A significant change of locale occurs in the second act. The location is moved from Athens to the forest just outside of Athens. But this change is more than just a change from city to country. It is also a change from the world of humans to the world of fairies. It is a change to a world of magic.
Two fairies enter from opposite sides of the stage. From one side of the stage comes an unnamed fairy who serves Titania, the Fairy Queen. The unnamed fairy is sprinkling dew on the fairy rings (rings formed in the grass when the fairies dance there). The fairy also comments that the cowslips (yellow flowers) are the pensioners or bodyguards of the queen and that the red spots that appear on these flowers are rubies placed by the fairies to create the pleasant scent of those flowers. Besides sprinkling dew, the fairy also has another task: to decorate the flowers by placing pearls (or perhaps drops of dew) within each one. The fairy is, apparently, getting the place ready for the coming of her queen.
The fairy who enters from the other side of the stage is Robin Goodfellow, who is also called Puck. Puck is not a graceful or beautiful fairy as the first one is. The unnamed fairy calls Puck a “lob of spirits” (16). This term suggests that he is an awkward country bumpkin. According to Elizabethan folklore, a puck was a troublesome or mischievous fairy or elf or imp (the three terms were synonymous) who liked to play pranks on humans. Robin Goodfellow, specifically, was one such elf who would also help humans when the humans were nice to him. Robin, then would not be unlike the elves in the fairy tale “The Shoemaker and the Elves” (a story that appears in the collection by the Grimm Brothers). In that tale a group of elves help out a poor shoemaker by making shoes for him during the night. Shakespeare’s Robin Goodfellow, then, is more complex than just a simple elf figure. He can be both troublesome and helpful – and sometimes he is both at once.
Robin tells the other fairy that she and the Queen ought to be careful and think twice about coming to this particular part of the forest because Oberon, the Fairy King, is also planning to be there that night. King Oberon, as Robin explains, is extremely angry with Queen Titania because Titania has just acquired a beautiful young boy – a changeling, as Robin calls him. Oberon wants the child to be his own servant, but Titania refuses to give him the boy. Their disagreement or fight has caused the two to separate.
Incidentally, a changeling is an attractive human child that has been stolen by the fairies. According to folklore, whenever a fairy sees an extremely beautiful baby, the fairy will take the child and substitute (or exchange) a little monster or ogre in its place. This explains why so many boys turn out to be so ugly and horrible and troublesome as they get older. Actually, the word changeling can actually refer either to the beautiful child that is stolen by the fairies or to the horrid little ogre that the fairies leave in its place.
As it turns out, the little boy that Titania has in her possession is not a changeling at all. The boy is actually the son of a votaress (or nun), a woman who dedicated herself to the service of Titania (mentioned in line 123). That votaress died giving birth to the child, and Titania therefore is taking care of it to show her appreciation to the woman who had served her so well.
But Oberon does not care about where the boy had come from. As Puck so directly states …
… jealous Oberon would have the child. (24)
And now that Oberon and Titania are always fighting over this child …
… all their elves for fear
Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there. (30-31)
This line raises an interesting question: just how big are the fairies? Although in later fairy tale literature fairies are often described as being tiny or diminutive
– small enough even to hide inside an acorn – that was not always the case. In medieval Celtic tales the fairies came from the underworld and were just as large as humans. In England, the idea of fairies being rather small creatures was a later development. Shakespeare, however, seems to slide between the two possibilities. The actors playing the fairies are, of course, full-size humans, yet the acorn reference here and other references later suggest that the fairies are extremely small. Yet both Puck and Titania have no problem interacting with humans and mingling with them at their level or height. In Shakespeare’s magical world, both possibilities can exist at the same time. This is a world of imagination, not a world of reality.
The fairy that serves Titania recognizes Puck and asks him if he is indeed Robin Goodfellow. The fairy then describes Robin by the pranks he plays or the mischief he causes:
The fairy then adds that mischievous Robin is also called “hobgoblin” (40). Yet she also adds that Robin is also sometimes positively referred to as “sweet puck” because he sometimes does work for humans or causes them to have good luck (lines 40-41). Shakespeare’s Robin Goodfellow, then, appears to be a composite figure that combines both the mischievous elf qualities of the puck or imp and the helpful qualities of the good elf or goodfellow.
Robin tells Titania’s fairy that she has guessed correctly – he is Robin Goodfellow. Robin then explains that he serves King Oberon as his court jester and that his job is to amuse the king (line 44). Robin then proceeds to list more of his pranks that, he claims, are done to entertain King Oberon:
The six pranks mentioned here are just some of the problems that were blamed on the puck or mischievous elf. Most people are too proud to admit that they themselves are responsible for their own silly behavior and foolish mistakes. It is much easier to blame a supernatural force. Nobody wants to admit that they sometimes behave rather carelessly or foolishly.
