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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 3Scene 2
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“Tartar’s bow”
Cultural Context
Act 3,
Scene 2
Lines 94-101

An explanation of Robin’s reference to “the Tartar’s bow” in Act 3, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

Oberon

About the wood go swifter than the wind,
And Helena of Athens look thou find.
All fancy-sick she is, and pale of cheer
With sighs of love that costs the fresh blood dear.
By some illusion see thou bring her here.
I'll charm his eyes against she do appear.

Robin 

I go, I go. Look how I go,
Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow.

Tartar refers to the peoples of central Asia such as the Mongols of Genghis Khan. They were thought to be fierce warriors and great archers.

(A Tartar soldier, woodcut, 1576)