Le Songe d'une nuit d'été
Act II Scene 3.
The herb I show'd thee once:
Whilst the merry sprites are chatting, Oberon | he commands to fetch the flower called « Love-inand Titania accidentally encounter, near the same idleness » : spot.-They renew their wrangling, and to Oberon's request that she give up to him «< the little changeling boy» to be his « henchman», she replies: Set your heart at rest, The fairy land buys not the child of me. His mother was a vot'ress of my order: And, in the spiced Indian air, by night, Full often hath she gossip'd by my side; And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands, Marking the embarked traders on the flood: When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive, And grow big-bellied, with the wanton wind; Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait 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 merchandize.
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;
And, for her sake, I do 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 patienly dance in our round,
And see our moon-light 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 down-right, if I longer stay. Titania leaves him: but, Oberon determines to torment her for this injury. He calls Puck, whom
The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid,
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.
PUCK. I'll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes.
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,
On meddling monkey, or on busy ape),
She shall pursue it with the soul of love.
And ere I take this charm off from her sight
(As I can take it with another herb),
I'll make her render up her page to me.
But who comes here? I am invisible;
And I will overhear their conference.
These are Demetrius and Helena: the latter, in vain, tries to regain Demetrius' affection. Oberon, overhearing the cruel return, the unahappy Helena receives for her tenderness, pities her, and determines, that Demetrius shall, in his turn, feel all the tortures of unrequited love. In the mean time, Puck returns, with his errand, to the king of the Fairies.
Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.
PUCK. Ay, there it is.
OBERON.
I pray thee, give it me,
I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows;
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania, some time of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamel'd skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
And with the juice of this I'll streak her
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 Athenian garments 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.
Oberon finds Titania asleep, and, uttering the following incantation, squeezes the flower on her eyelids.
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 that shall appear
When thou wak'st, it is thy dear;
Wake, when some vile thing is near.
lost their way, are overcome by fatigue, and fall
asleep in the wood, they were crossing, in their flight
from Athens. Puck, ranging about to execute
Oberon's orders, comes athwart the lovers, and sup-
poses he has found the Athenian meant by Oberon.-
Through the forest have I gone,
But Athenian found I none,
On whose eyes I might approve
This flower's force in stirring love.
Night and silence! who is here?
Weeds of Athens he doth wear:
This is he, my master said,
Despised the Athenian maid;
And here the maiden, sleeping sound,
On the dank and dirty ground.
Pretty soul! she durst not lie
Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesey.
Churl, upon thy eyes I throw
All the power this charm doth owe :
When thou wak'st, let love forbid
Sleep his seat on thy eye-lid.
So awake, when I am gone;
For I must now to Oberon.
This is the moment represented in the second design. Shortly afterwards Lysander, awaking, sees Helena, from whom Demetrius has escaped.. The charm instantly operates, and he addresses the most passionate language to Helena, who thinking it mere mockery, on his part, seeks to avoid him; but, he pursues her, leaving Helena, who awakes from a horrid dream, and is dreadfully frighted at
In the mean time, Lysander and Hermia, having finding herself alone in the forest.
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