TITANIA & OBERON

Scene
Arden 3 | 2017

Enter [OBERON] at one door with his train, and [TITANIA] at another with hers.

OBERON
Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. [60]

TITANIA
What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence.
I have forsworn his bed and company.

OBERON
Tarry, rash wanton. Am not I thy lord?

TITANIA
Then I must be thy lady; but I know
When thou hast stolen away from fairy land [65]
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 steep of India,
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, [70]
Your buskined mistress and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded; and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.

OBERON
How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, [75]
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night
From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
And make him with fair Aegles break his faith,
With Ariadne, and Antiopa? [80]

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 margin of the sea [85]
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge have sucked up from the sea
Contagious fogs, which, falling in the land, [90]
Hath every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents.
The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard. [95]
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock.
The nine men’s morris is filled up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread, are undistinguishable. [100]
The human mortals want their winter here;
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. [105]
And thorough this distemperature, we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds [110]
Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter change
Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which.
And this same progeny of evils comes [115]
From our debate, from our dissension:
We are their parents and original.

OBERON
Do you amend it then; it lies in you.
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy [120]
To be my henchman.

TITANIA
———————-Set your heart at rest.
The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votaress of my order;
And in the spiced Indian air by night,
Full often hath she gossiped by my side, [125]
And sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands
Marking th’embarked traders on the flood,
When we have laughed to see the sails conceive
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,
Which she with pretty and with swimming gait [130]
Following (her womb then rich with my young squire)
Would imitate, and sail upon the land
To fetch me trifles and return again
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die, [135]
And for her sake do I rear up her boy;
And for her sake, I will not part with him.

OBERON
How long within this wood intend you stay?

TITANIA
Perchance till after Theseus’ wedding day.
If you will patiently dance in our round [140]
And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

OBERON
Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.

TITANIA
Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away.
We shall chide downright if I longer stay. [145]

(Exeunt [TITANIA and her train, and OBERON’s train].)

OBERON
Well, go thy way. Thou shalt not from this grove
Till I torment thee for this injury.
My gentle puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back [150]
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 the sea-maid’s music.

ROBIN
——————————-I remember.

OBERON
That very time I saw (but thou couldst not) [155]
Flying between the cold moon and the earth
Cupid, all armed. A certain aim he took
At a fair vestal, throned by west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts. [160]
But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
And the imperial votaress passed on
In maiden meditation, fancy free.
Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell: 165
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 I showed thee once.
The juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid, [170]
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again
Ere the Leviathan can swim a league.

ROBIN
I’ll put a girdle round about the earth [175]
In forty minutes.

[Exit.]

OBERON
——————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, [180]
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. [185]

Top

Words + Pronunciation
Arden 3 | 2006

Mewling: To cry out or whine (O.E.D). to wail almost like a kitten (Arden)

Ballad: A light song that is typically romantic in nature (O.E.D)

Pard: To be or be like a panther or leopard (Crystal) A leopard (Arden)

Quarrel: some dispute or hostility, a complaint against another person (O.E.D)

Bubble Reputation:  Fame and pride that is as fragile and fleeting as a bubble(No Fear Shakespeare)

Justice: An officer of the court or a Judge (O.E.D)

Fair: Nice or well. In context it means well fed. (No Fear Shakespeare) With Justice or honesty (O.E.D)

Capon: A corrupt justice who takes bribes (O.E.D) A castrated cock, a fat chicken to eat (Arden)

Wise saws: Wise words or phrases (No Fear Shakespeare) Sage sayings (Arden)

Modern instances: Relevant and recent information (No Fear Shakespeare) Recent or new arguments, used in a legal case (Arden)

Lean: Alight, poor and gaunt (Crystal)

Slippered: well worn or shoddy (O.E.D)

Pantaloon: The clothes of an old man (Crystal) Baggy trousers worn by old men over their emaciated legs (Arden)

Pouch: A money bag or purse (Crystal)

Hose: A pair of pants (Crystal)

A World: Much (Arden) by a great deal, infinitely, vastly. (O.E.D)

Shrunk: To wither or shrivel (O.E.D)

Shank: Legs (Crystal)

Treble: Multiplied by three time (Crystal) The high pitched voice of a child (Arden)

Pipes: Voice (Crystal)

