Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;52
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh;
And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear56
A merrier hour was never wasted there.
But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon.
Fai. And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!
Enter the King of Fairies [Oberon] at one door with his train; and the Queen [Titania] at another with hers.
Obe. Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.60
Tita. What! jealous Oberon. Fairies, skip hence:
I have forsworn his bed and company.
Obe. Tarry, rash wanton! am not I thy lord?
Tita. Then, I must be thy lady; but I know
When thou hast stol'n away from fairy land,65
And in the shape of Corin sat all day,
Playing on pipes of corn, and versing love
To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,68
Come from the furthest steep of India?
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,
Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded, and you come72
To give their bed joy and prosperity.
Obe. How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?76
Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night
54 tailor; cf. n.
55 quire: company
56 waxen: increase
56 neeze: sneeze
66 Corin; cf. n.
67 versing love: making love-verses
69 steep: mountain range
71 buskin'd: wearing a buskin, a high-heeled hunter's boot
75 Glance: hint maliciously
