Call You fair That Fair Again the Wildest Hath Not Such a Heart as You

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A Midsummer Nighttime's Dream: Act 2, Scene 1

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3.Thorough: Through. iv.stake: enclosure.

  Enter a FAIRY at i door
and ROBIN GOODFELLOW [PUCK]
at another.

PUCK
  1How now, spirit! whither wander you?

Fairy
  two Over hill, over dale,
  3 Thorough bush-league, thorough bramble,
  four Over park, over stake,
  5 Thorough flood, thorough fire,
  6 I practice wander everywhere,

7.sphere: In the Ptolemaic organization of astronomy, the moon and the other heavenly bodies were thought to revolve about the globe stock-still in transparent spheres. 9.orbs: circles, i.e., make fairy rings out of night grass. ten.pensioners: Members of the royal babysitter 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 dark-green.
 x The cowslips tall her pensioners be:
 11 In their gold coats spots you encounter;

12.favors: gifts; love tokens.

 12 Those be rubies, fairy favors,

cowslips

13.freckles: i.east., the cowslip "spots" mentioned before. savors: sweet scents, perfumes.
16.lob: country bumpkin.
17.betimes: at once.

 thirteen In those freckles live their savors.
 xivI must go seek some dewdrops here
 15And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
 16Good day, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone:
 17Our queen and all our elves come hither betimes.

PUCK
 eighteenThe king doth keep his revels here tonight:
 19Take heed the queen come up not within his sight;

20.passing fell and wrath: exceedingly trigger-happy and angry.

 20For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,
 21Because that she as her attendant hath
 22A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian rex;

23.changeling: child exchanged for some other past fairies.
25.trace: range through.
26.perforce: forcibly.

 23She never had and then sweet a changeling;
 24And jealous Oberon would have the kid
 25Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;
 26Just she perforce withholds the loved boy,
 27Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy.
 28And now they never meet in grove or dark-green,

29.fountain: spring.

 29By fountain articulate, or spangled starlight sheen,

xxx.square: quarrel. that: so that.

 30But, they practice square, that all their elves for fear

31.them: themselves.

 31Creep into acorn-cups and hide them at that place.

Fairy

32.making: form.

 32Either I mistake your shape and making quite,

33.shrewd: mischievous. sprite: spirit.

 33Or else y'all are that shrewd and knavish sprite
 34Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he

35.villagery: village folk, peasantry.

 35That 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.one-time: at times. froth: frothy head on a tankard of ale.

 36Skim milk, and sometimes labor in the quern
 37And abortive make the breathless huswife churn;
 38And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;
 39Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?

40.Hobgoblin: A mischievous, tricksy imp or sprite; another proper noun for Puck or Robin Goodfellow; hence a terrifying apparition or bogy. —OED

 xlThose that Hobgoblin call y'all and sweet Puck,
 41You practise their piece of work, and they shall accept expert luck:
 42Are non you he?

Tucci as Puck, 1999

47.gossip's: garrulous old woman'south. 48.crab: crab apple.

50.dewlap: loose pare on the neck. 51.aunt: old woman, gossip. saddest: nigh serious; soberest.

PUCK
 42                       Yard speak'st aright;
 43I am that merry wanderer of the night.
 44I jest to Oberon and make him smile
 45When I a fat and bean-fed horse betray,
 46Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
 47And erstwhile lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
 48In very likeness of a roasted crab,
 49And when she drinks, confronting her lips I bob
 50And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.
 51The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
 52Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
 53Then sideslip 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 considering she falls on her "tail." 55.quire: choir; i.due east., company. 56.waxen: increase. neeze: sneeze. 57.wasted: spent.

 54And "tailor" cries, and falls into a coughing;
 55And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
 56And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear
 57A merrier hour was never wasted there.
 58But, room, fairy! hither comes Oberon.

Fairy

 59And 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
 60Ill met past moonlight, proud Titania.

TITANIA
 61What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence:

62.forsworn: normally falsely sworn, merely in this case, sworn off.

 62I have forsworn his bed and visitor.

OBERON

63.rash wanton: impetuous and willful animal.

 63Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?

TITANIA
 64Then I must be thy lady: but I know
 65When chiliad 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 proper noun of a lover in pastoral poetry. 69.steep: mountain range.

