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.
Titania:But I know when thou hast stol'n 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 step 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:How canst thou thus for shame, Titania, glance at my credit with Hippolyta, knowing I know thy love to Theseus? Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night from Perigenia whom he ravished? And make him with fair Aegles 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 paved fountain or by rushy brook, or in the beached margent of the sea to dance our ringlets to the whistling wind, but with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.
Titania: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 pelting river made so proud that they have overborne their continents.
Titania: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 drowned field, and crows are fatted with the murrion flock.
Titania:The nine men's morris is filled up with mud, and the quaint mazes in the wanton green for lack of tread are undistinguishable.
Titania:The human mortals want their winter cheer. No night is now with hymn or carol blessed.
Titania:Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, pale in her anger, washes all the air, that rheumatic diseases do abound.
Titania: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 mockery, set.
Titania:The spring, the summer, the childing autumn, angry winter, change their wonted liveries, and the mazed world by their increase now knows not which is which.
Titania:And this same progeny of evils comes from our debate, from our dissension. We are their parents and original.
Oberon:Do you amend it then, it lies in you.
Oberon: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.
Titania:His mother was a Votress of my order, and in the spiced Indian air by night full often hath she gossiped by my side, and sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands, marking th'embarked traders on the flood, when we have laughed to see the sails conceive and grow big-bellied with the wanton wind,
Titania: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.
Titania: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?
Titania:Perchance till after Theseus' wedding day.
FAIRIES LAUGH
Titania: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.
SHE WHOOPS
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.
Oberon:Well, go thy way! Thou shalt not from this grove till I torment thee for this injury.
The King and Queen of the fairies meet for the first time.
Titania tells Oberon that their argument over her changeling boy is having a disastrous impact on the natural world.
This short film is from the 大象传媒 series, Shakespeare Unlocked.
Teacher Notes
This is a highly charged scene which illustrates the complex relationship between Oberon and Titania.
This short film might provide opportunity for discussion on the status of each of the two characters and invite comparison with the relationships between other couples in the play.
Before watching the scene, ask your students to read out loud the first four lines of the scene in pairs with one reading Oberon's lines, the other Titania's.
Ask them to write down what Oberon says about Titania (for example, proud, rash), then what Titania says about Oberon (jealous, foresworn his bed).
Still in pairs, ask students to jot down initial ideas about this couple:
- What have they learned about them?
- Who might they be?
- How long have they known each other?
- Is this the first time they've argued or do they regularly behave like this?
Ask your students to share their ideas with the rest of the class.
After watching the scene, ask students to read out loud the exchange between Titania and Oberon from 鈥淲hy are thou here鈥 鈥 to 鈥淜nowing I know thy love to Theseus鈥.
Ask students to brainstorm what they learn from this exchange about Titania and Oberon and their respective relationships with Theseus and Hippolyta, the royal couple at court.
Discuss with them the way the hierarchy of the court is mirrored in the hierarchy of the fairy kingdom.
Is the fairy world a place where characters can be much freer in terms of what they say and do?
How does the text suggest the greater freedoms that Titania and Oberon enjoy?
This short film is suitable for teaching GCSE English literature and drama in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and National 4/ 5 in Scotland.
More from Shakespeare Unlocked - A Midsummer Nights Dream
Act 2, Scene 1 - Ecological disaster (workshop) video
A look at how Titania shows Oberon the impact of their argument on the world, discussing Shakespeare's use of language and imagery.
Act 2, Scene 1 - Titania crosses Oberon (workshop) video
A look at the importance of the child at the centre of Titania and Oberon's argument.
Act 1, Scene 2 - The Mechanicals. video
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Act 1, Scene 2 - Clowning around (workshop) video
The company explore comic timing, playing for laughs and how to make Bottom funny.
Act 1, Scene 2 - Quince v Bottom (workshop) video
Bottom and Quince battle to be the most important person present and experiment with playing the characters as high and low status.
Act 2, Scene 1 - Helena and Demetrius (workshop) video
How might Helena and Demetrius have met and how might their relationship have developed?
Act 2, Scene 1 - Playing Helena (workshop) video
Different ways of playing Helena: as victim, as temptress, or as a reasonable woman.
Act 2, Scene 1 - The Lovers. video
Demetrius goes to the woods to find Hermia, with Helena in hot pursuit.
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