A Fairy Tale in Two Acts Taken from Shakespeare | Page 4

it on sleeping eyelids laid,

Will make a man or woman madly doat
Upon the next live creature
that it sees.
Fetch me that herb, and be thou here again
Ere the
leviathan can swim a league.
Puck. I'll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes. [Exit.
Ob. Having once this juice,
I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,

And drop the liquor of it in her eye;
The next thing which she waking
looks upon,
(Be it on bear, lion, wolf, bull, ape or monkey),
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.
SCENE another part of the Wood.
Enter Queen of the Fairies, and her Train.
Queen. Come, now a roundel, and a fairy song.
AIR.
2d Fai. Come, follow, follow me,

Ye fairy Elves that be;
O'er tops of dewy grass,
So nimbly do we
pass,
The young and tender stalk
Ne'er bends where we do walk.
SCENE The Wood.
Queen. Now, 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 queint
spirits. Sing me now asleep,
Then to your offices, and let me rest.
[Goes to the Bower and lies down.
AIR.
1st. Fai. You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedge-hogs, be not seen,
Newts and blind-worms, do no
wrong,
Come not near our fairy Queen.
Philomel with melody,

Sing in your sweet lullaby,
Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:

Never harm, nor spell, nor charm,
Come our lovely Lady nigh,
So
good night with lullaby.
II.
Weaving spiders come not here;
Hence, you long-leg'd spinners,
hence:
Beetles black approach not near,
Worm nor snail do no
offence.
Philomel with melody, &c.
Hence away! now all is well;
One aloof stand centinel. [Exeunt
Fairies.
Enter Oberon and First Fairy.
[Oberon squeeses the Juice of the Flower on the Queen's Eyes.

Ob. What thou seest when thou dost wake,
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 what shall appear,
When thou
wak'st, it is thy dear;
Wake when some vile thing is near. [Exit Ob.
AIR.
1st Fai. Such the force of Magic Pow'r,
Of the juice of this small flower,
It shall jaundice so her sight,
Foul
shall be fair, and black seem white;
Then shall dreams, and all their
train,
Fill with Fantasies her brain;
Then, no more her darling joy,

She'll resign her changeling boy.
[Exeunt.
End of the First Act.
ACT II.
SCENE Continues.
Enter Quince, Snug, Bottom, Flute, Snout and Starveling.
The Queen of Fairies lying asleep.
Bot. Are we all met?
Quin. Pat, pat! and here's a marvellous convenient place for our
rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn brake our
tyring house, and we will do it in action, as we will do it before the
Duke.
Bot. Peter Quince.
Quin. What say'st thou, Bully Bottom?
Bot. There are things in this Comedy of Pyramus and Thisby, that will

never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill himself, which
the Ladies cannot abide. How answer you that?
Snout. By'rlaken, a parlous fear!
Starv. I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.
Bot. Not a whit; I have a device to make all well; write me a prologue,
and let the prologue seem to say, we will do no harm with our swords,
and that Pyramus is not kill'd indeed; and for more better assurance tell
them, that I Pyramus am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will
put them out of fear.
Quin. Well, we will have such a prologue, and it shall be written in
eight and six.
Bot. No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight.
Snout. Will not the Ladies be afraid of the Lion?
Starv. I fear it, I promise you.
Bot. Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves; to bring in,
heaven shield us! a Lion among Ladies, is a most dreadful thing; for
there is not a more fearful wildfowl than your Lion, living; and we
ought to look to it.
Snout. Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a Lion.
Bot. Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must be seen
through the lion's neck; and he himself must speak through, saying thus,
or to the same defect: Ladies, or fair Ladies, I would wish you, or I
would request you, or I would intreat you, not to fear, not to tremble;
my life for yours; if you think I come hither as a lion, it were pity of my
life; no, I am no such thing; I am a man as other men are;