A Midsummer Night's Dream — Act 2, Scene 1

original text and modern English, side by side

A wood near Athens · Puck, Oberon, Titania, Demetrius, Helena

In the wood outside Athens, Puck explains that Oberon and Titania are at war over a stolen Indian boy, and their quarrel has thrown the weather and the seasons into chaos. Titania refuses to hand the child over, so Oberon sends Puck for a magic flower whose juice makes a sleeper fall in love with the first creature they see. Overhearing Demetrius cruelly reject Helena, Oberon also orders Puck to use the flower on the young Athenian so that he will love her back.

Enter a Fairy at one door, and Puck at another.

Puck

How now, spirit!

Well now, spirit —

Whither wander you?

where are you wandering off to?

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;

FAIRY: Over hills and valleys, through thickets and thorns, over parks and fences, through water and fire — I wander everywhere, faster than the moon travels its sphere.

And I serve the Fairy Queen,

To dew her orbs upon the green.

I serve the Fairy Queen, sprinkling dew on her green fairy-rings.

The cowslips tall her pensioners be,

In their gold coats spots you see;

The tall cowslips are her bodyguard; you can see the spots on their golden coats.

Those be rubies, fairy favours,

In those freckles live their savours.

Those spots are rubies, the Queen's own gifts, and their perfume lives in those freckles.

I must go seek some dew-drops here,

And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear.

I have to go and find dewdrops here, and hang a pearl in the ear of every cowslip.

Farewell, thou lob of spirits;

Goodbye, you lumpish spirit —

I’ll be gone.

I'm off.

Our Queen and all her elves come here anon.

Our Queen and all her elves will be here any minute.

Puck

The King doth keep his revels here tonight;

The King is holding 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;

Make sure the Queen doesn't cross his path, because Oberon is in a furious temper — all because she has a beautiful little boy, stolen from an Indian king, as her attendant.

She never had so sweet a changeling.

And jealous Oberon would have the child

Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild:

She's never had such a lovely stolen child, and jealous Oberon wants the boy for his own retinue, to roam the wild woods with him.

But she perforce withholds the lovèd boy,

Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy.

But she keeps hold of the child, crowns him with flowers, and makes him her whole delight.

And now they never meet in grove or green,

By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,

But they do square;

Now the two of them never meet in any grove or meadow, by any clear spring or under bright starlight, without a quarrel —

that all their elves for fear

Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there.

and their elves are so frightened they crawl into acorn cups to hide.

FAIRY

Either I mistake your shape and making quite,

Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite

Call’d Robin Goodfellow.

FAIRY: Either I'm completely mistaken about your shape and build, or you're that mischievous, prankish spirit 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,

Aren't you the one who scares the village girls, skims the cream off the milk, sometimes jams the hand-mill, makes the housewife churn herself breathless for no butter, and keeps the beer from fermenting?

Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?

Who leads travellers astray at night and laughs at the trouble it causes?

Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,

You do their work, and they shall have good luck.

But those who call you Hobgoblin and sweet Puck — you do their work for them and bring them luck.

Are not you he?

Aren't you him?

Puck

Thou speak’st aright;

You've got me right.

I am that merry wanderer of the night.

I am that merry night wanderer.

I jest to Oberon, and make him smile,

When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,

Neighing in likeness of a filly foal;

I clown for Oberon and make him laugh — I'll trick a fat, well-fed horse by neighing like a young mare.

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.

Or I'll hide in a gossiping woman's drink disguised as a roasted crab-apple, and when she goes to sip I bob against her lips and spill ale down her wrinkled chin.

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 loffe

And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear

A merrier hour was never wasted there.

Sometimes the wisest old aunt, deep in her saddest story, mistakes me for her three-legged stool; then I slide out from under her, over she goes, crying "Tailor!" and coughing with the shock — and the whole company holds their sides laughing, hooting and sneezing and swearing they've never had a better hour.

But room, fairy.

But make room, fairy:

Here comes Oberon.

here comes Oberon.

