A Midsummer Night's Dream: Act 2, Scene 1
Enter a FAIRY at one door
and ROBIN GOODFELLOW [PUCK]
at another.
PUCK
1
How now, spirit! whither wander you?
Fairy
2
Over hill, over dale,
3
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
4
Over park, over pale,
5
Thorough flood, thorough fire,
6
I do wander everywhere,
7. sphere: In the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the moon and the other heavenly bodies were thought to revolve about the earth fixed in transparent spheres. 9. orbs: circles, i.e., make fairy rings out of dark grass. 10. pensioners: Members of the royal bodyguard were called "gentlemen pensioners."
7
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
8
And I serve the fairy queen,
9
To dew her orbs upon the green.
10
The cowslips tall her pensioners be:
11
In their gold coats spots you see;
12. favors: gifts; love tokens.
12
Those be rubies, fairy favors,
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16. lob: country bumpkin.
17. anon: at once.
13
In those freckles live their savors.
14
I must go seek some dewdrops here
15
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
16
Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone:
17
Our queen and all our elves come here anon.
PUCK
18
The king doth keep his revels here tonight:
19
Take heed the queen come not within his sight;
20. passing fell and wrath: exceedingly fierce and angry.
20
For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,
21
Because that she as her attendant hath
22
A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king;

25. trace: range through.
26. perforce: forcibly.
23
She never had so sweet a changeling;
24
And jealous Oberon would have the child
25
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;
26
But she perforce withholds the loved boy,
27
Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy.
28
And now they never meet in grove or green,
29. fountain: spring.
29
By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,
30. square: quarrel. that: so that.
30
But, they do square, that all their elves for fear
31. them: themselves.
31
Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there.
Fairy
32. making: form.
32
Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
33. shrewd: mischievous. sprite: spirit.
33
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
34
Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he
35. villagery: village folk, peasantry.
35
That frights the maidens of the villagery;
36. Skim . . . quern: A "quern" is a handmill for grinding grain. Puck skims the milk so . . . more 37. bootless: unavailingly. huswife: housewife. 38. sometime: at times. barm: frothy head on a tankard of ale.
36
Skim milk, and sometimes labor in the quern
37
And bootless make the breathless huswife churn;
38
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;
39
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
40. Hobgoblin: A mischievous, tricksy imp or sprite; another name for Puck or Robin Goodfellow; hence a terrifying apparition or bogy. OED
40
Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
41
You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
42
Are not you he?
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47. gossip's: garrulous old woman's. 48. crab: crab apple.
50. dewlap: loose skin on the neck. 51. aunt: old woman, gossip. saddest: most serious; soberest.
PUCK
42
Thou speak'st aright;
43
I am that merry wanderer of the night.
44
I jest to Oberon and make him smile
45
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
46
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
47
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
48
In very likeness of a roasted crab,
49
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob
50
And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.
51
The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
52
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
53
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
54. And "tailor" cries: The woman cries "tailor" because she finds herself sitting cross-legged on the floor as tailors did to sew or because she falls on her "tail." 55. quire: choir; i.e., company. 56. waxen: increase. neeze: sneeze. 57. wasted: spent.
54
And "tailor" cries, and falls into a cough;
55
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
56
And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear
57
A merrier hour was never wasted there.
58
But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon.
Fairy
59
And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!
Enter the King of Fairies [OBERON]
at one door with his TRAIN, and the
Queen [TITANIA] at another with hers.
OBERON
60
Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.
TITANIA
61
What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence:
62. forsworn: usually falsely sworn, but in this case, sworn off.
62
I have forsworn his bed and company.
OBERON
63. rash wanton: impetuous and willful creature.
63
Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?
TITANIA
64
Then I must be thy lady: but I know
65
When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,
66. Corin: Common, conventional name of a lover in pastoral poetry. 67. corn: oat stalks. versing love: making love verses. 68. Phillida: Common, conventional name of a lover in pastoral poetry. 69. steep: mountain range.
66
And in the shape of Corin sat all day,
67
Playing on pipes of corn and versing love
68
To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,
69
Come from the farthest steep of India?
70. forsooth: in truth; truly.
70
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,