Whistles: To become quiet or whisper (Crystal) The indistinct articulation of children (Arden)

Mere: Total (Arden) Undiluted (O.E.D)

Top

Pronunciation+

Titania: Tih-TAY-knee-ah or Tie-TAY-knee-ah

Oberon: OWE-burr-on

wanton: WANN-tunn

Phillida: FILL-ih-dah

Hippolyta: Hip-OLL-ih-tah

Theseus: THEESS-ee-uss

Perigenia: Pear-ih-JENN-ya

Aegles: EGG-leez or EGG-less

Ariadne: Arry-ADD-knee

Antiopa: Ann-TIE-oh-pah

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top

Translation
No Fear Shakespeare

OBERON, the Fairy King, and his followers enter. On the opposite side of the stage, TITANIA, the Fairy Queen, and her followers enter.

OBERON
How not nice to see you, Titania.

TITANIA
If you’re my lord and husband, I must be your lady and wife, so you’re supposed to be faithful to me. But I know for a fact that you snuck away from Fairyland disguised as a shepherd, and spent all day playing straw pipes and singing love poems to your new girlfriend. The only reason you left India was to come here and see that butch Amazon Hippolyta. She was your boot-wearing mistress and your warrior lover, and now that she’s getting married to Theseus, you’ve come to celebrate their marriage.

OBERON
How can you stand there shamelessly talking about me and Hippolyta, when you know that I know about your love for Theseus? Weren’t you the one who made him desert Perigouna in the middle of the night, right after he’d raped her? And weren’t you the one who made him cheat on all of his other girlfriends, like Aegles, Ariadne, and Antiopa?

 

 

Top

Assonance
Arden 3 | 2006

Enter [OBERON] at one door with his train, and [TITANIA] at another with hers.

OBERON
Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. [60]

TITANIA
What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence.
I have forsworn his bed and company.

OBERON
Tarry, rash wanton. Am not I thy lord?

TITANIA
Then I must be thy lady; but I know
When thou hast stolen away from fairy land [65]
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 steep of India,
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, [70]
Your buskined mistress and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded; and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.

OBERON
How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, [75]
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night
From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
And make him with fair Aegles break his faith,
With Ariadne, and Antiopa? [80]

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 margin of the sea [85]
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge have sucked up from the sea
Contagious fogs, which, falling in the land, [90]
Hath every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents.
The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard. [95]
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock.
The nine men’s morris is filled up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread, are undistinguishable. [100]
The human mortals want their winter here;
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. [105]
And thorough this distemperature, we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds [110]
Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter change
Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which.
And this same progeny of evils comes [115]
From our debate, from our dissension:
We are their parents and original.

OBERON
Do you amend it then; it lies in you.
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy [120]
To be my henchman.

TITANIA
———————-Set your heart at rest.
The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votaress of my order;
And in the spiced Indian air by night,
Full often hath she gossiped by my side, [125]
And sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands
Marking th’embarked traders on the flood,
When we have laughed to see the sails conceive
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,
Which she with pretty and with swimming gait [130]
Following (her womb then rich with my young squire)
Would imitate, and sail upon the land
To fetch me trifles and return again
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die, [135]
And for her sake do I rear up her boy;
And for her sake, I will not part with him.

OBERON
How long within this wood intend you stay?

TITANIA
Perchance till after Theseus’ wedding day.
If you will patiently dance in our round [140]
And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

OBERON
Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.

TITANIA
Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away.
We shall chide downright if I longer stay. [145]

(Exeunt [TITANIA and her train, and OBERON’s train].)

OBERON
Well, go thy way. Thou shalt not from this grove
Till I torment thee for this injury.
My gentle puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back [150]
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 the sea-maid’s music.

ROBIN
——————————-I remember.

OBERON
That very time I saw (but thou couldst not) [155]
Flying between the cold moon and the earth
Cupid, all armed. A certain aim he took
At a fair vestal, throned by west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts. [160]
But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
And the imperial votaress passed on
In maiden meditation, fancy free.
Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell: 165
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 I showed thee once.
The juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid, [170]
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again
Ere the Leviathan can swim a league.

ROBIN
I’ll put a girdle round about the earth [175]
In forty minutes.

[Exit.]

OBERON
——————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, [180]
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. [185]

Top

Alliteration
Arden 3 | 2006

Enter [OBERON] at one door with his train, and [TITANIA] at another with hers.

