in A Midsummer Night's Dream — Shakespeare, William
Metadata
Play
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Author
Shakespeare, William
Year (catalogued)
1600
First performance
1596
Decade
1600s
Genre
Comedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men
Speech prefix(es)
Hip. | Hyp. | Dutch. | Dutchesse. | Dut.
Words
255
Characters
1386
Typicality
0.31 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A11989
BritDrama no.
1012
Cluster
Cluster 7 — Pedants, satyrs & Latin wit
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Four days will quickly steep themselves in night: Four nights will quickly dream away the time: And then the Moon, Like to a silver bow, Now bent in heaven, shall behold the night Of our solemnities. I was with Hercules and Cadmus, once, When in a wood of Crete they bayed the Bear, With hounds of Sparta : never did I hear Such gallant chiding. For beside the groves, The skies, the fountains, every region near Seem all one mutual cry. I never herd So musical a discord, such sweet thunder. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of, I love not to see wretchedness overcharged; And duty, in his service, perishing. He says, they can do nothing in this kind. But, all the story of the night told over, And all their minds transfigured so together, More witnesseth than fancies images, And grows to something of great constancy: But howsoever, strange and admirable. Indeed he hath played on this Prologue, Like a child on a Recorder, a found; but not in government. This is the silliest stuff, that ever I herd. It must be your imagination, then; & not theirs. I am a weary of this Moon. Would he would change. Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man. Well shone Moon. Truly, the Moon shines, with a good grace. How chance Moonshine is gone before? Thisbe comes back, and finds her lover Me thinks, she should not use a long one, for such a Pyramus : I hope, she will be brief.
Plot summary
Plot — A Midsummer Night's Dream
: Theseus has conquered Hippolyta and is soon to marry her. Hermia loves Lysander, but her father Egeus wishes her to marry Demetrius, who has jilted Helena for her. Egeus invokes an Athenian law which allows him to have her executed for disobedience — though Theseus points to the additional option of lifelong — chastity in a nunnery. Lysander proposes fleeing with Hermia beyond Athenian jurisdiction, | and they confide their plans to Helena - who tells Demetrius in the hope of winning his favour. He pursues Lysander and Hermia into the woods, and Helena follows him. Marital strife between Oberon and Titania over a changeling boy has. led to chaos in the natural environment. Oberon sends Robin Goodfellow to fetch a magic flower whose juice can compel love. Seeing Demetrius reject Helena, Oberon sends Robin to use some of the juice on him, while he himself uses some on Titania. On the lookout for Athenian clothing, Robin comes upon Lysander and Hermia sleeping, and anoints his eyes. Helena discovers Lysander, and wakes him; he falls in love with her and pursues her, leaving Hermiaalone. — - A group of artisans, planning to perform Pyramus and Thisbe at Theseus’ wedding, meet for a rehearsal in the woods. They begin to adapt the play to avoid scaring the ladies in the audience, and to make it possible to represent the moon and a wall on stage. During the rehearsal, Robin metamorphoses Bottom, putting an ass’s head on him, and scares off the other artisans. Titania wakes, sees him, and falls in love. Oberon and Robin observe as Demetrius pursues Hermia, who assumes that he has murdered Lysander. Oberon sends Robin to fetch Helena while he anoints Demetrius’ eyes. Helena arrives, pursued by Lysander, and wakes Demetrius to find that both young men now love her; she infers that she is the object of a practical joke. Demetrius and Lysander prepare to fight each other, but Robin spreads darkness across the sky and leads them away from one another. Having got all four lovers asleep, he administers the antidote to Lysander. ; , Titania hands over the changeling boy to Oberon, has fun with the monstrous Bottom, and sleeps with him. Oberon applies the antidote, and they are reconciled. The sleeping lovers are found by Theseus, out hunting in the forest. Demetrius no longer wants Hermia, but Egeus insists. Theseus overrules him and the courtly characters have a triple wedding. Bottom takes his experience to have been a dream, and joins his fellow artisans, who are…