FAIRY

And here my mistress.

FAIRY: And here's my mistress.

Would that he were gone!

I wish he'd go.

Enter Oberon at one door, with his Train, and Titania at another, with hers.

Oberon

Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.

An unlucky meeting by moonlight, proud Titania.

Titania

What, jealous Oberon!

What, jealous Oberon?

Fairies, skip hence;

Fairies, come away.

I have forsworn his bed and company.

I've sworn off his bed and his company.

Oberon

Tarry, rash wanton;

Wait, you reckless creature.

am not I thy lord?

Am I not your husband and lord?

Titania

Then I must be thy lady;

Then I must be your lady —

but I know

When thou hast stol’n away from fairyland,

And in the shape of Corin sat all day

Playing on pipes of corn, and versing love

To amorous Phillida.

but I know how you sneaked out of fairyland and sat all day disguised as the shepherd Corin, piping on straw and singing love songs to lovesick Phillida.

Why art thou here,

Come from the farthest steep of India,

But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,

Your buskin’d mistress and your warrior love,

To Theseus must be wedded; and you come

To give their bed joy and prosperity?

Why are you here now, all the way from the far mountains of India? Only because that swaggering Amazon, your booted mistress, your warrior sweetheart, is marrying Theseus — and you've come to bless their marriage bed.

Oberon

How canst thou thus, for shame, Titania,

Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,

Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?

How dare you, Titania, hint at anything between me and Hippolyta, when you know perfectly well I know about your feelings for Theseus?

Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night

From Perigenia, whom he ravished?

Didn't you lead him through the glimmering night away from Perigenia, whom he raped?

And make him with fair Aegles break his faith,

With Ariadne and Antiopa?

Didn't you make him break his promises to Aegles, and Ariadne, and Antiopa?

Titania

These are the forgeries of jealousy:

These are lies your jealousy invented.

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 on the beachèd margent of the sea,

To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,

But with thy brawls thou hast disturb’d our sport.

Not once since midsummer began have we met on hill or in valley, in forest or meadow, by a paved spring or a reedy stream or the sea's edge, to dance our rings to the whistling wind, without you disrupting our sport with your quarrelling.

Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,

As in revenge, have suck’d up from the sea

Contagious fogs; which, falling in the land,

Hath every pelting river made so proud

That they have overborne their continents.

So the winds, piping to us for nothing, have taken revenge by sucking up infectious fogs from the sea, which have fallen on the land and swollen every insignificant river until it burst its banks.

The ox hath therefore stretch’d his yoke in vain,

The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn

Hath rotted ere his youth attain’d a beard.

The ox has strained at his yoke for nothing, the ploughman's sweat has been wasted, and the green corn has rotted before it grew a beard.

The fold stands empty in the drownèd field,

And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;

Sheepfolds stand empty in flooded fields, and the crows grow fat on diseased carcasses.

The nine-men’s-morris is fill’d up with mud,

And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,

For lack of tread, are undistinguishable.

The board for nine-men's-morris is choked with mud, and the winding paths cut into the grass have gone untrodden so long you can't make them out.

The human mortals want their winter here.

Human beings are missing their proper winter:

No night is now with hymn or carol blest.

no night is blessed now with hymns or carols.

Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,

Pale in her anger, washes all the air,

That rheumatic diseases do abound.

So the moon, who governs the tides, pale with rage, soaks the whole air until sickness is everywhere.

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.

Through all this disorder we see the seasons change places — frost falls white into the fresh lap of the crimson rose, while a fragrant wreath of summer buds is set, as if in mockery, on old Winter's thin, icy head.

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.

Spring, summer, fruitful autumn and angry winter have swapped their usual costumes, and the bewildered world can no longer tell one from another.

And this same progeny of evils comes

From our debate, from our dissension;

And this whole brood of evils comes from our argument, our quarrel.

We are their parents and original.

We are their parents and their source.

Oberon

Do you amend it, then.

Then put it right.

It lies in you.

