HERMIA and Lysander were lovers; but
Hermia’s father wished her to marry another man,
named Demetrius.
Now, in Athens, where they lived, there was a
wicked law, by which any girl who refused to marry
according to her father’s wishes, might be put to
death. Hermia’s father was so angry with her for
refusing to do as he wished, that he actually brought
her before the Duke of Athens to ask that she might
be killed, if she still refused to obey him. The Duke
gave her four days to think about it, and, at the end
of that time, if she still refused to marry Demetrius,
she would have to die.
Lysander of course was nearly mad with grief,
and the best thing to do seemed to him for Hermia
to run away to his aunt’s house at a place beyond the
reach of that cruel law; and there he would come to
her and marry her. But before she started, she told
her friend, Helena, what she was going to do.
Helena had been Demetrius’ sweetheart long
before his marriage with Hermia had been thought
of, and being very silly, like all jealous people, she could not see that it was not poor Hermia’s fault that
Demetrius wished to marry her instead of his own
lady, Helena. She knew that if she told Demetrius
that Hermia was going, as she was, to the wood
outside Athens, he would follow her, “and I can
follow him, and at least I shall see him,” she said to
herself. So she went to him, and betrayed her
friend’s secret.
Now this wood where
Lysander was to
meet Hermia,
and where the
other two had
decided to follow them, was
full of fairies,
as most woods
are, if one
only had the
eyes to see
them, and in this wood
on this night were the
King and Queen of the
fairies, Oberon and
Titania. Now fairies
are very wise people,
but now and then
they can be quite as
foolish as mortal
folk. Oberon and
Titania, who might
have been as happy as the days were long, had thrown away all their joy
in a foolish quarrel. They never met without saying
disagreeable things to each other, and scolded each
other so dreadfully that all their little fairy followers,
for fear, would creep into acorn cups and hide them
there.
So, instead of keeping one happy Court and
dancing all night through in the moonlight as is
fairies’ use, the King with his attendants wandered
through one part of the wood, while the Queen with
hers kept state in another. And the cause of all this
trouble was a little Indian boy whom Titania had
taken to be one of her followers. Oberon wanted the
child to follow him and be one of his fairy knights;
but the Queen would not give him up.
On this night, in a mossy moonlit glade, the
King and Queen of the fairies met.
“Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania,” said
the King.
“What! jealous, Oberon?” answered the
Queen. “You spoil everything with your quarreling.
Come, fairies, let us leave him. I am not friends with
him now.”
“It rests with you to make up the quarrel,”
said the King.
“Give me that little Indian boy, and I will
again be your humble servant and suitor.”
“Set your mind at rest,” said the Queen.
“Your whole fairy kingdom buys not that boy from
me. Come, fairies.” And she and her train rode off down the
moonbeams.
“Well, go your
ways,” said Oberon.
“But I’ll be even with
you before you leave
this wood.”
Then Oberon
called his favorite
fairy, Puck. Puck
was the spirit of
mischief. He used
to slip into the
dairies and take
the cream away,
and get into the
churn so that the
butter would not come, and turn the beer sour, and
lead people out of their way on dark nights and then
laugh at them, and tumble people’s stools from
under them when they were going to sit down, and
upset their hot ale over their chins when they were
going to drink.
“Now,” said Oberon to this little sprite,
“fetch me the flower called Love-in-idleness. The
juice of that little purple flower laid on the eyes of
those who sleep will make them, when they wake, to
love the first thing they see. I will put some of the
juice of that flower on my Titania’s eyes, and when
she wakes she will love the first thing she sees, were it lion, bear, or wolf, or bull, or meddling monkey, or
a busy ape.”
While Puck was gone, Demetrius passed
through the glade followed by poor Helena, and still
she told him how she loved him and reminded him
of all his promises, and still he told her that he did not and could not love her, and that his promises
were nothing. Oberon was sorry for poor Helena,
and when Puck returned with the flower, he bade
him follow Demetrius and put some of the juice on
his eyes, so that he might love Helena when he woke
and looked on her, as much as she loved him. So
Puck set off, and wandering through the wood
found, not Demetrius, but Lysander, on whose eyes
he put the juice; but when Lysander woke, he saw
not his own Hermia, but Helena, who was walking
through the wood looking for the cruel Demetrius;
and directly he saw her he loved her and left his own
lady, under the spell of the purple flower.
When Hermia woke she found Lysander
gone, and wandered about the wood trying to find
him. Puck went back and told Oberon what he had
done, and Oberon soon found that he had made a
mistake, and set about looking for Demetrius, and
having found him, put some of the juice on his eyes.
