The Final Words of Puck – A Shakespearean Farewell

From A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Act 5, scene 1

By William Shakespeare

 

If we shadows have offended,

Think but this, and all is mended,

That you have but slumber'd here

While these visions did appear.

And this weak and idle theme,

No more yielding but a dream,

Gentles, do not reprehend:

if you pardon, we will mend:

And, as I am an honest Puck,

If we have unearned luck

Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,

We will make amends ere long;

Else the Puck a liar call;

So, good night unto you all.

Give me your hands, if we be friends,

And Robin shall restore amends.

 

 

One of my favorite passages in all of Shakespeare comes at the very end of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, spoken by the mischievous sprite Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow. In this closing soliloquy, Puck breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience directly, offering a whimsical apology and a gentle reminder that all the magical chaos of the play was nothing more than a dream:

If we shadows have offended,

Think but this, and all is mended—

That you have but slumbered here

While these visions did appear.

These lines invite the audience to consider the events of the play as a kind of dream state, a fantastical interlude where love and identity swirl in a moonlit wood, governed by fairies and folly. Puck—Shakespeare’s impish trickster—has spent the play both delighting in and accidentally disturbing the lives of mortals. Here, he offers a lighthearted reparation: if any of the night’s enchantments have unsettled the audience, they can simply imagine it all as a dream, and let go of any offense.

 

As a character, Puck embodies the spirit of mischief and transformation. He is Oberon’s jester and servant, the orchestrator of magical mishaps, and a symbol of the play’s themes of illusion, play, and unpredictability. Yet in this final moment, he becomes almost like a stage manager or storyteller, drawing the curtain on the night’s performance. The poem’s gentle rhymes and soft cadence give it a lullaby quality, reinforcing the idea that what we’ve witnessed was a fleeting vision.

Give me your hands, if we be friends,

And Robin shall restore amends. 

With this closing couplet, Puck asks the audience for applause—literal hands—and pledges to make things right again, as if promising that art, like dreams, can enchant but also restore. As a poem, it stands beautifully on its own, a meditation on the power of storytelling to both dazzle and heal, to stir the heart and then gently release it back into the waking world.

 

About the Author

 

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was an English playwright, poet, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. He wrote 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and numerous poems, leaving behind a literary legacy that continues to influence storytelling, language, and performance. From comedies and tragedies to histories and romances, his work explores the full range of human experience with wit, beauty, and insight.