Below, you will find several activities to complete after reading the entire play. When completing these written activities, be sure to use your imaginations and include as many details as possible. Also, don't forget to always write in full sentences! Feel free to reference the script if you need any help with your responses. Enjoy!
1. Police Report1
Imagine that you are a police officer investigating reports of strange occurrences in the woods outside of Athens. You have interviewed all of the participants, and are going to write a report which summarizes the various comings and goings and activities of the people, NOT fairies, involved. Review your notes, then write your "police report." If you need any help creating your report, click here to see what information you should include. As a police officer, you are not interested in illusion, poetic details, or complex explanations. You must focus on reality. In your report, be sure to include who, what, when, where, and why.
2. Round Characters2
Some of the characters in a Midsummer Night's Dream are round characters. In other words, they undergo psychological growth as a result of their experiences. Other characters move the plot forward, but do not undergo any real, inner change. These are flat characters. Create a chart that categorizes the characters in the play as either round or flat and explain your choices by identifying at least two examples from the text that support your choice. Your chart should look like this:
CHARACTER NAME FLAT or ROUND EXAMPLES
3. Science Connection (EXTRA CREDIT)3
Imagine that you, like the Athenian Tradesmen, need to know when the next full moon will be. Check the newspaper, an almanac, or the internet for information on the phases of the moon. Create a calendar showing what the moon will look like for each night of the coming month. Be sure to make it neat and creative.
4. Write a Letter4
When Bottom is reunited with his friends, they press him for details about what happened, but because of Puck's magic and trickery, he is unable to tell them much about his night in the woods with Titania and the fairies. Imagine that Bottom suddenly is able to remember everything and can share his amazing experiences with his friends. Write a letter from Bottom to his friends telling them everything from being transformed into the head of a donkey, to meeting with the fairies, to falling in love with Titania, the fairy queen. Try to write the way that Bottom speaks, misuse long words for example.
5. The Mind of the Bride 5
Hippolyta is rather embarrassed at times by how the audience makes fun of the tradesmen/performers. At other times, she joins in the fun. Imagine yourself as Hippolyta. Write a brief explanation of why the show was so ridiculous and why you eventually came to enjoy yourself.
6. The Play at the Wedding 6
Identify ways in which Pyramus & Thisbe might not be appropriate for a wedding celebration. Are there any ways in which the play might be appropriate? In what ways is the play-within-a-play an ironic commentary on what the two pairs of young lovers (Demetrius & Helena, Lysander & Hermia) have gone through earlier?
7. Writing About the Play7
In a Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare analyzes the role of imagination in love and in art. He shows the dangers of an overactive imagination and the joy of seeing beyond the everyday world. On a separate piece of paper, write a brief essay about the benefits and drawbacks of an active human imagination. You have the option to draw examples and use quotations from the play.
8. Funny, funny, funny 8
Identify some lines or scenes in A Midsummer Night's Dream that seem funny. What characteristics or events seem to make people laugh the most? Create a list of funny lines or events and be prepared to explain what makes them funny.
9. Create Your Own Production
Choose a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream that you think would be good to perform for an audience here in school. Would you perform the scene as it is or would you update/modernize the language? Why or why not?
_________________________________________________________________________________
1 http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/pdf/midsummer_nights_dream.pdf pg. 23
2 ibid
3ibid
4 ibid pg. 27
5. ibid pg. 31
6. ibid. pg 31.
7. ibid pg. 32
Monday, December 9, 2013
Monday, November 25, 2013
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Act V
ACT V
SCENE I. Athens. The palace of THESEUS.
CHARACTERS
Theseus, Duke of Athens
Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons
Egeus, Hermia's Father
Peter Quince, a carpenter
Nick Bottom, a weaver
Francis Flute, a bellows mender
Tom Snout, a tinker
Robin Starveling, a tailor
Titania, Queen of the Fairies
Oberon, King of the Fairies
Puck, (Robin Goodfellow) Oberon's Lieutenant
Lysander, In love with Hermia
Hermia, In love with Lysander
Demetrius, In love with Helena
Helena, In love with Demetrius
Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, Lords and Attendants
'Tis strange my Theseus, that these
lovers speak of.
More strange than true: I never may believe
These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover and the poet
Are of imagination all compact:
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!
But all the story of the night told over,
And all their minds transfigured so together,
More witnesseth than fancy's images
And grows to something of great constancy;
But, howsoever, strange and admirable.
Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.
Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and HELENA
Joy, gentle friends! joy and fresh days of love
Accompany your hearts!
More than to us
Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed!
Come now; what masques, what dances shall we have,
To wear away this long age of three hours
Between our after-supper and bed-time?
Where is our usual manager of mirth?
What revels are in hand? Is there no play,
To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
Call Philostrate.
Here, mighty Theseus.
Say, what abridgement have you for this evening?
What masque? what music? How shall we beguile
The lazy time, if not with some delight?
There is a brief how many sports are ripe:
Make choice of which your highness will see first.
Giving a paper
[Reads] 'The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung
By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.'
We'll none of that: that have I told my love,
In glory of my kinsman Hercules.
Reads
'The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,
Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.'
That is an old device; and it was play'd
When I from Thebes came last a conqueror.
Reads
'The thrice three Muses mourning for the death
Of Learning, late deceased in beggary.'
That is some satire, keen and critical,
Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.
Reads
'A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.'
Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!
That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.
How shall we find the concord of this discord?
A play there is, my lord, some ten words long,
Which is as brief as I have known a play;
But by ten words, my lord, it is too long,
Which makes it tedious; for in all the play
There is not one word apt, one player fitted:
And tragical, my noble lord, it is;
For Pyramus therein doth kill himself.
Which, when I saw rehearsed, I must confess,
Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears
The passion of loud laughter never shed.
What are they that do play it?
Hard-handed men that work in Athens here,
Which never labour'd in their minds till now,
And now have toil'd their unbreathed memories
With this same play, against your nuptial.
And we will hear it.
No, my noble lord;
It is not for you: I have heard it over,
And it is nothing, nothing in the world;
Unless you can find sport in their intents,
Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain,
To do you service.
I will hear that play;
For never anything can be amiss,
When simpleness and duty tender it.
Go, bring them in: and take your places, ladies.
Exit PHILOSTRATE
I love not to see wretchedness o'er charged
And duty in his service perishing.
Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing.
He says they can do nothing in this kind.
The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.
Our sport shall be to take what they mistake:
And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect
Takes it in might, not merit.
Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
Make periods in the midst of sentences,
Throttle their practised accent in their fears
And in conclusion dumbly have broke off,
Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,
Out of this silence yet I pick'd a welcome;
And in the modesty of fearful duty
I read as much as from the rattling tongue
Of saucy and audacious eloquence.
Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity
In least speak most, to my capacity.
Re-enter PHILOSTRATE
So please your grace, the Prologue is address'd.
Let him approach.
Flourish of trumpets
Enter QUINCE for the Prologue
If we offend, it is with our good will.
That you should think, we come not to offend,
But with good will. To show our simple skill,
That is the true beginning of our end.
Consider then we come but in despite.
We do not come as minding to contest you,
Our true intent is. All for your delight
We are not here. That you should here repent you,
The actors are at hand and by their show
You shall know all that you are like to know.
This fellow doth not stand upon points.
He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows
not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not
enough to speak, but to speak true.
Indeed he hath played on his prologue like a child
on a recorder; a sound, but not in government.
His speech, was like a tangled chain; nothing
impaired, but all disordered. Who is next?
Enter Pyramus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion
Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show;
But wonder on, till truth make all things plain.
This man is Pyramus, if you would know;
This beauteous lady Thisby is certain.
This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present
Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder;
And through Wall's chink, poor souls, they are content
To whisper. At the which let no man wonder.
This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn,
Presenteth Moonshine; for, if you will know,
By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn
To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo.
This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name,
The trusty Thisby, coming first by night,
Did scare away, or rather did affright;
And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall,
Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain.
Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall,
And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain:
Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,
He bravely broach'd is boiling bloody breast;
And Thisby, tarrying in mulberry shade,
His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,
Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain
At large discourse, while here they do remain.
Exeunt Prologue, Thisbe, Lion, and Moonshine
I wonder if the lion be to speak.
No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when many asses do.
In this same interlude it doth befall
That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;
And such a wall, as I would have you think,
That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,
Did whisper often very secretly.
This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show
That I am that same wall; the truth is so:
And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.
Would you desire lime and hair to speak better?
It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard
discourse, my lord.
Enter Pyramus
Pyramus draws near the wall: silence!
O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black!
O night, which ever art when day is not!
