Page 2690 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. (Exeunt Fairies.)
Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away. [40] (They sleep.)

So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle
Gently entwist; the female ivy so
Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.
O how I love thee! How I dote on thee!

Enter Puck.

OBERON

(advancing)
Welcome, good Robin. Seest thou this sweet sight? [45]
Her dotage now I do begin to pity;
For, meeting her of late behind the wood
Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool,
I did upbraid her and fall out with her:
For she his hairy temples then had rounded [50]
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
And that same dew, which sometime on the buds
Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flowerets’ eyes
Like tears, that did their own disgrace bewail. [55]
When I had at my pleasure taunted her,
And she in mild terms begg’d my patience,
I then did ask her of her changeling child;
Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent
To bear him to my bower in fairy land. [60]
And now I have the boy, I will undo
This hateful imperfection of her eyes.
And gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp
From off the head of this Athenian swain,
That he awaking when the other do, [65]
May all to Athens back again repair,
And think no more of this night’s accidents
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
But first I will release the fairy queen.
(Squeezes the juice on her eyelids.)
Be as thou wast wont to be; [70]
See as thou wast wont to see: