AcT 1, ScEnE 4


On the fore-finger of an alderman,31 Drawn with a team of little atomies32 Athwart33


60


men’s noses as they lie asleep. Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners’34


The cover of the wings of grasshoppers, The traces35


of the smallest spider’s web,


The collars of the moonshine’s watery beams, Her whip of cricket’s bone, the lash of film,36 Her waggoner a small grey-coated gnat, Not half so big as a round little worm Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid. Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut Made by the joiner37 70 Time out o’ mind38


squirrel or old grub, the fairies’ coachmakers.


And in this state she gallops night by night Through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love; O’er courtiers’ knees, that dream on curtsies straight,39 O’er lawyers’ fingers, who straight40


dream on fees, 80


O’er ladies’ lips, who straight on kisses dream – Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues, Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are. Sometime she gallops o’er a courtier’s nose, And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;41 And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig’s tail42 Tickling a parson’s nose as a’ lies asleep, Then dreams he of another benefice.43 Sometime she driveth o’er a soldier’s neck, And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, Of breaches,44


ambuscadoes,45 Of healths five fathom deep,46


Spanish blades, and then anon47


39


31 alderman: a county councillor 32 atomies: small creatures 33 Athwart: across 34 spinners: spiders


legs, 35 traces: reins 36 film: 1. mist 2. gossamer


37 joiner: ‘joiner’ as in carpentry 38


Time out o’ mind: for as long as anybody can recall


that dream…straight: that dream immediately of bowing and flattery


40 straight: immediately


41 42


smelling out a suit: finding a case to argue in court


tithe-pig’s tail: pigs were sometimes given as a tithe (tax) to the parson (priest)


43 44


benefice: a position within the church with a fixed income


breaches: holes in a defensive wall


45 ambuscadoes: ambushes 46


47 anon: soon 45


healths…deep: drinking deep toasts to health


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