<P> According to Roman mythology, the wild pansy turned into the Love - in - idleness as Cupid shot one of his arrows at the imperial votaress, but missed and instead struck it . As Cupid is the god of desire, affection and erotic love, the flower's juice received the trait, to act as a love potion . Its name relates to the use of the flower, as it is often used for idleness or vileness acts . </P> <P> Long before cultivated pansies were released into the trade in 1839, V. tricolor was associated with thought in the "language of flowers", often by its alternative name of pansy (from the French pensée "thought"): hence Ophelia's often quoted line in Shakespeare's Hamlet, "There's pansies, that's for thoughts". (What Shakespeare had in mind was V. tricolor, the wild pansy, not a modern garden pansy .) </P> <P> Shakespeare makes a more direct reference, probably to V. tricolor in A Midsummer Night's Dream . Oberon sends Puck to gather "a little western flower that maidens call love - in - idleness". Oberon's account is that he diverted an arrow from Cupid's bow aimed at "a fair vestal, throned by the west" (supposedly Queen Elizabeth I) to fall upon the plant "before milk - white, now purple with love's wound". The "imperial vot'ress" passes on "fancy - free", destined never to fall in love . </P> <P> In Act II and III, Oberon's and Puck's intervention with the magic love potion of the flower, they can control the fates of various characters, but also speed up the process of falling in and out of love, so that the actual romances of the lovers and their love itself appears to become very comical . Shakespeare uses the flower to provide the essential dramatic and comical features for his play . Besides that the love potion gained from the flower, does not only interfere with the lovers fates, but also gives the play structure as it affects the lovers' romances drastically, as it at first upsets the balance of love and creates asymmetrical love among the four Athenian lovers . The fact that this flower introduces magical love to this play creates the potential for many possible outcomes for this play . </P>

What is the flower in a midsummer night's dream