(posted for Jesse Herman)
One detail I overlooked in my initial readings of this play was the effect that Oberon and Titania’s fight had on the world around them. I’ve always thought of their fight as only affecting those around them, but Titania makes clear the global effect that their misunderstanding has. She says that without the presence of herself and her subjects, the weather will be irregular to the point of flooding villages and farms, leaving animals to starve and land too muddy to wade through.
She says 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 thorough this distemperature we seeThe seasons alter: hoary-headed frostsFall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crownAn odorous chaplet of sweet summer budsIs, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,The childing autumn, angry winter changeTheir wonted liveries, and the mazèd world,By their increase, now knows not which is which.” 2.1.87-89
I often experience this text in class, although we usually glaze over these rather high stakes created by Shakespeare. While we may be honed in on the jealousy, love and everything in between, one has to lend a few thoughts out to the average citizen of the world being impacted by this petty argument between the fairy royalty. If anything, it’s a wonderful comment by Shakespeare on how the trivial problems of the few and rich can impact the lives of the many beneath them.