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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 2Scene 1
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“governess of floods”
Cultural Context
Act 2,
Scene 1
Lines 88-114

An explanation of the phrase “governess of floods” in Act 2, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Titania

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.
The fold stands empty in the drownèd field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock.
The nine men's morris is filled up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
For lack of tread are undistinguishable.
The human mortals want their winter cheer;
No night is now with hymn or carol blessed.
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air
That rheumatic diseases do abound.
And thorough this distemperature we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mock’ry, set. The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter change
Their wonted liveries; and the mazèd world,
By their increase now knows not which is which.

There are two high tides approximately every 24 hours, one when the moon is overhead, the other when it's on the opposite side of the earth. This explains why the moon is being referred to as the "governess of floods." You may also know that the size of the tides vary depending on where you are in the world. England happens to have very large tides, so much so that in London, where Shakespeare lived 40 miles from the sea, the level of the river Thames fluctuates with the sea's tides.