Theseus and Hippolyta remain in Athens whilst we (as audience or readers) accompany the lovers and the workmen on their separate expeditions outside the city walls, into the forest that surrounds Athens.

The forest belongs to the fairies: Athenian law does not operate here. Oberon tries to impose some kind of rule, but he is not a god and he makes mistakes. The first scene in the forest shows us the fairies at their best and at their worst. At their best they are caring for the wild flowers; at their worst they are quarrelling furiously, and their quarrels have serious repercussions in the lives of human beings.

The lovers and the workmen enter the fairy realm and soon become aware of the strangeness of their surroundings. It is a strangeness that grows frightening as night approaches.

Shakespeare is not precise about the length of time that the humans spend in the woods. The first forest scene is brightly lit: Oberon greets his wife with the words "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania" (2,1,60). But the night (if it is the same night) seems to grow darker. There are mistakes and misunderstandings. The mortals are all lost: they cannot find the way out of their own problems, or out of the wood. The workmen managed to escape (with some damage to their clothing), but the lovers are separated in the darkness and eventually lie down to sleep feeling alone and afraid. In fact they are all together, and perfectly safe.

The time spent in the forest is the period immediately before Theseus’s wedding, and that has been arranged so that

the moon, like to a silver bow

New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night

Of our solemnities

(1,1,9–11)

Before a new moon is seen, the only night light comes from the stars.

Although the night is dark, it is very short — the shortest night of the year: the play’s title tells us this. In England, and in most European countries, the night before midsummer day has always been associated with magic, fairies, and lovers. It is also a time for madness. The phrase "midsummer madness" is still used to describe a state of mind which is abnormal (perhaps affected by the heat of the sun — or by fairy power) but which does not last long.

Light dawns when Theseus and Hippolyta come out of the city in order to pay some kind of homage to the midsummer season. Slowly the lovers recover from their temporary "madness" — and we all return to Athens and ordered civilization.

The play ends with three weddings — a triple celebration of this civilization. Without an ordered society, marriage is impossible; and every wedding — every permanent bond between two people — strengthens the society in which it occurs.

Finally it is the turn of the fairies to enter "foreign" territory: they come from the wood to the palace in order to bless the three marriages within the play. But there is a sense in which this fairy blessing is not bestowed only on Theseus, Hippolyta, and the other four lovers. When Oberon says "To the best bride-bed will we" (5,1,390) he is surely referring not to the characters assembled on the stage, but to the main personages seated in the audience — the bride and bridegroom, in whose honour this play has been performed.

 The Lovers’ story

Act 1    Scene 1

It is Lysander who first decides to leave Athens. He is in love with Hermia, and she loves him. But her father has ordered Hermia to marry another man, Demetrius, and "the sharp Athenian law" is such that disobedience may be punished by death. Not even the duke can alter the law — although he is able to offer another alternative: she can become a nun.

Theseus speaks in praise of those who "master so their blood" and "undergo such maiden pilgrimage" — those who chose (as Queen Elizabeth I did) to live without husband or children in order to dedicate their lives wholly to some service. His words, however, stress the harshness of this single life: it is "cold", "fruitless", "barren" and restricted. Theseus, we must not forget, is about to be a bridegroom himself.

Hermia is firm in her decision, and she earns our respect for her loyalty to Lysander, despite the threats of her father and the persuasions of the duke. We become still more sympathetic to her when we learn that Demetrius, the man her father prefers, has been courting another sweetheart.

As soon as we understand the situation perfectly, all the characters follow the duke from the stage, leaving only Lysander and Hermia. Lysander is worried, and Hermia is almost in tears — but for about twenty lines Shakespeare holds up the action, whilst the two lovers deliver a dialogue on the subject of love and its problems. We must react to these lines in two ways, simultaneously. On one level we understand that the characters are consoling each other by remembering that lovers have always had problems. At the same time, our attention is drawn not to what is said, but to how it is being said. These lines are very clever, but they are not at all naturalistic. In real life people do not speak like this:

Lysander The course of true love never did run smooth;

But either it was different in blood —

Hermia O cross ! too high to be enthrall’d to low.

