by Craig Harris November 10, 1992 Oberon, Titania, and Bottom? An essay on A Mid Summer Nights Dream by William Shakespeare Hippolyta's nightlife role as Titania is stage-managed by Theseus-Oberon, who gets his will by magical means. if his own imperial gaze has proved ineffectual, he will capture Titania's gaze and refocus it with an aimlessness that would have gratified Cupid: The next thing then she waking looks upon, Be it lion, bear, or wolf, or bull, Or meddling monkey, or on busy ape, She shall pursue it with the soul of love. This prepares the way not only for an arousal of 'animal love' in Titania but for its consummation in her bower. The supposed ravishment of Bottom would have to happen offstage, primarily because that is the only place it could have happened. Titania's bower is not the same as the flower-canopied bank 'where the wild thyme blows' and where according to Oberon, 'sleeps Titania sometime in the night'. If it were the same, then it is especially easy to believe that no sexual act occurs between the Queen and the Ass. If such an act should occur, it must be believed that her bower is really in fairyland, which is distant from the wood, and that it is there where Bottom is taken and there where he is ravished. As for the theater, a Titania-jumping Bottom, or a Bottom-jumping Titania, is hardly what Shakespeare could have meant for his manor-house production, certainly not for court performances, and not even for a show at the Shoreditch Theater. All of Shakespeare's (and other playwright's in his time) sex scenes must have occurred offstage. Any bedding of Bottom would have to be hidden not only from the Elizabethan audience but from Oberon as well. The fairy king, who was twice said to be 'jealous' of Titania, would never be willing to gain a squire at the expense of acquiring horns, especially when his rival is an ass. Puck says, 'And jealous Oberon would have the child' and Titania says, ''These are the forgeries of jealousy'. Of course Oberon could not have known Titania would dote on an ass. What he had in mind was 'ounce, or cat, or bear, / Pard, or boar with bristled hair'. The creatures he cites, are all ferocious and would be most likely to repel sexual overtures. His charm calls for Titania not to enjoy her new love, but to 'love and languish for his sake' or, as he said earlier, to 'pursue it with the soul of love' . On learning that Titania 'waked and straightway loved as ass', Oberon says 'This falls out better than I could devise'. It is surprising that Oberon would choose to be present then (as the stage direction at the opening of Act 4 Scene 1 implies: 'Enter Titania, and Bottom, and Fairies; and Oberon behind them') and that afterward, looking upon the sleeping couple, he could merely observe to Puck, 'Seest thou this sweet sight?'. Either we don't understand, or fairy kings regard such manners very differently from Shakespearean husbands would, most of whom would express some anxiety about their wives' fidelity and none of whom would believe that the way to teach a wife obedience is to encourage her to unfaithful. Another deterrent to the ravishing of Bottom, is Bottom himself, to whom I will get back to in a moment. Let me first note, that part of the problem lies in Shakespeare's having composed something of an anamorphic picture of Titania's bower. Amorphism, is a visual device well known and much used by Renaissance painters. It is a perspectival technique designed to present one image if viewed from directly in front of the painting, and another if viewed from an angle. Take for instance Titania's words as she gathers Bottom and herself for, for whatever she is gathering them for: Come wait upon him; lead him to my bower. The moon methinks looks with a watery eye; And when she weeps, weeps every little flower, Lamenting some enforced chastity. Tie up my lover's tongue, bring him silently. A straight-on look at the phrase 'enforced chastity' gives an image of chastity forced or violated, in which case the watery-eyed moon must be Diana, goddess of virginity, who quite properly weeps on such unhappy occasions. Indeed, her watery eye, reflected in the eyes of every little flower, spreads a sex-censuring gaze throughout nature. Hardly the kind of gaze, or the kind of goddess, Titania would want to invoke if she had carnal desires for Bottom. Also, it would be hard to imagine the goddess Diana and every little flower dripping with grief at the thought of Bottom giving up his chastity; the speech would make better sense of Bottom were hauling Titania off to his barn, not she leading him dumbly to her bower. Still if we choose a Titania so determined to ravish Bottom that she can ignore the moon's weepy protests, than her 'Tie up my lover's tongue, bring him silently' would be the same as saying 'Enough talk, let's get down to business'. So the straight-on meaning of 'enforced chastity' must be 'chastity forced'. Looked at distrustfully, it means the opposite, 'chastity compelled', the kind Hermia would show if she were to get herself to a nunnery. Perhaps it is the kind that she does briefly show when out of reverence to 'human modesty' she asks Lysander to sleep apart from her. This reading would invoke a different kind of moon, one that grows teary-eyed when chastity is preserved. Certainly not the prudish Diana, but instead the more amorous Selene, who fell in love with Endymion and inspires the lunacy of country boys and girls in the bowers on the eve of May and at Midsummer Night. By this token the weepy flowers would be 'Cupid's flowers' who should have little cause to weep if a deflowering is going to happen. Later on, when Oberon shows the sleeping Titania and Bottom to Puck, these flowers, now 'flouriets', are again weeping. For as Oberon says, And that same dew, which on the buds Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls, Stood now within the pretty flouriets' eyes Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail. What flouriets are these, and what is their disgrace? They are Diana's buds bewailing the disgrace of being transformed into Cupid's flowers during the bower episode, that is the humiliation of Titania, brought about not because of the demise of her married chastity, but by her degrading desire for Bottom. There are a couple of instances where Titania speaks of sex. The first is in Act 3 Scene 1 when she tells her fairies to light tapers for Bottom 'To have my love to bed and to arise'. Hidden within this simple statement about getting up after sleeping, is a phallic arousal on Bottom's part, actually of Bottom's part. The next occurs after their reappearance in Act 4 Scene 1, when Titania enfolds the drowsy Bottom in her arms and says, So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle Gently entwist; the female ivy so Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. Oh, how I love thee! How I dote on thee! Woodbine and honeysuckle are innocent enough, but the enringed finger is a Shakespearean metaphor for sexual intercourse, and the ivy clinging to it's tree in an amorous embrace has intense sexual connotations'. This is not to deny that Titania is sensually taken with Bottom; she is. The question is how far her sensuality goes, and how far it can go. A good part of Oberon's punishment of Titania centers in the physical and metaphysical impossibility of a fairy queen having sex with an ass. Add to this the impossibility of exhibiting such a sexual situation in Shakespeare's theater, and if we still decide for a sexual act, then it must happen verbally. Since it could not be acted out, which would make Titania's onstage metaphors serve as verbal substitutes for what can't be acted out. It seems to me that Titania's sexually ambitious metaphors are not evidence of what she and Bottom did, or are doing, but what she thinks she would like to be doing. Such metaphors, are the only way to express the mystery of desire in the psyche of a fairy queen. To expand on this, since desire requires lack, we must imagine that Bottom has something that Titania lacks. One glance at Bottom makes this seem absurd. What has Bottom got that Titania could possibly desire? The most obvious thing a fairy queen lacks and Bottom possesses, is his 'mortal grossness'. That is how she phrases it when she tells Bottom that she will 'purge [his] mortal grossness so / That [he] shalt like an airy spirit go'. Unfortunately for her, the last way in the world Bottom could 'go' is like an airy spirit. Not even Titania has such transformative powers. And yet she cherishes him most passionately, not in any airy form, but in his physical form. This follows her speech to Oberon expressing her admiration for 'lower' things, i.e. a woman, a human, pregnancy, and mortality. She neglects her allegiance too 'higher' things, i.e. a man, a royal husband, wifely obedience, and immortality. It also follows Oberon's accusing her of loving the mortal Theseus. So Oberon creates a punishment that mimics her desire. She is made to descend to the level of her desire, to the very Bottom, and to be enthralled by it. When she dotes on Bottom's 'shape', his 'amiable cheeks', and 'fair large ears', when she obliges her elves to cater to each of his corporeal needs, and when she winds his drowsy bestial body in her arms, what else is she doing but desiring his mortal grossness? Not just his 'grossness' but his 'mortal grossness'. Her 'tragedy' is not like that of the mortal lovers, whose fatal passion is 'short as any dream' because the jaws of devouring time do their business quickly. Unlike humans, Titania is not in flight from time and mortality. She is trying to find her way into a world of sexuality, pregnancy, birth and death. She is being frustrated by her immortal ungrossness. Her love for Theseus, her wish to be the pregnant Indian queen, her mothering of the queen's child, and her passion for Bottom. All reflect a desire for mortality. Considering this, her surrender of the changeling child marks her reconciliation to Oberon and to her destiny as an immortal. Titania's 'tragedy' is that she can't be a tragic heroine, because fairy queens cannot fall. In a small way she does fall, and not into bed with Bottom, whose more than mortal grossness is its own impediment to any sexual interludes in Titania's bower. Bottom appreciates being treated as a very important person, but is more interested in the pleasure of eating than in the bodily charms of Titania. Despite a major campaign in which she sends armies of elves to hop in his walks, gambol in his eyes, and fetch and feed and scratch as well, she cannot capture his loving glance any more than Oberon can hers. From the standpoint of Theseus' therapeutic 'dream', this would suggest that it is not Hippolyta-Titania's sexual desire alone that is being purged but the aggressiveness and desire to dominate men. So the presumptuously masculine Amazon becomes the presumptuous Queen Titania, who then becomes the aggressive lover of Bottom. If Oberon has imposed his will on her with flowers and charms, she imposes hers on Bottom just as strongly, First tethering his body, 'Out of this wood do not desire to go. / Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no', and later, 'Tie up my lover's tongue, bring him silently'. in between, she displays her love passionately: I am a spirit of no common rate. The summer still doth tend upon my state; And I do love thee. Therefore, go with me. This style of love seems as self-centered and inconsiderate in its arrogance as Bottom is in his bestial oblivion. But Bottom's oblivion outweighs Titania's desires. In this way Titania learns there are limits to the power of a queen, even an Amazonian queen. In fairyland kings demand, command, punish and finally forgive. When Oberon displays for Puck the sleeping queen and her entwined beloved, Oberon says, 'Seest thou this sweet sight?': Her dotage now I do begin to pity. For, meeting her of late behind the wood, Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool, I did upbraid her and fall out with her. For she his hairy temples then had rounded With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers; And that same dew, which sometime on the buds Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls, Stood now within the pretty flouriets' eyes Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail. When I had at my pleasure taunted her, And she in mild terms begged my patience, I then did ask of her her changeling child; Which straight she did give me, and her fairy sent To bear him to my bower in fairy land. And, now I have the boy, I will undo This hateful imperfection of her eyes. The quality of mercy is not completely missing in Oberon, but it is by no means free and generous either, coming as it does only after he has his humiliating way. His sarcastic 'Seeist thou this sweet sight?' summarizes his entire project to restore marital order by doctoring Titania's eyes and standing coldly by to observe her humiliation. This is his version of the sadism Hermia's dream attributes to Lysander, and since this is also Hippolyta's 'dream', it represents her anxieties about a Theseus who won her love by doing her injuries. Oberon not only sees Titania's disgrace, but feels it, and by doing so breaks his charm. Unpleasant as Oberon's methods are, we can only judge them by Titania's response. When she wakes up, she is not bitter, but quick to love, 'My Oberon!'. And, to obey, when he asks for music she immediately cries, 'Music, ho! Music, such as charmeth sleep!'