O night, O night! alack, alack, alack,
I fear my Thisby's promise is forgot!
And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,
That stand'st between her father's ground and mine!
Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,
Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne!
Wall holds up his fingers
Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this!
But what see I? No Thisby do I see.
O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss!
Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me!
The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again.
No, in truth, sir, he should not. 'Deceiving me'
is Thisby's cue: she is to enter now, and I am to
spy her through the wall. You shall see, it will
fall pat as I told you. Yonder she comes.
Enter Thisbe
O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans,
For parting my fair Pyramus and me!
My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones,
Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.
I see a voice: now will I to the chink,
To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face. Thisby!
My love thou art, my love I think.
Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace;
And, like Limander, am I trusty still.
And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill.
Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.
As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.
O kiss me through the hole of this vile wall!
I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all.
Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?
'Tide life, 'tide death, I come without delay.
Exeunt Pyramus and Thisbe
Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so;
And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.
Exit
Now is the mural down between the two neighbours.
No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear
without warning.
This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.
The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst
are no worse, if imagination amend them.
It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.
If we imagine no worse of them than they of
themselves, they may pass for excellent men. Here
come two noble beasts in, a man and a lion.
Enter Lion and Moonshine
You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear
The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,
May now perchance both quake and tremble here,
When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.
Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am
A lion-fell, nor else no lion's dam;
For, if I should as lion come in strife
Into this place, 'twere pity on my life.
A very gentle beast, of a good conscience.
The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I saw.
This lion is a very fox for his valour.
True; and a goose for his discretion.
Not so, my lord; for his valour cannot carry his
discretion; and the fox carries the goose.
His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valour;
for the goose carries not the fox. It is well:
leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to the moon.
This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;--
He should have worn the horns on his head.
He is no crescent, and his horns are
invisible within the circumference.
This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;
Myself the man i' the moon do seem to be.
This is the greatest error of all the rest: the man
should be put into the lanthorn. How is it else the
man i' the moon?
He dares not come there for the candle; for, you
see, it is already in snuff.
I am aweary of this moon: would he would change!
It appears, by his small light of discretion, that
he is in the wane; but yet, in courtesy, in all
reason, we must stay the time.
Proceed, Moon.
All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the
lanthorn is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this
thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.
Why, all these should be in the lanthorn; for all
these are in the moon. But, silence! here comes Thisbe.
Enter Thisbe
This is old Ninny's tomb. Where is my love?
[Roaring] Oh--
Thisbe runs off
Well roared, Lion.
Well run, Thisbe.
Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines with a
good grace.
The Lion shakes Thisbe's mantle, and exit
Well moused, Lion.
And so the lion vanished.
And then came Pyramus.
Enter Pyramus
Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams;
I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright;
For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams,
I trust to take of truest Thisby sight.
But stay, O spite!
But mark, poor knight,
What dreadful dole is here!
Eyes, do you see?
How can it be?
O dainty duck! O dear!
Thy mantle good,
What, stain'd with blood!
Approach, ye Furies fell!
O Fates, come, come,
Cut thread and thrum;
Quail, crush, conclude, and quell!
This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would
go near to make a man look sad.
Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man.
O wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame?
Since lion vile hath here deflower'd my dear:
Which is--no, no--which was the fairest dame
That lived, that loved, that liked, that look'd
with cheer.
Come, tears, confound;
Out, sword, and wound
The pap of Pyramus;
Ay, that left pap,
Where heart doth hop:
Stabs himself
Thus die I, thus, thus, thus.
Now am I dead,
Now am I fled;
My soul is in the sky:
Tongue, lose thy light;
Moon take thy flight:
Exit Moonshine
Now die, die, die, die, die.
Dies
No die, but an ace, for him; for he is but one.
Less than an ace, man; for he is dead; he is nothing.
With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover, and
prove an ass.
How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe comes
back and finds her lover?
She will find him by starlight. Here she comes; and
her passion ends the play.
Re-enter Thisbe
Methinks she should not use a long one for such a
Pyramus: I hope she will be brief.
A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which
Thisbe, is the better; he for a man, God warrant us;
she for a woman, God bless us.
She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes.
And thus she means, videlicet:--
Asleep, my love?
What, dead, my dove?
O Pyramus, arise!
Speak, speak. Quite dumb?
Dead, dead? A tomb
Must cover thy sweet eyes.
