Oberon continues:
"That very time I saw, but thou could'st not,
Flying between the cold moon and the earth
Cupid all armed; a certain aim he took
At a fair Vestal, throned by the West;
And loosed his shaft smartly from his bow,
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon;
And the Imperial Voteress passed on
In maiden meditation, fancy free!
Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell;
It fell upon a little Western flower—
Before milk white; now purple with love's wound—
And maidens call it 'love in idleness.'
Fetch me that flower; the herb I showed thee once,
The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid,
Will make, or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again
Ere the Leviathan can swim a league."
Puck replies:
"I'll put a girdle round about the earth in forty
minutes!"
The audience saw by this time that the "Vestal" and "Imperial Voteress" in "maiden meditation, fancy free" was none other than Queen Elizabeth, and therefore three cheers and a roaring lion were given for the delicate and eloquent compliment of Shakspere to her Virgin Majesty!
Tributes to the powerful, though undeserved, are received with spontaneous applause, while just praise for the poor receive no echo from the jealous throng. Poor, toadying humanity!
The infatuated Helena follows Demetrius into the dark forest, and though he tells her that he does not and cannot love her, she says:
"And even for that, do I love you the more;
I am your spaniel; and Demetrius
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you,
And to be used, as you use your dog!"
I have seen fool women and fool men act just that way, and the more they were spurned, the more they clung to their infatuation.
Puck returns with the flower containing the juice that will make wanton women and licentious men return to their just lovers.