| Peaseblossom | |
| Characters Adapted from Other Works | |
| First Appearance: | "A Midsummer Night's Dream" |
| Creator: | William Shakespeare |
| Nationality: | Faerie |
| Occupation: | Royal retainer |
| Appearing in: | |
| "A Late Symmer Night's Battle" by Laura Frankos Fantasy pastiche | |
| Type of Appearance: | Direct |
| Occupation: | Soldier |
| Relatives: | Moth (cousin) |
Peaseblossom the fairy is a character from William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. Along with Mustardseed, Cobweb, and Moth, Peaseblossom is one of the royal retainers who accompany Queen Titania in most of the Queen's scenes. The retainers are stock characters with very little character development or individual personality, and are not considered especially desirable roles for actors, nor the subject of extensive analysis by Shakespeare scholars.
Peaseblossom in "A Late Symmer Night's Battle"[]
Peaseblossom ("Blossom") was one of the royal retainers of Queen Titania of Faerie. She was at the Queen's side throughout the much-publicized humorous dispute with King Oberon over the apprentice Ghosh.
Five years before Ghosh's arrival, Peaseblossom's whole family was wiped out by marauding reremice, save for her cousin Moth. She and Mustardseed were veterans of the subsequent war against the reremice. Once peace was restored, Blossom lived a carefree life, taking a new partner on an almost regular basis.
Not long after the conflict between Titania and Oberon, Peaseblossom's comrade Cobweb came home on leave, and Peaseblossom decided to celebrate by throwing a party. She made a point of inviting Moth and Mustardseed. Moth, who'd been appointed Ghosh's primary guardian, agreed to come with the understanding that Ghosh may also have to come. Mustardseed was initially hesitant, give her recent break-up with Robin Goodfellow, but decided to go to see Webby again.
Peaseblossom didn't tell Mustardseed that she was now dancing with Robin Goodfellow. Cobweb unwittingly shared this Mustardseed just before Lady Quill, the acting leader of the fairies, announced that a tribe of German kobolds hade invaded Faerie while its monarchs were on their Second Honeymoon Tour.
As the Faerie military gathered, Robin Goodfellow arrived to say farewell to Peaseblossom before he sought out Titania and Oberon. Blossom threatened him because she knew he'd been with Cinnabar. In response, Robin then attempted to get a farewell kiss from Mustardseed, but she also angrily rejected him. Mustardseed and Peaseblossom shared a laugh, and reported for duty.
General Pard explained that the kobolds were evicted from their silver mines in Greece, and made their way to Faerie. They were led by a general named Hinzelmann, who rode a snake.
The battle proved to be a skirmish. While there were more kobolds, they were plainly physically weak and desperate. After a time, Hinzelmann ordered a retreat to regroup. The arrival of reremice changed the course of events. Lady Quill's owls thwarted their attack on the fairies long enough for the civilians to find shelter in unearthed caves Ghosh had accidentally found while digging the week before. The kobolds had no defenses. Realizing that a cultured people were being attacked by mindless predators, Mustardseed convinced Pard and Lady Quill to allow her to ride to the kobold line under a flag of truce and bring the kobolds down into caves.
With this act, the war was over. Hinzelmann died of his injuries. With him gone, Titania and Oberon successfully negotiated an agreement with the kobold leaders. Helping things was the fact that the recently unearthed caves held sufficient silver to support the kobolds for the foreseeable future. Peaseblossom threw a party celebrating Cobweb's return to archery training.
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