Lysander Or else misgraffed in respect of years —

Hermia O spite ! too old to be engag’d to young . . .

The technique is a skilful one. Hermia’s situation could be very serious: a matter of life or death. Shakespeare wants us to sympathize with the dilemma — but he does not wish his audience to be anxious. The artificial, "patterned" verse serves to remind us that this is a play — a comedy, in fact — and that no-one is in serious danger. We can wonder how things will work out; but we can be sure that the ending will be a happy one.

After we have heard Lysander’s plot to escape from Athens, we meet the fourth of the set of lovers. We already know that Helena is desperately in love with Demetrius — that she "dotes, Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry" upon him. In every way Helena is the exact opposite of Hermia: later in a reading of the play we learn that Hermia is small and dark, whilst Helena is tall and fair. This is, of course, immediately apparent when the play is performed. The different physical characteristics emphasize the different personalities: Hermia is quick, hot-tempered and energetic, whilst Helena is languid and almost seems to be enjoying her misery !

Act 2    Scene 1

This is still our impression when we see Helena a second time, after she has betrayed her friend’s secret and followed Demetrius into the forest in pursuit of the runaway lovers. Demetrius does not appear as a very attractive character when he insults Helena and threatens her; but she invites such treatment:

I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,

The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:

Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me . . .

Demetrius warns Helena of the potential danger:

You do impeach your modesty too much,

To leave the city, and commit yourself

Into the hands of one that loves you not.

His words are threatening, and the situation looks dangerous — but once again we are not alarmed. Before Demetrius and Helena rushed on to the stage, Oberon stood there alone. The fairy king did not leave the stage when he heard the approach of the mortals. He stepped aside, perhaps throwing a dark cloak around himself, and informed the audience

I am invisible,

And I will overhear their conference

The presence of Oberon is enough protection for Helena; although she cannot see him, he is in full view of the audience; and as readers we must try to "see" the scene with a dramatic imagination.

The slight hint of danger is completely dispelled when Helena replies to Demetrius’s warnings: she threatens him — and he is the one who runs away!

When Oberon decides to intervene in the lovers’ dispute, and instructs Robin to search for Demetrius, we know exactly what will happen. Oberon tells Robin "Thou shalt know the man By the Athenian garments he hath on". We know — but Oberon and Robin do not — that there are two Athenians in the forest; and we can be sure that identities will be mistaken.

Scene 2

The arrival of Lysander and Hermia encourages our expectations. They are tired, and lost. We are sympathetic — yet we also smile. Once again it is the form of the verse that relaxes tension. This time the lines are rhymed couplets; and to emphasize the artificiality there are double meanings which the lovers work out for their own pleasure, taking delight in the skill of their language — so much so that Hermia even compliments her lover: "Lysander riddles very prettily". When Demetrius and Helena rush back on to the stage, they too speak in rhymed couplets — and the effect of this is comparable with the effects of an English Christmas pantomime. The action is too fast for serious emotion. It is halted for a moment by Helena’s lament after Demetrius has left her, but the pause only gives the audience time to enjoy a delightful suspense. We have been told of the effects of the love-juice; we know that it has been sprinkled on the wrong Athenian’s eyes; and we wait for Helena’s discovery:

But who is here ? Lysander ! on the ground !

Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.

Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake.

Lysander’s reaction is prompt:

And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake.

Nothing can follow this rhyme except laughter.

Lysander now courts Helena with exaggerated protestations of love. Helena believes that he is making fun of her, and runs away. Lysander turns on the sleeping Hermia, showing a surprising hatred. And Hermia wakes from a terrifying dream, to find herself alone and lost in the wood.

Act 3    Scene 2

Oberon, trying to remedy Robin’s mistake, succeeds only in adding to the confusion when he anoints Demetrius’s eyes with the love-juice so that he too falls in love with Helena. Demetrius declares his passion with extravagant praise of Helena’s beauty:

O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine !

