Now, the wood which Hermia and Lysander had appointed as their
trysting-place, and where Bottom and his fellow-actors were also to
meet to rehearse their play, was the favourite haunt of fairies, and
on this Midsummer Night Oberon, King of the Fairies, was to hold his
revels there. Sad to say, for some time past there had been great
dissension between Oberon and his Queen, Titania, and because of their
quarrels nothing went well in the surrounding country. The cause
of their disagreement was a lovely Indian boy, the sweetest little
changeling imaginable. Queen Titania had him as her attendant, and
jealous Oberon wanted the boy for his own page. Titania refused to
give him up; he was the child of a dear friend, now dead, and for her
sake she had reared up the boy, and for her sake she would not part
with him.
Oberon and Titania never met now, in grove or green, by the clear
fountain, or in the spangled starlight, without quarrelling so
fiercely that their elves crept for fear into acorn-cups, and hid
themselves there. They generally tried to keep out of each other’s
way, but on this night it happened that as King Oberon, with his
little sprite Puck and his train, approached from one direction, Queen
Titania and her attendant fairies came near from the other. Titania
reproached Oberon with all the ill-luck that was happening because
of their dissension, and Oberon replied that it only lay with her to
amend it.
“Why should Titania cross her Oberon?” he asked. “I do but beg a
little changeling boy to be my henchman.”
“Set your heart at rest,” replied Titania; “the whole of Fairyland
will not buy the child of me.”
“How long do you intend to stay in this wood?” asked Oberon.
“Perhaps till after Theseus’s wedding-day,” said Titania. “If you will
join patiently in our dance, and see our moonlight revels, go with
us. If not, shun me, and I will take care to avoid your haunts.”
“Give me that boy, and I will go with you,” said Oberon.
“Not for your fairy kingdom!” was the decided answer. “Fairies, away!
We shall quarrel in earnest if I stay any longer.”
As he could not win the boy by entreaty, Oberon resolved to try
another plan to gain his desire. Calling his little sprite Puck to
him, he bade him go and fetch a certain magic flower, which maidens
call “love-in-idleness.” The juice of this flower had a wonderful
charm. When laid on the eyelids of a sleeping man or woman it had the
power of making that person doat madly on the next living creature
that was seen. Oberon determined to squeeze some of the juice of this
flower on Titania’s eyes while she slept, so that when she woke up
she should immediately fall in love with the first creature she saw,
whether it were lion, bear, wolf, or bull, meddling monkey or busy
ape. He determined also that he would not take off the charm (which
he could do with another herb) until she had rendered up the little
Indian boy as page to him.
“Fetch me this herb,” he said to Puck, “and be thou here again before
the leviathan can swim a league.”
“I’ll put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes,” cried the
prompt little messenger, and away he flew.
While King Oberon was awaiting Puck’s return, he saw the unhappy lady
Helena approaching with her faithless lover Demetrius. Oberon was
invisible, and thus he overheard what they said. Demetrius had come
to the wood in search of Hermia and Lysander, for Helena had told him
of their proposed flight. Oberon heard Helena confess how deeply she
loved Demetrius, and he heard Demetrius spurn her roughly, and declare
he loved no one but Hermia.
Oberon was sorry for Helena, and he determined to punish Demetrius.
He resolved to put some of the magic juice on the eyes of Demetrius,
so that when he woke and saw Helena he should fall in love with her
again, and then it would be Helena’s turn to repulse Demetrius and
refuse to listen to him.
Demetrius and Helena had scarcely gone on their way when Puck returned.
“Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer,” said Oberon.
“Ay, there it is,” said Puck.
“I pray thee, give it me,” said Oberon, and his voice glided into a
sweet chant:
“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania some time of the night,
Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamelled skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
And with the juice of this I’ll streak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantasies.”
Oberon found Titania, as he had expected, and, stealing up quietly
while she slept, he squeezed some of the magic juice on her eyelids,
repeating this charm as he did so:
“What thou seest when thou dost wake,
Do it for thy true-love take,
Love and languish for his sake;
Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
When thou wakest, it is thy dear.
Wake when some vile thing is near.”
And, laughing to himself at the strange experience which was likely to
befall Titania, off went Oberon.
The next wanderers to pass through that part of the wood were Hermia
and Lysander in their flight from Athens. Being weary, they lay down
to rest, and speedily fell asleep.
King Oberon had told Puck to go in search of a sweet Athenian lady
who was in love with a disdainful youth. When Puck found them, he
was to drop some of the juice on the eyes of the man, but to take
care to do this when the next thing he espied would be the lady. Puck
would know the man by his Athenian garments, added Oberon. Of course,
by this, Oberon meant Demetrius; but Puck came across Lysander and
Hermia instead, and, thinking they must be the couple referred to, he
squeezed the magic juice on the eyelids of Lysander.
This mistake of little Puck’s led to a great deal of fresh mischief.
Soon afterwards Demetrius came running along, followed by Helena. In
the darkness of the night Demetrius did not notice the very people he
was in search of--Lysander and Hermia. Demetrius was very angry that
Helena would persist in following him, and, bidding her roughly stay
where she was, he hurried off alone. Helena, indeed, was too weary to
pursue him further. She was just bewailing his unkind treatment, when
she was startled to see Lysander lying on the ground. She did not know
whether he were dead or asleep, and hastily roused him.
[Illustration:
“What thou seest when thou dost wake.
Do it for thy true-love take.”]
Now, what happened? The fairy charm began to take effect. Lysander had
gone to sleep in love with Hermia, but, opening his eyes, his first
glance fell on Helena, and, in accordance with the fairy charm, his
affections were immediately transferred to Helena. He began speaking
at once to Helena, and told her that he no longer cared for Hermia.
Helena could not understand what all this meant. She thought Lysander
was mocking her, and left him indignantly. But Lysander followed, for
he was now determined to have no one but Helena.
[Illustration: “Lysander!... Alack, where are you?”]
Poor Hermia awoke in terror from a horrible dream. She thought a
serpent was crawling over her, eating her heart, and that Lysander sat
by smiling. She shrieked to Lysander to come and help her. But there
was no answer; Lysander had gone. Again she called:
“Lysander, lord! What, out of hearing? Gone? No sound, no word! Alack,
where are you? Speak, if you can hear! Speak! I almost swoon with
dread.”
But when again no answer came to her piteous appeal, Hermia knew in
truth that Lysander was gone, and she set off at once to try to find
him.