Name Date Activity Page 9.2 Use with Chapter 9 the Language Of
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Name Date Activity Page 9.2 Use with Chapter 9 The Language of Shakespeare Directions: Read the sentences from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Rephrase each sentence in subject-verb-object order. 1. Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung with feigning voice verses of feigning love. 2. From Athens is her house removed seven leagues. 3. In that same place thou hast appointed me, tomorrow truly will I meet with thee. 4. In the wood, where often you and I upon faint primrose beds were wont to lie, emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet, there my Lysander and myself shall meet. 5. What thou see’st, when thou dost wake, do it for thy true love take. 6. Tell me how it came this night, that I sleeping here was found, with these mortals on the ground. 1 G5T-04_TheRenaissance_FOR_PDF_4.indd 1 11/30/16 9:29 AM Fiction Excerpt 1: From A Midsummer Night’s Dream (retold with excerpts from the play by William Shakespeare) Once upon a time, in the city of Athens, a young man named Lysander and a young woman named Hermia were deeply in love. The lovers wanted to get married, but Hermia’s father, Egeus, would not allow it. Egeus told Hermia it was her duty to marry the man he had chosen, whose name was Demetrius. Egeus dragged Hermia to a hearing in front of Theseus, the Duke of Athens. “My noble Lord,” said Egeus to Duke Theseus, “full of vexation come I, with complaint against my child, my daughter Hermia.” Egeus pointed to Demetrius and said, “This man hath my consent to marry my daughter.” Then he pointed at Lysander and said, “This man hath bewitch’d the bosom of my child. He hath given her love- tokens and come by moonlight to sing at her window, and stolen the impression of her fantasy. He hath filch’d my daughter’s heart and turn’d her obedience, which is due to me, to stubborn harshness. My gracious duke, if she will not obey me and consent to marry with Demetrius, I ask that she be put to death, according to the ancient law of Athens.” Duke Theseus told Hermia that she had only three options: she could marry Demetrius, she could become a nun for the rest of her life, or she could face death for disobeying the law. Theseus added that his own wedding day was fast approaching: “The next new moon is the sealing day betwixt my love and me. Upon that day I shall ask your answer.” Hermia was bitterly disappointed by the duke’s ruling, but her lover, Lysander, came up with a plan. He told Hermia he had an aunt who lived outside of the city, in a place where the duke’s ruling and the laws of Athens would have no force: “There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee, and to that place the sharp Athenian law cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then, steal forth thy father’s house tomorrow night, and in the woods outside the town, I will wait for thee.” That night Hermia spoke with her best friend, Helena. Now Helena was also in love, but her case was a hard one. She loved Demetrius, but Demetrius only had eyes for Hermia. “O Hermia,” Helena sobbed, “whatever shall I do? The more I love Demetrius, the more he hateth me! And the more you frown on him, the more he smiles on you!” Hermia pulled her friend close to her and let her in on the secret: “Take comfort, Helena, Demetrius no more shall see my face—Lysander and myself will fly this place, and in the woods the two of us shall meet, and thence from Athens turn away our eyes.” 2 G5T-04_TheRenaissance_FOR_PDF_4.indd 2 11/30/16 9:29 AM Helena was so in love with Demetrius that she ran to him and told him all about Lysander and Hermia’s plan. She knew that Demetrius would follow Hermia into the woods, but she hoped that by sharing this secret she could make Demetrius like her more, or at least dislike her a little less. And so, the next night, the four young Athenians ran off into the woods: Hermia and Lysander went for love of each other, Demetrius followed for love of Hermia, and Helena for love of Demetrius. Now it so happened that the young lovers were not the only people in the woods on this particular night. In another part of the forest, some Athenian tradesmen were preparing a play for the duke’s wedding night. It was a tragedy about doomed lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe. The director of the play was passing out parts. He chose the weaver Nick Bottom to play the male lead, Pyramus. Bottom was a perfect