To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne ?

Crystal is muddy. O how ripe in show

Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow.

The poetry is intentionally bad; and it is no wonder that Helena believes she is being mocked. For a time we see the situation as it must appear to Robin — and enjoy the comedy as much as he does:

Then will two at once woo one;

That must needs be sport alone;

And those things do best please me

That befall preposterously.

When Hermia joins the other three lovers (also speaking in their rhymed couplets) the comedy continues for a short time, and then the mood of the scene becomes more serious. The signal for this change of mood is in the verse, which suddenly loses its rhymes and begins to sound more like ordinary speech, allowing Helena and Hermia to engage in a bitter quarrel.

Helena’s description of the schooldays she shared with Hermia is very pretty — and extremely sentimental . She is nostalgic, longing for the relationship which she claims to have had with Hermia and which she feels has been betrayed by her friend’s conduct:

And will you rent our ancient love asunder,

To join with men in scorning your poor friend?

But when Hermia refuses to share her nostalgia, Helena begins to lose her temper — and we are given a very different picture of the early friendship:

O, when she’s angry, she is keen and shrewd.

She was a vixen when she went to school.

The quarrel between the "painted maypole", Helena, and the "puppet", Hermia, is intense; but it does not last long. Oberon and Robin are always visible (to the audience) and when the bewildered men and the angry girls leave the stage we are reassured that all will be well. The harmony is restored through the magical rhymes of Oberon and Robin.

Under his master’s instructions Robin takes command of the situation. Some of the time he behaves like the fairy spirit — the Robin — after whom he is named: he misleads Lysander and Demetrius, imitating their voices until they are confused and utterly lost. At other times he is calm and sensible — and rather amused by the work he has to do. He is like a busy stage-manager — or a teacher — efficiently assembling his charges:

Yet but three ? Come one more;

Two of both kinds makes up four.

Here she comes, curst and sad:

Cupid is a knavish lad,

Thus to make poor females mad.

 Act 4    Scene 1

Now the lovers can sleep in safety until they are woken by the arrival of the hunting-party from the palace. As they follow Theseus back to Athens they try to recall and explain the events of the night but, like dreams, these quickly fade from the memory.

 The Actors’ story

Act 1

In the first scene of A Midsummer Night’s Dream we are introduced to the lovers and their very tense emotional situation. It is a scene of high passions: a father demands his daughter’s obedience and threatens her with death; the daughter is resolved to marry the man she loves; rival suitors threaten each other; and a hopeless Helena laments for her unfaithful lover. These passions are all expressed in verse — verse which at different times (and for different reasons) becomes highly "poetic" and obviously "patterned". The scene that follows this is in complete contrast, and the contrast is immediately marked by the change from verse to plain, straightforward prose.

Scene 2

The only conflict in Scene 2 is the struggle for power between Peter Quince and Nick Bottom. Quince tries, with all the tact he can command, to control his would-be actors. Bottom wants to cast himself in every available part, so that he can act not only Pyramus and Thisbe, but also the lion.

By taking a roll-call of his actors, calling them "man by man according to the scrip", Peter Quince introduces the individual members of his company; we learn their names and occupations. It is Bottom that we are most interested in, and it is important that his character is firmly established in this scene.

The play chosen to entertain Theseus "on his wedding-day at night" is Shakespeare’s parody of much minor drama that was written in the sixteenth century, and which was often presented on just such occasions. Quince refers to it as an "interlude", and this is the correct technical term for the diversion performed between (Latin inter=between) the different events on a formal occasion. In the last scene of the play Theseus asks for some amusement

To wear away this long age of three hours

Between our after-supper and bed-time.

(5,1,33–4)

Many interludes were based on stories from classical mythology, because this was the Elizabethans’ favourite kind of light reading — but Shakespeare enjoys the comedy that inevitably arises when simple working men try to deal with sophisticated fictions.

