Shakespeare's love potion remixed

The Bard: Student of potions

LONDON, England -- William Shakespeare could never have dreamed it up. Not even for Valentine's Day.

But scientists say they have created a modern version of the famed aphrodisiac which made Titania, Queen of the Fairies, fall in love with a donkey in "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

Named Puck's Potion, the scent is based on violets, said Claire McLoughlin of the Royal Society of Chemistry, which together with the Royal Shakespeare Company commissioned the new scent.

"In honour of Valentine's Day, and the Royal Shakespeare Company's new production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' we decided to bring a Shakespearean smell to life," added McLoughlin.

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She described the aroma as "heady, sweet -- like the scent of parma violets, it takes you back in time." Other fragrances include tangerine, bergamot, white pepper and cloves.

McLoughlin said there were no plans to market the scent, "although we will do some public opinion trials."

The potion is being tested by members of the cast of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" currently playing at the Royal Shakespeare Company's headquarters in the bard's home town of Stratford-upon-Avon.

Director Richard Jones said it was well known "that many of the Elizabethan herbs had real medicinal power. We have yet to see how our Titania reacts when she inhales the potion, but if it works, then I will try to get some free samples."

In Shakespeare's witty tale, Puck "puts a girdle round the earth in 40 minutes," to fetch the flowers which the fairy king, Oberon, has brewed into a potion in the hope of making Titania love him.

The elixir is daubed on the sleeping Titania's eyelids, so she will fall in love with the first person she sees on waking. Unfortunately, that turns out to be Bottom, the bumbling tailor who has magically acquired an ass's head.

Scholars and scientists scoured the text for the potion's ingredients before fragrance company Quest International, a subsidiary of chemical giant ICI, could create the scent.

One of the wild the violets used was named "Heart's Ease" in Elizabethan times because it was thought to ease asthma, epilepsy, bronchitis and some heart ailments.

"There are scores of references to plants and herbs in Shakespeare, who was obviously very knowledgeable about their real and mythical potency," said Charles Sell, Quest's head of organic chemistry.