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A Midsummer Night's Dream and the Meaning of Court Marriage Paul A University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications -- Department of English English, Department of 6-1957 A Midsummer Night's Dream and the Meaning of Court Marriage Paul A. Olson University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/englishfacpubs Olson, Paul A., "A Midsummer Night's Dream and the Meaning of Court Marriage" (1957). Faculty Publications -- Department of English. 141. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/englishfacpubs/141 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the English, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications -- Department of English by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM AND THE MEANING OF COURT MARRIAGE BY PAUL A. OLSON The opinionthat A MidsummerNight's Dream is largelya shimmeringfabric of " moonlight,with a touchof moonshine " ' has become stock among studentsof Shakespeare. One re- phraseshabitual insights concerning gossamer and magicwhen- everone treatsof thework. But thereis moreto theplay than a dream. The effortsof historicalscholars to place thiscomedy in thesetting of its dramatictradition, to see it as " sui generis, a ' symbolical'or masque-likeplay As2 suggestthat we ought to revise our romanticpreconceptions of its structureand theme. Elizabethanmasques usually affordedpleasures more seriousthan those of moonshine,and A MidsummerNight's Dream is not unlikethem in this respect. It was createdfor the solemn nuptials of a noble house, perhaps for those of the Earl of Derby or the Earl of Essex. For our purposes, the specificfamilies involved matter little. Rather it is important that the significanceof the play's symbolism and the raison d'etre of its pageantry can come clear throughan examination of the occasion of its presentation. Commensurate with its origins in a court marriage, this drama speaks throughoutfor a sophisticatedRenaissance phi- losophy of the nature of love in both its rational and irrational 1 MarchetteChute, An Introductionto Shakespeare(New York, 1951), p. 49. " 2 John Russell Brown, The Interpretationof Shakespeare'sComedies: 1900- 1953,"Shakespeare Survey, VIII (1955), 7; cf. E. K. Chambers,ed., A Midsummer Night's Dream (New York, 1907), p. 13, pp. 18-19; Enid Welsford,The Court Masque (Cambridge,1927), pp. 324-336;C. J. Sisson, ed., WilliamShakespeare: The CompleteWorks (London,1953), p. 207. ' E. K. Chambers,"The Occasionof 'A MidsummerNight's Dream,'" A Book of Homage to Shakespeare,ed. Israel Gollanez (Oxford,1916), pp. 154-160;Wels- ford,p. 324; Sir ArthurQuiller-Couch and J. Dover Wilson,ed., A Midsummer- Night'sDream (Cambridge,1924), p. xv; Paul N. Siegel," A MidsummerNight's Dream and the WeddingGuests," SQ, IV (1953), 139-144.These referencesmight be multiplied.My essay does not proposeto deal with the problemof topical allusionsin MND. Paul A. Olson 95 forms.Even Bottomthe foolobserves that " reasonand loue keepelittle company together, now a daies (MND, III, i. 147- 48) ." 4 His sententioussurmise- and it has been takenas the drama'stheme-is best understoodin termsof 16th century marriagedoctrines. When these and the symbolsused to conveythem are properlyunderstood, the disparitybetween Reason and Love will appear figuredin the distancefrom Athensto the woods;it is emblemizedin the play's shiftfrom lightto darkness.The formalcontrasts and similaritiesbetween the Duke and Queen of Athensand theirfairy counterparts depictlike distinctions.However, since such structuraleffects are organicallylinked to the philosophywhich informs them, thepurpose of thisessay must be twofold.It mustfirst make a cursorysurvey of Renaissancethought concerning the func- tionof festivaldrama and the significanceof wedlock.Then it mustindicate the methodsby whichsymbol and masque pattern,structure and theme,work together to makeluminous a traditionalunderstanding of marriage. Thereis reasonfor such an iconologicalapproach to A Mid- summerNight's Dream. The ceremonyfor which it was written probablytook place about 1595. Its audience would have included,from the intellectualsand pseudo-intellectualsof the court,men who knew the recentlypublished enigmatic works: The FaerieQueene (1590), The Countesseof Pembrokes Yuy- church(1592), Sidney'sArcadia (1590). Furthermore,the play'sstyle and conceptionrelate it to Lyly'scourt comedies of a decadeearlier and Ben Jonson'scourt masques of ten years later.5Both thesedemanded the sophisticationof mindsswift in catchingemblematic meanings, a point convincinglysus- tainedby the studiesof D. J. Gordonand B. F. Huppe in the ceremonialdramas of Jonsonand Lyly.6For boththe scholar 'Quotationsfrom Shakespeare are taken