Act 3    Scene 1

When the workmen meet in the forest for their first rehearsal they have had time to think about their play — especially about the practical difficulties of staging this entertainment in the great hall of the palace. They have both too much, and too little, imagination; and they assume that their audience will think as they themselves do. The lion presents a serious problem:

Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion ?

Shakespeare’s first audience would have known that this problem had arisen in a similar production only two years earlier, at a christening party in the Scottish court. The plan there was to have a chariot drawn by a real lion — but the plan had been abandoned in the interests of the spectators’ safety.

Having sorted out their difficulties, the actors begin to rehearse — with Robin as an unseen audience. But their rehearsal is interrupted when the leading actor — Bottom — is transformed into a monster by Robin’s trickery. The workmen hurry back to Athens in panic, and we see no more of them until we too are taken back inside the city walls.

Act 4    Scene 2

Here they are naturally very depressed, grieving over the loss of Bottom. They are quite sure that the duke would have rewarded Bottom’s acting talent by making him an official servant, with a pension of "sixpence a day during life". Shakespeare’s acting company had this kind of official status, with the patronage of the Lord Chamberlain at first and later (after 1603) of King James I.

The audience, however, knows what has happened to Bottom. His adventure with the fairy queen was strange but (like a dream) it is quickly fading from his memory. When Robin released Bottom (in Act 4, scene 1) and sent him back to his friends, Bottom tried desperately to explain to himself what had happened. He struggled to find words:

Methought I was — there is no man can tell what. Methought I was — and methought I had — but man is but a patched fool if he will offer to say what methought I had.

When he rushes back to his fellow-actors he has almost completely forgotten the episode. He promises "to discourse wonders", but for the moment it is more important to hurry the other actors along to the palace, to present their play.

Act 5    Scene 1

In the programme which is offered to Theseus the play of "Pyramus and Thisbe" is described as "A tedious brief scene" which offers "very tragical mirth". Naturally, Theseus finds this description intriguing, but his pompous master-of-ceremonies, Philostrate, sneers at the play and despises the actors, "Which never labour’d in their minds till now". He tries to persuade Theseus not to choose this play — but Theseus is a generous ruler. He understands that the play is being offered by the workmen in "simpleness and duty"; and he also understands that it is his duty to accept the gift graciously. As he explains his attitude to Hippolita he resembles Queen Elizabeth I, who is often praised by the sixteenth-century chroniclers for her graciousness in accepting the well-meant tributes of her subjects (which unkind observers — like Demetrius — might find comic).

When Quince reads the Prologue we become aware of what a very great occasion this is for him and the other "rude mechanicals". At first he stumbles badly over the punctuation — but when he is joined by the other actors he seems to get a little more confidence. In productions of this kind it was quite normal to have an account of the play read out (as Quince now reads) before the action starts — but Shakespeare obviously thought that this was old-fashioned and unnecessary, and he makes good comic use out of the convention.

When Snout, Snug, and Starveling speak, explaining their parts in the play (as Wall, Lion and Moonshine) we remember the problems that were raised at the forest rehearsal. This is how they have been coped with. How much imagination should one bring — either as an actor or as a member of the audience — to a dramatic performance ? Snout explains far too much: perhaps he could have been accepted as "Wall" when he first entered, but by the time he has finished speaking he is unmistakably Snout the tinker. The same is true of Snug and Starveling — and indeed the latter becomes so impatient with the audience’s fault-finding that he speaks to them in his own workman’s prose:

All I have to say is to tell you that the lantern is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.

Bottom as Pyramus makes his assignation with Thisbe (mispronouncing a few classical names as he does so). His great moment, however, is the discovery of Thisbe’s torn mantle: he stabs himself and dies. The dying is a very long process, allowing him time to lament his cruel fate, to praise Thisbe’s beauty, to curse the lion, and to announce the fact of his own death:

Now am I dead,

Now am I fled;

My soul is in the sky.

He orders the moon to depart — and Starveling is obedient:

Tongue lose thy light !

Moon, take thy flight !

Now die, die, die, die, die.

