A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

BY

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE

SPECIALLY DECORATED THROUGHOUT FOR
CHILDREN AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
MRS. HERBERT RAILTON

LONDON

FREEMANTLE & CO.

217 PICCADILLY

Do boys and girls ever put the question earnestly to themselves, I wonder, regarding the existence or nonexistence of Fairies. It is doubtful if many do. You read and enjoy those wonderful stories of Elf-land, but do not accept them seriously, now do you? Not as you would a page of English history, for instance, or the history of any other country, if it comes to that. No, you read, you enjoy, at times even becoming so absorbed in the description that you are deaf for some minutes, at least to all ordinary sounds and impressions, but the last page arrived at, and the book closed, it is 'Ah! that was a lovely story,' and this is all. But, my dear little friends, is it reasonable to suppose that so many writers, of every country and of every period, including the great recorder of this most wonderful story of all, should be unanimous in harping upon the same theme of Fairies, if Fairies there were none? It is true that other writers have denied their existence, and have attached various explanations of the Fairy rings in woods and meadowland,

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all more or less scientific. But ah! in what different language do they seek to destroy our belief and work our disenchantment. Where is the eloquence with which the historian of Elf-land charms us with his writings? Does it not suggest that Fairies guide the poet's pen, and into his thoughts weave flowers. Therefore do not believe in the sceptic, at least, not yet; not until you are tall and quite grown up, but when you see a Fairy ring, think of

'A pleasant mead,

Where Fairies often did their measures tread,
Which in the meadows made such circles green,
As if with garlands it had crowned been.
Within one of these rounds was to be seen

A hillock rise, where oft the Fairy Queen
At twilight sat.'

'At twilight sat!' Who has not fallen under the mysterious influence of a twilight stroll in the country? Why, in the very rustle of hedgerows you may hear the Fairies playing; in the crisp waving of long grasses, in the soft sighing of tree tops. They are about, too, in the very early summer morning although you cannot see them, but stand immediately beneath a big widespreading tree, gaze steadily up into the heart of its rich foliage, and remain quite quiet, then the Fairies will perhaps sway you to and fro ever so gently as in