

Bottom. We will meete, and there we may rehea.r.s.e more obscenely and couragiously. Take paines, be perfect, adieu

Quin. At the Dukes oake we meete

Bot. Enough, hold or cut bow-strings.

Exeunt.

Actus Secundus.

Enter a Fairie at one dore, and Robin goodfellow at another.

Rob. How now spirit, whether wander you?

Fai. Ouer hil, ouer dale, through bush, through briar, Ouer parke, ouer pale, through flood, through fire, I do wander euerie where, swifter then y Moons sphere; And I serue the Fairy Queene, to dew her orbs vpon the green.

The Cowslips tall, her pensioners bee, In their gold coats, spots you see, Those be Rubies, Fairie fauors, In those freckles, liue their sauors, I must go seeke some dew drops heere, And hang a pearle in euery cowslips eare.

Farewell thou Lob of spirits, Ile be gon, Our Queene and all her Elues come heere anon

Rob. The King doth keepe his Reuels here to night, Take heed the Queene come not within his sight, For Oberon is pa.s.sing fell and wrath, Because that she, as her attendant, hath A louely boy stolne from an Indian King, She neuer had so sweet a changeling, And iealous Oberon would haue the childe Knight of his traine, to trace the Forrests wilde.

But she (perforce) with-holds the loued boy, Crownes him with flowers, and makes him all her ioy.

And now they neuer meete in groue, or greene, By fountaine cleere, or spangled star-light sheene, But they do square, that all their Elues for feare Creepe into Acorne cups and hide them there

Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quite, Or else you are that shrew'd and knauish spirit Cal'd Robin Good-fellow. Are you not hee, That frights the maidens of the Villagree, Skim milke, and sometimes labour in the querne, And bootlesse make the breathlesse huswife cherne, And sometime make the drinke to beare no barme, Misleade night-wanderers, laughing at their harme, Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Pucke, You do their worke, and they shall haue good lucke.

Are not you he?

Rob. Thou speak'st aright; I am that merrie wanderer of the night: I iest to Oberon, and make him smile, When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, Neighing in likenesse of a silly foale, And sometime lurke I in a Gossips bole, In very likenesse of a roasted crab: And when she drinkes, against her lips I bob, And on her withered dewlop poure the Ale.

The wisest Aunt telling the saddest tale, Sometime for three-foot stoole, mistaketh me, Then slip I from her b.u.m, downe topples she, And tailour cries, and fals into a coffe.

And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe, And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and sweare, A merrier houre was neuer wasted there.

But roome Fairy, heere comes Oberon

Fair. And heere my Mistris: Would that he were gone.

Enter the King of Fairies at one doore with his traine, and the Queene at another with hers.

Ob. Ill met by Moone-light.

Proud Tytania

Qu. What, iealous Oberon? Fairy skip hence.

I haue forsworne his bed and companie

Ob. Tarrie rash Wanton; am not I thy Lord?

Qu. Then I must be thy Lady: but I know When thou wast stolne away from Fairy Land, And in the shape of Corin, sate all day, Playing on pipes of Corne, and versing loue To amorous Phillida. Why art thou heere Come from the farthest steepe of India?

But that forsooth the bouncing Amazon Your buskin'd Mistresse, and your Warrior loue, To Theseus must be Wedded; and you come, To giue their bed ioy and prosperitie

Ob. How canst thou thus for shame Tytania.

Glance at my credite, with Hippolita?

Knowing I know thy loue to Theseus?

Didst thou not leade him through the glimmering night From Peregenia, whom he rauished?

And make him with faire Eagles breake his faith With Ariadne, and Antiopa?

Que. These are the forgeries of iealousie, And neuer since the middle Summers spring Met we on hil, in dale, forrest, or mead, By paued fountaine, or by rushie brooke, Or in the beached margent of the sea, To dance our ringlets to the whistling Winde, But with thy braules thou hast disturb'd our sport.