At last he is silent; and there is time for Thisbe’s speech in praise of her dead lover. For Flute (as for Bottom) the rhymes are more important than the sense of the words:

These lily lips,

This cherry nose,

These yellow cowslip cheeks,

Are gone, are gone:

Lovers make moan !

His eyes were green as leeks.

Thisbe too dies with considerable style — and, as Theseus observes, "Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead".

The play has served its function for the Athenian wedding-party: it "hath well beguil’d The heavy gait of night", and the courtiers can retire to bed.

 The Fairies’ story

Act 2    Scene 1

The conflict between Oberon and Titania can easily be expressed in human terms, but the effects of the conflict are supernatural and it can only be resolved by magic.

The basis of the quarrel is the refusal of a Moteer (in fact, a foster-Moteer) to allow her child to grow up. Titania has adopted the Indian boy whose Moteer served her, but now Oberon feels that it is time for the child to become one of his attendants — "Knight of his train, to trace the forest wild". The fairy king and queen have been quarrelling for a long time over this very human matter.

Quarrels between supernatural beings, however, have serious consequences. The seasons of the year have got mixed up — harvests are ruined by rain, and roses bloom in winter. The climate is wet and cold, so that "rheumatic diseases do abound". Human beings are suffering, and Titania is sorry for them. Oberon too feels some sympathy — but he will not give way to Titania’s wishes.

He calls upon the magical powers of the herb "love-in-idleness", and in one of the most beautiful passages in the play he describes exactly how the herb acquired its power: the myth is Shakespeare’s own creation. Cupid, the god of love, shot one of his arrows at "a fair vestal throned by the west"; but the woman’s chastity and devotion to her duty were so strong that Cupid’s arrow had no effect. It fell harmlessly to earth, whilst the woman (who of course was Elizabeth I) proceeded through life "In maiden meditation, fancy-free". Oberon, however, was able to see where Cupid’s arrow had fallen — upon "a little western flower" that was once white but then became "purple with love’s wound". It is this that he uses with such devastating effect upon the eyes of Demetrius and Lysander, as well as those of Titania.

 Act 3    Scene 1

The herb has the power to "make or man or woman madly dote Upon the next live creature that it sees". By sheer good luck (or good dramatic management) Robin is able to place Bottom, with the ass-head on his shoulders, immediately before the waking Titania. Titania duly falls in love with Bottom who, despite the ass-head, remains essentially the Athenian workman — the character established for him in Act 1, scene 2. He is fully in control of the situation in which he finds himself; he expresses no surprise at the fairy attendants, and he is smugly satisfied at his ability to command them. Even Titania’s love does not surprise him. She prettily declares her passion for him, using very poetic language:

I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again !

Mine ear is much enamour’d of thy note;

So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;

And thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move me

On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.

Bottom accepts her love. And he speaks to Titania just as he would address a woman of his own rank — in plain straightforward prose:

Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that.

And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays.

Of course, when Titania’s eyes have been released from the spell, she is horrified to see what she has done. She repents of her quarrel with Oberon, and gladly gives him the Indian boy.

 Act 5    Scene 1

Oberon and Titania are happy and united, prepared for their final appearance in the play — to pronounce the benediction on the human weddings. Perhaps the first performance ended with this fairy blessing:

With this field-dew consecrate,

Every fairy take his gait,

And each several chamber bless,

Through this palace, with sweet peace;

And the owner of it blest,

Ever shall in safety rest.

 Synopsis

Act 1 Athens    Scene 1

Theseus and Hippolyta are longing for their wedding-day. Egeus demands that his daughter, Hermia, should be forced to marry Demetrius. Hermia decides to escape from Athens with her lover, Lysander. They confide in Helena; and she goes to tell Demetrius of their plans.

Scene 2

Peter Quince chooses the cast for his play.

Act 2 The Forest     Scene 1

Oberon and Titania are quarrelling. Oberon sends Robin to find the love-juice. Demetrius has come into the forest in pursuit of Hermia, and Helena has followed him. She pleads for his love. Oberon takes pity on her, and orders Robin to put some of the love-juice on the Athenian lover’s eyes. He himself goes to use it on Titania.

