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ASF 2016 Study Materials & Activities for

A Midsummer Night's by

Director Set Design Costume Design Lighting Design Diana Van Fossen James Wolk Brenda Van der Wiel Travis MaCale

Contact ASF at: www.asf.net Study materials written by 1.800.841-4273 Susan Willis, ASF Dramaturg [email protected] ASF/ 1

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare Welcome to A Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare's comedies are among the glories of drama, and none is more Characters glorious than A Midsummer Night's at court: Dream, a hearty confection of myth and , Duke of Athens magic, court and country, aristocrat and Hippolyta, queen of the artisan. It dazzles with the delights of its Amazons kingdom, its confused lovers, and its , a lord at court earnest amateur acting troupe—and any , his daugher play that puts donkey ears on a blowhard Titania Lysander, beloved of Hermia is sure to please. It moves toward a spate asleep Demetrius, the man Egeus of weddings and the funniest rendition in her wants Hermia to marry of a tragedy known to theatre. Along the bower, Helena, in love with Demetrius way, Shakespeare weaves four plots into and, like the , a lord a joyous comic pattern that divides and reunites, dreams and awakens, enchants lovers, and enlightens. about to in the town: awaken , a carpenter to new , a weaver who The Story "love" plays Pyramus Trouble at Court , a bellows Having defeated Hippolyta in battle, the others. Bottom's singing then awakens mender who plays Thisbe Theseus now plans to wed this Queen of the the flower-charmed Titania, and she falls , a tinker who plays Amazons. Egeus interrupts, complaining in love with the ass. Wall and Moon that his daughter Hermia will not marry Invisible hears Demetrius Snug, a joiner who plays Lion Demetrius, the man Egeus has chosen. scorn Helena and sends to charm Hermia protests that she loves Lysander, Demetrius's eyes, but instead Puck finds in the forest: but Duke Theseus must enforce Athenian Lysander and Hermia, so he anoints law and decrees that Hermia must choose Oberon, king of the Lysander's eyes—and when that youth is to wed Demetrius, go to a nunnery, or die. Titania, queen of the fairies awakened by Helena, he instantly falls in Lysander convinces Hermia to elope Puck (Robin Goodfellow) love with her. Oberon, miffed by the error, First Fairy, who serves Titania with him to his aunt's house beyond anoints Demetrius's eyes himself, so both Athenian law. They tell their plans only to young men now love Helena and scorn Hermia's best friend, Helena, yet she tells Hermia, who attacks her friend for stealing Setting: Athens and a nearby Demetrius, who left her for Hermia, so she her beloved. can follow him to pursue Hermia. wood Awaking to Happiness Time: A fanciful, gypsy-filled Meanwhile, some Athenian working Once Oberon gets the time in the past men are planning to rehearse Pyramus and boy, he releases Titania from the charm Thisbe secretly in the forest the next night. and they reconcile. He also releases the Trouble in the Wood charm on Lysander's eyes, so the young In the forest, the king and queen of the couples end up happily paired when they are The cover image and other fairies continue their quarrel about custody discovered the next morning by Theseus illustrations in the study materials of a changeling boy. When Titania scorns and Hippolyta. Theseus overrules Egeus are by the skilled Victorian Oberon, he swears revenge and decides and allows Hermia to marry Lysander. illustrator Arthur Rackham. to charm her into loving a wild animal, so is chosen to he sends Puck for a magic flower. entertain the newlyweds, and it proves to When the rustics begin their forest be an unintentionally hilarious version of the rehearsal, Puck finds them and in jest puts tragedy, ending with a bergomask dance. a donkey's head on Bottom, the leading Afterward, the newlywed couples say good man, a transformation that scares away night, and the fairies bless them. ASF/ 2

