nostr:npub1vdd75n9nzj09xp4z95xcw6gq7fjqr2m666tqkkphhf5cmpw6e8wscjtkfq Now for Act II:
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The fairies occupy an interesting place in this semi-mythological world: they do not decide fate (as Cupid and Diana do), but they meddle in it. Their magic is the magic of small coincidences, mistakes, misplaced things.
I read that this is a reference to fairy circles - caused by fungi growing in rings in wet grass:
> To dew her orbs upon the green.
This is hilarious. Also, the way the fairies and hobgoblins subtly 'become' parts of the environment reminds me of what I found unique about The Last Unicorn. But the fairies 'become' things in a more 'negative' way - through humans' folly and not through their perceptiveness.
> 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 they are also responsible for the moods of the seasons, though not the seasons themselves which are the domain of the real gods:
> 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.
I like that the fairies, who are trickster spirits, are identified with the weather, which is 'chaotic' in a scientific sense. Systems become chaotic through the exponential magnification of tiny errors. It's fitting that the fairies are the "gods of the gaps" even in this ancient world which is populated with the great gods of old.
I find it poignant that a mortal human could form such a friendship with the queen of the fairies and that - despite winning the queen's favor - she could suffer so mundane and tragic a thing as dying during childbirth.
> Would imitate and sail upon the land
> To fetch me trifles and return again,
> As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
> But she, being mortal, of that boy did die,
> And for her sake do I rear up her boy,
> And for her sake I will not part with him.
It highlights our desire to be worthy of the little spirits we see in the world, and those spirits' powerlessness against the mortal realities of life and death. Was the queen of the fairies unable to save her human friend, or - true to fairies' nature - did she capriciously decide not to?
I have to admit that, when I read about bulging sails being likened to pregnant bellies, in my mind flashed the infamous meme pic of pregnant clippy.
I liked this part:
> But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft
> Quenched in the chaste beams of the wat’ry moon,
> And the imperial vot’ress passèd on
> In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
> Yet marked 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.”
Again the moon is the suppressor of love. I read that the goddess of the moon, Diana, also symbolizes virginity. In Act I, Theseus's wedding to Hippolyta must wiat for the moon to change, and Hermia (if she renounces Demetrius) will be doomed to become a nun at Diana's altar. The wedge between Titania and Oberon's love causes the rivers to flood, and the moon is the "governess of floods" because it controls the tides.
I also read that the description of the flower, "now purple with love's wound", is a reference to the loss of virginity (de-flowering) and the breaking of the hymen. Obvious in hindsight, yes. I see no shame in admitting that, for Act 2, I found some of the notes here helpful: https://myshakespeare.com/midsummer-nights-dream/act-2-scene-1
In any case, this part also supports the idea that the domain of the fairies consists of the gods' mistakes and what they have forgotten. Cupid only misses because of Diana's influence. The fairies' love potion relies on Cupid's original power.
