Page 2683 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

When they next wake, all this derision [370] (Exit.)
Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision;
And back to Athens shall the lovers wend,
With league whose date till death shall never end.
Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,
I’ll to my queen, and beg her Indian boy; [375]
And then I will her charmed eye release
From monster’s view, and all things shall be peace.

PUCK

My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,
For night’s swift dragons cut the clouds full fast;
And yonder shines Aurora’s harbinger, [380]
At whose approach, ghosts wandering here and there
Troop home to churchyards. Damned spirits all,
That in cross-ways and floods have burial,
Already to their wormy beds are gone,
For fear lest day should look their shames upon: [385]
They wilfully themselves exil’d from light,
And must for aye consort with black-brow’d night.

OBERON

But we are spirits of another sort:
I with the Morning’s love have oft made sport;
And like a forester the groves may tread [390]
Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red,
Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,
Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams.
But notwithstanding, haste, make no delay;
We may effect this business yet ere day. [395]

PUCK

Up and down, up and down,
I will lead them up and down;
I am fear’d in field and town:
Goblin, lead them up and down.
Here comes one. [400]

Enter Lysander.