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare Shakespeare and Comedy For Shakespeare, romantic comedy often opens with a serious and divisive event—a shipwreck, a forbidding injunction, or, as here, a threat. Out of this severe challenge, he then weaves his comedy, for young lovers must be tested, parents must block children's desires, and authorities must for a time be unhelpful if true love is to prove itself and the knots untangled so the resolution can be welcome and joyous—and Becoming an Ass preferably full of weddings. "Lord, what fools The ass is a long-eared, these mortals be" might well describe the sure-footed, domesticated action in any of Shakespeare's comedies, relative of the horse. In the but it is especially apt in Midsummer. ancient world, it was primarily A Midsummer Night's Dream has a a beast of burden, and one remarkably tight comic construction typical was reliable enough for Mary of Shakespeare's ability to juggle multiple to ride to Bethlehem. sets of characters—here, four sets: the Even in Shakespeare's court, the lovers, the fairies, and the time, the term ass was also working men or mechanicals. Yet he tells used to mean a fool or the story in only nine scenes written mostly blockhead. Puck makes a in verse. Exactly how typical is this play of Arthur Rackham's newly transformed Bottom judgment about Bottom—that Shakespeare's comic work? Let's look: and a mystified Peter Quince he's a fool, an "ass"—and then The Comedy of Errors 11 scenes 1778 lines 87% verse/13% prose as a joke gives him a literal The Two Gentlemen of Verona 20 scenes 2294 lines 82% verse/18% prose ass's head. The Taming of the Shrew 13 scenes 2649 lines 81% verse/19% prose A Midsummer Night's Dream 9 scenes 2174 lines 80% verse/20% prose Shakespeare was quite Love's Labour's Lost 9 scenes 2789 lines 61% verse/39% prose inventive with his ass jokes The Merchant of Venice 20 scenes 2660 lines 75% verse/25% prose and repeated the term without Much Ado about Nothing 16 scenes 2862 lines 25% verse/75% prose the donkey head in Much Ado The Merry Wives of Windsor 23 scenes 3018 lines 10% verse/90% prose about Nothing, where the As You Like It 22 scenes 2857 lines 41% verse/59% prose constable Dogberry is told he's Twelfth Night 18 scenes 2690 lines 35% verse/65% prose an ass (accurately), and in his Midsummer is a shorter comedy, told them more in prose—a medium at outrage he repeatedly insists mostly in verse, and with comparatively few which he was equally adept. that everyone remember scenes. Shakespeare accomplishes all the Until the last scene of Midsummer, only "that I am an ass" so he can comic confusion and conflict inMidsummer the working men speak prose, but once prosecute the miscreant. because he gets all four sets of characters their play of Pyramus and Thisbe begins, a into the forest where they can intersect reversal occurs—the courtiers speak prose each other's scenes. And the percentage of in their comments about the play while the verse is not surprising, for the play comes players, the working men, speak verse from what scholars call Shakespeare's in enacting it. Only after the bergomask lyrical period, about 1594 to 1596, when he that officially ends that presentation had just finished his sonnets and narrative does Theseus return to verse. Thus, the poems and was writing this play as well as presence of the play-within-a-play enacts and and Richard II, a play its own kind of transformation on everyone The line counts listed are entirely in verse. based on The Complete Works of concerned, giving them time in each other's Shakespeare, ed. David Bevington, As he continued to work with comedy, verbal world, transmuting the workers for a 3rd edition we can see that Shakespeare began to moment into the expressive mode of literary write more heavily plotted story lines and heroes and romantic lovers. ASF/ 3

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

Making Magic: Midsummer + Night + Dream Midsummer Night In many agrarian cultures, times of Much of A Midsummer Night's Dream planting, ripening, and harvest were marked does, in fact, occur at night. Arguably the by folk celebrations when the annual cycle first scene is at night, since they discuss of fertility was acknowledged with holiday the current phase of the moon. Certainly indulgence. The "rites of May" that Theseus the entire action in the forest is during the in 4.1 ironically suggests the sleeping lovers night and early dawn, and the wedding feast have been keeping were one such time, and after-dinner entertainment are again associated with planting; midsummer or the at night, waiting for bedtime. Likewise, the summer solstice was another. Midsummer working men can only rehearse their play is the apogee, the limit of the year's bloom at night, on their own time. Darkness and and burgeoning, after which the focus being in nature rather than the city both play turns to ripening and harvest. Festivals into the power of the forest scenes, for the associated with fertility often involved not supernaturals are at home in the night and only eating and drinking but a celebration the forest, but the young lovers and amateur of human fertility as well. actors miss their urban context. Night also takes on a psychological power in the play; darkness reveals hidden urges, strange apprehensions, and Magic fills the fairy changes, not to mention how often a bush kingdom, but it can is supposed a bear. Nothing is clear to the wreak havoc for mortals, mortals at night, for they are tired and in a revealing its nightmarish aspects, as when Puck strange place in the dark. torments Lysander when Dream the youths decide to fight If night is psychologically destabilizing, (Rackham) dreams are even more psychologically revealing. The disorientation, absurdity, exquisite pleasure, terror, and confusion of Arthur Rackham state well defines the mortals' (1867-1939) was experience through the middle of the action. a famous English Bottom the weaver finds himself in the arms book illustrator. His of the —he has never had a distinctive work was dream like this before! Bottom, the most often seen in books fortunate mortal in the play, enters the fairy of fantasy or legend, kingdom and is embraced by it. such as this play or The Wind in the Willows, For the lovers, however, the nighttime The Niebelungen, forest experience is a nightmare in which Alice's Adventures love becomes a torment of denial, mockery, in Wonderland, A or betrayal. Titania's experience is likewise Christmas Carol, part dream and part nightmare (especially Grimm's Fairy Tales, if donkey braying is not her favorite sound). Peter Pan in Kensington Love may be a dream, but dreams are Gardens, and many quickly-changing psychic flickers, and the others. truths they tell us may not always be what we expect. ASF/ 4

