You are here

All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 2Scene 1
Back to the Play
"wat'ry moon"
Imagery
Act 2,
Scene 1
Lines 161-162

An explanation of the reference to Diana and Cupid in Act 2, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Oberon

But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the wat’ry moon,

Not surprisingly, Diana, the goddess of virgins, objects to Cupid's incitement of romantic passions, so she changed her moon beams into water streams, which drenched Cupid's fiery love-arrow. (Diana is also the goddess of tides and floods.)