71
Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love,
72
To Theseus must be wedded, and you come
73
To give their bed joy and prosperity.
OBERON
74
How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
75. Glance at my credit with Hippolyta:
make derogatory insinuations about my relationship with Hippolyta.
75
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,
76
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
77
Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night
78. Perigenia: Perigouna, daughter of the brigand Sinis. On his journey to Athens to claim his . . . more 79. Aegles: Aegle, a nymph for whose love Theseus, in some accounts, deserted Ariadne. 80. Ariadne: daughter of Minos, king of Crete. Having slain the Minotaur with her aid . . . more
78
From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
79
And make him with fair Aegles break his faith,
80
With Ariadne and Antiopa?
TITANIA
81. forgeries: i.e., fantastic lies. Titania accused Oberon of loving Hippolyta; Oberon . . . more 82. middle summer's spring: beginning of midsummer.
81
These are the forgeries of jealousy:
82
And never, since the middle summer's spring,
83
Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
84. paved fountain: spring with pebbled bottom. rushy: edged with rushes. 85. in: on. margent: margin, edge.
84
By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
85
Or in the beached margent of the sea,
86. ringlets: circular dances.
86
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
87. brawls: noisy quarrels.
87
But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.
88
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
89
As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea
90. Contagious: Noxious.
90
Contagious fogs; which falling in the land
91. pelting: (1) pelting; (2) paltry.
91
Have every pelting river made so proud
92. overborne their continents: overflowed their banks.
92
That they have overborne their continents:
93
The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,
94. green: immature. corn: grain (wheat, barley, oats, etc.) 95. ere: before. his: its.
94
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
95
Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard;
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105. rheumatic diseases: colds, flu, and all diseases thought to be the result of excessive moisture. 106. distemperature: (1) disturbance in the natural order; (2) unpredictable, foul moods.
96
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
97
And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;
98
The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud,
99
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
100
For lack of tread are undistinguishable:
101
The human mortals want their winter here;
102
No night is now with hymn or carol blest:
103
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
104
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
105
That rheumatic diseases do abound:
106
And thorough this distemperature we see
107
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
108
Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
109. Hiems': Hiems is the personification of winter.
109
And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown
110. chaplet: wreath.
110
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
111
Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,
112. childing: fruitful.
112
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
113. wonted liveries: customary apparel. mazed: bewildered, confused. 114. their increase: their fruits, what they produce. Before, Titania said that flowers are budding in winter. 116. debate: disagreement. quarrelling.
113
Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,
114
By their increase, now knows not which is which:
115
And this same progeny of evils comes
116
From our debate, from our dissension;
117. original: origin.
117
We are their parents and original.
OBERON
118
Do you amend it then; it lies in you:
119. cross: thwart.
119
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
120
I do but beg a little changeling boy,
121. henchman: attendant, page of honor.
121
To be my henchman.
TITANIA
121. Set your heart at rest: i.e., Give up that notion.
121
Set your heart at rest:
122
The fairy land buys not the child of me.
123. votaress: a female votary (one who is bound by vows to a religious life); esp. a woman devoted to a special saint.
123
His mother was a votaress of my order:
124
And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,

129. wanton: sportive, amorous.
125
Full often hath she gossip'd by my side,
126
And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,
127
Marking the embarked traders on the flood,
128
When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive
129
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;
130
Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait
131
Following,her womb then rich with my young squire,
132
Would imitate, and sail upon the land,
133
To fetch me trifles, and return again,
134
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
135
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;
136
And for her sake do I rear up her boy,
137
And for her sake I will not part with him.
OBERON
138
How long within this wood intend you stay?
TITANIA
139
Perchance till after Theseus' wedding-day.
140. round: circular dance.
140
If you will patiently dance in our round
141
And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
142. spare: shun, stay away from.
142
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.
OBERON
143
Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.
TITANIA
144
Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away!
145. chide: quarrel.
145
We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.
Exeunt [TITANIA with her TRAIN].
OBERON