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare Themes and Issues in A Midsummer Night's Dream/ 1 The conflicts of the play are shaped early and echoed from urban setting to Charting the Plot Lines forest groves. The fairy turmoil reveals Midsummer is the ideal how important peace and harmony are, play for a plot chart—four why the marriage rather than the war columns: Athenian royalty, between Theseus and Hippolyta is to be fairy royalty, young lovers, and desired. The fairies also raise issues of mechanicals [with Pyramus childrearing, a topic on which Egeus and and Thisbe]. the law of Athens have strong views. The Parallels and cognate natural and the supernatural mirror issues shifts will quickly become throughout the play. apparent, as will the round- Confrontation of Oberon and Titania (Rackham) robin of relationships among WARFARE the young lovers—Helena Theseus vs. Hippolyta echoed in forest is odd-one-out, then a few by Oberon vs. Titania squeezes of flower juice later and Hermia is the odd-one- Court—warfare just completed Forest—"warfare" ongoing • open quarrel between king and queen out, perhaps for the first time • war between state of Athens and of fairies over changeling boy in her life. Amazons just resolved • individual combat between leaders • side effects of individual conflict: Charting the plot changes in which Theseus defeated Hippolyta seasons disrupted, storms and floods, also lets students see how • goal: union via marriage (ceremony, crops rot well Shakespeare juggles feast); hunting together • goal: mutual harmony (dance, the action with an eye to entertainment) blessing of mortals' ceremony) maximizing crisis, and as it • means: may be linked to how Theseus • means/forces involved: magic (force nears the breaking point, he resolves Hermia's plight fields, magic flowers, spells) and deftly solves the problems and trickery involving misdirected love restores love and peace. RUNAWAY LOVERS Hermia/Lysander vs. Egeus/Demetrius echoed by Pyramus and Thisbe

Lovers at Court Lovers in the Forest • paternalistic values: father can • individual values: lovers choose for choose husband for daughter, themselves forbid her love • forces involved: although the lovers • forces involved: legal threat little suspect it, Oberon's magic and (law backs father's choice at Puck's errant delivery determine their peril of daughter's life); affections Theseus adds nunnery option • immediate goal: love will triumph— • goal: Hermia marries Hermia escapes with Lysander; Demetrius Helena spends time with Demetrius • means: taking case before • long-term goal: couples happily wedded Duke • means: elopement; Helena telling Demetrius of these plans; Oberon's magic flower and Theseus's decision Pyramus and Thisbe • paternalistic values forbid their love • lovers sneak out to meet The lovers awaking to • they act on fears: Thisbe flees lion; renewed love (Rackham) Pyramus fears she is dead, kills self; she finds him dead and kills herself ASF/ 5

