Titania falls in love with Bottom transformed into a donkey…and Oberon discovers Puck's mistake.
SCENE 7: ANOTHER PART OF THE WOODS
PUCK: Something very strange is happening tonight. We’ve got Athenians running around everywhere and look! That’s the group of actors we met yesterday.
QUINCE: Here’s a marvellous convenient place for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage, this bush backstage and we can practice our play as we will do it before the Duke.
PUCK: A rehearsal! Perfect. These hempen home-spuns have no idea. Let’s have some fun with them…
QUINCE: Speak, Pyramus. Thisbe, come forward.
BOTTOM: “Thisbe, the flowers of odour savour sweet. So does your breath, my dearest Thisbe dear. But hark! A voice! You stay here, o Thisbe, and I’ll go and see who’s there.”
PUCK: I have never seen a stranger Pyramus than this.
FX: Puck casts spell
FLUTE: Must I speak now?
QUINCE: Aye, you must.
FLUTE: “Most radiant Pyramus, most lily white of hue, as true as truest horse, that yet would never tire, I’ll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny’s tomb–”
QUINCE: Ninus’ tomb man, Ninus! And what do you think you’re doing? You speak all your part at once. And Pyramus, you should be onstage now! Your cue is “never tire.” Flute, again.
FLUTE: “As true as truest horse that yet would never tire.”
BOTTOM: “If I were fair, Thisbe, I were only yours.” Hee-haw!
FX: Quince, Snout, Flute, Snug and Stareveling gasp and cry out, Puck laughs
SNOUT: Bottom! You’ve changed!
QUINCE: Bless you, Bottom. You’ve been transformed!
FX: Quince, Snout, Flute, Snug and Starveling run away
BOTTOM: I see their knavery… This is to make an ass of me, to frighten me, if they could. But I will walk up and down here and I will sing, so they shall hear I am not afraid. Ahem… Early in the morning, on the window sill, came a little chirping, came a little trill. Hee-haw! Hee-haw!
FX: Spell takes effect
TITANIA: What angel wakes me from my flowery bed? I pray you, gentle mortal, sing again.
BOTTOM: I beg your pardon?
TITANIA: My ear is much enamoured of your note, so is my eye enthralled to your shape. Indeed, so much enthralled that it moves me to say – to swear – I love you.
BOTTOM: I think, mistress, you should have little reason for that and yet, to tell the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays.
TITANIA: You are as wise as you are beautiful.
BOTTOM: Oh… well…
TITANIA: Do not go out of this wood, for I love you, therefore go with me and my fairies will wait on you.
FX: Puck laughs
OBERON: How now mischievous spirit! Is Titania awake?
PUCK: Not just awake, but in love with a monster! I put a donkey’s head on a weaver’s shoulders and so it came to pass, he started to sing, Titania waked and straightaway loved an ass!
OBERON: This works out better than I could devise. Now, have you laid the flower on the Athenian’s eyes?
HERMIA: Demetrius, please!
OBERON: Stand close, this is the same Athenian.
PUCK: This is the woman, but not this the man.
HERMIA: Tell me where my Lysander is, please good Demetrius, will you give him to me?
DEMETRIUS: I would rather give his carcass to the hounds.
HERMIA: You dog! You cur! I’ll no longer be patient with you. You mean to say you’ve killed him?
DEMETRIUS: You’re getting angry at me for no reason. Lysander’s still alive, as far as I can tell.
HERMIA: I pray you then, tell me he is well.
DEMETRIUS: And if I could, what should I get therefore?
HERMIA: The privilege never to see me more!
DEMETRIUS: Argh, there is no following her when she’s like this. Why won’t she love me instead of him?
OBERON: What have you done? You have mistaken quite and laid the flower on some true-love’s sight!
PUCK: I’m sorry! All humans look the same to me.
OBERON: About the wood go swifter than the wind. Find me Helena of Athens and bring her here. I’ll charm Demetrius’s eyes to love her when she does appear.
PUCK: I go! I go! Look how I go! Swifter than an arrow from the fastest bow.
FX: Puck flies off
5: Oberon's Revenge
Mistress Quince and her troupe of amateur actors meet in the forest to rehearse their play for the Duke’s wedding. While waiting offstage for his cue, Bottom has his head transformed into that of a donkey by the mischievous Puck. His companions flee in terror when they see him but Bottom, thinking that they are playing a trick on him, walks through the wood singing as he goes, to show that he is not afraid. He strays into the sleeping Titania, whereupon she wakes, sees him - and instantly falls in love!
Puck tells Oberon what has happened, much to their mutual delight. Hermia and Demetrius pass close by. Hermia suspects that Demetrius is somehow responsible for Lysander’s earlier disappearance and pleads with him to tell her where he is. When Demetrius cannot, she runs off to try to find him herself, whereupon Demetrius lays down to sleep.
Oberon, seeing all this, realises that Puck must have used the magic flower on some other Athenian. He commands Puck to find Helena and bring her to Demetrius, whose eyes he will charm to fall in love with her when she appears.
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Episode transcript. document
Download / print transcript of Episode 5
Activities - KS2
This episode sees all three groups of characters in the woods by night (lovers, fairies and mechanicals). For a drama exercise there could be a discussion about how these different characters might move around the space - eg:
- Oberon and Titania walking tall
- the lovers either being lost or in a hurry
- the mechanicals being out of their element and easily spooked
The teacher could assign pupils a number (1 for fairies, 2 for lovers and 3 for mechanicals) and get them to move around the space as their characters, then get them to change roles.
This episode also sees the characters experience many different emotions - eg:
- Bottom (when transformed) is confused
- the rest of the mechanicals are terrified
- Puck is amused
- Oberon is furious
- Lysander is yearning with love when he arrives
- Helena is confused, frustrated and annoyed
A comprehension exercise could involve matching characters to different emotions at different points in the episode.
A discussion could take place around why Puck puts a donkey head on Bottom? Is it funny or scary, or both?
As an art exercise, pupils could also produce sketches of Bottom with different transformed heads, from the funniest to the most terrifying.
Activities - KS3
Students could be asked to mind map Hermia’s feelings in this episode and explain why she feels the ways she does.
They could then write a PEE paragraph in answer to the question: “How is Hermia presented in Episode 5?” Students could then self-assess their paragraphs based on agreed success criteria and make corrections and / or improvements in response to peer assessment.
More episodes from A Midsummer Night's Dream
4: The Wrong Athenian. video
Oberon uses the magic flower on Titania...but Puck uses it on the wrong Athenian.
6: The Lovers' Quarrel. video
Lysander and Demetrius compete for Helena’s love...and Hermia starts a fight.
7: Lifting the Fog. video
Puck leads the lovers off to sleep and Oberon releases Titania from his spell.
