A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Act 2 Scene 1
A wood near Athens.
The design for he fairies varies immensely from production to production; they may be charming, beautiful, terrifying, alien, natural, human, or animal. They may also differ from one another, and Puck and the Fairy may, in their costume and appearance, display their allegiance to Oberon and Titania.
The Fairy is often presented as female, though the text makes no mention of gender.
The Fairy's references suggest that the fairies are tiny, roughly the size of the flowers they describe. Their interaction with humans indicates that their size is variable, as does Puck's shifting appearance.
Enter, from opposite sides, a Fairy, and PUCK
PUCK
How now, spirit! Whither wander you?
Fairy
Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire,
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moon's sphere,
And I serve the Fairy Queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslips tall her pensioners be,
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours.
I must go seek some dewdrops here
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone:
Our queen and all her elves come here anon.
Puck and the Fairy serve opposing monarchs, and there may be tension or confrontation between them. Puck's bragging can also come across as flirting, regardless of the Fairy's apparent gender. Their stylized and rhymed conversation echoes that of Lysander and Hermia in 1.1.
PUCK
The King doth keep his revels here tonight.
Take heed the Queen come not within his sight,
For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,
Because that she as her attendant hath
A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king.
She never had so sweet a changeling,
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild.
But she perforce withholds the lovèd boy,
Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy.
And now they never meet in grove or green,
By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,
But they do square, that all their elves for fear
Creep into acorn cups and hide them there.
The Fairy describes Puck as both mischievous and helpful, depending on his whims and on how he is treated.
Fairy
Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Called Robin Goodfellow. Are not you he
That frights the maidens of the villagery,
Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn,
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm,
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck.
Are not you he?
Puck seems to enjoy describing the details of his misdeeds; the emphasis on misleading and shape-shifting hint at his later actions. The tricks he describes are malicious, but relatively harmless.
PUCK
Thou speak'st aright;
I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon and make him smile
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal;
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab,
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob
And on her withered dewlap pour the ale.
The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough,
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear
A merrier hour was never wasted there.
But, room, fairy! Here comes Oberon.
Fairy
And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!
The exact appearance of this entrance will vary greatly depending on the production, but this is a moment for spectacle, as both monarchs enter with an assortment of attendants. They may be accompanied by music, and there may be tension, hostility, or outright violence between the two factions.
Enter, from one side, OBERON, with his train; from the other, TITANIA, with hers
OBERON
Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.
TITANIA
What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence.
I have forsworn his bed and company.
OBERON
Tarry, rash wanton. Am not I thy lord?
Oberon and Titania, at least, seem to reach human size, given their love-affairs with various humans. Their mutual history of trysts and affairs suggests that their relationship is fraught at the best of times.
TITANIA
Then I must be thy lady; but I know
When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,
And in the shape of Corin sat all day,
Playing on pipes of corn and versing love
To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,
Come from the farthest Steppe of India?
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,
Your buskined mistress and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded, and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.
Oberon and Titania's clash provides new insight into Theseus and Hippolyta's relationship, especially to Theseus' multiple affairs, and to the connection made between love and war. The two sets of rulers may echo each other in appearance or bearing, and many productions double-cast Theseus/Oberon and Hippolyta/Titania.
Oberon and Titania's supernatural battle has spilled over into the natural world, upsetting the weather and seasons, and thus into the human world as well, interfering with crops and livestock. The link between the human, natural, and supernatural worlds is a common trope in Shakespeare, appearing in Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and, most famously, King Lear.
OBERON
How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night
From Perigenia, whom he ravishèd?
And make him with fair Aegle break his faith,
With Ariadne and Antiopa?
TITANIA
These are the forgeries of jealousy,
And never, since the middle summer's spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
By pavèd fountain or by rushy brook,
Or in the beachèd margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge, have sucked up from the sea
Contagious fogs, which falling in the land
Have every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents.
The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard.
The fold stands empty in the drownèd field,
And crows are fatted with the murrion flock.
The nine men's morris is filled up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
For lack of tread are undistinguishable.
The human mortals want their winter here;
No night is now with hymn or carol blest.
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound.
And thorough this distemperature we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mock’ry, set. The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries, and the mazèd world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which.
And this same progeny of evils comes
From our debate, from our dissension;
We are their parents and original.
Some productions make the Indian boy part of Titania's train, so that he is physically present during this argument, perhaps being tempted or manipulated back and forth by the fairy monarchs.
Titania's description of her relationship with her votaress is reminiscent of Egeus' accusations against Lysander-- Titania was plied with gifts, games, and company, and became devoted to her follower.
OBERON
Do you amend it, then. It lies in you.
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy,
To be my henchman.
TITANIA
Set your heart at rest.
The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a vot’ress of my order,
And, in the spicèd Indian air, by night,
Full often hath she gossiped by my side,
And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,
Marking the embarkèd traders on the flood,
When we have laughed to see the sails conceive
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,
Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait
Following — her womb then rich with my young squire —
Would imitate, and sail upon the land,
To fetch me trifles, and return again,
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;
And for her sake do I rear up her boy,
And for her sake I will not part with him.
OBERON
How long within this wood intend you stay?
The tension and conflict between Oberon and Titania emphasize and heighten the play's conflict along gender lines, especially if Oberon's train is made up of male fairies and Titania's of female ones.
TITANIA
Perchance till after Theseus' wedding day.
If you will patiently dance in our round
And see our moonlight revels, go with us.
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.
OBERON
Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.
TITANIA
Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away!
We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.