OBERON
Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. [60]

TITANIA
What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence.
I have forsworn his bed and company.

OBERON
Tarry, rash wanton. Am not I thy lord?

TITANIA
Then I must be thy lady; but I know
When thou hast stolen away from fairy land [65]
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 steep of India,
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, [70]
Your buskined mistress and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded; and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.

OBERON
How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, [75]
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night
From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
And make him with fair Aegles break his faith,
With Ariadne, and Antiopa? [80]

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 margin of the sea [85]
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge have sucked up from the sea
Contagious fogs, which, falling in the land, [90]
Hath every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents.
The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard. [95]
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock.
The nine men’s morris is filled up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread, are undistinguishable. [100]
The human mortals want their winter here;
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. [105]
And thorough this distemperature, we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds [110]
Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter change
Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which.
And this same progeny of evils comes [115]
From our debate, from our dissension:
We are their parents and original.

OBERON
Do you amend it then; it lies in you.
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy [120]
To be my henchman.

TITANIA
———————-Set your heart at rest.
The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votaress of my order;
And in the spiced Indian air by night,
Full often hath she gossiped by my side, [125]
And sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands
Marking th’embarked traders on the flood,
When we have laughed to see the sails conceive
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,
Which she with pretty and with swimming gait [130]
Following (her womb then rich with my young squire)
Would imitate, and sail upon the land
To fetch me trifles and return again
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die, [135]
And for her sake do I rear up her boy;
And for her sake, I will not part with him.

OBERON
How long within this wood intend you stay?

TITANIA
Perchance till after Theseus’ wedding day.
If you will patiently dance in our round [140]
And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

OBERON
Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.

TITANIA
Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away.
We shall chide downright if I longer stay. [145]

(Exeunt [TITANIA and her train, and OBERON’s train].)

OBERON
Well, go thy way. Thou shalt not from this grove
Till I torment thee for this injury.
My gentle puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back [150]
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 the sea-maid’s music.

ROBIN
——————————-I remember.

OBERON
That very time I saw (but thou couldst not) [155]
Flying between the cold moon and the earth
Cupid, all armed. A certain aim he took
At a fair vestal, throned by west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts. [160]
But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
And the imperial votaress passed on
In maiden meditation, fancy free.
Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell: 165
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 I showed thee once.
The juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid, [170]
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again
Ere the Leviathan can swim a league.

ROBIN
I’ll put a girdle round about the earth [175]
In forty minutes.

[Exit.]

OBERON
——————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, [180]
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. [185]

Top

Consonance
Arden 3 | 2006

Enter [OBERON] at one door with his train, and [TITANIA] at another with hers.

OBERON
Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. [60]

TITANIA
What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence.
I have forsworn his bed and company.

OBERON
Tarry, rash wanton. Am not I thy lord?

TITANIA
Then I must be thy lady; but I know
When thou hast stolen away from fairy land [65]
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 steep of India,
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, [70]
Your buskined mistress and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded; and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.

OBERON
How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, [75]
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night
From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
And make him with fair Aegles break his faith,
With Ariadne, and Antiopa? [80]

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 margin of the sea [85]
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge have sucked up from the sea
Contagious fogs, which, falling in the land, [90]
Hath every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents.
The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard. [95]
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock.
The nine men’s morris is filled up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread, are undistinguishable. [100]
The human mortals want their winter here;
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. [105]
And thorough this distemperature, we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds [110]
Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter change
Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which.
And this same progeny of evils comes [115]
From our debate, from our dissension:
We are their parents and original.

OBERON
Do you amend it then; it lies in you.
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy [120]
To be my henchman.

TITANIA
———————-Set your heart at rest.
The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votaress of my order;
And in the spiced Indian air by night,
Full often hath she gossiped by my side, [125]
And sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands
Marking th’embarked traders on the flood,
When we have laughed to see the sails conceive
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,
Which she with pretty and with swimming gait [130]
Following (her womb then rich with my young squire)
Would imitate, and sail upon the land
To fetch me trifles and return again
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die, [135]
And for her sake do I rear up her boy;
And for her sake, I will not part with him.

OBERON
How long within this wood intend you stay?