These My lips,
This cherry nose,
These yellow cowslip cheeks,
Are gone, are gone:
Lovers, make moan:
His eyes were green as leeks.
O Sisters Three,
Come, come to me,
With hands as pale as milk;
Lay them in gore,
Since you have shore
With shears his thread of silk.
Tongue, not a word:
Come, trusty sword;
Come, blade, my breast imbrue:
Stabs herself
And, farewell, friends;
Thus Thisby ends:
Adieu, adieu, adieu.
Dies
Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead.
Ay, and Wall too.
[Starting up] No assure you; the wall is down that
parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the
epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two
of our company?
No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no
excuse. Never excuse; for when the players are all
dead, there needs none to be blamed. Marry, if he
that writ it had played Pyramus and hanged himself
in Thisbe's garter, it would have been a fine
tragedy: and so it is, truly; and very notably
discharged. But come, your Bergomask: let your
epilogue alone.
A dance
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:
Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.
I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn
As much as we this night have overwatch'd.
This palpable-gross play hath well beguiled
The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed.
A fortnight hold we this solemnity,
In nightly revels and new jollity.
Exeunt
Enter PUCK
Now the hungry lion roars,
And the wolf behowls the moon;
Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,
All with weary task fordone.
Now the wasted brands do glow,
Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud,
Puts the wretch that lies in woe
In remembrance of a shroud.
Now it is the time of night
That the graves all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite,
In the church-way paths to glide:
And we fairies, that do run
By the triple Hecate's team,
From the presence of the sun,
Following darkness like a dream,
Now are frolic: not a mouse
Shall disturb this hallow'd house:
I am sent with broom before,
To sweep the dust behind the door.
Enter OBERON and TITANIA with their train
Through the house give gathering light,
By the dead and drowsy fire:
Every elf and fairy sprite
Hop as light as bird from brier;
And this ditty, after me,
Sing, and dance it trippingly.
First, rehearse your song by rote
To each word a warbling note:
Hand in hand, with fairy grace,
Will we sing, and bless this place.
Song and dance
Now, until the break of day,
Through this house each fairy stray.
To the best bride-bed will we,
Which by us shall blessed be;
And the issue there create
Ever shall be fortunate.
So shall all the couples three
Ever true in loving be;
And the blots of Nature's hand
Shall not in their issue stand;
Never mole, hare lip, nor scar,
Nor mark prodigious, such as are
Despised in nativity,
Shall upon their children be.
With this field-dew consecrate,
Every fairy take his gait;
And each several chamber bless,
Through this palace, with sweet peace;
And the owner of it blest
Ever shall in safety rest.
Trip away; make no stay;
Meet me all by break of day.
Exeunt OBERON, TITANIA, and train
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.
Click here for a synopsis of Act V. Is there anything you think they forgot? What would you have added?
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Act IV Scene 2
SCENE II. Athens. QUINCE'S house.
CHARACTERS
Peter Quince, a carpenter
Peter Quince, a carpenter
Nick Bottom, a weaver
Francis Flute, a bellows mender
Tom Snout, a tinker
Robin Starveling, a tailorNOTE: If you are unsure of what their individual jobs are, click on the description for more information.
Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELINGQUINCE
Have you sent to Bottom's house? is he come home yet?STARVELING
He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he isFLUTE
transported.
If he come not, then the play is marred: it goesQUINCE
not forward, doth it?
It is not possible: you have not a man in allFLUTE
Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he.
No, he hath simply the best wit of any handicraftQUINCE
man in Athens.
Yea and the best person too; and he is a veryFLUTE
paramour for a sweet voice.
You must say 'paragon:' a paramour is, God bless us,SNUG
a thing of naught.
Enter SNUG
Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, andFLUTE
there is two or three lords and ladies more married:
if our sport had gone forward, we had all been made
men.
O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence aBOTTOM
day during his life; he could not have 'scaped
sixpence a day: an the duke had not given him
sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged;
he would have deserved it: sixpence a day in
Pyramus, or nothing.
Enter BOTTOM
Where are these lads? where are these hearts?QUINCE
Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour!BOTTOM
Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask me notQUINCE
what; for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I
will tell you every thing, right as it fell out.