choice: he was a loudmouth who loved to get up on stage and wave his hands around and make long, melodramatic speeches. Next, the director appointed a young man, Francis Flute, to play Pyramus’s lady love, Thisbe. “Nay,” Flute called out in a squeaky voice, “let me not play a woman.” And, rubbing some peach fuzz on his chin, he added: “I have a beard coming!” But it was no use. All the actors were men, and someone had to play the lady. Then the director appointed Snug the joiner, a carpenter, to play the lion. Snug asked nervously, “Have you the lion’s part written? Pray you, if it be written, give it me, for I am slow of study.” “You may do it ex tempore,” replied the director, “for it is nothing but roaring.” Finally, the director assigned a man named Snout to play the wall through which the lovers would whisper during the play. The actors agreed to meet and rehearse in the woods outside the city. The forest was also home to a group of supernatural creatures called fairies. On this particular night it happened that the king and queen of the fairies, Oberon and Titania, were fighting, as married couples sometimes do. Oberon had decided to play a practical joke on Titania. He told a mischievous fairy named Puck to go and find a special flower, the juice of which would make people (and fairies) fall madly in love with the first living creature they saw, whether human or animal. Oberon explained his plot to Puck: “Having once this juice, I’ll watch Titania when she is asleep, and drop the liquor of it in her eyes. The next thing then she waking looks upon, be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull—on meddling monkey, or on busy ape—she shall pursue it with the soul of love!” 3 G5T-04_TheRenaissance_FOR_PDF_4.indd 3 11/30/16 9:29 AM Puck went off to find the magical flower. While he was gone, Oberon saw two Athenians running through the woods. In front was Demetrius, and behind him was Helena. Demetrius called back to Helena: “I love thee not, therefore pursue me not!” But Helena kept up the chase. Demetrius called out, “I am sick when I do look on thee!” But Helena struggled after him, calling out, “Oh, I am sick when I look not on you!” Seeing this, Oberon felt sorry for Helena, and suddenly an idea came to him: what if he used the magic love potion not only to play a joke on Titania but also to make Demetrius love Helena? When Puck returned, he and Oberon agreed on a two- part plan: Oberon would drop the potion in Titania’s eye while she was sleeping, and Puck would give the same potion to Demetrius. There was only one problem with this plan: Puck had never actually seen Demetrius. Puck went into the woods and found an Athenian man asleep on the ground. Thinking this must be Demetrius, Puck dropped the potion into the corner of the man’s eye and slipped away. In fact, the man Puck had found was Lysander. When Lysander woke up, it so happened that Helena had just run by, so the first person Lysander saw was not his beloved Hermia, but Helena. Because of the potion, Lysander immediately lost all interest in Hermia and began to pursue Helena. He called out to her, “Oh, I do repent the tedious minutes I with Hermia have spent. Not Hermia but Helena I love: who will not change a raven for a dove?” Helena was astonished by Lysander’s behavior and tried to run away from him. But Lysander chased after her, leaving poor Hermia asleep in the woods. Meanwhile the tradesmen were rehearsing their play about Pyramus and Thisbe. The mischievous Puck watched them and decided to play a practical joke on the loudmouthed Bottom. He used magic to change Bottom’s head into a donkey’s head. When the other tradesmen caught sight of Bottom transformed, with a donkey’s head on his shoulders, they were scared half to death and ran away, calling out, “Oh, Bottom, thou art translated!” Bottom was left alone in the forest, but not for long. He began to sing, and his song awakened the fairy queen, Titania. Titania was under the influence of the love potion Oberon had given her. When she woke up, she took one look at Bottom and, despite his ridiculous donkey’s head, fell madly in love with him. She called out, I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again: Mine ear is much enamour’d of thy note; So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape! 4 G5T-04_TheRenaissance_FOR_PDF_4.indd 4 11/30/16 9:30 AM Titania took Bottom back to her woodland lair, where she snuggled with him, praised him for his good looks, and fed him apricots, grapes and other delicacies.