It's in your hands.

Why should Titania cross her Oberon?

I do but beg a little changeling boy

To be my henchman.

All I'm asking for is one little stolen boy to be my attendant.

Titania

Set your heart at rest;

Give it up.

The fairyland buys not the child of me.

All of fairyland couldn't buy that child from me.

His mother was a vot’ress of my order,

His mother was a worshipper in my order.

And in the spicèd Indian air, by night,

Full often hath she gossip’d by my side;

And sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands,

Marking th’ embarkèd traders on the flood,

When we have laugh’d to see the sails conceive,

And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;

Many a night in the spice-scented Indian air she sat gossiping beside me on Neptune's yellow sand, and we watched the merchant ships out on the water and laughed to see the sails swell pregnant with the flirting 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.

She would imitate them — she was pregnant then with my little squire — swaying prettily along, sailing over the land to fetch me some small thing and coming back as if from a voyage, loaded with cargo.

But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;

But she was mortal, and she died giving birth to that boy.

And for her sake do I rear up her boy,

For her sake I'm raising him,

And for her sake I will not part with him.

and for her sake I won't give him up.

Oberon

How long within this wood intend you stay?

How long do you mean to stay in this wood?

Titania

Perchance till after Theseus’ wedding-day.

Perhaps until after Theseus's wedding day.

If you will patiently dance in our round,

And see our moonlight revels, go with us;

If you'll join our dance peacefully and watch our moonlight revels, come with us.

If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

If not, keep away from me, and I'll steer clear of the places you haunt.

Oberon

Give me that boy and I will go with thee.

Give me that boy and I'll come with you.

Titania

Not for thy fairy kingdom.

Not for your entire kingdom.

Fairies, away.

Fairies, away —

We shall chide downright if I longer stay.

we'll have a full-blown row if I stay any longer.

Exit Titania with her Train.

Oberon

Well, go thy way.

Fine, go.

Thou shalt not from this grove

Till I torment thee for this injury.—

But you won't leave this grove until I've made you pay for this insult.

My gentle Puck, come hither.

Come here, my gentle Puck.

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.

You remember the time I sat on a headland and heard a mermaid riding a dolphin, singing so sweetly and harmoniously that the rough sea turned calm to hear her, and stars shot wildly out of their orbits to listen to her music.

Puck

I remember.

Oberon

That very time I saw, (but thou couldst not),

Flying between the cold moon and the earth,

Cupid all arm’d:

At that same moment I saw something you couldn't: Cupid, fully armed, flying between the cold moon and the earth.

a certain aim he took

At a fair vestal, thronèd by the west,

And loos’d his love-shaft smartly from his bow

As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts.

He took careful aim at a lovely virgin enthroned in the west and shot his love-arrow hard enough to 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.

But I saw his burning arrow put out by the chaste beams of the watery moon, and the royal votaress passed on untouched, still lost in maiden thoughts, heart-free.

Yet mark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell:

Still, I noticed where Cupid's arrow landed.

It fell upon a little western flower,

Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound,

And maidens call it love-in-idleness.

It struck a small western flower — milk-white before, now stained purple by love's wound — and girls call it love-in-idleness.

Fetch me that flower, the herb I showed thee once:

Fetch me that flower; I showed you the plant once.

The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid

Will make or man or woman madly dote

Upon the next live creature that it sees.

Squeeze its juice onto sleeping eyelids and it will make a man or a woman fall wildly in love with the next living creature they see.

Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again

Ere the leviathan can swim a league.

Fetch me that herb, and be back here before a whale can swim a mile.

Puck

I’ll put a girdle round about the earth

In forty minutes.

I'll put a belt around the whole earth in forty minutes.

Exit Puck.

Oberon

Having once this juice,

I’ll watch Titania when she is asleep,

And drop the liquor of it in her eyes:

Once I have this juice, I'll watch for Titania to fall asleep and drop the liquid into 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.

