Puck Lines – A Midsummer Nights Dream

Quince: At the Dukes Oath we meet. Act 2 scene 1 How now spirit! Wither wander you?
Fairy: Our queen and all our elves come here anon. The King does keep his revels here tonight Take heed the queen come not within his sight For Oberon is passing fell and wrath, Because that she as her attendant has A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king;She never had so sweet a changeling;And jealous Oberon would have the child Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;But she by force 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 fearCreep into acorn cups and hide them there.
Fairy: Are you not he? You do speak right;I am that merry wanderer of the night. I jest to Oberon and make him smileWhen I a fat and bean fed horse beguile,Neighing in the likeness of a filly foal;And sometime lurk I in a gossips bowl, In the very likeness of a roasted crab,And when she drinks, against her lips I bob And on her on wither’d dewlap pour the ale. The wisest Aunt, telling the saddest tale,Sometime for three foot still mistaketh me;Then slip I from her bum, down topples she, And “ah” she cries, and falls into a cough;And then the whole crowd hold their lips and laugh, And waxen in their mirth and sneeze and swearA merrier hour was never wasted there.But, room fairy here comes Oberon!
Oberon: To hear the sea maids music I remember
Oberon: Before the giant whale can swim a league I’ll put a girdle around the earth in forty minutes! (Exit)
Oberon: Hast thou the flower there? (Enter) Ay here it is.
Oberon: and look thou meet me when the first cock crow Fear not my lord, your servant shall do so.
Hermia: With half that wish the wishers eyes be pressed! Through the forest have I gone, Yet Athenian found I none, On whose eyes might I approve this flowers force in stirring love.Night and silence.—But Who is here? Clothes of Athens does he wear: This is he, my master said, Despised the Athenian maid;And here the maiden, sleeping sound,On the dank and dirty ground. Pretty soul! She does not lie near this lack love, This kill courtesy. Boy, upon your eyes I throw all the power this charm does owe.When you wake, let love forbid sleep his seat on your eyelid:For awake when I am gone; For I must now to Oberon.
Quince: enter into that brake: and so everyone according to his cue. (Enter) What hempen homespuns have we swaggering here, so near the cradle of the fairy queen?
Bottom: and by and by I will to thee appear. A stranger Pyramus than e’er played here. (Exit)
Flute: O, as true as truest horse, that yet would never tire. (Enter with bottom)
Quince: O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted. Pray, masters! fly, masters! Help! I’ll follow you, I’ll lead you about a round, Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier: Sometime a horse I’ll be, sometime a hound,A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire; And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.
Oberon: Which she must dote on in extremity. (Enter Puck)
Oberon: What night-rule now about this haunted grove? My mistress with a monster is in love. Near to her close and consecrated bower, While she was in her dull and sleeping hour, A crew of patches, rude mechanicals, That work for bread upon Athenian stalls, Were met together to rehearse a play Intended for great Theseus’ nuptial-day. The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort, Who Pyramus presented, in their sport Forsook his scene and enter’d in a brake When I did him at this advantage take… (he whispers in his ear) When in that moment, so it came to pass, Titania waked and straightway loved an ass!
Oberon: With the love-juice, as I did bid you do? I took him sleeping,–that is finish’d too,– And the Athenian woman by his side: That, when he waked, of force she must be eyed.
Stand close: this is the same Athenian. “This is the woman, but not this the man,”
Oberon: I’ll charm his eyes against she do appear. I go, I go; look how I go, Swifter than arrow from the Tartar’s bow.
Oberon: Beg of her for remedy. Captain of our fairy band, Helena is here at hand; And the youth, mistook by me, Pleading for a lover’s fee.Shall we their fond pageant see? Lord, what fools these mortals be!
Oberon: This is your negligence: still you mistake, Or else commit your knaveries willfully. Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook. Did not you tell me I should know the man By the Athenian garment be had on?
Oberon: And then I will her charmed eye release From monster’s view, and all things shall be peace. 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.
Lysander: Where are you, proud Demetrius? speak you now. Here, villain; drawn and ready. Where are you?
Demetrius: Lysander! speak again: You runaway, You coward, have you fled? Come, recreant; come, you child;
Demetrius: Yea, are you there? Follow my voice: we’ll try no manhood here.(Exeunt)
Lysander: Come, thou gentle day! (Enter) Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why comest thou not?Come hither: I am here.
Helena: And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow’s eye, Steal me awhile from mine own company. Yet but three? Come one more; Two of both kinds make up four. Here she comes, curst and sad: Cupid is a knavish lad, Thus to make poor females mad.
Hermia: Here will I rest me till the break of day. Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray! On the ground Sleep sound: I’ll apply To your eye, Gentle lover, remedy.(Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER’s eyes)When you wake, Take true delight In the sight Of your former lady’s eye: And the country proverb known, That every man should take his own, In your waking shall be shown: Jack shall have Jill; And all shall be well.
Titania: Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. O, how I love you! how I dote on you! (Enter Puck)
Titania: Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep!(Music and a dance of the fairies for sleep, still) Now, when you wake, with your own fool’s eyes peep.
Oberon: There shall three pairs of faithful lovers be Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity. Fairy king, attend, and mark: I do hear the morning lark.
Hyppolita: The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve: Lovers, to bed; ’tis almost fairy time. (Enter) Now the hungry lion roars, And the wolf behowls the moon; Whilst the heavy ploughman snores, All with weary task fordone. Now it is the time of night That the graves all gaping wide, Every one lets forth his sprite, In the church-way paths to glide: And we fairies, that do run By the triple Hecate’s team, From the presence of the sun, Following darkness like a dream, Now are frolic: not a mouse Shall disturb this hallow’d house: I am sent with broom before, To sweep the dust behind the door.
Oberon: Trip away; make no stay; Meet me all by break of day. If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber’d here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend: if you pardon, we will mend: And, as I am an honest Puck, If we have unearned luck Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue, We will make amends ere long; Else the Puck a liar call; So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends. (Bows and Final Cast Dance)
August 5, 2019