Tita. What, wilt thou hear some musick, my sweet love? Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in musick: let us have the tongs and the bones. 9 Tita. Or, say, sweet love, what thou desir'st to eat. Bot. Truly, a peck of provender; I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks, I have a great desire to a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow. Tita. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts. Bot. I had rather have a handful, or two, of dried peas. But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me; I have an exposition of sleep come upon me. Tita. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. Fairies, begone, and be always away.1 So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle, 2 O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee! OBERON advances. Enter Puck. [They sleep. Obe. Welcome, good Robin. See'st thou this sweet sight? Her dotage now I do begin to pity. For meeting her of late, behind the wood, 9 1— the tongs-] The old rustick musick of the tongs and key. - and be all ways away.] i. e. disperse yourselves and scout out severally, in your watch, that danger approach us from no quarter. 2 So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle, &c.] What Shakspeare seems to mean, is this So the woodbine, i. e. the sweet honeysuckle, doth gently entwist the barky fingers of the elm, and so does the female ivy enring the same fingers. This passage has given rise to various conjectures. 3 the female ivy-] Though the ivy here represents the female, there is an evident reference in the words enrings and fingers, to the ring of the marriage rite. HENLEY. 4 I did upbraid her, and fall out with her: Be, as thou wast wont to be; [Touching her eyes with an herb. See, as thou wast wont to see: Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower 5 Hath such force and blessed power. Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen. Obe. There lies your love. Tita. How came these things to pass? O, how mine eyes do loath his visage now! 4 -flourets' eyes,] The eye of the flower is the technical term for its center. 5 Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower-] Dian's bud, is the bud of Agnus Castus, or Chaste Tree. Cupid's flower is the Viola Tricolor, or Love in Idleness. Obe. Silence, a while. Robin, take off this head. Titania, musick call; and strike more dead Than common sleep, of all these five the sense. Tita. Musick, ho! musick; such as charmeth sleep. Puck. Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own fool's eyes peep. Obe. Sound, musick. [Still musick.] Come, my queen, take hands with me, And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be. And will, to-morrow midnight, solemnly, There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be Puck. Fairy king, attend, and mark; Obe. Then, my queen, in silence sad, Tita. Come, my lord; and in our flight, That I sleeping here was found, With these mortals, on the ground. [Exeunt: [Horns sound within. Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train. The. Go, one of you, find out the forester; For now our observation is perform'd; 6 † “ prosperity:” — Malone. 6 our observation is perform'd:] The honours due to the morning of May. I know not why Shakspeare calls this play A Midsummer Night's Dream, when he so carefully informs us that it happened on the night preceding May day. JOHNSON. The title of this play seems no more intended to denote the precise time of the action, than that of The Winter's Tale; which we find, was at the season of sheep-shearing. FARMER. |