fromthe firstquartos of TNK and MND and fromthe firstfolio for the remainingplays. Line numbersfollow the Globe text. This essay is indebtedthroughout to the assistanceof Professors G. E. Bentleyand D. W. Robertson,Jr. 6 Welsford,p. 283; cf. Robert Adger Law, " The 'Pre-ConceivedPattern' of A MidsummerNight's Dream," Texas U. Studiesin English (1943), 8-14. * D. J. Gordon,"Poet and Architect:The IntellectualSetting of the Quarrel betweenBen Jonsonand InigoJones," JW&CI, XII (1949), 152-178;" The Imagery of Ben Jonson'sThe Masque of Blacknesseand The Masque of Beautie,"JW&CI, VI (1943), 122-141;" Hymenwi:Ben Jonson'sMasque of Union,"JW&CI, VIII (1945),107-145; Bernard F. Huppe," Allegoryof Love in Lyly'sCourt Comedies," 96 A Midsummer Night's Dream and playwright,the drama'spatrons give the dramalaws. The laws forLyly and Jonsonwere fixed by a courtconsistently interestedin that art which builds its meaningfrom the materialsof traditionalemblems and allegories.Such a group Shakespearealso addressedin A MidsummerNight's Dream. The guestsat the weddingmay have been remindedof the intellectualfunction of the new playwright'spoetry-if they needed such reminding-throughthe definitionsof Duke - Theseus' speech:7 The Poets eye,in a finefrenzy, rolling, doth glance Fromheauen to earth,from earth to heauen.And as Imaginationbodies forth the formesof things Vnknowne:the Poets penne turnes them to shapes, Andgiues to ayerynothing, a locall habitation, And a name. (MND, V, i, 12-17) Theseus' lines have been interpretedin their contextas a joculardegradation of the poet to the level of loverand mad- man. Poets do not oftensell theircraft so short,and Shake- speare is not, I think,doing so here. First of all, one must note that Theseus makes some implicitdistinctions between thepoet and his mad colleagues.It is onlylovers and madmen who are said to exhibitfantasies which descend beyond the comprehensionof reason (MND, V, 4-6). Implicitly,poets, howevermuch they are possessedby a furorpoesis, may deal in imaginingsapprehensible in more rational terms. The speech quoted above perhapsmakes clear how this happens. Its syntaxsuggests that what the poet sees, in glancingto heaven,is the" ayerynothing " or " forme" whichhis imagina- tionis thenempowered to bodyforth.8 In lookingback to earth, he bequeathsto thisForm a " locall habitation,and a name." In a similarvein, Neoplatonic criticism in the time spoke of ELH, XIV (1947), 92-113. Cf. Alice S. Venezky,Pageantry on the Shakespearean Stage (New York, 1951), pp. 134-145. 'J. Dover Wilsonsuggests that theselines were added to a 1592 versionof the play, but he regardsthe revisionsas insertedfor later private performancesat weddings;cf. Wilson,pp. 80-100. 'Pico similarlyregards the imaginationas the facultywhich embodies celestial realities;its purposeis to movethe uninitiatedto a contemplationof higherthings, and this functionsparticularly in Scripturalallegory: Remoto namque sacorum eliquiorumcortice, sequestratoque imaginationis velo, quod corticilitterae juxta proportionemquadrat, sicuti spiritus ipse sub Paul A. Olson 97 the artist'sduty to incarnatethe universal(or " form") in theconcrete visual emblem. Professor E. H. Gombrichrecently used muchthe same languageas Duke Theseusto summarize the rationaleof suchRenaissance visual symbols: Theyare the forms which the invisible entities can assume to make themselvesunderstood to thelimited human mind. In otherwords, theidea of Justice-beit conceivedas a memberof the celestial hierarchyor as an abstractentity-is inaccessible to thesenses. At bestwe can hope to graspit in a momentof ecstasy and intellectual intuition.But God has decreedin His mercythat these invisible and abstractentities whose divine radiance no humaneye could supportmay accommodate themselves to our understandingand assumevisible shape.9 ProfessorGombrich treats of the figureof justice;the theory could as well be used to explainthe " Cupid paintedblinde (MND, I, 1, 235)" placed in A MidsummerNight's Dream to embodyearthly as opposedto heavenlylove. In factthe entire play maybe seenas a skillfullycomposed fabric of iconological referentsgiving local habitationto the " invisibleand abstract entities" whichwould be likelyto claim the attentionof a marriageaudience. Thus, whilethe aestheticof the workim- plies a surrenderto modesof lookingat the worldwhich do not derive their sustenancefrom phenomenal fact, it also demandsa returnto thiskind of factfor their expression. Perhaps to strengthenTheseus' general criticalposition, Bottomremarks in a morecomic vein that his dream" hathno bottome(MND, IV, 1, 220)." Earlierthe same speechechoes confusedlySt. Paul's accountof the ineffablenature of the heavenlyvision (MND,
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