Exit TITANIA with her train
Oberon's plan to "torment" Titania may come across as just, or cruel, or entertaining, depending on the performance and the audience's relationship to Oberon. It echoes the unequal power dynamic in the Theseus-Hippolyta relationship.
OBERON
Well, go thy way. Thou shalt not from this grove
Till I torment thee for this injury.
My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememb’rest
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
That the rude sea grew civil at her song
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear the sea-maid's music?
PUCK
I remember.
Oberon's description of the "imperial vot'ress" has often been read as referring to Queen Elizabeth, who had by this point perfected her persona as the "Virgin Queen," untouched by the demands of love. In contrast to Theseus' description of nuns in 1.1, here chastity is linked to nobility and to power, an immunity to love rather than a lacking of it.
The point of this long speech is to introduce the play's essential plot device: the love potion. The potion's origin also links it to Cupid's erratic nature and to eyesight, which has already been discussed as being unreliable and fickle.
OBERON
That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,
Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
Cupid all armed. A certain aim he took
At a fair vestal thronèd by the west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts.
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
And the imperial vot’ress passèd on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell.
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
Fetch me that flower; the herb I showed thee once.
The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again
Ere the leviathan can swim a league.
Puck's exit may be as swift as his word, or it may be delayed and dawdling, played for a laugh.
PUCK
I'll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes.
Exit
OBERON
Having once this juice,
I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,
And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.
The next thing then she waking looks upon,
Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,
She shall pursue it with the soul of love.
And ere I take this charm from off her sight,
As I can take it with another herb,
I'll make her render up her page to me.
But who comes here? I am invisible,
And I will overhear their conference.
Oberon's invisibility makes sense in terms of fairy powers, but offers both challenges and opportunities for staging. He may hide, or remain on the outskirts of the stage, or he may hover around the youths, invisible to them but in full view of the audience.
This is the first time that we see Demetrius and Helena together, and they present another variation on love: the unrequited romance. Demetrius is intent on finding Helena, and fighting Lysander, and Helena's affections only interfere with his plans.
Demetrius makes an important point, both about the immediate situation and about the working of love in the play: he does nothing to invite Helena's love, yet her attraction is immune to his actions. He love for him is somehow not connected to anything he actually says or does.
Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA, following him
DEMETRIUS
I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?
The one I'll stay, the other stayeth me.
Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood,
And here am I, and wood within this wood,
Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
HELENA
You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant,
But yet you draw not iron, for my heart
Is true as steel. Leave you your power to draw,
And I shall have no power to follow you.
DEMETRIUS
Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair?
Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth
Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?
HELENA
And even for that do I love you the more.
I am your spaniel, and, Demetrius,
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you.
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
What worser place can I beg in your love —
And yet a place of high respect with me —
Than to be usèd as you use your dog?
DEMETRIUS
Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;
For I am sick when I do look on thee.
HELENA
And I am sick when I look not on you.
Demetrius' is, indirectly, presenting the threat of rape. Depending on the production, this may be extremely veiled or totally explicit.
DEMETRIUS
You do impeach your modesty too much,
To leave the city and commit yourself
Into the hands of one that loves you not,
To trust the opportunity of night
And the ill counsel of a desert place
With the rich worth of your virginity.
Helena is powerless, both because she cannot help being in love, and because, as a woman, she is unable to resist should Demetrius assault her. Nevertheless, there is a kind of power in her helplessness: she puts herself entirely in Demetrius' power, and for all his supposed strength, he is the one running away.
HELENA
Your virtue is my privilege. For that
It is not night when I do see your face,
Therefore I think I am not in the night,
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
For you in my respect are all the world.
Then how can it be said I am alone,
When all the world is here to look on me?
DEMETRIUS
I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,
And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.
HELENA
The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
Run when you will, the story shall be changed:
Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
Makes speed to catch the tiger; bootless speed,
When cowardice pursues and valour flies.
Presumably, Helena has taken hold of Demetrius somewhere in the preceding speech, and he must free himself in order to leave.
Helena complains that Demetrius has reversed the proper gender roles: the woman should run, and the man should chase.
DEMETRIUS
I will not stay thy questions. Let me go!
Or, if thou follow me, do not believe
But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.
HELENA
Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex.
We cannot fight for love, as men may do;
We should be wood and were not made to woo.
[Exit DEMETRIUS]
Even Demetrius' death-threats are transformed by Helena into an opportunity to demonstrate her love.
I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,
To die upon the hand I love so well.
Exit
OBERON
Fare thee well, nymph. Ere he do leave this grove,
Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love.
Re-enter PUCK
Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.
PUCK
Ay, there it is.
Shakespeare's plays were staged on a bare platform, with no set. Oberon's poetic description functions as a kind of set-dressing, providing the audience an image of Titania's bower in words, rather than pictures.
The shift from the beautiful description of the bower and the malicious details of the plan creates a striking contrast between Titania's peaceful sleep and Oberon's vengeful plan. There is a second contrast between Oberon's intended cruelty toward Titania and his benevolent interference on Helena's behalf.
OBERON
I pray thee, give it me.
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamelled skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.
And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantasies.
Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove.
A sweet Athenian lady is in love
With a disdainful youth. Anoint his eyes;
But do it when the next thing he espies
May be the lady. Thou shalt know the man
By the Athenian garments he hath on.
Effect it with some care, that he may prove
More fond on her than she upon her love:
And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.
Anyone familiar with the conventions of comedy will know that this kind of statement, coming from a comic servant character, can only mean that things are about to go spectacularly wrong.
PUCK
Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.
Exeunt