Then the first thing she sees when she wakes — lion, bear, wolf, bull, prying monkey or busy ape — she'll chase after with her whole soul in 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.

And before I lift the spell from her sight, which I can do with another herb, I'll make her hand the boy over to me.

But who comes here?

But who's this coming?

I am invisible;

And I will overhear their conference.

I'll turn invisible and listen in on them.

Enter Demetrius, Helena following him.

Demetrius

I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.

I don't love you, so stop chasing me.

Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?

Where are Lysander and beautiful Hermia?

The one I’ll slay, the other slayeth me.

I'll kill him — and she's killing me.

Thou told’st me they were stol’n into this wood,

And here am I, and wode within this wood

Because I cannot meet with Hermia.

You told me they'd slipped away into this wood, and here I am, going mad in this wood because I can't find Hermia.

Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.

Now go away and stop following me.

Helena

You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant,

But yet you draw not iron, for my heart

Is true as steel.

You pull me to you, you hard-hearted magnet — but it isn't iron you're pulling, because my heart is true as steel.

Leave you your power to draw,

And I shall have no power to follow you.

Stop drawing me and I'll have no power to follow you.

Demetrius

Do I entice you?

Do I lead you on?

Do I speak you fair?

Do I say sweet things to you?

Or rather do I not in plainest truth

Tell you I do not, nor I cannot love you?

Or do I tell you, in the plainest possible words, that I don't love you and can't love you?

Helena

And even for that do I love you the more.

And that only makes me love you more.

I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,

The more you beat me, I will fawn on you.

I'm your spaniel, Demetrius — and the more you beat me, the more I'll fawn on you.

Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,

Neglect me, lose me;

Treat me like your spaniel: kick me, hit me, ignore me, lose me.

only give me leave,

Unworthy as I am, to follow you.

Just let me follow you, worthless as I am.

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?

What lower place could I beg for in your affections — and yet it would be a high honour to me — than to be treated the way you'd treat your dog?

Demetrius

Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;

Don't push my loathing any further.

For I am sick when I do look on thee.

I feel sick when I look at you.

Helena

And I am sick when I look not on you.

And I feel sick when I can't look at you.

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.

You're doing serious damage to your reputation, leaving the city and putting yourself in the hands of a man who doesn't love you — trusting the chances of the night and the bad influence of a deserted place with something as valuable as your virginity.

Helena

Your virtue is my privilege:

Your decency is my protection.

for that

It is not night when I do see your face,

Therefore I think I am not in the night;

It isn't night when I can see your face, so I don't feel I'm in the dark at all.

Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,

For you, in my respect, are all the world.

And this wood is hardly short of company, because as far as I'm concerned you are the entire world.

Then how can it be said I am alone

When all the world is here to look on me?

So how can anyone say I'm alone, when the whole world is here looking at me?

Demetrius

I’ll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,

And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.

I'll run away from you and hide in the undergrowth, and leave you to the wild animals.

Helena

The wildest hath not such a heart as you.

The wildest of them has nothing on your heart.

Run when you will, the story shall be chang’d;

Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;

The dove pursues the griffin, the mild hind

Makes speed to catch the tiger.

Run whenever you like — you'll only reverse the old story: Apollo will flee and Daphne will chase him, the dove will hunt the griffin, the gentle deer will run down the tiger.

Bootless speed,

When cowardice pursues and valour flies!

Pointless speed, when cowardice does the chasing and courage runs away.

Demetrius

I will not stay thy questions.

I won't stand here answering you.

Let me go,

Or if thou follow me, do not believe

But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.

Let me go — and if you follow me, don't imagine I won't hurt you out here in the wood.

Helena

Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,

You do me mischief.

You already hurt me — in the temple, in the town, in the fields.

Fie, Demetrius!

Shame on you, Demetrius!

Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex.

The way you treat me disgraces my whole sex.

We cannot fight for love as men may do.

We can't fight for love the way men can.

We should be woo’d, and were not made to woo.

We're supposed to be courted; we weren't built to do the courting.

Exit Demetrius.