TITANIA
Perchance till after Theseus’ wedding day.
If you will patiently dance in our round [140]
And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

OBERON
Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.

TITANIA
Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away.
We shall chide downright if I longer stay. [145]

(Exeunt [TITANIA and her train, and OBERON’s train].)

OBERON
Well, go thy way. Thou shalt not from this grove
Till I torment thee for this injury.
My gentle puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back [150]
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 the sea-maid’s music.

ROBIN
——————————-I remember.

OBERON
That very time I saw (but thou couldst not) [155]
Flying between the cold moon and the earth
Cupid, all armed. A certain aim he took
At a fair vestal, throned by west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts. [160]
But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
And the imperial votaress passed on
In maiden meditation, fancy free.
Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell: 165
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 I showed thee once.
The juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid, [170]
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again
Ere the Leviathan can swim a league.

ROBIN
I’ll put a girdle round about the earth [175]
In forty minutes.

[Exit.]

OBERON
——————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, [180]
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. [185]

Top

Thoughts
Arden 3 | 2006

Enter [OBERON] at one door with his train, and [TITANIA] at another with hers.

OBERON
Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. [60]

TITANIA
What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence.
I have forsworn his bed and company.

OBERON
Tarry, rash wanton. Am not I thy lord?

TITANIA
Then I must be thy lady; but I know
When thou hast stolen away from fairy land [65]
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 steep of India,
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, [70]
Your buskined mistress and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded; and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.

OBERON
How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, [75]
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night
From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
And make him with fair Aegles break his faith,
With Ariadne, and Antiopa? [80]

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 margin of the sea [85]
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge have sucked up from the sea
Contagious fogs, which, falling in the land, [90]
Hath every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents.
The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard. [95]
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock.
The nine men’s morris is filled up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread, are undistinguishable. [100]
The human mortals want their winter here;
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. [105]
And thorough this distemperature, we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds [110]
Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter change
Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which.
And this same progeny of evils comes [115]
From our debate, from our dissension:
We are their parents and original.

OBERON
Do you amend it then; it lies in you.
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy [120]
To be my henchman.

TITANIA
———————-Set your heart at rest.
The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votaress of my order;
And in the spiced Indian air by night,
Full often hath she gossiped by my side, [125]
And sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands
Marking th’embarked traders on the flood,
When we have laughed to see the sails conceive
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,
Which she with pretty and with swimming gait [130]
Following (her womb then rich with my young squire)
Would imitate, and sail upon the land
To fetch me trifles and return again
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die, [135]
And for her sake do I rear up her boy;
And for her sake, I will not part with him.

OBERON
How long within this wood intend you stay?

TITANIA
Perchance till after Theseus’ wedding day.
If you will patiently dance in our round [140]
And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

OBERON
Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.

TITANIA
Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away.
We shall chide downright if I longer stay. [145]

(Exeunt [TITANIA and her train, and OBERON’s train].)

OBERON
Well, go thy way. Thou shalt not from this grove
Till I torment thee for this injury.
My gentle puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back [150]
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 the sea-maid’s music.

ROBIN
——————————-I remember.

OBERON
That very time I saw (but thou couldst not) [155]
Flying between the cold moon and the earth
Cupid, all armed. A certain aim he took
At a fair vestal, throned by west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts. [160]
But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
And the imperial votaress passed on
In maiden meditation, fancy free.
Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell: 165
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 I showed thee once.
The juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid, [170]
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again
Ere the Leviathan can swim a league.

ROBIN
I’ll put a girdle round about the earth [175]
In forty minutes.

[Exit.]

OBERON
——————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, [180]
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. [185]

Top

Thought Count
Arden 3 | 2006

Thoughts |TBD

Short: 2 | 5
Medium: 2 | 5
Long: 2 | 1
Total: 5 | 11

Complex: 2 | 2,6

End-stopped: 2 | 6
Mid-line: 3 | 5

Periods: 5
Exclamations: 0
Questions: 0
Unfinished: 0

Top

Rhythm
Arden 3 | 2006

Enter [OBERON] at one door with his train, and [TITANIA] at another with hers.

OBERON
Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. [60]

TITANIA
What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence.
I have forsworn his bed and company.

OBERON
Tarry, rash wanton. Am not I thy lord?

