Mary Baldwin College - Bluestocking Yearbook (Staunton, VA)

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10 The Augusta Seminary Annual. cross purposes with every one else, that mischievous Puck in high glee is moved to cry — Lord, what fools these mortals be ! It is this lob of spirits, merry, mischievous, tormenting Puck, Oberon ' s tnisty messenger and the mocking imp, dreaded and propitiated by all the simple villagers, who is the s aftest of all the fairy tribe. One fairy indeed claims — I do wonder everywhere Swifter than the moon ' s sphere, and Titania and Oberon compass the globe, Swifter than the wandering moon, but what is this to Puck ' s casual offer to Put a girdle round about the earth In forty minutes. Titania alone with her fairies frolics like a care-free child, but when, in lier rambles through Grove or green, By fountain clear or spangled starlight sheen, she meets Oberon, she is changed at once into a dignified, stately little queen, who turns a deaf ear to all the lordly Oberon ' s threats, entreaties and promises. She will not give up her change- line; boy, no, not for thy fairy kingdom, she tells him. All of these delicious fairies are very tiny ; Titania, for all her lofty speeches to her lord, creeps frightened into an acorn sliell at the approach of an intruder. To Oberon and Titania, Peasblos- som, Moth, Cobweb and Mustardseed and all the fairy tribe, noth- ing appears small ; a mushroom or an oak-leaf is a mighty canopy under which whole tribes of fays take refuge from the summer showers, and woe to the adventurous sprite who, running una- wares into a col)web, is ent%vined within its mighty meshes or deluged in the imprisoned drops of dew. Imagine an army of the tiny folk sallying forth to make war upon a snail, who but thnists forth two gigantic horns and routs the valiant crew. As Titania sleeps for the third part of a minute on 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,

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The Augusta Seminary Annual. Shakspere ' s Fairies. THE fact that there is found scattered all through his plays frequent and familiar reference to elves, goblins, fairies and witches, proves that the supernatunil was a subject of especial in- terest to Shakspere. He abounds in folk-lore and delights in fairy tales, so he founded tlie elfin world on the prettiest of the peo- ple ' s traditions, and clothed it in the ever-living flowers of his own exuberant fancy, and as a result we have in A Midsummer- Night ' s Dream a perfect revel of fairies. In this play the whole fairy world is laid open before us — a world of airy creatures, who dance and frisk and play pranks like children of the earth, but who, on occasion, can lay plans and dis- cuss ways and means as soberly and as thoughtfully as people of a larger growth. Oh that we might have seen all the world of f au-y-f oik on A Mid- summer ' s Night scattered through the old Athenian forest, the busy elves flitting about with tapers cropped from the thigh of humble-bees, and lighted At the fiery glow-worm ' s eyes ; Will-o ' -the-wisp dancing, like a golden star, through the mist of swamp and marsh, and every merry sprite bent on fun and frolic ! Great preparations must be made for Queen Titania — How now, spirit ! whither wander you ? demands Puck of a fairy, and I serve the fairy queen To dew her orbs upon the green, is the answer. I must go seek some dew-drops here And hang a pearl in every cowslip ' s ear. Oberon with his love-charm, Titania with her maidens, and that shrewd and knavish sprite, called Robin Goodfellow, are the principal characters in the play ; and l)etween Oberon and his attendant such confusion is wrought, every one plays at such

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The Augusta Seininary Annual. 11 she appoints one aloof to stand sentinel over his sleeping queen, while the others roam the wood, Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose bud, Some to war with rear-mice fur their leathern wings To make my small elves coats ; and some keep back The claiuurous owl that nightly hoots and wonders At o ur quaint spirits. And, lo ! while she slumbers, Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight, comes jealous Oberon and drops upon her slumbering eyelids the juice of a little western flower, which Will make man or woman madly dote I ' pon the next live object that it sees. Under its influence Titania meekly gives up her changeling to Oberon, who, not wishing to be outdone in kindness, releases the fairy queen from the spell by which she is bound, and bids her Be as thou wast wont to be ; See as thou wast wont to see ; Dian ' s bud o ' er Cupid ' s flower Hath such force and blessed power. Then the revels of A Midsummer ' s I ight are over, and, as they hear the morning lark, Oberon says : Then my queen in silence sad Trip we after the night ' s shade. We the globe can compass soon, Swifter than the wandering moon. Now the lark uprising has startled the dull night ; The eastern gate all fiery red is tlIro m open to the king of day, and all is quiet and deserted in the forest ' s depths. All of a long summer ' s day no elf or fay is seen or heard, but vat the first shades of evening they come in troops and take possession of Theseus ' house. From room to room they flit, round and round they whirl and dance and sing, weav- ing their fairy charms for the protection of their patron ' s home, until at last when the moon has poured her silver beams into every recess and cranny of the forest, Oberon dismisses to HiUs, brooks, standing lakes and groves