24 Depictions of Fairy Scenes in Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

 

Oberon Speaking to Titania (Act iv, scene I, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare).

“Come, my queen, take hands with me,
And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.
Now thou and I are new in amity,
And will tomorrow midnight solemnly
Dance in Duke Theseus’ house triumphantly,
And bless it to all fair prosperity:
There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be
Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity…” (Obseron, Act iv, scene I, The Wood, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

Retrieved, March 27, 2023 Project Gutenberg ebook. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1514/1514-h/1514-h.htm)

Selected Verses from William Shakespeare’s (1564-1616) Midsummer Night’s Dream (1593)

“The course of true love never did run smooth.”

(Lysander, Act 1 Scene 1)

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, “

And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”

(Helena, Act 1 Scene 1)

“I must go seek some dewdrops here,

And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear.”

(Fairy, Act 2 Scene 1)

“I’ll met by moonlight, proud Titania.”

(Oberon, Act 2 Scene 1)

“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,

Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight.”

(Oberon, Act 2 Scene 1)

“Bless thee, Bottom! Bless thee! Thou art translated.”

(Quince, Act 3 Scene 1)

“What angel wakes me from my flow’ry bed?”

(Titania, Act 3 Scene 1)

“To say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays.”

(Bottom, Act 3 Scene 1)

“O, when she’s angry, she is keen and shrewd.

She was a vixen when she went to school,

And though she be but little, she is fierce.”

(Helena, Act 3 Scene 2)

From A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

(Retrieved March 27, 2023. Royal Shakespeare Company Website https://www.rsc.org.uk/a-midsummer-nights-dream/about-the-play/famous-quotes )

To access the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, please open the link below. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1514/pg1514-images.html

 

 

Fairies as Tricksters

Fairies were not always viewed as benevolent spirits; fairies and elves could be seen as tricksters or they could be more malevolent. A human child could be replaced by a changeling or fairy child at birth without the parents knowing. The fairies would then take the human child and raise them as their own. For more information about Fairy Folklore please open the link below.

https://www.britannica.com/art/fairy

A Merry Wanderer-Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

Puck (Robin Goodfellow was a shape shifting fairy servant  to Oberon, King of the Fairies, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare).

“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 fill foal;

And sometime lurk I in a gossip’s bowl

In very likeness of 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 threefoot stool mistaketh me;

Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,

And ‘Tailor” cries, and falls into a cough;
And then the whole choir hold their hips and loffe,

And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear

A merrier hour was never wasted there.

But room, Fairy; here comes Oberon.” (Act 2, scene 1, p. 29, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cambridge School Edition, Cambridge University Press. 2010,).

Midsummer Night’s Dream Excerpt: Puck’s Speech about Oberon, King of the Fairies

“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, stol’n 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…”(Puck, Act 2, Scene 1, A Wood Near Athens, Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare) https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1514/pg1514-images.html

“Fairy Song” (William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 2, Scene 1).

“Over hill, over dale.

Thorough bush thorough briar,

Over park, over pale,

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.”  .-Act 2, scene I, Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare

Resources

Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27826/27826-h/27826-h.htm

 

Oberon:

“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 Tatiania sometime in 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….” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 2, scene 1, Cambridge School Shakespeare, p. 43)