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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 3Scene 2
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"tawny tartar"
Cultural Context
Act 3,
Scene 2
Lines 261-265

An explanation of the phrase “tawny Tartar” in Act 3, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Lysander

[To Hermia] Hang off, thou cat, thou burr . Vile thing, let loose,
Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent.

Hermia

Why are you grown so rude? What change is this,
Sweet love?

Lysander

                     Thy love? Out, tawny Tartar, out.
Out, loathèd med’cine. O hated potion, hence.

Tawny is an orange-brownish color, and the word was used to refer to peoples like Egyptians or Turks. (Tartar is another name for a Turk.) Once again, Lysander is referring negatively to Hermia's skin tone, reflecting the racial prejudice that existed in Elizabethan England.