The King doth keep his revels here to-night:
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;
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;
But she perforce withholds the loved boy,
Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy:
And now they never meet in grove or green,
By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,
But, they do square, that all their elves for fear
Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there.
– William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 2, Scene 1. All is not well in fairyland! Puck reveals to the fairy that a battle of the sexes is taking place between the Fairy King Oberon and his wife Titania. Oberon is jealous of all the time Titania is spending with the changeling boy she stole from an Indian king. She "crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy." Oberon has demanded that Titania give the boy to him, so that he can make him a knight within his retinue, but she refuses. A changling is a child that the fairies steal and bring up as their own, leaving the parents with a fairy child in its place. The royal couple argue so much that the frightened elves go off and hide inside acorn cups, we are told.