Let us hear, sweet Bottom.BOTTOM
Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that
the duke hath dined. Get your apparel together,
good strings to your beards, new ribbons to your
pumps; meet presently at the palace; every man look
o'er his part; for the short and the long is, our
play is preferred. In any case, let Thisby have
clean linen; and let not him that plays the lion
pair his nails, for they shall hang out for the
lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onions
nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I
do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet
comedy. No more words: away! go, away!
Exeunt
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Act IV Scene 1
ACT IV
BEFORE YOU READ
Think of a movie or book in which characters have an unusual experience that makes them shake their heads and ask, "Did that really happen?"
Dream List
Working in a small group, list stories, novels, movies and television shows in which a character as an amazing experience and then wakes up to realize it was just a dream. Then compare your lists with the ones compiled by other groups.
Falling Action
After the climax, or turning point, of a drama has been reached, most of the suspense is over. The highest emotional peak has been reached and the major conflict has been encountered. Still, the audience likes to see all of the loose ends tied up. That occurs during the part of the plot known as the falling action. In Midsummer Night's Dream, the falling action mostly takes place in Act IV. 1
ACTIVE READING
In this act, a number of characters wake up. Complete a chart listing the names of the characters who wake up in Act IV and what their reactions are. Your chart should look like this:
CHARACTER REACTION
Titania Disgust & disbelief at having loved Bottom
1http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/pdf/midsummer_nights_dream.pdf
Think of a movie or book in which characters have an unusual experience that makes them shake their heads and ask, "Did that really happen?"
Dream List
Working in a small group, list stories, novels, movies and television shows in which a character as an amazing experience and then wakes up to realize it was just a dream. Then compare your lists with the ones compiled by other groups.
Falling Action
After the climax, or turning point, of a drama has been reached, most of the suspense is over. The highest emotional peak has been reached and the major conflict has been encountered. Still, the audience likes to see all of the loose ends tied up. That occurs during the part of the plot known as the falling action. In Midsummer Night's Dream, the falling action mostly takes place in Act IV. 1
ACTIVE READING
In this act, a number of characters wake up. Complete a chart listing the names of the characters who wake up in Act IV and what their reactions are. Your chart should look like this:
CHARACTER REACTION
Titania Disgust & disbelief at having loved Bottom
1http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/pdf/midsummer_nights_dream.pdf
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Act III Scene 2
ACTIVE READING
The climax, or turning point, of a Midsummer Night's Dream comes at the end of Act III. While reading Act III, create a diagram that begins with Titania falling in love with Bottom, includes all of the major events that take place, and builds to the climax. You may use as many events as you think are important. Feel free to use your bulleted list of major events as a reference for what to include.
SCENE 2. Another part of the wood.
CHARACTERS:
Oberon, King of the Fairies
Puck, (Robin Goodfellow) Oberon's Lieutenant
Lysander, In love with Hermia
Hermia, In love with Lysander
Demetrius, In love with Hermia
Helena, In love with Demetrius
1 http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/pdf/midsummer_nights_dream.pdf
1 http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/pdf/midsummer_nights_dream.pdf
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Act III Scene 1
Before you read..
Think of a time when you got so involved in a play or movie that you temporarily forgot that it was not real. Jot down some examples of experiences when a play or movie made you forget the division between illusion and reality.
As you read....
Pay attention to the games Shakespeare plays with illusion and reality.
Background
Comedy or Tragedy?
One of the many lines Shakespeare blurs in Midsummer Night's Dream is the one between comedy and tragedy. Bottom's actors rehearse a play about the legendary lovers Pyramus and Thisbe. The script and the performances by the tradesmen are so silly that the play becomes a sort of slapstick comedy. Yet it is based on a tragic and rather gruesome story that the latin poet Ovid retold in his poem, The Metamorphoses. 1
ACT III
SCENE I. The wood. TITANIA lying asleep.
CHARACTERS
Peter Quince, a carpenter
Nick Bottom, a weaver
Francis Flute, a bellows mender
Tom Snout, a tinker
Robin Starveling, a tailor
Titania, Queen of the Fairies
Puck, (Robin Goodfellow) Oberon's Lieutenant
Peaseblossom
Cobweb Fairy attendants of Titania
Moth
Mustardseed
Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Act II Scene 2
SCENE II. Another part of the wood.
