Illustration of a donkey-headed musician in between two white trees

A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare

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Student Question

Who says these lines to Bottom in Act 3: "Out of this wood do not desire to go. Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no. I am a spirit of no common rate"?

"Out of this wood do not desire to go
Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no
I am a spirit of no common rate"

Expert Answers

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The lines are said by Titania, the Queen of the Faries. Oberon, the Fairy King and her estranged lover, has put the juice of a mystical love flower in her eyes. The elixer makes the people(or fairies, as in this case) with the substance in their eyes fall deeply in love with the first creature they see.

Oberon is playing a trick on Titania to get even for her shunning him. He makes her fall madly in love with Bottom, whom Puck has just transformed into a donkey.

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