Swift as a shadow, short as any dream; Brief as the lightning in the collied* night, ASSIGNATION. I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow; By that which knitteth souls, and prospers loves; THE MOON. When Phoebe doth behold Her silver visage in the wat'ry glass, LOVE. Things base and vile, holding no quantity, Love can transpose to form and dignity. Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind: Nor hath love's mind of any judgment taste ; Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste: And therefore is love said to be a child, Because in choice he is so oft beguil'd. As waggish boys in game† themselves forswear, So the boy love is perjur'd every where. PUCK. 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, + Sport. * Black. Neighing in likeness of a silly foal: And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob, And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe ; FAIRY JEALOUSY, AND THE EFFECTS of it. These are the forgeries of jealousy: And never, since the middle summer's spring, Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead, By paved fountain, or by rushy brook, Or on the beached margent of the sea, To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind, But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport. Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain, As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea Contagious fogs; which falling in the land, Have every pelting † river made so proud, That they have overborne their continents; The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain, The ploughman lost his sweat; and the green corn Hath rotted, ere his youth attain'd a beard: The fold stands empty in the drowned field, And crows are fatted with the murrain flock; The nine men's morris § is fill'd up with mud; And the quaint mazes in the wanton green, For lack of tread are undistinguishable; The human mortals want their winter here; No night is now with hymn or carol bless'd:Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, Pale in her anger, washes all the air, * Wild apple. + Petty. Banks which contain them. A game played by boys. G That rheumatic diseases do abound: * Their wonted liveries; and the 'mazed world, LOVE IN IDLENESS. Thou remember'st Since once I sat upon a promontory, And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back, That very time I saw, (but thou could'st not,) In maiden meditation, fancy free . Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell: It fell upon a little western flower,— Before, milk-white; now purple with love's wound,— And maidens call it, love-in-idleness. A FAIRY BANK. I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, Where ox-lips§ and the nodding violet grows; * Autumn producing flowers unseasonably. + Produce. Exempt from love. The greater cowslip. Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine, With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine: There sleeps Titania, some time of the night, Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight. ACT III. FAIRY COURTESIES. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman; FEMALE FRIENDSHIP. Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd, The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent, When we have chid the hasty-footed time For parting us,-O, and is all forgot? All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence? Have with our neelds § created both one flower, * Vigorous. † Gooseberries. Two lovely berries moulded on one stem: Due but to one, and crowned with one crest. Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it; DAYBREAK. Night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast, And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger; At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there, Troop home to church-yards. ACT IV. DEW IN FLOWERS. AND that same dew, which sometime on the buds HUNTING. We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top, And mark the musical confusion Of hounds and echo in conjunction. Hip. I was with Hercules, and Cadmus, once, When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear Such gallant chiding*; for, besides the groves, The skies, the fountains, every region near Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard So musical a discord, such sweet thunder. * Sound. |