CHARACTERS:
Titania, Queen of the Fairies
Oberon, King of the Fairies
Puck, (Robin Goodfellow) Oberon's Lieutenant
Lysander, In love with Hermia
Hermia, In love with Lysander
Demetrius, In love with Hermia
Helena, In love with Demetrius
Fairies, Attendants of Titania
Enter TITANIA, with her trainTITANIA
Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;Fairy
Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;
Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,
Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,
To make my small elves coats, and some keep back
The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders
At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
Then to your offices and let me rest.
The Fairies sing
You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
Come not near our fairy queen.
Philomel, with melody
Sing in our sweet lullaby;
Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:
Never harm,
Nor spell nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby.
Weaving spiders, come not here;
Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!
Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm nor snail, do no offence.
Philomel, with melody, & c.
Hence, away! now all is well:OBERON
One aloof stand sentinel.
Exeunt Fairies. TITANIA sleeps
Enter OBERON and squeezes the flower on TITANIA's eyelids
What thou seest when thou dost wake,LYSANDER
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.
Exit
Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA
Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood;HERMIA
And to speak troth, I have forgot our way:
We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,
And tarry for the comfort of the day.
Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed;LYSANDER
For I upon this bank will rest my head.
One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;HERMIA
One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth.
Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear,LYSANDER
Lie further off yet, do not lie so near.
O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!HERMIA
Love takes the meaning in love's conference.
I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit
So that but one heart we can make of it;
Two bosoms interchained with an oath;
So then two bosoms and a single troth.
Then by your side no bed-room me deny;
For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.
Lysander riddles very prettily:LYSANDER
Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,
If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied.
But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy
Lie further off; in human modesty,
Such separation as may well be said
Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid,
So far be distant; and, good night, sweet friend:
Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end!
Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I;HERMIA
And then end life when I end loyalty!
Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest!
With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd!PUCK
They sleep
Enter PUCK
Through the forest have I gone.HELENA
But Athenian found I none,
On whose eyes I might approve
This flower's force in stirring love.
Night and silence.--Who is here?
Weeds of Athens he doth wear:
This is he, my master said,
Despised the Athenian maid;
And here the maiden, sleeping sound,
On the dank and dirty ground.
Pretty soul! she durst not lie
Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.
Churl, upon thy eyes I throw
All the power this charm doth owe.
When thou wakest, let love forbid
Sleep his seat on thy eyelid:
So awake when I am gone;
For I must now to Oberon.
Exit
Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running
Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.DEMETRIUS
I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.HELENA
O, wilt thou darkling leave me? do not so.DEMETRIUS
Stay, on thy peril: I alone will go.HELENA
Exit
O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!LYSANDER
The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.
Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies;
For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.
How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears:
If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers.
No, no, I am as ugly as a bear;
For beasts that meet me run away for fear:
Therefore no marvel though Demetrius
Do, as a monster fly my presence thus.
What wicked and dissembling glass of mine
Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne?
But who is here? Lysander! on the ground!
Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.
Lysander if you live, good sir, awake.
[Awaking] And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake.HELENA
Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,
That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.
Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word
Is that vile name to perish on my sword!
Do not say so, Lysander; say not soLYSANDER
What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?
Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content.
Content with Hermia! No; I do repentHELENA
The tedious minutes I with her have spent.
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.
Things growing are not ripe until their season
So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;
And touching now the point of human skill,
Reason becomes the marshal to my will
And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook
Love's stories written in love's richest book.
Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?LYSANDER
When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?
Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man,
That I did never, no, nor never can,
Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye,
But you must flout my insufficiency?
Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do,
In such disdainful manner me to woo.
But fare you well: perforce I must confess
I thought you lord of more true gentleness.
O, that a lady, of one man refused.
Should of another therefore be abused!
Exit
She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there:HERMIA
And never mayst thou come Lysander near!
For as a surfeit of the sweetest things
The deepest loathing to the stomach brings,
Or as tie heresies that men do leave
Are hated most of those they did deceive,
So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,
Of all be hated, but the most of me!
And, all my powers, address your love and might
To honour Helen and to be her knight!
Exit
[Awaking] Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best
To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!
Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here!
Lysander, look how I do quake with fear:
Methought a serpent eat my heart away,
And you sat smiling at his cruel pray.
Lysander! what, removed? Lysander! lord!
What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word?
Alack, where are you speak, an if you hear;
Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.
No? then I well perceive you all not nigh
Either death or you I'll find immediately.
Exit
Click here to read a brief synopsis of Act II Scene 2. Is there anything you think they left off? What would you add, if anything?
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