Tales from Shakespeare | Page 9

no one of her
intended flight but her friend Helena. Helena (as maidens will do
foolish things for love) very ungenerously resolved to go and tell this to
Demetrius, though she could hope no benefit from betraying her
friend's secret but the poor pleasure of following her faithless lover to
the wood; for she well knew that Demetrius would go thither in pursuit
of Hermia.
The wood in which Lysander and Hermia proposed to meet was the
favorite haunt of those little beings known by the name of "fairies."
Oberon the king, and Titania the queen of the fairies, with all their tiny
train of followers, in this wood held their midnight revels.
Between this little king and queen of sprites there happened, at this
time, a sad disagreement; they never met by moonlight in the shady
walk of this pleasant wood but they were quarreling, till all their fairy
elves would creep into acorn-cups and hide themselves for fear.
The cause of this unhappy disagreement was Titania's refusing give
Oberon a little changeling boy, whose mother had been Titania's friend;
and upon her death the fairy queen stole the child from its nurse and
brought him up in the woods.
The night on which the lovers were to meet in this wood, as Titania
was walking with some of her maids of honor, she met Oberon
attended by his train of fairy courtiers.
"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania," said the fairy king.
The queen replied: "What, jealous Oberon, is it you? Fairies, skip hence;
I have forsworn his company."
"Tarry, rash fairy," said Oberon. "Am I not thy lord? Why does Titania
cross her Oberon? Give me your little changeling boy to be my page."
"Set your heart at rest," answered the queen; "your whole fairy
kingdom buys not the boy of me." She then left her lord in great anger.
"Well, go your way," said Oberon; "before the morning dawns I will
torment you for this injury."
Oberon then sent for Puck, his chief favorite and privy counselor.
Puck (or, as he was sometimes called, Robin Goodfellow) was a
shrewd and knavish sprite, that used to play comical pranks in the
neighboring villages; sometimes getting into the dairies and skimming

the milk, sometimes plunging his light and airy form into the
butter-churn, and while he was dancing his fantastic shape in the churn,
in vain the dairymaid would labor to change her cream into butter. Nor
had the village swains any better success; whenever Puck chose to play
his freaks in the brewing copper, the ale was sure to be spoiled. When a
few good neighbors were met to drink some comfortable ale together,
Puck would jump into the bowl of ale in the likeness of a roasted crab,
and when some old goody was going to drink he would bob against her
lips, and spill the ale over her withered chin; and presently after, when
the same old dame was gravely seating herself to tell her neighbors a
sad and melancholy story, Puck would slip her three-legged stool from
under her, and down toppled the poor old woman, and then the old
gossips would hold their sides and laugh at her, and swear they never
wasted a merrier hour.
"Come hither, Puck," said Oberon to this little merry wanderer of the
night; "fetch me the flower which maids call 'Love in, Idleness'; the
juice of that little purple flower laid on the eyelids of those who sleep
will make them, when they awake, dote on the first thing they see.
Some of the juice of that flower I will drop on the eyelids of my Titania
when she is asleep; and the first thing she looks upon when she opens
her eyes she will fall in love with, even though it be a lion or a bear, a
meddling monkey or a busy ape; and before I will take this charm from
off her sight, which I can do with another charm I know of, I will make
her give me that boy to be my page."
Puck, who loved mischief to his heart, was highly diverted with this
intended frolic of his master, and ran to seek the flower; and while
Oberon was waiting the return of Puck he observed Demetrius and
Helena enter the wood: he overheard Demetrius reproaching Helena for
following him, and after many unkind words on his part, and gentle
expostulations from Helena, reminding him of his former love and
professions of true faith to her, he left her (as he said) to the mercy of
the wild beasts, and she ran after him as swiftly as she could.
The fairy king, who was always friendly to true lovers, felt great
compassion for Helena; and perhaps, as Lysander said they used to