Scene 2

Whilst Titania is sleeping, Oberon anoints her eyes with the magic juice. Hermia and Lysander lie down to sleep, and Robin mistakenly squeezes the love-juice on to the wrong Athenian’s eyes. When Helena enters, Lysander awakes and falls in love with her. He follows Helena, leaving Hermia to wake up alone.

Act 3 The Forest    Scene 1

The actors meet to rehearse their play. Robin fits the "ass-head" over Bottom’s head. Titania wakes, and falls in love with Bottom.

Scene 2

Robin reports his trick to Oberon, but they both learn how he has mistaken the lovers when Demetrius comes with Hermia, still pleading for his love. She leaves him, and he falls asleep. Oberon tries to remedy Robin’s mistake by squeezing the love-juice on to Demetrius’s eyes. Robin is sent to fetch Helena. Demetrius wakes, and declares his love to Helena — who now thinks that both the men are making fun of her. Hermia returns. The two girls begin to quarrel, and the men are ready to fight each other. But Oberon sends Robin to separate them. They all get lost in a dark mist; and each one lies down to sleep. Robin removes the charm from Lysander’s eyes.

Act 4 The Forest     Scene 1

Titania plays with Bottom and her fairies until she falls asleep. Oberon watches her for a time; then he feels sorry for Titania and takes the charm off her eyes. She wakes up, and looks on Bottom with horror. Theseus, out hunting, discovers the four sleeping lovers. When they awake, they follow him back to the court. Finally Bottom wakes up, and goes home to find his friends.

Scene 2

Back in Athens, Bottom rejoins the other actors.

Act 5 Athens    Scene 1

Theseus chooses the evening’s entertainment. Peter Quince’s company perform their play. The lovers all go to bed, and the fairies come to give a blessing to the marriages.

Robin speaks of "shadows", and at first it seems that he is referring to the other fairies. But in fact he is speaking on behalf of all the actors who have taken part in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare often (in his other plays) calls actors "shadows", and in Act 5 of this play we can almost hear Shakespeare speaking through Theseus when the duke, referring to the amateur actors of "Pyramus and Thisbe", says

The best in this kind are but shadows, and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them.

Shakespeare felt that actors have no substance or identity in themselves. They exist in order to lend their bodies and their talents to the personalities of the play. Whilst the play is being performed, only the characters — Theseus, Titania, Bottom, Hermia and the rest — are important.

The spectators have agreed — by coming to watch the performance — to share in the dramatist’s imagination; and to bring along their own imaginations to supply anything that is lacking in the production. So when Oberon says "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania", the audience must be prepared to believe that the moon is shining — even though the performance takes place in broad daylight. This is something that the workmen cannot comprehend:

Quince But there is two hard things: that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber; for, you know, Pyramus and Thisbe meet by moonlight.

Snout Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?

Bottom A calendar, a calendar ! Look in the almanac; find out moonshine, find out moonshine.

Theseus says that imagination will improve — "amend" — the mechanicals’ performance, and Hippolita points out that "It must be your imagination then, and not theirs".

At the beginning of Act 5 Theseus explains how the poet’s imagination works; this is surely Shakespeare’s account of his own "shaping fantasies". The poet is "of imagination all compact", and his imagination "bodies forth The forms of things unknown". Perfect examples of this are the tiny fairies, Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote and Mustardseed, who were totally unknown until Shakespeare wrote this play. His pen has "Turn[ed] them to shapes" and given "to airy nothing A local habitation and a name".