TITANIA
Then I must be thy lady; but I know
When thou hast stolen away from fairy land [65]
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 steep of India,
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, [70]
Your buskined mistress and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded; and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.

OBERON
How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, [75]
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night
From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
And make him with fair Aegles break his faith,
With Ariadne, and Antiopa? [80]

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 margin of the sea [85]
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge have sucked up from the sea
Contagious fogs, which, falling in the land, [90]
Hath every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents.
The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard. [95]
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock.
The nine men’s morris is filled up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread, are undistinguishable. [100]
The human mortals want their winter here;
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. [105]
And thorough this distemperature, we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds [110]
Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter change
Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which.
And this same progeny of evils comes [115]
From our debate, from our dissension:
We are their parents and original.

OBERON
Do you amend it then; it lies in you.
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy [120]
To be my henchman.

TITANIA
———————-Set your heart at rest.
The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votaress of my order;
And in the spiced Indian air by night,
Full often hath she gossiped by my side, [125]
And sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands
Marking th’embarked traders on the flood,
When we have laughed to see the sails conceive
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,
Which she with pretty and with swimming gait [130]
Following (her womb then rich with my young squire)
Would imitate, and sail upon the land
To fetch me trifles and return again
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die, [135]
And for her sake do I rear up her boy;
And for her sake, I will not part with him.

OBERON
How long within this wood intend you stay?

TITANIA
Perchance till after Theseus’ wedding day.
If you will patiently dance in our round [140]
And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

OBERON
Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.

TITANIA
Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away.
We shall chide downright if I longer stay. [145]

(Exeunt [TITANIA and her train, and OBERON’s train].)

OBERON
Well, go thy way. Thou shalt not from this grove
Till I torment thee for this injury.
My gentle puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back [150]
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 the sea-maid’s music.

ROBIN
——————————-I remember.

OBERON
That very time I saw (but thou couldst not) [155]
Flying between the cold moon and the earth
Cupid, all armed. A certain aim he took
At a fair vestal, throned by west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts. [160]
But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
And the imperial votaress passed on
In maiden meditation, fancy free.
Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell: 165
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 I showed thee once.
The juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid, [170]
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again
Ere the Leviathan can swim a league.

ROBIN
I’ll put a girdle round about the earth [175]
In forty minutes.

[Exit.]

OBERON
——————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, [180]
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. [185]

Top

Pacing
Arden 3 | 2006

Enter [OBERON] at one door with his train, and [TITANIA] at another with hers.

OBERON
Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. [60]

TITANIA
What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence.
I have forsworn his bed and company.

OBERON
Tarry, rash wanton. Am not I thy lord?

TITANIA
Then I must be thy lady; but I know
When thou hast stolen away from fairy land [65]
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 steep of India,
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, [70]
Your buskined mistress and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded; and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.

OBERON
How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, [75]
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night
From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
And make him with fair Aegles break his faith,
With Ariadne, and Antiopa? [80]

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 margin of the sea [85]
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge have sucked up from the sea
Contagious fogs, which, falling in the land, [90]
Hath every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents.
The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard. [95]
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock.
The nine men’s morris is filled up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread, are undistinguishable. [100]
The human mortals want their winter here;
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. [105]
And thorough this distemperature, we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds [110]
Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter change
Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which.
And this same progeny of evils comes [115]
From our debate, from our dissension:
We are their parents and original.

OBERON
Do you amend it then; it lies in you.
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy [120]
To be my henchman.

TITANIA
———————-Set your heart at rest.
The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votaress of my order;
And in the spiced Indian air by night,
Full often hath she gossiped by my side, [125]
And sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands
Marking th’embarked traders on the flood,
When we have laughed to see the sails conceive
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,
Which she with pretty and with swimming gait [130]
Following (her womb then rich with my young squire)
Would imitate, and sail upon the land
To fetch me trifles and return again
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die, [135]
And for her sake do I rear up her boy;
And for her sake, I will not part with him.

OBERON
How long within this wood intend you stay?

TITANIA
Perchance till after Theseus’ wedding day.
If you will patiently dance in our round [140]
And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

OBERON
Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.

TITANIA
Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away.
We shall chide downright if I longer stay. [145]

(Exeunt [TITANIA and her train, and OBERON’s train].)

