And jealous Oberon would have the child24
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,28
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,32
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;37
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:41
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 smile44
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;48
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
