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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 2Scene 1
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"a fair vestal throned"
Historical Allusion
Act 2,
Scene 1
Lines 157-164

A reference to Queen Elizabeth in Act 2, Scene 1 of myshakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Oberon

Cupid all armed. A certain aim he took
At a fair vestal thronèd by the west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts.
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the wat’ry moon,
And the imperial vot’ress passèd on
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.

It is almost certain that A Midsummer Night’s Dream was written on the occasion of the wedding of a very high ranking couple attended by Queen Elizabeth, and that this passage was meant as a flattering tribute to Elizabeth who was celebrated, in an almost cult-like fashion, for her decision not to marry, but to remain “a fair vestal (virgin) throned.”