OBERON This is thy negligence. Still thou mistak’st,
Or else commit’st thy knaveries wilfully.
PUCK Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.
Did not you tell me I should know the man
By the Athenian garments he had on?
And so far blameless proves my enterprise,
That I have ’nointed an Athenian’s eyes;
And so far am I glad it so did sort,
As this their jangling I esteem a sport. (3.2.345-353)
THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, you’ve SLIPPED UP YET AGAIN, not PAID ATTENTION, says Oberon to Puck, and it’s hard to disagree: this is thy negligence. (Although the results of the mix-up have very much taken on their own momentum, brought out all sorts of latent tensions—and could it ever have been predicted just how stupid Demetrius and Lysander would be, how suspicious and paranoid Helena, how faithful, and then furious, Hermia?) Still thou mistak’st—either it was an honest error—or else commit’st thy knaveries wilfully. Were you stirring, creating chaos under your own initiative? Which is it, then? Oberon can be quite scary here, Puck aggrieved, or else whiningly defensive, honest mistake, guv, could happen to anyone, I wouldn’t DREAM of spreading anarchy and chaos just for fun. Who ME? (Yes you, long, long form in doing so.) Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook. And then a bit of needling blame-sharing: did not you tell me I should know the man by the Athenian garments he had on? I was following your instructions to the LETTER! That’s incontrovertible: he fitted the description. How was I to know that there were TWO of them? I did exactly as you asked, I’m not at fault in any way: and so far blameless proves my enterprise, that I have ’nointed an Athenian’s eyes. JOB DONE. But, rather ruining his bid for employee of the month, Puck concludes by admitting that, and so far am I glad it so did sort, as this their jangling I esteem a sport. Come ON boss, you’ve got to admit, it’s HILARIOUS, what we’ve just seen, all that whining and shouting and accusations and outbreaks of violence? Would you rather not have been so entertained??
