But they do fquare, that all their elves for fear
Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there.

Fai. Or I miftake your fhape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd, and knavish sprite,
Call'd Robin-goodfellow. Are you not he,
That fright the maidens of the villageree,
Skim milk, and fometimes labour in the quern,
And bootlefs make the breathlefs hufwife chern:
And fometime make the drink to bear no barm,
Mif-lead night-wand'rers, laughing at their harm?
Thofe that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,,
You do their work, and they fhall have good luck.
Are not you he?

Puck. Thou fpeak'ft aright;

I am that merry wand'rer of the night
I jest to Oberon, and make him smile,
When I a fat and bean-fed horfe beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly-foal;
And fometimes lurk I in a goffip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roafted crab,

And when the drinks, against her lips I bob,
And on her wither'd dew-lap pour the ale.
The wifeft aunt, telling the faddeft tale,
Sometime for three-foot ftool mistaketh me;
Then flip I from her bum, down topples fhe,
And taylor cries, and falls into a cough;

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

But make room, Fairy, here comes Oberon.'.

Fai. And here my mistress; would, that he were gone

Enter Oberon King of Fairies at one door with his trains and the Queen at another with hers.

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

Queen. What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, fkip hence,

I have forfworn his bed and company.

1

Ob. Tarry, rash Wanton; am not I thy lord P

Queen

Queen. Then I must be thy lady; but I know,...
When thou haft ftoll'n away from fairy land,
And in the shape of Corin fate all day,
Playing on pipes of corn, and verfing love
To am'rous Phillida. Why art thou here,
Come from the fartheft steep of India?
But that, forfooth, the bouncing Amazon,
Your bufkin'd mistrefs and your warrior love,
To Thefeus must be wedded; and you come
To give their bed joy and profperity,

ODIA

Ob. How can't thou thus for fhame, Titania,

T

Glance at my credit with Hippolita;

Knowing, I know thy love to Thefeus?

Didft thou not lead him through the glimmering night T

From Periguné, whom he ravifhed; (5)

And make him with fair Ægle break his faith,

With Ariadne, and Antiopa?

Queen. Thefe are the forgeries of jealoufy:

And never fince the middle fummer's fpring
Met we on hill, in dale, foreft, or mead,
By paved fountain, or by ruthy brook,
Or on the beached margent of the fea,
To dance our ringlets to the whiftling wind,
But with thy brawls thou haft difturb'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 on the land,
Have every pelting river made fo proud,

I'

AT

(5) From Perigenia, whom be ravish'd:] Thus all the Editors, either not knowing, or not attending to, the Hiftory of this Lady, have falfly called her but our Author, who diligently perufed Plutarch, and gleaned from him, where his fubject would admit, knew, from the Life of Thefeus, that her Name was Perigyne; (or Perigune) by whom Thefeus had his Son Melaniptus. She was the Daughter of Sinnis, a cruel Robber, and Tormentor of Paffengers in the Ifthmus. Plutarch and Athenæus are both exprefs in the Circumftance of Thefeus ravishing her and the former of them adds, (as Diod, Siculus, Apollodorus and Paufanias, likewife tell us) that he killed her Father into the Bargain.

That

That they have lover-borne their continents.
The ox hath therefore ftretch'd his yoke in vain,
The ploughman loft his fweat; and the green corn
Hath rotted, ere its youth attain'd a beard.
The fold ftands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock;
The nine-mens morris is fill'd up with mud,
And the queint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread, are undiftinguishable.-
The human mortals want their winter here,
No night is now with hymn or carol bleft;
Therefore the moon, the governefs of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air;
That rheumatick diseases do abound.
And thorough this diftemperature, we see
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 fummer-buds
Is, as in mockery, fet. The spring, the fummer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries; and th'amazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which
And this fame progeny of evil comes

From our debate, from our dissension ;
We are their parents and original.

Ob. Do you amend it then, it lies in you.
Why should Titania crofs her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy,
To be my henchman.

Queen. Set your heart at reft,
The fairy-land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votrefs of my

order,

And, in the fpiced Indian air by night,
Full often the hath goffipt by my fide;
And fat with me on Neptune's yellow fands,
Marking th' embarked traders on the flood,
When we have laught to fee the fails conceive,
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind:

Which the, with pretty and with fwimming gate, (6)
Follying (her womb then rich with my young fquire)
Would imitate; and fail upon the land,
To fetch me trifles, and return again,"
As from a voyage rich with merchandize.
But fhe, being mortal, of that boy did die;
And, for her fake, I do rear up her boy;
And, for her fake, I will not part with him.

Ob. How long within this wood intend you ftay ?
Queen. Perchance, 'till after Thefeus' wedding day.
If you will patiently dance in our round,
And see our moon-light revels, go with us;
If not, fhun me, and I will fpare 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 fhalt not from this grove, "Till I torment thee for this injury..

My gentle Puck, come hither; thou remember t
Since once I fat upon a promontory,

And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back,.
Uttering fuch dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude fea grew civil at her fong;
And certain ftars fhot madly from their spheres,
To hear the fea-maid's mufick.

(6) Which she with pretty and with fwimming gate, Following (ber Womb then rich with my young Squire)

Would imitate ;] Following What? She did not follow the Ship whofe Motion fhe imitated; for That failed on the Water, the on the Land. And if by following we are to understand, copying; it is a mere Pleonafm, that Meaning being included in the Word imitate. From Circumstances in the Context, there is great Reafon to think our Author wrote, flying, i. e wantoning, In Sport and Gaiety; fo the old Writers uted Folity for Foolish nefs; and both Words are from, and in the fenfe of folatrer, to play the Wanton. And this admirably agrees with the Action, for which he is here commended, and with the Context

Full often has fhe goffip'd by my Side, and, When we have laugh'ď vo fee, &c. Mr. Warburton.

Puck

Puck. I remember.

Ob. That very time I faw, but thou cou'dft not,
Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
Cupid alarm'd a certain aim he took (7)
At a fair Vestal, throned by the weft,
And loos'd his love-fhaft fmartly from his bow,
As it fhould pierce a hundred thousand hearts;
But I might fee young Cupid's fiery thaft
Quench'd in the chafte beams of the wat'ry moon,
And the Imperial Votrefs paffed on,

In maiden meditation, fancy-free.

Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell,..
It fell upon a little weftern 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 fhew'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.
Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again,
Ere the Leviathan can fwim a league..

Puck. I'll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes.

Ob. Having once this juice,

I'll watch Titania when the is afleep,

LExit,

(7) Cupid all arm'd;] Surely, this prefents us with a very unclaffical Image. Where do we read or fee, in ancient Books, or Monuments, Cupid arm'd more than with his Bow and Arrows? and with thefe we for ever fee him armid. And thefe are all the Arms he had Occafion for in this prefent Action; a more illuftrious One, than any, his Friends, the Clafficks, ever brought him upon. The Change I make is fo fmall, but the Beauty of the Thought fo great, which this Alteration carries with it, that, I think, we are not to hefitate upon it. For what an Addition is this to the Compliment made upon this Virgin Queen's Celibacy, that it alarm'd the Power of Love? as if his Empire was in Danger, when this Imperial Votrefs had de clared herself for a fingle Life: fo powerful would her great Example be in the World. · Queen Elizabeth could not but be pleafed with our Author's Addrefs upon this Head. Mr. Warburton.

And