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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 2Scene 1
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“hang a pearl”
Cultural Context
Act 2,
Scene 1
Lines 8-15

An explanation of the image “hang a pearl” in Act 2, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

Fairy

And I serve the Fairy Queen
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see,
Those be rubies, fairy favors;
In those freckles live their savors.
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.

The fairy is going to collect dewdrops and hang them like pearl earrings on the Fairy Queen's guardsmen. In Shakespeare's time it was common for upper class men to wear earrings.

Chandos Portrait (William Shakespeare), John Taylor, c. 1610