OBERON
Well, go thy way. Thou shalt not from this grove
Till I torment thee for this injury.
My gentle puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back [150]
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 the sea-maid’s music.

ROBIN
——————————-I remember.

OBERON
That very time I saw (but thou couldst not) [155]
Flying between the cold moon and the earth
Cupid, all armed. A certain aim he took
At a fair vestal, throned by west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts. [160]
But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
And the imperial votaress passed on
In maiden meditation, fancy free.
Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell: 165
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 I showed thee once.
The juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid, [170]
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again
Ere the Leviathan can swim a league.

ROBIN
I’ll put a girdle round about the earth [175]
In forty minutes.

[Exit.]

OBERON
——————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, [180]
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. [185]

Top

Beats
Arden 3 | 2006

Enter [OBERON] at one door with his train, and [TITANIA] at another with hers.

OBERON
Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. [60]

TITANIA
What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence.
I have forsworn his bed and company.

OBERON
Tarry, rash wanton. Am not I thy lord?

TITANIA
Then I must be thy lady; but I know
When thou hast stolen away from fairy land [65]
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 steep of India,
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, [70]
Your buskined mistress and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded; and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.

OBERON
How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, [75]
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night
From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
And make him with fair Aegles break his faith,
With Ariadne, and Antiopa? [80]

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 margin of the sea [85]
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge have sucked up from the sea
Contagious fogs, which, falling in the land, [90]
Hath every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents.
The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard. [95]
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock.
The nine men’s morris is filled up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread, are undistinguishable. [100]
The human mortals want their winter here;
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. [105]
And thorough this distemperature, we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds [110]
Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter change
Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which.
And this same progeny of evils comes [115]
From our debate, from our dissension:
We are their parents and original.

OBERON
Do you amend it then; it lies in you.
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy [120]
To be my henchman.

TITANIA
———————-Set your heart at rest.
The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votaress of my order;
And in the spiced Indian air by night,
Full often hath she gossiped by my side, [125]
And sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands
Marking th’embarked traders on the flood,
When we have laughed to see the sails conceive
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,
Which she with pretty and with swimming gait [130]
Following (her womb then rich with my young squire)
Would imitate, and sail upon the land
To fetch me trifles and return again
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die, [135]
And for her sake do I rear up her boy;
And for her sake, I will not part with him.

OBERON
How long within this wood intend you stay?

TITANIA
Perchance till after Theseus’ wedding day.
If you will patiently dance in our round [140]
And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

OBERON
Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.

TITANIA
Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away.
We shall chide downright if I longer stay. [145]

(Exeunt [TITANIA and her train, and OBERON’s train].)

OBERON
Well, go thy way. Thou shalt not from this grove
Till I torment thee for this injury.
My gentle puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back [150]
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 the sea-maid’s music.

ROBIN
——————————-I remember.

OBERON
That very time I saw (but thou couldst not) [155]
Flying between the cold moon and the earth
Cupid, all armed. A certain aim he took
At a fair vestal, throned by west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts. [160]
But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
And the imperial votaress passed on
In maiden meditation, fancy free.
Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell: 165
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 I showed thee once.
The juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid, [170]
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again
Ere the Leviathan can swim a league.

ROBIN
I’ll put a girdle round about the earth [175]
In forty minutes.

[Exit.]

OBERON
——————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, [180]
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. [185]

Top

Rhetoric
Arden 3 | 2006

Enter [OBERON] at one door with his train, and [TITANIA] at another with hers.

OBERON
Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. [60]

TITANIA
What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence.
I have forsworn his bed and company.

OBERON
Tarry, rash wanton. Am not I thy lord?

TITANIA
Then I must be thy lady; but I know
When thou hast stolen away from fairy land [65]
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 steep of India,
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, [70]
Your buskined mistress and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded; and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.

OBERON
How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, [75]
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night
From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
And make him with fair Aegles break his faith,
With Ariadne, and Antiopa? [80]

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 margin of the sea [85]
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge have sucked up from the sea
Contagious fogs, which, falling in the land, [90]
Hath every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents.
The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard. [95]
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock.
The nine men’s morris is filled up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread, are undistinguishable. [100]
The human mortals want their winter here;
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. [105]
And thorough this distemperature, we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds [110]
Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter change
Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which.
And this same progeny of evils comes [115]
From our debate, from our dissension:
We are their parents and original.