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare Themes and Issues/ 2—Enchantment: Eyes and Love In this play, the male forces define not love with Demetrius and, since she only the “conquests” (that is, the men win) is thought as fair as Hermia, tries but also the nature of the love portrayed. to reason how love “looks”—with Men's love through the ages has been the eyes or with the mind—and why visually stimulated (consider everything Demetrius seems so “blind” to her from the physical obsession with female beauty. beauty and youth to the existence of strip •Oberon and Titania accuse each other clubs or Playboy magazine). of infidelity with a variety of mortals. •Shakespeare usually provides •Oberon cannot persuade Titania to give a central image for the nature of him the changeling boy by request or love, and in this play it is visual, command, so he decides to have his centered on the eyes and magic. will by a different kind of force—he •Hippolyta initially sees Theseus will distract her with a new love by more as an enemy than as a means of a magic flower which, when lover/husband; the war has not administered to the eyes, causes a yet become peace, the enemies person to love the next thing s/he have not become spouses. sees. Thus Titania awakes to love a •Egeus sees Demetrius as transformed Bottom. the worthier mate for Hermia; •Puck is told to use the magic juice on Hermia sees Lysander as the Demetrius, but gives it to Lysander worthier mate—they “see things” by mistake; Oberon then anoints differently. Demetrius’s eyes, so both men who •Demetrius is sick in love with loved Hermia now love Helena. Hermia; jilted Helena is sick in Enchantment, Eyes, & Love in the Text •The first scene quickly Because this sight seems errant, she inundates us with eye imagery. decides that “Love looks not with Egeus tells Theseus that the eyes, but with the mind, / And Lysander “hath bewitch’d the therefore is wing’d Cupid painted Titania doting on Bottom: "I will bosom of my child,” using gifts and blind.” Then she decides to tell wind thee in my arms" songs and cunning to “filch” her heart Demetrius of her friend’s plan in order and obedience (1.1.26-38) to “have his sight thither and back Hermia responds, “I would my father again” (1.1.226-51). look’d but with my eyes,” but the Duke The lovers’ dialogue abounds with eyes. instructs, “Rather your eyes must with The minute Demetrius, charmed his judgment look” (1.1.56-57). with the flower juice, awakes to see Likewise, Lysander accuses Demetrius Helena, he focuses on her eyes: “O of using the same devices on Helena, Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, so she now “dotes, / Devoutly dotes, divine! / To what, my love, shall I dotes in idolatry” on Demetrius compare thine eyne?” (3.2.137-8, old (1.1.106-10). plural form, like “oxen”). Helena considers Hermia’s eyes to be •The flower hit by Cupid’s shaft, love-in- “lodestars,” but Hermia consoles idleness (the pansy), has the ability her that Demetrius will not see her to enchant, for “The juice of it on anymore since she and Lysander sleeping eyelids laid / Will make or are going to “turn away our eyes” man or woman madly dote/ Upon from Athens. Helena mourns that the next live creature that it sees” Demetrius dotes on Hermia’s eyes (2.1.155-72). Oberon’s invisibility is and that she also dotes on his. yet another effect on eyes. ASF/ 7

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

Themes and Issues/ 3: Transformation The magic flower’s juice instantly •Like Titania, Lysander and Demetrius changes its victim’s emotional attachments, change not physically but emotionally. obsessing that person with what is next They instantly express themselves as seen. For the young lovers, the juice alpha-males—they want to fight for the plays with the fickleness of love. Yet the girl. In their own way, they too have joined central focus of transformation is Bottom the animal kingdom. the weaver. •The young women also change, but •Bottom physically changes not by means of any magic potion. As when given an ass’s head, but the young men’s affections change, does not seem to change much the women act in ways we have not emotionally. He is surprised by previously seen—Helena betrays her Titania’s love, but still Bottom. childhood friend and gets in a few catty •Titania loves Bottom comments, and Hermia turns into a obsessively, perhaps as she shrew when she thinks Helena has did the changeling boy. When stolen her boyfriend. When love returns, Oberon lifts the spell, the so does inner peace. experience seems like a dream, and she loathes the sight of ass-headed Bottom.

Transformation in the Text • Repeatedly, the point is made that • Puck describes himself as a great shape- someone has changed. In terms of the shifter, a practical joker or “knavish sprite” lovers, Egeus says Hermia is “bewitch’d,” who pretends to be a stool or a roasted and Helena is distraught crabapple only to cause upset. He does that Demetrius now not change his own shape during the loves Hermia instead of play but clearly displays his powers her. Once the charmed when he gives Bottom a donkey head flower works on the as a joke. The nature of the change is men, Helena keeps echoed in everyone else’s response to asking them why they seeing the altered Bottom: “O Bottom, have changed their thou art chang’d,” “Bless thee, Bottom, love to her, and Hermia bless thee! Thou art translated” (3.1.109- likewise asks Lysander 114). Bottom’s replies echo the pun of his why he has changed. change, from figurative ass to literal ass: They assume that love “What do you see? You see an ass-head is true and lasting, and of your own, do you?…This is to make to find it altered shatters an ass of me.…” Yet this lucky ass gets their trust—a hard lesson that everyone the charmed love of Titania. in love may learn at some time. • When are each Love transforms everyone in the play, released from the flower’s charm, they as it usually does in romantic comedy. speak of the effect as a “vision,” linking Here, however, transformation takes on the themes of eyes and transformation. a literal aspect, for with the presence Titania says, “My Oberon! What visions of magic and enchantment, people and have I seen! / Methought I was enamor’d spirits can physically transform. of an ass” (4.1.75-6), then is shown the truth of her vision. Bottom, however, awakens alone to savor that “I have had a most rare vision” (4.1.203). Night's Dream

