Oberon, King of the Fairies, describes the enchanted spot where his queen Titania sleeps. He plans to use the juice of a magical flower to make her fall in love with the first creature she sees upon waking, as revenge in their quarrel.
Oberon is in the wood outside Athens, having just quarrelled with Titania over the changeling Indian boy. He has dispatched Puck to fetch the flower struck by Cupid's arrow whose juice causes the next creature seen to be loved madly. Puck has returned with the flower. Oberon now instructs Puck on the plan: he will anoint Titania while she sleeps, and he also wants Puck to use the juice on a young Athenian man (Demetrius) so that he will love the woman pursuing him (Helena). The speech is the operational briefing — half lyric description of where Titania sleeps, half tactical assignment. Helena and Demetrius have just exited; Oberon has overheard their quarrel and pities Helena, which is the trigger for the second half of the plan.
Oberon wants Puck to enjoy the assignment as much as he does. The speech is a fairy king delegating to a trusted lieutenant, and the lyricism of the bank description is partly a way of conjuring the place for Puck (who will need to find it) and partly aesthetic pleasure shared between them. What Oberon wants from Titania, ultimately, is the changeling boy — but in this speech the wanting is sublimated into the pleasure of the trick. Psychologically he is in command, in love with his own elegance, and somewhat petty. The cruelty of the plan (Titania will fall in love with a monster) is not addressed; he is enjoying the design too much. The Athenian rescue subplot is added almost as a flourish — a king dispensing favours along with his vengeances.
Find Puck. The speech is direct address to a specific scene partner — probably a small, mercurial figure your eyes follow. If you treat it as a generalised lyric speech, the operational dimension disappears and so does the character. The bank description is famous and beautiful but it is also instructions: Puck needs to know where to bring the changed Titania later. Mark the practical purpose. The catalogue of flowers ("oxlips and the nodding violet... woodbine... sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine") wants to be heard as a real place, not a list — Oberon has been there and the specifics matter. Don't sing the whole thing in the same register; the shift at "There sleeps Titania" is a tactical move. The transition to "Take thou some of it" is the actual order. The Demetrius assignment at the end ("A sweet Athenian lady is in love / With a disdainful youth") is a different action — Oberon is improvising the rescue plan. Tempo varies: lyric and slow on the bank, brisker on the orders. Verse is among the loveliest in the canon; trust the music but don't drown in it.
An underused and excellent audition piece. Shows verse, imagination, sensuality, and the ability to use language to conjure a specific imaginary place — useful for any classical casting and for the increasing number of fantasy and prestige television projects that want actors who can handle heightened text. Strong for MFA programs, classical companies, and Shakespeare-in-the-Park-style auditions. Works for actors across a wide age range, though most often played by performers in their thirties and forties. Less wrung-out than the major tragic soliloquies. Useful for showing pleasure — many classical audition pieces are dark, and casting panels welcome the rare actor who can do delight without falling into "fairy" cliché. Cut to about eighteen lines (through "And make her full of hateful fantasies") to fit standard audition limits. Avoid the trap of generic mellifluous delivery; the specificity is the performance.
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantasies.
Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:
A sweet Athenian lady is in love
With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;
But do it when the next thing he espies
May be the lady.