149. Since: When. 149-150. once . . . back
151. breath: voice, music. 152. rude: rough, boisterous. civil: well-behaved, gentle.
146
Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove
147
Till I torment thee for this injury.
148
My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
149
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
150
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
151
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
152
That the rude sea grew civil at her song
153
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
154
To hear the sea-maid's music.
PUCK
154
I remember.
OBERON
155
That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,
156
Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
157. all: fully, completely.
157
Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took
158. vestal: i.e., vestal virgin. Lines 157-164 have long been considered to be a compliment to Queen Elizabeth, celebrating her status as a Virgin Queen. 160. As it should: As if it would. 161. might: could.
158
At a fair vestal throned by the west,
159
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
160
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;
161
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
162. moon: i.e., Diana, the virgin goddess, whose votaress the "fair vestal" is.
162
Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
163
And the imperial votaress passed on,
164. fancy-free: free of love's spell or love-thoughts.
164
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
165. bolt: arrow.
165
Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
166
It fell upon a little western flower,
167
Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
168. love-in-idleness: a name for the pansy or heartsease.
171. or ... or: either ... or.
174. leviathan: gigantic sea-beast.
175-176. I'll put a girdle round about the earth / In forty minutes: i.e., I'll circle the earth in a few moments.
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171. or ... or: either ... or.
174. leviathan: gigantic sea-beast.
175-176. I'll put a girdle round about the earth / In forty minutes: i.e., I'll circle the earth in a few moments.
168
And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
169
Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once:
170
The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid
171
Will make or man or woman madly dote
172
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
173
Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again
174
Ere the leviathan can swim a league.
PUCK
175
I'll put a girdle round about the earth
176
In forty minutes.
[Exit.]
OBERON
176
Having once this juice,
177. watch Titania when she is asleep: i.e., keep a watch on Titania until the moment she falls asleep.
177
I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,
178
And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.
179
The next thing then she waking looks upon,
180
Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
181
On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,
182
She shall pursue it with the soul of love:
183. ere: before.
183
And ere I take this charm from off her sight,
184
As I can take it with another herb,
185
I'll make her render up her page to me.
186. I am invisible: Oberon is the magical King of Fairies, and when he says "I am invisible" we must believe him, even though we can still see him on stage.
186
But who comes here? I am invisible;
187
And I will overhear their conference.
Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA
following him.
DEMETRIUS
188
I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
189
Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?
190
The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.
191
Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood;
192. wode: mad. Pronounced "wood."
192
And here am I, and wode within this wood,
193
Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
194
Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
HELENA
195. adamant: lodestone, magnet. Also, adamant was thought to be the hardest of all stones. 196. you draw not iron: i.e., what you draw (my heart) is not iron, but steel of the finest, truest temper. 197. Leave: give up.
195
You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;
196
But yet you draw not iron, for my heart
197
Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw,
198
And I shall have no power to follow you.
DEMETRIUS
199. fair: courteously.
199
Do I entice you? do I speak you fair?
200
Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth
201
Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?
HELENA
202
And even for that do I love you the more.
203
I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,
204
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
205
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
206
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
207
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
208
What worser place can I beg in your love,
209
And yet a place of high respect with me,
210
Than to be used as you use your dog?
DEMETRIUS
211. Tempt: try, put to the test.
211
Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;
212
For I am sick when I do look on thee.
HELENA
213
And I am sick when I look not on you.
DEMETRIUS
214. impeach your modesty: call into question your good sense and morality. As becomes clear in the following lines, Demetrius is accusing Helena of being sluttish, because she follows him into the forest in the dark, where he could easily force sex upon her. 218. ill counsel of a desert place: evil ideas that come to mind in a deserted place.
214
You do impeach your modesty too much,
215
To leave the city and commit yourself
216
Into the hands of one that loves you not;
217
To trust the opportunity of night
218
And the ill counsel of a desert place
219
With the rich worth of your virginity.
HELENA
220. Your virtue is my privilege: (1) your goodness is my safeguard; (2) your attractiveness is my justification. For that: Because.
220
Your virtue is my privilege. For that
221
It is not night when I do see your face,
222
Therefore I think I am not in the night;
223
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
224. in my respect: as far as I am concerned.
224
For you in my respect are all the world:
225
Then how can it be said I am alone,

227. brakes: thickets.
231. Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase: Daphne . . . more 232. griffin: fabulous monster with the body of a lion and the head of an eagle. hind: female deer. 233. bootless: vain, useless.
226
When all the world is here to look on me?
DEMETRIUS
227
I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,
228
And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.
HELENA
229
The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
230
Run when you will, the story shall be changed:
231
Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
232
The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
233
Makes speed to catch the tiger bootless speed,
234
When cowardice pursues and valor flies.
DEMETRIUS
235. stay thy questions: wait around to listen to your arguments.
235
I will not stay thy questions; let me go:
236
Or, if thou follow me, do not believe
237. I shall do thee mischief: Demetrius is threatening to rape her; he has made that threat before without making much of an impression on the desperate Helena.
237
But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.
HELENA
238
Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
239
You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!
240. Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex: Helena believes that Demetrius should be wooing her, and that because he is making her woo him, he is disrespecting all women.
240
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:
241
We cannot fight for love, as men may do;
242
We should be woo'd and were not made to woo.
[Exit DEMETRIUS.]
243
I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,
244. upon: by.
244
To die upon the hand I love so well.
[Exit HELENA.]
OBERON
245
Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove,
246
Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love.
Enter PUCK.
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249. wild thyme blows: wild thyme blooms.
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251. woodbine: honeysuckle.
252. musk-roses and with eglantine: varieties of roses. 253. sometime of: at some time during.
255. throws: sheds. enamell'd: adorned with brilliant colors. 256. Weed: garment. 257. streak: anoint.
247
Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.
PUCK
248
Ay, there it is.
OBERON
248
I pray thee, give it me.
249
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
250
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
251
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
252
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
253
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
254
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
255
And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,
257
And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,
258
And make her full of hateful fantasies.
259
Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:
260
A sweet Athenian lady is in love
261
With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;
262
But do it when the next thing he espies
263
May be the lady: thou shalt know the man
264
By the Athenian garments he hath on.
265
Effect it with some care, that he may prove
266
More fond on her than she upon her love:
267
And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.
PUCK
268
Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.
Exeunt.