A wood outside Athens. Four beautiful fairy girls, Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth and Mustardseed, lounge in the haunted woods with Puck, who's been behaving rather badly lately, and try to work out the basic mysteries of their existence. Peaseblossom is pensive, Cobweb full of questions, Moth thinks her elbows are pretty, and Mustardseed is not impressed. Puck tells them he once saw the Great God Pan, who has died but still haunts the woods. You know he's there when you're alone in the woods and a sudden wave of panic overwhelms you, and the trees move when there's no wind. This leads them to some troubling concerns about what happens to fairies when nobody believes in them any more, and who exactly this Shakespeare fellow is who has apparently written scenes for them which may be discarded. A haunted little epilogue to
A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Published in Grim Lake & Other Plays.