 66And in the shape of Corin sat all mean solar day,
 67Playing on pipes of corn and versing love
 68To dotty Phillida. Why art g hither,
 69Come from the farthest steep of India?

70.forsooth: in truth; truly.

 70Merely that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,

71.buskin'd: wearing buskins or half-boots.

 71Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior dearest,
 72To Theseus must be wedded, and you come
 73To requite their bed joy and prosperity.

OBERON
 74How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,

75.Glance at my credit with Hippolyta: make derogatory insinuations most my relationship with Hippolyta.

 75Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,
 76Knowing I know thy honey to Theseus?
 77Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering dark

78.Perigenia: Perigouna, daughter of the brigand Sinis. On his journey to Athens to claim his . . . more than 79.Aegles: Aegle, a nymph for whose beloved Theseus, in some accounts, deserted Ariadne. 80.Ariadne: daughter of Minos, king of Crete. Having slain the Minotaur with her help . . . more

 78From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
 79And make him with fair Aegles break his faith,
 fourscoreWith Ariadne and Antiopa?

TITANIA

81.forgeries: i.e., fantastic lies. Titania accused Oberon of loving Hippolyta; Oberon . . . more 82.center summer'south spring: beginning of midsummer.

 81These are the forgeries of jealousy:
 82And never, since the heart summer'southward spring,
 83Met we on hill, in dale, wood or mead,

84.paved fountain: spring with pebbled bottom. rushy: edged with rushes. 85.in: on. margent: margin, edge.

 84By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
 85Or in the beached margent of the ocean,

86.ringlets: round dances.

 86To dance our ringlets to the whistling current of air,

87.brawls: noisy quarrels.

 87But with thy brawls chiliad hast disturb'd our sport.
 88Therefore the winds, piping to united states in vain,
 89As in revenge, have suck'd upwardly from the sea

90.Contagious: Noxious.

 xcContagious fogs; which falling in the land

91.pelting: (1) pelting; (2) paltry.

 91Have every pelting river made so proud

92.overborne their continents: overflowed their banks.

 92That they have overborne their continents:
 93The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,

94.green: immature. corn: grain (wheat, barley, oats, etc.) 95.ere: before. his: its.

 94The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
 95Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard;

the fold stands empty

96.fold: pen for sheep or cattle. 97.murrion: i.e., expressionless of the murrain, an animal plague. 98.ix men's morris: A board . . . more 99-100. the quaint . . . undistinguishable: the ingenious . . . more than 101.want: lack. —It seems that Oberon'southward quarrel with Titania has confused the seasons. . . . more 103.Therefore: —Equally previously, this means "considering of your quarreling with me."
105.rheumatic diseases: colds, flu, and all diseases idea to be the upshot of excessive wet. 106.distemperature: (1) disturbance in the natural gild; (2) unpredictable, foul moods.

 96The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
 97And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;
 98The 9 men'southward morris is fill'd up with mud,
 99And the quaint mazes in the wanton dark-green
100For lack of tread are undistinguishable:
101The man mortals desire their wintertime here;
102No night is now with hymn or ballad blest:
103Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
104Pale in her acrimony, washes all the air,
105That rheumatic diseases do grow:
106And thorough this distemperature nosotros see
107The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
108Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,

109.Hiems': —Hiems is the personification of winter.

109And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown

110.chaplet: wreath.

110An odorous beads of sweet summer buds
111Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summertime,

112.childing: fruitful.

112The childing autumn, angry winter, alter

113.wonted liveries: customary apparel. mazed: bewildered, confused. 114.their increase: their fruits, what they produce. —Before, Titania said that flowers are budding in wintertime. 116.debate: disagreement. quarrelling.

113Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,
114By their increase, now knows not which is which:
115And this same progeny of evils comes
116From our contend, from our dissension;

117.original: origin.

117We are their parents and original.

OBERON
118Practice you lot ameliorate it so; it lies in you:

119.cross: thwart.

119Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
120I do just beg a fiddling changeling boy,

121.henchman: bellboy, page of honor.

121To be my henchman.

TITANIA

121.Set your heart at rest: i.e., Give upward that notion.

121                              Prepare your center at residuum:
122The fairy country buys non the kid of me.

123.votaress: a female person votary (ane who is spring by vows to a religious life); esp. a woman devoted to a special saint.

