A Midsummer Night’s Dream - “The course of true love never did run smooth…”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream - “The course of true love never did run smooth…”

I like the idea that perhaps straight after writing ‘Romeo and Juliet’, probably his most popular tragedy, Shakespeare quickly whipped up over the course of a week, the magnificent magical comedy ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. It gives a symmetry to his work. Besides, Elizabethan playwright’s often wrote a comedy after writing a tragedy mostly to give variety to their audiences and maybe some playwright’s did this as a homage to the Ancient Greek playwrights and festivals where playwrights had to write both tragedy and comedy.

The first mention of the play is seems to be around 1597 but the combination of topical and weather references and the fact that the play centres around a wedding mean that it was probably written in 1594 or 1595. Nevertheless, while dates are debatable, the magnificent richness of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is not.  It has it all - three interlocking plots, explorations of love, characters speaking in rich verse, comic characters pitched in prose, the appearance of fairies, manipulations and plot meanderings galore, a play within a play, weddings, transformations of all descriptions and some magnificent speeches and witty one liners.

The question often asked when looking at Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', is why would he write this play at this point in his career. After the success of 'Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare probably wanted to produce a play quickly and Comedy and History were his forte at this point in his career. Besides, the attempted poisoning of Queen Elizabeth I earlier in 1594 and the lack success of by the English forces sent to Ireland meant that writing another History play straight away might prove problematic, so comedy it was. Besides, masques and plays with music seemed to be all the fashion in 1594.  Francis Davison's 'The Maske of proteus and the Adamantine Rock' had proved popular with Queen Elizabeth I. The court seemed to look favourably on light fantastical plays and plays that alluded to Ancient Greece and Rome. Elizabeth also seemed to spend a lot of time during the summer of 1594 in the country (probably a distraction to the attempted murder and the troubles in Ireland and the worries of who would succeed her on England's throne as Elizabeth grew increasingly old). So pastoral idealism seemed to also be back in fashion. So Shakespeare decided he would have a play that had it all. 

Shakespeare went back to read Spenser's 'Epithalamion' as a source for the play. He probably had a deadline, since the play was either performed at the wedding of Elizabeth Carey (Lady Berkeley) and done in a garden setting or performed at court for Elizabeth I in midsummer of 1595. It would later have most of its early public performances at The Theatre. 

‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ opens on a festive note at the palace of Theseus, Duke of Athens, four days before his wedding to Hippolyta. He is anxious for the wedding but she preaches patience. Theseus orders some “merriments” to be developed for the occasion and Philostrate leaves and this leads to the Mechanicals rehearsing and developing their play for the wedding. But storm clouds are on the horizon and the journey to unity of love for many of the characters will not be smooth. Enter Egeus.

Egeus demands to see Duke Theseus with a complaint against his own daughter. It seems that his daughter Hermia, whom Egeus has promised to Demetrius, loves Lysander. To complicate matters more, we find out later in the scene that Helena, Hermia’s BFF, loves Demetrius but has been jilted by him as he pursued Hermia. Demanding that the strict laws of Athens be enacted if Hermia does not follow her father’s desires, Egeus asks Theseus to make a judgment. Theseus gives Hermia until his wedding to make one of three choices:

“Either to die the death or to abjure

For ever the society of men…

Or else to wed Demetrius…”

Left alone together, Hermia and Lysander discuss how, “The course of true love never did run smooth…” Eventually, Lysander comes up with a plan for them to run away from Athens and “sharp Athenian law”, cross through the wood to the house of a wealthy aunt of his so that they can get married. They tell Hermia’s BFF, Helena, of the plan and then they leave to prepare for their elopement. Left alone, Helena muses on the nature of love:

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,

And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind…”

Helena decides on her own convoluted plan to get Demetrius back by telling him of Hermia and Lysander’s elopement, then letting him follow them into the woods and then she plans to follow him and somehow she will find a way in the woods to win back Demetrius’ love.

Shakespeare then cleverly shifts to the action to our second plot and second group of characters. In a different part of Athens, a different class of people with a different purpose, take the stage. At Peter Quince’s house, a group of tradesmen, in the true tradition of the trade guilds who put on play during medieval times, are starting rehearsals. This scene is a dramatic contrast to the previous one. These characters speak in prose and their efforts to cast their play are clumsy and humorous. Even their choice of play is ridiculous. The Babylonian myth of ‘The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe’, taken from Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ is complex, melodramatic and tragic and thoroughly unsuited for performance at a wedding. Nevertheless, they bumble through preparations.

