| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | The Fairy Life | | By William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | From “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream,” Act II. Scene 1 |
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OVER hill, over dale, | |
| Thorough bush, thorough brier, | |
| Over park, over pale, | |
| Thorough flood, thorough fire, | |
| I do wander everywhere, | 5 |
| Swifter than the moonè’s sphere; | |
| And I serve the fairy queen, | |
| To dew her orbs upon the green: | |
| The cowslips tall her pensioners be; | |
| In their gold coats spots you see; | 10 |
| Those be rubies, fairy favours, | |
| In those freckles live their savours: | |
| I must go seek some dew-drops here, | |
| And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear. | | | |
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