123His mother was a votaress of my club:
124And, in the spiced Indian air, past night,

125.gossip'd past my side: kept me congenial company. 126. Neptune: god of the body of water . . . more 127.traders: trading vessels. flood: sea.
129.wanton: sportive, amorous.

125Full often hath she gossip'd by my side,
126And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,
127Marking the embarked traders on the flood,
128When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive
129And abound big-bellied with the wanton wind;
130Which she, with pretty and with pond gait
131Following,—her womb then rich with my young squire,—
132Would imitate, and canvas upon the country,
133To fetch me trifles, and return again,
134Equally from a voyage, rich with trade.
135But she, being mortal, of that male child did die;
136And for her sake practice I rear up her boy,
137And for her sake I will not office with him.

OBERON
138How long within this forest intend you lot stay?

TITANIA
139Possibly till after Theseus' wedding-day.

140.circular: circular dance.

140If you will patiently dance in our circular
141And encounter our moonlight revels, become with us;

142.spare: shun, stay away from.

142If not, shun me, and I volition spare your haunts.

OBERON
143Give me that male child, and I will go with thee.

TITANIA
144Non for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, abroad!

145.admonish: quarrel.

145Nosotros shall admonish downright, if I longer stay.

  Exeunt [TITANIA with her TRAIN].

OBERON

146.from: get from. 147.injury: affront.

149.Since: When. 149-150. once . . . back
151.jiff: voice, music. 152.rude: crude, boisterous. ceremonious: well-behaved, gentle.

146Well, go thy way: m shalt not from this grove
147Till I torment thee for this injury.
148My gentle Puck, come up hither. Thou rememberest
149Since once I sat upon a promontory,
150And heard a mermaid on a dolphin'due south back
151Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
152That the rude sea grew ceremonious at her vocal
153And sure stars shot madly from their spheres,
154To hear the bounding main-maid's music.

PUCK
154                                          I remember.

OBERON
155That very time I saw, only thou couldst non,
156Flying between the cold moon and the earth,

157.all: fully, completely.

157Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took

158.vestal: i.due east., vestal virgin. Lines 157-164 have long been considered to exist a compliment to Queen Elizabeth, celebrating her condition as a Virgin Queen. 160.As it should: As if it would. 161.might: could.

158At a off-white vestal throned past the west,
159And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
160As it should pierce a hundred m hearts;
161Only I might see young Cupid'south fiery shaft

162.moon: i.e., Diana, the virgin goddess, whose votaress the "fair vestal" is.

162Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
163And the imperial votaress passed on,

164.fancy-free: complimentary of love's spell or dearest-thoughts.

164In maiden meditation, fancy-complimentary.

165.bolt: arrow.

165Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid savage:
166It savage upon a little western flower,
167Before milk-white, now purple with love'south wound,

168.love-in-idleness: a name for the pansy or heartsease.

love-in-idleness purple with beloved's wound

171.or ... or: either ... or.

174.leviathan: gigantic body of water-beast.

175-176. I'll put a girdle round virtually the earth / In forty minutes: i.e., I'll circle the earth in a few moments.

168And maidens phone call it dearest-in-idleness.
169Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once:
170The juice of information technology on sleeping eye-lids laid
171Will brand or human or woman madly dote
172Upon the side by side live creature that it sees.
173Fetch me this herb; and be thou here once more
174Ere the leviathan can swim a league.

PUCK
175I'll put a girdle round about the earth
176In 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.

177I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,
178And drop the liquor of information technology in her eyes.
179The adjacent thing then she waking looks upon,
180Exist information technology on lion, acquit, or wolf, or bull,
181On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,
182She shall pursue it with the soul of love:

183.ere: before.

183And ere I take this charm from off her sight,
184As I can have it with another herb,
185I'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.

186Only who comes here? I am invisible;
187And I will overhear their conference.

  Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA
  following him.

DEMETRIUS
188I dear thee not, therefore pursue me not.
189Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?
190The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.
191Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this forest;

192.wode: mad. —Pronounced "wood."

192And here am I, and wode inside this wood,
193Considering I cannot meet my Hermia.
194Hence, become thee gone, and follow me no more.

HELENA

195.adamant: lodestone, magnet. —Also, determined was idea to be the hardest of all stones. 196.y'all draw not iron: i.e., what you draw (my center) is not fe, but steel of the finest, truest atmosphere. 197.Leave: give upwards.

