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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 3Scene 2
Back to the Play
"home to churchyards"
Cultural Context
Act 3,
Scene 2
Lines 379-388

An explanation of Robin’s reference to ghosts in Act 3, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Robin (Puck)

My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,
For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,
And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger,
At whose approach ghosts, wandering here and there,
Troop home to churchyards. Damnèd spirits all,
That in crossways and floods have burial,
Already to their wormy beds are gone,
For fear lest day should look their shames upon.
They willfully themselves exiled from light,
And must for aye consort with black-browed night.

It was believed that the ghostly spirits of the dead came out of their churchyard graves at night and wandered around the countryside before returning to their graves with the coming of dawn.