A Midsummer Night's Dream: Act 2

by William Shakespeare
In this comedy, two Athenian couples and a troupe of actors become unwitting pawns in a squabble between a fairy king and queen. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the play: Act I, Act II, Act III, Act IV, Act V

Here are links to our lists for other plays by William Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Hamlet, King Lear, Julius Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, Othello
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. changeling
    a child secretly exchanged for another in infancy
    Take heed the Queen come not within his sight,
    For Oberon is passing fell and wrath
    Because that she, as her attendant, hath
    A lovely boy stolen from an Indian king;
    She never had so sweet a changeling.
  2. knavish
    marked by skill in deception
    Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
    Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
    Called Robin Goodfellow.
  3. sprite
    a small, mythological creature with wings and magical powers
    Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
    Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
    Called Robin Goodfellow.
  4. beguile
    attract; cause to be enamored
    I jest to Oberon and make him smile
    When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
    Neighing in likeness of a filly foal.
  5. progeny
    the immediate descendants of a person
    And this same progeny of evils comes
    From our debate, from our dissension;
    We are their parents and original.
  6. dissension
    a conflict of people's opinions, actions, or characters
    And this same progeny of evils comes
    From our debate, from our dissension;
    We are their parents and original.
  7. wanton
    not restrained or controlled
    Full often hath she gossiped by my side
    And sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands,
    Marking th’ embarkèd traders on the flood,
    When we have laughed to see the sails conceive
    And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;
    Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait,
    Following (her womb then rich with my young squire),
    Would imitate...
  8. dulcet
    pleasing to the ear
    Thou rememb’rest
    Since once I sat upon a promontory
    And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back
    Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
    That the rude sea grew civil at her song.
  9. imperial
    belonging to or befitting a supreme ruler
    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.
  10. dote
    shower with love; show excessive affection for
    Fetch me that flower. The herb I showed thee once.
    The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid
    Will make a man or woman madly dote
    Upon the next live creature that it sees.
  11. impeach
    challenge the honesty or veracity of
    You do impeach your modesty too much
    To leave the city and commit yourself
    Into the hands of one that loves you not.
  12. disdainful
    expressing extreme contempt
    Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove.
    He gives Robin part of the flower.
    A sweet Athenian lady is in love
    With a disdainful youth.
  13. anoint
    administer an oil or ointment to, often ceremonially
    Anoint his eyes,
    But do it when the next thing he espies
    May be the lady.
  14. espy
    catch sight of
    Anoint his eyes,
    But do it when the next thing he espies
    May be the lady.
  15. surfeit
    the state of being more than full
    For, as a surfeit of the sweetest things
    The deepest loathing to the stomach brings,
    Or as the heresies that men do leave
    Are hated most of those they did deceive,
    So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,
    Of all be hated, but the most of me!
Created on Fri Oct 25 18:46:49 EDT 2013 (updated Tue Jul 15 15:49:08 EDT 2025)

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