Act 2, Scene 1 (Oberon) Flashcards
1.
ROBIN
How now, spirit? Whither wander you?
Fairy
Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale, …
PUCK
The king doth keep his revels here to-night:
Take heed the queen come not within his sight;
For Oberon is passing fell and wrath, …
Fairy
Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Call’d Robin Goodfellow: are not you he …
PUCK
Thou speak’st aright;
I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon and make him smile …
But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon.
Fairy
And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!
Enter, from one side, OBERON, with his train; from the other, TITANIA, with hers
Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.
2.
TITANIA
What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence:
I have forsworn his bed and company.
Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?
3.
TITANIA
Then I must be thy lady: but I know
When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,
And in the shape of Corin sat all day,
Playing on pipes of corn and versing love
To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,
Come from the farthest Steppe of India?
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,
Your buskin’d mistress and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded, and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.
How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
4.
TITANIA
These are the forgeries of jealousy:
And never, since the middle summer’s spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
Or in the beached margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturb’d our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge, have suck’d up from the sea
Contagious fogs; which falling in the land
Have every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents:
The ox hath therefore stretch’d his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attain’d a beard;
No night is now with hymn or carol blest:
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound:
From our debate, from our dissension;
We are their parents and original.
Do you amend it then; it lies in you:
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy,
To be my henchman.
5.
TITANIA
Set your heart at rest:
The fairy land buys not the child of me.
How long within this wood intend you stay?
6.
TITANIA
Perchance till after Theseus’ wedding-day.
If you will patiently dance in our round
And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.
Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.
7.
TITANIA
Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away!
We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.
Exit TITANIA with her train
(Angry)
Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove
Till I torment thee for this injury.
(Turn to Puck, softer)
My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
That the rude sea grew civil at her song
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear thesea-maid’s music.
8.
PUCK
I remember.
That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,
Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
Cupid allarm’d: a certain aim he took
At a fair vestal thron-ed by the west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;
But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft
Quench’d in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
And the imperial vot’ress pass-ed on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
Yetmark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound,
And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
Fetch me that flower; the herb Ishew’d thee once:
The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
(Faster, with energy)
Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again
Ere the leviathan can swim a league.
9.
ROBIN
I’ll put a girdle round about the Earth
In forty minutes.
(Exits)
Having once this juice,
I’ll watch Titania when she is asleep
And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.
The next thing then she waking looks upon—
Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
On meddling monkey or on busy ape—
She shall pursue it with the soul of love.
And ere I take this charm from off her sight—
As I can take it with another herb—
I’ll make her render up her page to me.
(Turning head, with energy change)
But who comes here? I am invisible.
And I will overhear their conference.
- (Move into tree position)*
- (Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA)*
10.
DEMETRIUS
I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
…
HELENA
You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;
…
DEMETRIUS
Do I entice you? do I speak you fair?
…
HELENA
And even for that do I love you the more…
DEMETRIUS
Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;…
HELENA
And I am sick when I look not on you.
DEMETRIUS
You do impeach your modesty too much,
…
HELENA
Your virtue is my privilege: for that
…
DEMETRIUS
I’ll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,
…
HELENA
The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
…
DEMETRIUS
I will not stay thy questions; let me go:
…
HELENA
Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
…
We should be wood and were not made to woo.
(Exit DEMETRIUS)
I’ll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,
To die upon the hand I love so well.
(Exit HELENA)
Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove,
Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love.
(Re-enter PUCK, running)
Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.
11.
PUCK
Ay, there it is.
I pray thee, give it me.
(Take flower, walk Puck down right, sit)
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quiteover-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws herenamell’d skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
And with the juice ofthis I’ll streak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantasies.
Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:
A sweet Athenian lady is in love
With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;
But do it when the next thing he espies
May be the lady: thou shalt know the man
By the Atheniangarments he hath on.
Effect it with some care, that he may prove
More fond on her than she upon her love:
And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.
- PUCK*
- Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.*
- (End of scene, exit up, stage left)*
