split"--
"Tho raging rocks,
With shivering shocks,
Shall break the locks
Of prison gates;
And Phoebus' car
Shall shine from far
And make and mar
The foolish fates!"_

Puck, the mischievous Robin Goodfellow, who is ever playing pranks among
his fairy tribe and human lovers, enters the forest scene and addresses one
of the fairies thus:

_"How now, spirit, whither wander you?"_

Fairy says:

_"Over hill, over dale,
Through bush, through brier,
Over park, over pale,
Through flood, through fire,
Farewell, thou wit of spirits, I'll be gone;
Our queen and all her elves come here anon."_

Puck, the funny tattler, tells of the jealousy of King Oberon, because
Titania has adopted a lovely boy:

_"For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,
Because that she as her attendant hath
A lovely boy stolen from an Indian king,
She never had so sweet a changeling!"_

This sly cut at Queen Elizabeth, who had recently adopted a young American
Indian as her parlor page, elicited applause among the courtiers, yet
"Lizzie" did not seem to join in the cheers!

Oberon and Titania meet and quarrel, just as natural as if they belonged to
earthly passion people.

_"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania!
What, jealous Oberon? Fairy, skip hence;
I have forsworn his bed and company."_

Oberon:

_"Tarry, rash woman; am I not thy lord?"_

Titania:

_"Then I must be thy lady?"_

Oberon accuses Titania with being in love with Theseus and assisting him in
the ravishment of antique beauties.

She replies:

_"These are the forgeries of jealousy;
Never met we on hill, dale, forest or mead;
Or on the beached margent of the sea
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport!"_

After the departure of Queen Titania and her fairy train, King Oberon calls
in Puck to aid in punishing her imagined infidelity.

_"My gentle Puck, come hither; thou remember'st
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
The rude sea grew civil at her song;
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
To hear the sea maid's music?"_

Puck replies:

_"I remember."_

Oberon continues:

_"That very time I saw, but