OBERON
Do you amend it then; it lies in you.
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy [120]
To be my henchman.

TITANIA
———————-Set your heart at rest.
The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votaress of my order;
And in the spiced Indian air by night,
Full often hath she gossiped by my side, [125]
And sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands
Marking th’embarked traders on the flood,
When we have laughed to see the sails conceive
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,
Which she with pretty and with swimming gait [130]
Following (her womb then rich with my young squire)
Would imitate, and sail upon the land
To fetch me trifles and return again
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die, [135]
And for her sake do I rear up her boy;
And for her sake, I will not part with him.

OBERON
How long within this wood intend you stay?

TITANIA
Perchance till after Theseus’ wedding day.
If you will patiently dance in our round [140]
And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

OBERON
Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.

TITANIA
Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away.
We shall chide downright if I longer stay. [145]

(Exeunt [TITANIA and her train, and OBERON’s train].)

OBERON
Well, go thy way. Thou shalt not from this grove
Till I torment thee for this injury.
My gentle puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back [150]
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 the sea-maid’s music.

ROBIN
——————————-I remember.

OBERON
That very time I saw (but thou couldst not) [155]
Flying between the cold moon and the earth
Cupid, all armed. A certain aim he took
At a fair vestal, throned by west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts. [160]
But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
And the imperial votaress passed on
In maiden meditation, fancy free.
Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell: 165
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 I showed thee once.
The juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid, [170]
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again
Ere the Leviathan can swim a league.

ROBIN
I’ll put a girdle round about the earth [175]
In forty minutes.

[Exit.]

OBERON
——————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, [180]
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. [185]

Top

Scene
Arden 3 | 2006 | 215-233

Enter [OBERON] at one door with his train, and [TITANIA] at another with hers.

OBERON
Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. [60]

TITANIA
What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence.
I have forsworn his bed and company.

OBERON
Tarry, rash wanton. Am not I thy lord?

TITANIA
Then I must be thy lady; but I know
When thou hast stolen away from fairy land [65]
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 steep of India,
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, [70]
Your buskined mistress and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded; and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.

OBERON
How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, [75]
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night
From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
And make him with fair Aegles break his faith,
With Ariadne, and Antiopa? [80]

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 margin of the sea [85]
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge have sucked up from the sea
Contagious fogs, which, falling in the land, [90]
Hath every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents.
The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard. [95]
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock.
The nine men’s morris is filled up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread, are undistinguishable. [100]
The human mortals want their winter here;
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. [105]
And thorough this distemperature, we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds [110]
Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter change
Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which.
And this same progeny of evils comes [115]
From our debate, from our dissension:
We are their parents and original.

OBERON
Do you amend it then; it lies in you.
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy [120]
To be my henchman.

TITANIA
———————-Set your heart at rest.
The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votaress of my order;
And in the spiced Indian air by night,
Full often hath she gossiped by my side, [125]
And sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands
Marking th’embarked traders on the flood,
When we have laughed to see the sails conceive
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,
Which she with pretty and with swimming gait [130]
Following (her womb then rich with my young squire)
Would imitate, and sail upon the land
To fetch me trifles and return again
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die, [135]
And for her sake do I rear up her boy;
And for her sake, I will not part with him.

OBERON
How long within this wood intend you stay?

TITANIA
Perchance till after Theseus’ wedding day.
If you will patiently dance in our round [140]
And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

OBERON
Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.

TITANIA
Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away.
We shall chide downright if I longer stay. [145]

(Exeunt [TITANIA and her train, and OBERON’s train].)

OBERON
Well, go thy way. Thou shalt not from this grove
Till I torment thee for this injury.
My gentle puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back [150]
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 the sea-maid’s music.

ROBIN
——————————-I remember.

OBERON
That very time I saw (but thou couldst not) [155]
Flying between the cold moon and the earth
Cupid, all armed. A certain aim he took
At a fair vestal, throned by west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts. [160]
But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
And the imperial votaress passed on
In maiden meditation, fancy free.
Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell: 165
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 I showed thee once.
The juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid, [170]
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again
Ere the Leviathan can swim a league.

ROBIN
I’ll put a girdle round about the earth [175]
In forty minutes.

[Exit.]

OBERON
——————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, [180]
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. [185]

Top