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A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare Themes and Issues/ 4: Reality and Imagination Shakespeare always tries to engage everyone’s safe survival and that there and challenge his audience’s imagination. is no wild beast loose in their midst. The In the opening of Henry V, the Chorus comedy lies in the fact that they believe admits that the acting company cannot we would need such assurance, that we do justice to the Battle of Agincourt, so would share their absolute faith in their own the audience must do the work: “On your skills. Then they worry about the need for imaginary forces work. Suppose.…” And moonshine and a wall. Although the moon that supposing is the essence of the will shine the night of their play, they decide dramatic art, the willing suspension of to have someone “to disfigure, or to present, disbelief by which the audience enters the the person of Moonshine” (2.1.56-57). action and for a time exists in its “reality.” Likewise, someone must play the role of In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Wall, with all the necessary accoutrements Shakespeare also asks questions about of plaster and roughcast. what can and cannot be shown on stage, Wall and Moonshine provide much A lession in roaring—in art but these questions come from the earnest laughter for the onstage as well as the and life—to bring a "lion" before endeavors of the amateur actors. For them, offstage audience of Pyramus and Thisbe. ladies (Rackham) there is very little difference between art and Yet the action of that play takes us beyond life; it is all real. So when Snug is given the levity to the actual magic of theatre, for role of the Lion and Bottom wants to play Pyramus and Thisbe grieve each other’s it, too, Quince advises him that, even in an death, and if played earnestly, we can go in a age before special effects, moment from laughing at the amateur antics “An' if you should do it too of these clowns to a heartfelt sympathy terribly, you would fright the for the loss of the characters they portray. Duchess and the ladies, Shakespeare knows exactly what he is that they would shriek…” doing here, letting us in on the joke and (1.2.68-70). then turning it serious. It is the same faith The issue of theatrical in the power of theatre that lets him sport realism becomes more with boys playing girls that are sometimes intense once the men meet disguised as boys, calling our attention to to rehearse, for they have the convention and then charming us into questions about how to forgetting it. Such magic happens here as achieve certain technical young Flute becomes young Thisbe, and effects and how to let the however bad the costume and wig, we may audience know the action actually mourn along with “her.” is not “real,” that is, that Showing us the magic does not dispel it, no one actually dies. They and in this play Shakespeare himself allows decide they will use a our imaginary forces to work overtime. He prologue as disclaimer to includes fairies in the cast—real fairies? assure the audience of Well, as real as anyone else. All actors are enchanted into the portrayal of their roles, and we get to imagine various realms of existence and to celebrate both Oberon’s magic and Shakespeare’s dramatic magic in the course of the action.

Bottom and the Fairy Queen (Rackham) ASF/ 9

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare Three Styles of Verse in Midsummer IAMBIC PENTAMETER Examples Blank Verse and Couplets The play opens in blank verse: There is less blank verse in this play Theseus: than in other Shakespeare plays because Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour much of it is written in heroic couplets. Many Draws on apace; four happy days bring in critics feel this verse style is a spillover from Another moon, but, oh, methinks, how slow This old moon wanes! she lingers my his narrative poems and sonnets written desires…. during the plague years of 1592-93 when the theatres were closed by law. As Helena enters, so do the heroic One of the first things an actor does couplets— in studying a verse text is notice when the Hermia: lines are in verse and when in prose—and God speed fair Helena! Whither away? what information might be gleaned from that Helena: choice. In this play, characters will switch Call you me fair? that fair again unsay. from blank verse to couplets, so the same Demetrius loves your fair. O happy fair! Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's question can be asked—why? sweet air.… BALLAD METER * * * * Parts of Pyramus and Thisbe sound Watch Pyramus switch from iambic very different from the usual iambic pentameter to ballad meter (printed pentameter scenes—and they should. in texts as shorter lines to emphasize In order to give the play an "old" aural the internal rhyme: texture, Shakespeare switches to a parody Sweet moon, I thank thee for thy sunny of medieval and early 16th-century plays beams. written in ballad meter. In fact, Renaissance I thank thee, moon, for shining now so bright! English plays only settled on iambic For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering pentamenter as their form fairly late in the gleams, I trust to taste of truest Thisbe's sight. 16th century. But stay—O spite! Ballad meter is also called "fourteeners" But mark—poor knight, 14 syllables because the medieval ballad was made up What dreadful dole is here? } of fourteen-syllable couplets. Over time, Eyes, do you see? the fourteen syllables seemed too long How can it be? 14 syllables for a line of English poetry, so the ballad O dainty duck! O dear! } couplet was broken down into what is now the ballad quatrain: 8, 6, 8, 6 rhyming The same, typed as "fourteener" ballad xaxa, thus preserving the vestige of the old lines: But stay—O spite! But mark—poor knight, what couplet form. dreadful dole is here? Listen to Bottom's rendition of Eyes, do you see? How can it be? O dainty duck! Pyramus's lines, find the rhyme, and O dear! "Hand in hand, with fairy grace, also note the heavy alliteration that was * * * * Will we sing and bless this a decorative element in medieval verse. The shorter "fairy speech" verse: place." Titania: FAIRY METER Come, my lord; and in our flight, Fairies do speak blank verse, but at Tell me how it came this night, times fairies also have their own distinctive, That I sleeping here was found, Recognizing Ballad Meter quicker seven-syllable trochaic verse With these mortals on the ground. Emily Dickinson, among form which Shakespeare uses for anyone others, often uses this stanza supernatural. At the end of the play Puck form. Look at her poems and rhymes in quatrains (abab) before doing find her ballad "roots." the Epilogue in couplets. ASF/ 10

