Act 2, Scene 1

An introduction to the fairies.

This scene introduces the audience to the third group of characters, the fairies. Their speeches turn the wood from an ordinary location to a magical world where anything might happen.

AO4: The fairies in this play are much less threatening than the traditional figures of Elizabethan folklore.

Consider:

• size• actions• language

AO2: How is this established in the fairy’s opening

speech?

[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 our elves come here anon.

bodyguards

[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 our elves come here anon.

bodyguards

speed

Size (small; dainty)

References to small, delicate things give a sense of scale – transforming the stage via language

Establishes a sense of a fairy court. The fairy serves the queen by caring for ‘her’ natural objects.

Use of verse: varied in metre; shifts into short rhyming lines = song-like; sense of movement (light; fluttery)

Puck is a slightly darker character. His favourite leisure activity is humiliating people and ‘laughing at their harm’ (line 39). At the same time, he does recognise the authority of Oberon, who is capable of acts of kindness, and there is a sense of the ridiculous about his mischievous actions (lines 46-58), which do seem aimed at merriment rather than cruelty.

AO2: Can you pick out any key lines or words?

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 wither'd 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.

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 wither'd 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.

Court jester?

AO3: How would you present the fairies (using costume, movement, lighting and any other means you can think of), if you were staging the play for a modern audience?

Read the extract from Shakespeare: Texts and Contexts on this question, highlighting any significant ideas you find. Add your own ideas to your notes, considering the effects of your choices.

(Enter the King of Fairies [Oberon] at one door with his train, and the Queen [Titania] at another with hers)

AO2: How does this stage direction set the scene for the confrontation which follows?

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?

TITANIA: Then I must be thy lady

AO2: Comment on the significance of the highlighted words below.

AO2: What is the effect of the blank

verse used by Oberon and

Titania in this scene?

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?

TITANIA: Then I must be thy lady

AO2: Comment on the significance of the highlighted words below.

AO2: What is the effect of the blank

verse used by Oberon and

Titania in this scene?

Thematic reference Character traits

which cause conflict

Thematic link to patriarchal power/ allows for different modern readings

• dignified • expresses status • stresses serious nature of the dispute (cf. light verse of fairies)

The magical nature of Oberon and Titania

Titania’s speech – “These are the forgeries of jealousy”

This speech is a striking piece of poetry which would be out of place coming from a merely human character. Titania creates a vivid impression of the countryside through description, and the way she personifies the winds, rivers, seasons and moon suggests her supernatural intimacy with the forces of nature.

AO2: Make sure you understand this speech fully. Highlight and annotate key words and phrases, and re-write it in modern English to ensure you fully

understand the consequences of the conflict between Oberon and Titania.

Focus on: • descriptions and imagery• personification• any awareness of the impact of the quarrel on humans/ negative language

AO4: In the 1590s, unseasonable weather meant that many people did starve to death. Is this a reference to something the audience would clearly understand?

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 Hath every petty 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.

Contrast (ringlets = fairy dance)

metaphor

The human mortals want their winter here: No night is now with hymn or carol blessed. Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, Pale in her anger, washes all the air, That rheumatic diseases do abound. And through 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 mockery, 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.

Personification of winter

AlliterationNote: the moon features again, but this time has darker connotations

Consequences of the argument between Oberon and Titania. Did you get...?

• huge winds have caused fogs to lie heavily on the land (89)• rivers have burst their banks and caused floods (91-92)• corn has been rotting before it is fully ripened so that the farmers reap a very poor harvest (94-95)• birds feed on dead livestock (97)• morris dances have been cancelled because of the mud (98)• there are no leaves on the bushes (99-100)• the seasons are all confused because flowers are blooming in wintery, icy weather (107)• rheumatic diseases are spreading (105)

This passage shows us some of the major themes of the whole play; it is concerned with the control that the supernatural world has over the natural world. Because Oberon and Titania are quarrelling, the whole of the natural world has been upset (106-107).

Theme: female friendship – “His mother was a votress of my order”

Titania gives a moving description of the friendship between herself and her pregnant votress, stressing to the audience how important the disputed child is to her.

This can be compared to the girlhood closeness of Hermia and Helena. Both friendships are described in a way that provokes our sympathy but in both cases it also seems to be suggested that it is natural for male concerns to destroy this closeness. Hermia and Helena come into conflict over men who lay claim to them, and here Oberon exerts his authority over his wife, claiming the right to take the boy she has adopted and to punish her if she defies him.

AO3: Feminist critics see a pattern running through the play in which we are encouraged to sympathise with the female characters and wish for them to be treated more fairly, but are consistently shown that the final authority belongs to men.

My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest 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.

That very time I saw, but thou couldst not, Flying between the cold moon and the earth, Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took At a fair vestal throned 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 Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon, And the imperial votress passed on, In maiden meditation, fancy-free. Yet mark'd 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 shew'd 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.

AO4: noblemen who were visited by Queen Elizabeth often staged pageants for her amusement. In 1575, she was treated to a parade on water including a boat in the shape of a dolphin and a spectacular fireworks display. In 1581, she watched from a ‘fortress of perfect beauty’ as courtiers lay siege to her, urging her to surrender her ‘virtuous desire’. This was a hint that many of her subjects wished her to marry and secure an heir. She chose, however, to remain a virgin queen, and Oberon’s words seem to praise this decision. Her chaste nature guards her against the foolish behaviour love can induce, a point made shortly by Helena’s entrance.

Freely-chosen chastity

Oberon is higher-level

Theme: change

Why are these words important for:

• the audience? • the characters?• the play?

“I am invisible”

From now on Oberon and/or Puck will be on stage for long periods of action, unseen and unheard by the mortals. They are, however, seen and heard by the audience, whom they take into their confidence.

Is Oberon’s role as the unseen protector of mortals as

thematically important as the resolution of his own conflict?

[Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA following him]

The arrival of the two mortals changes the tone once again. This is a very physical scene, with Helena pursuing Demetrius, and being humiliated by his rejection. This is a scene of humour, despite its dark content.

AO3: How could you direct this scene to bring out the humour whilst still evoking enough sympathy to make

Oberon’s pity understandable?

‘Playing Helena’

Consider:

• language• action• character

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine: There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight; And there the snake throws her enamell'd 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.

Oberon describes the setting for the next scene: Titania’s bower. Rhyme is resumed and he uses language heavy with imagery and scent.

AO2: What sort of place does Oberon describe? Highlight and annotate any key words or phrases.

How does Shakespeare end this section of the speech with a jarring contrast? Why?

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine: There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight; And there the snake throws her enamell'd 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.

AO2: What sort of place does Oberon describe? Highlight and annotate any key words or phrases.

How does Shakespeare end this section of the speech with a jarring contrast? Why?

Gentle movement

secureStrongly-scented = close and secure

Contrast with security – her bower will be violated. Foreshadows events of next scene. Strength of Oberon’s anger. Hateful action. Audience response?