Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Adaptations; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Stories, plots, etc. -- Juvenile literature
When Oberon had teased her for some time, he again demanded the
changeling boy; which she, ashamed of being discovered by her
lord with her new favorite, did not dare to refuse him.
Oberon, having thus obtained the little boy he had so long wished
for to be his page, took pity on the disgraceful situation into
which, by his merry contrivance, he had brought his Titania, and
threw some of the juice of the other flower into her eyes; and
the fairy queen immediately recovered her senses, and wondered at
her late dotage, saying how she now loathed the sight of the
strange monster.
Oberon likewise took the ass’s head from off the clown, and left
him to finish his nap with his own fool’s head upon his
shoulders.
Oberon and his Titania being now perfectly reconciled, he related
to her the history of the lovers and their midnight quarrels, and
she agreed to go with him and see the end of their adventures.
The fairy king and queen found the lovers and their fair ladies,
at no great distance from one another, sleeping on a grass-plot;
for Puck, to make amends for his former mistake, had contrived
with the utmost diligence to bring them all to the same spot,
unknown to one another; and he bad carefully removed the charm
from off the eyes of Lysander with the antidote the fairy king
gave to him.
Hermia first awoke, and, finding her lost Lysander asleep so near
her, was looking at him and wondering at his strange inconstancy.
Lysander presently opening his eyes, and seeing his dear Hermia,
recovered his reason which the fairy charm had before clouded,
and with his reason his love for Hermia; and they began to talk
over the adventures of the night, doubting if these things had
really happened, or if they bad both been dreaming the same
bewildering dream.
Helena and Demetrius were by this time awake; and a sweet sleep
having quieted Helena’s disturbed and angry spirits, she listened
with delight to the professions of love which Demetrius still
made to her, and which, to her surprise as well as pleasure, she
began to perceive were sincere.
These fair night-wandering ladies, now no longer rivals, became
once more true friends; all the unkind words which had passed
were forgiven, and they calmly consulted together what was best
to be done in their present situation. It was soon agreed that,
as Demetrius bad given up his pretensions to Hermia, he should
endeavor to prevail upon her father to revoke the cruel sentence
of death which had been passed against her. Demetrius was
preparing to return to Athens for this friendly purpose, when
they were surprised with the sight of Egeus, Hermia’s father, who
came to the wood in pursuit of his runaway daughter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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