THERE was a law in 1Athens which gave to its citizens the power of compelling their daughters to marry whomsoever they pleased, and upon a daughter's refusing to marry the man her father had chosen, the father was empowered to cause her to be put to death; but as fathers do not often desire the death of their daughters, even though they do prove a little refractory, this law was seldom put into execution.

There was one instance, however, of an old man, named Egeus, who actually did come before Theseus (at that time the reigning Duke of Athens), to complain that his daughter Hermia, whom he had commanded to marry Demetrius, a young man of a noble Athenian family, refused to obey him, because she loved another young Athenian, named Lysander. Egeus demanded of Theseus that this cruel law might be put in force against his daughter.

Hermia pleaded in excuse that Demetrius had formerly professed love for her friend Helena, and that Helena loved Demetrius to distraction; but this fair reason moved not the stern Egeus.

Theseus, though a merciful prince, had no power to alter the laws of his country; therefore he could only give Hermia four days to consider: and at the end of that time, if she still refused to marry Demetrius, she was to be put to death.

When Hermia was dismissed from the presence of

the duke, she went to her lover, Lysander, and told him the peril she was in.

Lysander was in great affliction at hearing this, but recollecting that he had an aunt who lived at some distance from Athens, and that where she lived the cruel law could not be put in force against Hermia, he proposed to Hermia that she should steal out of her father's house that night, and go with him to his aunt's, where he would marry her. "I will meet you," said Lysander, "in the wood a few miles without the city." To this proposal Hermia agreed, and told no one of her intended flight, but her friend Helena. Helena ungenerously resolved to tell Demetrius, though she could expect no benefit from betraying her friend's secret, but the poor pleasure of following her faithless lover to the wood; for she well knew that Demetrius would go thither in pursuit of Hermia. The wood in which Lysander and Hermia proposed to meet was the favourite haunt of 3 fairies.

Oberon the king, and Titania the queen, of the fairies, with their tiny train of followers, held their midnight revels in this wood, and between this little king and queen there happened at this time a sad disagreement: they never met by moonlight in this pleasant wood but they quarrelled, till all their fairy "elves would creep into acorn-cups, and hide themselves for fear.

The cause of this disagreement was Titania's refusing to give Oberon a little boy, whose mother had been her friend, and upon whose death the fairy queen had stolen the child from its nurse, and brought him up in the woods.

The night on which the lovers were to meet in this wood, as Titania was walking with some of her maids of honour, she met Oberon, attended by his train of fairy ❝courtiers.

"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania," said the fairy king.

The queen replied, "What, jealous Oberon, is it you? Fairies, skip hence: I have forsworn his company."

"Tarry," said Oberon; "am not I your lord? Give me your little boy to be my page."

"Set your heart at rest," answered the queen; "your whole kingdom buys not the boy of me."

She then left her lord in great anger.

"Well, go your way," said Oberon; "before morning dawns I will torment you for this."

Oberon then sent for Puck, his chief favourite and privy counsellor.

Puck (or, as he was sometimes called, Robin Goodfellow) was a shrewd and knavish sprite, that used to play pranks in the neighbouring villages: sometimes getting into the dairies and skimming the milk, sometimes plunging his light form into the butter-churn, and while he was in the churn, in vain the dairy-maid would labour to change her cream into butter; and whenever Puck chose to play his freaks in the brewing copper, the ale was spoiled. When a few neighbours met to drink ale together, Puck would jump into the bowl of ale in the likeness of a roasted crab; and when some old goody was going to drink, he would bob against her lips, and spill the ale over her chin; and when the same old dame was seating herself to tell her neighbours a melancholy story, Puck would slip her stool from under her, and down toppled the old woman.

"Come hither, Puck," said Oberon to this merry wanderer of the night; "fetch me the flower which maids call 'Love in Idleness:' the juice of that little purple flower, laid on the eyelids of those who sleep, will make them, when they awake, dote on the first thing they

see. Some of the juice of that flower I will drop on the eyelids of my Titania when she is asleep, and the first thing she looks upon when she opens her eyes she will fall in love with, even though it be a lion, or a bear, or an ape and before I take this charm off, which I can do with another charm, I will make her give me that boy to be my page."

Puck, who loved mischief in his heart, was diverted with this intended frolic, and ran to seek the flower. While Oberon was waiting for his return, he observed Demetrius and Helena enter the wood, and overheard Demetrius reproaching Helena for following him, and after many unkind words on his part, and gentle expostulations from Helena, reminding him of his former love, he saw him leave her (as he said) to the mercy of the wild beasts. But she ran after him as swiftly as she could.

The fairy king, who was always friendly to lovers, felt compassion for Helena; and perhaps might have seen her in those happy times when she was beloved by Demetrius. When Puck returned with the little flower, Oberon said to him, "There has been a sweet Athenian lady here, who is in love with a disdainful youth; if you find him sleeping, drop some of the love-juice in his eyes, but do it when she is near him, that the first thing he sees when he awakes may be this despised lady. You will know the man by the Athenian garments which he wears." Puck promised to manage this matter, and then Oberon went, unperceived by Titania, to her bower, where she was preparing to go to rest. Her fairy bower was a bank, where grew wild thyme and sweet violets, under a canopy of woodbine and musk-roses. There Titania always slept some part of the night.

He found Titania giving orders to her fairies how they were to employ themselves while she slept. Some of

you," said her majesty, "must kill cankers in the rosebuds, and some wage war with the bats for their wings, to make my elves coats; and some of you keep watch, that the clamorous owl come not near me: but first sing me to sleep." Then they began to sing this song:

"You spotted snakes with double tongue,

Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;

10Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
Come not near our Fairy Queen.”

When the fairies had sung their queen to sleep with this lullaby, they left her to perform the services she had enjoined on them. Oberon then softly drew near Titania, and dropped some of the love-juice on her eyes, saying,— "What thou seest when thou dost wake,

Do it for thy true-love take."

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But to return to Hermia, who made her escape her father's house that night, to avoid death for refusing to marry Demetrius. When she entered the wood, she found Lysander waiting to conduct her to his aunt's house; but before they had passed through the wood, Hermia was so fatigued that Lysander persuaded her to rest till morning on a bank of moss, and lying down himself on the ground at some little distance, they soon fell asleep. Here they were found by Puck, who seeing a young man asleep, and perceiving that his clothes were made in the Athenian fashion, and that a pretty lady was sleeping near him, concluded that this must be the Athenian maid and her lover, whom Oberon had sent him to seek, and he conjectured that she must be the first thing he would see when he awoke; so he proceeded to pour some of the juice of the little flower into his eyes. But it so happened that Helena came that way, and, instead of Hermia, was the first object Lysander beheld