Puck sends the lovers to sleep and Oberon releases Titania from the spell.
SCENE 9: ANOTHER PART OF THE WOODS
PUCK: Ah, hello again. I’ve been trying to keep these Athenians from bumping into each other for ages now, but they still haven’t tired out enough to fall asleep. I think it’s time to use a little mischief…
LYSANDER: Where are you proud Demetrius? Speak!
PUCK: Listen to this. Ahem… “Here, Lysander, you villain! Where are you?”
LYSANDER: I will be with you straight.
PUCK: “Follow me then to plainer ground.”
FX: Puck casts spell, Lysander yawns
PUCK: That’s one Athenian down! Finally… Now, where’s that Demetrius?
DEMETRIUS: Lysander! Where are you? Coward, have you fled?
PUCK: Ahem… “You’re the coward! Come here and fight me face-to-face!”
DEMETRIUS: I would if I could find your place.
PUCK: “Follow my voice, I sit and wait.”
DEMETRIUS: Argh! He’s not here… I’ve had enough of this. I’ll sleep tonight, and in the morning I’ll pursue our fight.
PUCK: Haha! That one was too easy. Why didn’t I start doing this before? Oh look, here comes Helena.
HELENA: O long and tedious night. The morning light can’t be far away… I’ll lie down a while and wait for break of day.
PUCK: Three are here! But I need one more. Two of both kinds make up four. Ah! Hello Hermia…
HERMIA Never have I been so weary, never so in woe. I can travel no further, my legs won’t let me go. Here will I rest ‘til the morning light, heavens protect Lysander if he’s forced to fight.
PUCK: Yes! That’s all four of them… On the ground, sleep sound; I’ll apply to your eye, gentle lover, remedy. When you wake take true delight in your former lady Hermia’s sight.
BOTTOM:Hee-haw!
PUCK:What was that? Oh, I know, it’s the weaver I turned into a donkey. Shall we see how he’s getting on with Titania?
SCENE 10: ANOTHER PART OF THE WOODS
TITANIA: Ah, let me kiss your fair large ears, my gentle joy.
BOTTOM: Where’s Peaseblossom?
TITANIA: There my love.
BOTTOM: Scratch my head, Peaseblossom.
FX: Fairy scratches Bottom’s head
BOTTOM: Where’s Monsieur Cobweb and Madame Mustardseed? Aha, there you are!
TITANIA: What is your will my love? What should I have them do?
BOTTOM: Nothing but to help Miss Peaseblossom scratch. I must to the barber’s for I think I am marvellous hairy about the face.
TITANIA: O say, sweet love, what you desire to eat?
BOTTOM: I think I have a great desire for a bale of… hay!
TITANIA: As you will my love. I will send a fairy now.
BOTTOM: Very well. But I ask you, let none of your people bother me. I’m suddenly feeling very sleepy.
FX: Bottom snores
TITANIA: Sleep then and I will wind you in my arms. Fairies, away.
PUCK: Oh my!
OBERON: Ah, Puck. I see you’ve seen the Queen… I do now begin to pity her doting on a donkey. Perhaps this was too cruel?
PUCK: Well, I don’t know about that…
OBERON: Take this ass’s head off the weaver, so that when he wakes he can return to Athens and think no more of tonight than if it were a dream.
PUCK: Yes my lord.
OBERON: First I must release the fairy queen. Now, be as you would want to be and see as you would want to see. Wake up Titania, my sweet queen.
TITANIA: My Oberon! What visions have I seen! I thought I was enamoured of an ass.
OBERON: There lies your love.
TITANIA: How came these things to pass? O how my eyes do loathe his visage now!
OBERON: Well, it’s a long story…
FX: Bird tweets
PUCK: Erm, fairy king, attend and mark, for I do hear the morning lark.
TITANIA: Come my lord and in our flight tell me how it came this night, that I sleeping here was found, with this mortal on the ground.
PUCK: It seems our twilight revels are coming to an end. It’s nearly daybreak and time for Theseus’s wedding. But first I’ll return the weaver to his former state. When you wake, with your own fools eyes peep…
FX: Magic flash
BOTTOM: Hee-haw!
7: Lifting the Fog
Puck leads the lovers through the foggy night, using ventriloquism to keep them from bumping into one another. One by one, they enter a clearing and fall asleep. Puck applies the magic flower to Lysander’s eyes, so that he might fall in love with Hermia again when he wakes.
Titania and her fairies wait on the transformed Bottom until both he and the bewitched queen fall asleep. Oberon witnesses the scene, takes pity on Titania and releases her from the flower’s spell. She wakes, sees Oberon, instantly loves him again and is reconciled. She recoils at the sight of the sleeping Bottom with his donkey head. Oberon tells Puck to change Bottom back to his former state.
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Episode transcript. document
Download / print the transcript of Episode 7
Activities - KS2
The lovers have been on a long journey before they are finally gathered together by Puck to fall asleep at the end of this episode. The class could discuss each of their narrative arcs and talk about how their relationships have changed over the course of the play.
As an aid to comprehension, each storyline could be summarised in a few sentences on different cards and those cards put together to create a complete storyline. The class could then be asked to make predictions about what happens next. Will the lovers be reconciled? What about Theseus’s ruling from the beginning of the play? Will Bottom make it back in time to perform Pyramus?
Pupils could be asked to devise comic and tragic endings for the play, building on the discussion about comedy and tragedy from Episode 2.
Activities - KS3
Working in groups of 4 or 5, students could be provided with the first two pages of the transcript of Episode 7, complete with stage directions. After discussing some of the structural features of a play text, each student could then be asked to pick a character and imagine how the rest of Episode 7 might unfold from that character’s point of view, working collaboratively to draft a new ending for the episode, complete with stage directions.
The group could also be asked to semi-stage or fully perform the resulting scene to the class.
More episodes from A Midsummer Night's Dream
5: Oberon's Revenge. video
Titania falls in love with the transformed Bottom and Oberon discovers Puck’s mistake.
6: The Lovers' Quarrel. video
Lysander and Demetrius compete for Helena’s love...and Hermia starts a fight.
8: A Wedding Play. video
The lovers return to Athens for a triple wedding. Bottom and friends perform their play.