And the first thing Demetrius saw when he woke
was also Helena. So now Demetrius and Lysander
were both following her through the wood, and it
was Hermia’s turn to follow her lover as Helena had
done before. The end of it was that Helena and
Hermia began to quarrel, and Demetrius and
Lysander went off to fight. Oberon was very sorry to
see his kind scheme to help these lovers turn out so
badly. So he said to Puck—
“These two young men are going to fight.
You must overhang the night with drooping fog, and
lead them so astray, that one will never find the
other. When they are tired out, they will fall asleep.Then drop this other herb on Lysander’s eyes. That
will give him his old sight and his old love. Then
each man will have the lady who loves him, and they
will all think that this has been only a Midsummer
Night’s Dream. Then when this is done, all will be
well with them.”
So Puck went and did as he was told, and
when the two had fallen asleep without meeting each
other, Puck poured the juice on Lysander’s eyes, and
said:—
“When thou wakest,
Thou takest
True delight
In the sight
Of thy former lady’s eye:
Jack shall have Jill;
Nought shall go ill.”
Meanwhile Oberon found Titania asleep on a
bank where grew wild thyme, oxlips, and violets, and
woodbine, musk-roses and eglantine. There Titania
always slept a part of the night, wrapped in the
enameled skin of a snake. Oberon stooped over her
and laid the juice on her eyes, saying:—
“What thou seest when thou wake,
Do it for thy true love take.”
Now, it happened that when Titania woke the
first thing she saw was a stupid clown, one of a party
of players who had come out into the wood to rehearse their play. This clown had met with Puck,
who had clapped an ass’s head on his shoulders so
that it looked as if it grew there. Directly Titania
woke and saw this dreadful monster, she said, “What
angel is this? Are you as wise as you are beautiful?”
“If I am wise enough to find my way out of
this wood, that’s enough for me,” said the foolish
clown.
“Do not desire to go out of the wood,” said
Titania. The spell of the love-juice was on her, and
to her the clown seemed the most beautiful and
delightful creature on all the earth. “I love you,” she went on. “Come with me, and I will give you fairies
to attend on you.”
So she called four fairies, whose names were
Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustardseed.
“You must attend this gentleman,” said the
Queen. “Feed him with apricots and dewberries,
purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries. Steal
honey-bags for him from the bumble-bees, and with
the wings of painted butterflies fan the moonbeams
from his sleeping eyes.”
“I will,” said one of the fairies, and all the
others said, “I will.”
“Now, sit down with me,” said the Queen to
the clown, “and let me stroke your dear cheeks, and
stick musk-roses
in your smooth,
sleek head, and
kiss your fair
large ears, my
gentle joy.”
“Where’s
Peaseblossom?”
asked the clown
with the ass’s
head. He did not
care much about
the Queen’s affecttion, but he was very proud of having fairies to wait
on him. “Ready,” said Peaseblossom. “Scratch my head, Peaseblossom,” said the
clown. “Where’s Cobweb?” “Ready,” said Cobweb.
“Kill me,” said the clown, “the red bumblebee on the top of the thistle yonder, and bring me
the honey-bag. Where’s Mustardseed?”
“Ready,” said Mustardseed.
“Oh, I want nothing,” said the clown. “Only
just help Cobweb to scratch. I must go to the
barber’s, for methinks I am marvelous hairy about
the face.”
“Would you like anything to eat?” said the
fairy Queen.
“I should like some good dry oats,” said the
clown—for his donkey’s head made him desire
donkey’s food—“and some hay to follow.”
“Shall some of my fairies fetch you new nuts
from the squirrel’s house?” asked the Queen.
“I’d rather have a handful or two of good
dried peas,” said the clown. “But please don’t let any
of your people disturb me; I am going to sleep.”
Then said the Queen, “And I will wind thee in
my arms.”
And so when Oberon came along he found
his beautiful Queen lavishing kisses and endearments
on a clown with a donkey’s head.
And before he released her from the
enchantment, he persuaded her to give him the little
Indian boy he so much desired to have. Then he
took pity on her, and threw some juice of the disenchanting flower on her pretty eyes; and then in
a moment she saw plainly the donkey-headed clown
she had been loving, and knew how foolish she had
been.
Oberon took off the ass’s head from the
clown, and left him to finish his sleep with his own
silly head lying on the thyme and violets.
Thus all was made plain and straight again.
Oberon and Titania loved each other more than
ever. Demetrius thought of no one but Helena, and
Helena had never had any thought of anyone but
Demetrius.
As for Hermia and Lysander, they were as
loving a couple as you could meet in a day’s march,
even through a fairy wood.
So the four mortal lovers went back to Athens
and were married; and the fairy King and Queen live
happily together in that very wood at this very day.
