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When the fairy king saw the clown sleeping in the arms of his queen, he advanced within her sight, and reproached her with having lavished her favors upon an ass.

This she could not deny, as the clown was then sleeping within 5 her arms, with his ass's head crowned by her with flowers.

When Oberon had teased her for some time, he again demanded the changeling boy; which she, ashamed of being discovered by her lord with her new favorite, did not dare to refuse him.

Oberon, having thus obtained the little boy he had so long wished for to be his page, took pity on the disgraceful situation into which, by his merry contrivance, he had brought his Titania, and threw some of the juice of the other flower into her eyes; and the fairy queen immediately recovered her senses, and won15 dered at her late dotage, saying she now loathed the sight of the strange monster.

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Oberon likewise took the ass's head from off the clown, and left him to finish his nap with his own fool's head upon his shoulders.

Oberon and his Titania being now perfectly reconciled, he related to her the history of the lovers, and their midnight quarrels; and she agreed to go with him and see the end of their adventures.

The fairy king and queen found the lovers and their fair 25 ladies, at no great distance from each other, sleeping on a grassplot; for Puck, to make amends for his former mistake, had contrived with the utmost diligence to bring them all to the same spot, unknown to each other; and he had carefully removed the charm from off the eyes of Lysander with the antidote the fairy 30 king gave to him.

Hermia first awoke, and finding her lost Lysander asleep so near her, was looking at him and wondering at his strange inconstancy. Lysander presently opening his eyes, and seeing his dear Hermia, recovered his reason, which the fairy charm had 35 before clouded, and with his reason, his love for Hermia; and

they began to talk over the adventures of the night, doubting

if these things had really happened, or if they had both been dreaming the same bewildering dream.

Helena and Demetrius were by this time awake; and a sweet sleep having quieted Helena's disturbed and angry spirits, she 5 listened with delight to the professions of love which Demetrius still made to her, and which, to her surprise as well as pleasure, she began to perceive were sincere.

These fair, night-wandering ladies, now no longer rivals, became once more true friends; all the unkind words which had 10 passed were forgiven, and they calmly consulted together what was best to be done in their present situation. It was soon agreed that, as Demetrius had given up his pretensions to Hermia, he should endeavor to prevail upon her father to revoke the cruel sentence of death which had been passed against her. 15 Demetrius was preparing to return to Athens for this friendly purpose, when they were surprised with the sight of Egeus, Hermia's father, who came to the wood in pursuit of his runaway daughter.

When Egeus understood that Demetrius would not now marry 20 his daughter, he no longer opposed her marriage with Lysander but gave his consent that they should be wedded on the fourth day from that time, being the same day on which Hermia had been condemned to lose her life; and on that same day Helena joyfully agreed to marry her beloved and now faithful Demetrius. The fairy king and queen, who were invisible spectators of this reconciliation, and now saw the happy ending of the lovers' history, brought about through the good offices of Oberon, received so much pleasure that these kind spirits resolved to celebrate the approaching nuptials with sports and revels throughout their 30 fairy kingdom.

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And now, if any are offended with this story of fairies and their pranks, as judging it incredible and strange, they have only to think that they have been asleep and dreaming, and that all these adventures were visions which they saw in their sleep; and 35 I hope none of my readers will be so unreasonable as to be offended with a pretty, harmless Midsummer Night's Dream.

Biography.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

Charles Lamb (1775-1834), an English writer, spent his entire life in London. His father was a clerk in a lawyer's office, and Charles was an accountant until he was fifty years of age. He was, however, a great reader and spent his hours of leisure at the bookstores and printshops, or at home reading with his sister Mary. He and Mary wrote Tales from Shakespeare, giving in simple prose the stories of many of Shakespeare's plays. In a letter to a friend, Lamb said of his sister: "She is doing for Godwin's bookseller twenty of Shakespeare's plays, to be made into children's tales. Six are already done by her: The Tempest, Winter's Tale, Midsummer Night, Much Ado, Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Cymbeline; and the Merchant of Venice is in forwardness. I have done Othello and Macbeth, and mean to do all the tragedies. I think it will be popular among the little people, besides money. It is to bring in sixty guineas. Mary has done them capitally, I think you'd think."

