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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 2Scene 1
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"attained a beard"
Wordplay
Act 2,
Scene 1
Lines 81-95

An explanation of the wordplay about corn in Act 2, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Titania

These are the forgeries of jealousy.
And never since the middle summer's spring
Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead,
By pavèd fountain or by rushy brook,
Or in the beachèd margent of the sea
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge have sucked up from the sea
Contagious fogs, which, falling in the land,
Hath every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents.
The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard.

If you've ever shucked an ear of corn, you’ll have noticed that underneath the outer leaves there's a layer of silky fibers referred to as the beard. Because of the flooding, the corn has rotted before it could reach maturity — that is, before it could "grow a beard."

References: 

https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-a-yellow-corn-3658482/