The quarrelling King and the Queen of the fairies also enter from opposite sides of the stage. As soon as Titania sees Oberon, she tells her fairies to move away (line 61). She does not want to be anywhere near him. But Oberon tells her to wait, for he is her lord (line 63).
Titania responds that she may be his lady, but then he as her lord should not be seeing other women. She is asserting that Oberon likes to flirt around with human women. She claims that Oberon sometimes assumes the disguise of a shepherd (referred to as Corin, a common shepherd name) so that he can woo or court a shepherdess (referred to as Phillida, a common shepherdess name).
Shakespeare at this juncture in the play is mixing fairy tale tradition with Greek mythology. The King and Queen of the Greek gods in Mount Olympus were Zeus and Hera. Zeus often transfigured himself into various shapes so that he could pursue attractive girls or maidens, and Hera often found out and became jealous and angry. Oberon and Titania become thus indistinguishable from Zeus and Hera. Since Shakespeare is setting his play in Athens but is also drawing upon English folklore tradition, he sees no problem in combining the two traditions. In this manner, Shakespeare thus creates an entirely new magical world; and the magical characters in that world do not specifically adhere to any one particular tradition.
Titania continues in her complaint against Oberon that he was also once the lover of Hippolyta (referred to as the “bouncing Amazon” in line 70). She asserts that the only reason that Oberon is now in Athens is to bless Hippolyta’s wedding to Theseus.
Oberon gives as good as he gets, for he accuses Titania of having once been Theseus’ lover and claims that she helped him to kill the minotaur (a half-man and half-bull creature) and to escape from a prison known as the labyrinth. According to Oberon, Theseus gave up his other mistresses to be with Titania. The story of Theseus and the minotaur is a well-known tale in Greek mythology. Of course, in the Greek version, Titania does not play a role. Once again, Shakespeare creates as well as borrows to develop the characters and plot of his play.
Titania denies Oberon’s accusation. But more important than her denial is the concept that the fairies play a role in the affairs of humans. The magical world of the fairies is connected to or intertwined with the world of the humans. In this sense, then, the fairies could be said to symbolize fate. Fate is a supernatural force that many people believe affects their daily lives. In this play, the fairies collectively are a supernatural force that affects the lives of the major characters in the tale.
Titania also announces at this point in the play that the quarrel between her and Oberon is affecting all of the nearby lands in numerous negative ways:
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain, As in revenge have sucked up from the sea Contagious fogs which, falling on the land, Hath every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents. (88-92)
Titania is describing a relationship between the fairies and nature. The negative feelings between her and Oberon have caused nature to turn negative and violent. Deadly fogs full of disease are spreading across the land and harming people. In addition, rivers have become full and fierce and are bringing floods to towns and farmlands, causing ruin and destruction. Titania then adds that there are even more problems caused by turbulent nature: corn and grains are rotting, sheep and other animals are dying, and grassy pastures have turned into swamps (lines 94-100). And even the seasons are acting in unnatural ways: the summer is cold and icy and the winter is hot and sultry. Many people, many humans, become sick because of these odd changes (line 105). Titania concludes by declaring that the fight between herself and Oberon is the reason why nature is acting so violently:
And this same progeny of evils comes
From our debate, from our dissension. (115-16)
Titania does not want these problems to affect the humans, but the problems are a direct result of the negative emotions that she and Oberon are feeling.
An extremely old myth that Shakespeare is alluding to here is the myth of the fisher king. The story, which has many versions, usually depicts a king who is sick and dying. Because the king is sick, his entire kingdom is sick as well: the state of the king reflects the state of the state. If a king is good, virtuous, strong, and healthy, then his entire kingdom will also be good and strong and healthy. But if the king is bad or sick or evil, then his entire kingdom suffers from many problems not unlike the ones mentioned by Titania. The king therefore needs a champion to find the remedy or solution to the problem and restore both the king and kingdom. The myth of the fisher king has reappeared in numerous stories from ancient times to the Middle Ages. The idea appears in the ancient Babylonian epic entitled Gilgamesh; it appears in Oedipus the King; it appears in Beowulf; and it appears in the tales of King Arthur and becomes combined with the story of the search for the Holy Grail. People in times past often believed that all aspects of their lives were dependent on their king. They believed that there was a connection between their king and God (or the gods). If God blessed the king, then God would bless his kingdom. But if God cursed a king, then God would curse his kingdom.
Oberon responds to Titania by saying that all she has to do to stop their quarrel is to give him the “changeling boy” (120). But Titania refuses because the boy is not a changeling – a stolen child – but is rather the child of her votaress (line 123: votary, servant, or nun). Titania then goes on to explain the close relationship that she had with her votaress and how that votaress died when she gave birth to the child. The child is precious to Titania, and she refuses to give him up.
The fight thus continues, and Oberon warns Titania to stay away from him while he is in the woods. Both Oberon and Titania intend to bless the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta, and so both will be staying in the woods outside of Athens until then.