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

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; and there indeed let him name his name, and tell them plainly, He is Snug the Joiner.
Quin. Well, it shall be so; but there is two hard things, that is, to bring the moon-light into a chamber; for you know Pyramus and Thisby met by moon-light.
Snug. Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?
Bot. A kalendar, a kalendar! look into the almanack; find out moon-shine, find out moon-shine.
Quin. Yes, it doth shine that night.
Bot. Why then may you leave a casement of the great chamber window, where we play, open, and the moon may shine in at the casement.
Quin. Ay, or else one must come in with a bush of throns and a lanthern; and say he comes to disfigure or to present the person of moon-shine. Then there is another thing; we must have a wall in the great chamber, for Pyramus and Thisby (says the story) did talk through the chink of a wall.
Snug. You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom?
Bot. Some man or other must present wall; and let him have some plaster, or some loome, or some rough-cast, about him,