Theseus tells us that the poet is first of all an observer, and that his eyes survey the whole of his universe — "from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven". This gives him his material: most of the time he does not invent from nothing. In this play we can see how Shakespeare has read classical mythology, and French narrative fiction; how he is well-informed about folk-lore; and how he has watched the workmen of his own town and time. Reading and observation gave him the raw materials, and then some power — imagination (aided by the craftsmanship of the experienced dramatist) — worked a kind of miracle on these "ingredients". And they became A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Shakespeare’s Verse

Shakespeare’s plays are mainly written in "blank verse", the form preferred by most dramatists in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. It is a very flexible medium, which is capable — like the human speaking voice — of a wide range of tones. Basically the lines, which are unrhymed, are ten syllables long. The syllables have alternating stresses, just like normal English speech; and they divide into five "feet". The technical name for this is "iambic pentameter".

Theseus To yóu, your fáther shóuld be ás a gód;

One thát compós’d your béauties, yéa, and óne

To whóm you áre but ás a fórm in wáx

By hím imprínted, ánd withín his pówer

To leáve the fígure, ór disfígure ít.

Demétrius ís a wórthy géntlemán.

Hermia So ís Lysánder.

Theseus Ín himsélf he ís;

But ín this kínd, wantíng your fáther’s voíce,

The óther múst be héld the wórthier.

1,2,47–55

Here the pentameter accommodates a variety of speech tones — Theseus speaks with authority when he lectures Hermia on the proper obedience of a daughter; she passionately defends her love; and Theseus replies with calm reasonableness. In this quotation the lines are all regular in length, and mostly normal in iambic stress pattern. Sometimes Shakespeare deviates from the norm, writing lines that are longer or shorter than ten syllables, and varying the stress patterns for unusual emphasis — here, Hermia’s retort could be stressed "Só is", thus reversing the iambic foot (it is now "trochaic"). A metrical line may be divided between two — or even more — speakers, when they react quickly to each other, as Theseus is quick to respond to Hermia’s objection. The verse line sometimes contains the grammatical unit of meaning — "To you, your father should be as a god" — thereby allowing for a pause at the end of the line, before a new idea is started; at other times, the sense runs on from one line to the next — "within his power To leave the figure, or disfigure it". This makes for the natural fluidity of speech, avoiding monotony but still maintaining the iambic rhythm.

The Background

FRANCIS MERES mentions A Midsummer Night’s Dream in his Palladis Tamia, of 1598, and it was first printed in 1600. It has often been thought that Shakespeare wrote the play for an aristocratic wedding, but there is no evidence to support this speculation, and the 1600 title-page states that it had been ‘sundry times publicly acted’ by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. In stylistic variation it resembles Love’s Labour’s Lost: both plays employ a wide variety of verse measures and rhyme schemes, along with prose that is sometimes (as in Bottom’s account of his dream, 4.1.202-15) rhetorically patterned. Probably it was written in 1594 or 1595, either just before or just after Romeo and Juliet.

Shakespeare built his own plot from diverse elements of literature, drama, legend, and folklore, supplemented by his imagination and observation. There are four main strands. One, which forms the basis of the action, shows the preparations for the marriage of Theseus, Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, and (in the last act) its celebration. This is indebted to Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale, as is the play’s second strand, the love story of Lysander and Hermia (who elope to escape her father’s opposition) and of Demetrius. In Chaucer, two young men fall in love with the same girl and quarrel over her; Shakespeare adds the comic complication of another girl (Helena) jilted by, but still loving, one of the young men. A third strand shows the efforts of a group of Athenian workmen — the ‘mechanicals’ — led by Bottom the Weaver to prepare a play, Pyramus and Thisbe (based mainly on Arthur Golding’s translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses) for performance at the Duke’s wedding. The mechanicals themselves belong rather to Elizabethan England than to ancient Greece. Bottom’s partial transformation into an ass has many literary precedents. Fourthly, Shakespeare depicts a quarrel between Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of the Fairies. Oberon’s attendant, Robin Goodfellow, a puck (or pixie), interferes mischievously in the workmen’s rehearsals and the affairs of the lovers. The fairy part of the play owes something to both folklore and literature; Robin Goodfellow was a well-known figure about whom Shakespeare could have read in Reginald Scot’s Discovery of Witchcraft (1586).