Peter Quince, the carpenter, takes command of the rehearsals and designates the parts. Quince casts himself as Thisbe’s Father. Nick Bottom, the weaver, gets to play Pyramus (even though he thinks and demonstrates that he could play any or all of the parts in the play and has an extensive beard collection to boot to help him with multi-casting). Francis Flute, the bellows-maker, is chosen to play the young female Thisbe, but he is a little upset by being cast as a woman again because he “has a beard coming”. Robin Starveling, the tailor, will play Thisbe’s Mother (and later he also gets to shine in the part of Moonshine). Tom Snout, the tinker, Pyramus’ Father, but he will also play The Wall. While Snug, the joiner, gets to play The Lion, despite his reservations that this part might scare the ladies too much. Quince gets this motley crew to meet for their next rehearsal:

“… meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the town,

by moonlight; there will we rehearse,

for if we meet in the city, we shall be dogged with company,

and our devices known.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act 2 – “Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew’d thee once…”

Act 2 launches us into the forest and straight into the world of folklore and fairies. A land of the sub-conscious, woven in poetic motifs and imagery. We meet a Fairy and Puck, the servants of Titania, Queen of this world, and Oberon its king. We find out early that Titania and Oberon are at loggerheads with one another over Titania’s refusal to give Oberon a little Indian prince for his attendant. When Oberon and Titania enter they confront one another over their motives for coming so near to Athens accusing one another of loving Hippolyta and Titania respectively. Oberon demands the Indian boy of Titania but she refuses and she leaves in a flourish, Oberon hatches a plan to take revenge on her.

Puck is sent to find a white and purple flower that Oberon saw once hit by Cupid’s arrow. Oberon knows that the flower has the power if rubbed on the eyelids of a sleeping person, to make them fall in love with the first thing they see when they awaken. He reveals that he intends to put to:

“…watch Titania when she is asleep,

And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.”

The human world then enters the realm of the fairy one. Oberon makes himself invisible with the magic of one utterance (oh that we all could do that). Helena and Demetrius enter arguing. Demetrius does not want the doting Helena following him, and tells her he cannot love her. She passively takes his abuse and says she will take even more:

“Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me…”

Demetrius insults her further and even claims he feels sick when he looks on her. As they exit, Oberon appears again and decides that he will intervene in this business and turn the tables so that before Demetrius:

“…do leave this grove,   

Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love…”

When Puck returns, Oberon’s plan is revealed. Oberon tells the audience that he knows where Titania usually sleeps and he will put the juice of the flower on her eyelids. The second part of his plan involves Puck finding the Athenian youth and the woman and to put a drop or two of the potion on his eyes so that when he wakes he will fall in love with the woman. Oberon does not know at this point that there are two Athenian men and women in the forest at this time.

We then switch to Titania as she prepares to sleep by a stream. Oberon enters and drops the potion on her eyelids with the words:

“What thou seest when thou dost wake,

Do it for thy true-love take,

Love and languish for his sake:

Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,

Pard, or boar with bristled hair,

In thy eye that shall appear

When thou wakest, it is thy dear:

Wake when some vile thing is near.”

Now the story starts to get a bit complicated and convoluted as does the effects of Oberon’s interventions. Dramatic tension now turns to comic farce as the world of humans is thrown into turmoil by the interventions of the fairy world and chaos starts to reign. But I am getting a little ahead of myself.

Lysander and Hermia enter. They are lost and must sleep in the forest for the night. When Lysander says that he wants to sleep beside Hermia, her modesty, as well as the conventions of the time, prevail, and Lysander is forced to sleep a respectable distance away from Hermia. Having looked throughout the forest for the Athenian couple (Demetrius and Helena) Oberon wants him to entrance with the love potion, Puck comes across Lysander and Hermia. He does not know they are the wrong couple and assuming that it is hate that makes them sleep at a distance not modesty, Puck puts the potion on Lysander’s eyes and leaves.

If only Puck had waited one extra minute, we might not have a plot to the play. Helena and Demetrius enter and their arguments are still continuing. Demetrius storms out. Helena left alone spies the sleeping Lysander and wakes him up. Oberon’s potion works albeit on the wrong male. Lysander sees Helena and falls instantly in love.

“Not Hermia but Helena I love:

Who will not change a raven for a dove?

