Classical Carousel

"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 sometimes 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 withered 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 the the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,

And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear

A merrier hour was never wasted there."

                          Act II, Scene I

"Captain of our fairy band,

Helena is here at hand,

And the youth, mistook by me,

Pleading for a lover's fee.

Shall we their fond pageant see?

Lord, what fools these mortals be!

                         Act III, Scene II