Titania is a character in William Shakespeare’s 1595–1596 play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In the play, she is the Queen of the fairies and wife of the Fairy King, Oberon. The pair are depicted as powerful natural spirits who together guarantee the fertility or health of the human and natural worlds. Yet their falling out has severely disrupted both worlds, as Titania explains at length in Act 1 Scene 2, ending “And this same progeny of evils comes From our debate, from our dissension.”
First Appearance One of the First Quartos (1600), Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies – Published according to the True Originall Copies, i.e. First Folio (1623)
First Publisher ○
Appearance List Metamorphoses (8 CE) by Ovid — Contains the name “Titania” as an epithet for the goddess Diana (derived from Titan); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c. 1595; 1600 Quarto) by William Shakespeare — First true appearance of Titania as Queen of the Fairies; Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (1623) by William Shakespeare — First Folio; The Fairy Queen (1692) by Henry Purcell — Baroque semi-opera loosely adapted from A Midsummer Night’s Dream; A Midsummer Night’s Dream: and Other Stories by E. Nesbit (1890) (A midsummer night’s dream.–Hamlet, prince of Denmark.–Twelfth night.–King Lear) [Internet Archive]; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1909) directed by Charles Kent & J. Stuart Blackton — Early silent film adaptation; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935) directed by Max Reinhardt & William Dieterle — film adaptation; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1968) directed by Peter Hall — Royal Shakespeare Company television adaptation with Judi Dench; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1970) directed by Peter Hall — Feature film version…
Description Titania is a character in William Shakespeare’s 1595–1596 play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In the play, she is the Queen of the fairies and wife of the Fairy King, Oberon. The pair are depicted as powerful natural spirits who together guarantee the fertility or health of the human and natural worlds. Yet their falling out has severely disrupted both worlds, as Titania explains at length in Act 1 Scene 2, ending “And this same progeny of evils comes From our debate, from our dissension.”
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