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare The Origin and Evolution of Fairies Shakespeare roots his magical comedy in the legendary world of Athens with the folk belief in like of Theseus and Hippolyta, heroes both. nature spirits Their wedding plans bookend the action of the play, but in between Shakespeare taps v other traditions that stem from that world, gods and goddesses the tutelary spirits of wood and dale, fertility of the ancient world and harvest that descended from the folk memory of ancient gods and goddesses. v replacement/diminishment When new belief systems enter, the when new belief system appears old may be supplanted but not eradicated; instead they change and find another role v in the lives of believers. Diana may no return to folk belief, often longer be worshipped as goddess of the retaining idea of power or royalty moon, the hunt, and virginity, but she may figure in the fairy world as its queen, Titania (one of the names given Diana in ’s ), or as another forceful figure, Mab, both inventively celebrated in Shakespeare’s plays around 1595. Folk belief was also linked supernaturals to the natural world's four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Many spirits were seen in terms of their “elemental” nature, and the arguments of fairy royalty in the play affect both the seasons and the weather. Faerie shrink art Tolkien to Tinkerbell—Tolkien's are from the medieval "Honey, I Shrunk the Fairies!" tradition, taller than human. Folk belief in many countries involves Rackham's are Victorian and some sense of "the little people," be they tiny (see right), as is Barrie's fairies, elves, hobgoblins, or leprechauns. Tinkerbell. Below, Rackham's Yet the medieval view of , especially tiny fairy dancing on a spider the romance tradition of King Arthur web. tales, portrayed the fairies as tall, elegant creatures, beyond mortal size and power. J.R.R. Tolkien's elves bring this medieval and A Midsummer Night's Dream, the faerie world into modern fantasy. fairy world becomes playfully small and Even in the Renaissance, fairies were picturesque: gives a dazzling not considered fantastical but real creatures description of 's miniscule of very nearly human size. They appear as coach and its accoutrements, a fantasy an entire kingdom of sometimes dangerous creation of hazelnut shells, spider legs, beings who might steal a human child or and grasshopper wings. Titania's fairies disfigure it, not to mention pinching anyone sport and serve amid the flowers, delivering whose behavior they disliked. They dance in dew drops, and their very names, a circle, sing, ride, and are always beautiful Mustardseed and Moth, suggest tininess. nocturnal creatures of great power. The fairy kingdom never recovered from Many historians of folklore point Shakespeare's playful alteration of its size to Shakespeare as the source of fairy and nature into benign toys, a shift that diminution. In both became a permanent fashion after 1625. ASF/ 11

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare Robin Goodfellow: A Spirit of Another Sort In creating his world of supernaturals famous for his resounding laugh, "ho, ho, and woodland sprites, Shakespeare ho!" any time he pulled off a good joke. combined the traditional fairy realm with In a court , Ben Jonson described the folk tradition of England. No figure Robin as "the honest, plain country spirit, represented that spirit of English folklore and harmless; Robin Goodfellow, he that better than Robin Goodfellow. sweeps the hearth and the house clean, Robin emerges from the Middle Ages as riddles for the country maids, and does a wandering spirit who can take up residence all their other drudgery" (Love Restored). in farms or rural villages. The first written "Goodfellow" is not a family name or mention of Robin (1489) is as a prankster. species, but instead a propitiary title: by He was not part of the fairy kingdom, not calling him a "good fellow," one hoped he devil nor pouk (puck) nor hobgoblin, as would prove so. He was a large, lumbering Shakespeare seems to suggest. Instead, figure, very hairy, sometimes mistaken for a he was "the national practical joker," one bear, and he loved a bowl of cream and white who loved jests and pranks and who was bread. Outdoors he was more mischievous Arthur Rackham's Puck than indoors. He enjoyed farmhouses and village servants, especially hardworking ones, but never entered castles or dealt with aristocrats. He could transform his shape, as he joyfully describes to First Fairy in Midsummer, and when he wore clothes they were rustic togs. He was rarely found without his broom, for he often swept and did other chores very noisily. A matchmaker by instinct, he would meddle in any cause of true love. By nature Robin Goodfellow was a loner, and it was Shakespeare who nicknamed him "Puck," who put him in the fairy band as Oberon's jester, and who cost him his rural respect. No longer did Robin cavort at will; he had to obey. And if he wasn't obeying Oberon, he was sometimes portrayed in later plays as taking orders from a devil (as in Jonson's The Devil is an Ass). A rendition of the It is a sobering lesson: fame has its price, English folk spirit and being put in a play by Shakespeare can Robin Goodfellow cost a jolly sprite his independence.

