Page:Midsummer Night's Dream (1918) Yale.djvu/27

Night's Dream, II. i  And jealous Oberon would have the child Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild; But she, perforce, withholds the loved boy, Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy. And now they never meet in grove, or green, By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen, But they do square; that all their elves, for fear, Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there.

Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quite, Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are you not he That frights the maidens of the villagery; Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern, And bootless make the breathless housewife churn; And sometime make the drink to bear no barm; Mislead night wanderers, laughing at their harm? Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck, You do their work, and they shall have good luck: Are you not he?

Puck.Fairy, thou speak'st aright; I am that merry wanderer of the night. I jest to Oberon, and make him smile When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile Neighing in likeness of a filly foal; And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl, In very likeness of a roasted crab; And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale. The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,  25 trace: traverse 29 sheen: bright 30 square: quarrel that: so that 32 making: form 33 shrewd: malicious, mischievous 36 quern: hand-mill for grinding grain 37 bootless: fruitlessly 38 barm: froth 47 gossip's bowl; cf. n. 48 crab: crab-apple 51 saddest: soberest 