Mary Baldwin College - Bluestocking Yearbook (Staunton, VA)

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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

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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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12 Tlie Augusta Seminary Annual, his merry crew, with Trip away, Make no stay, Meet me all by break of day. Another kmd of fairy is dainty Ariel, hght as thistle-down and inyisible as air, who flies to and fro at Prospero ' s bidding. One thinks of music in connection with Ariel, of fleecy clouds, of morning mists, of all things that are light and joyous and, above all, free. Like Titania and her maidens, Prospero ' s tricksy sprite is very small ; his bed is the cup of a cowslip bell, and he seeks shelter from rain Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. The Httle people of A Midsummer ' s ]S ight are the fairies of childhood, the creations of one who, living in the world, as yet has looked only upon the surface of life, but Ai-iel is the produc- tion of a mature man, who has sounded life ' s profoundest depths and scaled its loftiest peaks, and now, from the heights above the clouds, is able to conceive as a crowaiing glory the Tempest, with all its soul and tenderness embodied in the person of dainty, faultless Anel. With the Tempest Shakspere ' s Hterary career came to a close. It is thought to be his last work, and it may be that the breaking of Prospero ' s rod, by which Ariel ' s soul was set free from its long bondage, symbolizes the laying aside of that magic wand which, vielded by the master ' s hand, after a lapse of nearly three centu- ries, still weaves around men ' s hearts, with all its fonner potency, its magic charms of wonder and delight. Cabeie Pbeston Bell.