Therefore the Windes, piping to vs in vaine, As in reuenge, haue suck'd vp from the sea Contagious fogges: Which falling in the Land, Hath euerie petty Riuer made so proud, That they haue ouer-borne their Continents.

The Oxe hath therefore stretch'd his yoake in vaine, The Ploughman lost his sweat, and the greene Corne Hath rotted, ere his youth attain'd a beard: The fold stands empty in the drowned field, And Crowes are fatted with the murrion flocke, The nine mens Morris is fild vp with mud, And the queint Mazes in the wanton greene, For lacke of tread are vndistinguishable.

The humane mortals want their winter heere, No night is now with hymne or caroll blest; Therefore the Moone (the gouernesse of floods) Pale in her anger, washes all the aire; That Rheumaticke diseases doe abound.

And through this distemperature, we see The seasons alter; h.o.a.red headed Frosts Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson Rose, And on old Hyems chinne and Icie crowne, An odorous Chaplet of sweet Sommer buds Is as in mockry set. The Spring, the Sommer, The childing Autumne, angry Winter change Their wonted Liueries, and the mazed world, By their increase, now knowes not which is which; And this same progeny of euills, Comes from our debate, from our dissention, We are their parents and originall

Ober. Do you amend it then, it lies in you, Why should t.i.tania crosse her Oberon?

I do but beg a little changeling boy, To be my Henchman

Qu. Set your heart at rest, The Fairy land buyes not the childe of me, His mother was a Votresse of my Order, And in the spiced Indian aire, by night Full often hath she gossipt by my side, And sat with me on Neptunes yellow sands, Marking th' embarked traders on the flood, When we haue laught to see the sailes conceiue, And grow big bellied with the wanton winde: Which she with pretty and with swimming gate, Following (her wombe then rich with my yong squire) Would imitate, and saile vpon the Land, To fetch me trifles, and returne againe, As from a voyage, rich with merchandize.

But she being mortall, of that boy did die, And for her sake I doe reare vp her boy, And for her sake I will not part with him

Ob. How long within this wood intend you stay?

Qu. Perchance till after Theseus wedding day.

If you will patiently dance in our Round, And see our Moone-light reuels, goe with vs; If not, shun me and I will spare your haunts

Ob. Giue me that boy, and I will goe with thee

Qu. Not for thy Fairy Kingdome. Fairies away: We shall chide downe right, if I longer stay.

Exeunt

Ob. Wel, go thy way: thou shalt not from this groue, Till I torment thee for this iniury.

My gentle Pucke come hither; thou remembrest Since once I sat vpon a promontory, And heard a Meare-maide on a Dolphins backe, Vttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, That the rude sea grew ciuill at her song, And certaine starres shot madly from their Spheares, To heare the Sea-maids musicke

Puc. I remember

Ob. That very time I say (but thou couldst not) Flying betweene the cold Moone and the earth, Cupid all arm'd; a certaine aime he tooke At a faire Vestall, throned by the West, And loos'd his loue-shaft smartly from his bow, As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts, But I might see young Cupids fiery shaft Quencht in the chaste beames of the watry Moone; And the imperiall Votresse pa.s.sed on, In maiden meditation, fancy free.

Yet markt I where the bolt of Cupid fell.

It fell vpon a little westerne flower; Before, milke-white: now purple with loues wound, And maidens call it, Loue in idlenesse.

Fetch me that flower; the hearb I shew'd thee once, The iuyce of it, on sleeping eye-lids laid, Will make or man or woman madly dote Vpon the next liue creature that it sees.

Fetch me this hearbe, and be thou heere againe, Ere the Leuiathan can swim a league

Pucke. Ile put a girdle about the earth, in forty minutes

Ober. Hauing once this iuyce, Ile watch t.i.tania, when she is asleepe, And drop the liquor of it in her eyes: The next thing when she waking lookes vpon, (Be it on Lyon, Beare, or Wolfe, or Bull, On medling Monkey, or on busie Ape) Shee shall pursue it, with the soule of loue.