A Fairy Tale in Two Acts Taken from Shakespeare · William Shakespeare
AIR.
Kingcup, daffodil and rose, Shall the fairy wreath compose; Beauty, sweetness, and delight, Crown our revels of the night: Lightly trip it o'er the green Where the Fairy ring is seen; So no step of earthly tread, Shall of end our Lady's head. Virtue sometimes droops her wing, Beauties bee, may lose her sting; Fairy land can both combine, Roses with the eglantine: Lightly be your measures seen, Deftly footed o'er the green; Nor a spectre's baleful head Peep at our nocturnal tread. Farewel thou lob of spirits, I'll be gone; Our Queen and all her Elves come here anon. Puck. The King doth keep his revels here to-night, Take heed the Queen come not within his sight; For they do square, that all their Elves for fear Creep into acorn-cups, and hide them there. 1st Fai. But why is Oberon so fell and wrath? Puck. Because that she, as her attendant hath A lovely boy stol'n from an Indian King; And she perforce with-holds the changling, Tho' jealous Oberon wou'd have the child Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild. 1st Fai. Or I mistake your shape and making quite, Or else you are that shrewd and knavish Sprite Call'd Robin-good-fellow. Puck. Thou speak'st aright; I am that merry wand'rer of the night: I jest to Oberon, and make him smile, Oft lurk in gossip's bowl, and her beguile 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, Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me; Then slip I from her bum, down topples she, And rails or cries, and falls into a cough, And then the whole choir hold their hips and loffe.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.