The will of man is by his reason sway'd;

And reason says you are the worthier maid.”

Believing that Lysander is mocking her, Helena also storms out and Lysander pursues her leaving Hermia to awaken all alone. 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act 3 – “Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

The forest seems like a very important motif for Shakespeare over a number of plays. It acts as an escape from court life and the rules of society. It seems to act as place where humans can be removed from the edifice of social and family responsibilities and embrace their instincts. It is also a dreamlike place, where in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ where Athenian friends and lovers, fairies, and craftsmen rehearsing a play can have their worlds turned upside down for better or for worse.

The Mechanicals enter at the appointed time at the appointed place to attempt to rehearse their play. Bottom takes dramaturgical control and suggests that they insert a Prologue and other audiences addresses to explain that in their production, the lion is not really a lion, the sword really a sword, that the play takes place at night even though it is performed at in the daytime, that the man standing straight on stage is symbolizing a wall and that another man standing with a bush branch and a lantern is in fact symbolizing the moon.

Puck enters and causes mischief and mayhem. Bottom’s head is into that of an ass (a donkey) by Puck. The other Mechanicals run away when they see Bottom with the head of an ass. Bottom thinking he is alone sings and it is this singing that wakes Titania.

With the love potion on her eyelids, Titania wakes and instantly falls in love with Bottom even though he has the head of an ass. Such is the deluded self-assuredness of Bottom, that he instantly accepts Titania’s embraces and admiration and the service of her Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseed who will wait on him hand and foot. Bottom does not realize that he has the head of an ass and when Titania entices him to follow her to her forest bower, Bottom leaves with them.

Oberon is pleased when he hears of what has happened to Bottom but when Hermia enters with Demetrius, Oberon realizes that Puck has mistakenly anointed the wrong Athenian male. Hermia’s constant questions about where Lysander is, annoys Demetrius. When Hermia leaves, Demetrius acknowledges that nothing is to be gained in following Hermia so he lies down and falls asleep. 

Oberon charges Puck with setting this right and when Puck almost instantly returns with Helena just behind, it seems as if these meddlings might be untangled. Helena still believes that Lysander is mocking her with his declarations of love. Demetrius is awoken by their arguments and both Demetrius and Lysander declare their love for Helena. Helena thinks her mockery has reached epic proportions when Hermia re-enters. Now Hermia is upset that both the men who vied for her affection now reject her for Helena. Hermia and Helena now exchange insults and Hermia threatens to scratch out Helena’s eyes and Helena then gets her male admirers to protect her. Demetrius and Lysander then storm off to duel with one another over Helena’s love. Helena runs away and a bewildered Hermia exits too.

Now fairy intervention seems to be all that can save humans from themselves. The imbalance of love will be made right again with the potion that put it out of balance. Oberon demands that Puck solves all these human affairs by morning (conveniently forgetting that it was his initial intervention that started this whole business). Puck through the magic of throwing his voice and imitating both Lysander and Demetrius brings them back to the grove to sleep. Helena miraculously re-appears in the same place as does the weary and woeful Hermia. Puck applies the potion and spell like words hoping that:

“The man shall have his mare again and all shall be well.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act 4 – “I have had a dream, past the wit of man…”

Shakespeare had become a very polished and succinct writer by the time he wrote ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Act 4 of the play moves at a cracking pace with a number of plot lines resolving themselves in about 15 minutes of stage time or 300 lines.  The act starts with Titania, Bottom and the Fairies enterIng. Bottom is pampered and he asks Cobweb to find him honey before he falls asleep in Titania’s arms. Titania dismisses her fairies and she also falls asleep.

Soon Oberon arrives with Puck and tells the story of how he convinced Titania in her lovestruck state to give up the Indian child he wanted. Oberon decides to undo the love charm on Titania and he wakes her up. Titania is bewildered to see the ass-headed Bottom in her arms and leaves with Oberon. Puck then removes the head from Bottom but Bottom remains sleeping.

The court of Athens comes to the forest whilst on a hunt. Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus and other Athenians enter and discover Hermia, Helena, Lysander and Demetrius sleeping. They are woken up by hunting horns, hardly a subtle wake up alarm. It is D-Day for Hermia. The Athenian youths can’t remember what has happened but it is obvious that Hermia loves Lysander and Helena loves Demetrius. Theseus acknowledges this, overrides any of Egeus’ complaints and turns his own wedding into a triple treat of Korean wedding proportions:

“Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:

Of this discourse we more will hear anon.

