and some a gown, ’Gainst one another justling; They flew about like chaff i’ th’ wind; For haste some left their masks behind; Some could not stay their gloves to find; There never was such bustling. Forth ran they, by a secret way, Into a brake that near them lay; Yet much they doubted there to stay, Lest Hob should hap to find them; He had a sharp and piercing sight, All one to him the day and night; And therefore were resolved, by flight, To leave this place behind them. At length one chanced to find a nut, In th’ end of which a hole was cut, Which lay upon a hazel root, There scattered by a squirrel Which out the kernel gotten had; When quoth this Fay, “Dear Queen, be glad; Let Oberon be ne’er so mad, I’ll set you safe from peril. “Come all into this nut,” quoth she, “Come closely in; be ruled by me; Each one may here a chooser be, For room ye need not wrastle: Nor need ye be together heaped;” So one by one therein they crept, And lying down they soundly slept, And safe as in a castle. Nymphidia, that this while doth watch, Perceived if Puck the Queen should catch That he should be her over-match, Of which she well bethought her; Found it must be some powerful charm, The Queen against him that must arm, Or surely he would do her harm, For throughly he had sought her. And listening if she aught could hear, That her might hinder, or might fear; But finding still the coast was clear; Nor creature had descried her; Each circumstance and having scanned, She came thereby to understand, Puck would be with them out of hand; When to her charms she hied her. And first her fern-seed doth bestow, The kernel of the mistletoe; And here and there as Puck should go, With terror to affright him, She night-shade strews to work him ill, Therewith her vervain and her dill, That hindreth witches of their will, Of purpose to despite him. Then sprinkles she the juice of rue, That groweth underneath the yew; With nine drops of the midnight dew, From lunary distilling: The molewarp’s [108a] brain mixed therewithal; And with the same the pismire’s gall: For she in nothing short would fall, The Fairy was so willing. Then thrice under a briar doth creep, Which at both ends was rooted deep, And over it three times she leap; Her magic much availing: Then on Prosérpina doth call, And so upon her spell doth fall, Which here to you repeat I shall, Not in one tittle failing.
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