Midsummer Night's Dream

Robin 

                            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 withered 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 “tailor” cries, and falls into a cough.
And then the whole choir hold their hips and laugh,
And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear
A merrier hour was never wasted there.

Fairy

Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Called Robin Goodfellow. Are not you he
That frights the maidens of the villag’ry,
Skim milk, and sometimes labor 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 not you he?

Robin 

Fairy

[Enter King Oberon and his fairies from one side, Queen Titania and her fairies from the other]

Oberon

Titania

Oberon

Titania

Oberon

Titania

Oberon

Titania

Oberon

Titania

Oberon

Titania

[Exit Titania with her fairies]

Oberon

Robin 

Oberon

Robin 

[Exit Robin]

Oberon

[Enter Demetrius with Helena following him. Oberon remains nearby.]

Demetrius

Helena

Demetrius

Helena

Demetrius

Helena

Demetrius

Helena

Demetrius

Helena

Demetrius

Helena

[Exit Demetrius, Helena following him, leaving Oberon alone on the stage]

Oberon

[Enter Robin with the flower which had been struck by Cupid's bow]

Robin (Puck)

Oberon

[Oberon gives some of the flowers to Robin]

Robin

[Exit Robin and Oberon separately]
[Enter two supernatural spirits from opposite sides of the stage. One is a typical female fairy; the other is a puck, a mischievous spirit, named Robin Goodfellow]

Robin 

How now, spirit? Whither wander you?

Fairy

Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire.
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the Fairy Queen
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see,
Those be rubies, fairy favors;
In those freckles live their savors.
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone.
Our Queen and all her elves come here anon.
[Enter two supernatural spirits from opposite sides of the stage. One is a typical female fairy; the other is a puck, a mischievous spirit, named Robin Goodfellow]

Robin 

How now, spirit? Whither wander you?

Fairy

Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire.
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the Fairy Queen
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see,
Those be rubies, fairy favors;
In those freckles live their savors.
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone.
Our Queen and all her elves come here anon.

Quince

and then you will play barefaced. – But masters, here are
your parts, and I am to entreat you, request you, and
desire you to con them by tomorrow night, and meet me
in the palace wood a mile without the town. By moonlight
There will we rehearse, for if we meet in the city
we shall be dogged with company and our devices
known. In the meantime I will draw a bill of properties
such as our play wants. I pray you fail me not.

Bottom

We will meet, and there we may rehearse most
obscenely and courageously. Take pains; be perfect.
Adieu.

Bottom

Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best
to play it in?

Quince

Why, what you will.

Bottom

I will discharge it in either your straw-color
beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain
beard, or your French-crown-color beard, your perfect
yellow.

Bottom

Let me play the lion too. I will roar that I will do
any man's heart good to hear me. I will roar that I will
make the Duke say “Let him roar again, let him roar
again.”

Quince

An you should do it too terribly you would fright
the Duchess and the ladies that they would shriek, and
that were enough to hang us all.

All

That would hang us, every mother's son.

Bottom

I grant you, friends, if you should fright the ladies
out of their wits, they would have no more discretion but
to hang us, but I will aggravate my voice so that I will
roar you as gently as any sucking dove. I will roar you
an 'twere any nightingale.

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