Mazèd World

Yesterday afternoon, we had a cold rain. Then the wind chased the clouds away, chilled the air even further, and set the scene for hoar frost.

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Titania chastises Oberon for their discord, one that she believes has upset the moon, who in turn has disrupted the seasons, sending frost in summer. But here, where seasons tangle into each other naturally, her words apply when our fruiting plants begin their spring flush just as the ground laces with frost:

The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts

Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,

And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown

An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds

Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,

The childing autumn, angry winter change

Their wonted liveries, and the mazèd world,

By their increase, now knows not which is which.