A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Question:

Answers:

1. 
   gbeatty Teacher
   College - Freshman

   Ah, certainly. Any chance to talk about Puck is good one, I always say.

   Puck is a gossip. The fairy doesn't ask him, but he tells what Oberon is doing anyway:
   "The king doth keep his revels here to-night:
   Take heed the queen come not within his sight;
   For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,
   Because that she as her attendant hath
   A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king;
   She never had so sweet a changeling;
   And jealous Oberon would have the child
   Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;
   But she perforce withholds the loved boy,
   Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy:
   And now they never meet in grove or green,
   By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,
   But, they do square, that all their elves for fear
   Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there."

   Puck is a trickster, according to the other fairies, and somewhat malicious to boot:
   "Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
   Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
   Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he
   That frights the maidens of the villagery;
   Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern
   And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;
   And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;
   Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?"

   Finally, Puck is proud—a braggart, even:
   "Thou speak'st aright;
   I am that merry wanderer of the night.
   I jest to Oberon and make him smile
   When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
   Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
   And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
   In very likeness of a roasted crab,
   And when she drinks, against her lips I bob
   And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.
   The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
   Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
   Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
   And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;
   And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
   And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear
   A merrier hour was never wasted there."

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/midsummer/

   Rate answer:

    

   • Flag as inappropriate

   Posted by gbeatty on Tuesday May 8, 2007 at 4:17 PM
   
   

2. 
   schumi Student
   High School - 9th Grade

   Hey Eric im gonna use this to thx

   Rate answer:

    

   • Flag as inappropriate

   Posted by schumi on Thursday May 10, 2007 at 2:17 PM
   
   

You can now ask questions directly from Facebook, add the Ask a Teacher App from eNotes!