Helena

I’ll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell,

To die upon the hand I love so well.

I'll follow you anyway, and turn this hell into heaven, even if I die at the hands of the man I love.

Exit Helena.

Oberon

Fare thee well, nymph.

Goodbye, nymph.

Ere he do leave this grove,

Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love.

Before he leaves this grove, you'll be the one running away and he'll be the one begging for your love.

Enter Puck.

Oberon

Hast thou the flower there?

Do you have the flower?

Welcome, wanderer.

Welcome back, wanderer.

Puck

Ay, there it is.

Yes, here it is.

Oberon

I pray thee give it me.

Give it to me, please.

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.

I know a bank where wild thyme is in bloom, where oxlips grow and violets nod, shaded over by a thick canopy of honeysuckle, sweet musk-roses and sweet-brier.

There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,

Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight;

Titania sleeps there part of the night, lulled among those flowers by dancing and delight.

And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin,

Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.

That's where the snake sheds her patterned skin — a garment 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.

I'll paint her eyes with this juice and fill her head with loathsome fantasies.

Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:

Take some of it yourself and search this grove.

A sweet Athenian lady is in love

With a disdainful youth.

There's a sweet Athenian lady in love with a young man who scorns her.

Anoint his eyes;

But do it when the next thing he espies

May be the lady.

Anoint his eyes — but time it so that the first thing he sees is the lady.

Thou shalt know the man

By the Athenian garments he hath on.

You'll recognize him by his Athenian clothes.

Effect it with some care, that he may prove

More fond on her than she upon her love:

Do it carefully, so that he ends up more infatuated with her than she is with him.

And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.

And make sure you meet me before the first cock crows.

Puck

Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.

Don't worry, my lord. Your servant will see to it.

Exeunt.

A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 2, Scene 1 summary

Who appears in this scene

Puck, Oberon, Titania, Demetrius, Helena — A wood near Athens.

Famous lines in A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 2, Scene 1, explained

“Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.” (line 64): Oberon's first words to his queen turn the polite formula for a chance encounter into an accusation — this meeting is unlucky, and he means it as a threat. The line establishes that the fairy world is not a benign refuge from Athens but a second court with its own power struggle. It is also the play's clearest statement that the lovers' troubles below are being driven by a marital quarrel above.
“I’ll put a girdle round about the earth / In forty minutes.” (line 181): Puck's boast that he can circle the globe in forty minutes is his way of saying the errand is trivially easy. It defines the scale of fairy power against human limitation — everything that takes the mortals a whole tormented night takes Puck almost no time at all. The casualness is the point: the beings who control the lovers' fates treat the whole affair as an evening's amusement.
“I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, / The more you beat me, I will fawn on you.” (line 210): Helena tells Demetrius that abuse only deepens her devotion, and she chooses the most degrading comparison she can find — a dog that comes back for more beating. It is a startling moment in a comedy, showing how far unrequited love has stripped away her self-respect. It also inverts the courtly convention in which the man pleads and the woman refuses, a reversal Helena herself names a few lines later.
“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,” (line 257): Oberon's description of Titania's sleeping place is the most lyrical passage in the play, an inventory of English wildflowers that makes the fairy wood feel like a real, scented landscape rather than a fantasy backdrop. The beauty is deliberately at odds with his purpose: he is describing the bower where he intends to humiliate his wife. The speech is often set to music and taught as an example of how Shakespeare uses sensory detail to create atmosphere.

Keep reading

About this translation: the original text follows the public-domain Project Gutenberg Globe edition; the modern English translation was written in-house for Polytranslator and is reviewed on an ongoing basis (last revised August 2026). Free to print and photocopy for classroom use. Cite as: “A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 2, Scene 1. Polytranslator side-by-side translation, polytranslator.com/shakespeare/midsummer-nights-dream/act-2-scene-1.”

Studying the language itself? Our Shakespearean English course teaches thou/thee, the verbs, and the meter — free through Unit 2. Or try the Shakespearean English translator.