Chapter 32

THE THREEFOLD MASK

If the central action of the play be considered as virtually concluded with the fourth Act, what office is performed by the fifth Act?

Notice that in it the three groups of characters constituting the play--the court group with the lovers; the 'rude mechanicals' and their 'tedious brief scene,' and the fairy train--are in this Act all brought upon the stage, the whole spectacle being set in the palace at Athens, in celebration of the wedding festivities of the ducal pair, which, as before noticed, is used as a sort of decorative frame for the play as a whole.

Examine the working-out of this unified presentation of all the personages. How are we to account for the silence of the women who were made to do so much towards the institution of the action? Show the poetic reasons for the entrance of Puck and the fairies last of all, and when the stage is empty.

POINTS. 1. Explanation of all mythical allusions. 2. Account of theories as to meaning of 'The thrice three muses,' etc., V. i. 59. 3. What is a 'Bergomask dance'? 4. The date and occasion of the play: This play appears in Meres's list of 1598 and in the Quartos of 1600. Titania's description of the unseasonable weather (II. i. 92, foll.) may refer to the year 1594. Note that Chaucer in the 'Knight's Tale' speaks of the tempest at Hippolyta's home-coming. Many critics have believed that the play was written on the occasion of some marriage in high life, but they do not agree as to whose it was.

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Upon what does the interest of the last Act centre? How does the ending suit the various threads of the Play?

Is Theseus or Hippolyta the wiser critic of 'the story of the night'; and which of them is the wiser critic of the play of Pyramus and Thisbe?

SOURCES OF THE PLAY

1. WHERE SHAKESPEARE FOUND SUGGESTIONS FOR HIS MORTALS

In Plutarch's 'Life of Theseus' will be found passages which furnished Shakespeare with some points for his drama. Chaucer's 'Knight's Tale' is also said to have given him material. The editor of the "First Folio Edition" suggests in the introduction that a reading by Shakespeare of a poem in his day supposed to be Chaucer's, 'The Flower and the Leaf,' gave him an important hint for his plot. Examine for yourself, and state what indebtedness you find in any of these sources. In I. i. 20, Theseus says to Hippolyta, 'I woo'd thee with my sword.' Compare this with the account given in Chaucer. According to another version of the story Hercules gave Hippolyta to his kinsman Theseus in marriage. Compare 'The Two Noble Kinsmen' and the 'Knight's Tale' with Shakespeare's 'Dreame.'

2. WHERE SHAKESPEARE FOUND SUGGESTIONS FOR HIS FAIRIES

The models in literature from which Shakespeare drew may have been 'Huon of Bordeaux,' where he got little, however, but the name Oberon. The name Titania may have been derived from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses.' The Fairy Queen in Shakespeare's day usually went by the name of Queen Mab. Puck's characteristics seem to have been derived from the little tract of 'Robin Goodfellow, His Mad Pranks and Merry Jests.' Rolfe, in the notes to his edition of the play, says that White argues that this was probably written after "A Midsommer Nights Dreame." Ward thinks that the entire machinery of Oberon and his court may have been derived from Greene's 'Scottish History of James IV,' and that Titania may have been suggested by Chaucer's 'Wife of Bath's Tale.' He probably owed his fairies in great measure to tradition or folk-lore. The folk-lore of England was originally made up of Teutonic elements, which have been modified by Danish and Norman invasions, by remnants of old Keltic belief, and by the introduction of Christianity, which last degraded the good fairies into mischievous elves. (See Hazlitt, 'Fairy Mythology of Shakespeare,' Halliwell's 'Illustrations of the Fairy Mythology of Midsummer Night's Dream,' also _Poet-Lore_, April, 1891, 'Fairy-lore in Midsummer Night's Dream.')

3. SOLAR ORIGIN OF THE FAIRIES

According to some authorities the Teutonic mythology was of cosmic origin. In the fairies may be seen many reflections of cosmic characteristics. Oberon and Titania are fairies of the night, and the old battle between light and darkness shows itself in the mad pranks which they play on unsuspecting mortals. But as the daylight comes they are obliged to flee. Puck reflects the characteristics of a wind god. (See Cox, 'Myths of the Aryan Nations;' also Korner, 'Solar Myths in Midsummer Night's Dream,' _Poet-Lore_, Jan., 1891). Compare his character with that of Hermes in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (Shelley's Translation).

SYMPOSIUM OF OPINION ON THE CHARACTERS

1. THE LOVERS

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

1. Hermia and Helena are hardly worth considering, but if anything Helena is to be preferred to Hermia because she is so humble, and shows no sign of jealousy of Hermia. 2. If Hermia had been more dignified when she found that both the lovers had turned their attention to Helena, she would better have carried out the promise of her character in the first Act when she declared she would rather die than wed the man chosen by her father.

2. HIPPOLYTA AND THESEUS

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

1. The only indication we have of the character of Hippolyta is in the last act, where she is so bored by the play of 'Pyramus and Thisbe.' Does this show stupidity on her part or exceptional development? 2. Do you agree with Dowden that there is no figure in the early drama of Shakespeare so magnificent as Theseus? His insistence in Act I. that Hermia should obey her father against her own inclinations is certainly not very praiseworthy, but might be excused on the score of the times in which he lived. 3. His complaisance toward Quince and his companions has been considered an indication that he was a most perfect gentleman; does he not rather conceitedly patronize them?

3. THE FAIRIES

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

1. Have the Fairies any idea of morality? 2. Oberon was perfectly justified in wishing to get the changeling from his wife, and shows himself worthy of becoming a mortal for insisting on his rights as a husband. 3. Titania is the most developed woman character in the play, because she insists on her individual right to the changeling. 4. Is Puck a more developed fairy than Ariel in 'The Tempest'?

4. THE PLAYERS

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

1. Is Shakespeare making fun of the stupidity of Quince and his companions, or is he gently satirizing the stage and the exaggerated style of writing for the stage which prevailed at this time? 2. If the last is true, is not Shakespeare in the last act making fun of the audience, as well as of the players, who with a superior air pass judgment upon the play and indulge in very lame wit, while the real meaning of it quite escapes them.

SYMPOSIUM OF OPINION ON FAVORITE PASSAGES

Every member of the class or club should bring in a short paper giving his favorite passage in the play and why he likes it, including his criticism of the metre, of the metaphors and similes, and the thought contained.

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

1. Which characters in the play are original with Shakespeare? 2. What is to be thought of Shakespeare for bringing together in one play Greek mythology, English folk-lore, and English workmen of his own age? Does this commixture of elements make the Play seem unnatural or incongruous? Has he skilfully harmonised these diverse elements by giving the Play its dream-like character? 3. That this play is charming cannot be disputed. Is its chief charm its humor, its fancy, its dramatic construction, or subtle developments of character?

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

Sufficiently indirect use of contemporary political events in a Play was a cause of popularity without seeming dangerous to the State.

As "Love's Labour's Lost" is an early example of a plot woven out of masked allusions to current topics, so even as definitely plotted a comedy as "The Merchant of Venice" here and there worked in an animating shred of contemporary reference.

After Dr. Roderigo Lopez, the Queen's physician, was accused by Don Antonio of Portugal, and executed June 7, 1594, on the charge of being bribed by the King of Spain to poison Queen Elizabeth, the story of a Shylock's defeat and the rescue from his clutches of an Anthonio had just enough relevance to be popular without definiteness enough to be obtrusive.