Page 2647 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

Enter Oberon, the King of Fairies, at one door, with his Train; and
Titania, the Queen, at another, with hers.

OBERON

Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. [60]

T IT ANIA

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

OBERON

Tarry, rash wanton; am not I thy lord?

T IT ANIA

Then I must be thy lady; but I know
When thou hast stol’n 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 step of India,
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, [70]
Your buskin’d 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 Perigouna, whom he ravished;
And make him with fair Aegles break his faith,
With Ariadne and Antiopa? [80]

T IT ANIA

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, [85]