Robin/Puck and Fairies • Critics have observed that there is a difference between "Puck" (a "pouk" or trickster spirit) and "Robin" (the helper). Is this true in the play as you experienced it? Where do we see each aspect of the character? Where is each name used? • Shakespeare's fairies mix classical, medieval, folk, Celtic and English traditions. Research their provenance. ASF/ 12

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare Traditions from the Play's Production History The tradition for A Midsummer Night's magic enlightenment, and added a huge Dream is rich and detailed; here are some umbrella for Titania's bower in honor of elements from the play's production history. the bad weather prompted by the fairy Doubling royalty's spat. During the 19th century, all the fairies, Costumes: pajamas and underwear Oberon included, were played by women, Because the title of the comedy focuses and they were in ballet costume with wings. on night, one frequently-explored modern But 20th-century productions faced a crucial costume element is pajamas. It is a way problem, not with the fairies so much as of emphasizing the dream quality and with Theseus and Hippolyta. One needed the vulnerability of the lovers and other strong actors in these high-profile roles, but characters. they only appear at the very beginning and Another costume choice that modern very end of the play. How can one justify directors often make is to have the lovers paying famous actors for such small roles? slowly disrobe during their night in the Some Productions Available on Often, therefore, these roles were doubled forest, as if running through briars (a threat Video with the roles of Oberon and Titania, so that Puck uses on the mechanicals) is part of •1935 black and white film the fairies' argument seems to reflect and the experience. They sometimes end up with Mickey Rooney as also to be a working out of the tensions Puck, James Cagney as in period underwear, in slips, longjohns, Bottom, balletic fairies. between the court's leaders. For instance, or whatever, as if they are stripped to their •1969 Royal Shakespeare this device can be seen in the 1996 English basic psyches, to their basic desires, and Company film directed by film of the Royal Shakespeare Company's for a moment to their basic clothing (though Peter Hall in '60s modern production, and it is a notable stage device. to nothing so skimpy as most contemporary dress (mini skirts and gogo Lights bathing suits). boots with only strategic That 1996 RSC film also exhibits Music and Sound leaves for the au naturel another frequently explored production fairies), starring Judi Dench Nineteenth-century composers aspect, playing with lights. It used hanging as Titania and Diana Rigg provided scores to accompany the and Helen Mirren as girls. yellow light bulbs as the forest, a kind of spectacular performances of Shakespeare's •1981 BBC made for plays. The most famous of these is Felix television version with Mendelssohn's beautiful incidental music Helen Mirren as Titania, for A Midsummer Night's Dream, which children as Renaissance has graced numberless productions fairies. Not paced quickly. since 1843. Not only does it provide violin •1 996 English televised fairies and a braying horn donkey, but version based on an RSC stage production, with its "Wedding March" now follows "You doubled roles (including may kiss the bride" at most weddings. mechanicals as some of During the Restoration and 18th the fairies), a forest of light century, however, the play was barely bulbs, and a frame story of Shakespeare, for the words were a child dreaming the action, supplanted by music—dozens of songs which was not part of the replaced Bottom and the mechanicals, original stage version. who did not reappear in England until •1999 film by Michael Hoffman with Kevin Kline 1840. Balletic fairies were the craze, a as Bottom the dreamer, tradition that lasted until 1970, when Michelle Pfeiffer as Titania, The Royal Shakespeare Company open Peter Brook's white-box-and-trapezes Calista Flockhart and Rupert staging for the forest in its Midsummer, production exploded the play into a new Everett. The fairies are the basis for the 1996 film—light bulbs and world of possibilities. saturnalian and the action is umbrella—though the film uses many more busy rather than funny. settings as it adapts the original concept. ASF/ 13