195You lot depict me, you hard-hearted adamant;
196But yet yous draw not atomic number 26, for my heart
197Is truthful as steel: get out you your power to draw,
198And I shall have no ability to follow you.

DEMETRIUS

199.fair: courteously.

199Do I entice you? do I speak yous fair?
200Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth

I am your spaniel

206.Fail: Ignore.

201Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?

HELENA
202And fifty-fifty for that do I love you the more than.
203I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,
204The more y'all vanquish me, I volition fawn on you:
205Apply me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
206Neglect me, lose me; only give me go out,
207Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
208What worser identify can I beg in your beloved,—
209And yet a identify of high respect with me,—
210Than to exist used equally you lot use your dog?

DEMETRIUS

211.Tempt: try, put to the test.

211Tempt non as well much the hatred of my spirit;
212For I am sick when I do wait on thee.

HELENA
213And I am sick when I wait not on you.

DEMETRIUS

214.impeach your modesty: call into question your good sense and morality. Every bit becomes clear in the post-obit lines, Demetrius is accusing Helena of being sluttish, because she follows him into the forest in the dark, where he could hands forcefulness sex upon her. 218.ill counsel of a desert place: evil ideas that come to heed in a deserted place.

214You lot practise impeach your modesty as well much,
215To exit the city and commit yourself
216Into the hands of one that loves you not;
217To trust the opportunity of night
218And the ill counsel of a desert place
219With the rich worth of your virginity.

HELENA

220.Your virtue is my privilege: (1) your goodness is my safeguard; (two) your attractiveness is my justification. For that: Because.

220Your virtue is my privilege. For that
221Information technology is not night when I do come across your face,
222Therefore I think I am not in the night;
223Nor doth this forest lack worlds of visitor,

224.in my respect: as far as I am concerned.

224For y'all in my respect are all the globe:
225Then how can it exist said I am alone,

227.brakes: thickets.

231.Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase: Daphne . . . more 232.griffin: fabulous monster with the trunk of a lion and the head of an eagle. hind: female deer. 233.bootless: vain, useless.

226When all the globe is hither to look on me?

DEMETRIUS
227I'll run from thee and hibernate me in the brakes,
228And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.

HELENA
229The wildest hath not such a heart as y'all.
230Run when you will, the story shall be inverse:
231Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
232The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
233Makes speed to catch the tiger — bootless speed,
234When cowardice pursues and valor flies.

DEMETRIUS

235.stay thy questions: wait around to listen to your arguments.

235I volition not stay thy questions; let me go:
236Or, if thou follow me, practise non believe

237.I shall exercise thee mischief: —Demetrius is threatening to rape her; he has made that threat before without making much of an impression on the desperate Helena.

237Simply I shall do thee mischief in the wood.

HELENA
238Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
239You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!

240.Your wrongs do set up a scandal on my sexual practice: —Helena believes that Demetrius should be wooing her, and that because he is making her woo him, he is disrespecting all women.

240Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:
241Nosotros cannot fight for love, as men may practice;
242We should be woo'd and were not fabricated to woo.

 [Exit DEMETRIUS.]

243I'll follow thee and brand a heaven of hell,

244.upon: by.

244To die upon the paw I love so well.

 [Exit HELENA.]

OBERON
245Fare thee well, nymph: ere he practise leave this grove,
246Chiliad shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love.

  Enter PUCK.

wild thyme blows

249.wild thyme blows: wild thyme blooms.

luscious woodbine

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.

247Hast thousand the blossom at that place? Welcome, wanderer.

PUCK
248Ay, there information technology is.

OBERON
248                               I pray thee, give it me.
249I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
250Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
251Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
252With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
253There sleeps Titania sometime of the nighttime,
254Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
255And at that place the snake throws her enamell'd peel,
257And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,
258And make her full of hateful fantasies.
259Take grand some of it, and seek through this grove:
260A sweetness Athenian lady is in love

eglantine

266.fond on: infatuated with.

261With a disdainful youth: bless his eyes;
262But do it when the next thing he espies
263May be the lady: thou shalt know the man
264By the Athenian garments he hath on.
265Effect information technology with some care, that he may prove
266More fond on her than she upon her dear:
267And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.

PUCK
268Fearfulness not, my lord, your retainer shall do so.

  Exeunt.

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