Discussion. 1. Make a list of the characters mentioned in the story. 2. Which are the principal characters? 3. What complaint did Hermia's father make to the Duke? What was the Duke's decision? 4. What plan for the safety of Hermia and himself did Lysander make? Το whom was this plan told? 5. Tell who Oberon, Titania, and Puck are. 6. What flower did Oberon send Puck to find? What magic was in it? 7. What did Oberon tell Puck to do with the juice of the flower? 8. Who is the Athenian youth that Oberon asks Puck to find? 9. Who is the youth that Puck finds? 10. What happens when Lysander awakes? 11: What does Oberon do with the juice of the flower? Account for the presence in the woods of Helena and Demetrius. 12. By what means did Oberon try to gain possession of the boy? How did he succeed? 13. How did Puck make amends for his mistake? 14. What did Lysander and Hermia say about "the adventures of the night"? 15. What did Egeus consent that Demetrius should do? 16. To whom were the four lovers indebted for their peace and happiness? 17. Find in the Glossary the meaning of refractory; forsworn; swain; potent; enamored; amiable; antidote; pretensions; nuptials. 18. Pronounce: revels; courtier; dexterously; thyme; hazarding; counterfeit; dotage.

Outline for Testing Silent Reading. Make an outline to guide you in telling the story.

Library Reading. Other stories in Tales from Shakespeare, Lamb.

In the introduction, page 95, you learned that the basis of all literature is adventure, and that adventures when treated with imagination give us literature; what three types of adventure stories are mentioned? Robert W. Service in "Fleurette" tells of an event such as he himself might have witnessed; what other selections in this group are based upon a real happening that the writer himself experienced or about which he had heard or read? Sir Walter Scott took an incident from an old border-ballad and gave us the poem "Lochinvar"; what other poem or story in Part II is based upon a legend? A third type of adventure story is one in which the events are purely imaginary. Such a story Shakespeare created in A Midsummer Night's Dream; what other stories in Part II narrate events that never actually happened?

No doubt you are training your imagination to picture the events until you can see the stories in action, as if they were little dramas being enacted by players before your eyes; which selections in Part II were you able to visualize most vividly? Discuss in class the advantages and disadvantages of "your own private moving picture show," about which you read in the Introduction on page 96, as compared with a regular "movie."

What did you learn in Part II about ballads? How does a folk-ballad differ from a ballad like "The Highwayman"? Which of the ballads in Part II would you select as best suited for a public reading? What ballads have you heard on the phonograph? What ballads have you heard sung by a good singer?

What did you learn about the short story that will increase your pleasure in reading short stories? What library reading have you done in connection with Part II? In your current magazine reading what ballads and adventure stories have you read? What newspaper item have you read recently that would furnish the plot for an interesting short story? Mention some especially interesting stories of adventure that you read in the preceding books of this series. Mention some of the ballads. What progress have you made in the use of the library catalogue and of The Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature? Do you find your interest in magazines and newspapers increasing? Which book review gave you the most pleasure? Which one gave you the most interesting information? What did you learn about public health from book reviews in connection with "The Masque of the Red Death"? Which of the "Suggestions for Theme Topics" in Part II was most helpful in information? Which one was made interesting by illustrative material, such as pictures, sketches, and objects?

What progress in silent reading have you made since you began this book? Compare your record for speed and comprehension with the standard for eighth-grade pupils. What material did you find in Part II suitable for an interesting Christmas entertainment? Which "Suggested Problem" gave you the greatest pleasure in working out its details? Which poets represented in Part II are living? What country claims each as a citizen? What newspaper or magazine references to them have you read? What other poems by these contemporary writers have you. read?