The Fairy-Queen

Act One - A Palace

Titania, the queen of the fairies, arrives with the Indian Boy and her fairies in attendance.. The dusk is approaching, and she checks with her fairies that the sentries are ready to guard them in their sleep. She tells the fairies that if any mortal should approach, they should be blinded, and pinched, until he confesses his sins. When that is all confirmed, she asks her fairy choir to entertain her with a song about the peace and happiness of love (‘Come, come, come, let us leave the Town’).

The fairies have caught a mortal straying into their garden. The Drunken Poet (or possibly several) is teased and pinched until he confesses his crimes; he is drunk, and a bad poet (‘Fill up the bowl’). They drive the man out of the garden.

Titania returns, holding the sleeping Indian Boy in her arms (‘Sleep has seis’d the lovely Boy’). Titania’s First Fairy has some important news for her queen: King Oberon has sent Puck looking for the Indian Boy. Titania summons the earth