Monologue

Oberon Monologue from A Midsummer Night's Dream

From A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

male · dramatic · 1:17 min

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That very time I saw, (but thou couldst not), Flying between the cold moon and the earth, Cupid all arm’d: 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. 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. Yet mark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell: It fell upon a little western flower, Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound, And maidens call it love-in-idleness. Fetch me that flower, the herb I showed thee 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. Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again Ere the leviathan can swim a league.

About this piece

Oberon, the king of the fairies, observes Cupid's failed attempt to ignite love and plots to use a magical flower to manipulate the affections of others.

30s · anticipation · love · madness · power · fate

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