Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- PART I THE INHERITED PAST
- PART II THE ELIZABETHAN PRESENT
- 9 The Context of Comedy
- 10 Theseus and the Setting
- 11 Puck's Permutations: The Context of Love
- 12 ‘Sweet Moon’: The Woods and the Context of Magic
- 13 Literary Context
- 14 Playing Parts
- 15 Transgressions and Translations
- Bibliography
- Index
10 - Theseus and the Setting
from PART II - THE ELIZABETHAN PRESENT
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 June 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- PART I THE INHERITED PAST
- PART II THE ELIZABETHAN PRESENT
- 9 The Context of Comedy
- 10 Theseus and the Setting
- 11 Puck's Permutations: The Context of Love
- 12 ‘Sweet Moon’: The Woods and the Context of Magic
- 13 Literary Context
- 14 Playing Parts
- 15 Transgressions and Translations
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Shakespeare commonly mixes timelines and cultures. This does not matter. It is the underlying meaning that is important. Anachronisms are rampant in Dream. Midsummer Eve and Midsummer Day are 23 and 24 June, but in act 4 Theseus appears to think the lovers have come to the woods to observe May Day (1 May). This is such a glaring discrepancy it seems hardly credible Shakespeare did not notice it. It may be, however, that Theseus is speaking ironically, mocking the apparently reconciled lovers. It is like someone receiving a present and quipping, ‘Oh, is it Christmas?’ Theseus is perhaps joking that as they are all paired up it must be the May celebration of spring and birds mating. He refers to Valentine's Day having passed. Valentine's, May Day and Midsummer were all festivals connected with love.
Bottom and his companions are recognizable artisans from the shops of London or Stratford – a weaver, a carpenter, a bellows- mender, a tinker, a joiner and a tailor. Such tradesmen serviced domestic needs everywhere. They are also universal characters such as may have been found in any town or city in any age – even a mythological ancient Athens. But their names are a stark contrast to the Greek names of Theseus and Hippolyta and the other court characters. The names establish the difference between gentlefolk and ordinary citizens. The counterpointing of court and city was a common structural and thematic device. So too was the binary opposition of court and country. Here all three are locked together. The court and the city (the lovers and the artisans) are transported into the woodland world of the fairies. Yet, though set in the woods, the fairy element represents another court location, a mobile one that can move from the Indies to Greece. The two trains of fairy followers are each obedient to their head. Titania's are very much at her beck and call, to play music, sing, dance, guard her while she sleeps, serve her ass- headed guest and be discreetly absent when she orders them away. Even Bottom knows how to mitigate his rough and domineering ways and is courteous in talking to the fairy courtiers and giving them his orders.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in ContextMagic, Madness and Mayhem, pp. 187 - 194Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2016