Friday, March 28, 2014

I have to answer a question about Oberon. What do you do when people don't follow your orders? This is a question that we need to answer in Shakespearean language.

This is an interesting question. As background, Oberon, king of the fairies, has ordered his wife, Queen Titania, to give him the young Indian boy she has adopted. Titania refuses to do so, because the child is the son of a close mortal friend who died in childbirth, and the friend particularly left the child in Titania's care.
Oberon decides to play a trick on Titania because she won't comply with his demands. He has Puck put the juice of a flower in her eyes. This will cause her to fall in love with the first creature she sees. Oberon says he will not take the spell away from her until she agrees to give up the Indian boy (the "page"). In Shakespearean language, Oberon says:


She shall pursue it [the first creature she sees] with the soul of love.
And ere I take this charm from of her sight—
As I can take it with another herb—
I’ll make her render up her page to me.

In other words, when people don't follow his orders, Oberon causes them to fall in love in ridiculous ways.

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