Rule is a matter of some concern in Dream. There are four active rulers of people – Theseus, Egeus, Oberon, Titania. Hippolyta is an ex- ruler of the Amazons but is about to be transformed into a consort who will have some rule within the court and perhaps co- rule the state with her new husband. She has been conquered and annexed by Theseus. Though she still has her own voice and views, expressed in a narrow range within the relatively tiny scope she is given in the text, her exact role and its extent after her marriage are not yet negotiated and do not fall within the scope of the play. Oberon and Titania's relationship is disintegrating when we first see them but seems, by the end of the play, like that of Theseus and Hippolyta, to have reached a peaceful stasis, but one still to be renegotiated. The king of the fairies appears to have conquered his wife, but it is not clear whether that relationship is now fully resolved. Most of the cast misrule themselves, but in this chapter it is those who rule (or misrule) others who are the focus.

Erasmus's The Education of a Christian Prince (published 1516) had great influence throughout Europe. In England concern over training men for public office and social leadership had a history going back at least to King Alfred's translation of Pope Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care which comments on the duties and responsibilities of those in governing roles. More contemporary with Shakespeare are Sir Thomas Elyot's The Boke Named the Governour, the successive editions of The Mirrour for Magistrates (1574, 1578, 1587, 1610) and James I's The True Law of Free Monarchies and Basilikon Doron (both 1598).