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare Considering Some Critical Views of the Play • C. L. Barber in Shakespeare's Festive Assessing These Ideas in the Play Comedies sees these plays as • What kind of "license" do Shakespeare Elizabethan celebrations, "license and his characters explore? Is there a within certain boundaries," and a spirit "carnival" spirit, a lack of inhibition? of carnival—a letting go of inhibitions, • Is there a Lord of Misrule? Anyone who masquerade, acting out desires. subverts authority or enjoys fun more The Lord of Misrule was a traditional than order? What is the effect on the figure leading the fun and subverting play? authority via the pleasure principle. • Does "release" lead to "clarification" in Barber sees the pattern as from release the play? Are social roles "restricting" to clarification, especially freedom early in the play? How, why? How from the restriction of ordinary social much "release" is there in the wood? Dicotemies to Consider: roles. They mock social conventions • What is the nature of the "green world" • everyday/holiday but by the end re-join them. in this play? Is its "greenness" just • town/wood • Both Barber and Northrup Frye in nature or is there more to it? • day/night Anatomy of Criticism discuss "the • Do the character act out a dream world • waking/dreaming green world" at the center of many of their desires in the wood? How • comedy/tragedy Shakespeare comedies. Frye links "dreamy" is that? (How does Pyramus and this green world to the dream world of • Is the play's ending "proper" and Thisbe compare to the our desires. "desirable"? How, why? play itself?)

Other Basic Critical Issues The Elizabethan Context of the Play • A common critical remark is that the lovers A long-standing theory about A are indistinguishable, Midsummer Night's Dream is that just types. Is that true Shakespeare may have written it with a from the text and the specific aristocratic wedding in mind, a production? wedding for which the Lord Chamberlain's Compare the challenges of Men provided entertainment. Every major every courting or married English wedding between 1590 and 1600 couple in the play, has been scrutinized and considered, and including those in the a few have large followings among critics, play-within-a-play but no single wedding has won total assent. • We may laugh at the The play does establish a wedding as its working class characters objective from the very beginning and ends and their earnest with more weddings than anticipated—plus concerns, but when they a play about defiant love ending tragically. are the focus center With onstage nobles watching a play on stage, how do the stage, having more nobles as an audience aristocrats behave? Are watching those noble characters is just the they respectful? a "good" kind of meta-theatrical effect Shakespeare audience? relishes. He loves to wink about theatre action even while involving us in it. Another edge to this theory is that Queen Elizabeth seems to have been in attendance, as several allusions to her and events honoring her are mentioned in the play. A roundel and a fairy song ASF/ 14 A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

Pre-Show Discussion Topics These topics do not assume a The World of Faerie knowledge of the play; they deal with issues How many students read fantasy or and situations that the play treats. After have seen fantasy films? What is fantasy's seeing the play, follow up by assessing the appeal and value? How does it work? What play's treatment of these topics. do different kinds of characters, such as Tolkien's hobbits, wizards, Numenorians, The Genre of Comedy elves, and dwarves provide in terms of our Ask the students to consider comedies understanding ourselves? they know (from film, television, or class) Now—do we believe in fairies? Tolkien in terms of these traits and then to watch calls the idea of enchantment or the world for these elements in Shakespeare's play: of fantasy the realm of Faerie. This is the • Comedy focuses on the group, world we enter along with the other mortals rather than on the tragic individual when we enter Shakespeare's wood • Begins by dividing group(s) outside Athens. What does the presence • Works toward maximum of supernatural creatures offer or portend dysfunction and then solves the for mortals? dilemmas (in farce, the climax is a chase scene) Post-Show Textual Topic • Ends by restoring or reuniting The Dream Theme group Much of the play considers the • In romantic comedy a blocking parent Rackham visualizing the relationship between reality and dream/ stormy effect of Oberon and interferes with young love, and lovers imagination. How does Puck's epilogue use Titania's relationship on and servants must scheme to triumph. the dream/reality relationship to discuss the nature The traditional endings are weddings, experience of the play? dances, and/or feasts. Epilogue: If we shadows have offended, The Classical Definition of Comedy Think but this and all is mended, • Where Aristotle says tragedy depends That you have but slumbered here on the raising and purgation of While these visions did appear. pity and fear, comedy works with And this weak and idle theme sympathy and ridicule No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend; • Aristotle says that in comedy the If you pardon, we will mend. characters are "like us or worse" in And, as I am an honest Puck, Lord, what fools actions and morals If we have unearned luck, Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue, these mortals be! The Way Love Works We will make amends ere long: Discuss or sketch in writing: Else the Puck a liar call. (Are the immortals So, good night unto you all. any better?) • how love begins and what film or poem gets it right Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends. • how we assess love at first sight (the real thing? all chemical/physical?) • An epilogue encourages applause. •how important the aspect of sight/ What other elements does this appearance is in prompting love epilogue engage? • what happens when love changes • What might the use of both names— • how you deal with former boy- or Puck/trickster and Robin/helper— girlfriends suggest in the epilogue? • what happens when you're dumped by someone you love • how you "get back together"? A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare 2015-2016 SchoolFest Sponsors

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