Egeus, I will overbear your will…

These couples shall eternally be knit…

Away with us to Athens; three and three,

We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.”

As the expanded wedding parties depart, Bottom awakes and relates his “rare vision”:

“I have had a most rare vision.

I have had a dream, past the wit of man to

say what dream it was: man is but an ass, if he go

about to expound this dream. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of his dream: it shall be called Bottom's Dream,

because it hath no bottom…”

Bottom goes off to find Peter Quince and his fellow would-be players.

The Mechanicals meet at Peter Quince’s house feeling that the worst has befallen Bottom at the hands of the ass-headed creature. It looks like the play will be called off. Then Snug enters to tell them that a triple wedding has taken place and that all the newlyweds are keen to see their play. Just when all seems lost, Bottom arrives and all seem very pleased to see him. All want to hear Bottom’s remarkable story but Bottom claims there is no time and that they must get their “apparel together”, string their beards, put new ribbons on their pumps and “meet presently at the palace” as they prepare for their premiere and final performance. 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act 5 – “The lunatic, the lover and the poet; Are of imagination all compact…”

In Shakespeare’s time, love stories were categorized as Comedies and inevitably ended in a wedding (or multiple weddings), some comic interludes and often a dance. For an Elizabethan audience, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ doesn’t disappoint.

In the final act we return to Theseus’ palace where the triple wedding has taken place and he has three hours to burn until his wedding night. He expresses his opinion that the young Athenian lovers probably imagined all that they said had happened in the forest:

“The lunatic, the lover and the poet

Are of imagination all compact…”

The ever-thoughtful and intelligent Hippolyta (now his bride but with all the attributes which would make her an excellent cop on CSI or any other cop program) points out that if they dreamed all these events, that it is strange that all their stories have the same details told in the same way with “great constancy”.

Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia and Helena enter and Theseus plays the good host  calling for his “usual manager of mirth” Philostrate to tell them what entertainments are on offer. After rejecting a couple of contenders, Theseus settles on the play of the Pyramus and Thisbe story performed by “… hard headed men that work in Athens…” even though Philostrate (who you would never chose as a theatrical agent) implores Theseus not to see it. no matter how poor the performance.

The Athenian audience take their seats and Peter Quince presents a very apologetic and hesitant Prologue. The audience derision starts slowly indicating that this performance will prove a humorous springboard. The characters of Moonshine and The Wall enter giving their speeches to more mockery and puns from Theseus and Demetrius. The action of the play continues. Bottom enters as Pyramus overacting with numerous ominous ‘O’s’ and oxymorons and horrendous hyperboles. Pyramus and Thisbe talk through the chink in the Wall as represented by Snout’s fingers. The story is as clumsy as the acting and the verse shown in statements like those made by Bottom as Pyramus who declaims:

“I see a voice: now will I to the chink…

I can hear my Thisbe’s face.”

The sight of Bottom as Pyramus and the young Flute as Thisbe, speaking through Snout’s body as the Wall and looking through his fingers representing a chink in the wall is so bizarre and humorous that even Hippolyta starts join the audience’s running commentary. Snug’s Lion roars and utters his speech to assure the ladies that he is not a real lion:

“Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am

A lion-fell, nor else no lion’s dam…”

Chaos then reigns as Pyramus finds a bloodied mantle and thinks Thisbe is dead and commits suicide (in Bottom’s melodramatic performance he takes a considerable amount of stage time to die) and then Thisbe also commits suicide upon finding the dead Pyramus. Is this the end? The audience sure hopes so but Bottom asks if they would like an epilogue or a bergamask dance. Theseus takes command:

“No epilogue… your play needs no excuse…”

Theseus decides that a dance is in order and after that calls all the lovers to bed and declares that a fortnight of “nightly revels and new jollity” will take place. 

Although the Athenians see no Epilogue, we are given one by Puck. But this is quickly prefaced by Oberon and Titania briefing their fairies before they all go throughout the house to bless the couples and their various bridal beds. Oberon and Titania and their train of fairies exit and Puck directly addresses the audience and questions the divisions between dreams and reality. Puck offers us a commentary, apology and an out-clause to the strange dream-like events encountered:

“If we shadows have offended,

Think but this, and all is mended

That you have but slumbered here,

While these visions did appear.”