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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 2Scene 2
Back to the Play
"spotted snakes" etc.
Cultural Context
Act 2,
Scene 2
Lines 1-12

An explanation of the fairies’ warding creatures away from Titania in Act 2, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

[Enter Titania, Queen of the fairies, with her attendants]

Titania

Come, now a roundel and a fairy song,
Then for the third part of a minute hence:
Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,
Some war with reremice for their leathern wings
To make my small elves coats, and some keep back
The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders
At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep.
Then to your offices and let me rest.
[She lies down. Fairies sing and dance]

First Fairy

You spotted snakes with double tongue,
    Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen.
Newts and blindworms, do no wrong,
    Come not near our Fairy Queen.

The fairies are singing a magical song to protect their queen from perceived dangers. Spotted snakes were believed to be poisonous, as were newts (salamanders), and blindworms — a type of short-legged reptile so named because of its tiny eyes.