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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 1Scene 1
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"barren sister"
Mythological Reference
Act 1,
Scene 1
Lines 67-78

An explanation of Theseus’ reference to the goddess Diana in Act 1, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Theseus

Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires,
Know of your youth, examine well your blood;
Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun,
For aye to be in shady cloister mewed,
To live a barren sister all your life,
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
Thrice blessed they that master so their blood,
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
But earthlier happy is the rose distilled
Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.

Theseus is envisioning a childless nun, chanting hymns every night to Diana, goddess of the moon and virginity, whom he describes as "cold" because she doesn’t have sex, and "fruitless" because she doesn’t have children.