While watching the 1935 Midsummer last week, I spotted something interesting. Act IV, Scene 1, we’re starting to wrap up the story. Oberon has drugged his wife Titania and taken what he wanted (the changeling boy), and now he begins to have something resembling guilt about it. (It’s far from a healthy relationship if you ask me, but that’s a different story. )
So, he wakes her up and releases her from the love potion. Here’s where it gets interesting, depending on how we read the text.
Option 1
OBERON
And now I have the boy, I will undo
This hateful imperfection of her eyes:
And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp
From off the head of this Athenian swain;
…
Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.
TITANIA
My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamour’d of an ass.
OBERON
There lies your love.
TITANIA
How came these things to pass?
O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!
Here, Oberon asks Puck to turn Bottom back to normal. Then he wakes Titania, who presumably sees a human. Sure, she’s still grossed out by it, but she can walk away from the experience, thinking that the whole “donkey” thing was just a weird dream.
Option 2
OBERON
There lies your love.
TITANIA
How came these things to pass?
O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!
OBERON
Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head.
Oberon tells Puck again to fix Bottom. It’s perfectly in character for the boss to tell the mischievous sprite twice before he does something, so I’m not looking at this as a mistake of Shakespeare’s. But this second one implies that he hasn’t done it yet. This means that Titania wakes up and sees Bottom in his full donkey-headed glory, which means it wasn’t a dream. Poor Titania will be in therapy over that memory, I’m sure.
Which Do You Prefer?
According to the text, the second line implies that the first wasn’t enough, and therefore, #2 is the “correct” interpretation. But we could snip out “Robin, take off his head” and give Titania a break.
Which have you seen most often in performance? Which do you like better? I think this is a modern addition to how we look at the scene, I don’t think it crosses Oberon’s mind. It’s not like he waits for Puck to fix Bottom’s head before waking her up. If he wanted her to see him that way he could have waited before giving Puck the order. But that’s part of the fun and why we keep doing this, looking for little things we can change that make big points about the character.