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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 2Scene 1
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“changeling”
Folklore
Act 2,
Scene 1
Lines 20-25

An explanation of “changeling” in Act 2, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

Robin 

For Oberon is passing fell and wrath
Because that she, as her attendant, hath
A lovely boy stolen from an Indian king.
She never had so sweet a changeling.
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild.

According to folklore, fairies would steal a child that they desired, and leave in exchange a less desirable one. The children were known as changelings.